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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



county, are as ignovant, in a political sense, as 

 scavengers, and what opinions they have are very 

 silly and very dangerous. Right-minded leaders, 

 by all means ! But it does not follow that all 

 people in good society are right-minded ; nor 

 that all working-men are ignorant (politically); 

 nor that the " cultivated " classes as a body are 

 wise, or even apt to listen to wise teachers ; nor 

 that the right-minded and the wise leaders are 

 only to be found in members of Parliament with 

 good estates. 



Besides, politics are not simple questions of 

 " ignorance." The important things in politics, 

 at least so far as concerns voting or expressing 

 an opinion on public affairs, are — practical sense, 

 generous feeling, quickness to learn, the spirit 

 of trustfulness, and especially freedom from nar- 

 row interests, and from that " rebellious nature " 

 which Lord Arthur thinks so admirable a feature 

 in the cultivated. Indeed, a first-rate meeting 

 of London or Birmingham workmen will exhibit 

 far more political sagacity than a learned society 

 in a personal " row," or the House of Commons 

 on an Irish night. 



"We cannot divide people up into " classes " 

 in this way ; and we ought to discriminate in our 

 senses of the words " educated," " cultivated," 

 and the like. Feople with good manners and 

 some fortune, who can read Balzac and Macau- 

 lay, are usually called the " educated " or " culti- 

 vated " classes ; but an immense proportion of 

 them have not the knowledge of the political 

 leader, or even of the political follower ; and on 

 the contrary they have class prejudices against 

 the true political leader. Working-men are fre- 

 quently called the ignorant classes, usually be- 

 cause they cannot speak good English, and 

 have little knowledge of books. But then 

 among working-men are to be found a good pro- 

 portion of educated politicians. And this propor- 

 tion practically leads the majority. There is a 

 minority of a majority, as well as a minority 

 of a minority — men of vigorous character and 

 cultivated good sense who have passed their lives 

 in political training. The " right-minded leaders " 

 are not peculiar to any " class." There are many 

 such among those who are born rich and with 

 every social advantage. There are many who 

 come from the laborious class of business-men. 

 There are many found among poor men of large 

 education. And there are many among the 

 workmen of exceptional sagacity and of special 

 political training. As Mr. Grant Duff well says, 

 "these gifted personalities spring up here and 

 there" in every class, rich and poor. If I differ 



from him at all, it is mainly in the suggestion I 

 gather him to make, that the true political leaders 

 are always to be found in " those who have the 

 infinite blessings of real education, leisure, and 

 long training in the art of government " — at least 

 if this means the infinite blessings of Eton, a 

 competence, and the means of entering Parlia- 

 ment or a public office at twenty-three. No doubt 

 the aristocratic theory looks well, and often pro- 

 duces able statesmen ; but it sometimes produces 

 brutes and sometimes prigs. No: true political 

 leaders are formed in all kinds of ways, and out 

 of all sorts of social grades. Leisure, and per- 

 haps wealth, tend to promote a political training 

 on the one hand ; but, on the other hand, a lei- 

 sured and a wealthy class too often infects even 

 its best members, either with a. faineant, captious, 

 blase mind, or with a selfish, antisocial, reaction- 

 ary temper. So that it is nearly as broad as it is 

 long. The rich have great material opportunities 

 for making themselves statesmen ; but they im- 

 bibe sundry moral and intellectual vices from their 

 wealth or their rank. Engrossing business, be it 

 in the high or the low commerce, in a profession 

 or a special art, tends to lower the sense of great 

 public concerns, and unfits men for politics. But, 

 on the other hand, it often stimulates practical 

 faculties, and gives a vast practical experience. 

 Workmen again, because they have no habits de- 

 rived from property or social engagements, and 

 little reading power, are without all that political 

 education which comes from business responsi- 

 bility and the precise study of books. But, on 

 the other hand, for political training, they have a 

 great deal of leisure, for they are neither absorbed 

 in cares nor in pleasures ; and their social habits 

 and position very much encourage generous feel- 

 ing, political thoughtfulness, and a wide public 

 interest. Accordingly, I maintain that if the far 

 larger number of practical statesmen will be 

 found in the rich and business classes, on the 

 other side freedom from political prejudice, apt- 

 ness for healthy political ideas, sound political 

 judgment and teachableness are to be found more 

 widely and rapidly diffused in the working-classes 

 than in the " higher orders " as the term goes. 



We involve ourselves in a mesh of fallacies if 

 we use our terms loosely and divide up " classes " 

 in the lump. When we say that the " cultivated " 

 and the " educated " ought to lead, we mean, or 

 we ought to mean, that men with a sound training 

 in politics should lead. But when we talk of the 

 "cultivated" and "educated" classes, we are 

 often thinking of the well-to-do people who have 

 learned languages and know something of general 



