I concern myself with those personal characteristics which won for him the regard and honour of the insurgent4 industrial classes—insurgent, not in the sense of physical rebellion against authority, but of intellectual rebellion against error, social inferiority and insufficiency of means. Mill regarded the press as the fortress5 of freedom. All his life he gave money to establish such defences, and left the copyright of his works to Mr. John Morley, to be applied6 in aid of publications open to the expression of all reasoned opinion, having articles signed by the names of the writers. Mr. Mill was the first who made provision for the expression of unfriended truth. It would be a surprising biography which recorded the causes he aided and the persons whom he helped. He was not one of those philosophers, "selfish, cold and wise," who, fortunate and satisfied with their own emancipation7 from error, leave others to perish in their ignorance. Mill helped them,* as did Place, Bentham, Grote, Roebuck, Molesworth, and other leaders of the great Utilitarian8 party. For ten years I knew Mr. Mill to receive and write letters of suggestion from the India House. He would see any one, at any hour, interested in the progress of the people. As Mr. John Morley has said in the Fortnightly Review, "It was easier for a workman than for a princess to obtain access to him."
* Like Samuel Morley, he took trouble to aid honest
endeavour, often irrespective of agreement with it.
A pamphlet by me on the "Liberal Situation" in 1865* being sent to Mr. Mill, he wrote me the following letter:—
* It was in the form of a letter addressed to Joseph Cowen.
"Avignon,
"April 28, 1865.
"Dear Sir,—I have received your pamphlet (the 'Liberal Situation') which I think is one of the best of your writings, and well calculated to stir up the thinking minds among the working classes to larger views of political questions. So far as I am myself concerned I cannot but be pleased to find you in sympathy with some of the most generally unpopular of my political notions. For my own part, I attach for the present more importance to representation of minorities, and especially to Mr. Hares plan, combined with opening the suffrage9 to women, than to the plural10 voting which, in the form proposed by Mr. Buxton, of attaching the plurality of votes directly to property, I have always thoroughly11 repudiated12. But I think what you say of it likely to be very useful by impressing on the working people that it is no degradation13 to them to consider some people's votes of more value than others. I would always (as you do) couple with the plurality the condition of its being accessible to any one, however poor, who proves that he can come up to a certain standard of knowledge.—I am, yours truly,
"J. S. Mill.
"G. J. Holyoake."
One night when a great Reform League meeting was held in the Agricultural Hall, Islington, I accompanied him from the House of Commons to it. There were rumours14 of danger in attending it. This did not deter15 him. The meeting itself was ill spoken of by the press—still he went. The crowd about the place made it perilous17 for one so fragile-looking as he, to force a way in. He never hesitated to try it When we arrived on the thronged19 platform, it was a struggle to get to the front. The vast amphitheatre, with its distant lights and dense20 crowds—the horsepit presenting a valley of faces, the higher ground hills of men, the iron rafters overhead were alive with hearers who had climbed there—was a strange Miltonic scene. No sooner did the stout21 voice of Manton—which alone all could hear—announce the arrival of Mr. Mill than every man was silent; though few would catch the low, wise, brave words he uttered. Afterwards I returned to the House of Commons with him, he being interested in an expected division.
The Islington meeting that night had been denounced as illegal. He went to justify22 the right of public meeting by his presence, and to share the responsibility of those who convened23 it. What man eminent24 as a thinker, save he, or Mr. John Morley, would incur25 the odium, peril18, and discomfort26 of attending, for such a purpose, a workman's meeting such as that?
The first time he made a speech at a public meeting was at the Whittington Club, before a gathering27 of co-operators. I asked him to address them. I was as glad as surprised when he consented. Had it not been for the presence of women taking interest in co-operative economy, he probably had not spoken then. In a sentence he defined the higher co-operation. He never spoke16 in vain.
When in business in Fleet Street I signed bills for the convenience of a city friend, who, like William Ellis—Mill's early associate—was a munificent28 supporter of progressive endeavour. By putting my name on his bills I incurred29 a liability beyond my means of meeting. My more than imprudence was indefensible because it involved the business in which the money of others was invested. Learning that my resources fell short by ￡70 of the amount for which I was answerable, Mr. Mill sent me the ￡70 from himself and a friend. When the bills were repaid me from the estate of him for whom I had signed them, I sent the ￡70 to Mr. Mill, who returned me half as a gift, on the condition that I did not sign another bill, which I never did, unless I was able to pay it if my friend did not, and I was willing to pay it if he could not.
Mr. Mill had quoted portions of my "History of the Rochdale Pioneers," in his "Political Economy," which was a great advantage to a cause whose success I much desired. In many ways I was much indebted to his friendship, and have never changed in my regard for him. Yet this did not involve spontaneous acquiescence30 in all his views. Upon the ballot31 I dissented33 from him. It seemed to me a just condition that the people should be, for one minute in seven years, free to vote for their political masters (as members of Parliament are) without control, intimidation34, or fear of resentment35 Mr. Bright himself and Mr. Berkeley were impressed by my view as stated to a meeting of the Reform League. Mill thought it conduced to manliness36 that the elector should withstand adverse37 influences at whatever peril—which assumed the universal existence of a heroic spirit of self-sacrifice. Since the elector by his vote subjects his fellow-citizens, it may be, to perilous mastership, Mill inferred every man had a right to know from whose hand came the blessing38 or the blow. There is still force in Mill's view which commands respect. On the other hand, secret voting is not without its disadvantages. The citizen may be surrounded by disguised adversaries39. The fair-seeming dissembler he trusts may stab him at the poll. The independence given by the ballot may betray the State, and the traitors40 be shielded from responsibility. The secret vote also rests on a vast assumption—that of the universal paramountcy41 of conscience and honesty in electors—which paramountcy is as scarce as political heroism42. Those who so trust the people incur the greater and ceaseless responsibility of educating them in political honour. They who have shown their trust in the people, alone have the right of claiming their fidelity43. Mr. Mill was foremost in teaching the duty of independent thought, and, to do him justice, my dissent32 from a principle he had come to hold strongly, made no difference in his friendship. He was once a believer in the ballot himself.
Mr. Mill was an instance which shows that even the virtues44 of a philosopher need, as in lesser45 men, good sense to take care of them, lest the operation of lofty qualities compromise others. His unguarded intrepidity46 in defence of the right cost him his seat for Westminster. Things were going well for him, on his second candidature, when one morning it appeared in the newspapers that he had sent ￡10 to promote the election of Mr. Bradlaugh. That ￡10 was worth ￡10,000 to his Tory opponent, and cost Mill's own committee the loss of ￡3,000, which was contributed to promote his election. When I was a candidate in the Tower Hamlets, Mr. Mill sent a similar sum to promote my election; but I prohibited the publication of an intrepid47 act of generosity48, which might prove costly49 to Mr. Mill At his first election Dean Stanley nobly urged Christian50 electors to vote for Mr. Mill; but at the second election, when it became known that Mr. Mill was subscribing51 to bring an Atheist52 into Parliament, most Christians53 were persuaded Mr. Mill was himself an Atheist, and only the nobler sort would vote for him again. It was right and honourable54 in Mr. Mill to stand by his opinion, that an Atheist had as much right as a Christian to be in Parliament, and that ecclesiastical heresy55 was no disqualification for public or Parliamentary service. To maintain your opinions at your own cost is one thing, but to proclaim them at the cost of others, without regard to time, consent or circumstance, is quite a different matter.
Mr. Mill had refused on principle to contribute to the expense of his own election, on the ground that a candidate should not be called upon to pay for his own election to a place of public service, I though it was perfectly56 consistent that he should contribute to the election of others. But his committee could not convert the electorate57 to this view. There is nothing so difficult as the election of a philosopher. Mr. Mill was in favour of the civil equality of all opinions, but it did not follow that he shared all opinions himself. But the electors could not be made to see this after the ￡10 sent to Northampton became known, and England saw the most famous borough58 in the land handed over for unknown years to a Tory bookseller, without personal distinction of his own, and a book writer of the highest order rejected by the electors in favour of a mere59 bookseller.
Mr. Mill's father, openly advocating the limitation of families in the interest of the poor, bequeathed to his son a heritage of disadvantage—of liability to frenzied60 imputation61. No man is to be held responsible save for what he himself says and what he himself does. No man is answerable, or ought to be held answerable, for the construction others put upon his conduct, or for their inference as to his opinions. No writer ever guarded his words and conduct more assiduously than J. S. Mill. Yet few have been more misrepresented by theological and Conservative writers. Upon the question of "limitation of families," Mr. Mill never wrote other or more than this:—
"No prudent62 man contracts matrimony before he is in a condition which gives him an assured means of living, and no married man has a greater number of children than he can properly bring up. Whenever this family has been formed, justice and humanity require that he should impose on himself the same restraint which is submitted to by the unmarried."*
* "Principles of Political Economy," Book ii.
Further instruction of the people upon this subject J. S. Mill might not deprecate, but he never gave it He never went so far as Jowett, who wrote: "That the most important influences on human life should be wholly left to chance, or shrouded63 in mystery, and instead of being disciplined or understood, should be required to conform to an external standard of propriety64, cannot be regarded by the philosopher as a safe or satisfactory condition of human things."*
* "Dialogues of Plato." Introduction to "Republic," vol. ii.
Mill's views, or supposed views, naturally excited the attention of wits. Moore's amusing exaggeration, which, like American humour, was devoid65 of truth, yet had no malice66 in it, was:—
"There are two Mr. Mills, too, whom those who like reading
What's vastly unreadable, call very clever;
And whereas Mill senior makes war on good breeding,
Mill junior makes war on all breeding whatever."
The way in which opinions were invented for Mill is shown in the instance of the London Debating Club (1826-1830), which was attended by a set of young men who professed67 ultra opinions. Mr. J. A. Roebuck was one. It was rumoured68 that at a meeting at which Mr. Mill was present, a pamphlet was discussed entitled, "What is Love?" attributed to a man of some note in his day, and of | unimpeachable69 character in private life. Mr. Mill might have been present without knowledge of the | subject to be brought forward, and may have been a listener without choice.
But in those days (and down to a much later period) the conventional fallacy was in full vogue—that civility to an opponent implied a secret similarity of opinion. Courtesy was regarded as complicity with the beliefs of those to whom it was shown. He who was present at an unconventional assembly was held to assent70 to what took place there—though neither a member, nor speaker, nor partisan71.
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1
suburban
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| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
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eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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notably
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| adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地 | |
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insurgent
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| adj.叛乱的，起事的；n.叛乱分子 | |
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fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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utilitarian
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| adj.实用的，功利的 | |
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suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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plural
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| n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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12
repudiated
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| v.（正式地）否认( repudiate的过去式和过去分词 )；拒绝接受；拒绝与…往来；拒不履行（法律义务） | |
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13
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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15
deter
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| vt.阻止，使不敢，吓住 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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convened
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| 召开( convene的过去式 )； 召集； （为正式会议而）聚集； 集合 | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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incur
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| vt.招致，蒙受，遭遇 | |
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discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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munificent
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| adj.慷慨的，大方的 | |
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incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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acquiescence
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| n.默许；顺从 | |
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ballot
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| n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票 | |
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dissent
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| n./v.不同意，持异议 | |
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dissented
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| 不同意，持异议( dissent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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intimidation
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| n.恐吓，威胁 | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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manliness
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| 刚毅 | |
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adverse
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| adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的 | |
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blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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adversaries
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| n.对手，敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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traitors
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| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
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paramountcy
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| n.最高权威 | |
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heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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intrepidity
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| n.大胆，刚勇；大胆的行为 | |
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intrepid
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| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
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generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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50
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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51
subscribing
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| v.捐助( subscribe的现在分词 )；签署，题词；订阅；同意 | |
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52
atheist
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| n.无神论者 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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54
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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electorate
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| n.全体选民；选区 | |
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borough
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| n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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imputation
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| n.归罪，责难 | |
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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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shrouded
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| v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密 | |
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propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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rumoured
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| adj.谣传的；传说的；风 | |
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unimpeachable
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| adj.无可指责的；adv.无可怀疑地 | |
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assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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partisan
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| adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒 | |
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