304 POLITICS 



Bavaria, Wiirttemberg, and Baden, which had felt France most, 

 had charters by 1820, but these modified absolutism only a little, 

 and were given partly to spite the larger states surrendering to 

 reaction. 



The privileges which were here and there conceded were vitally 

 vitiated by appearing as grants, not as rights. All seeking by the 

 people to wrest concessions was viewed as Jacobinism with reign of 

 terror behind. Press, pulpit, school, and platform were under gag 

 laws, patriots excluded, exiled, or silenced by an infamous system 

 of espionage, which Napoleon would have blushed to own. 



All this proved in vain, however. The good leaven went on per- 

 meating the meal till all west Europe was leavened. Liberal ideas, 

 domestic, and streaming in from Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Eng- 

 land, and France, especially during her revolution of 1830, proved 

 at last more than a match for Metternich; and when the new re volu- 

 tion of 1848 rocked to its base every throne of Continental Europe, 

 he fell and his system was doomed. 



Men had come more and more into Gladstone's state of mind in 

 1851, when he wrote: " It is a great and noble secret, that of consti- 

 tutional freedom, which has given us the largest liberties, with the 

 steadiest throne and the most vigorous executive in Christendom. 

 ... I am deeply convinced that among us all systems, whether 

 religious or political, which rest on a principle of absolutism, must 

 of necessity be, not indeed tyrannical, but feeble and ineffective 

 systems; and that methodically to enlist the members of a commun- 

 ity, with due regard to their several capacities, in the performance of 

 its public duties, is the way to make that community powerful and 

 healthful, to give a firm seat to its rulers, and to engender a warm 

 and intelligent devotion in those beneath their sway." 



Republicanism has encountered, and is still struggling therein, 

 a second impasse, which threatens to be far graver than the 

 first. 



A wide and deep remission of philanthropy marks the intelligence 

 of our time, partly speculative in origin, as seen in Nietzsche, who 

 ridicules consideration for one's enemies and for the weak, as slaves' 

 ethics; partly resulting from fuller acquaintance with the inferior 

 races of men. Tongues thoroughly trained in trick gymnastics stick 

 at vocables like " equality," " brotherhood," " the race," " human- 

 ity," much more than when only missionaries had first-hand famil- 

 iarity with Bushmen and Igorrotes. Such a generalization as 

 " man " does well enough in zoology, but in practical ethics it finds 

 its position harder and harder to keep. The changed thought 

 promptly sidles over on to political ground. Having radically 

 subordinated certain races to others, we find it easier, if not inevit- 

 able, to subordinate certain classes. 



