24. UNION AND REGENERATION




Part I

THE COURSE




CHAPTER I

ASPIRATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS

_I think I see, as it were above the hill-tops of time,
the glimmerings of the dawn of a better and a nobler day
for the country and the people that I love so
well._--JOHN BRIGHT.


The suggestion has been made to me that in these days of rapid
development, when proposals, so bewildering in their extent, for change
and for reconstruction are being made, it would be useful to present in
popular form and in the compass of a small volume some general statement
of the character of the varied problems which have arisen and of the
principles which should guide in their solution. Possibly it seemed that
a long and varied life engaged in law, politics, and education, which