In consequence,
the performance of the play was for some time forbidden in
Vienna, and more recently it gave offence in Rome at a moment
when popular feeling was excited as to the relations of Austria
with the Balkan States. Now if a comedy so remote from political
passion as Arms and The Man can, merely because it refers to
political facts, become so inconvenient and inopportune that
Foreign Offices take the trouble to have its production
postponed, what may not be the effect of what is called a
patriotic drama produced at a moment when the balance is
quivering between peace and war? Is there not something to be
said for a political censorship, if not for a moral one? May not
those continental governments who leave the stage practically
free in every other respect, but muzzle it politically, be
justified by the practical exigencies of the situation?
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAW AND CENSORSHIP
The answer is that a pamphlet, a newspaper article, or a
resolution moved at a political meeting can do all the mischief
that a play can, and often more; yet we do not set up a permanent
censorship of the press or of political meetings. Any journalist
may publish an article, any demagogue may deliver a speech
without giving notice to the government or obtaining its licence.
The risk of such freedom is great; but as it is the price of our
political liberty, we think it worth paying. We may abrogate
it in emergencies by a Coercion Act, a suspension of the Habeas
Corpus Act, or a proclamation of martial law, just as we stop the
traffic in a street during a fire, or shoot thieves at sight if
they loot after an earthquake.
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