CRIMES VS. MORALS. 9 



the government then to guarantee the perfect liberty of each indi- 

 vidual, is to guarantee the "greatest good" to society. We have 

 heard prohibitionists quote the maxim that "Tlie public good was 

 the supreme law," but we have never heard of it elsewhere. We 

 have heard that the public safety was the supreme law, ' ' Salus pop- 

 iili suprema lex.'''' But this is a very difterent thing from the public 

 good as the supreme law. Neither, as has been shown, is the pub^ 

 lie safety at all incompatible with one's private safety. 



MORAL vs. LEGAL WRONG. 



The great mistake made by the prohibitionist, is in confounding 

 what is morally wrong with what is legally wrong. He says "We 

 rejoice in the utmost personal liberty so long as the people do 

 right." And the Czar of Russia rejoices in the same way. No se- 

 curer lease of power could any tyrant have. With the individual 

 siibordinate to society, with each one's private interest suri'endered 

 to the public good, what end would there be to tyranny ? This 

 very article, were prohibitionists in power, could be suppressed, on 

 the ground that it was injurious to society. It may be morally 

 wrong for a person to eat many mince pies, on going to bed. Yet 

 it is not the State's business to regulate dyspepsia or nightmare. 

 It is a moral wrong for one to get drunk, but it is beyond the prov- 

 ince of government to say what a person shall drink. There are 

 many ways in which people may voluntarily injure themselves, yet 

 it is not the business of government to direct all our thoughts and 

 habits. Evils and vice do far more harm to society than crimes; 

 and their indirect inlluence is greater than the direct, yet for alj 

 t,liis, government is unjustiiied in interfering. The world is full of 

 misexy and woe ; the strong have to bear the burdens of the weak; 

 the wise must sutler from the ignorant ; the virtuous are pained at 

 vice; and would it not be a blessed thing to sweep them all out at 

 one fell swoop by act of Congress! But no, government cannot 

 l)r(;perly move an inch, without becoming criminal. But let the 

 King so much as tread on a peasant's toe, and it immediately be- 

 comes the duty of government to leap to the rescue ; — it is a crime.* 

 Now the ndiurc of a crime, as distinguished from a vice, and 

 which specially brings it within the power of government to sup- 

 press, is an overt act of force accompanied with a bad intent. Af- 



* "VVc do not iiroposc to iiiterfero with iinmonility and vice, but to siternly siip- 

 pii'ss ciinii'." — Pull Mull (iuztlle But llic C'liicago ''Law and Order League" had 

 tlie American publishers of the Loudon exposure arrested, on the ground of 

 immorality 1 



