The Pursuit of Certainty

22. Radicals in Politics

CHAPTER 22 Radicals in Politics For a few years, between 1829 and 1832, John Mill went so far as to speak of the Radical programme-universal suffrage, the shorter parliament, the ballot-as "mere conditions of election." He told himself and his friends that he would do best to stay away from politics and work out principles "which are of use for all times, though to be applied cautiously and circumspectly to any: principles of morals, government, law, education, above all, self-education." Ifhe could throw some light on the "science ofinvestigation," he could do most to forward "that alliance among the most advanced intellects and characters of the age, which is the only definite object I ever have in literature or philosophy, so far as I have any general object at all."' All the same, he could not help feeling that political activity was the most important, if not the highest of all. He was probably not being unduly modest but merely expressing his veneration for politics when he told Sterling that apart from logic, political economy, and metaphysics, he could boast of no distinction. To a soldier in the army of progress, which John Mill still was, having and using power to improve society was bound to seem a better way of getting closer to the front lines. When the Radicals were very successful in the elections of late 1832, Mill could not resist using the influence that under the circumstances could be his. "My friends have buckled to that work; I must not desert them but give them such help as lies in me," he explained to Carlyle.2 In spite of very poor health and personal agitation, he displayed boundless energy and enthusiasm during his years of political activity. When at the end ofthe 'thirties, his efforts 1. J. S. Mill, Letters, vol. 1, pp. 6-7 (Oct. 21, 1831). 2. J. S. Mill, to Carlyle, Dec. 27, 1932, National Library of Scodand, MS vol. 618. Radicals in Politics 275 and expectations in active politics failed, politics seemed no less, rather more important to him. Only then the emphasis shifted to working out the new creed, because the failure of his political activity confirmed his belief that politics must be based on a more inclusive and profound theory. While Mill was engaged in politics, the main effect of his new broader outlook was to make him anxious to found a less sectarian radicalism. It did nothing, however, to soften his extremism in the practice of politics, which remained for him, as for the other young Philosophical Radicals, a matter of clear-cut alternatives. He longed for the whole constitutional framework to topple, for then it would be easier to put it together again correctly. As reform had been so long delayed, the people had lost all attachment to the old institution and distrusted anything which "looks like patching up the old edifice ," he wrote to Sterling before the Reform Act. Destruction would certainly have to precede renovation: If it goes all at once, let us wait till it is gone; if it goes piece by piece, why, let the blockheads who will compose the first Parliament after the Bill passes do what a blockhead can do, viz. overthrow, and the ground will be cleared, and the passion of destruction sated, and a coalition prepared between the wisest Radicals and the wisest anti-Radicals, between all the wiser men who agree in their general views and differ only in their estimate of the present condition of this country.1 All would be well, if only he and Sterling could select a few dozen persons "to be missionaries of the great truths in which alone there is any well-being for mankind, individually or collectively."2 Once the Reform Bill was passed, Mill confidently expected the millennium to arrive. "The Tory party, at least the present Tory party," he announced triumphantly, "is now utterly annihilated.... There is nothing definite and determinate in politics except Radicalism, and we shall have nothing but Radicals and Whigs for a long time to come, until society shall have worked itself into some new shape not to be exactly foreseen and described now."3 He regretted somewhat that his position in India House made it impossible for him to be in parliament. The time really was one when "the doer of deeds" could do more than "the sayer of words," he wrote to Carlyle.4 It was much 1. J, S. Mill, Letters...