EDITOR'S TABLE. 



411 



nevolent despotism would do certain 

 things " better " than they are done by 

 oar republican Government. "Why is 

 it, then, that we will not hear of any 

 kind of despotism that our repugnance 

 to a benevolent despotism is scarcely 

 less than our repugnance to a purely 

 selfish one? Because we hold that the 

 word " better," as applied to the work 

 of a despotism of any kind, is a very 

 shallow " better " ; and that, while cer- 

 tain superficial aspects of the national 

 life might be improved under such a 

 regime, the deep and abiding interests 

 of the country would suffer. "Well, what 

 people have to learn is that something 

 despotic attaches to all government ac- 

 tion outside of the sphere which pe- 

 culiarly belongs to government, the 

 protection of the community from for- 

 eign, and of individuals from private, 

 aggression. All government action is 

 of a compulsory character; all takes 

 away something from the liberty of the 

 individual ; all stands in the way of the 

 spontaneous development of the agen- 

 cies for doing what the Government 

 unnecessarily undertakes. Social bonds 

 are not knit by what the Government 

 does, but social bonds are knit by ev- 

 ery development of private enterprise, 

 by every spontaneous development of 

 means to ends for social purposes. If 

 government managed everything for 

 us, society in the true organic sense 

 would cease to exist. The individual 

 would find himself at every turn face 

 to face with a great mechanism, and 

 would no longer have the sense of be- 

 longing to a living and growing sys- 

 tem. It is easy to sneer at these ideas 

 as being "half a century behind the 

 times"; but whoever does so should 

 remember that at least one illustrious 

 name stands associated with them, and 

 that it is not usual to cite the author of 

 the " Synthetic Philosophy " as a man 

 left in the rear of the world's intellect- 

 ual march. " Democracy," we are told, 

 has left these notions behind, and will 

 never take them up again. What de- 



mocracy will or will not do in the fu- 

 ture it is rash to assert ; for our own 

 part we venture on no predictions. We 

 should just wish, however, to remark 

 that it settles no question of right or 

 wrong, truth or error, to say that "de- 

 mocracy " has done so and so. De- 

 mocracy, we presume, is not infallible. 

 These abstractions, however, are most 

 misleading. Tell us the exact truth : 

 that a certain community living under 

 certain institutions, and at a certain 

 stage in its intellectual and moral de- 

 velopment has turned its back on a par- 

 ticular set of ideas; and we shall not 

 only know precisely what you mean, 

 but shall also be able to estimate the 

 importance and value of your state- 

 ment. But tell us that the abstraction 

 " democracy " has done the same thing, 

 and we are entitled to reply that no 

 abstraction is capable of any such ac- 

 tion. 



On the principle our contemporary 

 has laid down, it is impossible to say at 

 what point state action should cease ; 

 for the more the state undertakes the 

 more it is impelled to undertake. To 

 add one new function to-day is to pre- 

 pare for the addition of a dozen within 

 a few years. Take the case of the Eng- 

 lish Government. Having the post- 

 office under its control, it was led to 

 make use of the post-office organization 

 for the issue and payment of money- 

 orders. Then followed the establish- 

 ment of post-office savings-banks ; then 

 the absorption of the telegraph system ; 

 then the establishment of a parcel-de- 

 livery and general express business. On 

 the Continent the post-office collects 

 debts, pays newspaper subscriptions, and 

 carries money in very much the same 

 way as the express companies do here. 

 Where is this kind of thing to stop ? 

 The larger the organization, the greater 

 the temptation to apply it in some new 

 way, or to accomplish by means of it 

 some new object. There are those, no 

 doubt, who think this increasing influ- 

 ence and interference of government a 



