With a Press in the hands of party politicians, and with editors and journalists engaged to write up their party through thick and thin, and to write down every honest effort at political independence of mind, the danger of losing from all political service the few rare minds that can ill be spared is a very real and present danger.

ON BEHALF OF DEMOCRACY

"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance," and often enough we sleep at our vigils. But when all the dangers and difficulties that beset democracy are enumerated, and all its weak spots are laid bare, we can still hold democracy to be the only suitable form of government for persons possessing free will, and the representation of the people the most satisfactory expression of democracy.

Government by autocrat, by despotism, benevolent or otherwise, by expert officials, or by an oligarchy of superior intelligences is irksome to the average man or woman of reasonable education, and in each case has been intolerable to the British people. They have all been tried and found wanting—royal absolutism, aristocracy, military dictatorship, and only of late have we been threatened by an expert bureaucracy.

Parliamentary representation adapted, by the removal of disabilities of creed and rank and income, to meet the demands of the nation, has been proved by experience a clumsy but useful weapon for checking oppression. Nowadays, we are using it less for defence against oppression, or as an instrument for removing political grievances, and are testing its worth for the provision of positive social reform. More and more it is required of Parliament that means be found for getting rid of the ills around us, for preventing disease and destitution, for promoting health and decency.

And just because legislation is, at the prompting of a social conscience, invading our homes and workshops, penetrating into prisons, workhouses, and hospitals, touching the lives of all of us from the cradle to the grave, the more imperative is it that our legislators should be chosen freely by the widest electorate of men and women. We fall back on the old maxim: "That which touches all shall be approved by all," and can perceive no other way of obtaining that general approbation for the laws than by the popular election of our representatives.

Demagogues may exploit the popular will, the cunning and unscrupulous in power may have us at their mercy, in our folly and indifference the nation may be brought to grave losses; but still there is always the means of recovery for the well-disposed while the vote remains in their hands.

So it is that, in spite of obvious failings and shortcomings, democracy by representative government remains for nations throughout the world that have not yet tried it the goal of their political striving. We are alive to the imperfections of democracy. It is no automatic machine for conferring benefits in return for taxes. It is the creation of mankind, not a revelation from heaven; and it needs, like all good human things, constant attention and can bear many improvements. It has to be adjusted from time to time to suit the growing capacities of mankind—as the popular assembly gave way to the representative assembly—and only on the failure to make the adjustment does it get rusty and out of order. It has to meet the requirements of vast empires and mighty confederations of states, and to fulfil the wants of small republics and parish councils.

What but democracy can answer to the call for political liberty that sounds from so many lands and in so many varying tongues? Did any other form of government devised by the wit of man make such universal appeal?

And when all is said and done—what does this democracy, this government by popular representatives, mean, but government by the consent of the governed—the only form of government tolerable to civilised mankind in the twentieth century?

Given a fairly good standard of common honesty in the ordinary dealings of life, and the honesty of our public life, whether in Parliament or in the Civil Service, in executive or administration, will serve. If the private and commercial life is corroded with dishonesty, then democracy will be bitten by knaves and rascals. For our chosen rulers have a way of faithfully reflecting the morality of their electors, and are not free to indulge their fancies, as kings of old were.

Politics are not, and never will be, or ought to be, the chief interest and concern of the mass of people in a healthy community where slavery is extinct. And democracy makes no demand that would involve such interest and concern. The choice of honest representatives, persons of goodwill, and reasonable intelligence, is no tremendous task in a community where honesty, goodwill, and intelligence prevail. And if these things do not prevail, if honesty is contemned in business, and goodwill between man and man despised, and intelligence frowned upon, then it is of small importance what the government of such a nation is, for that nation is doomed, and it is well for the world that it should be doomed.

But, on the whole, it seems indisputable that the common people of the great nations do cleave to honesty and goodwill, and that the desire for intelligence is being widely fostered. As long, then, as we can count on honesty, goodwill, and intelligence in our streets and market-places, as we can to-day, mankind does well to elect its representatives to council and Parliament and proclaim democracy—"Government of the people, by the people, for the people"—as the proper government for mankind.

* * * * *

Notes.

[1] We cannot be sure about the constitution of the Witenagemot. The evidence is conflicting, and, at best, we can only offer a statement of opinion.

[2] "The parish was the community of the township organised for Church purposes and subject to Church discipline, with a constitution which recognised the rights of the whole body as an aggregate, and the right of every adult member, whether man or woman, to a voice in self-government, but at the same time kept the self-governing community under a system of inspection and restraint by a central authority outside the parish boundaries."—Bishop Hobhouse, Somerset Record Society, Vol. IV.

"The community had its own assembly—the parish meeting—which was a deliberative assembly. It had its own officers, who might be either men or women, duly elected, sometimes for a year, sometimes for life, but in all cases subject to being dismissed for flagrant offences. The larger number of these officials had well-defined duties to discharge, and were paid for their services out of funds provided by the parishioners."—DR. JESSOPP, Before the Great Pillage.

[3] Radmer, Life of Anselm. (Rolls Series.)

[4] "The boldness of Anselm's attitude not only broke the tradition of ecclesiastical servitude, but infused through the nation at large a new spirit of independence."—J.R. GREEN, History of the English People.

[5] "For as long as any one in all the land was said to hold any power except through him, even in the things of God, it seemed to him that the royal dignity was diminished."—EADMER, Life of Anselm.

[6] See Palgrave's History of Normandy and England.

[7] "A martyr he clearly was, not merely to the privileges of the Church or to the rights of the See of Canterbury, but to the general cause of law and order as opposed to violence."—FREEMAN, Historical Essays.

[8] See Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors.

[9] F. York Powell, England to 1509.

"Ecclesiastical privileges were not so exclusively priestly privileges as we sometimes fancy. They sheltered not only ordained ministers, but all ecclesiastical officers of every kind; the Church courts also claimed jurisdiction in the causes of widows and orphans. In short, the privileges for which Thomas contended transferred a large part of the people, and that the most helpless part, from the bloody grasp of the King's courts to the milder jurisdiction of the bishop."—FREEMAN, Historical Essays.

[10] Walter of Coventry. (Rolls Series.)

[11] Roger of Wendover. (Rolls Series.)

[12] "Clause by clause the rights of the commons are provided for as well as the rights of the nobles; the interest of the freeholder is everywhere coupled with that of the barons and knights; the stock of the merchant and the wainage of the villein are preserved from undue severity of amercement as well as the settled estate of the earldom or barony. The knight is protected against the compulsory exaction of his services, and the horse and cart of the freeman against the irregular requisition even of the sheriff."—STUBBS, Constitutional History.

[13] "Quod Anglicana Ecclesia libera sit."—Magna Charta, I.

[14] "This most important provision may be regarded as a summing-up of the history of Parliament so far as it can be said yet to exist. It probably contains nothing which had not been for a long time in theory a part of the Constitution: the kings had long consulted their council on taxation; that council consisted of the elements that are here specified. But the right had never yet been stated in so clear a form, and the statement thus made seems to have startled even the barons.... It was for the attainment of this right that the struggles of the reign of Henry III. were carried on; and the realisation of the claim was deferred until the reign of his successor. In these clauses the nation had now obtained a comparatively clear definition of the right on which their future political power was to be based."—STUBBS, Constitutional History.

[15] "Ut quod omnes similiter tangit ab omnibus approbetur."

[16] Stubbs, Constitutional History.

[17] Stubbs, Ibid.

[18] "Analogous examples may be taken from the practice of the ecclesiastical assemblies, in which the representative theory is introduced shortly before it finds its way into parliament."—STUBBS, Constitutional History.

[19] Stubbs, Constitutional History.

[20] Stubbs, Constitutional History.

[21] F. York Powell, England to 1509.

[22] Sir Courtenay Ilbert, Parliament.

[23] Ilbert, Parliament.

[24] Bagehot, The English Constitution.

[25] Bagehot, Ibid.

[26] Stubbs, Constitutional History.

[27] Stubbs, Constitutional History.

[28] Andrew Marvell, the poet, who sat for Hull in the reign of Charles II., was paid by the mayor and aldermen of the borough. In return Marvell wrote letters describing passing events in London. There are stray cases of the payment of members in the early years of the eighteenth century. Four shillings a day, including the journey to and from London, for the knight of the shire, and two shillings a day for the borough member were the wages fixed by law in 1323.

[29] Stubbs, Constitutional History.

[30] Bagehot, The English Constitution.

[31] See Stopes' British Freewomen for a full examination of this matter.

[32] Stubbs, Constitutional History.

[33] For the last fifty years the political influence of London has been less than that of the manufacturing districts.

[34] "The project was clearly to set up a new order of things founded on social equality—a theory which in the whole history of the Middle Ages appears for the first time in connection with this movement."—DR. GAIRDNER, Introduction to Paston Letters.

[35] Four centuries later and this doctrine of all men having been born free at the beginning was to be preached again in popular fashion by Rousseau and find expression in American Independence and the French Revolution.

[36] Froissart seems to be chiefly responsible for the notion, found in the writings of later historians, that this John Tyler was the leader of the revolt, and for the confusion that mistakenly identifies him with Wat Tyler, of Maidstone, the real leader. Three other Tylers are mentioned in the records of the Peasant Revolt—Walter, of Essex, and two of the City of London.

[37] Hallam, Middle Ages.

[38] This law of Winchester was the statute of Edward I., 1285, which authorised local authorities to appoint constables and preserve the peace. According to a statement made by Jack Straw, Tyler and his lieutenants intended, amongst other things, to get rid of the King's Council, and make each county a self-governing commune.

[39] There are some grounds for believing that a plot had been made to slay Wat Tyler at Smithfield. See Dr. G. Kriehn American Review, 1902.

[40] F. York Powell, England to 1509.

[41] Durrant Cooper, John Cade's Followers in Kent.

[42] "These lords found him sober in talk, wise in reasoning, arrogant in heart, and stiff in opinions; one who by no means would dissolve his army, except the King in person would come to him, and assent to the things he would require."—HOLINSHED.

[43] Stow.

[44] "Whereof he (Cade) lost the people's favour and hearts. For it was to be thought if he had not executed that robbery he might have gone far and brought his purpose to good effect."—FABYAN'S Chronicle.

"And for this the hearts of the citizens fell from him, and every thrifty man was afraid to be served in likewise, for there was many a man in London that awaited and would fain have seen a common robbery."—STOW.

[45] "During the period, which may be roughly defined as from 1450 to 1550, enclosure meant to a large extent the actual dispossession of the tenants by their manorial lords. This took place either in the form of the violent ousting of the sitting tenant, or of a refusal on the death of one tenant to admit the son, who in earlier centuries would have been treated as his natural successor. Proofs abound."—W.J. ASHLEY, Economic History.

[46] See Dr. Jessop, The Great Pillage.

[47] "That a populous and wealthy city like Norwich should have been for three weeks in the hands of 20,000 rebels, and should have escaped utter pillage and ruin, speaks highly for the rebel leaders."—W. RYE, Victoria County History of Norfolk.

"Robert Ket was not a mere craftsman: he was a man of substance, the owner of several manors; his conduct throughout was marked by considerable generosity; nor can the name of patriot be denied to him who deserted the class to which he might have belonged or aspired, and cast in his lot with the suffering people."—CANON DIXON, History of the Church of England.

[48] "There was something in the temper of these celebrated men which secured them against the proverbial inconstancy both of the Court and of individuals.... No Parliament attacked their influence. No mob coupled their names with any odious grievance.... They were, one and all, Protestants. But ... none of them chose to run the smallest personal risk during the reign of Mary. No men observed more accurately the signs of the times.... Their fidelity to the State was incorruptible. No intrigue, no combination of rivals could deprive them of the confidence of their Sovereign."—MACAULAY, Burleigh, his Times.

[49] "The Tudor monarchs exercised freely their power of creating boroughs by charter. They used their Parliaments, and had to find means of controlling them. In the creation of 'pocket' or 'rotten' boroughs, Queen Elizabeth was probably the worst offender. She had much influence in her Duchy of Cornwall, and many of the Cornish boroughs which obtained such a scandalous reputation in later times were created by her for the return of those whom the lords of her council would consider 'safe' men."—ILBERT, Parliament.

[50] Elizabeth's popularity steadily diminished in her last years. The death of Essex, ecclesiastical persecutions, increased taxation, and the irritations caused by royal expenditure were all responsible for the discontent. James I. failed from the first to secure the goodwill of the people.

[51] Oxford men all three. Sir John Eliot was at Exeter College, 1607; John Hampden at Magdalen, 1609; and John Pym at Broadgate Hall (later called Pembroke), 1599.

[52] Clarendon, History of the Great Rebellion.

[53] "The same men who, six months before, were observed to be of very moderate tempers, and to wish that gentle remedies might be applied, talked now in another dialect both of Kings and persons; and said that they must now be of another temper than they were the last Parliament."—CLARENDON, ibid.

[54] Macaulay, Hallam's Constitutional History.

[55] "The great rule of Cromwell was a series of failures to reconcile the authority of the 'single person' with the authority of Parliament."—ILBERT, Parliament.

[56] "A very large number of persons regarded the struggle with indifference.... In one case, the inhabitants of an entire county pledged themselves to remain neutral. Many quietly changed with the times (as people changed with the varying fortunes of York and Lancaster). That this sentiment of neutrality was common to the greater mass of the working classes is obvious from the simultaneous appearance of the club men in different parts of the country with their motto: 'If you take our cattle, we will give you battle.'"—G.P. GOOCH, History of Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century.

[57] See Memorial of English Affairs.

[58] "By its injudicious treatment of the most popular man in England, Parliament was arraying against itself a force which only awaited an opportunity to sweep it away."—G.P. GOOCH, History of Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century.

[59] "So die the Leveller corporals. Strong they, after their sort, for the liberties of England; resolute to the very death."—CARLYLE.

[60] "Then ensued a scene, the like of which had in all probability never been witnessed in an English court of justice, and was never again to be witnessed till the seven bishops were freed by the verdict of a jury from the rage of James II."—S.R. GARDINER, History of the Commonwealth.

[61] Professor C.H. Firth, Lilburne in Dict. Nat. Biography.

[62] Winstanley's New Law of Righteousness, 1649.

[63] Palgrave. Introduction to Erskine May, Parliamentary Practice.

[64] Sir John Eliot, 1629.

[65] Edward II., in 1327, and Richard II., in 1399, had not been deposed without the consent of Parliament.

[66] "The monarchical regime which was revived under Charles II. broke down under James II. It was left for the 'glorious Revolution' of 1688, and for the Hanoverian dynasty, to develop the ingenious system of adjustments and compromises which is now known, sometimes as cabinet government, sometimes as parliamentary government."—ILBERT, Parliament.

[67] G.P. Gooch, Annals of Politics and Culture.

[68] Palmerston's influence in the House of Commons was about as bad in the nineteenth century.—See BAGEHOT, The English Constitution.

[69] "Here and there we find an eminent man, whose public services were so notorious that it was impossible to avoid rewarding them; but putting aside those who were in a manner forced upon the Sovereign, it would be idle to deny that the remainder and, of course, the overwhelming majority, were marked by a narrowness and illiberality of sentiment, which, more than anything else, brought the whole order into contempt. No great thinkers, no great writers, no great orators, no great statesman, none of the true nobility of the land, were to be found among those spurious nobles created by George III. Nor were the material interests of the country better represented. Among the most important men in England those engaged in banking and commerce held a high place; since the end of the seventeenth century their influence had rapidly increased.... But in the reign of George III. claims of this sort were little heeded."—BUCKLE, History of Civilisation.

[70] "They, the friars, and especially the Franciscans, largely influenced politics. The conception of individual freedom, upon which the life of St. Francis was built, went far to instil the idea of civic freedom into men's minds.... It was the ideas of the friars that found expression in the Baron's War." The Song of the Battle of Lewes "set forth unmistakably the conception of the official position of the King, and affirmed the right of his subjects to remove evil counsellors from his neighbourhood, and to remind him of his duty—ideas due to the political influence of the Franciscans."—CREIGHTON, Historical Lectures and Addresses.

[71] The late Lord Acton pointed out that St. Thomas Aquinas was really the first Whig.

[72] See Introduction to Rousseau's Social Contract, by H. J. Tozer.

[73] "That which distinguishes the French Revolution from other political movements is that it was directed by men who had adopted certain speculative a priori conceptions with the fanaticism and proselytising fervour of a religious belief, and the Bible of their Creed was the Contrat Social of Rousseau."—LECKY, England in Eighteenth Century, Vol. V.

"The original contract seized on as a watchword by Rousseau's enthusiasm grew from an arid fiction into a great and dangerous deceit of nations."—Sir F. POLLOCK, History of the Science of Politics.

[74] Mr. H.J. Tozer. Introduction to Rousseau's Social Contract.

[75] See Conway's Life of Paine, Vol. I.

[76] Professor T.F. Tout, England from 1689.

[77] Tout, ibid.

[78] Tout, ibid.

[79] R.G. Gammage, History of the Chartist Movement.

[80] "The condition of the labouring classes was the least satisfactory feature of English life in 1846. Politically they were dumb, for they had no parliamentary votes. Socially they were depressed, though their lot had been considerably improved by an increased demand for labour and by the removal of taxes in Peel's great Budget of 1842. That was the year in which the misery of the English proletariat reached its lowest depth."—HERBERT PAUL, History of Modern England.

[81] Justin McCarthy, Short History of Our Own Times.

[82] McCarthy, Ibid.

[83] Tout, England since 1689.

[84] "For a general extension of the franchise, an extension from the occupation franchise to the adult franchise, there does not appear to be any demand, except in connection with the burning question of the franchise for women."—ILBERT, Parliament.

[85] "On the mere numerical basis Ireland is much over-represented, but Ireland claims to be treated as a separate entity, and her claims cannot be disregarded."—ILBERT, Parliament.

[86] Rt. Hon. A.J. Balfour, M.P., House of Commons, 1910.

[87] "With great tact, and without very much friction, he brought the monarchy into touch with the state of things brought about by the Reform Bill. He did for the Crown what Wellington did for the House of Lords. Just as the Duke saw that the Lords must give up setting themselves against the national will strongly expressed, so did the Prince see that the Crown could no longer exercise those legal rights for which George III. had fought so manfully. Like the Lords, the Crown now became a checking and regulating, rather than a moving, force. It remained as the pledge and symbol of the unity and continuity of the national life, and could do good work in tempering the evils of absolute party government. Such of the royal prerogatives as were not dead must be carried out by ministers. The royal influence continued to run through every branch of the State."—Professor T.F. TOUT, England from 1689.

[88] Mr. J.M. Robertson, M.P., Charles Bradlaugh—A Record of His Life and Work.

[89] F. York Powell, Thoughts on Democracy.

[90] Unfortunately the present House of Commons has just decided, August, 1911, to pay its members a salary of L400 a year from the national revenue. It is to be regretted that the cost has not been laid directly on the electors, and that the time is not more appropriate. With the country torn with strikes of workmen seeking a few extra shillings a week, it was hardly the opportune moment for a House of Commons to vote itself some L250,000 a year. The proposal would have been more palatable to the nation if the Commons had decided that payment should begin with the next Parliament.

THE END