242 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



Overt Action necessaky 



Overt action may take many forms and expressions — letters 

 to the Press, articles to the magazines, leaflets to the people, 

 discussions at working-men's clubs and institutes, a word now 

 and again to street corner audiences, reference to the subject 

 by Hyde Park " orators " ; consideration of the matter at dinner- 

 tables, in clubland, in debating societies, and by the hundred 

 and one means usually taken in spreading abroad questions of 

 public interest. 



Public opinion has the curious property of quicksilver, 

 which, once aroused, spreads itself in every direction like that 

 eccentric mineral, until every section of the community is 

 affected and moved to the necessity of action. It is the political 

 thermometer of the people; it is the barometer which marks 

 political change, and the compass by which politicians steer 

 thek course. Arouse public opinion, then, in the direction we 

 are indicating, so that politicians may mark its unmistakable 

 trend and — the rest will speedily follow. 



Once public opinion be set in favour of certain necessary 

 changes in our social, economic, or fiscal systems, no political 

 party in existence would be foolish enough to attempt to stem 

 the current; if they did they would be swept away as easily 

 as the on-rushing tidal wave sweeps away a child's sand castle 

 on the seashore. 



The party principle in politics, in some form or other, is 

 nearly as old as the hills, and perhaps as necessary as air ; at 

 any rate, it is part of the British Constitution. It has been, it 

 is, and it will be, and this being so, it must be accepted as 

 a factor in the situation. 



Licence in Party Politics has engendered Abuse 



We cannot divorce ourselves from it; it cannot be killed 

 and cast out, nor can we get rid of it in any other way, but 

 it can be caught and held in check, and moulded and fashioned 

 to suit public requirements. The mischief is that it has been 

 left by the apathy and indifference, but chiefly through the 

 ignorance of the people, to run riot ; no restraining hand has 

 ever been laid upon the contending political parties ; licence 

 has grown out of this lack of restraint, and the simple fact 

 remains — as the only outcome — that the party war is now 

 waged by and between the contending parties in Parliament 

 with that blind insanity which practically sacrifices, in nearly 

 every instance, the broad interests of the nation to the narrow, 

 selfish, and sordid interests of party. 



