hise now. We have been sarcastically
called in the House of Commons the future masters of the country; and if
that sarcasm contains any truth, it seems to me that the first thing we
had better think of is, our heavy responsibility; that is to say, the
terrible risk we run of working mischief and missing good, as others have
done before us. Suppose certain men, discontented with the irrigation of
a country which depended for all its prosperity on the right direction
being given to the waters of a great river, had got the management of the
irrigation before they were quite sure how exactly it could be altered
for the better, or whether they could command the necessary agency for
such on alteration. Those men would have a difficult and dangerous
business on their hands; and the more sense, feeling, and knowledge they
had, the more they would be likely to tremble rather than to triumph.
Our situation is not altogether unlike theirs. For general prosperity
and well-being is a vast crop, that like the corn in Egypt can be come
at, not at all by hurried snatching, but only by a well-judged patient
process; and whether our political power will be any good to us now we
have got it, must depend entirely on the means and materials--the
knowledge, ability, and honesty we have at command. These three things
are the only conditions on which we can get any lasting benefit, as every
clever workman among us knows: he knows that for an article to be worth
much there must be a good invention or plan to go upon, there must be a
well-prepared material, and there must be skilful and honest work in
carrying out the plan. And by this test we may try those who want to be
our leaders. Have they anything to offer us besides indignant talk?
When they tell us we ought to have this, that, or the other thing, can
they explain to us any reasonable, fair, safe way of getting it? Can
they argue in favor of a particular change by showing us pretty closely
how the change is likely to work? I don't want to decry a just
indignation; on the contrary, I should like it to be more thorough and
general. A wise man, more than two thousand years ago, when he was asked
what would most tend to lessen injustice in the world, said, "If every
bystander felt as indignant at a wrong as if he himself were the
sufferer." Let us cherish such indignation. But the long-growing evils
of a great nation are a tangled business, asking for a good deal more
than indignati