three) is a wise and just basis for a national system of representation, but I do not believe it is to be obtained by resolutions in its favour passed by a few people who are, rightly or wrongly, without any perceptible influence upon practical politics. Democratic societies have been passing resolutions in this country in favour of adult suffrage or the whole of this century, and without producing the slightest effect. If you will study political history for the last sixty years, that is since the peace, you will find that the demand for manhood suffrage has diminished rather than increased. Once you had members of the House of Commons who brought forward resolutions in its favour—where are your members now? Pray do not think that I rejoice over this failure. I am only anxious that you should derive a profitable lesson from it. It is not sufficient to believe in a cause to make the cause succeed. Enthusiasm is a most valuable quality, but unless it be united with wisdom, it is a wasted force. It is not enough to feel strongly that a thing is right in order to obtain it. Good causes perish by the score. It is not improbable that the best ones have hitherto failed. There is no sadder thought, amid the many sad thoughts of this world, than that of the utter waste of valuable . human energy upon some of the highest causes. And yet to succeed we must believe in the righteousness of a cause. "Be just and fear not" is a splendid motto, but we should consider how far we can impart to others our sense of what justice is. And this is what many reformers fail to do.
Their egregious and (as far as progress is concerned) their fatal error consists in imagining that the majority of people care for politics as they do. For every man in this hall interested in politics, there are 200 outside who do not know what politics mean. You think they ought to care for manhood suffrage and for national questions; unfortunately their whole interest is absorbed in personal pursuits and private affairs. Publlc spirit has been steadily on the decline for many years. The time is by no means one when radical politicians can afford to quarrel.
My opinion is that a fatal mistake will be made if we raise the cry of manhood suffrage, instead of that of Electoral Reform. The nearest approach to manhood suffrage lies through Electoral Reform[1]. The apathy and political indifference of
- ↑ We place representation above—and as a means to—all desirable enfranchisement. Herein lies the difference between ourselves and friends. They commit the error of supposing that enfranchisement means representation.
