Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See https://archive.org/details/ourbenevolentfeu00ghenrich Transcriber’s note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). An additional Transcriber’s note is at the end. OUR BENEVOLENT FEUDALISM [Illustration: Publisher's logo] OUR BENEVOLENT FEUDALISM by W. J. GHENT New York The Macmillan Company London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. 1902 All rights reserved Copyright, 1902, By The Macmillan Company. Set up and electrotyped October, 1902. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. PREFACE The germ of this book was contained in an article published in the _Independent_, April 3, 1902. The wide interest which that article awakened prompted the elaboration and arrangement of its briefly considered and somewhat disjointed parts into the present form. The chapters on “Our Makers of Law” and “Our Interpreters of Law” have been carefully read by a member of the New York Bar who has made a special study of the matters treated therein. Some of the decisions cited in the latter chapter are admitted to be those of subordinate courts in comparatively unimportant States. The intention, however, was to give a general view of judicial interpretation; and for that reason it became necessary to cite decisions of inferior as well as superior courts, and those from semi-industrial as well as industrial States. As the book goes to press, the news is published that the anthracite magnates have yielded and made concessions to public sentiment. It is an act in harmony with the wiser forethought of most of the magnates of to-day, and it strengthens the general seigniorial position immeasurably. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE v CHAPTER I. UTOPIAS AND OTHER FORECASTS 1 II. COMBINATION AND COALESCENCE 11 III. OUR MAGNATES 27 IV. OUR FARMERS AND WAGE-EARNERS 47 V. OUR MAKERS OF LAW 83 VI. OUR INTERPRETERS OF LAW 102 VII. OUR MOULDERS OF OPINION 122 VIII. GENERAL SOCIAL CHANGES 154 IX. TRANSITION AND FULFILMENT 180 INDEX 199 CHAPTER I UTOPIAS AND OTHER FORECASTS “The old order changeth, yielding place to new.” But what the new order shall be is a matter of some diversity of opinion. Whoever, blessed with hope, speculates upon the future of society, tends to imagine it in the form of his social ideals. It matters little what the current probabilities may be--the strong influence of the ideal warps the judgment. To Thomas More, though most tendencies of his time made for absolutism, the future was republican and communistic; and to Francis Bacon the present held the promise of a new Atlantis, despite the growing arrogance of the Crown and the submissiveness of the people.