HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE No. 103 _Editors:_ HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A. PROF. GILBERT MURRAY, LITT.D. LL.D., F.B.A. PROF. J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A. PROF. WILLIAM T. BREWSTER, M.A. POLITICAL THOUGHT IN ENGLAND FROM LOCKE TO BENTHAM BY HAROLD J. LASKI SOMETIME EXHIBITIONER OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD, OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY, AUTHOR OF STUDIES IN THE PROBLEM OF SOVEREIGNTY AND AUTHORITY IN THE MODERN STATE NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY LONDON WILLIAMS AND NORGATE 1920 NOTE It is impossible for me to publish this book without some expression of the debt it owes to Leslie Stephen's _History of the English Thought in the Eighteenth Century_. It is almost insolent to praise such work; but I may be permitted to say that no one can fully appreciate either its wisdom or its knowledge who has not had to dig among the original texts. Were so small a volume worthy to bear a dedication, I should associate it with the name of my friend Walter Lippmann. He and I have so often discussed the substance of its problems that I am certain a good deal of what I feel to be my own is, where it has merit, really his. This volume is thus in great part a tribute to him; though there is little that can repay such friendship as he gives. H.J.L. HARVARD UNIVERSITY Sept. 15, 1919 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 7 II. THE PRINCIPLES OF THE REVOLUTION 24 III. CHURCH AND STATE 77 IV. THE ERA OF STAGNATION 127 V. SIGNS OF CHANGE 159 VI. BURKE 213 VII. THE FOUNDATIONS OF ECONOMIC LIBERALISM 281 BIBLIOGRAPHY 317 INDEX 321 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION