represented the same general interests; and as the differences between them could only be more or less superficial, a tone of mutual and habitual courtesy was at all times observable. But now that other classes have risen to power, and the material interests of the aristocracy, and even their political and social privileges, are being threatened, and ineasures are carried which touch their dearest sentiments, the fine old tone of courtesy is lost, and precisely those same arts of the demagogue are snatched at and made use of to damage their opponents, as are used by their opponents to damage them.

If it be said that the function of a Government is by wise initiative to educate the people to higher conceptions of political affairs, I would reply that, not only is this not the function of a Government (being really the office of the great political thinkers and publicists of literature and the Press), but that in fact, governments do not pretend to it, but rather wait, before deciding on a policy by which to steer, until they hear the shouting from the shore through the daily, weekly, and monthly organs of opinion. So long, indeed, as Party Government exists, knowing the illusions by which men are led, we may safely predict the existence and continued influence of the demagogue, coarse or refined; in the same way as, so long as the people are ignorant, we may predict the continued prosperity of the quack. I should as soon, indeed, expect to find those solemn persons who flock, Bible in hand, to church on Sunday mornings to hear the poor platitudes that fall from the pulpit orator, selecting as their guide in the conduct of life the great spiritual thinkers, philosophers, and scientists, as the people of a country selecting as their ruler the wise and farseeing political thinker. Not that I blame them for not doing so; on the contrary, men of deep political insight are apt to take too long views of politics, and would, if they had the power, grasp at the realization of their ideals before public opinion was ripe, and so throw society into confusion, with the certainty, too, of recoil. If we admit, then, that we must have

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the demagogue-on the side of the rich when the party that represents the poor is in power, on the side of the poor when the rich are in power-there need be no special cause for anxiety. So long as the demagogue represents the interests of his party, or the people, and not his own interests, he is doing precisely what is expected of him; should he work directly for his own hand, and so become mischievous, he is easily dismissed; should he attempt to lead public opinion before the natural time, the world has a fine instinct for men with higher ideas than its own, and he will be quickly superseded. My own objection to the successful demagogue is the weight which, from his position, he carries into regions of thought, where, from want of knowledge, his influence must be most pernicious. I have noticed that the People, or the Press as representing the People, prefer to hear the opinions of their leading statesmen, on subjects entirely foreign to their own pursuits, to the opinions of the professors of the subjects themselves. I have known meetings specially called to give the public an opportunity of hearing some eminent man on his own specialty, where the newspaper reports next day merely observed that the learned lecturer, after delivering a most interesting and exhaustive discourse, was followed by the chairman-some Cabinet Minister, perhaps and have then gone on to give his remarks in full. All this, of course, is gradually taken more and more at its worth as the great mass of the people increase in knowledge, but, owing to the illusion which surrounds the occupants of position and power, it will never be altogether countervailed. Even more pernicious than the chance influence of the demagogue on subjects foreign to politics, is his influence on Foreign Affairs, where, from want of knowledge, he may upset established relations, precipitate wars, and stir up animosities which can only, perhaps, be allayed after a great expenditure of time and money. But here, again, we are comforted by the reflection that, owing to the force of prescription and the binding character of international arrangements,

interference in foreign affairs is every day becoming less and less frequent, till it is now almost limited to retrograde communities in outlying regions of the world. In America, where foreign complications are reduced to a minimum, and elections turn almost entirely on domestic questions, the issues are so well defined, and the policy to be pursued is so well known and understood by the people themselves, that it is of very little importance who is at the head of affairs; and almost any man with a character for common honesty, any blind horse' or abstraction of a man, about whom little is known, may have a chance for the highest position. But then, in America, the politician, or even the statesman, has little more influence than a vestryman has with us. Indeed, it seems clear that until what is called the Statesman ceases with us to be the fetish which from ancient tradition he has become; until rhetorical verbiage ceases to carry with it, as it does with us, the idea of general superiority of mind; and the opinion of rulers and men of 'position,' on all topics human and divine, ceases to be of such transcendent moment, the reign of the demagogue, with such evils as he may bring with him, may be expected to continue.

CHAPTER VI.

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DEMOCRACY

THE MARCH OF CONCENTRATION.

IN the preceding chapters I have discussed the dangers with which the stability of Democracies is threatened from the political side. But, of late, certain dangers have been pointed out as threatening its stability from the economic side. It is said that that Equality of Conditions which is the essential principle of Democracy is not the ultimate goal of society, but, on the contrary, is only a temporary stage, through which society is passing, and which in time must give way to the old condition of inequality; the reason alleged being that, owing to the progress of invention, the perfecting of machinery, and the increased facilities afforded by these, commodities can be produced and distributed more cheaply, more efficiently, and more expeditiously on a large scale than on a small one; and that therefore there is a natural and inevitable tendency to the concentration of capital and the materials of industry in fewer and fewer hands, with the certainty of an industrial aristocracy ultimately arising, as powerful and oppressive as the old feudal aristocracy which it will have replaced. It is pointed out that in primitive states of society each man was his own weaponmaker, tent-maker, clothier, and food-producer; that as the arts of civilization advanced, and the division of labour was found to be more advantageous and productive, we had manufacturers and retailers of all sizes, large, small, and intermediate; and it is argued that as time goes on, the process of concentration will increase to an extent of which only the beginnings are at present visible. Special manufactures have

long been concentrated in particular localities, like Sheffield, Birmingham, and Manchester, which, from their situation, or their easy access to natural agents, have enabled their appropriators to drive all other competitors in this country from the field. It is only recently that this tendency to concentration has extended to agriculture; yet already, in some parts of America, the great bonanza farms threaten to drive the small independent farmers to the wall; and now that this tendency is beginning to invade the province of distribution, we see those immense Co-operative Stores, which have so injured the small independent retailers, and compelled many of them to close their shops and take dependent situations in the larger conAnd thus the tendency is to make capitalists fewer and more powerful, and workmen of all kinds more numerous, more helpless, and more dependent; and so to re-establish that tyranny of the few over the many, which we had hoped to have abolished for ever from this world.

.cerns.

Now, even admitting that this tendency to concentration is natural and even inevitable, I do not feel bound to admit the inference drawn from it. On the contrary, were there nothing else, it is simply and flatly incredible à priori, that the same civilization which has ameliorated the lot of man, and raised him from the degradation in which he was sunk, should, in its natural course and evolution, and by means, too, of instruments, all of which are good in themselves-greater education and knowledge of the arts of life, greater command over physical and material agents, greater powers of production, and the rest-so reverse its steady and beneficent influence as to lead men back again into that degradation and dependence from which they have emerged. It is incredible that after the long centuries of struggle to lift themselves from the slough in which feudal inequality had plunged them, men should allow themselves to be enmeshed and fettered by an industrial inequality as fixed, as galling, and as hopeless. The fallacy, it is plain, lies in confounding the conditions on which feudal