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A POLITICAL THEORY.

The English Republic. 'God and the People.' Edited by W. J. LINTON. Watson, London. No. 1-5. 1851.

LL the political parties seem now pretty near extinct, in England. Tory and Whig, Radical and Chartist, are alike impotent for good; and have left the nation disgusted and distrustful. If this shall end in clearing the field, and making way for more honest, earnest, and higher men-for broader and more enlightened principles-the issue will indeed be good; and we think that signs of this issue are around us. In the journal before us, conducted by an carnest, thoughtful, and high souled man, we see Politics no longer in the light of a party, but of Humanity-an embodiment and expression of the highest moral and social Principles. While we readily admit the impolicy of a nation proclaiming to the Physical force Despots that, under no provocation will it resist force, we cannot agree with Mr. Linton in his attacks upon the peace men who are the individual Heralds of a great Truth. No doubt, some of their political friends are quite open to his rebuke-but the party is, in the main, composed of sincere, benevolent, and enlightened men, who have no sympathy with despotism, however their extreme theory, if carried out, might be supposed to encourage its encroachments.

In the last number, we find an admirable summary of the Editor's Political Creed. We observe that while his definition of the Province of Government is the same as Herbert Spencer's in his Social Statics, he yet draws a wider, and we think a truer, inference from his premisses.

REPUBLICAN CATECHISM.

State in a few words the substance of the Republican Faith.

The sum of our Republican Faith is this: the perfectibility of Humanity through organization.

What do you mean by Humanity?

The whole of human life.

What do you mean by perfectibility?

Continual advancement in well-being and well-doing.

What do you mean by organization ?

The regular ordering of society in accordance with the laws of human progress.
What are those laws?

Equality, Liberty, and Fraternity.

What do you mean by Equality?

The natural equality of all human beings, so far as regards their right to develope to the utmost their natural powers of growth.

You do not mean, then, that all are to be kept equal through life?

Certainly not for that would be an impossibility. Such a forced 'equality' would indeed be really unequal: that is to say, unjust.

Explain this.

Two children are born with different capacitics; give equal opportunity of growth to

each, and one will grow taller than the other: would it not be unjust to prevent the one from growing taller?-One learns faster than the other: must he wait for the slower? would not that forced 'equality' be really unequal?

You mean, then, by Equality only the equality of opportunity?

Yes. The equality which does not interfere with the natural differences of capacity and growth,-which does not allow either weaker or stronger to be sacrificed to the other. What do you mean by Liberty?

The carrying into practice of our law of Equality: freedom of growth for every human being according to natural capability.

But will not freedom inevitably lead to the stronger overshadowing the weaker, as in a forest the taller tree overshadows and stunts the weaker at its side?

Equal

Truly, freedom on any other ground than equality would do this. But freedom on the ground of equality is the freedom of each one limited by the rights of the rest. Liberty is the protection of weakness as well as the assertion of strength.

You can not, then, dissociate Equality and Liberty?

You can never dissociate them without destroying both: each is necessary to the other. The attempt at equality at the expense of liberty-as we have seen in the case of the two children of different capacities-sacrifices the stronger to the weaker, and so hinders the progression of the race. The attempt at liberty without equality sacrifices the weaker to the stronger. The first is tyranny; the second anarchy, which also is tyranny.

You have argued of Equality and Liberty, and I can understand their worth as a divine law for the regulation of men's lives; but I do not see in them any of the organization of which you spoke.

That organization is involved in the dogma of Fraternity: the law of human progress is incomplete without that.

What do you mean by Fraternity ?

The brotherhood of human beings, not merely as equals under God, but as children of God, aspiring toward the better future of Humanity.

This, then, must be what you mean by the formula-God and the People ?

Exactly so. That formula means the Brotherhood of Humanity under God. Godthe divine Spirit of all Life-the interpretation and practice of whose laws is the business and duty of all life, of the whole People. There are no other elements of action except these: the Spirit which is within all life, the heart that beats under the form of Humanity, -and the People, which is ever endeavouring to understand that Spirit, that is to say, to understand the laws of its own existence, and to put those laws in practice, so that Life may be in harmony with the Spirit of Life, or, in other words, that it may be healthy, which is strong, peaceful, individually growing, and universally progressive. This is the Fraternity-the brotherhood of a common destiny and purpose-which completes the threefold law of human progress.

Fraternity, then, I perceive, is something more than the harmonizing of human rights : it also implies the organization of human duties. How is this organization of duty to be effected?

By Association, based on the principles of Equality, Liberty, and Fraternity.

Is not all association based on these principles?

The

No: there is the forced association of tyranny, which denies freedom of choice. pyramids were built by association: but it was the association of slaves under a tyrant. And if even a majority of the world took the place of the one tyrant, the tyranny would be no less.-There is also the chance and perhaps free association of men for some special object, such as Trade or War, without any reference to the equal rights of Humanity.-There is

also the association of interest, in which all is but a bargain, in which, though equality and liberty might be provided for, there would be no organization for the future of the race, no understanding of the further purpose of Fraternity.

Give instances of these several modes of association.

Compelled Communism is an instance of the first, Free-Trade of the second; both Communism and Free-Trade-so far as they base their action on mere individual interest -are instances of the third.

What system of association is based upon the law of progress-Equality, Liberty, and Fraternity?

That system only which combines both right and duty, which recognizes right only as the means of duty, which organizes duty in its several spheres, as the purpose and everyday business of mankind.

What do you call the several spheres of duty?

The natural modes of life in which duty can best be performed.

What are they?

Family, Country, Humanity. Family the innermost circle, Country the collection of families, Humanity the great family of Nations.

Why not say Humanity only? Is it necessary to maintain these divisions of Family and Country ?

Yes: if you do not maintain these distinctions, you are not true to the law of Equality, Liberty, and Fraternity. Do away with the distinctions of Family and Country, and you destroy the very ground of varieties of character-free and spontaneous growth,—and substitute in its stead an arbitrary attempt at equality.

But are such varieties of character essential to the well-being of mankind?

They are essential to the progress of the race. Once destroy the differences of individual character, and the further improvement of the race would be impossible. Growth

is through combination of differences. What we want is not the destruction of differences, but their harmonization.

But do not these classifications narrow men?

Yes, if they are confined within them; but not, if the lesser sphere is considered only as a part of the greater.

How is this?

If a man looks upon his family as his property, or considers that he has no duties except his duties to them, or if he sets up Family in opposition to Country or Humanity, -then, doubtless, he is narrowed: but this is not in consequence of his recognizing his duty to his family, but because he does not understand the relative importance of that duty. Also a man's 'patriotism' may lead him to forget his duty to Humanity,—as the spurious nationalism taught by kings so often led him: but this is not real patriotism; it is only an exaggerated selfishness.

How do you apply the word selfishness to the love of one's country?

It is justly applicable to both the love of country and the love of family, when a man loves family or country only because they are his.

For what else should he love either?

Because they are next to him: because through their nearness he can best accomplish his duty to Humanity. Let him love his family as dearly as he can, his duty toward that is not because it is his, but because it is a part of Humanity, because it is the first sphere in which he can work for Humanity. So also is it with regard to his duty to his country: that is the appointed workroom where, among his like, he can best serve Humanity.

You would, then, make the duty toward one's family or one's country subordinate to the duty to Humanity?

Undoubtedly so. The Individual subordinate to the Family, the family to the Country, the country to Humanity. In all heroic days the duty toward one's country has ever been held superior to that toward one's family; and if Humanity has not been esteemed above Country, it has been for want of thoroughly understanding the great law of Fraternity. Is there nothing superior to this duty to Humanity?

Yes, without doubt: the duty toward God, toward the Truth, toward that inspiration of God which we call conscience, toward those revealed words of God which we call principles. Not though the whole world go to wreck may a man deny or desert the Truth.

Can there be any such opposition between the duty to God and the duty to Man? Only in seeming, when men do not see through the shows of things. In reality the highest duty includes all the lower.

This duty of the individual to Humanity is, then, the meaning of the term Fraternity? Part of the meaning. Fraternity includes also the corresponding duty of society toward the individual. Organization is not only of each for all, but also of all for each.

What is that?

The individual devotes himself to the service of Humanity; but the individual isolated and unhelped would have but little power of service. It is for Humanity to uphold him, to care for his growth, to enable him to give effective service.

How can Humanity do this?

By the Confederation of Nations upholding the single Nation; by each Nation upholding the Individual, through the agents of its social organization—its ministers and representatives-its Government.

Define what are the duties of Government-that is to say, Society as represented by Government-toward individuals.

Those duties may all be comprehended in one: the protection of individuals from any hinderance to their natural right of life,—that right of life being a title to the best means and provision for growth which the Nation can command.

What do you include as means of growth?

Their being enabled to work and to possess the result of work.

What do you mean by work?

The doing of worth.

How can Society enable a man to do this?

By supplying him with the necessary elements, from the common stock.

What are they?

They are two-fold: material, and intellectual or moral. The material element of work is credit, and the intellectual or moral is education.

But if you furnish all men with Credit, so giving, as far as is possible, to all men equal means of work,-what will become of capital and property?

The answer may be very plain. Capital will cease to be an engine in the hands of the few for the oppression of the many; and property, instead of being confined to the few, will be attainable by all.

And the consequences of Education ?

Though you give

Education will enable men to use the material elements of work. them the best material, it is as nothing if you refuse them capacity. Education will make all skilled workmen; will not render all equal, but will equalize as far as is possible without violation of the natural right of difference. Ignorance and misery will disappear from the world when all men shall be fitted for work and work be made accessible to all. What kind of Government could do this?

Only a Government really emanating from and representing the People.
Why only this?

Because the best of monarchs could not be depended upon; and the most enlightened could not know the wants and capabilities of the Nation. The Government of a classhowever numerous that class, could only interpret the will of that class. There is no just or stable or sufficiently intelligent Government except that of the whole People. The People is the sole interpreter of God's Law and of its own wants, of the needs and duties and capabilities of the time.

How would you organize this Government of the People?

Through universal suffrage of men and women: the majority of the whole adult nation appointing its servants, to do its bidding, to advise and to obey the national will.

Is there no limit to this sovereignty of the majority?

Yes, the limit of individual right,-of individual conscience, the limit of Justice, which allows not even a majority to transgress the threefold law of EQUALITY-LIBERTYFRATERNITY.

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