3i8 MODERN POLITICS 



harangues of a demagogue must be frothy to be 

 convincing, however solid may be the convictions 

 that he cherishes in the background. And, 

 success being won by dramatic powers, not by 

 sincerity, it is no matter for surprise that many 

 demagogues have been simply actors, without any 

 earnestness of purpose behind their volubility. 

 But, whether inspired by principle or by ambition, 

 their success has been marvellous. Authority 

 which will not listen to argument will give way 

 before a mob, or a string of demonstrative out- 

 rages ; and in the end kings and aristocracies have 

 conceded to the common people a voting power 

 which outbalances their influence, and is, in 

 effect, transferring the government of the country 

 from the hands of the conquerors to those of the 

 conquered. Such a revolution would have thrown 

 the community into a state of never-ceasing 

 discord were it not confirmed by the impulse of 

 deference 1 to the majority. This may offer to a 

 democracy as strong a guarantee as may be 

 obtained by a monarchy or aristocracy from the 

 impulse of reverence. In many cases it has been 

 intrinsically too weak to give this security, and 

 republics have reverted to despotism in fact if 

 not in name. 



But, it will be said, this is a sketch in mono- 

 chrome which inadequately pictures the struggle 

 for freedom : the triumphs by which liberty has 

 been won have been coloured by many phases 

 of activity : their history is not comprised in the 



1 It is extraordinary, when one comes to think of it, that five 

 persons should acquiesce in conduct of which they disapprove, 

 because there are six persons who approve of it. Some peoples, 

 those of India for instance, appear to lack this instinctive respect 

 for number. But we may find traces of it in the earliest Germanic 

 institutions which historv reveals to us. 



