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of Lord Palmerston, all appear, though the appear- Lecture ance is in some respects delusive, not in reality to delay for more than periods which are mere moments in the life of nations, the progress of change. the other hand, the violence of democrats or the fervour of enthusiasts achieves little in hurrying on innovation. In the eighteenth century a duke was ready to recommend universal suffrage. It was demanded by the Chartists, who between 1830 and 1848 seemed destined to carry parliamentary reform to its logical conclusion. Yet now that England is far more democratic than in the middle of the nineteenth century, the electors, who could easily obtain any change which they eagerly desired, acquiesce in arrangements far less democratic than even unqualified household suffrage; and it is arguable (though, be it remembered, many things are arguable which turn out not to be true) that the reforms or changes of the last sixty years have considerably increased the popularity of the Crown, the Peerage, and the Church. If we look then to the changes which have been effected, and what is equally important, to the changes which have not been effected, in the law of the land, we trace everywhere the action of opinion, and feel as if we were in the hands of some mysterious influence which works with the certainty of fate. But this feeling or superstition is checked by the recollection that public opinion is nothing but the opinion of the public that is, the predominant convictions of an indefinite Englishmen.

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LECTURE VII

THE GROWTH OF COLLECTIVISM

Lecture WITH the passing of the Reform Act began the reign of liberalism; and the utilitarianism of common sense acquired, in appearance at least, despotic power, but this appearance was to a certain extent delusive. At the moment of the Benthamite triumph there were to be found thinkers who, while insisting on the need for thoroughgoing reforms, denied the moral authority of individualism and denounced the dogma of laissez faire.

This vital difference between two opposed schools of thought had more than a merely speculative interest. It determined men's way of looking at by far the most pressing social problem of the day. The fifteen years from 1830 to 1845, which may well be termed the era of the Reform Act, were among the most critical in the history of England. The time was out of joint. The misery and discontent of city artisans and village labourers were past dispute. No Act of Parliament could remove at a stroke the wretchedness and pauperism created by the old poor law. The true cure contained in the new poor law of 1834, with its drastic severity, its curtailment of outdoor relief, and its detested Bastilles, increased for the moment the sufferings of the poorest amongst

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the poor, and excited intense popular resentment. Lecture The wages earned by labourers in the country were miserably low. The horrors connected with factory life were patent. Widespread was the discontent of the whole body of wage-earners. It is recorded in a series of state trials for sedition, for conspiracy, or for treason, extending from 1832 to 1843. There was rick-burning2 by labourers in the country, there were acts of violence by trade unionists in the towns. The demand for the People's Charter was the sign of a social condition which portended revolution. To us who know that several points of the People's Charter have passed into law without causing social or political disturbance, the thought may occur that Chartism loomed too large in the eyes of contemporaries. But the men of 1832 understood the time in which they lived. The cry for the Charter told of bitter class hatreds and of widespread dissatisfaction with the whole constitution of society. Men who have known England only during the years of prosperity and of general goodwill which have followed the repeal of the corn laws, can hardly realise the urgency with which the "state of England question" thrust itself upon the attention of the public between 1832 and 1840. It was a terrible question enough; it was nothing else than the inquiry, how, if at all, was it possible to alleviate

1 R. v. Pinney (1832), R. v. Fursey (1833), R. v. Vincent (1837), R. v. Collins (1839), R. v. Feargus O'Connor, R. v. Cooper (1843), to which add the notorious case of the Dorchester Labourers (1834); Webb, History of Trade Unionism, p. 129.

2 As to the violent destruction of machinery in 1830, see "Letters to Swing," by Sydney Smith, Memoir by Lady Holland, i. (4th ed.), p. 287.

Lecture the miseries and remove the discontent of the working classes?

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The reply of utilitarian Liberals was in substance clear. The policy of wisdom was, they insisted, to make the nation, as the Reform Act was intended to do, master of its own destiny. Hence, it was argued, would follow the removal of every definite abuse and the repeal of every unjust law, and especially of any law which pressed unfairly and hardly upon the poor. This being done, law, it was assumed rather than stated, could do no more; for the ultimate cure of social diseases we must trust to general good-will, and above all to individual energy and self-help.

Nowhere is this doctrine better expressed than in the refutation by Sydney Smith of the argument familiar to the toryism of 1830, that the Reform Bill would bring no benefit to the hewer of wood and drawer of water.

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"What good," says Sydney Smith in 1830, "to the hewer of wood and the drawer of water? How is he benefited, if Old Sarum is abolished, and 'Birmingham members created? But if you ask this 'question of Reform, you must ask it of a great "number of other great measures? How is he "benefited by Catholic Emancipation, by the repeal of "the Corporation and Test Act, by the Revolution of

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1688, by any great political change, by a good govern"ment? In the first place, if many are benefited, "and the lower orders are not injured, this alone is reason enough for the change. But the hewer of wood and the drawer of water are benefited by "Reform. Reform will produce economy and investi'gation; there will be fewer jobs and a less lavish

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expenditure; wars will not be persevered in for Lecture years after the people are tired of them; taxes will "be taken off the poor and laid upon the rich; demotic habits will be more common in a country where the rich are forced to court the poor for political power; cruel and oppressive punishments (such as those for night-poaching) will be abolished. If you steal a pheasant you will be punished as you ought to be, but not sent away from your wife and children for seven years. Tobacco will be 2d. per lb. cheaper. Candles will fall in price. These last "results of an improved government will be felt. We do not pretend to abolish poverty, or to prevent wretchedness; but if peace, economy, and justice are the results of Reform, a number of small benefits, or rather of benefits which appear small to us, "but not to them, will accrue to millions of the people; and the connection between the existence of John Russell, and the reduced price of bread and "cheese, will be as clear as it has been the object of "his honest, wise, and useful life to make it.

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"Don't be led away by such nonsense; all things "are dearer under a bad government, and cheaper "under a good one. The real question they ask you is, What difference can any change of government "make to you? They want to keep the bees from buzzing and stinging, in order that they may rob "the hive in peace. "1

Every one of these predictions has been fulfilled almost to the letter.

Turn now for illustrations of the protest against the dominant individualism of the day to the language

1 Sydney Smith's Works (ed. 1869), pp. 670, 671.