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St. Bartholomew; and Cromwell surely had noble ends in view when he thought to shorten the way to them at Drogheda, by the slaughter of helpless women and their little ones. Neither the economical nor the religious fanaticism, therefore, when it is found to sanction acts of cruelty, should cause the actors to be viewed personally in the same light with those who violate moral laws from selfish impulses. But still, whenever benevolence or policy, or a so-called social science, seeks to compass its object by tampering with those primary affections and sympathies which have been implanted in the heart of man, and with those moral laws which they disclose, the narrow and audacious presumption ought to be branded as rebellion against the supreme government of the universe 1.

The dogma of Laisser-faire is simply a rash extension of a principle which, within its original limits, was sufficiently correct. For more than a hundred years before the French economists worked out the conclusions which prepared the way for Adam Smith, every commercial reform that took place in France was the removal of a restriction. Every step of improvement, therefore, was an approach to Laisser-faire. Very similar has been our experience in England, and it is sufficiently near a truth to be admitted, that men are able to make better pecuniary bargains for themselves than Government can make for them. But the moment it becomes a question concerning something higher than making good bargains, every vestige of claim which the maxim might have to attention at once disappears. And this is true universally, not merely of the disputable, but of the most firmly-established conclusions of

If these remarks should appear to any one to be a mere beating of the air, it may be observed, that the folly is shared in by one of the ablest statesmen and political philosophers in Europe; for example:

"Près de là j'en vois d'autres qui, au nom des progrès, s'efforçant de matérialiser l'homme, veulent trouver l'utile sans s'occuper du juste, la science loin des croyances, et le bien-être séparé de la vertu : ceux-là se sont dits les champions de la civilisation moderne, et ils se mettent insolemment à sa tête, usurpant une place qu'on leur abandonne et dont leur indignité les repousse."-DE TOCQUEVILLE.

political economy. There is not one of them that must not give way when it clashes with a moral principle, unless it be admitted that man's highest and only proper object is the pursuit of wealth. In a Christian nation, political economy has no title whatever to assume the character of a legislator. It is her business to present such counsels and information as she can, concerning the production of wealth; but their value and application are to be determined upon principles of which she knows nothing.

Resistance to the Principle of Laisser-faire.

Happily, the practice of England has been in accordance with this view. Political economy, in the minds of its most conspicuous representatives, reached the practical conclusion, some thirty years ago, that the poor-laws ought to be-not reformed-but abolished'. The motives of those thinkers were unquestionably humane; but the conclusion was inspired by that prejudice in favour of the extreme principle of non-interference which had been generated by a long conflict with mis

"It is true, certainly, that keeping a number of the people on charity diminishes the funds of labour, and maintains a population which the society cannot fairly support. But this is no argument against relieving a portion of the people who, owing to some accidental circumstances, are thrown into misery. If you do not relieve them, they must perish, and the population is thus made adequate to the demand. This is the mode of acting recommended. I must say, it is to the full as cruel as the most extensive plan of war and conquest."—LORD JOHN RUSSELL.

The short Essay on Political Economy from which this extract is taken, and which was written in 1819, contains some opinions which the noble author has since seen to be erroneous; but it also contains some very weighty truths, such as these: that the great limit to the science "is the difficulty of collecting data sufficient upon which to found any certain rules;" that complexities of fact often render its questions " more difficult to solve than almost any problem in the range of mathematics;" and that there is a further limit "to the science of political economy which has been nearly overlooked by its preachers, the customs, habits, and manners of nations." The valuable work of Mr. Jones on Rent has, since that period, done much to wipe away this just reproach, and to the great work of Mr. Mill it is wholly inapplicable. Mr. Mill's expositions of the effect of national peculiarities are full of instruction, and his single chapter on Competition and Custom contains matter for a volume.

chievous restrictions. The humanity and good sense of the Legislature and people of England resolutely rejected that counsel, and there are few who would now repeat it. The competence of working men to provide healthy homes for themselves was another maxim of which political economy felt no doubt. Legislation, however, has found that maxim to be false, and insists, and will still more minutely and extensively insist, upon sanitary conditions being observed amongst the dwelling-places of every crowded population. Still more rude and decisive is the shock that has been given to this perverted application of the science of wealth, by the determined use of the strong arm of Government to protect children from overwork', and to deliver them from ignorance. The latter great task, indeed, is as yet only begun, but the principle is recognised, and a more thorough application of it cannot be distant. Both reasoning and precedent, therefore, concur in setting aside any claim of political economy to prejudge propositions of reform, simply because they conflict with a theory so crude in its original conception, and so much damaged by discussion, as that which rests upon the principle of Laisser-faire. Any new mode of Government interference which may be suggested must stand or fall solely upon its own merits. When a scheme involves economical evils, it is right that they should be traced and made known; but, unless the whole of the analysis of the monetary system of England presented in these pages be fallacious, it is palpable that our present want is of something quite different from the knowledge of the best modes of producing wealth. England is in deadly peril, in greater peril than she ever yet was from the hostility of foreign enemies, solely

1 Although at all times earnestly contending for the principle of protecting young persons in factories from over-work, I wrote, as a journalist, against the proposition of Lord Ashley, until the repeal of the corn laws, but not subsequently; and the opposition being continued in the journal to which I was a contributor, the treatment of the subject was then placed in other hands. It now appears to me that the apprehensions of evil to the working class from a ten hours law, upon which I argued, were mistaken, and that Lord Ashley was right from the first.

because of the intense and unremitting efforts of her most enlightened classes to increase their command over the products of labour. This is a pursuit, a passion, not to be stimulated by the subservience of a so-called science usurping the place of morals, if not, indeed, the place of religion herself, and abusing its wrongfully-acquired authority, by standing in the way of every great attempt to direct men to nobler aims. It is, on the contrary, a tendency to be held in check and controlled by every instrument of moral, literary, or legislative influence, which may be found effective for the purpose.

It is scarcely possible to doubt that juster views are now rapidly spreading of the true nature of that social science of which the doctrine of wealth forms the humblest part. The great work of Mr. Mill has already given, and must long continue to give, the most powerful impulses to thought upon this subject. With the exception of Mr. Carlyle, no one has done so much as he to realize the anticipation expressed some years ago in the following passage, in an article in the Edinburgh Review, which was supposed at the time to have proceeded from his own pen:-"Let the idea take hold of the more generous and cultivated minds, that the most serious danger to the future prospects of mankind is in the unbalanced influence of the commercial spirit; let the wiser and better hearted politicians look upon it as their most pressing duty to protect and strengthen whatever in the heart of man, or in his outward life, can form a salutary check to the exclusive tendencies of that spirit; and we should not only have individual testimonies against it in all the forms of genius from those who have the privilege of speaking, not to their own age merely, but to all time; there would also gradually shape itself forth a national education which, without overlooking any other of the requirements of human well-being, would be adapted to this purpose in particular."

The picture that has been given, in the preceding pages, of the evils with which we are now threatened, represents them as

incapable of being averted merely by the power of the legislator. But it is still possible by legislation either to aggravate or to check those evils, and it is of great importance that such power as it may have should be wisely directed. It appears to me that a series of great measures, founded more or less on the principles which have been developed, might now be adopted with this view. The chief of these, being a plan for making the Government instrumental in directing to agriculture a portion of the capital at present in excess, will be opposed by the whole authority of that gospel of selfishness which attributes infallibility and omnipotence to the suggestions of private interest. The several drainage Acts, however, which are working successfully, are practical precedents for the measure in question; and if it shall appear to have intrinsic advantages, the good sense of the English people will judge of it without being deterred by any scruple against a new inroad upon the principle of letting everything alone.

Before proceeding to an explanation of those practical measures, it is necessary to notice another obstacle likely to be presented to some of them by the strong tendency now existing to urge great reductions of taxation as the most essential of all reforms.

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