450 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



intricately bound up with the historical evolution of the nation 

 since the reign of Henry III. In the other States of Europe the 

 impulse to popular government was invariably given by France, 

 by her Revolutions of 1789 and 1848 ; indeed, it was from France 

 that Bismarck borrowed the idea of imiversal suffrage with which 

 he enriched the newly founded German Empire in 1871. 



Thus, it is under the auspices of Liberal tradition and Liberal 

 poHty that the nations of Western civihsation have grown to 

 what they are at the present day ; that the industrial and com- 

 mercial system has developed ; and that the biological evolution 

 of the civilised peoples has gone on during the last few genera- 

 tions in the case of most, but in the case of the English during 

 very many generations. It is the system of Liberal polity which 

 we find to-day presiding over the destinies of civilised mankind. 

 Liberahsm has produced its economists, its philosophers, its 

 jurists, its sociologists, its pohticians ; and it is well to examine 

 briefly whether, firstly, Liberahsm has kept the promises made 

 in its name by all its most eminent representatives ; and whether, 

 secondly, it is theoretically as far above reproach as one might 

 sometimes be tempted to think. 



Let us take the second point first. What, we may ask, is the 

 theory of Liberalism ? If we turn to Kant, we find the following 

 definition of the State : "A State is a body of laws affecting 

 persons and their rights (eine Menge von Menschen und Rechts- 

 gesetzen), according to which each one of its members is limited 

 in his hberty solely by the condition of his liberty concurring with 

 the liberty of every other member."^ And what is the maxim 

 of the State, according to Kant ? It is summed up in the cele- 

 brated formula : " Treat every man as an end in himself, not as a 

 means to an end." 



tion to " absolute " or " despotic." We are not to be taken as implying 

 that the Conservative party are pledged to despotism, or, indeed, as 

 expressing any party views whatever. 



1 Kant, Metaphysische Anfangsgrilnde der Rechtslehre. Cited by Bier- 

 mann, StcuU und Wirtschaft, i. 79. Berlin, 1905. 



