e the word,
implies that the unjust man deserves to be hanged, or, at least, is
responsible for his actions. What "responsibility" precisely implies
is, of course, a debatable question. I only need assume that, in any
case, it implies that somebody is guilty of wrong-doing, for which he
should receive an appropriate penalty. But in organic questions it is
not the individual, but the race which is responsible; and we require a
reform, not a penalty. An impatient temper leads us to generalise too
hastily from the case of the individual to that of the country. We
bestow the blame for all the wrongs of an oppressed nation, for
example, upon the nation which oppresses. But in simple point of fact,
the oppressed nation generally deserves (if the word can be fairly
used) to share the blame. The trodden worm would not have been trodden
upon if it had been a bit of a viper. Whatever the duty of turning the
second cheek, it is clearly not a national duty. If we admire a Tell or
Robert Bruce for resisting oppressors, we implicitly condemn those who
submitted to oppressors. If a nation is divided or wanting in courage,
public spirit, and independence, it will be trampled down; and though
we may most rightfully blame the tramplers, it is idle to exonerate the
trampled. It is easy, in the same way, to make the rich solely
responsible for all the misery of the poor. The man who has got the
booty is naturally regarded as the robber. But, speaking
scientifically, that is, with the desire to state the plain facts, we
must admit that if the poor are those who have gone to the wall in the
struggle for wealth; then, whatever unjust weapons have been used in
that struggle, the improvidence and vice and idleness have certainly
been among the main causes of defeat. Here, as before, the question is
not, who is to be punished? We can only settle that when dealing with
individual cases. It is the question, what is the cause of certain
evils? and here we must resist the temptation of supposing that the
class which in some sense appears to profit by them, or, at least, to
be exempt from them, has, therefore, any more to do with bringing them
about than the class which suffers from them.

The reflection may put us in mind of what seems to be a general law.
The ultimate cause of the adoption of institutions and rules of conduct
is often the fact of their utility to the race; but it is only at a
later period that their utility becomes the conscious or