That these opponents
should have blundered and quarrelled, being men active and in
earnest, was to have been expected. Such blunderings and
quarrellings have been a matter of course since politics have been
politics, and since religion has been religion. When men combine
to do nothing, how should there be disagreement? When men combine
to do much, how should there not be disagreement? Thirty men can
sit still, each as like the other as peas. But put your thirty men
up to run a race, and they will soon assume different forms. And
in doing nothing, you can hardly do amiss. Let the does of nothing
have something of action forced upon them, and they, too, will
blunder and quarrel.
The wonder is that there should ever be in a reforming party
enough of consentaneous action to carry any reform. The reforming
or Liberal party in British politics had thus stumbled,--and
stumbled till it fell. And now there had been a great Conservative
reaction! Many of the most Liberal constituencies in the country
had been untrue to their old political convictions.
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