DEMOCRACY

MUST BECOME UNIVERSAL.

“Fortune never interposes in the government of this world; and we may be convinced of this truth by the Romans, who enjoyed a continual series of prosperity when they regulated their conduct by one invariable plan, but suffered an uninterrupted train of calamities when they acted upon different principles. There are a set of general causes, either moral or physical, which operate in every monarchy, and either raise and maintain it, or else involve it in ruin. All accidental conjunctures are subordinate to these causes; and if the hazard of a battle, which, in other words, is no more than a particular cause, has been destructive of a state, some general cause presided, and made a single battle be the inevitable ruin of that state. In a word, the tendency of the main principle draws after it all the particular incidents.”—Montesquieu's Works, v. iii, page 135.

"Progress may be safely left to the passions and the blindness of those (ruling) classes, even although warned of the

result.

"Since a human race has appeared upon earth, it must attain all the development which it is possible for it to attain on earth.

"There is but one world possible,-a thoroughly good world."-Fichte "Vocation of Man" pp. 146, 150, 183.

"It is over with us, the multitude are enlightened."— Volney, Vision of Priests and Despots."

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"Every combination of ashes returns to ashes. All those granites, oligarchy, aristocracy, theocracy, are promised to the four winds."-Hugo.

H

"True History, henceforth charged with the education of the royal infant, the People, will study the successive movements of Humanity.

'Humanity no longer possessed, but guided. The legions of light drive backwards the hordes of flame. Planets become spectres. The flaming pleiad of men of brutal force descends deeper and deeper into the abyss, and in the deep heaven of the future, azure, henceforth rises in radiancy the sacred group of true stars."-Hugo.

"A regard for their own security compels all free states to transform all around them into free states like themselves; and thus for the sake of their own welfare, to extend the empire of culture over barbarism, of freedom over slavery. Soon will the nations, civilised or enfranchised by them, find themselves in the same relation towards others; and thus of necessity by reason of the existence of some few really free states, will the empire of civilisation, freedom, and with it universal peace, gradually embrace the whole world."-Fichte.

"When schism and faction abound in a state, it is near its ruin, and ought to be invaded."—Institutes of Timour.

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CHAPTER IV.

DEMOCRACY

MUST BECOME UNIVERSAL.

"Woe be to us should their fatal cry of Liberty reach the ear of the multitude. If all men are equal where is our exclusive right to honours and power? If all men are or ought to be free, what becomes of our slaves, our vassals, our property? If all are equal in a civil capacity, where are our privileges of birth and succession, and what becomes of nobility? If all are equal before God, what is to become of the Priesthood? Let us sound the alarm to Kings. Let us divide the People. Let us excite their apprehensions respecting the power of this free nation.”—Volney.

"When a nation modifies the electoral qualification, it may easily be foreseen that sooner or later that qualification will be entirely abolished. There is no more invariable rule in the History of Society, for after each concession, the strength of the Democracy increases, and its demands increase with its strength."-De Tocqueville, p. 67, v. 1.

"It is the vocation of our race to unite itself into one single body, all the parts of which shall be thoroughly known to each other, and all possessed of similar culture. *** And this is the first point to be attained in the endless path on which Humanity must advance. Until this shall have been attained, one nation or continent must pause on the great common path of progress, and wait for the advance of the others, and each must bring as an offering to the universal commonwealth, for the sake of which alone it exists, its ages of apparent immobility or retrogression. When that first point shall have been attained then, without farther interruption, without halt or regress, with united strength and equal step, Humanity shall move onward in a higher culture, of which we can at present form no conception."-Fichte, "Vocation of Man,” pp. 141-2.

"Future History approaches. Historical effigy will no longer be the man-King; it will be the man-People.-Hugo.

The first practical successful solution of the Democratic problem is the one great step towards its universality.

Let but the first Democratic nation stand, and it must draw all systems to it.

For,—not land, or peculiar material conditions, but manhood is the basis of Democracy.

Wherever manhood is, there may be manhood Development. Wherever manhood Development is muliplied, there is manhood Association. Whereever developed manhood associates, it wins Equality. And manhood, developed, associated, and equal, is Democracy. Inasmuch as Democracy makes the strongest Unity and intensest concentration of power, it cannot be successfully opposed by arms. Inasmuch as it is a question of Development, all free opinion is destined to help it.

That Democracy shall become universal, arises from the nature and necessities of man, and the necessary grades and epochs through which individual and national life has to pass.

Without manhood Development there is no

nation.

Where manhood Development exists to a certain extent, and subject to a certain organisation, there a nation exists.

Manhood Development either ceases or ex

tends.

If it ceases the nation expires.

If it increases, it becomes more generally diffused in quantity, and more elevated in quality.

But with that state of things Individuals inevitably learn to associate together, they acquire unity.

But Unity and Numbers are strength, and a

strength that constantly increases itself in a greater ratio.

And strength will always (with or without revolution) win for itself Equality.

And manhood Development and Association result in Equality, which is Democracy.

The process may take years, or ages, but the result is inevitable. If any given nation abandon the advance, and cease the Development of Democracy, the forces of progress but transmigrate to other nations more worthy. Labour leaves the land, and manhood society.

If Humanity is not to progress towards Democracy, it cannot progress at all. If it is not to progress, it must be stayed by the same hand that launched it on its career.

The logic of politics is absolute, or it is nothing. Either the rule of the one is best, or the rule of the all. Either we must trace our steps backwards to autocracy, or onwards to the People. If responsibility educates; if Government by, be always and everywhere Government for; if right divine, which sometimes by necessity hedges Kings, goes over, when the necessity is gone, to the side of the Peoples, then, as surely as history, progress, God, exist, and as the All are of more value than the Many or the Few, so surely, soon or late, in all countries and with all Peoples, will altered conditions of national Life transfer the rule accordingly.