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A COLLISION WITH COMMON SENSE 155 trivial. My own view is that they throw a great deal more light on that least trivial of subjects, the corporate character of the people, than volumes of scientific speculation on the future of man and of democracy. At all events here is one anecdote more, ahd it certainly can be called trivial by nobody. It is, indeed, hardly an anecdote ; it is rather a piece of important constitutional historj-, which shows how democracy intCyprus was within an inch of destruc-tion, and how it saved itself. The policy of the Cyprian patriots has been, from the beginning, of the chapter, at once consistent and simple. It has been to oppose every scheme or suggestion, no matter what, that originated with the British authorities. The authorities for a long time had borne this treatment with patience, when a measure was laid by them before the Council which was not only so obviously but also so urgently necessary that no rational man could have two opinions about it. When, therefore, the patriots, utterly undaunted, proceeded to oppose it, just as they had opposed the others, the Governor's patience fairly gave way at last, and he told them plainly that if this sort of thing continued he should be obliged to appeal to her Majesty to reconsider the constitution. The patriots were staggered ; they could hardly believe their ears. They were like dream-ing somnambulists, marching to imaginary conquests, who had been suddenly wakened by coming into collision with a wall. To reconsider the constitution

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