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frequently come to them from the ruling classes. 

 The motive of these revolutionaries may have 

 been in some cases sympathy for the oppressed. 

 But the student of character may not unfairly 

 conclude that it has more often been a desire for 

 personal distinction, or the imperious longing for 

 change which dominates some men especially 

 those whom the routine of industry has not 

 broken into habit. The Roman poor were 

 championed by members of the Roman nobility, 

 such as the Gracchi and Catiline. We may indeed 

 surmise that the French revolution would never 

 have come about had revolt not been led by birth 

 and intelligence by the fire of Mirabeau, the 

 vanity of Orleans, and the cultured philosophy of 

 the Girondins. A lawyer headed the League 

 which heartened the English working classes in 

 their struggle for the suffrage. The natives of 

 Ireland made their first successful move towards 

 independance under the Anglo-Saxon leadership 

 of Parnell. It is possible to be too cynical. In 

 some cases reformers have been sincerely im- 

 pressed with the justice of their ideas, and ready 

 to sacrifice themselves for their principles. But 

 they have found that argument is of no avail with 

 the conservatism of a king or an aristocracy; 

 and when they have not been killed, banished or 

 imprisoned, they have been ignored. It was 

 necessary to secure some external support, and 

 they might find this in the numbers of the masses 

 could these be roused into activity. For this 

 something more was required than well-balanced 

 reasoning : dispassionate exhortations would not 

 draw the poorer classes in their multitudes to 

 demonstrative meetings which could be used to 

 coerce the authorities. They could be electrified 

 only by appeals to their passions, and especially 

 to their jealousy or their self-esteem ; and the 



