§ 3. Limits of the Functions of Public Bodies.

On this subject two opposite doctrines are upheld : the doctrine of the state as policeman and the doctrine of the state as providence. In the first the state confines itself to guaranteeing security; in the second it assures to each of its subjects what is necessary and useful for them. The first doctrine is that of individualism, and maintains that from the perfection of individuals will result that perfection of the state which consists in its self-effacement. The second doctrine is that of the socialism of which Plato's Republic is the model, and maintains that when once the state is made perfect the perfection of its individual members will necessarily follow.

Between these two extreme doctrines Adam Smith has preserved the mean, nor can his definition of the functions of government be improved. According

to him the functions of a state are:

I. "The duty of protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other inde

pendent societies." On this point there is a general agreement.

II. "The duty of protecting, as far as possible, every member of the society from the

injustice or oppression of every other member of it."

To guarantee to each individual the security of

his person and property, and to support justice with physical force, is an excellent definition of the essential mission of government; but neither Smith nor his successors seem to have suspected its comprehensiveness and difficulty.

To place and maintain every man in the possession of his own is to secure the reign of justice. Cuique suum, "to each man his own,' is a principle which can only be enforced by the civil laws, institutes, or codes which actually regulate all economic activity.

The third function of the state according to Adam. Smith is the task "of erecting and maintaining certain public works and certain public institutions, which it can never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of individuals, to erect and maintain, because the profit could never repay the expense to them, though it may frequently do much more than repay it to a great society." (Wealth of Nations, bk. iv. ch. ix. ad fin.) Examples of such works and institutions are light-houses, harbours, roads and canals, universities, hospitals, and sometimes schools, &c.

Individual enterprise should be the rule, state interference the exception. To justify the latter, two conditions are necessary: firstly, the matter in hand must be essentially for the public interest; secondly, private individuals must be unable to render the services which this interest requires. Even when thus justified, state interference is always accompanied by inconveniences.

(1) The work it effects is done neither quickly nor cheaply.

(2) Nepotism, favouritism and party exigencies often cause useless works to be undertaken and useful ones to be ill executed.

(3) The action of the state by accustoming individuals to look to it for help paralyses private enterprise.

The historian Bunsen when at Rome saw a house in flames. The crowd was shouting, but no one stirred a hand. Why? Tocca al governo-the state should see to it was the answer he received. In the United States, on the contrary, so soon as a fire breaks out, engines, admirably equipped by private individuals, pour in from every side. Private enterprise is here fostered and on the alert.

Jules Simon remarks, "The state should labour to render itself useless and pave the way for its resignation." He is right, but only on the understanding that the state do not resign too soon.

Under the old régime the duties of police were performed in Spain by a private society. This society bore the fine name of the Santa Hermandad, or Holy Brotherhood, but it committed the most villainous acts.

If men saw clearly what is their interest, their duty and their privileges, of their own accord they would do everything that was right and nothing that was wrong. All constraint would become unnecessary. The state would be superfluous. There

would arrive the reign of that perfect liberty which consists in doing good.

In proportion then to the progress of society the functions of the state will diminish in number and importance. But this very progress is itself, in great part, the work of the state.

The

The essential and permanent function of the state is the declaration and maintenance of the law. state is, as Quesnay has well expressed it, "Physical force placed at the disposal of Justice." Its transitory, but no less important, function is to favour the progress of civilisation.

First and above all the state is policeman and judge. But it must also be the road maker and schoolmaster.

§ 4. Public Luxury.

The more democratic a society becomes, the more the state is justified in encouraging the fine arts, the one luxury which it may be permitted. The Athens of Pericles will always be a model for other states to imitate. In his seventh Olympiad Pindar sang, "The day the Rhodians raised an altar to Athene, Zeus brought a yellow cloud into the sky and rained much gold upon the land." The shower of gold which falls upon a people which rightly encourages literature and the fine arts is a shower of pure and unselfish pleasures.

In his Histoire de Luxe, M. Baudrillart writes on the subject of public luxury, "At times it invites

the masses to enjoy certain pleasures, as public gardens, fountains and theatres; at times it spreads the treasures of the beautiful before the multitudes shut out from the possession of the works of sculpture and painting. There are museums for art, just as there are libraries for science and literature, and, exhibitions for manufactures. In all its forms this collective luxury, if well directed, benefits every one. It raises and stimulates the genius of industry. It has, besides, this supreme merit that it deprives luxury of the selfish and solitary character which it displays in individuals, by bringing within reach of the people the advantages which as a rule are exclusively enjoyed by the rich, or grudgingly shared with a small circle of acquaintances."

Athens raised the level of civilisation by the diligent culture of a love for the fine arts. Artistic decoration and art instruction in schools ought to be a means to the same end. "If education must first deal with realities and forms it uses these as vehicles to attain to the intellectually sublime."

Would not the lower classes on whom material surroundings press so heavily find the best relief to their hard destiny if their eyes were opened to what Leonardo da Vinci calls La Bellezza del Mondo, and they, as well as others, were thus prepared to enjoy all the splendours dispersed throughout the world, splendours, which, as Pascal expresses it, when the heart is open to receive them, soften its sorrows and inspire a presentiment and foretaste of happier days."