In England.
Incomplete Character of Religious Liberty in England.
Freedom of Discussion in England.
Political liberty is seldom without some kind of effect on religious liberty. A political revolution may be associated with a religious change in one of two ways. It may proclaim the right to real liberty of thought, or it may substitute a new orthodoxy for an old one. The first was done in France in 1789 by the Declaration of the Rights of Man; the second was done twice over in England—once by erecting a new Anglican orthodoxy, and a second time by erecting a new Puritan orthodoxy, the ultimate effect of the last being the establishment of religious freedom for various classes of Protestant dissenters, but not for unbelievers. “The denial of the truth of Christianity,” says Professor Dicey, “or of the authority of the Scriptures by ‘writing, printing, teaching, or advised speaking,’ on the part of any person who has been educated in or made profession of Christianity in England, is by statute a criminal offence, entailing very severe penalties. When once, however, the principles of the common law and the force of the enactments still contained in the statute-book are really appreciated, no one can maintain that the law of England recognises anything like that natural right to the free communication of thoughts and opinions which was proclaimed in France nearly a hundred years ago to be one of the most valuable Rights of Man.... Freedom of discussion is, in England, little else than the right to write or say anything which a jury, consisting of twelve shopkeepers, think it expedient should be said or written. Such liberty may vary at different times and seasons from unrestricted license to very severe restraint.”
CHAPTER III
CONSERVATISM
Novelties adopted by Conservative Feeling.
No country can be more favourable than France for the observation of that process by which a startling novelty is taken after a short time under the protection of the most sober conservative feeling.
France both Experimental and Conservative.
Partially Successful Experiments.
France is at the same time willing to make hazardous experiments, and yet extremely conservative by natural disposition. The consequence of these two apparently opposite tendencies in the same nation is that the results of successful experiments are preserved for continuous practical application, and the rest very soon discarded and forgotten. Sometimes an experiment has been partially successful and is thought to have failed temporarily, not from any want of applicability in the idea itself, but owing to unfavourable circumstances. In such cases the experiment is not likely to be lost. It will be tried again, at least once, or more than once.