The ideal of the material interests has so far been presented as the desire for
the rule of law, justice, stability and common sense. In other words it is an
abstract form of idealism in which none of its powerful adherents desire personal
rule (this is true even of Holroyd, who is not a government official of any sort).
Compared to this modern idealism, the direct, personal power-hunger of a Montero
has something both archaic and virile (compare his upright sabre with Charles
Gould's asexuality). In Part One a State is being formed, which at its basic level
means that the conditions for mass worship are being laid; inevitably, Conrad
is saying, a Montero will appear.