DEMAND FOR MEANS IN POLITICS 247 



exceptional men only, and is consequently not Book in 



wholly their own, does continually make itself felt 



in law-making as it does not make itself felt in 



watchmaking ; and yet the conduct of government 



is not rendered impossible, whereas the making of 



the watches would be. Indeed, in very many cases 



it is not even rendered unsatisfactory. 



For this peculiarity in politics there are three and they can 



^. . . . , interfere with 



reasons. One is that the connection between it here because 



measures and the general welfare of the community political 



is by no means so close or immediate as the con- ffe e \S n 



nection between a watchmaker's tool and the wheel close and less 



important than 



or pinion to which he applies it. Social effects the effect s of 

 follow on measures slowly, and the tendencies of management 

 bad measures are neutralised by other causes. The r 

 second reason is that, as Mr. Spencer rightly in- 

 sists agreeing in this judgment with the wisdom 

 of Dr. Johnson the social ills which governments 

 "can cause or cure" are far less numerous than 

 many thinkers imagine ; and the third reason is 

 one with which we are already familiar, that the 

 power of the many in determining what measures 

 shall be adopted is, although not an illusion, less 

 considerable than it appears to be. But whatever 

 their power in this respect, the great point to and in any 



, . , -<< case the 



remember is that it cannot exert itself or exist apparentpower 

 for any practical purpose unless the few provide era herecL- 

 it with the means of doing so, any more than a k lled by the 

 rudder has power to guide a ship unless some 

 other power shall have set the ship in motion. 

 The popular demand for measures, or the popular 



