hat and
how much may not be made out of them. Unorganized groups of men are so
helpless, oratory has so much power, the small vices of the mind have so
strong a tendency to pass into politics, that a wide field will long be
open to propagandists of every kind. It sometimes seems as if the
obstacles to be overcome might be too great for the reformers, and that
the "children of light" must adjourn their efforts till the millennium
is a little nearer. It is the spread of education and the silent working
of intellectual influences springing from the higher knowledge of the
age that puts the better chances on their side. But Conservatism has its
chances too, only it must not frighten the people with antiquated
nonsense. It must fall in with current ideas. It must set up on the
whole similar aims to those of its opponents, merely asking a preference
for other methods. Above all, it must be modest and sober and give up
bounce and slap-dash. The people are becoming more serious. They reason
more on politics and with better lights; a sense of power teaches them
self-respect, and they resent clap-trap. Perhaps I ought to ask pardon
for saying so, but they can see through a merely clever man, like Lord
Salisbury. A Liberal would find Sir Stafford Northcote a more formidable
antagonist. He might be more eloquent, but eloquence is not everything.
A gentle persuasiveness, even with a spice of puzzledom in it, will go
further in the end. The Conservative mutineers know not what they are
doing when they try to demolish this type of Conservatism. Or perhaps
they do know, but are bent upon objects which, from a personal point of
view, are attended with compensations. But the future of Conservatism
does not rest with them unless they change their ideas and manners. The
staying power and the fitness of things are on the side of those whom,
with the ribald audacity of youth, they deride as slow-coaches.

The "Two Conservatives" are not prepared to accept this humble _role_.
They meditate something heroic. They say that "if the Conservative party
is to continue to exist as a power in the State it must become a popular
party;" "that the days are past when an exclusive class, however great
its ability, wealth, and energy, can command a majority in the
electorate." "The liberties and interests of the people at large," they
say, "are the only things which it is possible now to conserve: the
rights of property, the Established Church, the House of