ould be observed
that the first two of these features are not new phenomena arising out
of our industrial system. You find extreme inequalities of distribution
in practically all forms of society--in the slave state, the feudal
state, in India and in China to-day. Nor is this the first period of
history in which there has been insecurity. If you look at any primitive
community, and note the effect of harvest fluctuations and the
inevitable famine following upon them, you will recognise that the
variations of fortune which affect such communities are more disastrous
in their effect than the trade variations of the modern world.

But after all qualifications have been made these four indictments are
sufficiently serious and must be met, for it is these and similar
considerations which have driven many to desire the complete abolition
of the system. Some wish to abolish private property, and desire a
Communist solution. Others practically attack the system of private
enterprise, and wish to substitute either the community in some form or
another (_e.g._ state socialism), or some corporate form of industry
(_e.g._ guild socialism).

THE LIBERAL BIAS

Liberals, on the other hand, reject these solutions, and desire not to
end the present system but to mend it. The grounds for this conclusion
need to be clearly expressed, for after all it is the fundamental point
of doctrine which distinguishes them from the Labour party. In the first
place, there is the fact that Liberals attach a special importance to
the liberty of the individual. The general relation of the individual
to the State is rather outside my subject, but we start from the fact
that the bias of Liberals is towards liberty in every sphere, on the
ground that spiritual and intellectual progress is greatest where
individuality is least restricted by authority or convention. Variety,
originality in thought and action, are the vital virtues for the
Liberal. It is still true that "in this age the mere example of
Nonconformity, the mere refusal to bow the knee to custom, is itself a
service." The Liberal who no longer feels at the bottom of his heart a
sympathy with the rebel who chafes against the institutions of society,
whether religious, political, social or economic, is well on the road to
the other camp. But the dynamic force of Liberty, that great motive
power of progress, though a good servant, may be a bad master; and the
perennial problem of society is to