Mill is capable of immense involuntary error; but his involuntary
errors are usually owing to his seeing only one or two of the many
sides of a thing; not to obscure sight of the side he _does_ see. Thus
his 'Essay on Liberty' only takes cognizance of facts that make for
liberty, and of none that make for restraint. But in its statement of
all that can be said for liberty, it is so clear and keen, that I have
myself quoted it before now as the best authority on that side. And,
if arguing in favor of Rent, absolutely, and with clear explanation of
what it was, he had then defended it with all his might, I should have
attributed to him only the honest shortsightedness of partisanship;
but when I find his defining sentences full of subtle entanglement and
reserve--and that reserve held throughout his treatment of this
particular subject,--I cannot, whether I utter the suspicion or not,
keep the sense of wilfulness in the misrepresentation from remaining
in my mind. And if there be indeed ground for this blame, and Mr.
Mill, for fear of fostering political agitation,[A] _has_ disguised
what he knows to be the facts about rent, I would ask him as one of
the leading members of the Jamaica Committee, which is the greater
crime, boldly to sign warrant for the sudden death of one man, known
to be an agitator, in the immediate outbreak of such agitation, or, by
equivocation in a scientific work, to sign warrants for the deaths of
thousands of men in slow misery, for _fear_ of an agitation which has
not begun; and if begun, would be carried on by debate, not by the
sword?

[A] With at last the natural consequences of
cowardice,--nitro-glycerine and fire-balls! Let the upper
classes speak the truth about themselves boldly, and they
will know how to defend themselves fearlessly. It is
equivocation in principle, and dereliction from duty, which
melt at last into tears in a mob's presence.--(Dec. 16th,
1867.)

LETTER XXIV.

THE OFFICE OF THE SOLDIER.

_April 22, 1867._

158. I must once more deprecate your probable supposition that I bring
forward this ideal plan of State government, either with any idea of
its appearing, to our present public mind, practicable even at a
remote period, or with any positive and obstinate adherence to the
particular form suggested. There are no wiser words among the many
wise ones of the most rational and keen-