Part 28 (1/2)

The Roosevelt family were in Rolish-speaking children, on the Pincian Hill While they were playing at leapfrog as suddenly passed round that the Pope was coroup of American children that he didn't believe in Popes--that no real American would; and we all felt it was due to the stars and stripes that we should share his attitude of distant disapproval But then, as is often the case, the miracle happened, for the crowd parted, and to our excited, childish eyes so very much like a scene in a story-book took place The Pope, as in his sedan-chair carried by bearers in beautiful costun face fraht of the group of eager little children craning their necks to see hiile, delicate hand towards us, and lo! the late scoffer who, in spite of the ardent Americanism that burned in his eleven-year-old soul, had as much reverence as militant patriotism in his nature, fell upon his knees, and kissed the delicate hand, which for a brief moment was laid upon his hair Whenever I think of Rome this memory comes back to me, and in a way it was so true to the character of my brother The Pope to him had always meant what later he would have called ”unwarranted superstition,” but that Pope, Pio Nono, the kindly, benign old ht about in my brother's heart the reaction which always caood, or the true crossed his path

That is alreat Napoleon brought a virtual captive frorace his coronation as E about Paris, was accusto freely, for he soon became a very popular character It happened, however, that one day, while going through the galleries of the Louvre, he unwittingly gave his blessing to a little crowd that contained a fierce, anti-clerical Jacobin and revolutionary Thethe Pope's blessing, and retorted with curses on the race and favour The Pope, with his Italian grace and goodbrows and the ised simply and humbly to the man whom he had blessed by mistake and added, ”I do not think, sir, that after all an oldcan have done you any harm” Quite as little could Roosevelt's boyish kiss make him a votary to superstition

I feel for the reasons that I have already given that I a about Roosevelt Yet he is the last man of whom I want to write perfunctorily or even cerecertain characteristics of the statesman

The essential quality in Roosevelt was the spirit of good citizenshi+p

He was a very able politician and party leader He was also no mean orator in a nation where the arts of the rostrum are specially cultivated and understood He was a skilled and powerful administrator

He had a soldier's eye for country and a soldier's heart What is more, he understood the soldier's spirit as well as did Croh a strict disciplinarian, he knew that if you are to get the best out of a soldier, youslave

Roosevelt, again, was a hly qualified to be the personal representative and head of a great nation He had the dignity of dee of the world, the instinct for great affairs, together with that universality of coe of high office

Yet, great as was Roosevelt in all these matters, it was not so much the qualities just enumerated which make, and will continue to make, his memory live in America Others could rival hiood citizenshi+p an art He never tired in enforcing by precept and example the duty which men and women owe to the community No ood citizenshi+p in watertight compartments He must not say that he had done his best in his district or city or State, or at Washi+ngton, and that no more was to be required of him He must do his duty to the State in all capacities Duty accomplished in one sphere would not relieve hih Roosevelt was a Whig, an individualist, and a man who hated over- centralisation, abhorred administrative tyranny, and loathed _Etatise to the nation personified To hi sacred and revered, not e tram- lines, roads, and drains Treason to the State was to hireatest of cri very real and definite, and was notin a rhetorical flourish Good citizenshi+p was indeed to Roosevelt a religion, as in a rougher and less conscious way it was to Cromwell and to Lincoln

CHAPTER XXVI

MY POLITICAL OPINIONS

Though I have been engaged in politics all my life, I have deliberately left my political views, aspirations, and actions to alraphy That will seee to all except my most intimate friends, for I knoell that the ether given over to politics

My reason for assigning so small a place in my memoirs to what has occupied so much of my life is a double one In the first place, I was most anxious not be polemical Politics are synonyraphy, it would have become the record of a battle, or rather, ofhard things both of living and dead people But that hat I hts is always apt to becoree with the view put forth think hi, while those who are with hih I confess to being as deeply interested and as deeply concerned in politics as ever, I have greatly enjoyed a rest from strife To suffer my mind to turn upon the poles of literature and the huht No doubt Marcus Aurelius in his autobiography says that life is - match than a dance That was like a Stoic Instead, I can say _ex animo_ with Mrs Gamp, ”Them that has other natures may think different! They was born so and can please themselves” Therefore, I have chosen the point of view of the dance rather than the dust, the oil, and the sweat of the athlete

[Illustration: J St Loe Strachey at Newlands Corner aetat 45]

But though I do not want to fight ard to Home Rule or the fiscal controversy, I realise thatabout my political views Further than that, there are one or two things which, if unsaid, would undoubtedly give a false impression of the writer of this book

The pivot of my politics is a whole-hearted belief in the principles of Democracy I mean by this, not devotion to certain abstract principles or views of communal life which have had placed upon them the label ”Democratic,” but a belief in the justice, the convenience, and the necessity of ascertaining and loyally abiding by the lawfully-expressed Will of the Majority of the People By using the phrase ”lawfully expressed” I do not est any pretext for evasion On the contrary, I use the words in order to prevent and avoid evasion A good many people who call themselves Democrats, or believers in the Popular Will, such, for exaists for the Russian Soviet, and the men from whose lips the words ”Proletariat” and ”Proletarian” are constantly falling, do not, when it comes to the point, want to obey the Will of the Majority of the whole People, but only the majority of a certain arbitrarily selected section of the people They are, in fact, willing to recognise the Will of the People only when this accords with their oill--that is, hat they believe ought to be the Will of the People When I use the expression ”the Will of the People lawfully and constitutionally expressed,” I use it to avoid this false de to bow to theas the ”vox populi” is the genuine thing and not obtained by falsity or fraud, by corruption or coercion

Though I am prepared to bow loyally to the Will of the People, whether I personally agree with it or not, I, of course, have a right, nay, a duty, to dothe Will of the People in accord hat I hold to be right, just, and likely to proht to convert, if I can, a minority view into a majority view If any section of the people try to prevent ht of conversion, then I believe that the sacred right of insurrection arises

It is possible that it arises also in the attehts of conscience, that is, the right to think and to express hts of conscience are not, in my opinion, pooled and placed at the command of the majority, as are the _actions_ and _behaviour_ of the units that make up the State

The Will of the People even cannot coion is under an eternal taboo, which even the majority must not attempt to violate If they do ht us to ”render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's,” but a man's conscience is not one of Caesar's perquisites

So much for the abstract basis of De the Democratic principle I have as little doubt as I have of the ation involved What, in eneity Such hoeneity, or, shall I call it completeness of the admixture of the elements which constitute the State, is essential The fullest and strongest sanction for the laws is the security of a State, and where can you get a sanction fuller and stronger than the Will of the Majority?

The point is best seen in a si seven people in a railway carriage the question arises as to whether theis to be put up or down As it must be settled one way or the other, if order is to be preserved, the only just way is to go by the Will of the Majority If five people want it shut and only tant it open, the will of the five must prevail That, of course, does not prove that the five have given a sound decision froienic point of view They have, however, come to a settlement, and it is obvious that thethat settlement It has the superior physical power behind it If, however, any gentleive a discourse upon the advantage of fresh air, which will bring over three of those who originally voted in the ed

With these views, it is no wonder that I have always found it impossible to feel much sympathy with the people who say that Deed, like any other forovernment, by its results This either ued that, if the Will of the People properly expressed was to elect a singlein all h it looked like a Monarchy But these are abstract points For practical purposes in a European community there can, in , in the last resort, your systeovernment upon the Will of the People, as it is based, in theory, at any rate, in England and in America

I admit, however, that when you come to apply your principles in practice the problereat modern communities than the fact that the people cannot rule theora of Athens and decide the fate of the Athenian Republic, or in the meadow of the Gemeinde at Appenzell, or any of the other small Swiss cantons, in a country with even only a couple of million of people, you h the many must will the direction in which the State shall move, it is only the feho can make that will executive