y condone such acts, they adopt such
words. They reply by denying the adoption, and by pointing out that the
Tories themselves were from 1881 till 1886 in a practical, and often
very close, though unavowed, Parliamentary alliance with the
Nationalists in the House of Commons. The student of history will,
however, conceive that the Liberals have a stronger and higher defence
than any _tu quoque_. Issues that involve the welfare of peoples are far
too serious for us to apply to them the same sentiments of personal
taste and predilection which we follow in inviting a dinner party, or
selecting companions for a vacation tour. If a man has abused your
brother, or got drunk in the street, you do not ask him to go with you
to the Yellowstone Park. But his social offences do not prevent you from
siding with him in a political convention. So, in politics itself, one
must distinguish between characters and opinions. If a man has shown
himself unscrupulous or headstrong, you may properly refuse to vote him
into office, or to sit in the same Cabinet with him, because you think
these faults of his dangerous to the country. But if the cause he pleads
be a just one, you have no more right to be prejudiced against it by his
conduct than a judge has to be swayed by dislike to the counsel who
argues a case. There were moderate men in America, who, in the days of
the anti-slavery movement, cited against it the intemperate language of
many abolitionists. There were aristocrats in England, who, during the
struggle for the freedom and unity of Italy, sought to discredit the
patriotic party by accusing them of tyrannicide. But the sound sense of
both nations refused to be led away by such arguments, because it held
those two causes to be in their essence righteous. In all revolutionary
movements there are elements of excess and violence, which sober men may
regret, but which must not disturb our judgment as to the substantial
merits of an issue. The revolutionist of one generation is, like
Garibaldi or Mazzini, the hero of the next; and the verdict of posterity
applauds those who, even in his own day, were able to discern the
justice of the cause under the errors or faults of its champion. Doubly
is it the duty of a great and far-sighted statesman not to be repelled
by such errors, when he can, by espousing a revolutionary movement,
purify it of its revolutionary character, and turn it into a legitimate
constitutional struggle. This is what Mr.