Democracy and liberty Book

CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME

Introduction by William Murchison xxiii Preface xxxiii

CHAPTER 1

English Representative Government in the Eighteenth Century
Objects to be attained 3
Taxation and representation 4
Power of landed property 4
And of the commercial classes 5
Aristocratic influence 5
Diversities in the size of constituencies and qualification of electors 7
The small boroughs 7
Dislike to organic change 7
Merits of English government 9
The founders of the American Republic aimed at the same ends 9
Judge Story on the suffrage 11
Rousseau's conception of government essentially different 12
Review of the French constitutions, 1789-1830 13
Ascendency of the middle class in France, 1830-1848 15
English Reform Bill of 1832--Its causes 15
Fears it excited not justifed by the event 19
Place of the middle class in English government 20
The period from 1832-1867 20
Votes not always a true test of opinion 21
Motives that govern the more ignorant voters 21
Dangers of too great degradation of the suffrage 23
Growth of Rousseau's doctrine in England--The Irish representation 25
University representation 26
The new form of sycophancy 27
Attacks on plural voting 28
Equal electoral districts 29
Taxation passing wholly under the control of numbers 29
Successful parliaments mainly elected on a high suffrage 30
Instability of democracies 31
When they are least dangerous 32

French Democracy
Favourable circumstances under which it has been tried 32
Manhood suffrage in 1848 33
Restricted in 1851 33
Re-established by Louis Napoleon--The Coup d'Etat and the plebiscite 33
Universal suffrage under the Second Empire 34
Last days of the Empire 35
Democracy and the Franco-German War 36
The Third Republic 37
Weakness of the President 37
Decline of political ideals 38
Ministerial instability 39
The permanent service 40
The Republic and liberty 41
French Finance, 1814-1878 43
French Finance during the Republic 48
Forms of corruption and extravagance 49
Good credit of France 51
Financial dangers 52
Scherer on French political life 53
Lowered political tone 54

American Democracy
Characteristics of the American Constitution 55
Its framers dreaded democracy 57
Advantageous circumstances of America 58
Growth of democratic influence in the Presidential elections 59
Elections for the Senate--Characteristics of that body 60
The lowering of suffrage 61
Elected judges--The 'Molly Maguires' 63
Corruption of the judicature 65
Growth of the spoils system 67
Political assessments on office-holders 70
Connection of the spoils system with democracy 71
American party warfare 73
Attempts to restrict the spoils system 75
The ballot in America 76
Lax naturalisation--The Know-nothing party 78
The Irish vote 79
Enfranchisement of negroes 80
Corruption in New York 81
Municipal corruption general in the great cities 83

Measures of Reform
Judges made more independent 87
Power of local legislatures limited 87
Increased authority of the mayors 88
Mr. Bryce on American corruption 91
American acquiescence in corruption 97
The best life apart from politics 97
Summary by Mr. Bryce 98
Protective strength of the Constitution 99
American optimism 100
Influence of the separation of Church and State on political morals 101
Public spirit during the War of Secession 102
And after its conclusion 103
Excellence of general legislation in the United States 104
Tocqueville's judgments--Changes since he wrote 105
Corruption in railroad management 106
Abolition of slavery--Its influence on foreign policy 108
Intellectual side of American civilisation 109
Democracy not favourable to the higher intellectual life 112
The prospects of the Republic 113
Protection 114
The Pension List 115
Lessons to be drawn from American experience 116

CHAPTER 2

Majorities required in different nations for constitutional changes 117
Attempt to introduce the two-thirds majority system in New South Wales 118
Small stress placed in England on legislative machinery 118
The English belief in government by gentlemen 119
Declining efficiency of parliamentary government throughout Europe 122
England has not escaped the evil 123
Increasing power and pretensions of the House of Commons 124
The Parish Councils Bill of 1894 125
Excess of parliamentary speaking--Its causes 125
Its effects on public business 126
Growth of the caucus fatal to the independence of the House of Commons 127
The relation of the House to Government--Disintegration of parties 128
Results of the group system 129
Increase of log-rolling 130
And of the appetite for organic change 131
Both parties have contributed to this 132
Conservatism in English Radicalism 132
Growth of class bribery 132
Rendered easy by our system of taxation 133
Sir Cornewall Lewis on the best taxation--Indirect taxation 133
Remissions of direct taxation sometimes the most beneficial 134
Exaggeration of Free Trade--The corn registration duty--The London coal dues 135
The abolition of the income tax made an election cry in 1874--History of this election 136
Appeals to class cupidity by the Irish Land League 142
Its success has strengthened the tendency to class bribery 143

Irish Land Question
Peculiar difficulties to be dealt with in Ireland 143
Tenants' improvements--Sharman Crawford's proposals 144
The Devon Commission 144
Abortive attempts to protect improvements 145
Land Act of 1860 146
And of 1870--Its merits and demerits 146
Paucity of leases and tenants' improvements--How viewed in Ireland 151
Rents in Ireland before 1870 not generally extortionate 152
But such rents did exist, and most tenancies were precarious 154
The Act of 1881 155
Absolute ownership of land under the Incumbered Estates Act 155
Circumstances under which this Act had been carried--Its nature 155
It guaranteed complete ownership under a parliamentary title 157

Confiscation of Landlord Rights by the Act of 1881
The purchased improvements 158
Fixity of tenure given to the present tenant 158
Which could not honestly be done without compensating the owner 158
Inseparable rights of ownership destroyed 159
The New Land Court and its proceedings 159
'Judicial decisions' 162
Rights of the Legislature over landed property--Mill 162
Dishonest character of Irish land legislation 163
The defence of the Act of 1881 164
Misconception of its effects 165
The language of Mr. Gladstone 166
The Act failed to pacify Ireland--Effects of the Home Rule agitation 167
The Land Act of 1887 168
Tendency of subversive principles in legislation to grow 170
Landlord claim for compensation 171
Effects of the land legislation on Irish capital and contracts 172
On the ultimate position of tenants 173
Moral effects of this legislation 174
The Evicted Tenants Bill 175
The worst form of robbery, legal robbery 177
Dangers of the Irish precedent 178
Mr. George's comparison of Irish and American landlordism 179
Where should State intervention stop? 180

Other Attacks on Property
Theories of Mr. George 180
Mill's doctrine of the 'unearned increment' 181
English land no longer the source of English food 183
Attacks on national debts 184
On mining royalties 185
On literary property 185
Nationalisation of railroads, &c 187
Cautions in dealing with such questions--Is democracy suited to the task? 188
The worship of majorities 189
Old and New Jesuitism 190
Influence of philosophical speculation on politics 190
Character in public life--How far democratic election secures it 192
The Home Rule alliance--Compared with the coalition of North and Fox 193
Effects of the lowering of the suffrage on political morality 195
And of the incrased hurry of modern life 195
Personal and class interests in politics 195
Inadequate sense of the criminality of political misdeeds 196
The ethics of party 197
Nonconformist ministers and Mr. Parnell 200
Relative importance of private and public morals in politics 201
Growth of the professional politician 202
Democratic local government--Its good and evil 2020
Place of wealth in modern politics 203
Measures that must stengthen the professional politician 204
High standard of political integrity in Great Britain 205
Probity of the permanent service 206
Better side of the House of Commons 206
Competitive examinations--Their drawbacks 206
Their great use in restraining corruption 208
The character of a nation not always shown by its public life 209
Evidence that English character has not declined--Its moral and philanthropic side 209
Its robuster qualities 210
The governing capacity--Egypt and India 211
Dangers to India in democratic government 212
High character of English municipal government 213
Political influence of the provincial towns 214
Influence of the telegraph on politics--Provincial press 214
Modern England not barren in great men 215

CHAPTER 3

Democracy an inevitable fact 217
Is not uniformly favourable to liberty 217
Illustrations from Roman and French history 217
Equality naturally hostile to liberty 217
Love of democracy for authoritative regulation 218
Effects of the increase of State power--Taxation and liberty 219
Other dangers to liberty 219
Party system hastened the transformation 220

Some Suggested Remedies
Change in the Irish representation 221
Class representation--Its history and decline 223
Representation of minorities 225
An educational franchise 231
Mill's suggestions for mitigating dangers of universal suffrage 232
Repudiated by modern Radicalism--The 'fancy' franchises 233
The Swiss Referendum--Its history and influence 234
Its recent adoption in the United States 238
Attempt to introduce it into Belgium 241
Arguments for and against it 242
Belief that a low suffrage is naturally conservative 248
Extension of the power of committees--The American committee system 249
The French system 253
English parliamentary committees--Devolution 253
Proposal that Governments should only resign on a vote of want of confidence 253
Arguments against it 253
Probability that democratic Parliaments will sink in power 254
Democratic local government--Success of English local government 255
Largely due to property qualifications 255
Almost all of them now abolished--Act of 1894 256
This is the more serious on account of the great increase in taxation 257
The local debt 258

Increase of State Taxation in Europe--Its Causes
Military expenditure--Standing armies 258
Buckle's prediction of the decline of wars 259
The commercial spirit now favours territorial aggrandisement 261
Growing popularity of universal military service 261
Arguments in its defence 261
Importance of the question to the English race 264
Arguments against it 264
Conscription and universal suffrage connected 266
But the the military system may come into collision with the parliamentary system 267
National education--Its social and political effects 268
Primary education assuming the character of secondary education 272
Sanitary reform 272
Reformatories and prison reform 277
Increased taxation due to increased State regulation--Herbert Spencer's views 278
Necessity for some extension of State control 278
Advantages of State action in some fields 279
Government credit--Enterprises remunerative to the State 280
Unremunerative forms of literature and art 281
Subsidies to the theatre 281
Dangers of State regulation and subsidies 281
Change in the character of democracy since Joseph Hume 282
Motives that have led to State aggrandisement 283
Mr. Goschen on its extent 283
Attempts to push it still further--The Manchester school repudiated 284
Tendency to throw all taxation on one class 284
Tocqueville and Young on English taxes in the eighteenth century 285
Progressive taxes of Pitt 285
Abolition of taxes on the necessaries of life 285
Bentham, Mill, and Montesquieu on exempted incomes 287
Lord Derby's description of English taxation 287
Taxation mainly on the rich and chiefly for the benefit of the poor 287
Adam Smith on the rules for taxation 288
Thiers on the same subject 288
Advantages of taxation of luxuries 289
Growing popularity of graduated taxation--Its early history 290
Taxation in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand 291
In France and the United States 292
Arguments against graduated taxation 292
Probability that it will increase 295
Its effect on the disposition of landed property 295
On the position and habits of the upper classes 296
On personal property 299
Wealth dissociated from duties 300
Democracy not indifferent to wealth 303

CHAPTER 4

ARISTOCRACIES AND UPPER CHAMBERS

Dangers of government by a single Chamber 305
Countries where it exists 306
Lessons derived from the Commonwealth 307
From the United States 307
From France 308

Early History of the House of Lords
Effects of the Reformation and the Rebellion 308
Of the Revolution of 1688 309
Importance of the small boroughs in sustaining its influence 309
The Peerage Bill of Stanhope 310
The Scotch Union 310
The Resolution of 1711 310
Creations of George III.--The Irish Union 311
Position of the spiritual peers 312
The House of Lords under George III. Not unpopular 313
Power of personal interest on its members before 1832 314
Their influence in the House of Commons 315
Attitude of the peers towards the Reform Bill of 1832 315
Change in their position effected by the Bill 316
Importance of the House of Lords in making legislation harmonise with the popular will 316
In diminishing the too great influence of party in legislation 317
In protecting minorities 317
Its ecclesiastical policy 318
Its general moderation 319
Attacks on the Lords after the Reform Bill of 1832 319

The Hereditary Element
Advantages of special education for politics 320
Influences that maintain the character of the British aristocracy 321
Their energy and power of adaptation 325
Large amount of ability among them 326
Advantages the nation derives from an aristocracy 327
Representative character of the House of Lords 328
Popularity of the aristocracy in England 330
Its good and evil sides 331
Aristocracy and plutocracy 331
Debility and apathy of the House of Lords 336

Causes of Debility
The small quorum--Proxies 337
Discouraging influences in the House 338
Jealousy of the House of Commons of Bills originating in the Lords 339
Financial impotence of the Lords 339
Sole right of the Commons to originate Money Bills 340
The Lords deprived of their old right of amending them 340
Difficulty of maintaining this rule--Its relaxation 341
The right of rejecting Money Bills 343
Repeal of the paper duties in 1860 343
The different provisions of the Budget combined in one Bill 348
Connection of taxation and representation 349
Powers of foreign Senates over finance 350
Dangers of the concentration of all financial power in one House--Its mitigations in England 350
The House of Lords cannot overthrow Ministers 351

Its Judicial Functions
Its origin and abuses 352
Attempts to make lawyers life peers 353
The peerage of Lord Wensleydale (1856) 353
Later attempts to create life peers 356
Lord Selborne's Court of Appeal (1873) 356
Lord Cairns's new Appellate Court in the House of Lords 357
Success of this measure 358
Its modification in 1887 358
Excessive and increasing number of new peerages 358
Elements from which they are drawn 359
Imperfect recognition of non-political eminence 361
One-sided political influence in the House of Lords 363
This fact a recent one--Its causes 364
Parliamentary history, 1892-1895 364
The crusade against the Lords 365
The election of 1895, and its lessons 368
The importance of a reform of the House of Lords not diminished 369

Foreign Upper Houses
The Roman Senate 370
The Senate of the United States 371
The French Senate 378
The German Bundesrath 379
Upper Houses in Prussia, Austria, and Italy 380
In Spain and Switzerland 381
In the Netherlands 382
In Belgium 383

Colonial Constitutions
Their general character 384
The Canadian Senate--The Newfoundland Constitution 385
African colonial Governments--The island colonies 385
Upper Chambers in Australia and New Zealand 386

Proposals for Reforming the House of Lords
Advantages of retaining a limited hereditary element 387
Life peers 389
Proposals for a larger introduction of the representative principle 389
The limitation of the veto 391
Right of ministers to sit in both Houses 393
Advantages and disadvantages of carrying unfinished legislation into a second session 394
This should at least be done in the case of amendments in the Lords 396

CHAPTER 5
NATIONALITIES

Changes in the basis of international politics 397
The rights of nationalities in the French Revolution 398
Completely ignored after the fall of Napoleon 398
Signs of revival before 1830--French Revolution of that year 399
And of 1848 400
Italian writers on nationality 400
Nationality not necessarily a democratic idea 401
Ambiguities about the elements that constitute it 402
Plebiscites 402
Good and evil sides of the doctrine of nationalities 404
Not applicable to uncivilised nations 404
Plebiscites frequently deceptive 404
Dangers of pushing the nationality doctrine to its full consequences 406

America a Test Case
Its annexations 407
The secession of the South 408
Analysis of English opinion on the War of Secession 409
The Northern case for repressing the revolt 413
Nearly all European predictions about the war proved false 413

The Italian Question
Impulse it gave to the doctrine of nationalities 414
Invasions of Naples and Rome 414
The Peace of Villafrance and the Roman question 415
The Italian policy of England 415
Lord J. Russell's estimate of the plebiscites 417
Success of the English policy 417
Policy of Napoleon III.--And of England 418
The unity of Italy dearly purchased 419
The unity of Germany--The agglomeration of race elements 421
Conflicting tendencies towards agglomeration and towards local unities 422
Increased value attached to national languages 423
The military system accentuates national differences 423
Difficulties of reconciling local aspirations with imperial interests 424
Influences that are weakening the nationalist spirit 424

CHAPTER 6
DEMOCRACY AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

Nations differ in their conceptions of liberty and in the kinds of liberty they value 426
Importance of taking stock of our conceptions of liberty 430

Religious Freedom
Its growth in English law 430
And in public opinion--Causes of increased tolerance 431
Contrast between Catholic opinion in England and that in Rome and Canada 432
Abolition of religious disqualifications in the United States 433
In France, Belgium, and Prussia 433
Slow progress of the movement in England--The Catholic question 434
Disqualifications of Nonconformists, Jews, Atheists, &c., gradually abolished 434
Higher education thrown open to Dissenters--Its effects 435
The Established Church--Arguments for and against it changed 438
The modern case for an establishment 438
Strengthened by abolition of disqualifications 440
Enlargement of the limits of the Church--Relation of Nonconformists to it 441
Subscription to Articles--Indelibility of orders--Decisions of Privy Council 442
Decline of intolerance in continental legislations--Sweden 444
Austria 444
Spain and Portugal 445
Limitation or modification of religious liberty 446

India
Early religious policy of the East India Company 447
Admission of missionaries in 1813 448
Prohibition of infanticide and human sacrifices 448
Abolition of the suttee 449
Attitude of Government towards caste and idolatrous worship 451
Measures of 1833 and 1838 452
Changes in the laws of inheritance and marriage 452
Memorandum of Colonel Herbert Edwardes 453
Queen's Proclamation in 1858 454
Philanthropic tendencies hostile to the old beliefs 454
Indian education and its effects 455

Mormonism
Polygamy not its original doctrine 456
Early history of Mormonism 456
Murder of Joseph Smith 457
Emigration to the Salt Lake 458
Utah becomes an American Territory--Its early history 458
Should polygamy be tolerated? 460
Congress undertakes to stamp it out--The Edmunds law 462
Other measures against polygamy 464
Conflicting opinions about their success 465
Influences within Mormonism hostile to polygamy 466
Polygamy abandoned by the Mormons 467
Utah made a State 469
Anglo-Saxon democracy favourable to religious liberty 470
The sentiment of nationality sometimes hostile to it 470
The Anti-Semite movement 471
The Russian persecution 472