io8 THE COMING OF SOCIALISM 



caprice which has been limited. Nor has the State invaded 

 any rights in such action ; for the liberty to do wrong is 

 not a right, but the perversion of a right and its negation ; 

 and the elimination of caprice is no loss to any one : it is 

 one of the ends of all moral and social development. 



But there is much more than this negation and limita- 

 tion of the individual's caprice involved in his organisation 

 into society. A good law, or social institution, is, at 

 bottom, not negative but positive. It apportions rights, 

 and gives the individual a more effective personality. In 

 taking from the individual the right to be judge of his 

 own cause, and avenger of his own wrongs, it re-instates 

 it on a better basis. Though at the moment of contention 

 we might desire to take the law into our own hands, we 

 recognise that our neighbour would also desire it, and that 

 on the whole the State can do this business better for 

 both. The State does not annul the will for justice of 

 either party, but puts an instrument in their hands for 

 the better realisation of that will. 



Now I believe this reinstatement of the individual will 

 on a more effective basis takes place in nearly all of the 

 matters which the State and the city undertake to perform. 

 At least, itis_a_stnking iacl_that, in this country at least, 

 inspite of its purely empirical and unscientific social 

 methods, there has been very little disposition to withdraw 

 from the city or the State any industrial or other under- 

 takings which have been once committed to them. It is 

 not merely that it is difficult to do so, that private enter- 

 prise cannot enter into the arena or hold its own against 

 a trading municipality or State, but that, except in the 

 rarest instances, the reversion to private enterprise is not 

 desired. 



