438 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



society in which the only men who had political power, and were in a 

 qualified sense free, were so many petty despots, holding not only 

 slaves and dependents but even children in the same absolute bondage 

 as they held their cattle, is, in its intrinsic nature, more nearly allied 

 to an ordinary despotism than it is to a society of citizens politically 

 equal. 



Passing now to our special question, we may understand the kind 

 of confusion in which Liberalism has lost itself, and the origin of 

 those mistaken classings of political measures which have misled it 

 classings, as we shall see, by conspicuous external traits instead of 

 by internal natures. For what, in the popular apprehension and in 

 the apprehension of those who effected them, were the changes made 

 by Liberals in the past ? They were abolitions of grievances suffered 

 by the people, or by portions of them : this was the common trait of 

 them which most impressed itself on men's minds. They were miti- 

 gations of evils which had directly or indirectly been felt by large 

 classes of citizens, as causes of misery or as hindrances to happiness. 

 And since in the minds of most a rectified evil is equivalent to an 

 achieved good, these measures came to be thought of as so many posi- 

 tive benefits ; and the welfare of the many came to be conceived alike 

 by Liberal statesmen and Liberal voters as the aim of Liberalism. 

 Hence the confusion. The gaining of a popular good being the ex- 

 ternal conspicuous trait common to Liberal measures in earlier days 

 (then in each case gained by a relaxation of restraints), it has hap- 

 pened that popular good has come to be sought by Liberals, not as an 

 end to be indirectly gained by such relaxations, but as the end to be 

 directly gained. And, seeking to gain it directly, they have used meth- 

 ods intrinsically opposed to those originally used. 



And now, having seen how this reversal of policy has arisen (or par- 

 tial reversal, I should say, for the recent Burials Act, and the efforts to 

 remove all remaining religious inequalities, show continuance of the 

 original policy in certain directions), let us proceed to contemplate the 

 extent to which it has been carried during recent times, and the still 

 greater extent to which the future will see it carried if current ideas 

 and feelings continue to predominate. 



Before proceeding, it may be well to say that no reflections are 

 intended on the motives which have prompted one after another of 

 these various restraints and dictations. These motives were doubtless 

 in nearly all cases good. It must be admitted that the restrictions, 

 placed by an act of 1870 on the employment of women and children 

 in Turkey-red dye-works, were, in intention, no less philanthropic than 

 those of Edward VI, which prescribed the minimum time for which a 

 journeyman should be retained. Without question, the Seed Supply 

 (Ireland) Act of 1880, which empowered guardians to buy seed for 

 poor tenants, and then to see it properly planted, was moved by a de- 



