It is not unlikely that many readers, though unprepared with definite replies to these reasonings, will stiU doubt their correctness. That the existing monetary system— an actual working system, seemingly kept going hy the state— would be benefited by the withdrawal of state- control, is a belief which the strongest arguments will in most cases fail to instil. Cus- tom wiU bias men in this case, much as in another case it does the vine-growers of France, who, having long been instructed by state- commissioned authorities when to commence the vin- tage, believe that such dictation is beneficial. So much more does a reahzed fact influence us than an imagined one, that had the baking and sale of bread been hitherto carried on by government-agents, probably the supply of bread by private entei-prise would scarcely be conceived possible, much less advantageous. The philosophical free-trader, however, re- membering this efiect of habit over the convictions — remem- bering how innumerable have been the instances in which legislative control was erroneously thought necessary — remem- bering that in this very matter of currency men once considered it requisite " to use the most ferocious measures to bring as much foreign bullion as possible into the country, and to prevent any going out" — remembering how that interference, hke others, proved not only needless but injurious — remem- bering thus much, the philosophical free-trader will infer that in the present instance also, legislative control is m -desirable. Reasons for considering trade in money an exception to the ge- neral rule, wiU weigh but little with him; for he will recollect that similar reasons have been assigned for restricting various •" Whilst these sheets are passing through the press, &cts, which he is not now at liberty to quote, have been communicate<i to the writer, conclusively proving the superior economy of a coin-nianu&cture conducted by private individnals; together with other facts suggesting the obvious truth that the debasement of coinage, from which our forefathers suifered so much, was made possible only by legal compulsion — would never have been possible had the currency been left to itsell CDRRENCY, POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS, ETC. 403 trades, and disproved by the results. Eatlier wiU he conclude that as, in spite of all prophecies and appearances to the con- trary, entire freedom of exchaBge has been beneficial in other cases, so, despite similar prophecies and adverse appearances, will it be beneficial in this case.
What was lately said respecting the stamping of bullion may here be repeated respecting the carrying of letters, viz., that it is not intrinsically at variance with state-duty; for it does not in the abstract necessitate any infringement of men's rights, either directly, or by taxes raised for non-protective purposes. Nevertheless, just as we found reason to think that govern- ment could not continue to manufacture coin unless by pre- venting private individuals from doing the same, we shall also find reason to think that it would cease to carry let- ters did it not forbid competition. And if so, a government cannot undertake postal functions without reversing its essen- tial function.
Evidence that private enterprise would supersede state- agency in this matter, were it allowed the opportunity, is deducible not only from our general experience of the infe- riority of government in the capacity of manufacturer, trader, or manager of business, but fi-om facts immediately bearing upon the question. Thus we must remember that the efiSciency to which; our postal system has actually attained is not due to its being under public administration, but is due to pressure from without. Changes have been forced upon the authorities, not introduced by them. The mail-coach system was esta- bUshed, and for a length of time managed, by a private indi- vidual, and Hved down official opposition. The reform origi- nated by Mr. Eowland HiU was strenuously resisted; and it is generally reported that even now, official perversity prevents his plans from being frilly carried out. Whereas, seeing that the spe- culative spirit of trade is not only ready, but eager to satisfy social 404 CDRRENCY, POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS, ETC.
■wants, it is probable that under a natural state of things modem postal improvements would have been willingly adopted, if not forestalled. Should it be alleged that private entei-prize would not be competent to so gigantic an undertaking, it is replied that already there are extensive organizations of analogous character which work well. The establishments of our large carriers ramify throughout the whole kingdom; whilst we have a Parcels' Deliveiy Company, co-extensive in its sphere with the London District Post, and quite as efficient. Private agencies for communicating information beat public ones even now, wherever they are permitted to compete with them. The foreign expresses of our daily papers are uniformly before the government expresses. Copies of a royal speech, or state- ments of an important vote, are diffused throughout the country by the press, with a rapidity exceeding that even achieved by the Post Office; and if expedition is shown in the stamping and sorting of letters, it is far surpassed by the expedition of parliamentary reporting. Moreover, much of the postal ser- vice itself is already performed by private agency. Not only are our internal mails carried by contract, but nearly all our external ones also; and where they are carried by government they are carried at a great loss. In proof of which assertion it needs but to quote the fact that the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company offers to secure for us a direct monthly communication with Australia; two communications, monthly, from Southampton to Alexandria; two communica- tions, monthly, fi-om Suez to Ceylon, Singapore, and China; and two communications, monthly, from Calcutta to Singapore and China; besides performing the sei-vice twice a month between Suez and Bombay, and all for the same sum of money which the latter sei-vice alone (Suez to Bombay) now costs the governments of India and Great Britain.
If, then, public letter-carrying has been brought to its ex- isting efficiency by the thought, enterprize, and urgency of private persons, in spite of official resistance — if organizations similar to our postal ones already exist and work well — if, as CURRENCY, POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS, ETC. 406 conveyers of intelligence by other modes than the mail, trading bodies uniformly excel the s^te — if much of the mail service itself is performed by such trading bodies, and that, too, on the largest scale, with incomparably greater economy than the state can perform it with — there is nothing unreasonable in the conclusion that, were it permitted, commercial enterprize would generate a lettor-carrying system as efficient as, if not more efficient than, our present one. It is trae that many obstacles stand in the way of such a result. But because it is now scarcely possible to see our way over these, it does not at all follow that they may not be surmounted. There are moral inventions, as well as physical ones'. And it frequently hap- pens that the instramentalities which ultimately accomplish certain social desiderata, are as Httle foreseen as are the me- chanical appliances of one generation by the previous one. Take the Railway Clearing House for an example. Hence it is not too much to expect that under the pressui-e of social necessity, and the stimulus of self-interest, satisfactory modes of meeting all such difficulties would be discovered.
However, any doubts which may still be entertained on the point do not militate against our general principle. It is clear that the restriction put upon the liberty of trade, by forbidding private letter-carrying estabhshments, is a breach of state-duty. It is also clear that were that restriction abolished, a natural postal system would eventually grow up, could it surpass in efficiency our existing one. And it is further clear that if it could not surpass it, the existing system might rightly con- tinue; for, as at first said, the fulfilment of postal functions by the state is not intrinsically at variance with the fulfilment of its essential function.
The execution by government of what are commonly called public works, as hghthouses, harbours of refuge, &c., imply- ing, as it does, the imposition of taxes for other purposes than 406 CURRENCY, POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS, ETC.
maiataining men's rights, is as much forbidden by our defini- tion of state-duty as is a system of national education, or a rehgious establishment. Nor is this unavoidable inference really an inconvenient one; however much it may at first seem so. The agency by which these minor wants of society are now satisfied, is not the only agency competent to satisfy them. Wherever there exists a want, there will also exist an impulse to get it fulfilled, and this impulse is sure, eventually, to produce action. In the present case, as in others, that which is beneficial to the community as a whole, it will become the private interest of some part of the community to accomphsh. And as this private interest has been so ef&cient a provider of roads, canals, and railways, there is no reason why it should not be an equally efficient provider of harbours of refuge, hghthouses, and all analogous appHances. Even were there no classes whose private interests would be obviously sub- served by executing such works, this inference might still be defended. But there are such classes. Ship-owners and mer- chants have a direct and ever-waking motive to diminish the dangers of navigation; and were they not taught by custom to look for state-aid, would themselves quickly unite to establish safeguards. Or, possibly, they would be anticipated by a com- bination of Marine Insurance Of&ces (themselves protective institutions, originated by self-interest). But inevitably, in some way or other, the numerousness of the parties concerned, and the largeness of the capital at stake, would guarantee the taking of all requisite precautions. That enterprise which built the docks of London, Liverpool, and Birkenhead — which is enclosing the Wash — which so lately bridged the Atlantic by steam — and which is now laying down the electric telegraph across the Channel — might safely be trusted to provide against the contingencies of coast navigation.
PART IV.
CHAPTEE XXX.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
Social philosophy may be aptly divided (as political economy has been) into statics and dynamics; the first treating of the equilibrium of a perfect society, the second of the forces by which society is advanced towards perfection. To determine what laws we must obey for the obtainment of complete hap- piness is the object of the one, whilst that of the other is to analyze the influences which are making us competent to obey these laws. Hitherto we have concerned ourselves chiefly with the statics, touching upon the dynamics only occasionally for purposes of elucidation. Now, however, the dynamics claim special attention. Some of the phenomena of progress already referred to need further explanation, and many others associated virith them remain to be noticed. There are also sundry gene- ral considerations not admissible into foregoing chapters, which may here be fitly included.
And first let us mark, that the course of civiHzation could not possibly have been other than it has been. Whether a perfect social state might have been at once estabUshed; and why, if it might have been, it was not — why for unnumbered ages the world was filled with inferior creatures only — and why mankind were left to make it fit for human life by clearing it of these — are questions that need not be discussed here. But 410 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
given an unsubdued earth; given the being — man, appointed to overspread and occupy it; given the laws of life what they are; and no other series of changes than that which has taken place, could have taken place.
For be it remembered, that the ultimate purpose of creation — the production of the greatest amount of happiness — can be fulfilled only under certain fixed conditions (p. 68). Each member of the race fulfilling it, must not only be endowed with faculties enabling him to receive the liighest enjoyment in the act of living, but must be so constituted that he may obtain full satisfaction for every desire, without diminishing the power of others to obtain Kke satisfaction: nay, to fulfil the purpose perfectly, must derive pleasure from seeing pleasure in others. Now, for beings thus constituted to multiply in a world already tenanted by inferior creatures — creatures that must be dispos- sessed to make room — is a manifest impossibility. By the definition such beings must lack all desire to exterminate the races they are to supplant. They must, indeed, have a repug- nance to exterminating them, for the ability to derive pleasure from seeing pleasure, involves the liability to pain from seeing pain: the sjonpathy by which either of these results is efiected, simply having for its function to reproduce observed emo- tions, irrespective of their kind. Evidently, therefore, having no wish to destroy — to destroy giving them, on the contrary, disagi-eeable sensations — these hj'pothetical beings, instead of subjugating and overspreading the earth, must themselves be- come the prey of pre-existing creatures, in whom destructive desires predominate. How then are the circumstances of the case to be met? Evidently the aboriginal man must have a constitution adapted to the work he has to perform, joined with a dormant capabOity of developing into the ultimate man when the conditions of existence permit. To the end that be may prepare the earth for its future inhabitants— his descendants, he must possess a character fitting him to clear it of races endangering his life, and races occupying the space required by mankind. Hence he must have a desire to kill, for it is GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 411 the universal law of life that to every needful act must attach a gratification, the desire for which may serve as a stimulus (p. 19). He must further he devoid of sympathy, or must have hut the germ of it, for he would otherwise he incapacitated for his destructive ofBce. In other words, he must he what we call a savage, and must he left to acquire fitness for social Hfe as fast as the conquest of the earth renders social hfe possible.
Whoever thinks that a thoroughly-civilized community could he formed out of men quaUfied to wage war with the pre-exist- ing occupants of the earth — that is, whoever thinks that men might behave sympathetically to their fellows, whilst behaving unsympathetically to inferior creatures, wiU discover his error on looking at the facts. He will find that human beings are cruel to one another, in proportion as their habits are predatoiy. The Indian, whose life is spent in the chase, dehghts in tortur- ing his brother man as much as in kilUng game. His sons are schooled into fortitude by long days of torment, and his squaw made prematurely old by hard treatment. The treachery and vindictiveness which Bushmen or Austrahans show to one another and to Europeans, are accompaniments of that never- ceasing enmity existing between them and the denizens of the wilderness. Amongst partially-civilized nations the two cha- racteristics have ever borne the same relationship. Thus the spectators in the Eoman amphitheatres were as much deUghted by the slaying of gladiators as by the death-struggles of wild beasts. The ages during which Europe was thinly peopled, and hunting a chief occupation, were also the ages of feudal violence, universal brigandage, dungeons, tortures. Here in England a whole province depopulated to make game preserves, and a law sentencing to death the serf who killed a stag, show how great activity of the predatory instinct and utter indifference to human happiness coexisted. In later days, when brdl-baiting and cock-fighting were common pastimes, the penal code was far more severe than now; prisons were full of horrors; men put in the pillory were maltreated by the 413 GENERAL CONSIDEIUTIONS.
populace; and the inmates of lunatic asylums, chained naked to the wall, were exhibited for money, and tormented for the amusement of visitors. Conversely, amongst ourselves a de- sire to diminish human misery is accompanied by a desire to ameliorate the condition of inferior creatures. Whilst the kindlier feeling of men is seen in all varieties of philanthropic effort, in charitable societies, in associations for improving the dwellings of the labouring classes, in anxiety for popular edu- cation, in attempts to abolish capital punishment, in zeal for temperance reformation, in ragged schools, in endeavours to protect climbing boys, in inquiries concerning " labour and the poor," in emigration funds, in the milder treatment of children, and so on, it also shows itself in societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals, in acts of parliament to put down the use of dogs for purpose of draught, in the condemnation of steeple- chases and battues, in the late inquiry why the pursuers of a stag should not be punished as much as the carter who maltreats his horse, and lastly, in vegetarianism. Moreover, to make the evidence complete, we have the fact that men, partially adapted to the social state, retrograde on being placed in circumstances which caU forth the old propensities. The barbarizing of colonists, who live under aboriginal conditions, is universally remarked. The back settlers of America, amongst whom un- avenged murders, rifle duels, and Lynch law prevail — or, better stiU, the trappers, who leading a savage life have descended to savage habits, to scalping, and occasionally even to cannibalism — sufficiently exemplify it.
But, indeed, without collecting from so wide a field, illustra- tions of the truth that the behaviour of men to the lower animals and their behaviour to each other, bear a constant relationship, it becomes clear that such is the fact, on observing that the same impulses govern in either case. The blind desire to inflict suffering, distinguishes not between the creatures who exhibit that suffering, but obtains, gratification indifferentiy from the agonies of beast and human being — dehghts equally in worry- ing a brute, and in putting a prisoner to the rack. Conversely, GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 413 the ' sympathy which prevents its possessor from inflictiag pain, that he may avoid pain himself, and which tempts him to give happiness that he may have happiness reflected back upon him, is similarly undistinguishing. As already said, its function is simply to reproduce in one heing the emotions exhibited by other beings; and every one must have noticed that it extracts pleasure from the fiiskiness of a newly-unchained dog, or excites pity for an ill-used beast of burden, as readily as it generates fellow feeling with the joys and sorrows of men.
So that only by giving us some utterly different mental con- stitution could the process of civiUzation have been altered. Assume that the creative scheme is to be wrought out by natural means, and it is necessai-y that the primitive man should be one whose happiness is obtained at the expense of the happiness of other beings. It is necessary that the ultimate man should be one who can obtain perfect happiness without deducting from the happiness of others. After accom- plishing its appointed purpose, the first of these constitutions has to be moulded into the last. And the manifold evils which have filled the world for these thousands of years — the murders, enslavings, and robberies — the tyrannies of rulers, the oppressions of class, the persecutions of sect and party, the multiform embodiments of selfishness in unjust laws, bar- barous customs, dishonest deahngs, exclusive manners, and the like — are simply instances of the disastrous working of this original and once needful constitution, now that mankind have grown into conditions for which it is not fitted — are nothing but svmptoms of the suffering attendant upon the adaptation of. humanity to its new circumstances.
But why, it may be asked, has this adaptation gone on so slowly? Judging from the rapidity with which habits are formed in the individual, and seeing how those habits, or rather the latent tendencies towards them, become hereditary, 414 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
it would seem that the needful modification should have been completed long ago. How, then, are we to understand the delay?
The answer is that the new conditions to which adaptation has been taking place have themselves grown up but slowly. Only when a revolution in circumstances is at once both marked and permanent, does a decisive alteration of character follow. If the demand for increase of power in some particular faculty is great and unceasing, development will go on mth proportionate speed. And, conversely, there will be an appre- ciable dwindling in a faculty altogether deprived of exercise. But the conditions of human life have undergone no changes sudden enough to produce these immediate results.
Thus, note in the first place, that the warfare between man and the creatures at enmity with Mm has continued up to the present time, and over a large portion of the globe is going on now. Note, further, that where the destructive propensities have almost fulfilled their purpose, and are on the eve of losing their gratification, they make to themselves an artificial sphere of exercise by game-preserving, and are so kept in - activity after they would otherwise have become dormant. But note, chiefly, that the old predatory disposition is in a certain sense self-maintained. For it generates between men and men a hostile relationship, similar to that which it generates bet^veen men and inferior animals; and by doing so provides itself a lasting source of excitement. This happens inevitably. The desires of the savage acting, as we have seen, indiscriminately, necessarily lead him to perpetual trespasses against his fellows, and, consequently, to endless antagonisms — to quarrels of individuals, to fightings of tribes, to feuds of clan with clan, to wars of nations. And thus being by their constitutions made mutual foes, as well as foes to the lower races, men keep ahve in each other the old propensities, after the original need for them has in great measure ceased.
Hitherto, then, human character has changed but slowly, because it has been subject to two conflicting sets of condi- GENEEAL CONSIDERATIONS. 415 tions. On the one hand, the discipline of the social state has been developing it into the sympathetic form; whilst on the other hand, the necessity for self-defence partly of man against brute, partly of man against man, and partly of societies against each other, has been maintaining the old unsympa- thetic form. And only where the influence of the first set of conditions has exceeded that of the last, and then only in pro- portion to the excess, has modification taken place. Amongst tribes who have kept each other's anti-social characteristics in fuU activity by constant conflict, no advance has been possible. But where warfare against man and beast has ceased to be continuous, or where it h&s become the employment of but a portion of the people, the effects of hving in the associated state have become greater than the effects of barbarizing an- tagonisms, and progress has resulted.
Eegarded thus, civilization no longer appears to be a regular unfolding after a specific plan; but seems rather a develop- ment of man's latent capabiHties under the action of favourable circumstances; which favourable circumstances, mark, were certain some time or other to occur. Those complex influences underlying the higher orders of natural phenomena, but more especially those underlying the organic world, work in subor- dination to the law of probabiHties. A plant, for instance, produces thousands of seeds. The greater part of these are destroyed by creatures that live upon them, or fall into places where they cannot germinate. Of the young plants produced by those which do germinate, many are smothered by their neighbours; others are bhghted by insects, or eaten up by animals; and in the average of cases, only one of them pro- duces a perfect specimen of its species, which, escaping all dangers, brings to maturity seeds enough to continue the race. Thus is it also with every kind of creature. Thus is it also, as M. Quetelet has shown, with the phenomena of human hfe. And thus was it even widi the germination and growth of society. • The seeds of civilization existing in the aboriginal man, and distributed over the earth by his multiplication, were 416 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
certain in the lapse of time to fall here and there into circum- stances fit for their development; and, in spite of all blight- ings and uprootings, were certain, by sufficient repetition of these occun-ences, ultimately to originate a civilization which should outlive all disasters and arrive at perfection.
Whilst the continuance of the old predatory instinct after the fulfilment of its original purpose, has retarded civilization by giving rise to conditions at variance with those of social life, it has subserved civilization by clearing the earth of in- ferior races of men. The forces which are working out the great scheme of perfect happiness, taking no account of inci- dental sufiering, exterminate such sections of mankind as stand in their way, with the same sternness that they exterminate beasts of prey and herds of useless ruminants- Be he human being, or be he brute, the hindrance must be got rid of. Just as the savage has taken the place of lower creatures, so must he, if he have remained too long a savage, give place to his superior. And, observe, it is necessarily to his superior that, in the great majority of cases, he does give plaee. For what are the pre-requisites to a conquering race? Numerical strength, or an improved system of warfare; both of which are indications of advancement. Numerical strength implies certain ci^^lizing antecedents. Deficiency of game may have necessitated agricultural pursuits, and so made the existence of a larger population possible; or distance firom other tribes may have rendered war less. frequent, and so have prevented its