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diff --git a/25522.txt b/25522.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e421c14 --- /dev/null +++ b/25522.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2843 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Freedom In Service, by Fossey John Cobb Hearnshaw + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Freedom In Service + Six Essays on Matters Concerning Britain's Safety and Good Government + +Author: Fossey John Cobb Hearnshaw + +Release Date: May 19, 2008 [EBook #25522] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FREEDOM IN SERVICE *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Wall, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +FREEDOM IN SERVICE + +SIX ESSAYS ON MATTERS CONCERNING BRITAIN'S SAFETY AND GOOD GOVERNMENT + +By F. J. C. HEARNSHAW, M.A., LL.D. + +PROFESSOR OF MEDIAEVAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON + +LONDON: +JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. +1916 + + + + +TO THE GLORIOUS AND IMMORTAL MEMORY OF LORD ROBERTS + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE +PREFACE ix + + + I.--THE ANCIENT DEFENCE OF ENGLAND + + I. UNIVERSAL OBLIGATION TO SERVE 1 + + II. THE OLD ENGLISH MILITIA 4 + + III. MEDIAEVAL REGULATIONS 6 + + IV. TUDOR AND STUART DEVELOPMENTS 9 + + V. THE LAST TWO CENTURIES 12 + + VI. CONCLUSION 15 + + + II.--COMPULSORY SERVICE AND LIBERTY + + I. THE PLEA OF FREEDOM 17 + + II. THE TERM "LIBERTY" 18 + + III. LIBERTY AS FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN CONTROL 20 + + IV. LIBERTY AS SYNONYMOUS WITH RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 21 + + V. LIBERTY AS ABSENCE OF RESTRAINT 23 + + VI. LIBERTY AS OPPORTUNITY FOR SERVICE 27 + + +III.--THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE + + I. THE IDEA OF VOLUNTARISM 30 + + II. ITS ESTABLISHMENT 31 + + III. THE RESULT 33 + + IV. THE PRESENT SITUATION 36 + + V. THE FUTURE 38 + + + IV.--PASSIVE RESISTANCE + + I. THE NEW PERIL 43 + + II. PASSIVE RESISTANCE AS REBELLION 45 + + III. THE RIGHT OF REBELLION 47 + + IV. REBELLION AGAINST A DEMOCRACY 50 + + V. THE DUTY OF THE STATE 55 + + + V.--CHRISTIANITY AND WAR + + I. A CONFLICT OF CONVICTIONS 58 + + II. THE RELIGION OF THE BIBLE 61 + + III. THE DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE OF THE CHURCH 63 + + IV. FORCE AS A MORAL INSTRUMENT 66 + + V. THE IDEAL OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 69 + + VI. THE PACIFICIST SUCCESSION 74 + + VII. CONCLUSION 78 + + + VI.--THE STATE AND ITS RIVALS + + I. THE IDEA OF THE STATE IN ENGLAND 81 + + II. THE RIVALS OF THE STATE 87 + + III. WHAT THE STATE IS AND DOES 95 + + IV. THE SPHERE OF NATIONAL SERVICE 98 + + + + +PREFACE + + +The first three essays in this little book appeared originally as +special articles in the _Morning Post_. I am greatly indebted to the +Editor of that paper for his courteous and ready permission to reprint +them. The "Freedom" dealt with in these essays is political freedom, and +the "Service" advocated is universal military service. These limitations +are due to the fact that the original newspaper articles were +contributions to the controversy respecting methods of enlistment which +took place during the autumn of 1915. + +The remaining three essays appear now for the first time. They have a +more general scope, although they are vitally connected with the theme +of their predecessors. The essay on Passive Resistance has special +reference to the opposition offered by the No-Conscription Fellowship to +the principle of compulsory military service; but its argument applies +equally well to the older antagonists of the authority of the State. +The essay on Christianity and War tries to meet those conscientious +objections to military service which form the basis of the propaganda of +the Fellowship of Reconciliation; but it deals with the problem in the +broadest manner possible within the limits of its space. The concluding +essay, on the State and its Rivals, emphasizes the imperative need that +the authority of the Democratic National State should be recognized and +accepted if internal anarchy is to be avoided, and if the peace and +well-being of the World are to be secured. + + F. J. C. HEARNSHAW. + +King's College, Strand, W.C. + _January 12th, 1916._ + + + + +FREEDOM IN SERVICE + + + + +I + +THE ANCIENT DEFENCE OF ENGLAND[1] + + + [Reprinted, with the addition of References, from the _Morning + Post_ of August 20th, 1915.] + + + + +I. UNIVERSAL OBLIGATION TO SERVE + + +"The military system of the Anglo-Saxons is based upon universal +service, under which is to be understood the duty of every freeman to +respond in person to the summons to arms, to equip himself at his own +expense, and to support himself at his own charge during the +campaign."[2] + +With these words Gneist, the German historian of the English +Constitution, begins his account of the early military system of our +ancestors. He is, of course, merely stating a matter of common knowledge +to all students of Teutonic institutions. What he says of the +Anglo-Saxon is equally true of the Franks, the Lombards, the Visigoths, +and other kindred peoples.[3] But it is a matter of such fundamental +importance that I will venture, even at the risk of tedious repetition, +to give three parallel quotations from English authorities. Grose, in +his _Military Antiquities_, says: "By the Saxon laws every freeman of an +age capable of bearing arms, and not incapacitated by any bodily +infirmity, was in case of a foreign invasion, internal insurrection, or +other emergency obliged to join the army."[4] Freeman, in his _Norman +Conquest_, speaks of "the right and duty of every free Englishman to be +ready for the defence of the Commonwealth with arms befitting his own +degree in the Commonwealth."[5] Finally, Stubbs, in his _Constitutional +History_, clearly states the case in the words: "The host was originally +the people in arms, the whole free population, whether landowners or +dependents, their sons, servants, and tenants. Military service was a +personal obligation ... the obligation of freedom"; and again: "Every +man who was in the King's peace was liable to be summoned to the host at +the King's call."[6] + +There is no ambiguity or uncertainty about these pronouncements. The Old +English "fyrd," or militia, was the nation in arms. The obligation to +serve was a personal one. It had no relation to the possession of land; +in fact it dated back to an age in which the folk was still migratory +and without a fixed territory at all. It was incumbent upon all +able-bodied males between the ages of sixteen and sixty. Failure to obey +the summons was punished by a heavy fine known as "fyrdwite."[7] + +There is another point of prime significance. Universal service was, it +is true, an obligation. But it was more: it was the _mark of freedom_. +Not to be summoned stamped a man as a slave, a serf, or an alien. The +famous "Assize of Arms" ends with the words: "_Et praecepit rex quod +nullus reciperetur ad sacramentum armorum nisi liber homo._"[8] A +summons was a right quite as much as a duty. The English were a brave +and martial race, proud of their ancestral liberty. Not to be called to +defend it when it was endangered, not to be allowed to carry arms to +maintain the integrity of the fatherland, was a degradation which +branded a man as unfree. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] This chapter has been issued as a pamphlet by the National Service +League, 72, Victoria Street, S.W. + +[2] Gneist, R. _Englische Verfassungsgeschichte_, p. 4. + +[3] Cf. the Frankish Edict of A.D. 864: "Ad defensionem patriae omnes +sine ulla excusatione veniant." (Let all without any excuse come for the +defence of the fatherland.) + +[4] Grose, F. _Military Antiquities_, vol. i, p. 1. + +[5] Freeman, E. _Norman Conquest_, vol. iv, p. 681. + +[6] Stubbs, W. _Const. Hist._, vol. i, pp. 208, 212. + +[7] Oman, C. W. C. _Art of War in the Middle Ages_, p. 67. + +[8] Stubbs, W. _Select Charters_, p. 156. (The King orders that no one +except a freeman shall be admitted to the oath of arms.) + + + + +II. THE OLD ENGLISH MILITIA + + +This primitive national militia was not, it must be admitted, a very +efficient force. It lacked coherence and training; it was deficient both +in arms and in discipline; it could not be kept together for long +campaigns. The Kings, therefore, from the first supplemented it by means +of a band of personal followers, a bodyguard of professional warriors, +well and uniformly armed, and practised in the art of war. Nevertheless, +the main defence of the country rested with the "fyrd." The Danish +invasions put it to the severest test and revealed its military defects. +It was one of the most notable achievements of Alfred to reorganize and +reconstitute it. Thus reformed, with the support of an ever-growing body +of King's thegns, it wrought great deeds in the days of Alfred, Edward +and Athelstan, and recovered for England security and peace. In the days +of their weaker successors, however, all the forces that England could +muster failed to keep out Sweyn and Canute, and, above all, failed to +hold the field at Hastings. + +The Norman Conquest might have been expected to involve the extinction +of the English militia. For feudalism as developed by William I was +strongest on its military side, and William's main force was the levy of +his feudal tenants. But quite the contrary happened. The Norman monarchs +and their Angevin successors were, as a matter of fact, mortally afraid +of their great feudal tenants, the barons and knights through whom the +Conquest had been effected. Hence, as English kings, they assiduously +maintained and fostered Anglo-Saxon institutions, and particularly the +"fyrd," which they used as a counterpoise to the feudal levy. They even +called upon it for Continental service and took it across the Channel to +defend their French provinces.[9] Thus in 1073 it fought for William I +in Maine; in 1094 William II summoned it to Hastings for an expedition +into Normandy; in 1102 it aided Henry I to suppress the formidable +revolt of Robert of Belesme, Earl of Shrewsbury; in 1138 it drove back +the Scots at the Battle of the Standard; and in 1174 it defeated and +captured William the Lion at Alnwick. So valuable, indeed, did it prove +to be that Henry II resolved to place it upon a permanent footing and +clearly to define its position. With that view he issued in 1181 his +"Assize of Arms." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[9] Stubbs, W. _Select Charters_, p. 83; and _Const. Hist._, vol. i, p. +469. + + + + +III. MEDIAEVAL REGULATIONS + + +Into the details of the "Assize of Arms" it is unnecessary here to +enter. Are they not written in every advanced text-book of English +history? Three things, however, are to be noted. First, that the duty +and privilege of military service are still bound up with freedom; no +unfree man is to be admitted to the oath of arms. Secondly, that upon +freemen the obligation is still universal: "all burgesses and the whole +community of freemen (_tota communa liberorum hominum_) are to provide +themselves with doublets, iron skullcaps, and lances." Thirdly, that, +closely as freedom had during the centuries of feudalism become +associated with tenancy of land, the national militia had not been +involved in feudal meshes: the obligation of service remained still +personal, not territorial. + +In 1205 John, fearing an invasion of the Kingdom, called to arms all the +militia sworn and equipped under the Assize, _i.e._, all the freemen of +the realm. Short-shrift was to be given to any who disobeyed the +summons: "_Qui vero ad summonitionem non venerit habeatur pro capitali +inimico domini regis et regni_" (He who does not come in response to the +summons shall be regarded as a capital enemy of the king and kingdom.) +The penalty was to be the peculiarly appropriate one of reduction to +perpetual servitude. The disobedient and disloyal subject who made the +great refusal would _ipso facto_ divest himself of the distinguishing +mark of his freedom.[10] + +Henry III in 1223 and 1231 made similar levies. In 1252, in a notable +writ for enforcing Watch and Ward and the Assize of Arms, he extended +the obligation of service to villans and lowered the age limit to +fifteen. Edward I reaffirmed these new departures in his well-known +Statute of Winchester (1285), in which it is enacted that "every man +have in his house harness for to keep the peace after the ancient +assize, that is to say, every man between fifteen years of age and sixty +years." Further, he enlarged the armoury of the militiaman by including +among his weapons the axe and the bow.[11] + +The long, aggressive wars of Edward I in Wales and Scotland, and the +still longer struggles of the fourteenth century in France, could not, +of course, be waged by means of the national militia. Even the feudal +levy was unsuited to their requirements. They were waged mainly by means +of hired professional armies. Parliament--a new factor in the +Constitution--took pains in these circumstances to limit by statute the +liabilities of the old national forces. An Act of 1328 decreed that no +one should be compelled to go beyond the bounds of his own county, +except when necessity or a sudden irruption of foreign foes into the +realm required it.[12] Another Act, 1352, provided that the militia +should not be compelled to go beyond the realm in any circumstances +whatsoever without the consent of Parliament.[13] Both these Acts were +confirmed by Henry IV in 1402.[14] But the old obligation of universal +service for home defence remained intact. It was, in fact, enforced by +Edward IV in 1464, when, on his own authority, he ordered the Sheriffs +to proclaim that "every man from sixteen to sixty be well and defensibly +arrayed and ... be ready to attend on his Highness upon a day's warning +in resistance of his enemies and rebels and the defence of this his +realm."[15] This notable incident carries us to the end of the Middle +Ages, and shows us the Old English principle in vigorous operation. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] Gervase of Canterbury. _Gesta Regum_, vol. ii, p. 97. + +[11] _Statutes of the Realm_, vol. i, pp. 96-8. + +[12] 1 Ed. III, c. 2. Sec.Sec.5-7. + +[13] 25 Ed. III, c. 5. Sec.8. + +[14] 4 Hy. IV, c. 13. + +[15] Rymer, T. _Foedera_, vol. xi, p. 524. + + + + +IV. TUDOR AND STUART DEVELOPMENTS + + +The Wars of the Roses, so fatal to the feudal nobility, left the +national militia the only organized force in the country. The Tudor +period, it is true, saw the faint foreshadowing of a regular army in +Henry VII's Yeomen of the Guard, and the nucleus of a volunteer force in +the Honourable Artillery Company, established in London under Henry +VIII. But these at the time had little military importance, and England +remained dependent for her defence throughout the sixteenth century, +that age of unprecedented prosperity and glory, upon her militant +manhood. Hence the Tudor monarchs paid great attention to the +maintenance and equipment of the militia. The practice (which had grown +up in the later Middle Ages) of limiting the normal call to arms to a +certain quota of men from each county was revived. If the required +numbers were not forthcoming compulsion was employed. Statutes were +passed making discipline more rigid. Lords Lieutenant were instituted to +take over the command, with added powers, from the Sheriffs. An +important Mustering Statute (1557) was enacted, graduating afresh the +universal liability to service, and making new provision for weapons and +organization.[16] William Harrison, writing in 1587, said: "As for able +men for service, thanked be God! we are not without good store; for by +the musters taken 1574-5 our numbers amounted to 1,172,674, and yet were +they not so narrowly taken but that a third part of this like multitude +was left unbilled and uncalled."[17] This from a population estimated at +less than six million all told! Such was the host on which England +relied for safety in 1588, if by chance the galleons of Spain should +elude the vigilance of Drake and should land Parma's hordes upon our +shores. Well might the country feel at ease behind such a fleet and with +such a virile race of men to second it. + +The Stuarts did not take kindly to the English militia. It was too +democratic, too free. James I, in the very first year of his reign, +conferred upon its members the seductive but fatal gift of exemption +from the burden of providing their own weapons.[18] As he himself took +care not to provide them too profusely, the force speedily lost both in +efficiency and independence. The Civil War hopelessly divided it, as it +did the nation, into hostile factions. The Royalist section was +ultimately crushed, while the Parliamentary section was gradually +absorbed into that first great standing army which this country ever +knew, the New Model of 1645. For fifteen years the people groaned under +the dominance of this arbitrary, conscientious, and very expensive +force. Then, in 1660, came the Restoration, and with it the disbanding +of the New Model and the re-establishment of the militia. The country +went wild with joy at the recovery of its freedom. + +Charles II, however, was bent on securing for his own despotic purposes +a standing army. Hence he obtained permission from Parliament to have a +permanent bodyguard, and he gradually increased its numbers until he had +some 6,000 troops regularly under his command. James II increased them +to 15,000, and by their means tried to overthrow the religion and the +liberties of the nation. He was defeated and driven out; but his effort +to establish a military despotism made the name of "standing army" stink +in the nostrils of the nation. "It is indeed impossible," said one of +the leading statesmen of the early eighteenth century, "that the +liberties of the people can be preserved in any country where a numerous +standing army is kept up."[19] The national militia continued, as of +old, to stand for freedom and self-government. The voluntarily enlisted +standing army was regarded as the engine and emblem of tyranny. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] 4-5 P. and M., c. 2. + +[17] Harrison, W. _Elizabethan England_, chap. xxii. + +[18] 1 Jac. I, c. 25. + +[19] Speech by Pulteney, A.D. 1732: See _Parl. Hist._, vol. viii, p. +904. + + + + +V. THE LAST TWO CENTURIES + + +The eighteenth century saw a constant struggle on the part of +constitutionalists to get rid of the standing army altogether. Army +Acts, which recognized and regulated the new force, were limited in +their operation to a year at a time, and were passed under incessant +protest. Grants to maintain the army were similarly restricted. Every +interval of peace witnessed the rapid reduction of the regulars. But the +times were adverse. Wars were frequent, and on an ever-increasing scale +of magnitude and duration. The standing army had to be maintained, and, +indeed, steadily enlarged. + +But the militia for home defence was never allowed to become extinct, +and it enjoyed an immense popularity. In 1757 it was carefully +reorganized by statute.[20] The number of men to be raised was settled, +and each district was compelled to provide a certain proportion. The +selection was to be made by ballot, to the complete exclusion of the +voluntary principle. During the Napoleonic war, when invasion seemed +imminent, the militia was several times called out and embodied. In 1803 +an actual levy _en masse_ of all men between the ages of seventeen and +fifty-five was made. In 1806 the principle of universal obligation on +which it was based was clearly stated by Castlereagh in the House of +Commons. He spoke of "the undoubted prerogative of the Crown to call +upon the services of all liege subjects in case of invasion."[21] + +At the moment when he spoke, however, the imminent fear of invasion had +been removed--removed, indeed, for a century--by Nelson's crowning +victory at Trafalgar. From that time forward the military forces of the +Crown were required not so much for the defence of the United Kingdom +itself as for the provision of garrisons for the vast Empire which had +grown up during the eighteenth century. These imperial garrisons had +necessarily to be drawn from professional troops voluntarily enlisted. +Thus the militia declined. An effort was made in 1852 to revive it, and +again the underlying principle of compulsion was explicitly recognized. +The Militia Act of that year[22] contains the provision: "In case it +appears to H.M. ---- that the number of men required ... cannot be raised +by voluntary enlistment ... or in case of actual invasion or imminent +danger thereof, it shall be lawful for H.M. ---- to order and direct +that the number of men so required ... shall be raised by ballot as +herein provided." The effort at revival was unfortunately vain, and when +in 1859 international trouble again seemed to be brewing, instead of +appealing once more to the immemorial defence of the country, the +Government weakly and with most deplorable results allowed the formation +of a new body, the volunteers--a body whose patriotism was noble, whose +intentions were admirable, but whose inefficiency became and remained a +byword.[23] The militia continued ingloriously, mainly as a nursery for +the regular army. + +Finally, in 1908, Mr. (now Lord) Haldane absorbed both volunteers and +militia into the new Territorial and Reserve Forces, the militia +becoming a Special Reserve.[24] It is much to be regretted that the Act +of 1908 did not expressly reaffirm the continued validity of the +compulsory principle of service which from the earliest times had been +the basis of the militia. But, though it did not expressly reaffirm it, +it left it absolutely unimpaired and intact. Said Mr. Haldane himself in +the House of Commons on April 13th, 1910: "The Militia Ballot Acts and +the Acts relating to the local militia are still unrepealed, and could +be enforced if necessary." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] 31 Geo. II, c. 26. + +[21] Cobbett. _Parliamentary Debates_, vol. vii, p. 818. + +[22] 15-16 Vict. c. 50. Sec.18. + +[23] For occasional levies of volunteers from sixteenth century onwards, +see Medley, D. J., _Const. Hist._, p. 472. + +[24] 7 Ed. VII, c. 9. + + + + +VI. CONCLUSION + + +Such is the condition of things at the present time. The principle of +compulsory military service, obligatory upon every able-bodied male +between the ages of sixteen and sixty, is still the fundamental +principle of English Law, both Common Law and Statute Law. It has been +obscured by the pernicious voluntary principle, which, in the +much-abused name of Liberty, has shifted a universal national duty upon +the shoulders of the patriotic few. But it has never been revoked or +repudiated. + +It is not National Service, but the Voluntary System, that is +un-English and unhistoric. The Territorial Army dates from 1908; the +Volunteers from 1859; the Regular Army itself only from 1645. But for a +millennium before the oldest of them the ancient defence of England was +the Nation in Arms. When will it be so again? + + + + +II + +COMPULSORY SERVICE AND LIBERTY + + + [Reprinted, with the addition of References, from the _Morning + Post_ of September 28th, 1915.] + + + + +I. THE PLEA OF FREEDOM + + +The opponents of national service pursue two lines of argument, the one +historical, the other theoretical. Along the line of history they try to +show that compulsory military duty is alien from the English +Constitution, and that the voluntary system is the good old system by +means of which Great Britain has maintained her independence, achieved +her glories, and founded her Empire. Along the line of political theory +they contend that the demand for national service is contrary to the +spirit of liberty, that freedom is an essential characteristic of the +English genius, that Britons may be persuaded but not coerced, and so +on. + +In the preceding study I have shown the utter baselessness of the +historical argument, pointed out that compulsory service was the very +foundation of the Anglo-Saxon system of defence, and concluded that +whereas "the Territorial Army dates from 1908, the Volunteers from 1859, +the Regular Army itself only from 1645, for a millennium before the +oldest of them the ancient defence of England was the Nation in Arms." I +now turn to the theoretical argument, and propose to consider what is +meant by the term "liberty," and ask whether the compulsion involved in +national service is incompatible with liberty properly understood. + + + + +II. THE TERM "LIBERTY" + + +There can be no doubt that in this country, as in America, the term +"liberty" enjoys much popularity. Sir John Seeley has remarked that just +as "its unlimited generality" makes it "delightful to poets," so its +harmonious sound is so grateful to the ears of the public at large that +"if a political speech did not frequently mention liberty," no one would +"know what to make of it or where to applaud."[25] Matthew Arnold goes +so far as to speak of "our worship of freedom," and to depict liberty +as the object of a fanatical semi-religious adoration.[26] But as a rule +where an Englishman adores he does not define, and if one asks the +common devotee of liberty what he understands by the abstraction before +which he prostrates himself, one generally requires but a small portion +of the dialectic subtlety of Socrates to involve him in a hopeless +tangle of contradictions. He can no more define liberty than he can +locate his soul. Mr. D. G. Ritchie truly says: "Many crimes have been +done, and a still greater amount of nonsense talked in the name of +liberty."[27] Seeley, with as much justice as pungency, asserts that +some writers "teach us to call by the name of liberty whatever in +politics we want," and so lead us to disguise our selfishness and +cowardice in the stolen garb of moral principle.[28] At any rate, there +is urgent need that before we either support or oppose any practical +political measure in the name of liberty, we should clear our minds of +confusion, and should reach an understanding of what precisely we mean +by this vast and vague expression. It will be found, I think, upon +examination, that the term "liberty," as employed in the sphere of +politics, has four distinct connotations. I hope to show that in no one +of these four senses is liberty incompatible with the compulsory element +implicit in the principle of national service. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[25] Seeley. _Introduction to Political Science_, pp. 103-4. + +[26] Arnold. _Culture and Anarchy_, chap. ii. + +[27] Ritchie. _Natural Rights_, p. 135. + +[28] Seeley: _op. cit._, p. 103. + + + + +III. LIBERTY AS FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN CONTROL + + +"A free nation," says Sir William Temple, "is that which has never been +conquered, or thereby entered into any condition of subjection."[29] In +this sense of freedom from foreign domination liberty is the immemorial +boast of Britons. They never have been, or will be, slaves. They are, +and they are determined to remain--so they proudly sing--free as the +waves that wash their shores, free as the winds that sweep their hills. +They are resolved that no alien tyrant shall plant his foot upon their +necks. As in the Middle Ages they repudiated the claim of German +Emperors and Ultramontane Popes to exercise political sovereignty over +them; as in more modern times they resisted conquest by the Spaniard +Philip and the Corsican Napoleon; even so would they resist to the +extreme limit of endurance any attempt to-day to reduce them to +servitude. The proposition that freedom in this sense of national +independence is consistent with compulsory military service needs no +demonstration at all. So far from there being any incompatibility +between the two, it is probable that only by means of a manhood +universally trained to the use of arms can the freedom of Britain and +the integrity of the Empire be ultimately maintained. We shall almost +certainly have to choose, not between national service and liberty, but +between national service and destruction. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[29] Temple. _Works_ ii, p. 87. + + + + +IV. LIBERTY AS SYNONYMOUS WITH RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT + + +In a second and somewhat looser sense "Liberty is regarded as the +equivalent of Parliamentary government."[30] We speak of one type of +Constitution as "free" and of another type as "unfree." The so-called +"free" type of government is that in which political power rests in the +hands of the Democracy, whereas in "unfree" States the people are in +subjection to a ruling person or class. From the point of view of the +individual subject this distinction has no meaning at all. For the laws +passed by a Democratic Parliament are coercive and compulsory in +precisely the same manner and degree as are the laws of a despotic +monarchy or a close oligarchy. There is, indeed, a "tyranny of the +majority" which can be quite as oppressive to the individual as the +tyranny of the one or the few, and much less easy to evade. From the +point of view of the enfranchised community, however, the term "free" +has a meaning, and its use can be defended. For if the electorate be +regarded as a unit, akin to an organism, government becomes +self-government, and any obligations which the community places upon +itself by means of laws can be looked upon as self-limitations, imposed +by free-will and capable of removal at any moment by the unfettered +exercise of the power which imposed them. From this communal point of +view, however, it is evident that national service involves no +diminution of liberty. The community becomes not one whit less free +because it decides to train itself in the use of arms and to mobilize +all its resources for military purposes. It retains its capacity to +demobilize any time it likes, to lay aside its arms, to pension off its +drill sergeants, and to return to the paths of pacificism whenever it +seems safe to do so. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[30] Seeley: _op. cit._, p. 114. + + + + +V. LIBERTY AS ABSENCE OF RESTRAINT + + +It cannot be denied, however, that compulsory military service does +interfere with the power of the _individual_ to do as he likes. He is +forced, whether he wants to or not, to undergo certain discipline in +time of peace, and to face uncertain danger in time of war. National +service, then, is a restriction of his liberty, if by liberty is meant +the absence of all restraint. Now this is precisely the sense in which +the term is most frequently used. "Quid est libertas?" (What is +liberty?), asked Cicero, and he replied: "Potestas vivendi ut velis" +(The power of living as you like).[31] "Freedom," said Sir Robert +Filmer, "is the liberty for everyone to do what he lists, to live as he +pleases, and not to be tied by any laws."[32] Even Locke, Filmer's great +opponent, admitted that "the natural liberty of man is to be free from +any superior power on earth." But who is the man who possesses this +unlimited natural liberty to live as he likes, and to act as he pleases, +subject to no superior power on earth? He is either a Robinson Crusoe, +existing alone on a desert island, or he is an anarchist living in the +midst of anarchists, and acknowledging no civil government whatsoever. +In the latter case his career is likely to be as "poor, nasty, brutish, +and short" as that of the primitive savage depicted by Hobbes. For if +one man is free to live as he likes, subject to no superior power, so +are all. Hence in such a society of absolute freemen, human law is +totally abrogated, no life is protected, no property safeguarded. +Everyone, so far as his power avails, does what he pleases, takes what +he covets, slays whom he hates. When his power ceases to avail, that is +when a stronger than he appears upon the scene, he is himself liable to +be despoiled and killed. Such is the state of society in which absolute +liberty obtains. It is a chaos of incessant civil war, where "every man +is enemy to every man." Its unfortunate victims, the possessors of +unrestricted liberty, find that there is + + + War among them, and despair + Within them, raging without truce or term.[33] + + +It is from this intolerable condition of perfect freedom that +government saves a man. But it saves him--and in no other way can it +possibly do so--by taking away from both himself and his fellows alike +and in equal measure, part of their insufferable birthright of liberty. +The very essence of government is restriction, compulsion, law. Under +government, then, whatever may be its form, no man is free in the sense +of being exempt from restraint. Natural liberty gives place in organized +society to civil liberty, which is a much more modest and limited thing. +"Civil liberty," says Blackstone, "is no other than natural liberty so +far restrained by human laws as is necessary and expedient for the +general advantage of the public."[34] In the same sense Austin defines +it as "the liberty from legal obligation which is left or granted by a +sovereign government to any of its own subjects."[35] But the most +luminous definition is that of Montesquieu, who says: "La liberte est +le droit de faire tout ce que les lois permettent."[36] Those who would +understand what true civil or political liberty is, and what are its +necessary limitations, should imprint this profound utterance upon their +memories, and employ it as a universal test of sound thinking on the +subject. + +"Liberty is the right to do all that the laws allow"--no more, and no +less. Liberty, then, in the sphere of politics, is not the absence of +all restraint whatsoever, but only the absence of all restraint except +that of the law. Thus the freedom of which Britons boast--"English +liberty"--is not a licence to anyone to do as he likes, but is merely +the right of everyone to do what the laws of England permit, and it is a +splendid possession merely because the laws of England are eminent for +justice and equity. "English liberty" is perfectly consistent, as we all +admit, with compulsory registration, vaccination, education, taxation, +insurance, inspection, and countless other legal coercions. From our +cradles to our graves we are beset behind and before by government +regulations; yet we rightly assert that we are free. If then the laws of +England add one more coercion, and proclaim anew the duty of universal +military service, not only will they do a thing consonant with justice +and equity, they will also do a thing which does not in the smallest +degree diminish any individual's civil liberty.[37] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[31] Cicero. _Parad._, v, 1. + +[32] Filmer. _Patriarcha_, quoted and criticized by Locke, _On +Government_, book ii, chap. iv. + +[33] Shelley. _Ode to Liberty_, Canto 2. Compare the description of +_Huriyeh_ (Liberty) given by Sir Mark Sykes in _The Caliphs' Last +Heritage_. I quote the following from a review in _The Spectator_, of +November 27th, 1915: Sir Mark Sykes saw _Huriyeh_ (Liberty) at work in +the distant provinces of the Empire. "What, O father of Mahmud," he said +to an old Arab acquaintance, "is this _Huriyeh_?" The "father of Mahmud" +replied without hesitation "that there is no law and each one can do all +he likes." Neither was this lawless interpretation of liberty confined +to Moslems. The Greek Christians in the neighbourhood of Hebron were +"armed to the teeth and glad of _Huriyeh_, for they say they can now +raid as well as other men." In Anatolia, a muleteer who had been +discharged from Sir Mark Sykes's service "spent all his time singing +'Liberty--Equality--Fraternity,' the reason being that the Committee at +Smyrna released him from prison, where he was undergoing sentence for +his third murder." + +[34] Blackstone. _Commentaries_, i, 140. + +[35] Austin. _Jurisprudence_, p. 274. + +[36] Montesquieu. _Esprit des Lois_, p. 420. + +[37] _Cf._ Philip Snowden, _Socialism and Syndicalism_, p. 175. "When +all submit to law imposed by the common will for the common good, the +law is not slavery, but true liberty." + + + + +VI. LIBERTY AS THE OPPORTUNITY FOR SERVICE + + +Liberty as absence of restraint is, however, a merely negative thing; it +is a "being let alone." Some great writers, John Stuart Mill for +example, treat it as though it had only this negative character, and as +though to be let alone were necessarily and in itself a good thing. But +others have truly and forcefully shown, first, that to be let alone may +sometimes be a doubtful blessing, and, secondly, that liberty has a +further and positive aspect not less important than the negative. Sir J. +F. Stephen, in his _Liberty, Equality, Fraternity_, vigorously +criticizes Mill's negative theory. Matthew Arnold in _Culture and +Anarchy_ (a work which well repays perusal at the present time) pours +delightful but destructive ridicule upon "our prevalent notion that it +is a most happy and important thing for a man merely to be able to do as +he likes." Thomas Carlyle, in _Past and Present_ and elsewhere, +vehemently expounds a positive ideal of liberty which involves strenuous +work for the good of man and for social advancement. "If liberty be not +that," he concludes, "I for one have small care about liberty." But +first in eminence among the exponents of the positive aspect of liberty +stands Thomas Hill Green, of Oxford. In his works he contends that +liberty is more than absence of restraint, just as beauty is more than +absence of ugliness.[38] He holds that it includes also "a positive +power or capacity of doing or enjoying something worth doing or +enjoying." He agrees with Mazzini that complete freedom is "found only +in that satisfying fulfilment of civic duties to which rights, however +precious, are but the vestibule."[39] He looks at freedom, that is to +say, from the communal and not from the individual point of view. Man is +a political animal, and only in an organized society can he attain his +highest development. It is not good for man to be alone; each individual +needs the companionship and co-operation of his fellows; no one in +solitude can attain even to self-realization. Hence, government is more +than a restraining power; it is also an organizing power. It not only +prevents its subjects from injuring one another; it places them where +they can most effectively aid one another and work together for the +common weal. It frees their faculties from the impotence of isolation, +and opens up to them the unbounded possibilities of corporate activity. +Hence, liberty on its positive side becomes merged in national service, +in the broad sense of the fulfilment of the duties of citizenship. Thus +he is an enemy of freedom who holds himself aloof from his fellows and +declines to bear his share in the general burden. If, then, the State +calls upon all its subjects to join together in undertaking the supreme +task of national defence, every true lover of liberty must respond "Here +am I." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[38] Green, _Principles of Political Obligation_, p. 110-5. + +[39] _Cf._ MacCunn, _Six Radical Thinkers_, p. 259. + + + + +III + +THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE + + + [Reprinted from the _Morning Post_ of December 28th, 1915.] + + + + +I. THE IDEA OF VOLUNTARISM + + +It is sometimes said that Britons are a common-sense and practical +people, but a people impervious to ideas; that they are quick at the +invention of expedients, but slow to recognize and follow general +principles. This statement may be true of the nation as a whole; but it +is lamentably untrue in respect of our politicians. They do somehow now +and again get ideas into their heads, and when once they are there it +seems as though nothing on earth or from heaven can eradicate them. I +suppose that the explanation of this steadfast consistency, or +unteachable obstinacy, is that their ideas soon pass out of their own +control. Principles once professed are formulated into programmes, +programmes are solidified into platforms, and platforms are planted +upon the insensate rock of party organization. Hence, to abandon an idea +(even when it is found to be erroneous) or to repudiate a principle +(even when it is proved to be false and pernicious) involves a political +upheaval akin to a revolution. It is easier to continue to stand on an +obsolete platform and watch a nation drift to disaster than to abandon +the platform and endanger the party organization--euphemistically termed +for the occasion "national unity." An excellent case in point is the +pathetic devotion of successive Governments to the voluntary principle +of military service. + + + + +II. ITS ESTABLISHMENT + + +As we have already seen, the voluntary principle--a comparatively modern +novelty--is one which established itself in our constitution during the +long period of peace that followed the Battles of Trafalgar and +Waterloo, and it had its _raison d'etre_ in the circumstances of the +time. Our Navy had secured the undisputed command of the sea. Our shores +and the shores of our distant Dominions were secure from invasion. All +that we had to fear was an occasional Chartist riot, or Irish rebellion, +or Indian mutiny, or petty Colonial war. To suppress these sporadic +disorders a small professional army was incomparably the best +instrument, and it was, of course, best secured and maintained by the +system of voluntary enlistment. Thus in the halcyon Georgian and +Victorian days the right inherent in every sovereign Government to call +upon its subjects for national service sank into forgetfulness, the +ancient military obligations of Englishmen fell into desuetude, and +voluntarism held the field. + +A quarter of a century ago, however, _i.e._, soon after the present +German Emperor came to the throne, circumstances radically changed. +Germany obtained Heligoland and began to convert it into a naval base; +she developed marked colonial activity and threatened British ascendancy +in many parts of the world; she formulated a maritime programme and +commenced the construction of a formidable navy. Nor was she alone. +Other Powers also--Powers at that time regarded as less friendly to +Britain than Germany was supposed to be--started in the race for +overseas dominions, international commerce, and strong fleets. It became +evident to the most casual observer that sooner or later British command +of the sea might be challenged, Britain and the Dominions attacked, and +the future of the Empire put to the issue of war. Hence prudent +patriots, who in course of time organized themselves into the National +Service League under the guidance of Lord Roberts--_clarum atque +venerabile nomen_--urged the revival of the old-time duty of universal +military training in preparation for, and as the best safeguard against, +the growing peril. But no! Politicians had committed themselves to the +voluntary principle. The party caucuses would not risk the sacrifice of +place and power that might ensue from the preaching of the unpalatable +doctrine of duty and discipline to their masters, the electors. Hence, +amid dangers daily growing greater in magnitude, the defence of the +Empire on land (the garrisoning of one-fifth part of the land-area of +the globe) was left to the diminutive professional force established +merely for Imperial police purposes--a force smaller than that which +Serbia felt necessary to guard her independence, or Switzerland to +assure her neutrality. + + + + +III. THE RESULT + + +What was the result? It was this: that the British Empire, the richest +prize that the world has ever displayed, spread out its treasures before +the envious eyes of militant nations, practically undefended, save for +its slender ring of circling ships. There it lay, a constant and +irresistible lure, especially to that parvenu and predatory Germanic +Power which had appeared upon the European scene, as the offspring of +treachery and violence, in 1871. Thus those politicians--they were to be +found in all parties--who refused to face the new conditions, who +persisted in maintaining that the voluntary principle, which sufficed to +police an Empire externally secure, would also guard it against a world +in arms, did their unwitting best to render an attack inevitable, and to +ensure that when it burst upon us it should do us the maximum of damage. + +In due time, that is, when Germany thought that "the day" had dawned, +the war came. Then the voluntary principle manifested its proper fruits. +We found ourselves suddenly called upon to confront the supreme crisis +of our fate with a gigantic proletariat untrained and unarmed, and with +a diminutive army (below even its nominal strength), wholly inadequate +to the magnitude of its tasks. What were the consequences? They were +these: First, that our devoted Expeditionary Force, insufficient and +unsupported, was sent across the Channel to almost certain and complete +annihilation; secondly, that masses of reserves urgently needed on the +Continent had to be kept in these islands to counter the risks of +invasion; thirdly, that the mobility of our Navy had to be sacrificed to +the same necessity of domestic defence (hence the disaster to Admiral +Cradock); and, finally, that Belgium and North-East France had to be +abandoned to the enemy--to be recovered later, if possible, at the cost +of tens of thousands of lives. + +One would have thought that at such a crisis of destiny our politicians +would have faced the facts, would have realized that the time had come +to summon the nation, as a disciplined whole, to front its peril and do +its duty. If they had but had the courage to do so, who can doubt the +loyalty of the response? But, once more, No! All sorts of irrelevant +considerations of petty domestic politics--matters of votes and seats +and party prejudices--determined the issue. The voluntary principle must +at any cost be maintained sacrosanct and intact. Hence, to get the +necessary men--or, rather, far fewer than the necessary men--every +variety of extravagant and humiliating expedient had to be adopted. +Hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money were squandered in +advertisement and appeal, and a chaos of indiscriminate enlistment was +inaugurated. Again, with what results? With these results: First, that +myriads of middle-aged men with families have been taken while unmarried +slackers have been left; secondly, that invaluable war-workers have been +drawn from necessary tasks while useless wastrels have remained at +large; thirdly, that the rate of recruiting has been spasmodic and +wholly incalculable, that our armies have never been quite strong enough +for the successive operations assigned to them, and that consequently a +vast, needless, and largely fruitless sacrifice of the very cream of our +nation's manhood has taken place. To the idol of voluntarism a veritable +holocaust of victims has been offered up. + + + + +IV. THE PRESENT SITUATION + + +The voluntary principle, after seventeen months of inconceivably +destructive war, still nominally holds the field.[40] Our sovereign +politicians have up to the present remained verbally true to it; but at +what a price! They have indefinitely postponed victory; they have +allowed the sphere of operations to be immensely enlarged; they have +been compelled through sheer military feebleness to witness neutral +nations being drawn on to the side of the enemy; they have been unable +to strike a decisive blow anywhere. Thus the war drags on inconclusively +at a cost of L5,000,000 and 2,000 casualties every day. But the +voluntary principle has been respected and vindicated! Has it? True it +is that there has been a magnificent response to the Government's +appeals. The patriotism and devotion of one half of the nation have +effectively enabled the other half to evade its duty. But the time has +again come when the demand for more men is imperative. Voluntarism is +making its last efforts. Its devotees in their desperate endeavours to +prevent its formal abandonment are eliminating from it every element of +free will, and are introducing every device of veiled compulsion. +Canvassers and recruiting-sergeants have brought immense pressure to +bear upon every eligible man, under threats that unless he "volunteers" +he will shortly be fetched, and fetched on less favourable terms than +those now offered. Moreover, all sorts of other kinds of pressure are +added. The papers are full of instances. For example, the Foreign Office +is refusing passports to men of military age; the great shipping lines +are declining to take eligible emigrants; employers are refusing work +to applicants who they think might serve. Finally, Mr. Asquith, in the +House of Commons, gives the whole case away, and from the voluntarist +point of view perpetrates the great apostasy, by admitting that our +voluntary system of recruiting is "haphazard, capricious, and unjust," +and by protesting that he has "no abstract or _a priori_ objection of +any sort or kind to compulsion in time of war," adding that he has no +intention whatever to go to the stake "in defence of what is called the +voluntary principle."[41] Poor "voluntary principle"! Already abandoned +in practice, and now thrown over by its former high-priest! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[40] This was written in December, 1915. A few weeks later the Military +Service Bill became law. Compulsion is to be applied from March 1st, +1916. + +[41] House of Commons debate, November 2nd, 1915. + + + + +V. THE FUTURE + + +Is there any shred or remnant of this deserted and discredited voluntary +principle that is worth saving? There is not. It is the last +disreputable relic of the extreme individualism of the Manchester School +of the early nineteenth century, which taught a political theory that +has been abandoned by all serious thinkers. Everyone now admits that it +is the function of the State to secure as far as it can the conditions +of the good life to its citizens. It is the logical and inevitable +corollary that it is the duty of every citizen to support and safeguard +the State. It has long been one of the gravest weaknesses of our modern +democracy that, while it has insisted vehemently upon its claims against +the State--claims to education, employment, office, insurance, pension, +and so on--it has remained comparatively oblivious to its +responsibilities. Its so-called political leaders, who too often are but +self-seeking flatterers fawning for its favour, have persistently +encouraged it to concentrate its efforts upon getting without giving. It +has been taught that it is proper to use political power in pursuit of +selfish aims and to employ all manner of compulsion therein; but in the +matter of national service it has received soothing lessons on the +surpassing glories of the voluntary principle. It is the State which is +to be coerced by threats of passive resistance or general strikes; but +if the State attempts coercion in the exercise of its functions it is +met by the passionate proclamation of the rights of personal freedom. +Similarly, we have the amazing spectacle of Trade Unionists meeting in +congress to condemn "conscription" and at the same time sanctioning the +most extreme measures of illegal persecution to drive non-Unionists into +the ranks of their own organizations. It is a monstrous and intolerable +perversion of all sound political principles. The whole sorry business +is a flagrant example of the subtle way in which a democracy can be +cajoled, corrupted, and depraved. + +I elaborated this point in a letter to the _Observer_ which the Editor +kindly allows me to reprint here. It will be found in the issue of +January 17th, 1915: + + + One of the most curious phenomena of present-day politics is the + opposition offered by collectivists to conscription--under which + term they persistently and disingenuously include both the + compulsory service of the German army and the very different + universal military training of the Swiss citizen. + + Even Mr. Herbert Spencer and the extreme individualists of his + school admitted that national defence is a proper function of the + State, and that a government may rightly use compulsory powers to + safeguard the community from attack. + + But Mr. Arnold Bennett and the semi-socialists of the _Daily + Chronicle_ and the _Daily News_--although they are filled with + horror and indignation if it is suggested that an artisan should be + allowed to choose whether or not he will enjoy the advantages of + the Insurance Act; or that a collier, if he wishes to do so, should + be permitted to work for more than eight hours a day; or that a + labourer should be exempted from persecution as a blackleg if he + prefers to remain outside the fold of a trade union--are fired + with a long-dormant zeal for individual liberty, if it is urged + that a young man's citizenship is incomplete until he has been + called and prepared to defend his home and his country in case of + need. + + Their collectivism is, in fact, a peculiarly perverted or inverted + type of individualism. It insists on the right of the individual, + if unemployed, to come to the State for work; if in poverty, to + come to the State for relief; if ignorant, to come to the State for + education: but it strenuously resists the exercise by the State of + its reciprocal claim on the service of the individual. It is + engrossed by the contemplation of the rights of the individual and + the duties of the State; it ignores the rights of the State and the + duties of the individual. + + It is true that our voluntary system of military service has done + wonders in this war, far more indeed than could ever have been + expected of it; but this does not alter the fact that it is _wrong + in principle_. It is quite conceivable that a similar voluntary + system of monetary contributions would, if compulsory taxation were + abolished, supply the necessities of government; but it would be a + most iniquitous system, pressing heavily on the generous, and + allowing the niggardly to escape. We all, in fact, admit that it + would be entirely improper to replace the income-tax form by the + begging-letter. For precisely the same reasons it is entirely + improper that enlistment for home defence should depend on the + voluntary sacrifice of the patriotic minority, while the careless + and worthless majority elude their duty. + + It is, moreover, deeply humiliating to the national pride to see + the protection of our shores, and the existence of our Empire, + dependent on the response made to advertisements, to platform + appeals, to music-hall songs, and to the kisses so generously + proffered by popular actresses. + + +It will be no small compensation for the immeasurable losses of this war +if the lofty old-English ideals of duty and service are restored to +their rightful place in our political system, and if in respect of the +essentials of national existence, viz., defence of the realm and +obedience to law, we completely eliminate and frankly repudiate--as we +have already done in the sphere of taxation--the enervating one-sided +individualism of the voluntary principle. + + + + +IV + +PASSIVE RESISTANCE + + + + +I. THE NEW PERIL + + +For a long time past there has existed in this country a sort of +smouldering rebellion known as passive resistance. It is difficult to +say when it had its origin; but probably it could be traced back to the +Reformation. For it is merely a veiled manifestation of that anarchic +individualism and that morbid conscientiousness--the extremes of +qualities admirable in moderation--which first became formidable in +England on the break-up of mediaeval Christendom. In recent times it has +displayed itself in many new forms, and on an increasingly large scale, +until now, in this great crisis of our fate, it has grown to be a +serious menace to the national unity, and a grave danger to the very +existence of the State. We have in our midst at the present day--to +mention only the leading specimens--Ritualists who refuse to obey +judgments of the Privy Council, or to heed injunctions issued by bishops +appointed by the Crown; Anti-Vivisectionists who resist regulations +regarded as essential by the health authorities; Undenominationalists +who decline to pay rates necessary to maintain the system of education +established by law; Christian Scientists whose criminal neglect in the +case of dangerous diseases not only renders them guilty of homicide, but +also imperils the welfare of the whole community; Suffragists who defy +all law comprehensively, on the ground that the legislature from which +it emanates is not constituted as they think it ought to be; Trade +Unionists who combine to stultify any Act of Parliament which conflicts +with the rules of their own organizations; and finally, a +No-Conscription Fellowship whose members expressly "deny the right of +Government to say, 'You _shall_ bear arms,'" and threaten to "oppose +every effort to introduce compulsory military service into Great +Britain."[42] Here is a pretty collection of aliens from the +commonwealth! It contains examples of almost every variety of +anti-social eccentricity. So diverse and conflicting are the types of +passive resistance represented that there is only one thing that can be +predicated of all the members of all the groups, and it is this--that +they are rebels. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[42] No-Conscription Manifesto printed in full in the _Morning Post_, +May 31st, 1915. + + + + +II. PASSIVE RESISTANCE AS REBELLION + + +The essential preliminary to any useful discussion of passive resistance +is the clear recognition of the fact that it is rebellion, and nothing +less. To say, or admit, this is not necessarily to condemn it; for there +are few persons to-day, I suppose, who would contend that rebellion is +never justifiable. All it asserts is that passive resistance has to be +judged by the same measures and according to the same standards as any +other kind of revolt against constituted political authority. It is all +the more needful to make this plain because some of the milder but more +muddled among the resisters try to shut their eyes to the fact that they +are rebels. They claim to be sheep and not goats. They call themselves +Socialists; they profess an abnormal loyalty to the idea of the State; +they protest their devotion to the Great Society; they ask to be allowed +to make all sorts of sacrifices to the community; they announce their +willingness to do anything--except the one thing which the Government +requires them to do. The exception is fatal to their claim. "To obey is +better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." The State +does not and cannot submit the validity of its enactments to the private +judgment of its subjects. It expresses and enforces the general will, +and it dare not leave to the choice, or even to the conscience, of the +individual an option as to which of its commands shall be obeyed, and +which not. To do so would be to loose the bands of society, to bring to +an end the reign of law, and to plunge the community once again into +that primal chaos of anarchy from which in the beginning it painfully +emerged. The State demands, and must necessarily demand, implicit +obedience. From the loyal it receives it. Those from whom it does not +receive it are rebels, no matter how conscientious they may be, how +lofty their moral elevation, how sublimely passive their resistance. So +far as their disobedience extends they are the enemies of organized +society, disrupters of the commonwealth, subverters of government, the +allies and confederates of criminals and anarchists. It is worth noting, +moreover, how easily their passive resistance develops into more active +forms of rebellion. Not for long was the Suffragist content to remain +merely defensive in revolt; soon she emerged with whips for Cabinet +Ministers, hammers for windows, and bombs for churches. Resistant Trade +Unionists rapidly and generally slide into sabotage and personal +violence. The No-Conscriptionists of Ireland threaten through Mr. +Byrne, M.P., for Dublin, that "if Conscription is forced on Ireland, it +will be resisted by drilled and armed forces"[43]--a delightfully +Hibernian type of anti-militarism, which, nevertheless, throws a lurid +light on the real meaning of the movement. It is seen to be rebellion, +open, naked and unashamed. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[43] See _Times_, November 22nd, 1915. + + + + +III. THE RIGHT OF REBELLION + + +Passive resistance, then, is rebellion; but, as has already been +admitted, it is not on that account necessarily unjustifiable. An +established government may be so hopelessly iniquitous that it ought to +be overthrown; an organized society may be so irremediably corrupt that +it merits disruption; duly enacted laws may, when judged by moral +standards, be so flagrantly unjust as to demand the resistance of all +good men. There is no need to labour the point: actual examples crowd +upon the mind. Who would condemn the revolt of the Greeks against +Turkish rule? Who would contend that the degenerate society of the later +Bourbon monarchy did not deserve dissolution? Who would maintain that +John Hampden and Oliver Cromwell had no moral warrant for their +resistance to Charles I, or their successors to James II. We may freely +allow that in these cases, and in many similar ones, there existed on +ethical grounds a right, or more strictly a communal duty, to rebel. Few +would now proclaim with Filmer the divine right of any government to +exact obedience quite irrespective of the wishes or the interests of its +subjects. Still fewer would agree with Hobbes that an original contract +precludes for ever all opposition to sovereign political authority. The +ground on which political obligation is asserted has been shifted. The +State is recognized as "an institution for the promotion of the common +good," and it is admitted that if it ceases to promote the common good +the obligation to obey it is transformed into an obligation to reform +it, or even to + + + Shatter it to bits--and then + Remould it nearer to the heart's desire. + + +But, viewed thus, the right of rebellion assumes an aspect of awful +responsibility, perhaps the most tremendous within the sphere of +politics that the mind can conceive. For rebellion means the breaking-up +of the existing order, the throwing of institutions into the +melting-pot, the letting loose of incalculable forces of discord and +destruction, the suspension of law, the return to chaos, in the hope +that out of the welter a new and better cosmos--one more fitted to +promote the common good--may be evolved. Every rebel, or prospective +rebel, whether of the passive or the active type, ought to ponder well +the logical consequences of his revolt against authority, ought to +consider the inevitable results that would flow from the general +adoption of the principles which he professes, ought to decide whether +or not he really desires to overthrow the polity under which he lives, +ought to ask if he and his fellows are able to face with any serious +hope of success the colossal task of constructing a new society on the +ruins of the old. Now the historic rebels to whom I have referred above +by way of example--the Greek Nationalists, the French Revolutionists, +the English Puritans and Whigs--did not hesitate to acknowledge the +nature of their acts, and were not unprepared to face their +consequences. They did not deceive themselves, or attempt to deceive +others, by false professions of loyalty. The Greeks proclaimed their +undying hostility to the Turks, fought them, shook off their yoke, and +erected a national kingdom on the ruins of Turkish tyranny. The French +Revolutionists openly declared war upon the old regime, eradicated it +by means of the guillotine, and established a republic where it had +been. Similarly the English Puritans repudiated allegiance to Charles I, +brought him to the block, and instituted the Commonwealth in his place; +while the Whigs drove out James II and set up the constitutional +monarchy of William and Mary. One can respect heroic rebels of these +types. They were honest and open; they attacked great abuses; they took +great risks, and they achieved notable results. Very different are our +modern rebels. They profess with nauseating unction loyalty to the State +whose dominion they are undermining; they claim to be exceptionally +virtuous members of the Society whose unity they are destroying; above +all they continue to demand with insolent effrontery the protection of +the very law and the very courts whose authority they are denying and +defying. They can be freed from the charge of the most revolting +hypocrisy only on the plea that "they know not what they do." + + + + +IV. REBELLION AGAINST A DEMOCRACY + + +It is granted, then, that rebellion may sometimes be not only a +justifiable act, but also a bounden public duty. Three examples have +been given which perhaps may be allowed to have illustrated and +confirmed this view. It will be noted, however, that in each of the +cases cited the revolt was that of an oppressed community against a +government in which it had no part or lot, and over which it had no +constitutional control. Rebellion against a democracy on the part of +members of that democracy stands on a widely different footing. It is +treachery as well as insurrection. One can, indeed, conceive +circumstances which would justify it; but they would be rare and +exceptional, and that for two reasons. First, in a democracy +constitutional means are provided for the alteration of law and even for +the remodelling of the form of government. Secondly, if a democratic +government is undermined by disobedience, discredited by successful +defiance, destroyed by treasonable betrayal on the part of its own +professed supporters, there is nothing to take its place; the community +is bound either to drift into anarchy, or to revert to some sort of +tyranny. Let us consider these two points in turn. (1) The essence of +democracy is government according to the will of the majority. This +almost necessarily implies government in opposition to the will of one +or more minorities. But democratic minorities have a remedy--and it is +the peculiar virtue of democracy to provide it. It is this: by means of +argument, persuasion, and appeal; by press agitation and platform +campaign; through organization and combination, to convert themselves +into a majority. The whole of our English political system, the very +existence of our democratic constitution, depends upon the recognition +and acceptance of this rule of the game. If the will of the majority is +not to be regarded as authoritative, measures for reform of the +franchise, extension of the suffrage, and adjustment of the electoral +machine have no rational meaning at all. They are merely vanity and +vexation of spirit. What matter who makes the laws, or what laws are +made, if laws are not to be implicitly obeyed? Our extremists want to +have it both ways: they want to enforce law with majestic severity as +"the Will of the People," when they are in a majority; but they also +want to defy law with conscientious obstinacy as a violation of personal +freedom when they are in a minority. Some members of "The Union of +Democratic Control" are also members of the "No-Conscription +Fellowship"! Could inconsistency or muddle-headedness go further? Those +who wish to rule as part of a majority must be prepared to be overruled +as part of a minority. If minorities, instead of employing the +constitutional machinery placed at their disposal to secure the repeal +of obnoxious laws, are going to resist and rebel whenever the majority +does something of which they strongly disapprove, there is an end of +democratic government altogether, and a reversion to the state of +nature. T. H. Green in his _Principles of Political Obligation_ puts the +case clearly and well. He asks this very question, What shall an +individual do when he is faced by a command of a democratic government +which he believes to be wrong? He replies: "In a country like ours with +a popular government and settled methods of enacting and repealing laws, +the answer of common sense is simple and sufficient. He should do all he +can by legal methods to get the command cancelled, but till it is +cancelled, he should conform to it. The common good must suffer more +from resistance to a law or to the ordinance of a legal authority than +from the individual's conformity to the particular law or ordinance that +is bad, until its repeal can be obtained."[44] Here we have the true +ground of the duty of obedience. The antagonistic principle of passive +resistance provides a charter for criminals and anarchists. + +(2) The second point needs little enlargement. It is clear from many +examples in both ancient and modern history that if a monarchy is +overthrown an aristocracy can take its place, and that if an aristocracy +is dispossessed of power, room is made for a democracy. But what do our +rebels against democracy propose to substitute for the sovereign will of +the majority, if they succeed by resistance in reducing it to impotence? +Possibly they hope that their own exalted will may prevail. Let them not +flatter themselves by any such vain dream. Even assuming what is +improbable, viz., that they remain united among themselves, can they +suppose that their example of successful revolt will remain without +imitators, or that their anti-social doctrines will never be applied +again? If they will not render obedience when they are in a minority, +who will obey them even if they have a majority behind them? Government +will cease; the reign of order will be at an end; Society will be +dissolved amid "red ruin and the breaking-up of laws." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[44] Green. _Principles of Political Obligation_, p. 111. _Cf._ Ritchie, +Natural Rights, p. 243. + + + + +V. THE DUTY OF THE STATE + + +The case seems clear. Passive resistance is rebellion, and it is +entirely inconsistent with loyalty to any form of government. In +relation to democratic government it is, moreover, on the part of +members of the democracy, treachery of a peculiarly heinous type, since +it is a betrayal of the sovereign community by those within its own +ranks. If the sovereign community does (as it easily may) by the vote of +its majority make enactments which seem to any one of its subjects to be +morally wrong, that subject has two legitimate courses open to him. He +may either obey under protest, and meantime use all lawful influence at +his disposal to convince the majority of the error of their ways, and +convert them to his way of thinking; or he may withdraw from the +community and its territories altogether, and go to some other part of +the wide world where the obnoxious enactment is not in force. What he +may _not_ do, is to remain within the community, enjoy all the +advantages of its ordered life, exercise its franchises, receive the +protection of its forces, claim the securities of its courts and the +liberties of its constitution, and at the same time refuse to render it +obedience. + +If in his misguided perversity he adopts this last-named course, the +duty of the State is plain. It is to call him to submission, or to +withdraw its protection from him. The person who will not recognize the +State's sovereignty, has no claim upon the services of the State. The +first essential of a government is that it should govern. It should, of +course, exercise the utmost care in issuing commands to avoid as far as +possible the giving of offence to tender consciences; but when once its +deliberate commands are issued, and so long as they remain unrepealed, +it should enforce them with calm but inexorable determination. Nothing +is more fatal to the very foundations of political society, than the +spectacle of a government that can be defied with impunity.[45] That +demoralizing spectacle has been seen far too often during recent years, +and at the moment when the war broke out it had led us to the verge of +national disaster. The war has brought us into closer touch with +realities than we had been for many a long year before, and it has +taught us how ruinous it is in fatuous complacency to "wait and see" +whither disorder, disloyalty, and disobedience will conduct us. If, +however, there are still in our midst ministers who tremble before +rebellion, and do not know how to act in the presence of organized +passive resistance, let me commend to them the worthy example of Edward +I, who in 1296 was faced by a general refusal on the part of the clergy +to pay taxes. He simply excluded them from the protection of the laws, +and closed his courts to their pleas. A few weeks of well-merited +outlawry brought to an end their ill-advised experiment in passive +resistance. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[45] Maine (_Popular Government_, p. 64) emphasizes this point. "If," he +says, "any government should be tempted to neglect, even for a moment, +its function of compelling obedience to law--if a Democracy, for +example, were to allow a portion of the multitude of which it consists +to set some law at defiance which it happens to dislike--it would be +guilty of a crime which hardly any other virtue could redeem, and which +century upon century might fail to repair." + + + + +V + +CHRISTIANITY AND WAR + + + + +I. A CONFLICT OF CONVICTIONS + + +Few of those who lived through the critical ten days that culminated in +the outbreak of the Great War in August, 1914, will ever forget the +conflict of emotions which the events of that dramatic period called +forth. If I may speak of myself--though I think that I am merely one of +a large class--I was torn by the contending convictions, first, that +every consideration of honour and policy made it necessary for Britain +to go to the aid of Serbia, Belgium, France, and Russia in their +struggle against the wanton attack of the Central Empires; but, +secondly, that war is a relic of barbarism, wholly incompatible with +civilization, and entirely antagonistic to the Christian ideal. On the +one hand I realized the magnitude of the German menace to the +Commonwealth of Europe; recognized that the Teutonic race had long +plotted conquest, and that it was out for world-dominion; perceived the +significance of its monstrous demands on Serbia, and its shameless +violations of its treaty obligations to Luxemburg and Belgium; saw that +the triumph of the imperial militants would involve the disruption of +the concert of the nations, the abrogation of International Law +(laboriously instituted through three centuries of painful effort) and +the collapse of the democratic order; and felt, finally, that upon +British intervention depended the very existence of the British Empire +with all that it means of good to one-fifth part of the human race. Over +against this group of convictions I was confronted on the other hand by +a vision of the cosmopolitan and pacific Kingdom of God as proclaimed in +the Sermon on the Mount, and exemplified by Christ and His disciples in +Palestine, long ago--a Kingdom whose law is love; whose fundamental +principles are inexhaustible goodwill, meekness, gentleness, +brotherly-kindness and charity; whose administration works along the +gracious lines of sacrifice, unselfish devotion, and untiring +beneficence. Obviously, within the limits of such a Kingdom war is +inconceivable. Under such a regime, if it were universally established, +the one service which could never be demanded would be military +service. How can the consecrated servant of the Prince of Peace in any +circumstances become a man of war? + +The reconciliation of the contradiction is, I think, not impossible. It +is to be effected, it seems to me, by recognizing that unflinching +resistance to evil is the supreme duty of the present, while the +realization of the ideal, pacific, and world-wide Kingdom of God is the +goal of the future; and, further, that the attainment of the goal +depends upon the performance of the duty. At the moment our high task is +to defend our homes, our rights, our liberties, our institutions, our +standards of justice, our hopes for humanity, against the diabolical +aggressor. In a happier day and a freer world we may hope that, as one +of the results of our present struggle and sacrifice, beneath the sway +of restored and vindicated law, a larger scope may be given for the +spread of the divine realm of love. The vindication of law must precede +the proclamation of peace. The goodwill that shall put an end to strife +must be based on triumphant justice and sovereign righteousness. As yet +we see not law supreme, or justice and righteousness in the ascendant. +So long as violence is rampant, and evil stalks abroad, we must be +prepared to fight even to the death. It is vain--it is worse than vain; +it is treasonable--to cry "Peace, peace," when there is no peace, and +when the conditions of peace do not exist. + + + + +II. THE RELIGION OF THE BIBLE + + +The distinctive feature of the religion of the Bible is its indissoluble +connection with righteousness. Other primitive cults have been either +domestic, or economic, or political. Thus the Lares and Penates +safeguarded the pious Latin family irrespective of its ethical +character; the Greek deities, such as Dionysus and Aphrodite, were +frankly immoral, but if propitiated they gave plenty and prosperity; the +great gods of Rome were political personages who had no regard for +private virtues, and their proper worship was performed by State +officials whose functions strictly fell within the department of foreign +affairs. But the religion of the Chosen People, under both the Old and +the New Covenant, was, and still is, a faith whose keynote is divine +law. The standard which has led the hosts of Jehovah to victory +throughout the ages has been the lofty ethical code which it has +displayed and maintained. The Bible begins with the story of man's fall +from righteousness, and it ends with a vision of his restoration to +ideal holiness. The prime purpose of the religion of the Bible is the +conquest of sin, the defeat of the devil, the redemption of humanity, +the recovery of the lost paradise, and the re-establishment of the +Kingdom of Heaven. Milton made no mistake when he chose this as the +central theme of his two immortal epics. Everything else is secondary. + +Now the means which the Bible describes and recognizes for the +attainment of its supreme end are broadly two, viz., the persuasion of +love, and the compulsion of force. In the case of all those who can be +reached thereby the gentler means are employed. With what infinite +patience were the Children of Israel led throughout their chequered +career; with what divine compassion were the faltering disciples guided +along the way of salvation! But where gentler means fail or are +inapplicable, sterner measures are unhesitatingly sanctioned. The Bible +knows nothing of the pernicious Manichaean objection to the use of +physical force to attain moral ends. In the beginning the rebellious +angels were overthrown in battle by Michael and his hosts. The +consummation of all things is to be reached as the result of the field +of Armageddon. The Old Testament history is a long record of wars +undertaken at the divine command, and to the Children of Israel Jehovah +was peculiarly the God of Battles. Nor does the New Testament, with all +its insistence on the power of love, ever condemn the Old Testament +theology as false, ever repudiate force as a moral agent, ever denounce +war as necessarily evil. On the contrary, it celebrates the achievements +of the heroes of Israel who "waxed valiant in fight"; it announces +irremediable destruction to the impenitent and unyielding wicked; it +recognizes to the fullest degree the civil authorities who wield the +sword of justice, and make themselves a terror to evil-doers; it +proclaims that those who take the sword shall perish by the sword; it +admits centurions and soldiers to the company of the elect without +suggesting that they should forsake their military duties; it tells how +on one notable occasion Christ Himself used force to cleanse the temple, +and so for ever sanctified its use. + + + + +III. THE DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE OF THE CHURCH + + +The Church as a whole during the long and varied course of her history +has been true to the general Biblical principle that evil should, where +possible, be overcome by gentle means which give the evildoer room for +repentance, but that it should be stamped out by the force of inexorable +justice where gentle means have failed. No one can contend, I fear, that +the Church has always been wise or Christly in her application of this +sound Scriptural doctrine. She has, it must be admitted, sometimes +encouraged premature resort to force, and has given her blessing to +countless wanton wars. She has at other times treated as evils to be +suppressed by violent means offences which have been mere deviations +from her own arbitrary standards, and not violations of the eternal laws +of truth and right. Nevertheless, however imperfect her practice, all +her great teachers from Athanasius to Aquinas, and from Aquinas to the +present day, have rightly recognized the legitimacy of the employment of +force for moral purposes in the last resort, have admitted the +compatibility of Christianity with military service, and have confessed +that, evil as war is, there are evils still greater, and that the duty +of every Christian man may be to fight lest the cause of righteousness +and justice should suffer defeat. If the Church had taught otherwise--if +she had been captured by the Gnostic heresy of non-resistance--Mediaeval +Christendom and Western Civilization would inevitably have been +destroyed by the assaults of Huns and Saracens, Magyars and Tartars, +Vikings and Turks; while within the borders of Christendom itself law +and order would have perished at the hands of wicked and violent men. +Similarly in modern times common Christian opinion has agreed that there +are causes worth fighting for and worth dying for. The English Puritans, +for instance, including the early Quakers, considered that political +freedom and religious liberty were ideals that justified and indeed +demanded armed resistance to tyranny. During the last three centuries +there have been few who, on religious grounds, have condemned the revolt +of Christian peoples against Turkish misrule. In the American Civil War +many professed pacificists felt that for the abolition of slavery they +must need take arms. In our own recent history men like Havelock, +Gordon, and Roberts have regarded as sacred trusts the tasks of saving +women and children from massacre, of suppressing fanatical and cruel +tyranny, of preventing intolerable wrong. The Church with confident +consistency has rightly sanctioned and sanctified their heroic +enterprises. While condemning wars of ambition, conquest, or revenge, +she has taught that those who take arms to defend from murderous +violence the weak and helpless, to maintain the priceless heritage of +freedom, and to vindicate the majesty of law, may with humble assurance +and firm faith pray for and expect the benediction of the Lord of Hosts. +The Christian doctrine of war is admirably summarized by Burke in the +words:--"The blood of man is well shed for our family, for our friends, +for our God, for our country, for our kind; the rest is vanity; the rest +is crime."[46] + +FOOTNOTE: + +[46] Burke. _Regicide Peace_, vi, 145. + + + + +IV. FORCE AS A MORAL INSTRUMENT + + +Force, in short, has a proper and necessary place in the ethical sphere. +It is an indispensable instrument of the will to righteousness. The good +man and the good government resolve, in the spirit of the Lord, that +certain abominations shall not take place. They express their will in a +law. That law remains futile, it is a mockery and a fraud, unless they +are prepared to enforce it by all the means in their power, even if need +be by the shedding of blood. Much, no doubt, can and will be done to +secure obedience by education, by persuasion, and by appeal. Every +effort will be made to prevent the evildoer, and to convert him to the +good way. But the fact has to be faced that there are in the world +insensate scoundrels and hardened malefactors wholly beyond the reach of +education, persuasion, and appeal; men who have deliberately chosen evil +to be their good, and have made a binding compact with the powers of +darkness. With them force is the only possible argument. Unless it is +applied, there is nothing to prevent them from dominating the earth, +defying all law, and establishing the kingdom of the devil. At the back +of all effective law there is, in fact, physical force. Behind the +police stands the army. The magistrate would be wholly ineffective +without the soldier. The criminal population would laugh civilian +restraints to scorn, if it did not know that out of sight, but never far +away, are the bayonets and the guns of the ultimate defenders of the +peace. The salvation of the criminal is not everything: the salvation of +Society is more. Society would perish in a day if the basis of force +were removed from beneath the fabric of law. One of the falsest of false +generalizations is that which says that "force is no remedy." It is in +many cases the only remedy. In other cases it is better than a remedy; +it is a sovereign preventive of wrong. Force is the very essence of +government. By its means countless evils have been suppressed in the +past, such as highway-robbery, private war, duelling, piracy, +slave-trading. Only through fear of it is their recrudescence obviated. +If a man sees wrongs being perpetrated which he has strength to +prevent--if, for instance, he sees a child being tortured, a woman being +outraged, a helpless fellow-man being set upon and murdered--if he sees +these things and does not intervene with all his might, then he is not a +pacificist but a traitor to humanity, not a man but a contemptible or +infatuated worm. Similarly if a State stands on one side inactive while +small nations are wantonly stamped out of existence, while treaties are +violated, while International Law is defied, while unprecedented +barbarities are perpetrated, it sinks to the level of an accomplice in +crime, and proves itself worthy of the perdition which awaits those who +make "the great refusal." + +The days of universal and enduring peace, for whose dawning we all +ardently look, will not be ushered in by any diminution of the forces +wielded by the powers of goodness in the world, but rather by their +immense increase. Just as in our own country the King's Peace became +the secure possession of every Englishman only when the King's might +became irresistible, so in the larger sphere of the Society of Nations +the world's peace will be firmly established only when it is maintained +by the united forces of all the federated Peoples of goodwill. + + + + +V. THE IDEAL OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT + + +We, then, at the present moment are in the throes of a conflict from +which we had no honourable means of escape. Not to have taken our place +by the side of our Allies would have been to break our word, to violate +our faith, to betray the righteous cause. We are doing, at the cost of +awful sacrifice, our high duty; we have before us the noblest of +purposes; we are fighting with hands that are clean, with consciences +that are clear, and with hearts that are inspired by the courage of +conviction. It is our fervent hope and our faithful belief that if, in +spite of our wicked lack of preparation and our subsequent incredible +follies, Heaven grants us a good victory, we shall use it to further the +advance of humanity towards the goal of the Kingdom of God. + +What that kingdom is we are shown in that matchless mosaic of +utterances attributed to Christ, known as the Sermon on the Mount. It is +the kingdom of righteousness, justice, love, and peace. When, however, +we study the details of the polity of that kingdom, as they are set +forth in the evangelical picture, we perceive (as the Church Universal +has always perceived and taught) that they are capable of realization +only in a Christian society cut off from the world, or in a world become +dominantly Christian. To give to all who ask, to lend indiscriminately +without expecting any return, would in society as at present constituted +not only speedily reduce ourselves to destitution; it would also +pauperize and demoralize those into whose hands our squandered wealth +should pass. To take no thought for the morrow, and to refuse to lay up +treasure on earth, would under existing economic conditions simply mean +that we should become useless burdens upon a thrifty and prudent +community. To ignore the legal and judicial institutions of our country +by neither judging nor going to law in cases where wrong has been +inflicted would be to foster the perpetration of crime in a world whose +very propensity towards crime has necessitated the establishment of the +courts. Similarly to decline to resist evil, where evil is rampant and +aggressive, would be to play the part of a traitor and to surrender the +world to the devil. The precepts of the Sermon on the Mount, however +liberally they may be interpreted, are, in short, the negation of civil +government; that is to say, they assume the existence of a community of +sanctified persons among whom civil government is unnecessary. The +irreducible minimum of civil government--as even the administrative +nihilists of the school of Herbert Spencer admit--involves three things, +viz., defence of life, protection of property, and enforcement of +contract. With these three things the precepts of the Sermon on the +Mount are, as they stand, incompatible. + +All this is very obvious, and the consecrated common-sense of the Church +in every age has clearly perceived it. The political science of the +Apostles and the Early Fathers, and still more expressly that of their +successors, recognized the authority of kings, the jurisdiction of +courts, the justice of taxation, the rights of property, the majesty of +human law, the protective function of soldiers, and the necessity of +military service. All these were accepted as inevitable in society in +its present state of imperfect development; although it was proclaimed +that none of them would be required in the ideal Kingdom of God. + +In the Sermon on the Mount itself, however, the truth as to the +relativity of Christian institutions is obscured by the faith of the +compiler that, when he wrote, the second advent of Christ was at hand, +and that the Kingdom of Heaven was immediately to be established. For +him there was no terrestrial future worthy of consideration; the reign +of the Messiah had already begun; the consummation of all things was +impending. Hence he did not feel it necessary, or indeed possible, to +distinguish between the ideal of the perfect day and the practical +policy of the actual moment. His citizenship already was in Heaven: to +him present and future were one. The eschatological hopes of the +evangelist were of course speedily dispelled, partly by mere lapse of +time, partly by the growing wisdom and experience of the Church. The +Church learned that its early expectation of the speedy and triumphant +return of its Lord was ill-founded, and that its task was to convert the +world to righteousness, not to preside over its immediate dissolution. +Hence it accommodated its doctrines and its institutions to the changed +outlook. + +This fact causes no difficulty to those who believe in the +progressiveness of revelation. Such as admit that New Testament ethics +show an advance on those of the Old, will hardly contend that in +politics any New Testament writer said the last word. What Tolstoy and +his literalist school call the corruption and secularization of the +Church was to no small degree a simple recognition of the facts that the +Earth continued to exist, and that the Roman Empire and not the New +Jerusalem was the dominant power therein. But though the Church as a +whole was guided safely through the crisis of disillusionment, it +nevertheless remains unfortunate that the compiler of the Sermon on the +Mount should have made the false assumption. For the picture which he +presents of the perfect man and the ideal society is so fascinating and +magnificent that it is not marvellous that saints and visionaries, in a +long and pathetic succession, should have repeated his error, should +have ignored the distinction between present and future, should have +assumed the actual existence of the Divine Kingdom towards which, as a +matter of fact, mankind has still a weary and protracted pilgrimage to +make; should have proclaimed the celestial anarchy, and should as a +result have been overwhelmed in tragic or ludicrous disaster. + + + + +VI. THE PACIFICIST SUCCESSION + + +Those who have asserted the present applicability of the full detailed +programme of the Sermon on the Mount, and have endeavoured to carry it +into immediate effect, have been scanty in numbers, and obscure. A few +early Christian communities, soon extinct; a few hermits isolated from +their fellows; a few monks in secluded cloisters; a few friars +repudiated by their own orders; a few small antinomian Protestant sects +springing up and vanishing with gourd-like rapidity; a few groups of +Slavonic dreamers forming the innocent extreme of the Nihilist +fraternity--such have been the leading professors of Gospel Anarchy. One +can, even while condemning them, respect them for their purity of +purpose, their lofty idealism, their sincerity, and their consistency in +following their false premiss to its logical conclusion. + +Much more numerous, but far less worthy of regard, are those who have +picked and chosen among the precepts of the Lord, have accepted what +seemed good to them and have explained away the rest. It would be easy, +did space allow, to present a motley succession of fanatics and heretics +from apostolic days to the present who have developed fantastic theories +and have maintained them by means of passages drawn from the Sermon on +the Mount. + + + No damned error, but some sober brow + Will bless it, and approve it with a text. + + +Only one group, however, now concerns us, and that is the group of +anti-militarists who, for the most part arbitrarily ignoring or +repudiating the other commands of their authority, fasten on those +precepts that seem to inculcate the doctrine of non-resistance, and on +the strength of these erect the visionary superstructure of pacificism. +They form a strange and suspicious company. Among their early +representatives stand prominent the able advocate, but furious +schismatic, Tertullian; the amiable scholar, but heretically Gnostic, +Origen; the accomplished stylist, but bigoted and ignorant +special-pleader, Lactantius. It would not be a harsh judgment to say +that most of the early pacificists had some twist of mind or character +that disturbed the perfect balance of their sanity. + +The later sects who have included pacificism in fleeting religious +systems of varying degrees of impossibility and absurdity are still more +open to suspicion on mental and moral grounds. The Cathari, the +Waldenses, the Anabaptists, and the "Family of Love," not only +developed monstrous doctrines: they also boasted of an antinomian +freedom from legal restraint which led some of their devotees into such +wild excesses of conduct as made their destruction inevitable. The +Franciscan Tertiaries, who never wholly abjured war, became involved in +the conflict between the Empire and the Papacy, and departed from their +ideal. The more recent Nazarenes in Hungary and Doukhobors in Russia and +Canada have shown themselves, by their refusal to recognize and obey any +form of government, a hopeless nuisance to any community that is +unfortunate enough to be afflicted by their presence. It surely must +give the present-day pacificists pause, if anything can do so, to find +themselves mixed up with such a throng. If men are to be judged by their +company, they can hardly hope to escape certification. + +It is true that the Society of Friends has a more respectable history. +But the Society of Friends has for the most part consisted of sensible +persons who have accepted the common Christian interpretation of the +Sermon on the Mount, and so have been pacificists of an unusually +moderate type--by no means unconditional non-resisters. Just as they do +not give indiscriminately, or lend (especially such of them as are +prosperous bankers) expecting no return, or refrain from judging, or +going to law, or laying up treasure on earth, or taking thought for the +morrow, so they do not interpret literally the command "resist not +evil." They accept the constitution of the country, the government of +which is based on force; they pay taxes for the maintenance of the army +and the navy, and admit their necessity; they support the police, and +call it in if their persons or property are threatened; many of them, to +their infinite credit, actually join the fighting forces when they feel +that great moral issues are at stake. George Fox himself, the founder of +the Society, was an extremely belligerent and even truculent individual. +He supported the militant Cromwellian regime, and it was only after the +collapse of the Puritan Commonwealth, which was based on the force of +the New Model army, that he abjured all weapons of offence, except his +tongue. Isaac Pennington, his contemporary and friend, was actually a +chaplain in the New Model (which contained many Quakers), and to the +very end he was engaged in stirring it up to repeat its early exploits +against "Babylon." His writings contain the passage: "I speak not +against any magistrates or peoples defending themselves against foreign +invasions, or making use of the sword to suppress the violent and +evil-doers within their borders; for this the present state of things +may and doth require."[47] A sounder and saner statement of good +Christian teaching on the matter of police and military service one +could not desire. With this admission in one's mind, one can view with +unqualified admiration the efforts of the Friends to eliminate war, and +to perfect the methods of peace in the intercourse of men. More than +most Christian people have they laboured effectively to hasten the +advent of the Kingdom of God. It is true that their attempts in +Pennsylvania and elsewhere to establish a pacificist regime have +failed--it was inevitable that they should fail--but this does not in +any way lessen the debt which the world owes to them for their powerful +and far-reaching influence in favour of love and gentleness and peace. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[47] I quote from J. W. Graham, _War from a Quaker Point of View_, p. +71. See also my review of this book in _Hibbert Journal_, No. 55. + + + + +VII. CONCLUSION + + +The sum of the matter seems to be this. Government is necessary in this +present evil world. Only by means of sovereign political authority, +based upon physical as well as moral force, can there be effective +"punishment of wickedness and vice" or "maintenance of true religion +and virtue." This is clearly recognized in the Bible, which proclaims +that "the powers that be are ordained of God," which enjoins obedience +to kings and governors as a religious duty, and which sees in the sword +of justice carried by the secular ruler a weapon directed against the +same enemies as oppose the establishment of the Kingdom of God. It is +essential for the well-being and even for the existence of society, that +crime should be suppressed. Hence, in addition to moralists and +ministers who seek to educate and convert, there must be police and +soldiers--in short, the full organized force of the community--ready to +stamp out incorrigible villainy, if need be with blood and iron. +Similarly, it is essential for the well-being and even for the existence +of the polity of peoples--the growing society of nations--that +aggression should be prevented, that treacherous intrigues should be +frustrated, that treaty engagements should be enforced, that the reign +of law should be confirmed. But, in order to realize this end, there is +need not only of pacific missions and cosmopolitan congresses, but also +of an armed might sufficient to prevent or to punish with irresistible +certainty breaches of international conventions and violations of the +World's peace. Hence, whether we have regard to internal good +government, or the maintenance of international justice, the need of +military force is imperative. Not only does there exist what the +Russians quaintly call a "Christ-serving and worthy militancy," there +are occasions, of which the present is one, when military service +becomes the highest form of Christian duty. To hold aloof is not to +display a superior form of Christianity; it is to be an apostate. As +Solovyof has impressively shown in his notable conversations on _War and +Christianity_, pacificism under present conditions is that very sort of +religious imposture with which is associated the abominable name of +Antichrist. + + + + +VI + +THE STATE AND ITS RIVALS + + + + +I. THE IDEA OF THE STATE IN ENGLAND + + +Most of our recent political troubles are attributable to what Fortescue +in the fifteenth century called "lack of governance." We are all of us +painfully aware of the fact; but we are not all of us equally conscious +that the feebleness and inefficiency of our supreme administration are +to no small extent due to the absence among our people as a whole of any +adequate idea of the position and function of the State. For if it is +true generally that every nation has the sort of government that it +deserves, it is specially true of a nation with democratic institutions. +Weaknesses of intellect, infirmities of will, and faults of character in +the sovereign representative assembly are but reproductions on a +magnified scale of the same defects in the electorate. It is the failure +of our people as a whole to realize the idea of the State that has +resulted in the filling of the House of Commons with men who stand, not +for the Nation in its unity and the Empire in its integrity, but for all +sorts of limited and conflicting sectional interests--parties, leagues, +fellowships, unions, cliques, schools, churches, orders, classes, +trusts, syndicates, and so on. No wonder that in times of national and +imperial crisis such representatives prove totally unequal to the duty +of strong, corporate, and patriotic administration. + +The weakness of the idea of the State among the peoples of the British +Isles is explicable on geographical and historical grounds. For the idea +of the State--that is to say, the idea of society politically organized +as an indivisible unit under a sovereign government--although it has +other and deeper sources of vitality, is specially fostered by a sense +of national danger, but tends to languish when complete immunity from +external peril can be postulated. Never has the realization of "the +commonwealth of this realm of England" been so strong as it was in the +days when Spanish invasion threatened. The splendid patriotism of that +great age is portrayed for all time in the immortal glory of +Shakespeare's historical plays. Not far short, however, rose the +patriotic realization of national unity during the crisis of the +Napoleonic struggle. Wordsworth's magnificent _Sonnets dedicated_ to +Liberty remain as the enduring memorial of the heights which British +State-consciousness then attained: + + + In our halls is hung + Armoury of the invincible knights of old: + We must be free or die, who speak the tongue + That Shakespeare spoke; the faith and morals hold + Which Milton held. In everything we are sprung + Of Earth's first blood, have titles manifold. + + +But, except at rare intervals, Britain's insular position has given her +people so soothing a sense of security that they have allowed the +conception of the commonwealth to droop, and have tended to regard the +State as, under normal conditions, a nuisance which should as far as +possible be abated, as an intruder into the sphere of private enterprise +which should be extruded, as an enemy to liberty which should be +suppressed. It may readily be admitted that in days before the State had +been democratized this hostile attitude was not without justification. +In the early seventeenth century, for instance, the State meant the +Stuart monarch--_L'Etat c'est Moi_--and the interests of the Stuart +monarch were by no means those of any of the nations that he governed. +In the early eighteenth century the State meant the Whig oligarchy, and +its members only too easily came to regard the welfare of the Empire as +identical with their own prosperity. In the early nineteenth century the +State meant the landed and moneyed magnates of the Tory aristocracy, and +they had an extremely inadequate apprehension of the needs and +aspirations of the rapidly increasing millions over whom they exercised +authority. Hence one can understand that opposition to the policy of +Stuart king, or Whig nobility, or Tory plutocracy, readily took the form +of antagonism to the State as such. Thus the political theory of Milton +and the Puritans not only justified resistance to Charles I, it also +proclaimed a doctrine of the natural rights of the individual fatal to +all types of government. Similarly the political theory of Adam Smith +and the _laissez-faire_ economists, together with that of their +contemporaries, Bentham and the utilitarian philosophers, not only +attacked the restrictive regulations of the Whig oligarchy, but showed +on general principles the strongest dislike of what it called "State +interference" in all circumstances. So, too, Herbert Spencer and the +nineteenth century school of scientific individualists not only +demonstrated (as they did with extraordinary pungency and success) the +extreme folly and incompetence of the main government departments of +their own day; they also sought to establish the eternal and inevitable +antagonism of Man versus the State, and to limit universally the +functions of government to the irreducible minimum. + +This attitude of hostility, however, ceased to have its old +justification with the advent of democracy. The Reform Acts of 1832, +1867, and 1884 have so enlarged the electorate as to convert government +into something approaching self-government, and the State has become the +organized form of democracy itself. Hence the individualism of Milton, +Adam Smith, Bentham, and Spencer is an anachronism. It is not +remarkable, then, that, following Parliamentary Reform, the idea of the +State revived in Britain with new force and in a new form--no longer +stimulated by the pressure of extreme peril, but excited by the new +possibilities of corporate democratic activity. The young lions of the +Fabian Society in their optimistic infancy were filled with the idea of +the State, and advocated State action in wide spheres of industrial +organization, municipal enterprise, and social reform. The Imperial +Federation League gloried anew in the name of Britain, and strove to +bring the four quarters of the earth within the circle of a +self-conscious Empire. Later on, the Tariff Reform League demanded +State-control and regulation of our world-wide commerce. + +But the revival of the idea of the State, under the stimulus of +Socialists, Imperialists, Protectionists, and others, was short lived. +All these enthusiasts became disappointed and disgusted with democracy +and with the State which it controls. Democracy did not move fast enough +for them, nor always in the direction that they desired. Hence--and most +markedly since the dawn of the twentieth century--a reaction against the +State has set in. There has been, as we have already seen, an epidemic +of passive resistance. Individualists of all sorts, together with Trade +Unionists, Syndicalists, Clericals, Suffragists, No-Conscriptionists, +Ulstermen, Nationalists, and other bodies, giving up the attempt to +convert democracy and to secure their ends through the sovereign agency +of the democratic State, are taking direct action, are proclaiming rival +authorities to the State, and are threatening the very existence of the +body politic. The outlook is ominous, and it needs to be steadily faced. +The present moment, moreover, is peculiarly favourable for its +consideration. For the sudden and unexpected return of extreme national +danger has once again quickened in our midst the idea of the State, has +revived the spirit of patriotism, has restored the national unity, and +has reenforced the principle of civic service. We can see under the +revealing searchlight of the war the anarchy towards which we have been +drifting during the past ten or more years. + + + + +II. THE RIVALS OF THE STATE + + +The first rival of the State that calls for consideration is the +Individual. His rights as against the government are still loudly +proclaimed. "The chief message of 1915," says one of our leading +individualists, Rev. Dr. Clifford, in a New Year's oration to his +flock,[48] "is a clarion call to guard our personal and democratic +liberties against the attacks of State absolutism." The idea of guarding +"democratic liberties" against democracy itself is, of course, mere +nonsense--one of those point-blank contradictions in terms which, though +full of sound and fury, signify nothing. It is, however, unfortunately, +typical of much of the loose thinking and vague talking indulged in by +the leaders of those pestilent anti-patriotic unions and fellowships +which infest and harass the country at the present moment. The idea of +guarding "personal liberties" against democracy is not so palpably +absurd; it does not involve a contradiction in terms. Moreover, it +appears to have some relation to the admitted fact that the rule of a +democracy may press very heavily upon some or all of its constituent +members. Nevertheless, it is equally fallacious. It rests upon a false +antithesis between the individual and the community to which he belongs. +No such antithesis exists. "The individual," rightly says Mr. W. S. +McKechnie, "apart from all relations to the community is a +negation."[49] In similar strain, Mr. E. Barker contends that "a full +and just conception of the individual abolishes the supposed opposition +between the Man and the State."[50] Long ago Hegel exclaimed: "Our life +is hid with our fellows in the common life of our people," and his true +and fruitful conception forms the basis of the political philosophy of +T. H. Green, F. H. Bradley, and Bernard Bosanquet. It is, also, the +foundation of all that is good and enduring in present-day Socialism. +The individual apart from society is a mere abstraction, like the +"economic man" of the old economists. + +What, then, are these so-called "personal liberties" which the +individual is supposed to possess in virtue of his humanity and +independently of any authority external to himself? If it is said that +they are freedom of thought, freedom of emotion, and freedom of will, +the criticism is that these are not "liberties" at all, but merely +movements of the mind which no power whatsoever external to the +individual can possibly control, and with which no political authority +in the country would ever dream of attempting to interfere. If, however, +it is said that they include further such things as freedom of speech, +freedom of writing, freedom of public meeting, freedom to act generally +as conscience dictates, the criticism is that such liberties as these +are not "personal" merely, or even primarily: they are liberties that +profoundly affect the community. Regarded from the communal point of +view, in fact, they are not "personal liberties" at all, if by that term +is meant individual rights. They are rights derived from the community; +they are concessions to be granted or withheld according to the +requirements of public policy; they are matters of regulation by the +common will. Society does not, and cannot, recognize the existence, +independent of its own consent, of any such so-called "personal +liberties." It does not, and cannot, admit the possession by individuals +of any rights, inherent and indefeasible, to do as they like in matters +that concern the interests of the community generally. Still less can +the State be expected to protect individuals in the exercise of +activities which it regards as detrimental, or in the neglect of duties +which it regards as essential, to the general well-being. It cannot +restrain anyone's conscience; but it must control everyone's conduct. +All this, of course, is the commonplace of political theory, and it is +curious that at this late day one should have to repeat Burke's +destructive criticism of metaphysic liberties, or Bentham's damning +exposure of the "anarchic fallacy" of the Rights of Man, or Mr. D. L. +Ritchie's quite recent dissipation of the errors underlying the idea of +Natural Rights. But it is still more curious that many of the men who +revive against the modern democratic State this long-laid ghost of +eighteenth-century individualism call themselves Socialists, and invoke +the State (when it suits them to do so) to embark on all manner of +anti-individualistic enterprises. This anomaly, however, is merely one +among many flagrant instances of that ignorance of precedent which +revives long-buried heresies, that incapacity for thought which seems +unaware of inconsistencies, or that shameless perversity which seeks out +and proclaims any sort of general principle which happens to suit the +exigencies of the moment. + +A second rival to the State is Political Party. At the present juncture +there are four important political parties in existence in the British +Isles, viz., Liberal, Conservative, Nationalist, Labour, beside various +incipient ones. The two old parties, Liberal and Conservative, stand for +more or less clearly defined and sharply opposed general principles. +Hallam has described them as the party of progress and the party of +order respectively; and he (followed by Macaulay and other writers) has +devoted a good deal of care to the elucidation of the fundamental +differences between them. These old parties are by far the most vital +and powerful political entities in the United Kingdom. They have +deep-rooted traditions, efficient organizations, large funds secretly +raised and administered, formulated programmes, and all the +paraphernalia of habitations, catchwords, and badges calculated to +excite loyalty and stimulate zeal. They secure in alternation the +control of the State, and administer in the name of the nation as a +whole the vast affairs of the British Empire. It may be at once +admitted that parties such as these are inevitable in any system of +representative government. For so long as fundamental differences of +opinion exist among electors, it is only by means of organizations based +on the primary opposing principles that any working constitution can be +framed. To attack party-government as such is vain and even absurd. +Nevertheless, party has become the rival of the State; and its rivalry +is all the more dangerous and insidious because it always professes to +act in the interests of the State and on behalf of the nation as a +whole. Its professions, however, have become false and hypocritical. In +the name of the People it seeks its own gain. It has ceased to be a +means to good democratic government, and has grown to be an end in +itself. In its rivalry to other parties, in its struggle for power, in +its scramble for the spoils of office, in its eagerness to secure votes, +it has debased political ideals, it has corrupted citizenship, it has +abandoned truth, it has proclaimed smooth lies, it has betrayed the +State, it has almost destroyed the nation. Happy indeed will it be if +this war, which is revealing to us the hideousness and deadliness of the +party-spirit, enables us to reduce the old parties to their proper place +of subordination to the State. + +In addition to the two old parties, however, there are two +comparatively new ones which occupy places of importance in the world of +politics. These are the Nationalist and the Labour parties. Neither of +these professes to make the interests of the State its prime concern. +The one concentrates its energies upon a struggle to advance the cause +of a single nation from among the four that constitute the United +Kingdom; the other devotes itself to the affairs of a single social +class. The existence of these powerful sectional organizations is a +disastrous portent. They stand, not as the old parties do for divergent +views concerning the interests of the State as a whole, but for mortal +schism in the body politic. Never can there be a full return to healthy +national life until means have been found for reabsorbing these and +other incipient schismatic organizations into the unity of the Great +Society. + +A third rival to the State has recently come into prominence in the +shape of a number of various non-political corporations which claim to +possess an organic existence independent of, and co-ordinate with, the +State, and thus deny the right of the State to intrude within the +spheres of their operations. The most important are the Syndicalists, +who proclaim the autonomy of the industrial union or guild, and the +Ecclesiastics, who assert the autonomy of the denationalized church. +Both agree in repudiating political control, and in abjuring the use of +political instruments. They rely upon "direct action" of their own, the +one employing the terrors of the general strike to overawe the +community, the other the horrors of hell. Now it may be freely granted +that one of the most notable advances in modern political theory has +been the recognition of the fact that men naturally organize themselves +into groups--families, clans, tribes; sects, societies, churches; +guilds, trade unions, clubs, and so on--and that the State is rather a +federation of groups than an association of isolated individuals. It may +be granted, secondly, that some of these organizations are anterior to +the State in point of time, and that they deal with matters that are not +appropriate for direct State control. Finally, it may be granted that +the State will be well advised to leave some or all of them in +possession of large powers of self-administration. Nevertheless, when +once the Great Society has come into existence, and has organized itself +as the National State, they must, if anarchy is to be avoided, all take +their places as constituent members of the community, and recognize that +they exercise such autonomous powers as they possess in virtue of the +permission of the general will. The State, however prudently it may +employ its powers, must be, and must be universally admitted to be, in +all causes, civil or ecclesiastical, throughout all its dominions, in +the last resort, supreme. In the interests of the common good it cannot +tolerate any rivals. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[48] Reported in _Daily Chronicle_, January 4th, 1916. + +[49] McKechnie. _The State and the Individual_, p. 3. + +[50] Barker. _Political Thought from Spencer to the Present-Day_, p. +108. + + + + +III. WHAT THE STATE IS AND DOES + + +In the purification and exaltation of the Democratic National State +rests the one hope of the salvation of Britain and the Empire. In a +federation of Democratic National States resides the best prospect of +the future peaceful and well-ordered government of the world. The +individualism of Dr. Clifford leads straight to anarchy; the unchecked +development of the party-system means the corrupt tyranny of the caucus; +the triumph of Syndicalism would involve the tragedy of class war; the +dream of the reunion of humanity in the bosom of a cosmopolitan church +is a vain revival of a mediaeval illusion. The individual must be brought +to recognize that politically he has no separate existence, and must +learn to limit his operations to his proper share in the constitution +and determination of the general will; party must be remorselessly +reduced to its legitimate subordination to the interests of the +community as a whole; syndicates and trade unions must be prevented from +cutting themselves loose from the body of the nation, must be compelled +to recognize the supremacy of the law of the land, and must be deprived +of any inequitable privileges which they may have secured; ecclesiastics +of all orders must be persuaded to rest content with such autonomy as +the general will may grant them, and must strive to become, not a +separate corporation, but the indwelling and directing conscience of the +people. The State must be supreme. + +What is the State which is thus exalted above all rivals? Let Mr. +Bernard Bosanquet answer. "The State," he says, "is not merely the +political fabric. The term 'State' accents indeed the political aspect +of the whole, and is opposed to the notion of an anarchic society. But +it includes the entire hierarchy of institutions by which life is +determined, from the family to the trade, and from the trade to the +church and the university. It includes all of them, not as the mere +collection of the growths of the country, but as the structures which +give life and meaning to the political whole, while receiving from it +mutual adjustment, and therefore expansion and a more liberal air."[51] +In a similar strain T. H. Green says: "The State is for its members, the +society of societies, the society in which all their claims upon each +other are mutually adjusted."[52] The keynote of both of these profound +utterances is "adjustment." They recognize the fact that the convictions +and opinions of individuals differ, that the purposes of parties +conflict, that the interests of racial units and social classes diverge +from one another, that the demands of churches are mutually +irreconcilable. They recognize further that unless individuals, parties, +races, classes, churches agree in acknowledging the adjusting authority +of the general will of the community to which all belong, endless +struggle and hopeless chaos must supervene. No pretension is made that +the State is of supernatural origin; no claim to divine right is +advanced. It is admitted that the State at one time did not exist. It is +foreseen that a day may come when it will be merged in a still larger +community. But for the present it is the only possible organ by means of +which the common will can operate in the interests of the common good. +The basis of its claim for obedience rests upon the facts, first, that +every individual subject, and every organized group of subjects, owes to +the State, and to it alone, the conditions that make existence possible, +and secondly, that only as a member of the State can the individual +attain to his full development, and only under the protection of the +State can the group achieve its purposes. The attainment of the common +good, as that good is conceived of by the common intelligence, and by +means which the common will determines--such is the ideal of the +Democratic National State. Here surely is a sphere in which every man +can find the fullness of life. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[51] Bosanquet. _Philosophical Theory of the State_, p. 150. + +[52] Green. _Principles of Political Obligation_, p. 146. + + + + +IV. THE SPHERE OF NATIONAL SERVICE + + +The above statement of the ideal of the Democratic National State brings +home to the mind a realization of the magnitude of the sphere which lies +open to National Service in the broad sense of the term. Democracy is +sovereign; although it is flouted by individuals, deluded and debauched +by parties, and challenged by separatist syndicates. It must remain +sovereign, and its sovereignty must be made a more real, more conscious, +and more effective thing than it has ever been before. Rarely, however, +has there been a sovereign less adequately equipped than democracy for +its gigantic responsibilities. One of its most enthusiastic modern +supporters, Professor John MacCunn, gravely admits that "Democracy, +still raw to its work, whether in politics or industry, may blunder--may +blunder fatally."[53] Long ago it was pointed out by Plato that +democracy is the cult of incompetence. In more recent times Mill has +emphasized the possibility that democracy may govern badly and +oppressively; Maine has warned us that the dominance of the commonalty +may end in the triumph of the mediocre, and a more than Chinese +stagnation; Carlyle has denounced democracy as powerful for destruction, +but impotent for building up, as helpless in the face of great +emergencies, as incapable of choosing good leaders; Lecky has +demonstrated the danger of the corruption of the democracy by evil +politicians; Belloc has shown how it tends to develop, and then become a +slave to, a bureaucracy; Graham Wallas has portrayed the psychological +peril of its hypnotization by colours and claptrap. All the dangers thus +enumerated are real and formidable. They have, however, to be faced and +overcome by men of goodwill: for there is now no alternative to +democracy but anarchy. Fortunately they may be faced in confidence and +hope. For the British democracy--as the revealing crisis of this great +war has shown--is sound at heart, is eager to be delivered from its +betrayers, and is longing to learn. It calls pathetically for those who +know to teach it, and for those who can to lead it. Here, then, is the +sphere of National Service. Who will not come forward to help democracy +to become conscious of its power and its dignity; to aid it in +establishing its authority over all rebels and rivals; to teach it how +to use its omnipotence gently, so as to leave to those beneath its sway +the largest possible room for freedom consistent with the common good; +to make it aware of its responsibilities for its vast dominions across +the seas and their teeming populations; to awaken it to a realization of +the extent to which the whole future of the human race rests upon the +success of its experiment in government? It is in the service of such a +sovereign as this, and in the pursuit of such an ideal, that faithful +souls attain that self-realization which is perfect freedom. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[53] MacCunn. _Six Radical Thinkers_, p. 69. + + +GARDEN CITY PRESS LTD., LETCHWORTH, ENGLAND + + + + +ADVERTISEMENTS + + * * * * * + +BOOKS ON THE ORIGINS & PROGRESS OF THE WAR + + ++MY YEAR OF THE WAR.+ Including an account of experiences with the troops +in France, and the record of a visit to the Grand Fleet, which is here +given for the first time in complete form. BY FREDERICK PALMER, +accredited American Correspondent at the British Front. 4th Impression. +6s. net. + ++THE GERMAN WAR BOOK.+ Being "the Usages of War on Land" issued by the +Great General Staff of the German Army. Translated with a Critical +Introduction by J. H. MORGAN, M.A. 4th Impression. 2s. 6d. net. + ++THE NEW EMPIRE PARTNERSHIP.+ Defence, Commerce, Policy. 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