ntrue, but it is unreal and
uninteresting." So far in chorus. "It is not up to date," finished the
Imperialist, and the Socialist bureaucrat. "It is not bread and butter,"
finished the Social democrat. Opposed in everything else, these two
parties agreed in one thing. They were to divide the future between
them. Unfortunately, however, for their agreement, the division was soon
seen to be no equal one. Whatever might be the ultimate recuperative
power of Social Democracy, for the time being, in the paralysis of
Liberalism, the Imperial reaction had things all to itself. The
governing classes of England were to assert themselves. They were to
consolidate the Empire, incidentally passing the steam roller over two
obstructive republics. They were to "teach the law" to the "sullen
new-caught peoples" abroad. They were to re-establish the Church at home
by the endowment of doctrinal education. At the same time they were to
establish the liquor interest--which is, after all, the really potent
instrument of government from above. They were to bind the colonies to
us by ties of fiscal preference, and to establish the great commercial
interests on the basis of protection. Their government, as conceived by
the best exponents of the new doctrine, was by no means to be
indifferent to the humanitarian claims of the social conscience. They
were to deal out factory acts, and establish wages boards. They were to
make an efficient and a disciplined people. In the idea of discipline
the military element rapidly assumed a greater prominence. But on this
side the evolution of opinion passed through two well-marked phases. The
first was the period of optimism and expansion. The Englishman was the
born ruler of the world. He might hold out a hand of friendship to the
German and the American, whom he recognized as his kindred and who lived
within the law. The rest of the world was peopled by dying nations whose
manifest destiny was to be "administered" by the coming races, and
exploited by their commercial syndicates. This mood of optimism did not
survive the South African War. It received its death-blow at Colenso
and Magersfontein, and within a few years fear had definitely taken the
place of ambition as the mainspring of the movement to national and
imperial consolidation. The Tariff Reform movement was largely inspired
by a sense of insecurity in our commercial position. The
half-patronizing friendship for Germany rapidly gave way, first to