Page:Whether the minority of electors should be represented by a majority in the House of Commons?.djvu/22

 the interest of a great cause. Let us travel together in strict alliance as far as we can. Remember, that in the whole system of vegetation, no two leaves have as yet been found which are of a similar pattern; far less can we expect to find accurate resemblance between two human beings; there is always a diverging point, and the thought of each earnest thinker is to him the best. And let us learn from the past and consider how mournful a collection might be made of the illusions of sanguine Reformers.

Their mistake consists in attributing to the world a latent conformity with their own idealism. But the world, and especially the unimaginative English world, is without any social vision; its only ideal is relegated to another world. Most people are unfortunately satisfied with the external surface of things; it is only the thoughtful who examine beneath; hence a form of selfishness is engendered which arises from merely considering immediate effects. National questions are distasteful and troublesome, and are buried in petty pursuits. The common Englishman is a Lotos eater, who seeks in the repose of his arm-chair oblivion of his country, exclaiming,

Shouts for abstract rights, unless there be real power behind them, advance no cause. Consider how stationary certain questions have been for the last fifty years. Here is a description given by Harriet Martineau of the position of the State Church forty years ago, which might be written to-day:—

"The Church really was at that time in great danger. The High Churchmen and Dissenters were almost equally discontented at its connection with the State, and the intermediate parties were dissatisfied with its condition, and alarmed at its prospects."

In 1835 and '37 reform of the House of Lords was a prominent public question. In 1845 we appeared to have reached just that pitch of indignation which would have settled the Game Laws. The Morning Herald, in the autumn of that year, announced that Ministers were fully aware of the pernicious operation of the Game Laws, and were contemplating a complete revision of them. Well, then there were the Land and Labour League Societies—I mean the Land and Labour League Societies of 1816—known as the Spencean Societies, which were founded by an honourable enthusiast of the name of Spence, the object of the organization being to cause all the lands of the country to become the property of the