THE SINS OF LEGISLATORS. 



155 



sometimes with their assent but mostly without. More than this is 

 true ; for those who are to be forced to do so much for the miserable 

 often equally or more require something doing for them. The deserv- 

 ing poor are among those who are burdened to pay the costs of caring 

 for the undeserving poor. As under the old poor-law the diligent 

 and provident laborer had to pay that the good-for-nothings might 

 not suffer, until frequently under this extra burden he broke down 

 and himself took refuge in the workhouse — as at present it is admitted 

 that the total rates levied in large towns for all public purposes have 

 now reached such a height that they " can not be exceeded without 

 inflicting great hardship on the small shopkeepers and artisans, who 

 already find it difficult enough to keep themselves free from the pauper 

 taint " ; * so in all cases the policy is one which intensifies the pains of 

 those most deserving of pity, that the pains of those least deserving of 

 pity may be mitigated. In short, men who are so sympathetic that 

 they can not allow the struggle for existence to bring on the un- 

 worthy the sufferings consequent on their incapacity or misconduct, 

 are so unsympathetic that they can, with equanimity, make the strug- 

 gle for existence harder for the worthy, and inflict on them and their 

 children artificial evils in addition to the natural evils they have to 

 bear ! 



And here we are brought round to our original topic — the sins of 

 legislators. Here there comes clearly before us the commonest of the 

 transgressions which rulers commit — a transgression so common, and 

 so sanctified by custom, that no one imagines it to be a transgression. 

 Here we see that, as indicated at the outset, Government, begotten of 

 aggression and by aggression, ever continues to betray its original 

 nature by its aggressiveness ; and that even what on its nearer face 

 seems beneficence only, shows, on its remoter face, not a little malefi- 

 cence — kindness at the cost of cruelty. For is it not cruel to increase 

 the sufferings of the better that the sufferers of the worse may be 

 decreased ? 



It is, indeed, marvelous how readily we let ourselves be deceived 

 by words and phrases which suggest one aspect of the facts while leav- 

 ing the opposite aspect unsuggested. A good illustration of this, and 

 one germane to the immediate question, is seen in the use of the 

 words "protection" and " protectionist " by the antagonists of free 

 trade, and in the tacit admission of its propriety by free-traders. 

 While the one party has habitually ignored, the other party has habitu- 

 ally failed to emphasize, the truth that this so-called protection always 

 involves aggression ; and that the name aggressionist ought to be 

 substituted for the name protectionist. For nothing can be more 

 certain than that, if to maintain A's profit B is forbidden to buy of C, 

 or is fined to the extent of the duty if he buys of C, B is aggressed 



* Mr. Chamberlain in "Fortnightly Review," December, 1883, p. 111. 



