not that of the revolutionary doctrinaires of its close. He confessed once to wishing that he had been a member of the cabinet of Sir Robert Walpole; and later in a letter to Morley, he wrote of that minister, "It is all nonsense about his corruption. He paid the fools to do what the wise men told them—a very good bargain." This is not a defence of corrupt practices—merely a recognition of the fact that it was the way to govern England in the Eighteenth Century. Practical rather than ideal considerations constantly swayed him. It may be doubted if he had much feeling for the abstract justice of Ireland's claim to freedom. "While you have a hostile Ireland you can never have a friendly America," was sufficient wisdom for him. His tendency to fall back on the legalistic position was part of his belief in law as the codified common sense of the ages. And his interpretation of law was steadily on the side of the people whom laws were made to protect. For instance, he brushed aside all the dunderheaded rubbish about interference with the liberty of making contracts. "A cabman is not allowed to make what bargain he likes for the conveyance of a passenger. The law is full of such examples, founded on the principle that when one party has what amounts to a monopoly giving to him an overwhelming advantage in the bargain the power of contracting on the other side is not really free." Although Harcourt was thinking of the relation between landlord and tenant, it is obvious that his reasoning applies equally to that of employer and worker. His practical grasp of things as they are, frequently led him to a position which we should describe as idealism. Take, for example, his view of the outlawry of war, given in 1869.
"I believe that the idea of reducing war to a military and naval duel between armies and fleets is as chimerical and less humane than the romantic project of chivalry to settle the fate of Moslem and Christian by a single combat between Saladin and Richard. These two nations are locked in the deadly embrace of war whether they be fighting for empire or struggling for independence. They will deal the fatal blow with every weapon which fortune places within their grasp. Passion is deaf, patriotism is unscrupulous, fear is cruel. To attempt to disarm war of its horrors is an idle dream and a dangerous delusion; let us labour at the more practical task of making it impossible."
