464 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



the end of increasing Ms capital ? Does the capitalist restrict 

 Ms liberty even to the bare extent of doing no injury to the 

 liberty of others ? We have here examined the results of Liberal 

 poHty merely from a theoretical standpoint. Its practical results 

 may be judged from the statistics given in the second part of 

 tMs work. We might dwell at greater length on the immense 

 wastage of social energy and the corresponding loss of social 

 cohesion, the consequent disintegration of society, wMch cannot 

 fail to result from the anarchy which, as a result of Liberal polity, 

 prevails to-day. We might dwell on the strikes, and show, from 

 their statistics, the enormous loss wMch they cause annually to 

 the economic interests of the social organism. We might dwell 

 on the conditions of life in all our great cities, wMch, in spite of 

 many and great improvements, still remain a source of disease 

 and social weakness. But here we will only examine the theory 

 of Liberalism. And when we come to consider the many disasters 

 which Liberal poUty has prepared for the social organism ; when 

 we consider the wastage and diminution of social energy which is 

 its accompaniment ; when we consider the biological deteriora- 

 tion which it has brought about, we must not be surprised. A 

 polity based on a theory so contradictory could not but result ia 

 incoherence and disiutegration of social Ufe. 



Liberalism will either have to abandon the etMcal element in 

 its creed, or it wiU have to abandon the laissez-faire element. 

 The Liberal party in England, which contains the elastic Non- 

 conformist Conscience, and wMch, at the same time, is pledged 

 to laissez-faire, contains in itself an inherent contradiction. The 

 Nonconformist Conscience, wMch has been described as the 

 greatest humbug of modern times, cannot bear the spectacle of 

 Chinese labourers imported to work ia South Africa ; but it 

 subscribes to a political dogma wMch, if true to itself, is con- 

 demned to complete sterOity in social legislation, wMch is re- 

 sponsible more than anything else for the social disintegration 

 with which we are menaced, and wMch would be content not to 



