^ The immediate interest of the subject will sufficiently explain the lenfi:th to which this chapter is extended; and if the style of argument used in it is somewhat too popular for a work like the present, the same consideration must serve as an excuse. Two of the sections have already appeared in print.
218 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE.
placed in their hands for their omi advantage is self-evident. Directly or indii-ectly, either by hook or by crook, if not openly, then in secret, their private ends will be served. Granting the proposition that men are selfish, we cannot avoid the corollary, that those who possess authority will, if pennitted, use it for selfish purposes.
Should any one need facts in proof of this, he may find them at every page in the nearest volume of history. Under the head— ^Monarchy, he will read of insatiable cravings after more territory; of confiscations of the subjects' property; of justice sold to the liighest bidder; of continued debasements of coinage; and of a greediness which could even descend to share the gains of prostitutes.
He will find Feudalism exemplifying the same spirit by the cruelties inflicted upon serfs; by the right of private war; by the predatory incursions of borderers; by robberies practised on Jews; and by the extortionate tribute wrung from burghers — all of them illustrations of that motto, so characteristic of the system, " Thou shalt want ere I want."
Does he seek like evidence in the conduct of later aristo- cracies? He may discover it in every state in Europe: in Spain, where the lands of nobles and clergy were long exempted from direct taxation; in Hungary, where, until lately, men of rank were fi-ee of ail turnpikes, and only the mercantile and working classes paid; in France, before the first revolution, where the tiers-etat had to bear all the state burdens; in Scotland, where less than two centuries ago it was the cus- tom of lairds to kidnap tlie common people, and export them as slaves; in Ireland, where at the rebellion a band of usurping landowners hunted and shot the Catholics as they would game, for daring to claim their own.
If more proofs are wanted that power will be made to sei-ve the purposes of its possessors, Enghsh legislation can furnish many such. Take, for example, the significantly named " Black Act " (9th of George I.), which declares that any one disguised and in possession of an ofiensive weapon " appearino' THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE. 219 in any waiTeu, or place where hares or conies have been, or shall be usually kept, and being thereof duly convicted, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and shall suffer death, as in cases of felony, without benefit of clergy." Instance again the In- closiu'e Laws, by which commons were divided amongst the neighbouring landowners, in the ratios of their holdings, regardless of the claims of the poor cottagers. Notice also the manoeuvre by which the land tax has been kept stationary, or has even decreased, whilst other taxes have so enormously increased. Add to these the private monopoUes (obtained from the King for " a consideration "), the perversion of the funds of public schools, the manufacture of places, and pensions.
Nor is the disposition to use power for private ends less manifest in our own day. It shows itself in the assertion that an electoral system should give a preponderance to the landed interest. We see it in the legislation which relieves fanners from sundry assessed taxes, that they may be enabled to pay more rent. It is palpably indicated in the Game Laws. The conduct of the squire, who gets his mansion rated at one-third of its value, bears witness to it. It appears in the law enabling a landlord to anticipate other creditors, and to obtain bis rent by immediate seizure of his tenant's property. We are re- minded of it by the often-mentioned legacy and probate duties. It is imphed by the fact that whilst no one dreams of com- pensating the discharged workman, gentlemen sinecuiists must have their "vested interests" bought up if their offices are abolished. In the tracts of the Anti-Corn Law League it re- ceived abundant illustration. It is seen in the votes of the hundred and fifty military and naval members of Parliament. And lastly, we find this self-seeking of those in authority creeps out, even in the doings of the "Right Reverend Fathers in God " forming the Ecclesiastical Commission, who have ap- propriated, for the embellishment of their own palaces, funds entrusted to them for the benefit of the Church.
But it is needless to accumulate illustrations. Though every historian the world has seen should bo subpoened as a 220 THE CONSTITUTION OK THE STATE.
witness, the fact could not be rendered one whit more certain than it is akeady. Why ask whether those in power have sought their own advantage in preference to that of others? With human nature as we know it, they must have done so. It is tliis same tendency in men to pursue gratification at the expense of their neighbours that renders government needful. Were we not selfish, legislative restraint would be unnecessary. Evidently, then, the very existence of a state- authority proves that irresponsible rulers will sacrifice the public good to their personal benefit; all solemn promises, specious professions, and carefully-arranged checks and safeguards, notwithstanding.
If, therefore, class-legislation is the inevitable consequence of class-power, there is no escape from the conclusion that the interest of the wJiole society can be secured, only by giving power into the hands of the whole people.
Against the position tliat to ensure justice to the nation at large all its members must be endowed with like powers, it is indeed urged that, as tlieworldng classes constitute the majority, to endow all with Uke powers, is practically to make the work- ing classes supreme. And it will probably be added that by virtue of this same self-seeking tendency just insisted upon, legislation in their hands would inevitably be twisted to seiTe the ends of labour regardless of the claims of property.
Of course those who raise this objection do not wish to in- sinuate that the people would use their power after the fashion of brigands. Although in the old Norman day, when the sacking and burning of towns by neighbouring nobles was not unfirequent, a change to popular rule involved retaliatory attacks upon the strongholds of these feudal buccaneers, yet we may fairly conclude that the increased social morality which deters modern aristocracies from direct robbery of the people, would also prevent die people from inflicting any direct injury upon THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE. 221 them. The danger this objection points to — the only danger to he rationally feared — is that the same insensible bias by which our present rulers are swayed, would lead the working classes to sacrifice the rights of the rich on the altar of their own desires — would give rise to a code of laws favouring poverty at the expense of wealth.
Even were there no answer to this, the evidence would still preponderate in favour of popular enfranchisement. For what at the utmost does the argument amount to? Just this: — that the few must continue to trespass against the many, lest the many should trespass against the few. The well fed, the luxuriously housed and clothed, the placemen and pensioners, may perhaps think it better that the masses should suffer for their benefit (as they do) than that they should suffer for the benefit of the masses (as they might). But would a just arbitrator say this? Would he not say, on the contrary, that even if their respective members were blessed with equal advantages, the minority ought to be sacrificed rather than the majority; but that as the most numerous are at the same time the least favoured, their claim becomes still more imperative. Surely, if one of the two parties must submit to injustice, it ought to be the rich hundreds, and not the poor thousands.
The foregoing objection, however, is not so sound as it looks. It is one thing for a comparatively small class to unite in the pursuit of a common advantage, and it is another thing for a dispersed multitude to do so. Some thousands of individuals having identical interests, moving together in the same circle, brought up with like prejudices, educated in one creed, hound together by family ties, and meeting annually in the same city, may easily enough combine for the obtainment of a desired object. Bui for half a dozen millions of working men, dis- tributed over a vast area, engaged in various occupations, be- longing to different religious sects, and divided into two totally distinct bodies, the one imbued with thefeeUngs and theories of town life, the other retaining aU those prejudices of the past which yet linger in the country — for these to act with unanimity 222 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE.
is scarcely possible. Their mass is too great, too incongnioiis, too scattered, for effective combination. We have current proof of this. The Chartist agitation shows us men, who, during the last twenty years, have gradually imbibed ideas of political freedom — men who have been irritated by a sense of injustice — men who have been slighted by their fellow-citizens — men who have been suffering daily privations — men, therefore, who have had an accumulated stimulus to unite in obtaining what they feel themselves entitled to, and what they see reason to beheve would greatly beneiit them. And how have they prospered in the attempt to carry their point? Disputes, divisions, apathy, adverse influences of every kind, have joined to produce repeated failures. Xow if, with the aid of that enthusiasm which a righteous cause always inspires, the masses have not attained to that unity of action needful for the ac- compUsliment of their object, much less would they be able successfully to unite were that object a dishonest one.
Whoever demui's to the enfranchisement of the working men on tlie ground that they are immoral, is bound to point out a constituency wliich is not immoral. When it is alleged that the venaUty of the people renders them unfit for the possession of votes, it is assumed that some class not charge- able with venaUty may be found. But no such class exists. Bring them all to trial and not a single section of the com- munity would obtain a verdict of " not guilty."
Were the shopkeepers put upon their examination, how would they excuse their trade practices? Is it moral to put potatoes and alum in bread; to add salt, tobacco, and colchi- cum to beer; to mix lard with butter; to manufacture milk in vai-ious known and unknown ways; to adulterate oils, chemicals, colours, wines— in short, everything capable of adulteration? Does the existence of inspectors of weights and measures in- THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE. 223 dicate morality? Or is it honest to sell over the counter, goods whose quality is inferior to that of the samples ticketed in the window?
Did the manufacturers make any pretension to purity, they might have to encounter some awkward hints as to the practice of tearing up old rags into shoddy to be worked into cloth along with new wool. Disagreeable questions might be asked concerning the proportion of cotton woven into some fabrics, pretended to be wholly of silk. The piracy of patterns, too, would be a deUcate subject. And the practice of using gypsum to increase the weight and substance of paper, could hardly be defended on the principles of the Decalogue.
Not less discreditable would be the sentence deserved by the agriculturists. In spite of the refining effects which poets ascribe to intercourse with nature, it is nevertheless an un- doubted fact that the farmers — in Dorsetshire, at least — have been convicted of paying their labourers in damaged wheat, charged at the full price — a habit not altogether conscientious. It is matter of histoiy, too, that before the enactment of the New Poor Law, it was in many districts the custom to give farm servants but half wages; the remainder being made up to them out of the poor-rates, over which their masters exercised the chief control. And to these samples of morality the trans- actions of the cattle-market and the horse-fair would probably furnish fit companions.
Neither in such a scratiny would the professions escape un- scathed. Who can hear the word " venaUty " without straight- way thinking of the law? Attorneys already stand in too bad repute to need their sins hinting at; and even the gentlemen of the bar are not without reproach. The attempt to make a known felon appear innocent denotes rather confused ideas of right and wrong. Then their habit of taking fees to plead in a cause, "which other engagements will not permit them to attend, and keeping the pay, although they do not perform the work, scarcely impUes that honesty deemed so requisite for the proper use of political power.
224 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE.
Our members of Parliament, too, were the gauntlet token up on their behalf, would come off but indifferently. That arrange- ment which places them beyond the reach of their creditors, is hardly consistent with the moral law; nor does it imply the nicest sense of honour. And then that disease of the representative system — bribery; ought the rich to escape all the odium attaching to it — should cdl the disgrace fall upon the poor electors?
Nor can those who move in titled circles boast of superior integrity. In the trickeries of the turf, and in the midnight scenes at gaming-houses, the denizens of Mayfair and Belgravia play a sufficiently conspicuous part. The Huntingtower bank- ruptcy was not to the credit of the caste, any more than are those acts of outlawry to which, from time to time, members of it are subjected. And did the aristocracy possess strict notions -of equity it is probable that a httle more respect would be shown by them to the claims of their tradesmen, than is indicated by their proverbially bad character as paymasters.
Nay, even our highest officers of state participate in the general contamination. Did not the Mazzini affair show some laxity of principle? Was it nothing, as the Westminster Re- view put it, to teach that theft is permissible when officials wish to steal information from a letter — that lying is permis- sible if they desire to conceal the theft by re- sealing that letter — that forgery is permissible for the puqsose of counterfeiting seals? And then our present ministers — are they any better than their predecessors? If so, how shall we explain away the garbling of some of the West Indian despatches, and the suppression of others \ No, no; let not any "one oppose the enfranchisement of tlae people on the score of their immorality, lest he be put to the blush by the exposure of his own offences, or the offences of his class. Let him that is guiltless cast the first stone. Vice, dishonest)', venality, pervade all ranks; and if political power must be denied to working men because they are corrupt, it must be denied to all classes whatever for the same reason.
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE. 225 Some indeed allege that the masses are more vicious than the rest of the community. But those who express this opinion arrive at it very illogically. They glance at assize proceedings, read through the names and occupations in the calendar of prisoners, skim over statistics of crime, and because they meet with an immense preponderance of vagrants, fann- servants, bricklayers, drovers, bargemen, porters, factory hands, and the like, they forthwith set down the peasant and artizan class as greatly inferior in moral character to every other class. They take no account of the fact, that in number, the labour- ing population is at least six times all the rest put together. They do not inquire whether, if the cases that appear in the police sheets of swindling advertisers, of false-ticketing trades- men, of embezzling clerks, of young gentlemen concerned in drunken sprees, attacks on the police, insults to women, and so on, were multiplied by six, they would not approach in number the otlier cases daily reported. Were this done, however — ■ were the crimes committed by each class reduced to a per- centage upon the size of that class, there would be found much less inequality than is commonly thought to exist.
Moreover, it should be remembered that the immorahty of the middle and upper ranks assumes a different guise from that worn by the vices of the poor. Men comparatively well off are not likely to be guilty of those grosser offences seen amongst the lower orders, for their circumstances remove them almost beyond temptation to these. But the bad propensities may and do exist in full force notwithstanding; and enough of their workings may any day be seen in courts of law. Fraudu- lent bankruptcies, actions for debt, suits for the restitution of usurped rights, quarrels about wiUs — all these show the activity of passions which, under other conditions, might have produced acts technically called crimes. Men who, by legal chicanery, cheat others out of thek property, or who refuse to discharge the claims justly made upon them until forced by Q •220 THE CONSTITDTION OF THE STATE.
law, are men who, in a lower walk of life, would have picked pockets or robbed hen-roosts. We must measure morality by motives, not by deeds. And if we thus estimate the characters of the trading and richer grades, taking into account also the consideration above adverted to — number — we shall find that the data on the strength of which we attribute especial immo- rality to the labouring classes are by no means sufficient.
It is a pity that those who speak disparagingly of the masses have not -wisdom enough, or candour enough, to make due allowance for the unfavourable circumstances in which the masses are placed. Suppose that after carefully weighing the evidence it should turn out that the working men do exhibit gi-eater vices than those more comfortably off; does it therefore follow that they are morally worse? Are the additional tempta- tions under wliich they labour to be left out of the estimate? Shall as much be expected at their hands as from those born into a more fortimate position? Ought the same demands to be made upon the possessors of five talents as upon the pos- sessors of ten? Surely the lot of the hard-handed labourer is pitiable enough without having harsh judgments passed upon Mm. To be wholly sacrificed to other men's happiness; to be made a mere human tool; to have every faculty subordinated to the sole function of work — this, one would say, is alone a misfortune, needing all sympathy for its mitigation. Consider well these endowments of his — these capacities, affections, tastes, and the vague yearnings to which they give birth. Think of Mm now with his caged-up desires doomed to a daily, weekly, yearly round of painful toil, with scarcely any remission but for food and sleep. Observe how he is tantalized by the pleasures he sees Ms richer brethren partaking of, but from which he must be for ever debarred. Note the humiliation he suffers from being looked down upon as of ho account amongst men. And then remember that he has nothing to look forward THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE. 227 to but a monotonous continuance of this till death. Is this a salutary state of tilings to live under?
It is very easy for you, 0 respectable citizen, seated in your easy chair, mth your feet on the fender, to hold forth on the misconduct of the people; — very easy for you to censure their extravagant and vicious habits; — very easy for you to be a pat- tern of fi-ugality, of rectitude, of sobriety. What else should you be? Here are you surrounded by comforts, possessing multiplied sources of lawful happiness, with a reputation to maintain, an ambition to fulfil, and the prospect of a compe- tency for your old age. A shame indeed would it be if with these advantages you were not well regulated in your beha- viom-. You have a cheerful home, are warmly and cleanly clad, and fare, if not sumptuously every day, at any rate abund- antly. For your hours of relsixation there are amusements. A newspaper arrives regularly to satisfy your curiosity; if your tastes are Hterary, books may be had in plenty: and there is a piano if you like music. You can afford to entertain your friends, and are entertained in return. There are lectures, and concerts, and exhibitions, accessible if you inchne to them. You may have a hohday when you choose to take one, and can spare money for an annual trip to the sea-side. And enjoying all these privileges you take credit to yourself for being a well-conducted man! Small praise to you for it! If you do not contract dissipated habits where is the merit? you have few incentives to do so. It is no honour to you that you do not spend your savings in sensual gratification; you have pleasures enough without But what would you do if placed in the position of the labourer? How would these virtues of yours stand the wear and tear of poverty? Where would your prudence and self-denial be if you were deprived of all the hopes that now stimulate you; if you had no better prospect than that of the Dorsetshire farm-servant with his 7*-. a week, or that of the perpetually-straitened stocking- weaver, or that of the miU-hand with his periodical suspensions of work? Let us see you tied to an irksome employment from dawn till dusk; 228 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE.
fed on meagre food, and scarcely enough of that; married to a factory girl ignorant of domestic management; deprived of the enjoyments which education opens up; with no place of recrea- tion but the pot-house, and then let us see whether you would be as steady as you ai-e. Suppose your savings had to be made, not, as now, out of sui-plus income, but out of wages already insufficient for necessaries; and then consider whether to be provident would he as easy as you at present find it. Conceive yourself one of a despised class contemptuously termed " the great unwashed; " stigmatized as brutish, stohd, vicious; suspected of harbouring wicked designs; excluded from the dignity of citizenship; and then say whether the desire to be respectable would be as practically operative on you as now. Lastly, imagine that seeing your capacities were but ordinary, your education next to nothing, and your competitors innu- merable, you despaired of ever attaining to a higher station; and then think whether the incentives to perseverance and forethought would be as strong as your existing ones. ReaUze these circumstances, 0 comfortable citizen, and then answer whether the reckless, disorderly habits of the people are so inexcusable.
How offensive is it to hear some pert, self- approving per- sonage, who thanks God that he is not as other men are, passing harsh sentence on his poor hard-worked heavily-bur- dened fellow-countryinen; including them all in one sweep- ing condemnation, because in their struggles for existence they do not maintain the same prim respectabihty as himself Of all stupidities there are few greater, and yet few in which we more doggedly persist, than this of estimating other men's con- duct by the standard of our own feehngs. There is no more mischievous absurdity than this judging of actions from the outside as they look to us, instead of from the inside as they look to the actors; nothing more irrational than to criticize deeds as though the doers of them had the same desires, hopes, fears, and restraints with ourselves. We cannot understand another's character except by abandoning our own identity, THE CONSTITUTrON OF THE STATE. 229 and realizing to ourselves his frame of mind, his want of knowledge, his hardships, temptations, and discouragements. And if the wealthier classes would do this before forming their opinions of the working man, their verdicts would savour some- what more of that charity which covereth a multitude of sins.
After all it is a pitiful controversy, this about the rela- tive vices of rich and poor. Two school-boys taunting each other, with faults of which they were equally guilty, would best parody it: Whilst indignant EadioaUsm denounces "the vile aristocrats," these in their turn enlarge with horror on the brutality of the mob. Neither party sees its own sins. Neither part}' recognises in the other, itself in a different dress. Neither party can believe that it would do all the other does if placed in like circumstances. Yet a cool bystander finds nothing to _ choose between them; knows that these class recriminations are but the inflammatory symptoms of a uniformly-diffused im- morality. Label men how you please with titles of " upper," and "middle," and "lower," you cannot prevent them being units of the same society, acted upon by the same spirit of the age, moulded after the same type of character. The mechani- cal law, that action and reaction are equal, has its moral ana- logue. The deed of one man to another tends ultimately to produce a hke effect upon both, be the deed good or bad. Do but put them in relationship, and no division into castes, no differences of wealth, can prevent men from assimilating. Whoso is placed amongst the savage wiU in process of time get savage too; let his companions be treacherous, and he will become treacherous in self-defence; surround him with the kind-hearted and he wiU soften; amidst the refined he will acquire polish; and the same influences which thus rapidly adapt the indi- vidual to his society, ensure, though by a slower process, the general uniformity of a national character. This is no unsup- ported theory. Look when or where we please, thickly-strewn 230 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE.