Gladstonian Ghosts

Gladstonian Ghosts

If (with your permission) I dedicate this essay in political criticism to you, it is because I know that, though you parade it less, your interest in the science of politics is fully as keen as my own. In point of fact there is no-one whose judgment in these matters I would trust more readily than yours. You are a philosopher; and the philosophers outlook in politics is always clear, practical and realistic as contrasted with the thoroughly romantic illusions of the typical party man. That, by the way, is why Mr. Balfour, the philosopher, has in the domain of parliamentary and electoral strategy[Pg 8] hopelessly outwitted Mr. Chamberlain, the man of business and busy manto quote his own characteristically poetic phrase. As a philosopher you are able to see what no practical statesman on either side of the House seems likely to perceivethat social and economic politics are the only kind of politics that really matter, and that the chicken-in-the-pot ideal of Henri Quatre is after all the primary aim of all statesmanship. Three centuries of anarchic commercialism have left us a legacy of pauperism, disease, famine, physical degeneracy and spiritual demoralization, which in another century will infallibly destroy us altogether if we cannot in the mean time destroy them. And I think you share my impatience when our Radical friends insist on discussing Irish Home Rule, Church Disestablishment and the abolition of the House of Lords, as if such frivolities could really satisfy[Pg 9] the human conscience faced with the appalling realities of the slums. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 65915
Author: Chesterton, Cecil
Release Date: Jul 24, 2021
Format: eBook
Language: English