444 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



scandals connected with child and female labour in factories, 

 were passed before the Reform Act of 1867 admitted working 

 men to a share in the franchise. But the Factory Acts were, 

 none the less, passed under the pressure of public opinion ; and 

 pubhc opinion cannot be strong enough to exercise an influence 

 on the ruling party unless those who voice it are not only 

 numerous but, to a certain extent, organised. The legislator 

 who passed the Factory Acts did so in order to preserve for 

 himself at least the nominal supremacy in the State ; but the 

 virtual supremacy of a ruler, whether an individual despot or a 

 despotic majority (and the latter is the worst foe of all progress), 

 is at an end on the day on which that ruler or that majority abdi- 

 cates by giving way to the pressure of public opinion. On that 

 day the balance of power in the State is shifted, and the ruUng 

 power recognises the existence of another power, which is 

 stronger than itself, to which it is obliged to give way. The 

 number of people who suffered from the extravagance and ex- 

 tortions of the old regime in France was probably as great in 

 the reign of Louis XIV. as in that of Louis XVI. ; but as yet 

 there was no pubhc opinion, the opposition was not organised, 

 the sufferers were still unconscious of their potential strength. 

 But a new power entered into active politics on the day on which 

 Louis XVI. signed the decree of convocation for the States- 

 General. 



It is, therefore, of the highest importance for the welfare of 

 society that the congruity between Right and Might, as Anton 

 Menger expresess it, be maintained. For, in the first place, 

 legislation systematically carried on in the interests of one class 

 cannot but be prejudicial to the interests of the other classes, 

 and in this manner an immense amount of social energy is 

 wasted ; whereas precisely the greatest possible economy of social 

 energy should be the aim of the legislator. And, in the second 

 place, when the antagonism between the direction of social 

 polity and the inherent needs of the social organism reaches a 



