IN THE NEAR FUTURE. 599 



submits to control in a way astonishing to those who better 

 understand what freedom is ; as was shown by the remarks 

 of English delegates to a Trade-union Congress at Paris in 

 1883, who condemned the official trampling on citizens as 

 &quot; a disgrace to, and an anomaly in, a republican nation.&quot; 



850. The evidence furnished by our own country 

 strengthens the evidence furnished by France and Ger 

 many; in the first place by contrast, in the second place by 

 agreement. 



Verification by contrast meets us on observing that in 

 England, where the extent of ownership by others has been 

 less than in France and Germany, alike under its military 

 form and under its civil form, there has been less progress 

 in sentiment and idea towards that form of ownership by 

 others which socialism implies. The earlier decay of feu 

 dalism, with its internal conflicts and its serfdom, and the 

 subsequent smaller development of military organization, 

 have implied that for a long time the English have been 

 not so much subject to the positive coercion implied by 

 army-life; and the absence of conscription, save during 

 actual war, has otherwise exhibited this social trait. At the 

 same time there has been comparatively little dictation to 

 the citizen in the carrying on of his business and the con 

 duct of his life. Industrial regulation has been relatively 

 small, and a generation ago supervision by police had be 

 come even too small. That is to say, self -ownership has been 

 in both ways less trenched upon by State-ownership than in 

 continental countries. Meanwhile we have had, until lately, 

 no conspicuous exponent of socialism save Robert Owen; 

 the socialist propaganda has had in England no such exten 

 sive success as abroad; and though now having supreme 

 power, the masses have sent few avowed socialists to Parlia 

 ment. 



The verification by agreement meets us on observing that, 



as in France and in Germany, so in England, increases of 

 138 



