The conclusion therefore at which our more despondent spirits have arrived, is that the representative system has already failed us--that it has suffered that very degradation which liberal minds of the eighteenth century feared so much. How can democracy in the bad sense--democracy which has become decadent--which is concerned mainly with its rights instead of with its duties--with its comforts more than with the sacrifices which are essential to its own preservation--how can such a system make head against an efficient monarchy sustained by the enthusiastic devotion of a vigorous and intelligent people? It does not seem altogether wise to despair of one's own institutions at the first check. Even democracy, in the best sense, is not a flawless thing. Of all forms of government it is the most delicate, more dependent than any other upon the supply of leaders. There are times of dearth when the crop of leadership is a short one. Nor are popular institutions, any more than our own vile bodies, exempt from disease. Disease, however, is not necessarily fatal. The patient may recover, and in the bracing air of a national crisis, such as the present, conditions are favourable for a cure. And, after all, we may remind these critics that in 1792 democracy did in fact make head pretty successfully against monarchy. Though it was miserably unprovided, untrained, inferior to its enemies in everything {173} save spirit and leadership, the states of Europe nevertheless--all but England--went down before it, in the years which followed, like a row of ninepins. Then as now, England, guarded by seas and sea-power, had a breathing-space allowed her, in which to adjust the spirit of her people to the new conditions. That Germany will not conquer us with her arms we may well feel confident. But unless we conquer her with _our arms_--and this is a much longer step--there is a considerable danger that she may yet conquer us with _her ideas_. In that case the world will be thrown back several hundred years; and the blame for this disaster, should it occur, will be laid--and laid rightly--at the door of Democracy, because it vaunted a system which it had neither the fortitude nor the strength to uphold. [Sidenote: IRRECONCILABLE OPPOSITIONS]