Yes, Matthew Arnold was a Tory who did not believe hoi polloi should be allowed to engage in "monster processions in the streets". Next question?: Matthew Arnold: Culture and Anarchy http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4212/pg4212-images.html: 'I remember my father... after strongly insisting on the badness and foolishness of the government, and on the harm and dangerousness of our feudal and aristocratical constitution of society, and ends thus: ‘As for rioting, the old Roman way of dealing with that is always the right one: flog the rank and file, and fling the ringleaders from the Tarpeian Rock!’ And this opinion we can never forsake, however our Liberal friends may think a little rioting, and what they call popular demonstrations, useful sometimes to their own interests and to the interests of the valuable practical operations they have in hand, and however they may preach the right of an Englishman to be left to do as far as possible what he likes, and the duty of his government to indulge him and connive as much as possible and abstain from all harshness of repression.... Monster processions in the streets and forcible irruptions into the parks... ought to be unflinchingly forbidden and repressed; and that far more is lost than is gained by permitting them. Because a State in which law is authoritative and sovereign, a firm and settled course of public order, is requisite if man is to bring to maturity anything precious and lasting now, or to found anything precious and lasting for the future...
#noted #2020-01-24
