e through our
public life, the degeneration of parliamentary government must follow.

Disraeli spent the greater part of his political life in manoeuvring
for the premiership. When his object had been successfully attained, all
his great qualities were turned to the advantage of the State. But up to
that point he was compelled, in order to survive in his colossal
struggle against the aristocratic element in politics, to play for his
own hand.

That must always be the case with the self-made man. His first objective
must be his own self-preservation, and if he wishes to gain power he is
bound to exploit the political situation, regardless of the best
interests of the country, because every man's hand is against him until
the summit of his ambition has been reached.

Schools and colleges in which the mind is crammed instead of being
developed cannot produce statesmen. They can manufacture in unlimited
quantities the type of well-intentioned, honourable mediocrity with
which our public service is stocked. But as long as this process is
continued, the real power in the administration of the affairs of the
Empire will remain virtually in the hands of a few able individuals of
the wrong calibre. There will be a dummy Prime Minister, and a dummy
Cabinet; but the wires will be worked by the self-made man who must
place himself first and his country second, with consequences usually
disastrous to the national welfare.

There is no intended disparagement of the self-made man. He is, and
always has been, the best intellectual product of the age. The greatest
statesmen, philosophers, scientists, writers, and other men of genius
have been self-made or self-cultured. But it does not follow because
great statesmen have been self-made men, that it is for the good of the
country that its rulers should be drawn from that class. As has already
been pointed out, the self-made man usually creates far more mischief in
the course of his upward political struggle, than is compensated for
afterwards when he has secured his position and can turn his talents to
the account of his country, instead of for the purpose of securing his
own personal advancement.

There is, it must be remembered, a national emergency for which we have
to prepare. Our extended Imperial obligations, and the sharp commercial
competition which has caused some of the great Powers to sacrifice
individuality wholesale in order to mobilize an army of traders, make it
impe