The
populations of Italy and Poland and Hungary--what view, now, do _they_
take of the government--their government, all government? Isn't it an
implacable and immemorial enemy--a great and cruel and dreadful monster
to be evaded, hoodwinked, combated, stabbed in the dark if occasion
offers?"
"Quite right," acknowledged Truesdale. "Why, to-day, when the peasants
come into Rome from the Campagna, they always bring their pitchforks with
them--you can see them any Sunday behind the Capitol. They're going to be
murdered or robbed or imprisoned or something."
"And when these people have been out of the government from generation to
generation, and opposed to it and mistrustful of it, is it an easy
matter, on their coming over here, to make them feel themselves a part of
it, and to imbue them with a loyalty to it?"
"One thing more," broke in the first speaker. "There is another element;
it is imported from the nearer half of Europe, and is a more dangerous
element still. I mean the element of feudality."
"Oh," said Truesdale, "now I begin to see."
"The essence of feudality is the idea of personal loyalty. Now, loyalty
to another individual is a good thing in its way and in its own field and
in a certain measure and at a certain juncture.
"But it is not the right prop for a great republic. That requires not the
idea of personal loyalty to some chief, but the idea of personal
responsibility to a cause above all chiefs.
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