402 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



We are still in a state of tutelage — advancing 

 with slow and reluctant steps in the path indi- 

 cated by the teachings of Natural Consequence. 

 The last Report on the Employment of Children 

 shows that evils as bad as ever existed before 

 the passing of the Factory Acts, prevail at this 

 moment among large classes of our operative po- 

 pulation, and demand again, as imperatively as 

 before, an authoritative interference of Positive 

 Institution with the freedom of the individual 

 Will. The fact of such legislation has indeed 

 gained a sort of silent acquiescence, and some of 

 the old opponents have admitted that their fear 

 of the results, in an economical point of view, 

 has proved erroneous. But there is still no 

 clear and well-grounded intellectual perception of 

 the deep foundations of principle on which it 

 rests. Nor is there among a large section of Poli- 

 ticians any adequate appreciation of the powerful 

 influence it has had in improving the physical 

 condition of the people, and securing their con- 

 tentment with the Laws under which they live. 



When, however, we think for a moment of the 

 frightful nature of the evils which this Legislation 



