People's voice., 1900-06-14

the mastery OF them; OF which posslbil'
ity no more need be said than this, that
unless there be such a revival in some
shape or other, the forces, whatever they
be, which control the forms in which
human things adjust themselves, will
make an end again, as they made an
end before, of what are called free in
stitutions.
THE RACE FOR WEALTH.
To make money-money by any
means, lawful or unlawful-became the
universal passion. Money! The cry
was still money!-money was the one
thought from the highest senator TO the
poorest wretch who sold his vote in the
comitia.
For money judges gave unjust DEGREES
and juries gave corrupt verdicts. Gov
errors held their provinces for one, two
three years; they went out bankrupt from
extravaganza, they returned with mil
lions for fresh riot.
The opportunities opened for men 10
advance their fortunes in other parts Of
the world drained Italy Of many of its
most enterprising citizens. The grand
sons of the yeomen who had held at bay
Pyrrhus and Hannibal sold their farms
and went away. The small holdings
merged rapidly into large estates bought
up by Roman capitalists.
At the final settlement Of Italy some
millions of acres had been reserved to
the state as public eroperty. The pub
lie land" as the reserved portion was
called, had been leased on easy terms to
families with political influence, and BY
lapse Of time, by connivance and right of
occupation these families were beginning
to regard their tenures as their private
property and to treat them as lords Of
manors in England have treated the
commons" Thus everywhere the
small farmers were disappearing and the
soil of Italy was fast passing into the
hands Of few territorial magnates.
PLUToCRACY AND PRoLETARIAT.
The multitude was kept quiet by the
morsels of meat which were flung to it
when it threatened to be troublesome.
The seven thousand in Israel, the few
who in all states and in all times re-
mained pure in the midst of evil looked
on with disgust, fearing that any remedy
they might try might be worse than the
disease.
All orders in a society may be wise
and virtuous, but ell cannot be rich.
Wealth which is used only for idle lux
ury is always envied, and envy soon
curdles into hate.
1t is easy to persuade the masses that
the good things of this world are unjustly
divided, especially when it happens to be
the exact truth. 1t is not easy to set
limits to all agitation once set on foot,
however justly 1t may have been pro-
voked, when the cry for change is at
once stimulated by interest and can dis
guise its real character under the pas
sionate language of patriotism.
But it was not to be expected that
men Of noble natures, young men es-
pecially whose enthusiasm had not been
cooled by experience, would sit calmly
by while their country was going thus
headlong to perditlon. Redemption, if
redemption was to be hoped for, could
come only from free citizens in the
country districts, whose manners and
whose minds were still uncontaminated,
in whom the ancient habits of life still
survived, who still believed in the gods,
WHO were contented to follow the whole
some round of honest labor. The num-
bers of such citizens were fast dwindling
away before the omniverous appetite of
the rich for territorial aggrandizement.
GOVERNMENT AN INSTRUMENT OF LOOT.
Governors with their staff, permanent
officials, contractors for the revenue,
negotiators, bill brokers, bankers, mer-
charts, were scattered everywhere in
thousands. Money poured in upon them
in rolling streams of gold.
The largest share of the spoils fell to
senate and the senatorial families. The
senate was the permanent council of
state, and was the real administrator of
the empire. The senate had the control
of the treasury, conducted the public
policy, appointed from its own ranks the
governors of the provinces. 1t was
patrician in sentiment, but not neces-
sarily patrician in composition. The
members Of it had virtually been elected
for life by the people, and were almost
entirely those who had been quaestors,
aediles, praetors or councils; and these
Offices had been long open to the pie
bians. 1t was an aristocracy, in theory
real one, but tending to become, as
civilization went forward, an aristocracy
OF the rich.