320 MODERN POLITICS 



ever great importance, if put to them in cold blood, 

 will not move large numbers of them to record 

 their opinions. Even in the democratic atmo- 

 sphere of the United States a referendum may not 

 elicit responses from four-fifths of the voters ; and 

 at English elections the voting power of the con- 

 stituency must be galvanized into activity by 

 emotional appeals to other impulses than that of 

 reasoning providence, and by the dignified con- 

 veyance of voters to the polls. The provident 

 impulse is, in fact, an inadequate stimulus, and it 

 is necessary to awaken other instincts. Many lie 

 at hand in the recesses of human nature, and skill 

 in selecting and in arousing them is the talent of 

 the successful politician. Admiration may be 

 enlisted by appeals to loyalty, and by such organ- 

 izations as that of the Primrose League : religious 

 prejudice is a declining force, but it may still turn 

 elections elsewhere than in Wales and Ireland : 

 jealousy can usually be aroused by denunciations 

 of the rich, and the orator can always fire the 

 sympathies of his audience by eloquence that 

 invokes the dignity of man. But the most potent 

 of these extraneous impulses is that of emulation. 

 This is the mainspring of the party spirit. Men 

 who care little for Liberal or Conservative princi- 

 ples are roused by the contest between blue and 

 buff. 



Party spirit is indeed the driving force of present 

 day democracy. It was aroused on the day when 

 first a question was decided by voting, and it has 

 accordingly swayed the judgment of senates as 

 well as of popular assemblies. But it is by no 

 means peculiar to the political arena. Gibbon 

 with his remorseless pen has described the bloody 

 antagonisms which, aroused by a liking for one 

 or other of two companies of chariot drivers, or 

 for one or other of two benches of bishops, divided 



