in power and kept in power only and solely by the will of the avowed enemies of England taking advantage of the impotence to which we are reduced by our miserable dissensions. The British people have lost control over their own destinies, and the first question demanding their attention, the only question worth attending to for the moment, is how they are to regain selfgovernment. Nothing stands in the way of their emancipation except party badges, long since become meaningless, superstitious subservience to a leader who has gone over to the enemy, miserable competitions for place, and the personal jealousies which long indulgence in partisan squabbling has engendered. If the sword now hanging over this country should fall, the disaster will be due not to Mr. Parnell or Mr. Gladstone, for both together would be powerless against a single wave of genuine patriotism, but to the wretched vices of our own political system.”

March 11th, 1886.

PARTY AND PATRIOTISM.

CHAPTER I.

THE MORAL SIDE OF POLITICS.

"Think you Truth a farthing rushlight, to be pinched out when you will

With your deft official fingers and your politician's skill?"

LOWELL.

AMID the dust and heat of party warfare the real nature and purpose of politics are almost wholly forgotten. Instead of being regarded as a subject gravely affecting our lives and fortunes, and calculated "to task to the utmost all the powers of the strongest minds," they are looked upon as a mere electioneering trade, or what Carlyle might have called "a jangling logic-cockpit."

To most of us they seem little more than personal advancement and partisan intrigue, and are in reality too often but a vulgar struggle for notoriety and power. Our party politicians, if not "a somewhat puny breed," are at least too self-seeking and servile. Their god is popularity, and the desire of their heart is to hear what Chalmers called "the hosannas of a drivelling population." They seldom seem to think or act for themselves, and if they have minds of their own they do not use them, but are content to repeat parrot-like the shibboleths of their party, looking up to Downing Street as their Sinai, and regarding an underlined whip as their law.

It is not surprising therefore, that many people should regard politics with despondency and distaste, believing that

"The age of virtuous politics is past,

And we are deep in that of cold pretence.
Patriots are grown too shrewd to be sincere,
And we too wise to trust them."

At the same time it would be hardly correct to