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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



least with private persons, can account for the 

 major part of those tragedies of which we read 

 in history.' I thought little," adds the chaplain, 

 " of the odd conceit of the bishop, but I own I 

 could not avoid thinking of it a great deal since, 

 and applying it to many cases." 



Yes, Bishop Butler was right. Such mad- 

 nesses have occurred many and many a time be- 

 fore, and they have indeed been enacted many 

 and many a time since. The madness of the peo- 

 ple of London in the riots of Lord George Gor- 

 don ; the madness of the people of Birmingham 

 when they burned the library of Dr. Priestley ; 

 the madness of the people of Bristol, which laid 

 waste, in 1831, the very garden in which Bishop 

 Butler made the remark one hundred years ago ; 

 the innumerable theological panics which I have 

 seen rise and fall away in my own day — are all 

 examples of the danger to which we are exposed 

 in public agitations unless by the stern education 

 of after-life we deliberately guard ourselves 

 against it. 



It is with no view of producing an undue dis- 

 trust either of human nature or of popular judg- 

 ments that I dwell on the deep conviction of the 

 instability of temporary judgments which this 

 experience of life impresses upon us. Like all 

 insanity it is best met by sanity. Like all false- 

 hood and hollowness, it is best resisted by a 

 determination on the part of those who know 

 better, not to give way by one hair's-breadth to 

 what they know in their own minds to be a fic- 

 tion or a crime. If we all of us, as communities, 

 as parties, as churches, are liable to these fits of 

 madness, it is the more necessary that we should 

 educate ourselves to be our own keepers. And, 

 as in actual insanity, so in those metaphorical in- 

 sanities, it is encouraging to remember that one 

 keeper, one sane keeper, is often quite enough to 

 control many madmen. When one verger, by 

 his own stout arm and resolute speech, saved 

 Bristol Cathedral from the raging mob, he did 

 what many a magistrate, or politician, or ecclesi- 

 astic, under analogous circumstances, might do, 

 and what they have often failed to do, and so 

 have wellnigh ruined the commonwealth. In 

 these illusions of which we are speaking, it is not 

 so difficult after all to detect the ring of a true or 

 of a hollow word, it is not impossible to scent out 

 with an almost infallible instinct the savor of the 

 rotten or decaying or acrid element in human 

 opinion, or to see wherein are to be found the light 

 r.nd glory and sweetness of the eternal future. 



8. And this leads me to speak of that educa- 

 tion which is given in our age and in our country 



more than in any other, namely, education in 

 public affairs or politics. I remember when in 

 Russia that a Russian statesman was speaking 

 of the important effects to be hoped from the 

 endeavor to give more instruction to the people ; 

 "but," he said, "there is one process of educa- 

 tion which has been more effectual still, and that 

 is the reform in the administration of our courts 

 of law and the introduction of trial by jury. This, 

 by bringing the peasants into the presence of the 

 great machinery of the state, by making them 

 understand their own responsibility, by enabling 

 them to hear patiently the views of others, is a 

 never-failing source of elevation and instruction." 

 Trial by jury, which to the Russian peasant is as 

 it were but of yesterday, to us is familiar by the 

 growth of a thousand years. It is familiar, and 

 yet it falls only to the lot of few. I have myself 

 only witnessed it once ; but I thought it one 

 of the most impressive scenes on which I had 

 ever looked. The twelve men, of humble life, 

 enjoying the advantage of the instruction of the 

 most acute minds that the country could furnish ; 

 taught in the most solemn forms of the English 

 language to appreciate the value of exact truth ; 

 seeing the whole tragedy of destiny drawn out 

 before their very eyes — the weakness of passion, 

 the ferocity of revenge, the simplicity of inno- 

 cence, the moderation of the judge, the serious- 

 ness of human existence — this is an experience 

 which may actually befall but a few, but to 

 whomsoever it does fall the lessons which it im- 

 parts, the necessity of any previous preparation 

 for it that can be given, leap at such moments to 

 the eyes as absolutely inestimable. But what in 

 its measure is true of the education which a jury- 

 man receives, and of the necessity of education 

 for discharging the functions of a juryman, is true 

 more or less of all the complex machinery by 

 which the duties, the hopes, and the fears, of 

 English citizens are called into action. And here 

 again the past history of Bristol furnishes so ad- 

 mirable an example of an important lesson of 

 political education that I cannot forbear directing 

 your attention to it. I mean Mr. Burke's speech 

 in the Guildhall at Bristol, in which he refers to 

 certain points in his parliamentary conduct in the 

 year 1770. In making this reference you will not 

 suppose that I am so indiscreet as to be entering 

 on any political question, or taking the side of 

 any political party. I am not favoring either the 

 Anchor or the Dolphin. I am not giving any ad- 

 vice to either of your respected members, nor to 

 any distinguished persons who may come here on 

 the day of your great benefactor Colston. 



