Political and Literary essays, 1908-1913 | Page 6

case.
Anarchy takes us past the stage of any defined political or social
programme. It would appear, so far as can at present be judged, to
embody the last despairing cry of ultra-democracy "Furens."
It is permissible to hope that our national sobriety, coupled with the
inherited traditions derived from centuries of free government, will
save us from such extreme manifestations of democratic tyranny as

those to which allusion has been made above. The special danger in
England would appear rather to arise from the probability of gradual
dry rot, due to prolonged offence against the infallible and relentless
laws of economic science. Both British employers of labour and British
workmen are insular in their habits of thought, and insular in the range
of their acquired knowledge. They do not appear as yet to be
thoroughly alive to the new position created for British trade by foreign
competition. It is greatly to be hoped that they will awake to the
realities of the situation before any permanent harm is done to British
trade, for the loss of trade involves as its ultimate result the
pauperisation of the proletariat, the adoption of reckless expedients
based on the Panem et Circenses policy to fill the mouths and quell the
voices of the multitude, and finally the suicide of that Empire which is
the offspring of trade, and which can only continue to exist so long as
its parent continues to thrive and to flourish.
5. _The Destruction of the Middle Class by the Fiscal Oppression of
the Curiales._--Leaving aside points of detail, which were only of
special application to the circumstances of the time, this cause of
Roman decay may, for all purposes of comparison and instruction, be
stated in the following terms: funds, which should have been spent by
the municipalities on local objects, were, from about the close of the
third century, diverted to the Imperial Exchequer, by which they were
not infrequently squandered in such a manner as to confer no benefit of
any kind on the taxpayers, whether local or Imperial. Thus, the system
of local self-government, which, Mr. Hodgkin says, was, during the
early centuries of the Empire, "both in name and fact Republican," was
shattered.
It does not appear probable that an attempt will ever be made to divert
the public revenues of the outlying dependencies of Great Britain to the
Imperial Exchequer. The lesson taught by the loss of the American
Colonies has sunk deeply into the public mind. Moreover, the example
of Spain stands as a warning to all the world. The principle that local
revenues should be expended locally has become part of the political
creed of Englishmen; neither is it at all likely to be infringed, even in
respect to those dependencies whose rights and privileges are not

safeguarded by self-governing institutions.
There may, however, be some little danger ahead in a sense exactly
opposite to that which was incurred by Rome--the danger, that is to say,
that, under the pressure of Imperialism, backed by influential class and
personal interests, too large an amount of the Imperial revenue may be
diverted to the outlying dependencies. If this were done, two evils
might not improbably ensue.
In the first place, the British democracy might become restive under
taxation imposed for objects the utility of which would not perhaps be
fully appreciated, and might therefore be disposed to cast off too hastily
the mantle of Imperialism. It is but a short time ago that an influential
school of politicians persistently dwelt on the theme that the colonies
were a burthen to the Mother Country. Although, for the time being,
views of this sort are out of fashion, no assurance can be felt that the
swing of the pendulum may not bring round another anti-Imperialist
phase of public opinion.
In the second place, if financial aid to any considerable extent were
afforded by the British Treasury to the outlying dependencies, a serious
risk would be run that this concession would be followed at no distant
period by a plea in favour of financial control from England. The
establishment of this latter principle would strike a blow at one of the
main props on which our Imperial fabric is based. It would tend to
substitute a centralised, in the place of our present decentralised system.
Those who are immediately responsible for the administration of our
outlying dependencies will, therefore, act wisely if they abstain from
asking too readily for Imperial pecuniary aid in order to solve local
difficulties.
These considerations naturally lead to some reflections on the
principles of government adopted in those dependencies of the Empire,
the inhabitants of which are not of the Anglo-Saxon race. Colonies
whose inhabitants are mainly of British origin stand, of course, on a
wholly different footing. They carry their Anglo-Saxon institutions