a
voice, is as desirous as himself of the establishment of a Republic, and
only needs to be shown the way. As this was by no means the case, the
whole pamphlet rests upon sand: though in days when public opinion was
guided not from the press but from the rostrum, many might have been won
by the eloquence of Milton's invectives against the inhuman pride and
hollow ceremonial of kingship, and his encomiums of the simple order
when the ruler's main distinction from the ruled is the severity of his
toil. "Whereas they who are the greatest are perpetual servants and
drudges to the public at their own cost and charges, neglect their own
affairs, yet are not elevated above their brethren; live soberly in
their families, walk the street as other men, may be spoken to freely,
familiarly, friendly without adoration." Whatever generous glow for
equality such words might kindle, was only too likely to be quenched
when the reader came to learn on what conditions Milton thought it
attainable. His panacea was a permanent Parliament or Council of State,
self-elected for life, or renewable at most only in definite
proportions, at stated times. The whole history of England for the last
twelve years was a commentary on the impotence of a Parliament that had
outlived its mandate, and every line of the lesson had been lost upon
Milton. He does indeed, near the end, betray a suspicion that the people
may object to hand over the whole business of legislation to a
self-elected and irresponsible body, and is led to make a remarkable
suggestion, prefiguring the federal constitution of the United States,
and in a measure the Home Rule and Communal agitations of our own day.
He would make every county independent in so far as regards the
execution of justice between man and man. The districts might make their
own laws in this department, subject only to a moderate amount of
control from the supreme council. This must have seemed to Milton's
contemporaries the official enthronement of anarchy, and, in fact, his
proposal, thrown off at a heat with the feverish impetuosity that
characterizes the whole pamphlet, is only valuable as an aid to
reflection. Yet, in proclaiming the superiority of healthy municipal
life to a centralized administration, he has anticipated the judgment of
the wisest publicists of our day, and shown a greater insight than was
possessed by the more scientific statesmen of the eighteenth century.

One quality of Milton's pamphl