ir devotion to the Great Society; they ask to be allowed
to make all sorts of sacrifices to the community; they announce their
willingness to do anything--except the one thing which the Government
requires them to do. The exception is fatal to their claim. "To obey is
better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." The State
does not and cannot submit the validity of its enactments to the private
judgment of its subjects. It expresses and enforces the general will,
and it dare not leave to the choice, or even to the conscience, of the
individual an option as to which of its commands shall be obeyed, and
which not. To do so would be to loose the bands of society, to bring to
an end the reign of law, and to plunge the community once again into
that primal chaos of anarchy from which in the beginning it painfully
emerged. The State demands, and must necessarily demand, implicit
obedience. From the loyal it receives it. Those from whom it does not
receive it are rebels, no matter how conscientious they may be, how
lofty their moral elevation, how sublimely passive their resistance. So
far as their disobedience extends they are the enemies of organized
society, disrupters of the commonwealth, subverters of government, the
allies and confederates of criminals and anarchists. It is worth noting,
moreover, how easily their passive resistance develops into more active
forms of rebellion. Not for long was the Suffragist content to remain
merely defensive in revolt; soon she emerged with whips for Cabinet
Ministers, hammers for windows, and bombs for churches. Resistant Trade
Unionists rapidly and generally slide into sabotage and personal
violence. The No-Conscriptionists of Ireland threaten through Mr.
Byrne, M.P., for Dublin, that "if Conscription is forced on Ireland, it
will be resisted by drilled and armed forces"[43]--a delightfully
Hibernian type of anti-militarism, which, nevertheless, throws a lurid
light on the real meaning of the movement. It is seen to be rebellion,
open, naked and unashamed.

FOOTNOTE:

[43] See _Times_, November 22nd, 1915.

III. THE RIGHT OF REBELLION

Passive resistance, then, is rebellion; but, as has already been
admitted, it is not on that account necessarily unjustifiable. An
established government may be so hopelessly iniquitous that it ought to
be overthrown; an organized society may be so irremediably corrupt that
it merits disruption; duly enacted laws may, when ju