good expression, gentlemen, and one that I can tell you a lot about.
We have been told that if we want to civilize our neighbors we must
do it mainly by the example of our own lives, by each becoming a
living illustration of the highest culture we know. But what I ask
is, how is anybody to know that you're an illustration of culture.
You can't go about like a sandwich man with a label on your back to
tell all the fine notions you have in your head; and you may be sure
no person will consider your mere appearance preferable to his own.
You want an executive power; that's what you want. Suppose you
walked along the street and saw a man beating a woman, and setting a
bad example to the roughs. Well, you would be bound to set a good
example to them; and, if you're men, you'd like to save the woman;
but you couldn't do it by merely living; for that would be setting
the bad example of passing on and leaving the poor creature to be
beaten. What is it that you need to know then, in order to act up to
your fine ideas? Why, you want to know how to hit him, when to hit
him, and where to hit him; and then you want the nerve to go in and
do it. That's executive power; and that's what's wanted worse than
sitting down and thinking how good you are, which is what this
gentleman's teaching comes to after all. Don't you see? You want
executive power to set an example. If you leave all that to the
roughs, it's their example that will spread, and not yours. And look
at the politics of it. We've heard a good deal about the French
to-night. Well, they've got executive power. They know how to make a
barricade, and how to fight behind it when they've made it. What's
the result? Why, the French, if they only knew what they wanted,
could have it to-morrow for the asking--more's the pity that they
don't know. In this country we can do nothing; and if the lords and
the landlords, or any other collection of nobs, were to drive us
into the sea, what could we do but go? There's a gentleman laughing