depend on the vote in politics, because nothing better is available, let us shun making a fetish of an unfortunate necessity. Moral forces, not popular votes, rule the world. As the wind bloweth where it listeth, so we cannot tell in what region or in what way these moral forces come to birth. We may well say that, like the prophets of old, the men in whom they are incarnated are divinely commissioned. 'England has produced a great man at last,” said Frederick the Great when Pitt grasped the helm, and the essential factor was introduced into the divine equation whose double root has proved to be the modern German Empire and the world-embracing colonial system of Britain. And who can tell how different the destinies of France and Europe would have been "had Mirabeau lived one other year!" No vote of the Ayr townsfolk decided that a little baby to be named Robert Burns should be born on a certain day in a humble cottage near the banks of Doon, yet what popularly elected man among them all has affected the Scottish character as he has done, who painted the peasant in his Sunday attire in "The Cottar's Saturday Night"? James Watt was not chosen by vote to invent the steam-engine, and when will be found another such captain of industry as he? And down in the valley of commoner life, the contractor of the Forth Bridge, commanding his thousands of workmen, devising ingenious expedients at every turn in his Titanic duel with difficulty, trained himself for his Herculean task by a series of lesser labours before he tackled Cerberus in the Valley of the Forth. Had it been known all along that the captain of that great undertaking would be elected by the votes of a crowd, Mr Arrol would have been tempted to spend much of his precious time in acquiring the art of electioneering. We must beware then, in our attempts to organise industry better, as the one rational means of escape from the present state of things, not to begin, as the Socialists would begin, by building our house on the sand. Let us never forget that it is an organism we must aid to the birth, and not a mechanical toy we must contrive. The popular vote may do very well to select for the tournament of politics a body of knights who have already won their spurs in earnest warfare on real fields. But let it beware of choosing a champion among the varlets who crowd round the lists. The voters need not fix upon Isaac the Jew on account of his money bags, nor on Brian de BoisGuilbert for his connection with a sacred profession, nor on Wamba for his wit, nor on Gurth the son of Beowulf for his discontent with the service of Cedric the Saxon. No more need they humour the whim of stout old Cedric himself to venture his aged limbs in the sport, bloody enough sometimes, now that he is too old for actual service in the field. They would not err much if they chose an honest yeoman like Locksley, although he sometimes brings down a royal buck without authority of statute. But their wisest choice will be a royal Richard or a valiant Ivanhoe, who have proved their mettle on many a Paynim foeman. The lists of Westminster are not so exclusive as those of Ashby de la Zouche. The clerk of Oxford, the stout armourer, even the city apprentice of stalwart build, may wield a lance or bend a bow, if strong arm and stout heart have been proven before; and no fitter men will be found for lance thrust or sword stroke than those who have gained their knightly spurs as captains in circles of industry. |