TRIBUNES OF THE PEOPLE.
" DEMAGOGUES," we should have written, if the word had not come to bear a sinister meaning which we have no wish to convey. At Rome, where political life was better understood
than in any other community of the ancient world, it was of the essence of the Tribune of the Plebs that he should be himself a
plebeian ; and the law survived down to later days, when the two almost hostile nations had been fused into one, and long after the consulship had ceased to be confined to men of patrician birth. The " tribunes" of whom we speak are men who, themselves belonging to the aristocratic class, descend, so to speak, from their place to become leaders of the people. To borrow an illustration from the best known and culminating period of Greek hisbory, though, indeed, there was something of an oligarchical character about the Athenian Demos, which diminished the force of the comparison, Pericles, a son of the great house of the .Alcmteonidse, was a demagogue ; Cleon, the tanner, was a tribune.
Many circumstances in our social and political life have contri- buted to make the character of a noble " Tribune of the People " sufficiently common. It is one that is exceedingly difficult to support without some conscious or unconscious loss to integrity of character, or at least to soundness of judgment. First, there is the temptation to insincerity. Something of falsehood seems, as we have said, to be implied in the very name of demagogue, and though the word belongs to that literary language which may be said to have been constructed mainly in the in- terests of the privileged classes, this fact must be allowed to have its weight. It may be easily conceived that motives of personal ambition may have more than their proper force with the young noble who leaves an insignificant place in the crowded ranks of aristocratic politicians to assume a position of almost solitary prominence in the opposing array. The conscious pride of sacrifices which, after all, are more apparent than real, for it is only in times of the greatest political excitement that such a man really loses caste with his own order ; the reverence, for it would be unjustto call it flattery, which he meets with from the class to which he descends ; the disposition to bid for a wider popularity by ill- considered pledges and extravagant proposals,—all these thinfis are dangerous enemies to sincerity of purpose. Nor is it easy even for the most sincere to preserve, in such a position, a clear insight and a well-balanced judgment. There is no more familiar phe- nomenon than the violence of the reaction which takes place when men give up hereditary convictions either in theology or in politics. The more intimate knowledge which they necessarily possess of the worse aspect of the party which they abandon is, of itself, most adverse to moderation ; and it is seldom balanced by an equally intimate acquaintance with the weaknesses of their new allies. Born, so to speak, in one house, and honoured guests in the other, they require to judge fairly between the two a sagacity and an equity of temper almost more than human. At the same time, we may frequently notice in men whose own posi- tion is assured a tendency to advocate sweeping change, and may sometimes even observe this tendency i ncreased should there be in this position something peculiarly anomalous. We may see the leader of a scientific fellowship• advocating the redistribution or even the abo- lition of educational endowments ; we may see a dean—and deans probably seem the most useless of persons to theenemies of the Estab- lishment—advocating the disestablishment of the Church. The approving consciousness of candour and disinterestedness, the sense of superiority to the ordinary prejudice which makes men content with the order in which they find themselves, are powerful motives ; but though they may coexist with, and even in a sense imply sincerity of conviction, they have obviously a misleading and exaggerating tendency. Nor does what we observe of the career of " tribunes of the people " dispose us to question the truth of the observation.
At the same time, we may notice as a hopeful sign of the times the wide difference of character which distinguishes the " tribune " of this generation from the " tribune" of the last. We may take Thomas Slingsby Duucombe as a type of the class which has now passed away. We should be sorry to say a word of unkindness about a man who would be universally allowed to have merited that title of "honest" by which his friends loved to distinguish him, and who incurred much obloquy simply by anticipating
political changes which all parties have now agreed to accept. Early in life he abandoned the politics of his family,— one of those families, it may be observed, of recent nobility which are often more narrowly prejudiced in their Toryism than the genuine noblesse. But he never abandoned what it is not an undue harshness to call the characteristic follies of aristocratic life. He belonged to a time when it was, even beyond what is usual, the fashion for well-born youths to be extravagant and profligate ; and though he was in some respects better than his generation, he was not different from it. A dandy, a man of fashion, who was judged to hold his own in the circles of the Regency, a mem- ber of Crockford's, a patron of the turf, a frequenter of the green- room, and at the same time an advocate of democratic opinions, he could not help being a contradiction to himself, nor could he avoid the evil of which such contradictions are fruitful. To be a champion of the people, and at the same time to share a life the frivolity and extravagance of which were a standing wrong and insult to the people, was a position thoroughly false, and, whatever the personal honesty of the man, could not fail to give something of insincerity to his political actions and utterances.
Very different are the characteristics of the younger race of politicians which has succeeded to the Duncombes of the past generation. Their order, as a whole, has scarcely advanced in moral tone. As the days of privilege are passing away, and a keener competition is constantly making more difficult of attain- ment the luxuries which are necessaries to them, they seem to be -developing a greed of gain which is more revolting than the reck- less profligacy of the past. But the young scion of a noble house
• who aspires to be a " tribune " is now one of the best speci- mens of his caste. He has nothing of the Alcibiades or the -Catiline about him. Instead of being an indifferent free-thinker or an almost equally indifferent religionist, he is probably a zealous friend of the Church, possibly a zealous disciple of Positivism. He abhors the vices and frivolities of fashionable life. The turf, which affords the young nobles of to-day'far more ample opportu- nities of ruining themselves than Crockford's and the kindred estab- lishments afforded their fathers, has no attractions for him. He leads
really pure, earnest, self-denying life, full of industry, effort, and aspiration ; he may be seen on the platforms of philanthropic meetings ; he goes cheerfully through the unostentatious and un- thankful drudgery of committees ; his face is well known in dis- mal East-End parishes ; in fact, his purely unselfish, disinterested labours far exceed in amount the work which many men do for their bread. At the same time, he is inferior, it must be allowed, an more than one respect to those whom he has succeeded. He lives among men of one idea ; he knows less of the world ; he is more crotchety, of less practical judgment, less tolerant of diffi- eulties, less skilful in the art of adapting means to ends. And, though this is no fault of his, he is far less of a power in the State. He knows far more of the people than did his predecessor ; he feels a more genuine sympathy with them ; he can express more truly their feelings and wants; and yet he does not represent them in the same sense. The " tribune " of a former genera- tion had the immense advantage of being the spokesman of classes who had no other way of speaking but through him. He represented, or at least claimed to represent, hundreds of thousands of non-electors. Non-electors, if they have not ceased to be, have at least ceased to be a power in the -country. When the tribes are supreme, the function of the tribune which made him their champion against the aggression of superior powers has passed away. Or rather, it has changed into an office which seems peculiarly fitted to the character of the new men. Every class will be able, we hope and believe, before long, to find its leaders in itself, will not have to seek them elsewhere, even in the best and most disinterested of men. But there never can be any lack of work for an aristocracy to do ; work which will not fail of its meed both of honour and gratitude. To com- municate to the multitude of those who live by daily toil the culture for which wealth and leisure give them such abundant opportunities, will be to become, in a very high sense of the word, " leaders of the people."
Previous page
