He had tried to
get out of it, but had not succeeded. He held it to be gaoler's work;
and the sight of the starving populace was stirring in him a fierce
anger.
He would not put up again for Parliament. He was thinking of going back
to his old work upon the Union. "Parliament is played out," he had
written her. "Kings and Aristocracies have served their purpose and have
gone, and now the Ruling Classes, as they call themselves, must be
content to hear the bell toll for them also. Parliament was never
anything more than an instrument in their hands, and never can be. What
happens? Once in every five years you wake the people up: tell them the
time has come for them to exercise their Heaven-ordained privilege of
putting a cross against the names of some seven hundred gentlemen who
have kindly expressed their willingness to rule over them. After that,
you send the people back to sleep; and for the next five years these
seven hundred gentlemen, consulting no one but themselves, rule over the
country as absolutely as ever a Caesar ruled over Rome.
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