LAW IN POLITICS. 395 



on the attempt to reach a right end by mistaken 

 means. In either of these cases Positive Institu- 

 tion and Natural Law become opposed, and thus 

 a bad contrivance in Legislation, like a bad con- 

 trivance in mechanics, comes always to some dead- 

 lock at last. Time and Natural Consequence are 

 great Teachers in Politics as in other things. Our 

 sins and our ignorances find us out. Both in con- 

 duct and in opinion Natural Law is ever working to 

 convict error, to reveal and to confirm the truth.* 



And so it was that the sad phenomena of 

 Factory labour were beginning to indicate the 

 great difference between the results of perfect 

 freedom of exchange in the products of labour 

 and the results of perfect freedom of competition 

 in Labour itself. Perhaps that difference ought 

 to have been foreseen, for the cause of it is 

 plain enough. There are certain results for the 

 attainment of which the natural instincts of in- 

 dividual men not only may be trusted, but must 

 be trusted as the best and indeed the only guide. 

 There are other results of which as a rule those 



Opinionum enim commenta delet dies ; naturae judicia con- 

 firmat. — Cicero, De Nat. Deor., lib. ii. c. 3. 



