The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-11-23
Seh.ImentaI saaaesman.l.IP.

4
In one OF thepmany speech which
Mr.. Gladstone has recently msde
TO the parties Of friends who go TO
see him at his place in the country,
he alluded indirectly to the charge
sometimes urged against him of be-
ing q sentimentalist. He showed
that the spring of much of the lOf-
] siest and most heroic human action
IL what he described as sentiment.
Patriotism is but q sentiment. Love
is sentiment. The fling OF senti-
mentality is much like other gibes.
| 1t is form of expressing dislike.
| "The reason why / can not tell"
and sentimentally Is as good as any
| other. Those who are fond of US
| iug the word as descriptive point
| to LameFtine and Victor Hugo In
French politics. They are held to
| be illustrious of q class that regard
public affairs from the emotions,
| and not from reason. In the same
sense, also, Golden and Bright and
all the "peace" statesmen mast be
regarded az sentimentalists. That
is TO cay, they recoil from violence,
and have q general theory, based
upon their repugnRnce, that Vio-
lence is unnecessary. But the real
| trouble with men like Lamertine
aud Victor Hugo is that they lack
practical commOn-sense, not that
they are sentimentslists. For it
will hardly be asserted that all men
| who are strongly under the infiu
| ence of feeling m0st necessarily
want good sense and judgment.
The mischief lies in a misuse of
the word. Ii to feel the force of
| ennobling sentiments be sentiment
al, it IL certainly no discredit. If to
be q weak, foolish, Yaporing, and
impracticable marplot is to be SEN
| timental, that it IL, of course, re-
proach. Bat il Is not go. Public
affairs may not always be moved
by what is called sentiment, but
the Hottest polIIics may be senti-
mental. The political epoch in this
co1ntry that has just closed was es-
| pecially so. So also was the perl
cd of the Revolution. The main
spring of the anti-slavery move
ment aud of all the politics found
| ed upon IL WAS sentiment. IL was
the conviction that slavery was
wrong which aroused the public
mind and led to the formation of
new parties. 1t was indeed true,
and it was constantly ana conclu-
sively shown, that slavery was es-
sentially Improbable because of
[ it's necessary effects. But this was
not the chief consideration. 1t was
= mere corollary. That slavery was
wrong was the cry that msrshaled
men politically againstit. The pol
itics of the last generation was in
this sense sentimental politics. But
they were certainly as respectable
and honorable and manly as poll.
tics of tariffs, banks, aud taxation.
1t Is true that such sentimental
questions do not require careful
study and training for their treat
ment, and that all kinds of ill-bal-
lasted zeAlots may seem to make the
cause itself ridiculous. But GER
tainly it would have been very fool
ish to say that Mr.. Stewards decla-
rations of Q higher law were IN
worthy of g. statesman on the
ground that sentiment has properly
nothing to do with politics. From
Demosthenes to Chatham and later
men eloQaence has had something
to do with politics, and sentiment
is not foreign to eloquence. In
deed, as speech-making plays q
mu CHI larger part in the politics of
q popular government than in those
of any other. such q system, which
we assert in this country to be the
wisest of all, is the most sentiman-
tai of all.
There Is no necessary antago-
nism, as our own history shows,
between the most efficient and en-
ergetic practical organization for
any purpose and the highest senti-
menI OF I At purpose. The mis-
chief 6egius when the two are an
tagOniZcd as Incompatible. Princi-
pie is then derided as sentiment,
ana the very purpose for which the
organization exists is ridiculed by
the organization itself. The habit
OF sneering at sentiment degener-
ates into Impotence of principle.
1t is the worst form of demoraliza-
ton, because it confounds honor,
rectitude, and patriotism with i'm
practicable folly. The desiEe for
constant progress and for the rea-
sonable improvement of society is
the True conservative element. An
easy-going or q contemptous iodif-
ference, the "deviI take the hind
most" and "after me the deluge"
policy, Is not wise or great states
manship. The people who were
enchanted with Lord PAlmcrsion.
with the sprig of geranium in his
mouth, appealing to John Bull, and
who delight in the cool audacity of
Disrseli, naturally thought Golden
= visionary, and they think Glad
stone 3 prig. 81 was born so, moth
err" says Byron's Deformed. And
those who think that Palmerston
was q great or wise English states
man, or that Lord Beaconsfield is
practical man compared with the
sentimental Gladstone, would prob
ably be found to be those under
whose influence and auspices the
tone of English politics and public
life is not materially heightened.
The doubling brethren would
preserve minds and tenpers more
eQuable If they could but know
that the believer in the practicable
ty of principle and decency and
truth believes much more heartily
than the disbeliever disbelieyee
The attempt in England to put Mr..
Gladstone in the position of q man
who would compromise the power
of his country as q great civiiizing
influence, 10 merely an attempt to
snIite him with his own thonder.
bolts. II is essentially an appeal to
the very sentiment which is decried
in him. IL Is striking and uncon-
scious tribute upon the part or those
who usually sneer at principles and
ideas that In great crisis nothing
is 60 practical.-EdItor's Easy Chair,
in Harper's Magazine for December.
a ScOtchmAn's Prayer.
A Scotchman keelman's prayer in a