27 OCTOBER 1849, Page 12

THE LACHES OF REVOLUTIONISTS.

Trtorstaft a spirit Of evil Possesses the world, it is undoubtedly feebler than it was before our day ; but all antagonist powers are also feebler. See the state of the political world at home and abroad ; every influence that ought to be active and strong para- lyzed by unaccountable atrophy. Not a political sect in our own country retains the slightest vigour. The word "Reformer" im- plies, no party in particular ; and such persons as are types of the old party live upon memory. The Chartists are disorganized; and a mutual desertion has conveyed one of their leaders to the "Financial Reformers,"—who are not financing at all, but are dab- bling in constituency-making, and are in such case as to welcome Mr. Feargus O'Connor. The Tories are a tradition ; the Protec- tionists are an agricultural dinner; the Peelites are a supposition —a party taken for granted by way of argument; Ministers bold office—no more—unloved, unfeared. As no set of men pos- sesses any power, so also is there no policy : all ends in ne- gation; and to think of realizing -an opinion in deeds, is a joke. Anything truly great, anything largely beneficial, any- thing worthy of national honour—a generous international policy, a comprehensive system of colonization, a satisfactory con- cession of power to the classes that claim it—any substantial and vigorous act of statesmanship, is to be spoken of only as a fancy verging on the ludicrous. If we look abroad beyond national parties to the great political sects which contest, the field of Europe, we note the same impo- tency. The Republicans a France-are an intelligent and active set ; that party comprises a greater number of clever and energetic individuals than any other s yet it cannot make way, or even hold its ground, but, piercing through the revolution, the power of routine is superior to any other and bears it down. In France there is no party able to effectuate its own opinions, but each is duckling to other parties, and trying to filch a modicum of its own measures out of a common hunt for prey. "Young Italy," which has shown much energy and more administrative ability than it was supposed to possess, cedes before the old power of Absoruiisui in its basest form. In France and Germany, the Corn- munists_possess numbers,, but their_practical impotency is due to more than mere division of councils : although Communism is the settled conviction of hundreds of thousands, perhaps of mil- lions, it is still a dream and an opprobrium of wildness, and its leaders are laughingetooks to the holders of power. And, in spite of all this defective cohesion of popular powers, Absolutism itself is feebler than its wont : still the strongest, still the bloodthirsty tyrant, its decrees are issued with bated breath, and it is fain to simulate ans Liberalism that it strangles upon the gallows. Ab- solutisnLcanuot settlis itself again on its throne. Amid the con- flict of powers incompetent to their own conclusions, the old or- ganizations of Bureaucracy and Army are paramount ; but they can only compel ab extra—they have no longer a hold upon sub- ject rainds ; the Absolutist Kings do but possess their own do- minions 14 military occupation—they do not reign, still less goVera#ence their sole resort is terror and sanguinary cruelty. The,Apir-it of evil,. then, stalks the field. of Europe, unvan• quish4because.thereis no power to lay it : even old Absolutism cannot' resume its quasi-sacred functien as the irresistible vicar of Providence, ruling at least with a -certain conscience and order. Liberalism, though it has the sanction of the whole intellect of Europe,. irs still more impotent. Neither can have its will of the nations. Now, it would be idle to deplore these facts and mi- nutely* to dwell upon them, if the scrutiny did not disclose the secret of the failure and suggest the remedy. Let us take the case of Liberalism, as that in which we sympathize ; premising merely that the case of Absolutism is unaccountably like it. 'Let us sea "What the Iiihevids fharvIElidontii whether in Prince, Italy, or Germany—whether'Repsitiliisans •inere Reformers; or Communists. They have gradually-acquired the meant and op. portunities of expressing their opinions; -sa process which has de- manded incalculable courage,- patience i 'discretion, and tact, espe- cially in _Italy. They have extended their opinions; and have Ina vests-in the most Unlikely places. In Italy, partly aided by t JMnolisy of the ruling powers,. the -Liberals have been able to bring,tp,their ranks the larger portion.of the nobility ; and al- though the Liberal party is divided into.Reformers like Massimo d'A:zegliso and Republicans like Giuseppe Mazzini, the difference - runs upon essentials less in Italy than in any other country, and might have been entirely superseded had either of the two sections possessed the element of success which both neglected. In France, the Liberals have gained almost the whole cultivated classes of the country ; but they are immensely divided and divided. In Germany, the Liberals have proselytized so ably that they have gained converts even among the official and royal classes, as Stadion and the Archduke John of Austria may tea. tify : but they have not been able to guarantee their high con- Vesta against such frustration and mortification,. that the Arch- duke John is thrust aside as royal lumber even by his brother princes, and Stadion has gone mad with thwarted anxiety for his country. The Revolution of 1848 and the Reaction of 1849 disclose to us sthe mistake which the Liberals have made : they have turned their active energies too exclusively to the mere matter of opinion—to the development and propagation of opinion,_ and not to the creation of the tools for setting that-opinion to work. They have completed half the preparation needed for a revolution, the other half has still to be begun. Although opinion must be de- veloped and must possess the leading minds, the vast numbers of every nation are beyond the pale of intellectual working: they receive opinions formed for them ; they take them in the concrete ; and they are swayed far less by the inherent force of any doctrine than by the force of habit, immediate tangible objects of desire, personal likings and personal confidences. To complete a revolu- tion, or to maintain a government, the leaders of any nation must act by and through these large masses. That may be done nega- tively or positively, according to the condition of the people. In barbarous India, the civilized and highly organized British act by nullifying the spontaneous impulses of the disorganized Hin- doos--acting through their fears. So in peaceful Bulgaria, the Turk maintains his by fostering the tranquillity which the people love. Napoleon governed the French through their love of supre- macy. But the act of swaying large masses is as distinct from the development of opinion as it is distinct from a mere mechani- cal organization. It demands personal intercourse between the representatives of an opinion, of an interest, or of a party, and the people to be influenced ; it demands the existence of personal sympathies between those representatives and the people to be swayed. It demands a study not only of the opinions that are to be carried out, but also of the people upon whom and by whom those opinions are to be enforced—a study of their capacities and deficiencies, of their bent and likings, and degree of development. It is that branch of political study which the Liberals of Europe have neglected : they have thought too exclusively of the propa- gation of opinion and the organization of the opining classes; they have not developed the art of moving, swaying, directing, and retaining the non-opining classes. Hence they have a mind without the body, a will without the corporal limbs. For nothing nationally great and stable can be performed without a vast power ; and in these affairs of active politics, where the very question is one of vanquishing or superseding the throned and office-holding interests, which wield the enormous powers of treasury and army, nothing real and effective can be done with- out proportionate moral influence and physical might; You may deplore that necessity, but the fact is so-: forgetfulness and neg- lect of it are the great lathes of the Liberals throughout Europe, and hard-earned knowledge of the truth should be the lesson taught to the defeated of 1849.