420 Lord Beay [May 14, 



contain tlie greater number of socialists ; in Italy, of the Italians who 

 understand German some are socialists. Why is this? The chief 

 reason is, perhaps, the extraordinary development of learning in 

 Germany and the onesidedness of German learning. Germany owes 

 a great deal to its Universities, but its gratitude is assuming rather 

 alarming proportions. Some Germans seem to think that all social 

 evils can be cured by systems. When, therefore, notwithstanding 

 intellectual superiority, Germany seemed to remain in a comparative 

 condition of material inferiority, it was natural that the mass of 

 Germans should begin to say : It is all very well that every provision 

 is made for our brains, but what is the provision for our stomachs ? 

 What is the provision made for the weak against the oppression of 

 the mighty capitalist — whether he be an individual promoter or a 

 shareholder in a limited liability company ? Here, of course, was 

 a great opening for young men with generous dispositions. The 

 question certainly was not a very easy one, but that made it all 

 the more attractive. Instead of writing profound treatises for a 

 very limited circle of learned readers, the temptation to write for 

 a very large public was great. 



The apotheosis of the State became the favourite theme. The 

 English principle, that the individual should reap the full benefit of 

 his own individual actions, work on his own res23onsibility, and not 

 be hindered, but also not assisted in any way except by cheap educa- 

 tion, is the exact counterpart of this apotheosis of the State, which 

 may be called militarism. Whether the State absorbs the whole 

 strength of the nation in the army, as in Germany, or absorbs it in 

 water, as in Maine, by the liquor law, the principle is the same. It 

 is a military mode of propagating opinions, and therefore an outrage 

 on a fundamental principle of liberty, which is the toleration of 

 error, or rather of what the majority for the time being entitles 

 error. Socialism is the most logical application of these principles, 

 which are not as uncongenial to the German mind as they are to 

 ours. 



Socialism would crush individual volition. It assumes, that indi- 

 viduals being left to their own devices, must come to grief, but acting 

 collectively will escape from the miseries of this present life. This 

 theory is tempting both to a privileged class afraid of losing its 

 privileges, and to the " residuum," which sees in it the shortest cut 

 to power. It ought to be resisted by the enlightened liberty-loving 

 members of all classes. Unfortunately the German middle class is 

 not enlightened politically. It has not yet realised the advantages 

 of independence. It cannot grasj) the fact, that it is the merit of 

 representative institutions to keep the various interests in balance, 

 allowing them to protect themselves from State interference instead 

 of courting it. The parliamentary system is quite as hateful to the 

 socialists as it is to oligarchs, because it is a check on supremacy and 

 an inducement to controversy. 



Oligarchy and socialism both enslave the human mind. Demo- 



