Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Liberalism -- Great Britain
Underlying all these questions of right is the question how they are to
be secured and maintained. By enforcing the responsibility of the
executive and legislature to the community as a whole? Such is the
general answer, and it indicates one of the lines of connection between
the general theory of liberty and the doctrine of universal suffrage and
the sovereignty of the people. The answer, however, does not meet all
the possibilities of the case. The people as a whole might be careless
of their rights and incapable of managing them. They might be set on the
conquest of others, the expropriation of the rich, or on any form of
collective tyranny or folly. It is perfectly possible that from the
point of view of general liberty and social progress a limited franchise
might give better results than one that is more extended. Even in this
country it is a tenable view that the extension of the suffrage in 1884
tended for some years to arrest the development of liberty in various
directions. On what theory does the principle of popular sovereignty
rest, and within what limits does it hold good? Is it a part of the
general principles of liberty and equality, or are other ideas involved?
These are among the questions which we shall have to examine.
We have now passed the main phases of the Liberal movement in very
summary review, and we have noted, first, that it is co-extensive with
life. It is concerned with the individual, the family, the State. It
touches industry, law, religion, ethics. It would not be difficult, if
space allowed, to illustrate its influence in literature and art, to
describe the war with convention, insincerity, and patronage, and the
struggle for free self-expression, for reality, for the artist's soul.
Liberalism is an all-penetrating element of the life-structure of the
modern world. Secondly, it is an effective historical force. If its work
is nowhere complete, it is almost everywhere in progress. The modern
State as we see it in Europe outside Russia, in the British colonies, in
North and South America, as we begin to see it in the Russian empire and
throughout the vast continent of Asia, is the old authoritarian society
modified in greater or less degree by the absorption of Liberal
principles. Turning, thirdly, to those principles themselves, we have
recognized Liberalism in every department as a movement fairly denoted
by the name--a movement of liberation, a clearance of obstructions, an
opening of channels for the flow of free spontaneous vital activity.
Fourthly, we have seen that in a large number of cases what is under one
aspect a movement for liberty is on another side a movement towards
equality, and the habitual association of these principles is so far
confirmed. On the other hand, lastly, we have seen numerous cases in
which the exacter definition of liberty and the precise meaning of
equality remain obscure, and to discuss these will be our task. We have,
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