troyed by treasonable betrayal on the part of its own
professed supporters, there is nothing to take its place; the community
is bound either to drift into anarchy, or to revert to some sort of
tyranny. Let us consider these two points in turn. (1) The essence of
democracy is government according to the will of the majority. This
almost necessarily implies government in opposition to the will of one
or more minorities. But democratic minorities have a remedy--and it is
the peculiar virtue of democracy to provide it. It is this: by means of
argument, persuasion, and appeal; by press agitation and platform
campaign; through organization and combination, to convert themselves
into a majority. The whole of our English political system, the very
existence of our democratic constitution, depends upon the recognition
and acceptance of this rule of the game. If the will of the majority is
not to be regarded as authoritative, measures for reform of the
franchise, extension of the suffrage, and adjustment of the electoral
machine have no rational meaning at all. They are merely vanity and
vexation of spirit. What matter who makes the laws, or what laws are
made, if laws are not to be implicitly obeyed? Our extremists want to
have it both ways: they want to enforce law with majestic severity as
"the Will of the People," when they are in a majority; but they also
want to defy law with conscientious obstinacy as a violation of personal
freedom when they are in a minority. Some members of "The Union of
Democratic Control" are also members of the "No-Conscription
Fellowship"! Could inconsistency or muddle-headedness go further? Those
who wish to rule as part of a majority must be prepared to be overruled
as part of a minority. If minorities, instead of employing the
constitutional machinery placed at their disposal to secure the repeal
of obnoxious laws, are going to resist and rebel whenever the majority
does something of which they strongly disapprove, there is an end of
democratic government altogether, and a reversion to the state of
nature. T. H. Green in his _Principles of Political Obligation_ puts the
case clearly and well. He asks this very question, What shall an
individual do when he is faced by a command of a democratic government
which he believes to be wrong? He replies: "In a country like ours with
a popular government and settled methods of enacting and repealing laws,
the answer of common sense is simple and sufficient.