8 magistrates, and a whole arsenal of laws and ordinances. And what can the Socialists, the artificers of the new society, oppose to all this organised force ? Does it seem that they can do nothing ? Without money or troops they would indeed succumb, if they cid not represent the evolution of ideas and of morality. They are nothing, but they have the progress of human thought on their side. They are borne along on the stream of the times. The external form of society must alter in correspondence with the impelling force within ; there is no better established historical fact. The sap makes the tree and gives it leaves and flowers ; the blood makes the man ; the ideas make the society. And yet there is nor a conservative who does not lament that ideas and morality, and all that goes to make up the deeper life of man, have been modified since " the good old times." Is it not a necessary result of the inner working of men's minds that social forms must change and a proponionate revolution take place? Let each ascertain from his own recollections the changes in the methods of thought and action which have happened since the middle of this century. Let us take, for example, the one capital fact of the diminution of observance and respect. Go amongst great personages : what have they to complain oft That they are treated like other men. They no longer take precedence ; people neglect to salute them ; less distinguished persons permit themselves to possess handsomer furniture or finer horses; the wives of less wealthy men go more sumptuously attired. And what is the complaint of the ordinary man or woman of the middle-class t There are no more servants to be had, the spirit of obedience is lost. Now the maid pretends to understand cooking better than her mistress; she does not piously remain in one situation, only too grateful for the hospitality accorded her; she changes her place in consequence of the smallest disagreeable observation, or to gain two shillings more wages. There are even countries where she asks her mistress for a character in exchange for her own. It is true, respect is departing; not the just respect which attaches to an upright and devoted man, but- that despicable and shameful respect which follows wealth and office; that slavish respect which gathers a crowd of loafers when a king passes, and makes the lackeys and horses of a. -eat man objects of admiration. And not only is respect Bibi -:>teca G no B anco
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