i8o Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. [ix. 



ment have given rise to the most barbarous tyranny.^ 

 Trade-union projects, economic experiments, poor- 

 laws, education-laws, church-laws, currency-laws, have 

 all turned out to be failures, and in many cases have 

 inflicted upon society positive miseiy, instead of con- 

 ferring upon it positive benefit. Paradoxical as all 

 this may at first seem, it is but a statement of his- 

 toric facts.^ Modern history is filled with similar 

 examples, all showing the utter incompetence of 

 government to regulate the affairs of men. The duty 

 of government is to insure the fulfilment of the first 

 principle of morality — that no man shall infringe 

 upon another's sphere of action. If it but performs 

 its duty, it will do well. But when it goes to making 

 plans for securing the "greatest happiness to the 

 greatest number," it usually contrives to end up by 

 securing the least happiness to every one, having 

 failed in its projects, and neglected its proper 

 function meanwhile. 



But on looking back and contemplating society in 

 its primitive state, we shall arrive at very different con- 

 clusions. We shall perceive that the protective spirit, 



' As in the case of the East India Company, and of the American 

 Colonies before the Revolution. 



'^ See the evidence in Spencer's Social Statics, p. 195 to 406, and in 

 Mr. Buckle's volumes. 



