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CHAPTER IV.

RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT.

91. OF the various measures we have had to consider, only two appear to be clearly unsound when tried by the principles of National Husbandry. Between the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876, and the Irish Land Bill of 1881 there is a curious parallel. Both were advocated on high moral grounds; both were introduced by ministers who had repudiated the principles on which they were based; both were passed because of the pressure of agitation outside the house; both were condemned by careful and fair critics at the time, and in both cases the condemnation has been amply justified. We had reason to comment above on the dangers of hasty legislation (pp. 139, 143), and these instances of enactments which were forced on, under outside pressure, by politicians who forsook the principles they had always advocated, serve to confirm the objections to which it lies open, and to raise a prejudice against proposals which awaken a widespread agitation in their favour.

92. Agitation in these days is most likely to be formidable when it is directed by men such as Mr. Plimsoll or Mr. George, who take their stand on some great moral principle; but abstract moral principles cannot serve as

safe guides for practical legislation (p. 126). And there is great danger in seeking to do what appears right on political or social grounds unless we weigh carefully its economic bearings. The whole history of English dealings with Ireland is the history of sacrificing industrial good for political purposes-political purposes that did not seem unjust to the men who carried these measures (p. 66). The repeated confiscations of the lands of men who were reputed to be disaffected were all due to political motives; so too were these measures, for preventing the migration of the Devonshire woollen trade to Dublin,1 which are often alluded to by a strange misnomer as the suppression of Irish industries; the miserable condition of Ireland now is a standing warning against legislating for social or political purposes without taking the economic considerations into full account.

In days gone by we had a social system which was permeated by Christian morality, and where all the relations of life were defined on this basis: but a highly organised system is incompatible with rapid growth, and it could not be preserved in the conditions of modern life. Unless we are prepared to put an unwonted constraint on the habits of modern society-and introduce a State socialism—we cannot attempt to use moral principles as positive guides, and to construct institutions that give effect to them; we must be satisfied to use them as negative conditions, and to condemn and punish conduct that militates against them; but to carry this out we must be content to enforce such moral principles as are accepted by public opinion (p. 138), and to trust to other

1 The detailed evidence for this will be found in the Commons Journals, e.g. xii. 64. The Irish Act which suppressed the newly planted woollen industry in Dublin specially excepted the established Irish manufacture of frieze.

means than legislation to raise the tone of popular judgment.

93. And this can be best done by insisting on the duty we owe to posterity—to make the future of our nation as great and noble as lies in our power. The most severe indictment which was brought against the Irish Land Bill, that it sacrificed all future generations in the interest of the existing tenantry, is still unproven: that would be the most complete renunciation of all National Husbandry as we understand it. Rather must we seek to keep the ideal of a better national life before us-to improve our ideal of national life year by year as we get a fuller knowledge of the capabilities of human nature and the possibilities of applying the resources of the world to the use of Man. But with this ever improving ideal, we may also have ever increasing knowledge of the means for realising it, in the statistics which measure the changes occurring under our existing laws, and the histories which explain the principles on which the economic life of other ages or other lands was regulated. From such constantly growing experience we may frame practical principles that will help us to judge of the wisdom or unwisdom of any proposal connected with National Husbandry.

94. One danger we have indeed had brought before us, in the cumbrousness of the machinery which has been developed for certain economic purposes. From all sides we hear complaints of the inability of the State to fulfil the functions it has undertaken. The overstraining of our Indian civilians is notorious, the working of our Education system has given rise to grievous complaint,

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the Marine Department of the Board of Trade has found few defenders, and the machinery of Bankruptcy Administration and of the Irish Land Act have yet to prove themselves successful. The objection to State interference lies not so much in principle as in practice; there are indeed doctrinaires who disregard the lessons which were given during the dominance of laisser faire, and who fix their faith to the principle of leaving the individual free to pursue his private interest in the way that seems right in his own eyes. But public opinion, as represented in Parliament, fully recognises now that this form of economic science has received a practical refutation from the course of events. Just as the rapid expansion of commerce, in the sixteenth century, broke down the medieval system; just as the new political combinations in the eighteenth upset the doctrines of mercantilists, and modern machinery destroyed the industrial code of Elizabeth; so in this nineteenth century has our national experience demonstrated the one-sidedness,-and therefore the falsity-of the principles of laisser faire. No practical politician can now get a hearing who objects to all State interference as such; there are some things, such as the delivery of letters, which can by common consent be best managed through State agency; and if the State can do certain work better than individuals, by all means let it undertake it. The real difficulty is to tell whether in any particular case State management may be attempted. And this is the crucial problem for those who advocate the nationalisation of land; they must show that State-landlordism would be cheaper and better for the nation as a whole than the present system. There would of course be comparatively little difficulty in taking over estates like the Duke of Buccleuch's, as

the machinery for managing them has been developed by a large proprietor; but in the case of the smaller estates no such agencies exist, and the necessary machinery would have to be created. The probabilities of success are least in those cases where the State not only undertakes a new function, but is required to create wholly new machinery to carry it out, instead of being able to adapt some existing system (p. 123).

95. Yet it is well worth while to set ourselves in earnest to the solution of these problems; to try by firm repression of private wrong-doing, by wise administration of the powers of State, to sustain and prolong our national life. Each great race has made a notable contribution to the development of the civilisation of the world: we owe a debt to Egypt for some measure of skill, to Greece for the triumphs of Art, to Rome for the vigour of her Law. We English too have a destiny to fulfil, a duty thrust upon us by Him whom we profess to serve, a heritage to bequeath to all future generations and all other races. We are a nation of shopkeepers; a nation whose triumphs and whose position are inextricably bound up with commercial success. And therefore it is that the problems of industrial and social life lie before us for solution, that it is in our progress and our poverty, our bitter misery and our struggle with it, that the world may learn about the evils of grinding competition and pitiable luxury, of the race for wealth and the failure to enjoy it. These are the questions with which the Sphinx has set us face to face, and by our answers to these will our place as a nation be judged in the ages to come.

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