ANCIENT DEMOORACIES

Evening Star, Issue 19017, 12 August 1925, Page 1

ANCIENT DEMOORACIES

WHAT TO-DAY HAS TO LF.ARH FROM THE PAST In the tirst of throe lectures on 'Democracy m tho Ancient World,' delivered au the Royal Insumlion, Dr £. At. Waikor, Pro-IVovost ot (liwonV College, lOaiord, said that, although he did not think the mum object of history wits “to pomt a moral or aduin a talc,” jet ho vas not ono who bohcro.l that the present had nothing to learn iron: (.ho part. Ho recalled an experience of soma fit toon or twenty years ago, when sotting at üblo in an oid-iashionou 1 Pans hotel hy the tviic of an American protestor in the cicpjitment of hisuny at a nniv'-Miy in the Middle West that prided Uselt on being a pio-gw-.-sive institution. Ue learned tnat there were about forty promisors m tarn ckqmumctu, und nsiicd if any of them puui.reca ’ho subject ill aiuront lit-toil. '1 mi.ill i,over Jorgi-t, - ’ said Dr W’ul.-.ci, 11 llio loo* of mingled pain and iiMoni.-hmuil nna c.imo over tho face of the prouc-.-oi ri "X tvou.d have you, sir, to uuueiaun-*,' In- i -.plied, that" in our university begum tuili 1 lie n■'O ot the lii’-ii j, d u,ow moot m Amen i” Tim kriui.rir o.mi t'-pun'ic; of that country hut him to thick that tbit w.., only a.. o.i.v—m-V w.m o: ri.a ng. ri <• tn.Ui. H wre. diihouJt tor rim pro-ont goner,ikon to 1 ei.o'o-1 1 i Imw nt I U.ing riiiiftry was in the modem world. Jr they asked at'voiiv to point i" countries m the nioocni world winch jurtmed his bcm.-i in doima-iac-;, there wore only two to winch he, could direct them—namely,' kwilzerkunl ;.uu the United States —«ud the burner was hardly to tao point, cnvmg to its special conuit lulls. Huvr could they toumi hope tor w.-i: au rev on examples such us Bolivia, Costa Praia, Llbeiia, or turn .v.’.lvuiiorr' "In my own ludgmcui, ’ .-am Or ‘Walker, “by far Uio moot powenul apo;r>gta lor democracy m the nineteenth century, imd perhaps the best reasoned npuiogia, ever printed, is Grou.ii HiMoiy ot Greece.’” ’lhe history or dcnwersicy m Greece, if they wished him to sketch it to its limits, might extend to four centuries, but tho period that really mattered was that of the hit-h and fourth centuries before Christ. It was interesting- at a time hke tho present, when enthusiasm for parliamentary government was waning, to find that in (.rreeco were democratic institutions cnUi-ely apart from tho representative principle. The business that came before the Athenian assembly was practtoallv tho whole business of the State. It was primarily an administrative and not a legislative body; its powers were almost unlimited.