Journey Without Maps
In 1928, in his The Challenge to Liberalism, Ramsay Muir said that Liberals need to be like the crusaders. He entered a characteristic note of advice. He warned against the methods of the First Crusade. This was the Crusade of Poor Men, roused to ardour by the preaching of Peter the Hermit and other fanatics. Thousands of poor people joined up and drifted across Europe, ragged and starving. They became a danger to the countryside through which they passed. Towns shut their gates upon them. They were left to starve and never arrived in Jerusalem. 'The real crusading host,' said Muir, 'which not only saw but conquered Jerusalem, had waited to plan its routes and to learn what were the difficulties that had to be overcome. And the only Crusade that has any chance of success is a Crusade with maps.' In the origins of each of our British parties there is a mixture of the religious and the secular. In each, the balance has tilted from Christianity to humanism. While they now journey without maps, the parties of continental Europe have been travelling routes more clearly signposted.