ression of personal devotion. So
far as they infringe the freedom, or, more generally, the rights of
others, the practices inculcated by a religion cannot enjoy unqualified
freedom.

4. _Social Liberty._

From the spiritual we turn to the practical side of life. On this side
we may observe, first, that Liberalism has had to deal with those
restraints on the individual which flow from the hierarchic organization
of society, and reserve certain offices, certain forms of occupation,
and perhaps the right or at least the opportunity of education
generally, to people of a certain rank or class. In its more extreme
form this is a caste system, and its restrictions are religious or legal
as well as social. In Europe it has taken more than one form. There is
the monopoly of certain occupations by corporations, prominent in the
minds of eighteenth-century French reformers. There is the reservation
of public appointments and ecclesiastical patronage for those who are
"born," and there is a more subtly pervading spirit of class which
produces a hostile attitude to those who could and would rise; and this
spirit finds a more material ally in the educational difficulties that
beset brains unendowed with wealth. I need not labour points which will
be apparent to all, but have again to remark two things. (1) Once more
the struggle for liberty is also, when pushed through, a struggle for
equality. Freedom to choose and follow an occupation, if it is to become
fully effective, means equality with others in the opportunities for
following such occupation. This is, in fact, one among the various
considerations which lead Liberalism to support a national system of
free education, and will lead it further yet on the same lines. (2) Once
again, though we may insist on the rights of the individual, the social
value of the corporation or quasi-corporation, like the Trade Union,
cannot be ignored. Experience shows the necessity of some measure of
collective regulation in industrial matters, and in the adjustment of
such regulation to individual liberty serious difficulties of principle
emerge. We shall have to refer to these in the next section. But one
point is relevant at this stage. It is clearly a matter of Liberal
principle that membership of a corporation should not depend on any
hereditary qualification, nor be set about with any artificial
difficulty of entry, where by the term artificial is meant any
difficulty not involved in the