THE ORTON-KENEALY CRAZE.—PESSIMIST VIEW.
THE alarming side of this agitation, however, has yet to be represented. I cannot admit that even as regards the moral side of it, it is without menace. No doubt the public mind of England has always been exceedingly susceptible to religious panic, and worse things have been done under the spell of that panic than under any other influence. But the danger of spasmodic waves of popular passion, under the spell of religious feeling, is one danger, and the danger of gross moral per- versions of popular judgment, under na such spell, quite another. We can appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober, in the one case ; but if Philip sober is as bad as 'Philip drunk, then there is no such appeal possible. What ,bas induced the people, without any spell of self-interest or passion in them, sud- denly to reject the judgment of English Judges as utterly untrustworthy, and to take up the cause of a man who whether on his own or Dr. Kenealy's view of him, is no a witness to be believed on his oath ? Is it simply and solely the fanaticism of that filial or maternal creed which denies the possibility of old Lady Tichborne's fallibility as to the identity of her own son ? If that were all, I could believe that it was no bad sign of the moral condition of the people, though it would be a great proof of their incapacity for judging evidence. But this can hardly be all. They know very well that this bit of evidence was before the Judges like all the rest, and was, indeed, the mainstay of the case. They must, therefore, have felt either a strong predisposi- tion to suspect the Judges of intentional injustice, or else they must have felt a strong wish to find Orton in the right. The former can hardly be the explanation, or we should have heard more of the Gas-stokers' case, and various other cases in which the judgment of the Bench was much more questionable, and which certainly bore hardly on the poor. Yet apparently these cases made much less impression on the popular mind than they did on the mind of journalists. On the other hand, there has been not a little evidence of a great advance in the popularity of Orton as his asserted or admitted rasealities came out. So far from any disgust being felt at him for his assertion, or rather fabrica- tion, of the contents of the sealed packet, his popularity definitely increased from the moment that that perjury was committed. Instead of hoping to see that monstrous charge disproved, as it was disproved, the Ortonites certainly wished both to see it proved and to see the culprit profit by the proof. I cannot interpret this except as a real liking for the typical hero- bandit of the lowest English fiction. Was it not delightful to the Claimant's adherents to think that a man might pass through all that low ruffianism and come out a rich baronet in the end ? Their judgment was prepossessed by the mere dream of any story so fascinating, and they distrusted the Judges not because they had had any previous conviction of the Judge's partiality, but because they could not bear to have the vision of all this low romance exploded. Well, but if that be the explanation, the distorting sentiment was neither religious passion nor moral sympathy,—but rather im- moral sympathy, a sort of enthusiasm for a low-bred hero, equally compounded of a vulgar Londoner and a colonial Turpin. And in this case it implied a keen desire that such a hero's tale should be held to be true. Now, is there a more dangerous form of popular sentiment than this delight in a ruffian's risks, and hopes, and excitements, in which there is not any trace of what is called "poetical justice ?" What would such a sentiment, if further developed, tend to produce ? Would it not tend to pro- duce discontent with plodding industry, an impatience for un- wholesome audacities of one sort or another, a leniency towards all grandiose forms of crime, and contempt only for the squalid kind,—in short, an attitude of mind which excuses all that is wicked, if it be also interesting to the morbid imagina- tion of persons impatient of drudgery, and which judges crime seriously only when it is on a petty scale, and therefore dull? And what temper would strike deeper at the root of English character than that ?
But even admitting what seems to me almost certainly un- true, that the explanation of the whole delusion is an error of popular judgment alone, and not a perverted popular wish, I do not see that the prospect is much more exhilarating. The error, whatever be its source, is obviously contagious. It will not stop short at panegyrics on Dr. Kenealy and subscriptions to the Englishman, but will go on to favour the indictments against a Bench which is so unanimous in rejecting the popular conclu- sion. Now that means, and with the political power distributed as it now is, must mean, a very speedy agitation for Judges who are not independent of such popular sentiments, very pro- bably for institutions in general which shall no longer stand above the tide of popular opinion, but shall sway to and fro with it. The more definitely we refer the delusion to a deli- berate error of popular judgment, the more likely it seems that that error will spread itself in ever - widening circles, and result in breaking down all the buttresses against popular caprice ! Where is the adventurer who will not be encouraged by what has happened ?—who will not feel that the public may be induced to believe almost anything by suf- ficient perseverance and adroitness, and who will not be disposed to trade on this great suspiciousness of the multitude towards all that has been thought permanent in English society ? And what can that end in, except a growing estrange- ment between the people and honest political intelligence, and the lapse of politics into hands which will make political struggle a coarse and repulsive affair, from which all pure, to say nothing of fastidious, minds will shrink ? Hitherto politics have been the one sphere in which the practical mind of the country has found a disinterested elevation, and that without any divorce from its usual sober and practical habits. In America, politics have long been regarded as too unclean to answer such a purpose, and if we are ever to have agitations against the irremovable Judges, and for tribunals and legislatures which shall be more ready than our present ones to reflect the mm- mediate whims of the people, the sphere of English politics will soon be as little adapted to kindle noble ambitions and to exer- cise the thinking power of sagacious men, as the sphere of American politics has long been.
It may be supposed that in drawing so large an inference from so isolated a delusion as this concerning the claims of Arthur Orton, too little allowance is made for the moral anomalies and the exceptional freaks which are almost as sure to mark national as individual lives. But a movement which has gained ground steadily for two years, and which, being, as this is, entirely without connection with any strong vein of popular conviction, has, nevertheless, defied all the traditional respect for the venerable character of our judicial institutions, and the sagacity of our popular House, cannot be regarded as a mere anomaly or a freak. Besides, though it exagge- rates all the worst political symptoms which we have drawn from other classes of political phenomena, it points in the same direction. Everywhere there are signs that the re- spect for great national institutions, for central as distinguished from local ideas, is diminishing, and that minute local notoriety has far more influence in rendering, for instance, a candidate for Parliament popular, than a great national fame. Every- where the self-sufficiency of popular opinion is increasing, and the sources of political favour and disfavour are rapidly becoming pettier and pettier. Everywhere the difficulty of organising opinion is growing,—the residuum, aided by the ballot, realising more and more clearly that there is no true responsibility for political opinion at all, and that an arbitrary inclination to accord support is at least no worse, if not a better, excuse for determining a secret vote, than a reason for thinking that that support will result in public benefit. All the signs of the times go to show that the people believe less add less that they have anything to learn from their political leaders, and indeed hold that those leaders are much rather their own instruments than their sagacious and respected advisers. There is hardly a great constituency anywhere where a great statesman can, by reason of his eminence, secure his election against a local magnate. Mr. Gladstone gets postponed to a Greenwich distiller, and eminent lawyers and thinkers who have not the good chance to be local celebrities cannot get con- stituencies at all. Naturally, in such a state of the public mind, the deliberate decision of three of the most eminent Judges in the land, commands none of the respect which it would formerly have commanded. Local conceit thinks that its own private bias is just as good a test of innocence or guilt as the trained intellect of men who have carefully sifted every fragment of evidence bearing on the question of innocence or guilt, and so it happens that the laborious investigations of months, and even years, goes for nothing, when once the people are assured, as Dr. Kenealy assures them, that the honourable instincts of the million cannot be misled. If that arbitrary self-confidence of uninstructed local "sentiment" or opinion gains ground as fast through the next thirty years as it has through the last, there will be again reason to fear that• something like the old ostracism may be introduced, as a legiti- mate expression of public irritation against unpopular persons of eminence. Indeed the guilt or innocence of important criminals may then be determined by plebiscites.
But to return to the character of the prevailing popular delusion. Arthur Orton, without the smallest pretence of respectability of any kind, unless the claim to be a baronet's son constitutes a pretence of respectability, has succeeded, in spite of the deliberately hostile judgment of a most laborious special jury, of the Bar, of the central and provincial Press, and of the House of Commons, by the help of a little knot of men of whom Dr. Kenealy is the chief, in persuading hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions of persons, that three most eminent Judges are unfit for their position, and mere judicial miscreants. Now, whether that be due to the crass ignorance, or to the false sentiment, or to the flattered conceit of the people, surely it is one of the most threaten- ing auguries for those national destinies which we haxe so recently confided entirely to the very persons liable 10 such perversions of judgment. What is there to prevent the country b6ng persuaded on equally good
evidence,—evidence, say, supposed to be elicited before the Foreign Loans Committee,—that all the borrowing States have been stealing from us good English money, and so increasing our taxes It would be quite as reasonable to accept such a con- clusion as springing out of the evidence taken before the Foreign Loans Committee, as it is to accept the conclusion drawn by the multitudes who believe in Dr. Kenealy from the Orton trial ; and all that would be wanted for the purpose would be that some one whom the people are disposed to believe, should tell them that that is the result of the evidence about the various foreign loans. If that be so, it is diffi- cult to gauge in any way the magnitude of the evils which may not come of a popular authority which, though it needs to be skilfully prompted, asks for no counsel and trusts no counsellor. A sentimental popular sympathy with grandiose ruffians is a very bad explanation of the delusion ; but I am not sure whether a genuine perversion of judgment, which implies that all respect for professional integrity and capacity is exhausted, is not a worse explanation of it. Look at it which way you will, it seems to pro- mise for England a period of mean and capricious politics, in which the least scrupulous men will come to the top and the most scrupulous and most eminent will be cowed and silenced, —in which either the House of Commons will lose control of the wild whims of the people, or the wild whims of the people will gain control of the House of Commons ;—and which of these alternatives is the worst, it is hard to say.
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