A MODERN' "SYMPOSIUM." 



105 



indeed, they are content with the humbler and 

 nearer aspiration of getting great scores in the 

 cricket-field, or being heroes in the boats. Their 

 sisters, meanwhile, are receiving an education far 

 less contemptible in its subjects, and immeasura- 

 bly less exposed to bad influences of many kinds, 

 but in which far too much attention is paid to 

 mere accomplishment, and far too little to what 

 strengthens and informs the mind. Then, again, 

 if they have any serious elements in their char- 

 acter, these almost always bring them under the 

 influence of a Church which has been, and is, al- 

 most invariably wrong on all political questions. 

 The young people meet again — the men fresh from 

 the university, or with commissions in the more 

 fashionable regiments, the girls emancipated from 

 their schoolroom — after having during the whole 

 course of their education been exposed to influ- 

 ences almost exclusively in favor of conserving 

 the existing order of things ; hostile, that is, to 

 what I hold to be the manifest destiny of man — a 

 progress continual, though sometimes in a spiral 

 line, by the amendment and alteration of the ex- 

 isting order of things under the conjoint influence 

 of cultivated intelligence and of extraordinary men. 



When they once more meet in their emanci- 

 pated state, and become a portion of " society," 

 they do little or nothing, as I have said, but 

 amuse themselves and each other. The wonder 

 is not that they are habitually wrong about ques- 

 tions of politics, but that they are not as bad as 

 certain misleaders of the masses have sometimes 

 represented them to be. 



For observe that the conservative or "so- 

 ciety" view of many political questions is the 

 one that is prima facie the correct view. It is 

 the view which has been held at one time or an- 

 other by the wisest men of their day ; it is only 

 by the process of slowly sapping them that culti- 

 vated intelligence has contrived to get rid of one 

 plausible delusion after another. Tell a person 

 of uncultivated intelligence that any grave crime 

 is increasing, and his first idea will invariably 

 be to increase the severity of the punishment 

 which is assigned to it. Tell him that it is very 

 difficult to get evidence with regard to some par- 

 ticular crime, and the chances are that if he does 

 not say, he will think, that a little mild judicial 

 torture might have its advantages. 



If any one doubts this last proposition, I can 

 only say that the late Sir George Lewis, when the 

 public mind was excited about the Road murder, 

 received numerous suggestions to that effect. 



It would be easy to multiply instances. Pro- 

 tection to native industry, for example, which is 



now in this country the creed only of incapables, 

 would seem at first sight, to almost every one, 

 wise and statesmanlike. The toleration, again, 

 of religious opinions which are violently opposed 

 to those which we ourselves hold, appears at first 

 sight not only a mistake, but a crime. " So- 

 ciety " accordingly, never having had its intelli- 

 gence cultivated to any purpose, naturally takes 

 up the prima-facie view, and is in consequence 

 mistaken in its judgment. 



But there is more behind. "Society" has, 

 or constantly conceives itself to have, an interest 

 in the conservation of abuses. This interest is 

 sometimes general, sometimes direct and special. 



And first as to its general interest. "Soci- 

 ety " is composed, as we have seen, almost ex- 

 clusively of well-to-do persons. They find the 

 existing state of things very comfortable, and are 

 naturally unwilling to exchange it for uncertain- 

 ties, especially when they see those uncertainties 

 advocated, in language which they only partially 

 understand, by persons of cultivated intelligence, 

 backed by persons by no means well to do, whom 

 they conceive, sometimes quite correctly, to be 

 anything but friendly to themselves. 



Then as to their special and direct interests. 

 Many of the things which cultivated intelligence, 

 backed by the magses, has effected through Par- 

 liament in the last two generations, have been 

 distinctly hostile to the interests of the persons 

 who make up " society " and their connections, 

 while many more have appeared so to be. 



Lastly, no sooner does cultivated intelligence, 

 or genius, or enthusiasm, or spiritual insight, ap- 

 peal to ordinary mankind, than bad and coarse 

 elements become mixed up with it, which tend to 

 make the reforms which it advocates even more 

 disagreeable to " society," the good side of which 

 is a certain grace of life, than they naturally 

 would be. 



Let me take each of Mr. Hutton's instances in 

 order. The first which he cites is the improve- 

 ment of our criminal law. He tells us that those 

 who best represent " society " in our constitution 

 were opposed to Romilly, Mackintosh, and their 

 friends. Of course they were — and why ? 



1. Because they had not the cultivated intelli- 

 gence which was necessary to enable them to see 

 that the prima-facie view, that crime is best sup- 

 pressed by very severe punishment, was incorrect. 



2. Because they thought the existing state of 

 things worked well enough for them, and were 

 unwilling to change it under the pressure of argu- 

 ments which they imperfectly understood, backed 

 by masses which they profoundly distrusted. 



