PAGE The chief factors in this evolution were Roman jurisprudence, the Stoic philosophy, the Christian religion, and the traditions of the Teutonic tribes Of these Christianity is the chief, for it vindicated liberty of conscience The conception of freedom, as spiritual and ethical, the source of the great growth of individuality in the Middle Ages The constitutional history of England is the history of the development, by a process of organic growth, upon the one hand, of that individual freedom which means complexity, differentiation, inequality; and upon the other hand, of that closer unity resulting from the harmonious working of diverse forces, freely constituted, under the sway of great religious and ethical principles England retained the free institutions of the Middle Ages which, in most Continental countries, were sapped by Renaissance Absolutism and gradually disappeared Since the great event of 1688, finally vindicated for us "the undoubted rights and liberties of the subject," English freedom has "broadened down," until we now enjoy the plenitude of all the liberties which the exercise of personality implies 27 28 31 32 33 34 Liberty is rooted and grounded in inequality 35 The result of the argument is this: that liberty is, in its Its work has been almost entirely negative; it has But where has it achieved liberty in the positive sense? . Consider France, where it has had its most perfect work. It has converted that country into a chaos of hostile individuals Can we predicate freedom of the French peasant, brutalised and utterly selfish, a mere human automaton, a voting animal, incapable of realising his powers for the common good? . PAGE 37 38 39 40 40 41 The French artisan, his whole being penetrated by the anarchic teaching of Rousseau, is the prey of political agitators, who dazzle him with visions of Socialistic Utopias; it is his passions, not his rational faculties, wherein liberty is rooted, that have been set free 44 Of such agitators the Chamber of Deputies is chiefly composed; the Revolution has destroyed public spirit in France The Revolution has shown itself in France hostile to liberty of person, liberty of property, liberty of education CHAPTER III. THE REVOLUTION AND RELIGION. PAGE 47 48 Hostility to religion is one of the chief characteristics of the Revolution. In the popular movement from which the Revolution issued, the French clergy, as a body, heartily joined The Declaration of Rights made manifest the anti-Christian inspiration of the Revolution. Within a year, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy applied the Revolutionary dogma to the ecclesiastical domain. The subsequent history of the Revolution, until Napoleon crushed it for a while, justifies the words of Pius VI., that its aim was to abolish the Catholic religion in France. 52 52 52 54 56 That has ever since been its most cherished aim 56 PAGE By 66 Clericalism," which it denounces as its enemy, is meant "all religions and all religiosity" The reason for the hostility of the Revolution to all religions is that it claims to be a religion itself . This truth will be elucidated by the help of Mr. John 57 59 a special authority on its inner meaning and spirit 60 Mr. Morley compares the Revolution, as a religious movement, with Christianity, pronouncing it a new gospel and a better one This new gospel, as Mr. Morley abundantly shows, is anti 62 theistic It is a kind of Positivism "Naturalism in art" and "Materialistic explanations in the science of Man " are among its "notes' Together with belief in God, and belief in the immortality 75 77 78 of the soul, the new gospel rejects belief in man's 81 And seeks to get such ethics as it desires out of necessarianism 84 86 Its moral philosphy examined The determinism which appears to be a primary doctrine of the Revolutionary religion, is fatal to the idea of justice, and makes of legislation vanæ sine moribus leges 90 PAGE If law, with penal sanctions, be the bond of civil society, the family is its foundation The family, as it exists in Europe, is mainly the creation of Christianity And rests upon the ascetic teaching of Christianity concerning the virtue of purity The new gospel brands that teaching as a superstition . 91 92 93 94 Licence, teste Mr. Morley, is in the new gospel what austerity is in the old . 94 Paternity is of as little account as marriage in the new gospel. 98 The traditions of the English home are irreconcilable with the new gospel Mr. Morley insists that those who desire to see the Christian dogma and Churches replaced by the "higher form of faith" presented by the Revolution, are bound to labour for that end The means specially recommended is the banishment of 99 101 Mr. Morley inveighs against the Education Act of 1870 as being "of the nature of a small reform," and desires the entire destruction of the denominational system. 104 The reason is obvious: this "future great reform” would supply the most effective means of undermining the Christianity of England, and of making straight the paths of the new gospel 105 |