d curiously we seem to
take it always as the particular freak of a particular time or locality;
but it is nothing of the kind. It is the natural and logical result of
putting by principle and trying to live away from it. Yet, that is what
we are doing every day. It means we lack collectively the courage to
pursue a thing to its logical conclusion and fight for the truth
realised. If we are to be otherwise as a body, it will only be by
personal discipline training for the wider and greater field. We must
get a proper conception of the great cause we stand for, its magnitude
and majesty, and that to be worthy of its service we must have a
standard above reproach, have an end of petty proposals and underhand
doings, be of brave front, resolute heart, and honourable intent. We
must all understand this each in his own mind and shape his actions,
each to be found faithful in the test. In fine, if in private life there
is need for developing the great virtues requisite for public service,
even more is it necessary in public life to develop the courage,
patience and wisdom of the soldier and the statesman.

V

A concrete case will give a clearer grasp of the issue than any abstract
reasoning. Our history, recent and remote, affords many examples of the
abandoning by our public men of a principle, to defend which they
entered public life; and our action on such an occasion is invariably
the same--to regard the delinquent as simply a traitor, to load him with
invective and scorn and brand him for ever. We never see it is not
innate wickedness in the man, but a weakness against which he has been
untrained and undisciplined, and which leaves him helpless in the first
crisis. Ireland has recently been incensed by the action of some of her
mayors and lord mayors in connection with the English Coronation
festival; the feeling has been acute in the metropolis. Certain things
are obvious, but how many see what is below the surface? Let me suggest
a case and a series of circumstances; the more pointed the case, the
more interesting. I will suppose a particular mayor is an old Fenian:
let us see how for him a web is finely woven, and in the end how
securely he is netted. First a mayor is a magistrate, and must take the
judicial oath, but the old Fenian has taken an oath of allegiance to
Ireland--clash number one. It is not simply a question of yes or no;
there are attendant circumstances. Around a public man in place
circulates a sw