that was sapping the public morals and oppressing a free people, was Tucker's theme.

"Though Great Britain enjoys many signal Advantages, yet she will be found to labor under sore Difficulties at present, through a bad System of Polity, and the mistaken Notions of public Welfare and National Commerce." 131.

"Monopolies are formed, and Charters granted, under the ridiculous and absurd Pretence of the Public Good, when, in Fact, private Advantage is the only point aimed at. Hence it is, that unjust combinations are sanctified by positive Laws." p. 6.

"And as to Civil Liberty, we joyfully acknowledge with all Thankfulness . . . never were a people more free than the English at this Juncture. But alas! though we are emancipated from the former Yoke of oppressive Power in one Sense, we are still Slaves to it in another; And, what is very astonishing, we now tamely submit to Usurpation of our natural Rights from our Fellow-Subjects, which we would not bear from a crowned Head. .. Reader, these very Powers derived originally from the Crown, and varnished over with the delusive Appearance of CHARTERS and CORPORATIONS, are exercised every Day, not only with Impunity, but with Applause. But lo! these very Powers, shocking and oppressive as they are, entirely change their Names and Natures, when deputed to a Set of our Fellow-Subjects, and exercised by them under the foolish and fallacious Pretence of supporting their PRIVILEGES." pp. 81-82.

Tucker lets it be known that his arrow leaves his bow to wing its way straight into the heart of the competitive system:

"The monopolizing merchant taxes his Fellow-Citizens both in his Exports and Imports; and yet expects that they should blindly, and stupidly vindicate his Cause and make it their own! -This Being the Case, let the Citizens themselves be the Judges, where in standing up for a Monopoly of some few of their Fellow-Citizens to their own Prejudice, they do not leave the Substance, and catch at the Shadow. Let them likewise consider, which indeed are their real Friends,-those who would promote a general, and universal Commerce all over the Kingdom,

or those, who would check Labour, and tax Industry, who would squeeze all the Wealth of the Kingdom into the City of London, and the Wealth of the City of London into the Purses of a Score or two over-grown Monopolists, and tyrannical Ingrossers." pp. 165-66.

He is asking for a vedict now, with all soul:

"Judge likewise, whether Monopolies and Exclusions was ever

necessary, or ever vindicable; And above all, please to reflect, that every Plea, Pretence, or Apology urged at this Day in defence of these Things, is nothing else than a nauseous Repetition of the same idle, canting Story, which hath been confuted a thousand Times over." p. 167.

"The Persons, to whom these Exclusions were granted, acted upon as base and disingenuous Motives as every disgraced human Nature. Their design was to exclude all Competition, to monopolize the Trade into a few Hands, and to oblige the Buyer to take what they would please to sell him, however dear and bad. As to the Princes who granted these Privileges, they frequently sold them, as Goods in a Market, to the highest Bidder. For their Royal Prerogative was then so high and uncontrolable in Things of this Nature, that all Law and Parliament bowed before it." p. 83.

The channels of opinion are blocked as to any change, in this fashion, says Tucker:

"It will be pretended, That if such a course is taken in dissolving or undermining Charters, all Order and Regularity will be overturned, and the usual Channels of Justice, and Civil Government will be stopped up." 90.235

In the face of this opposition, comforting indeed were the words of Malthus. No sooner was his work from the press than corporate greed understood that, more than Adam Smith, and more than Edmund Burke, here was the man who would persuade parliaments for generations to come.

A last word from Malthus-perhaps his crowning presumption:

"Violence, oppression, falsehood, misery, every hateful vice and form of distress, which degrade and sadden the present state of society, seem to have been generated by the most imperious circumstances, by laws inherent in the nature of man, and absoluely independent of all human regulations," (so that if the state were not selfish, if it tried to work out the well-being of all the people, rather than its own riches and power, everything would) "degenerate in a very short period into a society constructed upon a plan not essentially different from that which prevails in every known state at present; a society with self-love for the main-spring of the great machine." 2

In effect such philosophy as this was a charter to privilege to write its own terms against the masses,

quite in the words of the great student of human society across the Channel:

"I make a covenant with you entirely at your own expense, and for my benefit; I will observe it as far as my inclination leads me, and you shall observe it as far as I please." 236

CHAPTER XVI

Opinions and Devices

"Nothing appears more surprising, to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers. When we enquire by what means this wonder is effected, we shall find, that as FORCE is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is therefore, on opinion that government is founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the most free and most popular."-DAVID HUME, Political Discourses.

Win

E shall have the world's opinion of David Hume in another chapter. Suffice it here to take it for granted, that he was a political philosopher of the first magnitude. As an opinion-maker for democracy—and a feared one he was-he left magnets in every corner of his works by which he hoped to draw the world's teachers into the battle for democracy.

To unravel the deceit of things in the State, he tells us, will unpinion democracy.

"So great dupes are the generality of mankind, promises, fair appearances, with the allurements of present interest, have such powerful influence as few are able to resist. Mankind are, in all ages, caught by the same baits; the same tricks, play'd over and over again, still trepan them. The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny." 237

Hume would have joined hands with William Thompson three quarters of a century later in Ireland over

the struggle democracy must expect with the officers of expediency who are in power and who are paid to be in power, that power may pay dividends on human wretchedness.

"Inimical to every scheme of labour, to every arrangement tending to remove those of the present distinctions of society which are unconnected with moral or intellectual worth, inimical to every project for raising their fellow-creatures to a level with themselves, whether by competition or co-operation, must the holders of political power necessarily be. Otherwise they would use that power for the sole purpose of abolishing, with as little inconvenience as possible to any human being, all such distinctions. Are they not, like all other human beings, the creatures of the circumstances in which they are and have been placed? And can it be rationally expected that they will become admirers of systems, the ultimate effect of which must be to abolish all factitious distinctions between them and their fellow creatures? all those distinctions, on which depends almost the whole of the little happiness of life they possess, though purchased by the wretchedness of the millions of their fellow men? No.-no-they will patronise whatever and whomsoever they can hope to make subservient to their limited and mistaken views. Failing this object, no other aid can be expected of them, than the withholding of brute force as an answer to statements of facts and reasonings addressed to the interest of mankind. Prudence will compel them to this policy. As a class, conviction will never operate upon them; in proportion as knowledge is diffused through the mass of mankind, they will yield through prudence, not through conviction." 238

But Hume went beyond Thompson. He was painstaking to point out that a force stronger than the politician is arrayed against democracy-the force of opinion. "Opinions govern men," Owen has since stated the proposition,288 giving it its utmost brevity.

Democracy must be conversant with the nature of the workings of opinion. A course of study of the subject should be provided for every school in the land. Unless there is knowledge of the tactics of its enemies, democracy, it is a foregone conclusion, is satisfactorily defeated by autocracy under cover. Because autocracy, for all that its prayer is for things as they are,

is enduringly driven to represent things as they are not. False opinion is the bait that catches men.

That is the curse, in any country, of law by competitive rule. The rich and the few who hold the balance of power must hold it against truth. They must own or control the avenues of opinion. They must bait lies with the allurements of self-interest, to follow Hume's words;-lies that will dangle temptingly before the lustful and avaricious. The same tricks must be played endlessly over and over again. "The heights of popularity and patriotism," must be brightened with false colors to tempt men aside, along "the beaten road to power and tyranny."

Just why is the road beaten ?-in a refined civilization always to safeguard prices, the windows of privilege:-lest some dove of Heaven come down with tokens spelling disaster to all Deity-mocking institutions of tyranny. And just how is this road to power beaten? Systematically, brilliantly, sinfully, ruthlessly. No avenue of opinion lies outside the beaten path of the serpent of falsehood. The Forum, the Press, the School House, the Club, the Salon and even the Pulpit must be effectually entranced and rendered impotent to put down its heel on the thing that is forever coiling about the helpless lawgiver, that it may fasten its fangs upon its heart's-desire-the Home, against which the price-aspect is chiefly featured.

Here lies the curse of expediency.

"Wherefore, hear ye the word of Yahweh,
Ye scoffers that rule:

Because ye have said, We have made

a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we in agreement; When the overflowing scourge shall pass through,

It shall not come unto us;