ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

My Publishers inform me that the thousand copies of this work, printed a few months ago, have been sold, and that a second edition is called for.

In preparing it for the press, I have carefully revised every sentence, and have made such alterations and additions as seemed desirable, in order to bring out more clearly my meaning, and to meet suggestions for which I am indebted to various reviewers. That appeared to me the best way of manifesting my appreciation of the favour shown to a volume, which, as I am fully conscious, little accords with the dominant tone of what is called "public opinion."

March 1st, 1890.

W. S. L.

SUMMARY.

CHAPTER I.

THE REVOLUTIONARY DOGMA.

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The French Revolution of 1789—the Revolution of these

latter days

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Importance of understanding it aright

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To obtain the instruction which is the true end of his-

torical research, we must discern the ideas of which

events are the phenomenal expression

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The public order which the Revolution destroyed, rested

on the idea of divinely prescribed duty

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The Revolutionists attempted to rebuild it on the idea of

political rights, attaching to man quù man

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Their method social geometry

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They applied this method to the speculations of Rousseau,

and endeavoured to translate into institutions his

Contrat Social .

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These speculations postulate that men are absolutely

equivalent, and that the will of the majority is the

source and norm of all rights .

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Substance of the Revolutionary dogma: that complete

freedom, or rather lawlessness, is the natural condition

of man; that all men are born and continue equal in

rights; that civil society is an artificial state resting

upon a contract between those sovereign units,

whereby the native independence of each is sur-

rendered, and an absolute power over each is vested

in the body politic; that human nature is good, and

that the evil in the world is the result of bad educa-

tion and bad institutions; that man, uncorrupted by

civilisation, is essentially reasonable; and that the

will of the sovereign units, dwelling in any territory

under the social contract, that is of the majority of

them, expressed by their delegates, is the supreme

law

Object of the present treatise: to examine the Revolu-

tion, after a century's experience of it, in its

relation with Liberty, Religion, Science, Art, De-

mocracy, and in its bearing on the public life of

England

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CHAPTER II.

THE REVOLUTION AND LIBERTY.

The Revolutionary dogma holds liberty to reside in

political equality

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A worthier conception of liberty will be set forth.

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Liberty, in the largest sense, is the unimpeded use of

any faculty

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