CENTRALISATION.

CENTRALISATION.

"Partout l'état arrive de plus en plus à diriger par lui-même les moindres citoyens, et à conduire seul chacun d'eux dans les moindres affaires."-De la Démocratie en Amérique. ToCQUEVILLE, tome iv. p. 287.

WHERE is man's boasted self-reliance? gone,

He cannot walk in his own paths alone!
And central governments around him draw
Their thousand chains, he is begirt by law:
The Despot, sole or aggregate, his will
Directs, a mere machine for good or ill.

An all-pervading Power affects the Jove,
O'er-ruling social movements from above!

While men like children are, who deem their might,

And not the boatman's, makes the bark go right.

Through labyrinthine course of life's details,

The state its pupil guides-through fear he fails.
So much have public agencies engrost,

That individual energy is lost:

And regulating spirits are so mild,

That man with them must ever be a child.

Corporate bodies slumber on content,

Mock'd with the semblance of self-government:
Ambitious subjects of a state or king
Are emulous to pull the puppets' string.
The State-Arachne lengthens out her net
To draw towards her all that she can get.
This net-work of constraining kindness spread
Around the great and small, no statesmen dread,
Though Power expands his wings, and men become

Of their free-will curtail'd, abroad, at home.

Those who should be self-radiant, borrow'd light

From others seek, their own extinguish'd quite.

A tutelary Angel, to protect.

Those who their own self-interests neglect,

The Fay commission girdles with her zone

All ranks, conditions, none escape, not one!
Though the machine is, when state-guided, found
Perfect as clock-work, beautifully round,

No vital strength to that of life akin
Supports the social union, acts within.

The mightiest intellect is but the thrall
Of Briarean power, that reaches all

With his forthgoing arms, as from the sun