An attack on morals may turn out to be the salvation of the
race. A hundred years ago nobody foresaw that Tom Paine's
centenary would be the subject of a laudatory special article in
The Times; and only a few understood that the persecution of his
works and the transportation of men for the felony of reading
them was a mischievous mistake. Even less, perhaps, could they
have guessed that Proudhon, who became notorious by his essay
entitled "What is Property? It is Theft" would have received,
on the like occasion and in the same paper, a respectful
consideration which nobody would now dream of according to Lord
Liverpool or Lord Brougham. Nevertheless there was a mass of
evidence to shew that such a development was not only possible
but fairly probable, and that the risks of suppressing liberty of
propaganda were far greater than the risk of Paine's or
Proudhon's writings wrecking civilization. Now there was no such
evidence in favor of tolerating the cutting of throats and the
robbing of tills. No case whatever can be made out for the
statement that a nation cannot do without common thieves and
homicidal ruffians. But an overwhelming case can be made out for
the statement that no nation can prosper or even continue to
exist without heretics and advocates of shockingly immoral
doctrines. The Inquisition and the Star Chamber, which were
nothing but censorships, made ruthless war on impiety and
immorality. The result was once familiar to Englishmen, though of
late years it seems to have been forgotten.
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