gulation began. The
conditions produced by the new factory system shocked the public
conscience; and as early as 1802 we find the first of a long series of
laws, out of which has grown an industrial code that year by year
follows the life of the operative, in his relations with his employer,
into more minute detail. The first stages of this movement were
contemplated with doubt and distrust by many men of Liberal sympathies.
The intention was, doubtless, to protect the weaker party, but the
method was that of interference with freedom of contract. Now the
freedom of the sane adult individual--even such strong individualists as
Cobden recognized that the case of children stood apart--carried with it
the right of concluding such agreements as seemed best to suit his own
interests, and involved both the right and the duty of determining the
lines of his life for himself. Free contract and personal responsibility
lay close to the heart of the whole Liberal movement. Hence the doubts
felt by so many Liberals as to the regulation of industry by law. None
the less, as time has gone on, men of the keenest Liberal sympathies
have come not merely to accept but eagerly to advance the extension of
public control in the industrial sphere, and of collective
responsibility in the matter of the education and even the feeding of
children, the housing of the industrial population, the care of the sick
and aged, the provision of the means of regular employment. On this side
Liberalism seems definitely to have retraced its steps, and we shall
have to inquire closely into the question whether the reversal is a
change of principle or of application.

Closely connected with freedom of contract is freedom of association. If
men may make any agreement with one another in their mutual interest so
long as they do not injure a third party, they may apparently agree to
act together permanently for any purposes of common interest on the same
conditions. That is, they may form associations. Yet at bottom the
powers of an association are something very different from the powers of
the individuals composing it; and it is only by legal pedantry that the
attempt can be made to regulate the behaviour of an association on
principles derived from and suitable to the relations of individuals. An
association might become so powerful as to form a state within the
state, and to contend with government on no unequal terms. The history
of some revolutionary socie