PAGE

Its issue cannot be doubtful; the doctrines of absolute political equality, and of the supreme right of the numerical majority-relatively poor-must issue in Socialism

This is the hell which awaiteth the nation that loveth and maketh a lie. And a lie the Revolutionary dogma assuredly is. Every one of the propositions which constitute its ideal of man and of society, is demonstrably, is obviously, false

169

171

Bishop Butler's question, whether nations can go mad, is answered by a Century of Revolution. A nation given over to the strong delusion to believe the Revolutionary dogma, can hardly be accounted sane. 176

Still, not by its mendacity, but by the truth latent in it, does any lie live. In the Revolutionary dogma are hidden various verities

But the great fact called Modern Democracy is one thing. The Revolutionary dogma is another. There is no necessary connection between them. In truth, the work of the Revolution for Modern Democracy has been chiefly to pervert and falsify it, and to retard indefinitely its development

The phase called Democracy into which Europe has entered, is the latest term in a movement which has been in progress since the beginning of our civilisa

178

179

tion

180

The history of that civilisation is the history of the everadvancing vindication of human personality. Modern Democracy expresses the realisation of this great fact

It means the conclusion within the dîμos, or populus, of those large classes whom the ancient democracies excluded; the full recognition of their status as persons; and their direct influence upon public affairs. The advent of the masses, of the numerical majority, to immediate political authority is the social fact of the day.

Democracy is not light, or leading, or wisdom, or inspira-
The masses are power: not reason, not

tion.
right

We may say that, generally speaking, there are in the modern world two types of Democracy; the Revolutionary type, faithfully represented by contemporary France, which is moulded by an abstract idea, and that a false one: which, in the name of a spurious equality assassinates liberty and depersonalises man: I which gives the lie to the facts of science and the facts of history: which is essentially chaotic, as lacking those elements of stability and tradition that are essential to society: which has no sense of any law superior to popular wilfulness, and which is condemned already, simply by the very fact that it is anarchic

PAGE

181

182

183

184

And there is the German type of Democracy, temperate,

rational, regulated, the product of that natural pro-
cess of "persistence in mobility," which is the law
of the social organism as of the physical; a Demo-
cracy recognising the differences naturally springing
from individuality, allowing full room for the free
play of indefinitely varying personalities, and so
constructive and progressive; a Democracy in har-
mony with the facts of history and of science; at
once the outcome and the subject of law

In this disciplined, law-abiding, and architectonic Demo-
cracy of Germany, we may reasonably hope to see
the great social problem of the age receive its
solution

PAGE

185

188

Democracy must be scientific; it must accept all the facts of all the sciences, and the lessons which they teach. 189 And specially must it lay to heart what is implied in the

social organism.

But the one thing before all others necessary for it to learn, is the true doctrine of Right; for the State is essentially an ethical society, rooted and grounded in the moral law. The very foundation of the public order is the rational acknowledgment that there are eternal, immutable, principles and rules of right and wrong. This is the everlasting adamant upon which alone the social edifice can be surely established

192

194

CHAPTER VII,

THE REVOLUTION AND ENGLAND.

England, of all countries, might have been expected, from her past history, to be likely to organise and regulate the contemporary democratic movement

But the changes whereby our institutions have been brought into harmony with that movement, have been leaps in the dark, taken in the quest for party majorities

Now, a share of political power, nominally an equal share, is in the hands of every householder. It is a change which has been watched with anxiety by the clearest heads

PAGE

197

198

200

Mr. Bagehot's defence of it: that "the nominal constituency is not the real"

201

One of the latest and ugliest features of our political life is the growth of a new school of Liberalism breathing the spirit of the Revolutionary dogma

Mr. Gladstone its most notable adherent. His natural dispositions for the new gospel. His claim to consistency

The fundamental principle of this new school of English Liberalism is the sovereignty of the masses-the sovereignty of the people is a very different thing— the domination, not of the ethical idea, but of brute force

202

203

. 203

The results of their application of this principle have been to lay the axe to the very root of liberty which is in "government by law," and to sink the House of Commons in an ever increasing degradation

These things might well make us fear for the future of
England, were it not for her past

PAGE

206

207

A portion of the materials for this work has been obtained from essays of mine in the Quarterly, Dublin, and Fortnightly Reviews, by permission of the respective Editors, whose kindness I desire here to acknowledge.

W. S. L.