POLITICAL OFFENCES 



As taught to-day in universities 

 and expressed in recent text-books, 

 political economy would seem to be 

 in process of transforming itself 

 into a science of observation, gen- 

 eralising by the aid of the available 

 methods of history, statistics, and 

 description. It may be anticipated 

 that in the future fabric of the 

 science, brief trains of deductive 

 reasoning, starting from the pre- 

 mises of competition, will find a 

 very useful place as suggesting or 

 confirming the explanation of the 

 phenomena ; or if not explaining, 

 at least illuminating them. But it 

 will be only when political econ- 

 omy has freed itself from the intel- 

 lectual shackles of the old frame- 

 work of the production, distribu- 

 tion, and consumption of wealth, 

 as the 19th century economists 

 commonly understood those terms, 

 that it wQl become a science of the 

 production, distribution, and con- 

 sumption of wealth, as the life of 

 society in fact exhibits them. 



Bibliography. Elements of Politi 

 cal Economy, J. S. Mill, 2nd ed. 1 824 

 Traite d'economie politique, J. B 

 Say, 6th ed. 1841 ; Wealth of Nations 

 Adam Smith, new ed. 1920 ; Princi 

 pies of Economics, A. Marshall, 5th 

 ed. 1907 ; Principles of Political 

 Economy and Taxation, D. Ricardo, 

 new ed. 1908 ; Principles of Political 



6227 



Economy, J. S. Mill, new ed. 1909 ; 

 Introduction to the Theory of 

 Value, W. Smart, 1910 ; Theory of 

 Political Economy, W. S. Jevons, 

 new ed. 1912; Dictionary of Poli- 

 tical Economy, ed. R. H. I. Pal- 

 grave, new ed. 1913 ; Economic Or- 

 ganisation of England, W. J. Ash- 

 ley, 1914 ; Economics : an Intro- 

 duction for the General Reader, H. 

 Clay, 1916; Industry and Trade, 

 A. Marshall, 1919. 



Political Offences. In English 

 law, the only notice taken of an 

 offence against government, com- 

 monly called a political offence, is 

 when it is committed against a 

 foreign government. That is to say, 

 a criminal who has committed a 

 political offence in a foreign coun- 

 try and has escaped to British 

 shores will not be extradited. But 

 in the case of an offence in the 

 British Isles or Dominions, if it is 

 a violation of the law of the land 

 it is punishable just the same 

 whether its motive is political or 

 any other. At the same time, the 

 authorities very often mitigate the 

 punishment when the motive is 

 political, as they recognize the 

 difference between infraction of 

 law from a desire to improve the 

 government of the country, and its 

 infraction from a bad motive. 

 See Extradition. 



POLITICS: SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT 



W. S. Mackechnie, M.A.. D.Ph., Author oi The State & the Individual 

 This Encyclopedia contains articles on the various forms of govern- 

 ment, e.g. Democracy ; also on the political parties, Conservative ; 

 Liberal; Republican, etc. See also Aristotle; Government; State 



Politics (Greek politeia, from 

 polls, city or state) is the art, 

 science, and philosophy of govern- 

 ment. Rightly considered, political 

 theory is co-extensive with all 

 those branches of knowledge which 

 treat of the eternal principles on 

 which depend the happiness, pros- 

 perity, and moral elevation of man- 

 kind grouped into kingdoms, states, 

 or nations. The full history of its 

 development would extend from 

 the theories of Plato and Aristotle 

 to those which have been embodied 

 in the League of Nations. 



Two ideas, simple yet inexhaust- 

 ible, underlie all such speculations. 

 The two pillars on which organized 

 society is erected are described 

 sometimes as permanence and pro- 

 gress, sometimes as authority and 

 liberty. The hard-and-fast anti- 

 thesis thus drawn, however, is more 

 apparent than substantial. Pro- 

 gress towards a definite goal is as- 

 sured only after stability has been 

 established, and in historical se- 

 quence, if not in logical priority, 

 order always precedes freedom. 

 Obedience to the law, and to the 

 magistrates who enforce it, is es- 

 sential to the rearing of constitu- 



tional progress on enduring lines. 

 Neither of the two essentials can 

 exist without the other. Liberty 

 without restraint degenerates into 

 anarchy ; authority by itself is ty- 

 ranny. The problem of political 

 science is how to combine the two 

 in such manner as will bring out 

 fully what is best in both. 

 The Main Problems 



The inhabitants of all politic- 

 ally minded countries tend to fall 

 into two groups, according as em- 

 phasis is placed on one or other of 

 these conceptions. Conservative 

 is the name usually given to those 

 who wish above all things to per- 

 petuate the institutions that have 

 maintained an orderly society in 

 the past ; while the worshippers of 

 progress and freedom, as liberals or 

 reformers, are intent on the re- 

 moval of all restraints or hin- 

 drances that seem to have out- 

 grown their own usefulness. The 

 difference is one of degree rather 

 than of complete antipathy. 



It is the duty of the constitu- 

 tional theorist to reconcile the 

 claims of both, and in this endea- 

 vour two main problems face him : 

 (1) What is the ideal form of con- 



POLITICS 



stitution ? (2) What are the pro-- 

 per limits to government interven- 

 tion, and what spheres of human 

 activity should be left to individual 

 initiative ? From Plato and Aris- 

 totle to near the end of the 19th 

 century, it was mainly the first of 

 these two problems that received 

 attention : the rival merits of de- 

 mocracies, aristocracies, and mon- 

 archies, the conflicts between kings 

 and parliaments. The second 

 group of questions has only re- 

 cently been thrust upon public at- 

 tention, with the discussion of the 

 rival merits of state-action and 

 laissez-faire, of socialism, collec- 

 tivism, and individualism, with 

 their modern developments of 

 anarchism and syndicalism. 



There is, perhaps, no question 

 vitally affecting individual or na- 

 tional life that has not, at some 

 period of history, formed the sub- 

 ject of keen political controversy. 

 Here reference can be made to 

 three only of the main groups of 

 problems: (1) the distribution of 

 power between central and local 

 authorities; (2) the relations of 

 Church and State ; (3) the protec- 

 tion of minorities against en- 

 croachment. 



Government in Early England 



The entire history of England 

 forms a dissertation on local gov- 

 ernment. Anglo-Saxon .kings, like 

 Alfred or Edgar, ruling the mixed 

 races of the North and Midlands 

 from distant Winchester, were, in 

 the absence of railways and good 

 roads, dependent on their provin- 

 cial rulers ; and a dilemma thus 

 arose. A weakling placed over Mer- 

 cia or East Anglia failed to enforce 

 order at home and to provide 

 against Danish invasions ; a strong 

 local ruler, on the contrary, might 

 grow so strong as to defy his king. 

 Under the Norman sovereigns the 

 problem took new forms. Each 

 county, or group of two counties, 

 was administered by a sheriff, 

 whose tenure of authority and dis- 

 tance from the royal seat tended to 

 abuse of power, and able kings like 

 Henry II invented expedients to 

 curtail their dangerous local great- 

 ness. At the present day the prob- 

 lem has taken forms even more 

 important, and is familiar under 

 various names, e.g. Home Rule for 

 Ireland, the position of the Over- 

 Sea Dominions, Federation for the 

 Mother Country and the Empire, 

 and the relations between the 

 various independent states and the 

 League of Nations. 



The problem of the rela- 

 tions between Church and State 

 appeals to many as even more im- 

 portant than that of central and 

 local government. Broadly speak- 

 ing, four rival theories here contest 



