Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-10-24
RADIcALIsM WITHOUT 'sPOTsONOUs
NONSENSE

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A sensible Radical is a rare thing, but
such an one is FELIX HoLT, the hero of
GEORGE ELIoTs last novel. FELIX was a
man Of large brain and heart who saw and
lamented the inequalities in society that ex-
ist in the British Government, and the OPP
pressions TO which the working classes are
subjected. He was moved to indignation by
the vices and corruptions that prevailed
about him. He was disguised equally with
the cant and hypocrisy Of the aristocracy
and titled clergy, and the spewings Of sense
less revolutionary demagogues. He was an
advocate Of reform, but he desired il to be
based on right principles, and pursued after
judieious methods, temperately, gradually,
and prudentIy. He did not believe in up
heaving the foundations of the structure of
society in order to adjust one Of its columns,
or to give shapeliness to proposed addition
to the fabric.
SEEKING the opportunity of speaking just
prior to an election in one Of the shires Of
England, he addressed the following pithy
remarks to an audience Of working people,
who had just been harangued by fellow
possessed Of sans eul9ttism, who thought at
one stroke-the extension of the franchise to
men who had never enjoyed and could not
appreciate its uses-he could effect safe
and salutary political revolution, and square
all things by the rule of right. Some Of the
Radicals Of this country who think that
universal suffrage is a panacea for all the
political ills Of this time and country, can
learn wisdom from these vigorous sentences:
ain my opinion" said FELIX HoLT, al
most the moment after he was addressed,
"that was true word spoken by your friend
when he said the great question was how to
give every man mans share in life. But
/ think he expects voting to do more toward
it than 1 do. / want the working men to
have power. Pm a working-man myself,
and / don't want to be anything else. But
there are two sorts of power There's a
power to do mischief-to undo what has
been done with great expense and labor, to
waste and destroy, to be cruel TO the weak,
to lie and quarrel and talk poisonous non
sense. That's the sort Of power that igno-
rant numbers have. Il never made Joint
stool orphaned potato. Do you think it's
likely 10 do much toward governing coun-
try, and making wise laws, and giving shell
ter, food, and clothes to millions of men I?
Ignorant power comes in the end to the
same thing as wicked power; il makes mise
Fy. It's another sort Of power that / want us
working men 70 have, and can see plainly
enough shat our all having votes will do
little toward it at present. hope we, or
the children that come after us, will get
plenty Of political power some time tell
every body plainly, 1 hope there will be great
changes, and that some time whether we
live to see or not, men will have come to be
ashamed Of things they're proud of now.
But | should like to convince you that votes
would never give you political power worth
having while things are as they are now, and
that fyou 60 the right way to work you may
get power sooner without votes. Perhaps
all you who hear me are sober men, who try
to learn as much of the nature Of things as
you can, and b be as little like fools as pos
sible. A fool or an idiot is one who expects
things to happen that never can happen; he
pOurs milk into a can without a bottom, and
expects the milk to stay there. The more
of such vain expectations a man has, the
more he is Of a fool or idiot And if any
working man expects a vote to do for him
what it never can do. he's foolish to that
amount, if no more. / think that's clear
enough, eh?"