THE OLD RADICALISM AND THE NEW. T HE old order changeth,
and giveth place to the new. There has been a revolution in the public mind as to the true view of the functions of the State, and the limits of State activity ; and the full import of this revolution is best seen where it las been greatest,—among the advanced section of the Radicals. There the change from extreme Individualism to some- thing very like Collectivism is most apparent. A genera- tion ago the so-called philosophic Radicalism was in vogue,—the teachings of the Manchester school com- pletely dominated political thought, and few politicians of any party or shade of opinion were altogether free from their influence. Perhaps a mere theory has never been so potent a factor in actual politics as the doctrine of laissez- faire during the middle-class regime in England. State action, in this view, was regarded as at best a necessary evil, to be reduced to a minimum where it could not be altogether avoided; the sole duty of Government was to keep a ring, suppress violence and disorder, and leave the rest to the working of economic laws, to the exertions of individuals and voluntary associations. Even what seems to us now the entirely righteous intervention of the State in the interest of women and children, was bitterly resented by the Radicals of the time. Many hard things have been said about the shortcomings of their political and economic creed, about its selfish- ness and materialism, its cold doctrinaire spirit, its iron law of wages, its gloomy acceptance of the misery and degradation of the masses as ultimate facts. But we must never forget how much we owe to this middle-class hatred of State interference ; Catholic emancipation, the revised criminal code, free industry, free-trade, and the abolition of the religious disabilities of the Dissenters are among the benefits it served to procure for us. And if the spirit of laissez-faire often rose to an extravagant pitch, we must remember that it was in the first instance a reaction from the arbitrary and intolerant government of the aristocratic regime, and allow for the circumstances of its origin. While the middle classes were chiefly occupied with the destruction of bad government, it was natural that they should begin to distrust all government. And in the old Radicalism of the extreme individualist type, there was undoubtedly an extravagant hatred of restraint, an ex- aggerated belief in liberty of a merely negative kind, which, carried to its logical outcome, would have imperilled the basis of society and led to Nihilism and anarchy. Liberty in the State is the protection of the weak against the strong, and when this protection is enforced, the strong always cry out on liberty. Feeling confidence in their own sturdy self-dependence, the middle-classes were perhaps too ready to forget the weaker brethren. As to the charge of selfishness, so often brought against the economic creed of the Manchester school, we must remember that theoretic principles can never of themselves make men selfish, or otherwise much affect their moral character. At the most, they could only add strength and consistency to antecedent selfishness by giving it expression. And a charge levelled against a whole class ought always to make us pause. The middle classes naturally moulded their policy, in the first instance, according to their own interests and prejudices, just as the aristocracy had done before them, just as the democracy tries to do to-day ; and a policy of non-intervention, a timid and hesitating use of authority, was undoubtedly the best policy for a Govern- ment which was conscious that it did not represent the nation as a whole.
With the advent of Democracy, all this has changed. Since political power ceased to be the privilege of a class, and passed into the bands of all, there has been a growing desire to employ it for the benefit of all, and a grow- ing belief in the possibility of so employing it. At the same time, popular faith in the worth of the old economic principle of unrestricted competition seems to be shaken, and laissez-faire has become a subject for reproach and in- vective. We have left the Manchester school behind us, and have entered on a stage of Socialistic sentiment which seems to desire State activity for its own sake, even where private enterprise and voluntary methods might serve as well. The old Radicals bitterly opposed the Factory Acts, the new are calling out for a universal Eight- Hours Bill. The temper of the old Radicalism was political, and, carried to excess, it verged on Nihilism ; the temper of the new Radicalism is social, and its extreme adherents seem to be drifting towards Com- munism. Destruction is gone out of vogue, and the air is full of vague and crude proposals for reconstruction, all involving an extension of State or Municipal activity.
In its sympathy with the toiling and. poverty-stricken masses, in its faith in the possibility of elevating and bettering their lot, the new Radicalism is a great advance on the old. Nor need we attach much importance to the view that this new-born interest in the masses is simulated for the purpose of catching votes. Such ascription of motives is nearly always shallow. It is much more important to recognise a change in the attitude of a party than to discover the motives which prompted it. A few men there are in every party who deal with every question in the spirit of wire-pullers' but it does not follow because the change in the spirit of Radicalism has coincided with extensions of the franchise, that its adherents are not honest in their convictions. Why is the franchise extended at all, if not to bring the ideas and aspirations of a new stratum of society to bear on party life ? We give the new Radicals full credit for sincerity, and prefer to point out the real shortcomings of their political faith and temperament. They have not yet learned that first lesson of statesmanship, to be tolerant, up to a certain point, of abuses in the framework of society ; it is easy to cure the faults of a system or institution by destroying all, the evil along with the good. Their stock of patience is too small, they are in too great haste to renovate the world ; too ready to take up with sweeping generalisations, to apply abstract theories, to act according to presuppositions of what ought to be, too anxious to find a formula which shall lead mechanically to human perfec- tion. The Socialism of to-day has not grasped the truth that society is an organism, and that statesmen can watch over and direct its growth, but cannot supply the vital and generative force. It is no less material in its aims, barren and unspiritual in its creed, than the old individualism which is become an abomination to it. Its day may be longer, for the lower classes, to whom it is supposed to appeal, cannot be swamped from beneath, as were the middle classes. But we have no doubt that ultimately it will be found equally one-sided and transient.
It is the fashion to brand the period of middle-class ascendency as destructive, and no doubt many things were then destroyed, most of which were very well destroyed indeed. It is an altogether insufficient account of Catholic emancipation, to take an instance, to call it destructive. A measure which puts an end to the unjust exclusion of the members of a religious community from their rights as citizens, and so widens the basis of society, is essentially constructive, though technically it may consist in the repeal of certain Acts of Parliament. But there is a sense in which the legislation of the era we are entering upon must be specially constructive. The work of clearing away the dibris of an extinct regime was comparatively simple ; the work of reconstruction must be arduous and slow. The long social and industrial revolution which has been proceeding concurrently with the political revolution for the last two centuries is not yet at an end ; there is no reason to believe that we have yet approached a state of equilibrium. No man can foretell the future or forecast the final organisation of society and industry with the aid of any theory, socialist or individualist. The movement of reconstruction will go on mainly underneath the reach of government ; out of the clashing interests and mutual action and reaction of employers and employed, order will gradually evolve itself. The more spontaneous and un- thwarted is the growth of the new order, the more enduring it will prove ; nothing but harm can come from revolu- tionary attempts to apply abstract theories, and ill-con- sidered interference of the State is a much greater evil than any evils it might be meant to remedy. No doubt, as the socialist might object, the conception of growth applied to society is only a metaphor: in the last resort we are thrown back on individual efforts and individual intelligence, and the efforts and intelligence of those in authority have as much right to count as any other factor in the case. We are not arguing for statesmen standing still. But unless their action is cautious, tentative, and deliberate, based on comprehensive knowledge, and not on abstract principles, it is likely to count in the final summing-up only as re- tardation of progress. Reckless attacks on property, and reckless employment of the compulsory powers of the State, certainly will not help us. Though presenting itself under the guise of construction, the socialist policy of the new Radicals is essentially destructive, and it is not the least dangerous of the anarchic forces, social and political, which threaten to overwhelm us on the threshold of the democratic era. There is nothing to be gained by angry denunciations of this state of things, or its authors. In ebullition of Socialism was as certain to follow the granting of a democratic franchise as day is to follow night, and we need not be surprised if the ignorant and discontented elements of the new electorate are attracted by it. But, high as the heavens are above the earth, so far is wisdom removed from folly ; and though we may tolerate and explain the presence of socialist agitation, it is none the less a duty to strenuously oppose it.
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