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3.

ness, a desire to be a member of the governing classes. But when
all that has been admitted there is something fine and worthy about
the instinct, for there is no pecuniary motive in it. The financial
rewards held out by the public service in Britain are trivial indeed
compared with those of commercial and financial careers. Deep down
there is a sound instinct that there is something honourable and fine
in serving the State. I do not think it possible to exaggerate the
value of this tradition in the Mother Country. It has given us a
most competent, single-hearted and clean Civil Service.
given us a political life in which we can honestly say that the best
brains and character in the nation are represented. It has kept the
prestige of our Parliament high at a time when constitutionalism
elsewhere in the world has tended to fall into disrepute.

Let me take [ST: handwritten insert A here] an example from another country to which my
affections are deeply pledged, the United States of America. After
the Civil War, and after Lincoln's death- and remember Lincoln's
premature death was the greatest misfortune which ever befell the
United States - there came a dark period in American politics. There
was a swift advance to economic prosperity, and immense fortunes
were made, largely at the expense of the interests of the community.
Congress tended to become a machine which able and unscrupulous persons
could manipulate to their private advantage. What was the result?
In the first place politics got a bad name among decent people.
They were supposed, not without reason, to be a dirty business.
The high-minded young man withdrew his skirts from them as if from
an unclean thing. Therefore they fell largely into the hand of the
second and third-rate, and this meant not only that there was an