very stupidest men in the
country. Whatever the Government might do, a great part of the upper and middle
classes were determined to set on foot a counter revolution; for the Communism
which now loomed ahead seemed quite unendurable to them. Bands of young men,
like the marauders in the great strike of whom I told you just now, armed
themselves and drilled, and began on any opportunity or pretence to skirmish
with the people in the streets. The Government neither helped them nor put them
down, but stood by, hoping that something might come of it. These Friends of
Order, as they were called, had some successes at first, and grew bolder; they
got many officers of the regular army to help them, and by their means laid hold
of munitions of war of all kinds. One part of their tactics consisted in their
guarding and even garrisoning the big factories of the period: they held at one
time, for instance, the whole of that place called Manchester which I spoke of
just now. A sort of irregular war was carried on with varied success all over
the country; and at last the Government, which at first pretended to ignore the
struggle, or treat it as mere rioting, definitely declared for the Friends of
Order, and joined to their bands whatsoever of the regular army they could get
together, and made a desperate effort to overwhelm the rebels, as they were now
once more called, and as indeed they called themselves.
    It was too late. All ideas of peace on a basis of compromise had disappeared
on either side. The end, it was seen clearly, must be either absolute slavery
for all but the privileged, or a system of life founded on equality and
Communism. The sloth, the hopelessness, and if I may say so, the cowardice of
the last century, had given place to the eager, restless heroism of a declared
revolutionary period. I will not say that the people of that time foresaw the
life we are leading now, but there was a general instinct amongst them towards
the essential part of that life, and many men saw clearly beyond the desperate
struggle of the day into the peace which it was to bring about. The men of that
day who were on the side of freedom were not unhappy, I think, though they were
harassed by hopes and fears, and sometimes torn by doubts, and the conflict of
duties hard to reconcile.«
    »But how did the people, the revolutionists, carry on the war? What were the
elements of success on their side?«
    I put this question, because I