NOTES 



The Sale of Honours 



The feast of unreason called party politics is the last kind 

 'of banquet which men of science should attend ; but neverthe- 

 less men of science have definite duties to perform towar Js 

 the State — it should be their part to throw the cold light of 

 reason upon the welter of clashing interests. As a matter of 

 fact, however, they as a body take almost no part whatever 

 in public affairs. The light of reason remains unthrown ; and 

 in the darkness we hear only the howls of the combat between 

 the interested people who are trying to rob each other and 

 the time-servers who are pretending to lead them. There are, 

 however, some signs of awakening interest among the more 

 intelligent people in the country — combined with a rapidly 

 increasing sense of resentment against the politicians of both 

 parties. It is beginning to be seen that these people are 

 sacrificing the interests of the whole empire in the pursuit of 

 the game which they play — to their own profit and to the loss 

 of the nation. Mr. John Galsworthy, the dramatist, has per- 

 formed a public duty by calling attention in the Times of 

 February 28 to the " heartlessness of Parliament " — he might 

 have said " inefficiency." He complains that a large number 

 of important reforms remain quite ignored by the body which 

 is supposed to govern us ; and we could easily add to his list 

 many, and many more important, matters which have been 

 fruitlessly calling for attention during the last century or 

 more — such as the perfectioning of the Common Law, the 

 encouragement of the arts and sciences, and the removal of 

 innumerable abuses which are, if anything, favoured by the 

 party politicians. But the things which are most effectually 

 rousing even the most brainless to the evils of party govern- 

 ment are, first, the state to which the parties are bringing 

 Ireland, and, secondly, the infamous abuse to which Lord 

 Selborne called attention in the House of Lords on February 24 

 — the public sale of honours to persons who purchase them 

 by subscribing funds to the parties — a thing which we should 



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