Part 17 (1/2)

”The pace?”

”Yes; government to-day, sir, is largely a matter of pace, the actual measures do not so much matter. Modern democracy is making for something of which we are all really--the governing cla.s.ses I mean--profoundly apprehensive: and the problem now is to let it come about without actual catastrophe. When I used the word 'pace,' I had a certain graphic ill.u.s.tration in my mind--an incident I once heard from the manager of a railway--the recountal of which will show your Majesty what I mean.

”A pa.s.senger train, before arriving at the head of a long, evenly graded declivity, had taken on three or four good trucks heavily laden.

Owing to some carelessness in the coupling these wagons became detached on the very crest of the descent, and falling to the rear came almost to a halt. Not quite: sluggishly at first they began to move, and gathering impetus from sheer weight followed in the track of the proceeding train.

Halfway down the declivity, the engine-driver discovered his loss and the danger that threatened him. Looking back, he saw in the distance the wagons weighted by the labor of men's hands drawing nearer with a speed that grew ever more formidable. His one chance, therefore, of avoiding a catastrophe was to put on pace in the hope of arriving at more level conditions before the impact took place. Yet he must still limit himself to a speed which enabled the train to keep to the rails on a certain sharp curve which lay ahead. That was the problem which the engine-driver set himself to solve: up to a certain point the more pace he could allow the greater his chance of safety, beyond that point a new danger arising out of pace lay ahead of him.”

The minister paused.

”What happened?” inquired the King.

”He negotiated the curve with success, and had got so far ahead that when the wagons finally overtook him their impetus had been diminished by the more level conditions of the road, and the impact was but slight.

Only the guard's van was smashed, and the guard himself rather badly disabled.”

”And what happened afterwards to the guard and the engine-driver?”

inquired his Majesty, much interested.

”The guard was pensioned for life: the engine-driver was promoted.”

”And whose fault was it--the guard's?”

”Well, not exactly,” replied the Professor; ”the careless coupling was done by others, but the guard had the right, which he had not chosen to exercise, to refuse to accompany any train in which his van was not put last--so as to embrace the whole combination. At least, he had the technical right.”

”I suppose he did not wish to give trouble,” said the King meditatively.

”Very likely; for, of course, had he exercised his right the whole train would have been delayed by the extra shunting.”

”And he in consequence a less acceptable servant to his employers.”

”No one could have blamed him.”

”Not for excess of caution?” queried the King. ”Did you not yourself say that on those lines government would become impossible? You have to run your railway system, it seems, with a certain risk of accidents--otherwise you would never be up to time.”

”That is so,” said the Professor. ”In every political crisis it is pace more than principle that I find one has to consider. If it is solved in such and such a way, our pace will be so and so, and the question--will it take us safely over the curve? If it is solved in another way so that the pace slackens, those wagons in the rear may be down upon us.”

”And the guard, whose control, while the train makes its running, is but nominal, is then the first to suffer!” He saw himself in the man's place. ”Poor glow-worm!” he cried, ”he may change the green light in his tail to red--or was it red to begin with? but it is no use! Those proletarian forces descending upon him from the rear are quite blind in their purpose: it is merely dead weight and impetus that send them along.” And then he pulled up abruptly, astonished to find that he was talking in Max's manner. Was it so catching?

”Not wholly blind, sir,” said the Professor; ”believe me, they mean well--mainly to themselves, no doubt: that is only human nature. Every body in the community, whether energized or sluggish, has some weight attached to it; and the more that bodies can agree to combine the greater is their weight politically. One has to recognize that consensus of opinion carries with it a certain moral as well as physical force.

Out of that springs the evolution of our governing system.”

”Only I,” said the King, ”in the nature of things have always to stand alone.”

”Sir, you have all history!” said the Professor.

”Which, as you have reminded me, I do not know.”

”May I inquire, sir, whether you have a real wish to know?”