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which we used to be told was the voice of God, is now but intermittently raised. We hear that at contested elections not more than sixty per cent of the People's will is expressed. There are evident signs that the voters who once could do no wrong are bored with the routine of politics; and assuredly it looks as though the force which has (or had) the sacredness of an oracle were fast being exhausted.

Meanwhile the Democracy, whose praise has been on the lips of thousands, is either explained away or has been already replaced by another system. In England a silent revolution has been made by cunning Ministers, who while they applaud the Democracy, take care that the Democracy shall not hamper them.

If we turn our eyes to reality, we may look upon Lord Bryce's book as an archæological treatise. The shape of the Democracy is there clearly defined, but if it ever possessed a soul at all, its soul was long since severed from its bodily shape. The same words of flattery, moreover, are spoken still in the same voice, but they are without meaning, as speakers and hearers alike know; and though they will be repeated as loudly as possible when the next General Election is arranged, they will be used perfunctorily after the votes are counted, and the twin-machine of the Coalition has done its work. Democracy, in truth, is dead or dying, nor should we deplore its demise, if the auto

without it, had a better right to the confidence of wise men.

On the one hand, Mr Lloyd George and his friends, proud in the working of the machines, of which they are the masters; on the other hand, the "representatives " of Labour, who believe in what they call "direct action," have made themselves independent of the democratic principle. Each of these parties, for reasons of selfinterest, declines to accept or to interpret the will of the people. The Coalition, which has made the Tory party wholly innocuous by the simple method of offering places to a few selected Tories, and has kept the Liberals in good humour by telling them that it stands between them and reaction, can afford to neglect that "great multitude through whom speaks the voice of the Almighty Power that makes for righteousness." And the People itself, now fully enfranchised, laughed at the vote as soon as ever the supreme privilege was bestowed upon it. It refuses to attempt to gain its ends by the democratic method of Parliamentary action. That is far too slow to satisfy its ardent temperament. So it threatens to hold up all the activities of the country, if it be not given instantly what it asks, and cheerfully substitutes a system of political blackmail for the tardy method of the ballot-box.

Such is the end of all overpraised institutions. They become ridiculous and effete. "Democratic,"

says Lord

Bryce, is a term of praise.

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a contradiction in terms-the word can evoke anything else than a smile. And Democracy, as an institution, is dying in Great Britain at the very moment when we are busied in setting up new democracies in countries which neither desire nor understand them. If you want a lesson in democratic method, remember the fate of Mr Fisher's Education Bill. It was brought in without any mandate from the electorate, and was passed to a general chorus of praise. Mr Fisher was said by an excited archbishop to have but one fault-that all men spoke well of him. And his Act of Parliament is already a dead letter. Democracy, in brief, has been tried in the furnace of experience, and is found wanting. What shape the reaction against it will take it is hard to divine. In England our institutions have not been made they have grown; and it is possible that we may keep the outward form of Democracy and turn it back to what it was before 1906-a concealed oligarchy. We are tired of the cant of the people. We have had enough of the autocracy of one man, who, having duped the electors and taken hold of both the machines, hopes that he will remain tyrant for life of Great Britain. And we look forward to the day when the Government of the country will be placed in the hands of

will set the public safety above their own advantage, and will not plead the sanctity of the People's will as an excuse for recklessness and misrule.

Meanwhile the Irish Democracy goes gaily down the road of outrage and assassination. Yet not even Mr Asquith, we imagine, or that famous Irishman who not long ago described murder as a mystic expression of nationality," will take much pleasure in the treaty "for the advancement of humanity" which has been made between Sinn Fein and the Russian Soviet Republic. The document is of the highest interest, and deserves to be known as widely as possible. The two "Governments," naturally in sympathy the one with the other, pledge themselves to promote each the recognition of the sovereignty of the other by the nations of the world. They will exert pressure on any nation, organisation, or group of people with whom it has influence to prevent the shipment of arms, munitions, and military supplies intended for use against one another's republic. And that eminently religious body, the Government of the Russian Soviet Republic, is pleased to "accord to all religious denominations represented in the Republic of Ireland every right accorded to religious sects by the Russian Constitution, and entrusts to the accredited representative of the Republic of Ireland in Russia the interests of the Roman Catholic Church within the territory

Soviet Republic." "This," as Dr M'Corton, the Irish representative in Russia, says, with a grim humour, "gives us a good grip on the Vatican, and makes them less impressionable by British agents. If the British threaten to squeeze, in future we can threaten too. It is not necessary to dwell on this. I don't see how it can react against us in the North or elsewhere; but that is the sole danger. The advantages more than counteract the vistas." He is a pleasant gentleman, Dr M'Corton, and he intends to ask the Russian Soviet for at least 50,000 rifles to be sent to Ireland. we should like to know what the Holy Father thinks of his designs upon the Roman Catholic Church in Russia.

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Then there follow certain commercial clauses, which the ingenuous Dr M'Corton says will make it possible to organise "a corporation for importing stuff." "It should be directly or indirectly governmental, thinks he," as we can, under it, control prices and make it a source of revenue. For instance, we could control the flax of the world, or at least get our teeth well into it." Dr M'Corton is plainly hopeful if he thinks that he will control the flax of the world; hopeful is he also when he discusses the question of hostages. "That is," he writes, "if England murders any of our soldiers in or out of prison, they will agree to execute a Britisher

as a reprisal. They have them. We suggest this, but I'm not sure." Nor are we sure. We can only congratulate Dr M'Corton on his amiable wish and his intelligent interpretation of "murder."

But the two Republics are at their best when they explain their amiable intentions. "The avowed purpose "-thus runs the precious document- of the contracting parties being to end imperialistic exploitation, to ensure the freedom of the world's highways, to bring about universal disarmament, to make obligatory the arbitration of all international disputes, and to secure peace to the peoples of the world, they agree to enter into a league with similarly-minded nations, each nation to be represented by delegates freely elected by their nationals." It is a happy picture this of Soviet Russia and the Irish "Republic" securing the peace of the world. But we cannot put much faith in their proposed league. Where, indeed, will they disnations similarly minded" to themselves? And the only possible conclusion is that very little harm will be done by Dr M'Corton and his friends. An alliance between two such contracting parties can only be ineffectual; and did not the tragedy of wholesale assassination hang over them both, there would be an element of comedy in this monstrous treaty for "the advancement of humanity."

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Soviet Republic." "This," as Dr M'Corton, the Irish representative in Russia, says, with a grim humour, " gives us a good grip on the Vatican, and makes them less impressionable by British agents. If the British threaten to squeeze, in future we can threaten too. It is not necessary to dwell on this. I don't see how it can react against us in the North or elsewhere; but that is the sole danger. The advantages more than counteract the vistas." He is a pleasant gentleman, Dr M'Corton, and he intends to ask the Russian Soviet for at least 50,000 rifles to be sent to Ireland. But we should like to know what the Holy Father thinks of his designs upon the Roman Catholic Church in Russia.

Then there follow certain commercial clauses, which the ingenuous Dr M'Corton says will make it possible to organise "a corporation for importing stuff." 'It should be directly or indirectly governmental," thinks he, "as we can, under it, control prices and make it a source of revenue. For instance, we could control the flax of the world, or at least get our teeth well into it." Dr M'Corton is plainly hopeful if he thinks that he will control the flax of the world; hopeful is he also when he discusses the question of hostages. "That is," he writes, "if England murders any of our soldiers in or out of prison, they will agree to execute a Britisher

as a reprisal. They have them. We suggest this, but I'm not sure." Nor are we sure. We can only congratulate Dr M'Corton on his amiable wish and his intelligent interpretation of "murder."

But the two Republics are at their best when they explain their amiable intentions. "The avowed purpose "-thus runs the precious document-“ of the contracting parties being to end imperialistic exploitation, to ensure the freedom of the world's highways, to bring about universal disarmament, to make obligatory the arbitration of all international disputes, and to secure peace to the peoples of the world, they agree to enter into a league with similarly-minded nations, each nation to be represented by delegates freely elected by their nationals." It is a happy picture this of Soviet Russia and the Irish "Republic" securing the peace of the world. But we cannot put much faith in their proposed league. Where, indeed, will they discover "nations similarly minded" to themselves? And the only possible conclusion is that very little harm will be done by Dr M'Corton and his friends. An alliance between two such contracting parties can only be ineffectual; and did not the tragedy of wholesale assassination hang over them both, there would be an element of comedy in this monstrous treaty for "the advancement of humanity."

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