90 ENGLISH SAGA

For he was seeking not a mere suspension to meet the emergency
of the moment, but permanent repeal. It was not, as the Duke
of Wellington thought, "rotten potatoes" that put "Peel in his
damned fright 1" Peel was not in a fright at all, but having
been subjugated, as public, men in a democracy are apt to be,
by continuous pressure and propaganda, he was able to use
the Irish calamity to carry a measure in which he now profoundly
believed.

It is one of the purposes of a parliamentary constitution to
render government sensitive to the larger changes of popular-
opinion. Before the Reform Bill that of Britain, as a result of
a long and gradual redistribution of population, was not suffi-
ciently so. But when the history of our age can be seen in its
final perspective, it may come to be held that after the Reform
Bill, British parliaments became too sensitive not to the
permanent convictions of the nation but to the ephemeral
opinion of the hour. For public opinion is not infallible in its
pursuit of popular interests. In the early nineteenth century it
was assumed by many learned and hopeful persons that it was.
The thesis of Bentham and the Utilitarians that the object of
all government was the greatest good of the greatest number,
was accompanied by the more dubious assumption that that
good could always be achieved by the popular decision of the
moment. The Reform Bill of 1832, however imperceptibly,
began the slow and unconscious transformation of British
statesmen from representatives into delegates. Henceforward
instead of leading public opinion they tended increasingly to
seek votes by following it.

For public opinion, being susceptible of leadership, needs to
be wisely led. If it is not led by wise men, it may be led by fools
or knaves. Its greatest weakness is that, being imperfectly in-
formed on the complicated issues of government, it is too easily
swayed by the specious—by the plausible pretender and the man
of limited vision* Cobden, though, possessing genius and high
integrity, was a man of very short views. He offered his
countrymen, in the throes of great and bewildering changes, a
panacea for their immediate ills. He explained with brilliant
clarity that Free Trade would bring growing wealth to all
men and the reign of peace. By removing the cause of discord
between nations, it would abolish war. Cobden offered an
economic proposition—within certain limits a sound and