IX GOVERNMENT 417 



I do not think that it is possible to find a perfect moral 

 foundation for the authority of any Government, be it the 

 Government of an emperor or a Republic. They are all of the 

 nature of an usurpation, though I think, when confined within 

 certain exact limits, of a justifiable usurpation. 1 



A "justifiable usurpation " is something which 

 I can no more conceive than I can imagine a 

 round square ; it being the nature of usurpation, 

 as I imagine, to be unjustifiable. But I presume 

 that what is meant is, that, though government 

 has no moral authority, it is practically expedient 

 that it should be permitted to exist, if confined 

 within very narrow limits. Absolute ethics, in 

 Mr. Herbert's opinion, refuses to acknowledge the 

 right of any government except the government 

 of the individual by himself. Therefore I am 

 unable to discern any logical boundary between 

 Mr. Herbert's position and that of Bakounine. 



The fact that Individualism 2 __p_ushed to_its 

 logical extreme, must end in philosophical anarchy, 

 has^F^sc^p^3~tEat~acute thiiikeTand vigorous 

 writer, Mr. Donisthorpe, whose work on " Indi- 

 vidualism " z is at once piquant, learned, and 

 thoroughgoing qualities in which the writings of 

 speculative philosophers do not always abound. 

 I commend Mr. Donisthorpe's eighth chapter, 

 entitled " A Word for Anarchy," to those who 



1 The Eight and Wrong of Compulsion by the Slate, 1885, 

 p. 22. 



- Individualism : a System of Politics, 1889. 



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