The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-02-16
Mr.. Froude on Democracy
[Fortnightly Review.

People talked in Aristotle's time, and they
talk now, as if the voice of majority on
any given occasion was, or ought to be, deci.
sive, and could not be wrong. And yet il
has been often observed that all the great
beneficial movements among mankind have
been the work of determined minorities.
When the matter in question can wait, the
minority trusts to reason and argument to
bring the majority over to its side. But
sometimes it will not wait. The Catholics
were in a large majority in the Low Coun-
tries in the sixteenth century, and they
wanted to compel the Professionals to go to
mass. The Protestants would not 60 to
mass. They fought for forty years and won
their iiDerJy witn~-swvras in~sa.Uis- l.a..sls.
There is no divine right in majorities. No
voting. though all mankind were unani-
nous, will make right out of wrong; and
voting is only rough and-ready means OF
finding what it is most convenient to do at a
given moment. You hear it said that the
source of power is the will of the people.
that men must have themselves consented to
the laws by which they are to be governed,
with other such conventional forms of
speech. humbly submit that such express
sions are conventional and nothing else. 1t
has happened to me, as it has happened to
most of us, to have been in the minority on
some occasions in my life. Money, for in.
stance, has been voted for wars, the Crime
an war for instance, which l abhorred. l
paid because was obliged. did not con
sent. | objected to the uttermost of nv
power, and l submitted only to superior
force.
There is but one divine light, and that is
the thing which on any occasion ought to be
done. There is right way of doing a thing
and wrong way, from the cooking of a
mutton-chop to the guiding an empire; and
the opinion of majority, provided the peo-
pie are of fair intelligence and character and
courage, is an indication where the right
lies; but that is allan indication only, not
proof; and in extreme cases other methods
have to be adopted. In fact, whether we
like it or not, the voice which at any given
moment always decides is the voice of those
who are at that moment the strongest The
universe is so constructed that 1t must be
SO; whether the decision be right or wrong.
there is no appeal from 1t till the balance OF
strength is altered. In the Greek republics.
as in modern Europe and America, a major.
ity of the people was presumed to be the
strongest. The balance of force was as
snmed to lie with the greater number with
out trying the question by force. But 1t was
not so between the lions and the hares and
rabbits. 1t was not so between the Greeks
and AsiaticS. One Greek In the field equalled
ten Asiatics. He was not likely to give the
Asiatic an equal vote with him.
And when any great question rises even in
the most advanced community, any question
which touches the heart and conscience of
men, as it was with those poor Dutchmen
that spoke of, the same difference Is pro-
dueed by. superior constancy, by superior
courage, by readiness to die rather than sub
NIT to what is false or unjust. and IN such
cases minorities of brave men have carried
their point against the majority by force,
trusting to time to acquit them, and so be-
lieve they will continue to do as long as
there Is any worth in human nature. The
army which made Oliver Cromwell Protec-
tor represented but small fraction Of the
English nation counted by heads. If the vote
could be taken now, the English nation
would perhaps still be found equally upfa-
taking bis place in the estimate of the intel
ligent part of mankind as one of the very
greatest and best Englishmen that ever
lived.
Bat Notwithstanding objections, Aristotle
remained of opinion that government by a
majority of votes was on the whole the hap
piest and most secure. No adjustment of
human affairs will work perfectly and under
all circumstances. If nature had provided
any such arrangement, it would have been
discovered long ago, and we shonld all have
gone to sleep. No form of government will
save us from our own faults. If the COM
monwealth is to prosper, we have each eur
own parts to play. tits the continual strug-
gle, the continual necessity to watch our
own lives, which gives spirit and force to
human existence. And this Aristotle saw.
He did not condemn monarchies: he did not
condemn aristocracies. Under either of
these forms a brave, law-abidiug people
might be contented and become great. The
government of nation by itself had Its dan
gers also, and might degenerate into mob
rule and anarchy. Majorities might 20
wrong, being composed of fallible human
beings. But taking things for all in all, the
national spirit was likely to rise higher,
the laws were likely to be more imparti i,
and to be more impartially executed when
the people were their own legislators and
chose their ewn officers. Decidedly that
State ought to be in its happiest condition
when all citizens had equal rights, when
there was no privilege either Of birth or
wealth, and each man could rise to any con-
dition for which nature and industry had
qualified him.