leness." There is no need for such
gentleness. At an officer's bare word, a man in uniform must shoot. And
all for a shilling a day, with food and lodging! To the inexperienced
intelligence of men and women, the thing seems incredible, and the
country owes a debt of gratitude to the Home Office for showing the
whole working population that it is true. Certainly, the soldiers
themselves strongly object to being put to this use. Their Red Book of
instructions insists that the primary duty of keeping order rests with
the civil power. It lays it down that soldiers should never be required
to act except in cases where the riot cannot reasonably be expected to
be quelled without resorting to the risk of inflicting death. But the
Home Office, in requiring soldiers to act throughout the whole country
at points where no riot at all was reasonably expected, gave us all
during that railway strike an object-lesson in the meaning of uniform
more impressive than the pictures on a Board School wall. Mr. Brailsford
has well said, "the discovery of tyrants is that, for a soldier's
motive, a uniform will serve as well as an idea."

Not a century has passed since the days when, as the noblest mind of
those times wrote, a million of hungry operative men rose all up, came
all out into the streets, and--stood there. "Who shall compute," he
asked:

"Who shall compute the waste and loss, the destruction of
every sort, that was produced in the Manchester region by
Peterloo alone! Some thirteen unarmed men and women cut
down--the number of the slain and maimed is very countable;
but the treasury of rage, burning, hidden or visible, in all hearts
ever since, more or less perverting the effort and aim of all
hearts ever since, is of unknown extent. 'How came ye among
us, in your cruel armed blindness, ye unspeakable County
Yeomanry, sabres flourishing, hoofs prancing, and slashed us
down at your brute pleasure; deaf, blind to all _our_ claims and
woes and wrongs; of quick sight and sense to your own claims
only! There lie poor, sallow, work-worn weavers, and complain
no more now; women themselves are slashed and sabred;
howling terror fills the air; and ye ride prosperous, very
victorious--ye unspeakable: give _us_ sabres too, and then come
on a little!' Such are Peterloos."

The parallel, if not exact, is close enough. During popular movements
in Germany and Russia, the party of freedom has sometimes hoped that