Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Liberalism -- Great Britain
Divergences of opinion, of character, of conduct are not unimportant
matters. They may be most serious matters, and no one is called on in
the name of Liberalism to overlook their seriousness. There are, for
example, certain disqualifications inherent in the profession of certain
opinions. It is not illiberal to recognize such disqualifications. It is
not illiberal for a Protestant in choosing a tutor for his son to reject
a conscientious Roman Catholic who avows that all his teaching is
centred on the doctrine of his Church. It would be illiberal to reject
the same man for the specific purpose of teaching arithmetic, if he
avowed that he had no intention of using his position for the purpose
of religious propagandism. For the former purpose the divergence of
religious opinion is an inherent disqualification. It negates the object
propounded, which is the general education of the boy on lines in which
the father believes. For the latter purpose the opinion is no
disqualification. The devout Catholic accepts the multiplication table,
and can impart his knowledge without reference to the infallibility of
the Pope. To refuse to employ him is to impose an extraneous penalty on
his convictions. It is not illiberal for an editor to decline the
services of a member of the opposite party as a leader writer, or even
as a political reviewer or in any capacity in which his opinions would
affect his work. It is illiberal to reject him as a compositor or as a
clerk, or in any capacity in which his opinions would not affect his
work for the paper. It is not illiberal to refuse a position of trust to
the man whose record shows that he is likely to abuse such a trust. It
is illiberal--and this the "moralist" has yet to learn--to punish a man
who has done a wrong in one relation by excluding him from the
performance of useful social functions for which he is perfectly
fitted, by which he could at once serve society and re-establish his own
self-respect. There may, however, yet come a time when Liberalism,
already recognized as a duty in religion and in politics, will take its
true place at the centre of our ethical conceptions, and will be seen to
have its application not only to him whom we conceive to be the teacher
of false opinions, but to the man whom we hold a sinner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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