The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State, and Other Essays

Introduction

Right_001-050.indd 11 5/11/11 2:11 PM INTRODUCTION by Eric Mack This collection of essays makes available the major and representative writings in political philosophy of one of the distinctive figures in the profound and wideranging intellectual debate which took place during the late Victorian age. It was during this period, in the intellectual and social ferment of the 188os and 189os, that Auberon Herbert (1838-1906) formulated and expounded voluntaryism, his system of "thorough" individualism. Carrying natural rights theory to its logical limits, Herbert demanded complete social and economic freedom for all noncoercive individuals and the radical restriction of the use of force to the role of protecting those freedomsincluding the freedom of peaceful persons to withhold support from any or all state activities. All cooperative activity, he argued, must be founded upon the free agreement of all those parties whose rightful possessions are involved. Auberon Herbert was by birth and marriage a well- Right_001-050.indd 12 5/11/11 2:11 PM 12 Eric Mack placed member of the British aristocracy. He was educated at Eton and at St. John's College, Oxford. As a young man he held commissions in the army for several years and served briefly with the Seventh Hussars in India (186o). On his return to Oxford he formed several Conservative debating societies, was elected a Fellow of St. John's, and lectured occasionally in history and jurisprudence . In 1865, as a Conservative, he unsuccessfully sought a seat in the House of Commons. By 1868, however , he was seeking a parliamentary seat, again unsuccessfully , as a Liberal. Finally, in 1870, Herbert successfully contested a by-election and entered the Commons as a Liberal representing Nottingham. Most notably, during his time in the House of Commons, Herbert joined Sir Charles Dilke in declaring his republicanism and Herbert supported Joseph Arch's attempts to form an agricultural laborer's union. Although, through hindsight, many of Herbert's actions and words during the sixties and early seventies can be read as harbingers of his later consistent libertarianism, he actually lacked, throughout this period, any consistent set of political principles. During this period, for instance, he supported compulsory state education-albeit with strong insistence on its being religiously neutral. In late 1873 Herbert met and was much impressed by Herbert Spencer. As he recounts in "Mr. Spencer and the Great Machine," a study of Spencer led to the insight that thinking and acting for others had always hindered, not helped, the real progressi that all forms of compulsion deadened the living forces in a nationi that every evil vio- Right_001-050.indd 13 5/11/11 2:12 PM Introduction lently stamped out still persisted, almost always in a worse form, when driven out of sight, and festered under the surface. I no longer believed that the handful of us-however wellintentioned we might be-spending our nights in the House, could manufacture the life of a nation, could endow it out of hand with happiness, wisdom, and prosperity, and clothe it in all the virtues.1 13 However, it was even before this intellectual transformation that Herbert had decided, perhaps out of disgust with party politics or uncertainty about his own convictions, not to stand for reelection in 1874. Later, in 1879, he again sought Liberal support to regain a seat from Nottingham . But at that point his uncompromising individualist radicalism was not acceptable to the majority of the Central Council of the Liberal Union of Nottingham. In the interim, in 1877, he had organized the Personal Rights and Self-Help Association. And in 1878 he had been one of the chief organizers of the antijingoism rallies in Hyde Park against war with Russia. Along with other consistent classical liberals, Herbert repeatedly took antiimperialist stands. He called for Irish self-determination. He opposed British intervention in Egypt and later opposed the Boer War. In 188o, following his rejection by the Liberals of Nottingham, Herbert turned to the publication of addresses , essays, and books in defense of consistent individualism and against all forms of political regimentation. 1 Auberon Herbert, "Mr. Spencer and the Great Machine," p. 260. For additional bibliographic information see the bibliography. Page citations for material reproduced here are to pages in this volume. All other page citations refer to items listed in the bibliography. Right_001-050.indd 14 5/11/11 2:12 PM 14 Eric Mack Even in...