f law. Hence the demand for the
independence of the judiciary to secure equality as between the
Government and its subjects. Hence the demand for cheap procedure and
accessible courts. Hence the abolition of privileges of class.[2] Hence
will come in time the demand for the abolition of the power of money to
purchase skilled advocacy.

2. _Fiscal Liberty._

Closely connected with juristic liberty, and more widely felt in
everyday life, is the question of fiscal liberty. The Stuarts brought
things to a head in this country by arbitrary taxation. George III
brought things to a head in America by the same infallible method. The
immediate cause of the French Revolution was the refusal of the nobles
and the clergy to bear their share of the financial burden. But fiscal
liberty raises more searching questions than juristic liberty. It is not
enough that taxes should be fixed by a law applying universally and
impartially, for taxes vary from year to year in accordance with public
needs, and while other laws may remain stable and unchanged for an
indefinite period, taxation must, in the nature of the case, be
adjustable. It is a matter, properly considered, for the Executive
rather than the Legislature. Hence the liberty of the subject in fiscal
matters means the restraint of the Executive, not merely by established
and written laws, but by a more direct and constant supervision. It
means, in a word, responsible government, and that is why we have more
often heard the cry, "No taxation without representation," than the cry,
"No legislation without representation." Hence, from the seventeenth
century onwards, fiscal liberty was seen to involve what is called
political liberty.

3. _Personal Liberty._

Of political liberty it will be more convenient to speak later. But let
us here observe that there is another avenue by which it can be, and, in
fact, was, approached. We have seen that the reign of law is the first
step to liberty. A man is not free when he is controlled by other men,
but only when he is controlled by principles and rules which all society
must obey, for the community is the true master of the free man. But
here we are only at the beginning of the matter. There may be law, and
there may be no attempt, such as the Stuarts made, to set law aside, yet
(1) the making and maintenance of law may depend on the will of the
sovereign or of an oligarchy, and (2) the content of the law may be
unjust and oppressive t