are obvious, but how many see what is below the surface? Let me suggest
a case and a series of circumstances; the more pointed the case, the
more interesting. I will suppose a particular mayor is an old Fenian:
let us see how for him a web is finely woven, and in the end how
securely he is netted. First a mayor is a magistrate, and must take the
judicial oath, but the old Fenian has taken an oath of allegiance to
Ireland--clash number one. It is not simply a question of yes or no;
there are attendant circumstances. Around a public man in place
circulates a swarm of interested people, needy friends, meddling
politicians, "supporters" generally. The chief magistrate will have
influence on the bench which they all wish to invoke now and then, and
they all wish to see him there. They don't approve of any principle that
stands in the way. They group themselves together as his "supporters,"
and claiming to have put him into public life, they act as if they had
acquired a lease of his soul. Not what he knows to be right, but what
they believe to be useful, must be done; and before the first day is
done the first fight must be made. However, the old Fenian has enough of
the spirit of old times to come safe through the first round. But the
second is close on his heels: Dublin Castle has been attentive. The
mayor, as chief magistrate, has privileges on which the Castle now
silently closes. There are private and veiled remonstrances by secret
officials: "The mayor is acting illegally; he must not do so-and-so;
such is the function of a magistrate; he has not taken the oath," etc.
All this renewing the fight of the first day, for the Castle, too, wants
the mayor on the bench to brand him as its own and alienate him from the
old flag. It puts on the pressure by suppressing his privileges,
weakening his influence, and disappointing his "supporters." All this is
silently done. Still, the mayor holds fast, but he has not counted on
this, and is beginning to be baffled and worried. Meanwhile a sort of
guerilla attack is being maintained: invitations arrive to garden