rything that individuals owe to society in return for the mere
protection which they receive from it.

True, there is an universal understanding that individuals shall be
subject to any laws, whether wise or foolish, provided only they be of
equal and impartial operation, which may be enacted by a numerical
majority of the community to which the individuals belong; and in this
manner individuals may become bound by any number of miscellaneous
pledges, society acquiring simultaneously the right to hold individuals
to the performance of those pledges. Thus, if by the vote of an
unimpeachably representative House of Commons it were declared to be for
the general good, and agreed to accordingly, that every one should be
vaccinated or circumcised, it would be incumbent on every one to submit
quietly to vaccination or circumcision, however deleterious the
operation might be deemed by some. Or if, improving upon a hypothetical
suggestion of Mr. Mill, a parliament elected by constituencies in which
the labouring-class element greatly predominated, should prospectively
forbid the accumulation by any individual of property beyond a specified
amount, then, though the almost certain consequence would be that the
prescribed limit of accumulation would not be exceeded, still if it were
exceeded, the accumulator could not justly complain when the surplus was
forfeited according to law. Yet even thus the obligations or duties
created will correspond exactly with the pledges given; none will be
incurred except such as have been imposed by special legislation--nor
even those, unless the legislation have been impartial. A law requiring
people to pay poor's-rates would not suffice as a pretext for requiring
them to pay education rates likewise. Neither if, instead of passing the
prospective law just now supposed, a governing majority which had
previously always permitted the indefinite accumulation of wealth, were
retrospectively to decree the forfeiture of all past accumulations
beyond a defined amount, would individuals be morally bound to submit to
such a decree if they could contrive to evade it, any more than
sexquipedalians would be bound to lay their heads on the block in
obedience to a law directing everybody six feet high to be decapitated.
All such partial legislation would be tyrannical, and circumstances must
be very peculiar indeed to make submission to tyranny a duty. But of all
conceivable legislation, none could possibly be