Essays political, social, and religious : By Richard Congreve

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Contents

The Government and Uganda: 1892 auguste comtb os journalism: 1893 .

Opportunism : iSg4

Great Britain and Brazil; the Island op Tri:

Appendix

The Politics of Aristotle : Introduction and Essays, 1855 • —

Chronological Table and Introduction .... 480

Essays : — I. Slavery . . 494

II. Aristotle and Plato 500

III. Monarchy 503

IV. War 513

V. Education 518

General Western History: Four Lectures, 1853: —

Oriental Period 540

2. Greek Period 557

Roman Period 573

3. Barbarian Period 589

Catholic-Feudal Period 610

4. Modern and Revolutionary Europe .... 626

The Roman Empire of the West: Four Lectures, 1855: — . 666

1. From Augustus to Commodus 667

2. From Commodus to Constantine 697

J. From Constantine to Theodosius I. . • . . 722 4. From the Division of the Empire to the End of the

Empire op the West 743

Elizabeth of England : Two Lecturbs, 1862 : — ... 771

1. Foreign Policy 773

2. Domestic Policy 808

THE GOVERNMENT AND UGANDA.

The decision of the Government on this question seems till uncertain. We would give what help we can to influence union in favour of our withdrawal from Uganda.

If we believed in the commercial advantages of the con- Itiary policy we should still be against it. We believe them, however, to be a delusion.

Politically — we reject the imperialist tendency in favour of increased dominion as equally immoral and unwise. We are already overweighted.

Industrially — we believe these external annexations most adverse to the true interests of the proletariat at home, from whose real wants they distract attention ; adverse also to the interests of the capitalists, inspiring vain hopes and misdirecting their energies.

Philanthropic motives — the interests of civilisation, the crushing of slavery — we think all experience is against premature attempts to introduce our peculiar civilisation into the existence of tribes at a much lower stage ; and for slavery — enough if Western Europe prevents all exportation of Africans, leaving it as a domestic institution to their own development.

For missionaries — let them be free to go at their own entire risk ; without, that is, the faintest hope of support from the Government of their country. The objection to them is that they are the pioneers of the trader, the trader of the soldier.

We deal very shortly with the various motives alleged, which would have but little weight with political parties, in our judgment, were it not for the strength of the cry for new markets — the commercial demand.

We are warranted in our so dealing with all of them, for we object to the whole enterprise, whatever the reasons assigned. We think this partitioning of Africa by the

B

2 THE GOVERNMENT AND UGANDA.

Western nations wholly wrong in principle — a violation of all the obligations conferred by superior strength.

This moral objection supersedes all others. At each fresh step in the iniquitous process we reiterate our objections. Africa needed a Protectorate — but it was a joint Protectorate that it needed — the joint Protectorate of the West, to secure that most ill-used country from all further disturbance from without.

This is the direction in which all efforts should be made. This is what, in our view, Humanity demands from those whom she has invested with her leadership.

In the name of my co-religionists,

Richard Congreve.

21 Frederic t 104 (24 November^ 1892).

AUGUSTE COMTE OA' JOURNALISM.

It may be useful to give in a separate form Auguste Comte's definitive judgment on periodical literature. Therefore I print the following extracts from the fourth volume of the Positive Politics, leaving them without any addition or comment to the thoughtful consideration of those whom they may reach.

KiCHABD CONGRBVE. g Momir, 105 (6 February. 1S93).

Note. — There is, it must be remembered, a distinctic Journalism as an organ of opinion and as an organ of n registering of current events, the Ada Diuma, or of the facta Any movement, is a different thing from periodical literature.

L Journalism as

I registering of c fc "^y movement

Extract I. {Vol. IV., pp. 332, 333, E. Tr.J. " The discipline advocated, far from fostering journalism, should rapidly extinguish, and that as a result of the full development of spiritual liberty, this anarchical institution, engendered by the impuissance of theologism, and animated by a fruitless hostility to Positivism. Already its principal sustenance is gone, as a natural consequence of the advent of the dictatorship by the suppression of the parliamentary regime, without which the periodical press can hardly flourish when the public it addresses has got clear of all metaphysical illusions. But beyond every other means of freeing France from the scourge of journalism is a large use of placards, allowing addresses to the public whenever they may be thought requisite, without any connection with this or that coterie, all equally incompetent and oppressive. Not to speak of the unworthiness of most of its actual teachers, opinion needs, as the experience of Catholicism shows, only one weekly discourse to direct it in connecting with the worship the application of principles given by education. And the amount of periodical teaching which is

4 AUGUSTE COMTE ON JOURNALISM.

enough for the normal state, is still more suited for the organic transition, when conviction ought above all to receive a new birth from solitary meditation, perpetually broken in upon by those who undertake to speak with no

reason for speaking A judicious use of placards,

with the addition of a few occasional pamphlets — this is all Positivism requires to regenerate public opinion, aiding, as it will thus do by special publications, the meditation based upon the general treatises."

" My third attempt to found the Occidental Review has

proved a total failure No one disputed the utility of

the undertaking, philosophically of politically ; this fresh failure, therefore, has led me to abandon the plan for ever, even were some honourable patron to remove all financial difficulties. The select public which I address felt more clearly than I did that there was a peculiar incongruity between the proposal and the general tendency of a doctrine which by its natural action involves the suppression of journalism."

" The obligation to speak at a given time and within given bounds becomes, it is true, less objectionable in proportion as the interval is longer, and yet a periodical judgment can never be applicable when that which is judged, the spectacle of human events, is intermittent. Closing, as it does, the spiritual interregnum, the Positive Religion will naturally put an end to the power which, owing to that interregnum, the litterateurs of the West have occupied. Hence the priesthood of Humanity should deny itself all share in an institution which it will shortly have to condemn as radically anarchical. The worship and its teaching give it opportunities, even now, as much as in the normal state, for its oral instruction on • the events of the day. Beyond general treatises, either original or for didactic purposes, the work of propagation and the application, so far as they are in writing, require only small works upon particular points, and to make them periodical would be an uncalled-for incumbrance. Thus was I led to see that the failure, after three attempts, of a project which was not

AUGUSTE COMTE O.V JOURNALISM. 5

based on rational grounds, so far from indicating an unwise indifference, was due to the secret consciousness that it was intrinsically incompatible with the spirit and object of Positivism."

" But Positivism will overcome the active with more ease than the passive resistance, and that without feeling in the one case more than in the other the want of a periodical organ. No discussion is needed to prove that religion, equally with philosophy, and on the basis of philosophy, can take a Positive character, now that the reconstruction implied in both cases is an accomplished fact. All that is necessary is that Positivism abandon, and that especially in England, the attempt to convert the class which supports the periodical press, either by its contributions or as its readers. Apart from a class which is transitional and radically hostile to the separation of the two powers, the Religion of Humanity will rally the nobler minds, whom the constant sense of the paramount importance of social objects has not hitherto led to action, solely from the absence of a guiding doctrine. The Positive system may become complete, be condensed, and draw out its conclusions, without any opposition from the men of action ; so far from it, they are waiting for it thus to qualify itself to direct the necessary close of a revolution which the lettered class everywhere tends to prolong indefinitely. It was amongst the active class that the term Positive Religion originated, my own habitual use of it being subsequent to my seeing it adopted spontaneously by eminent proletaries."

Lastly (8/A Circular, p. 78, E. Tr.). " This tendency they (the reactionists) have specially shown by their increasing support of journalism, which, itself the result of the religious interregnum, tends in its turn to perpetuate it. True Positivists alone abstain from actively employing, and even from passively supporting, an institution which is radically anarchical, appreciating the intellectual and moral havoc it makes, whilst they seek by a right use of spiritual liberty to rid the West of it."

OPPORTUNISM.

Are Positivists Opportunists ? It has been said that we are ; I hold it to be a misstatement and to involve a misdirection. It is more particularly as the latter that I notice it.

Opportunism like many other terms expressing the characteristics of sects and political parties, has a twofold application, a wider and a more restricted one. Such terms for instance are Socialism and Socialist.

In a certain sense we are all socialists. No right-thinking man would wholly disclaim a social purpose, disallow the duty of the individual to work for the good of the society to which he belongs, or deny the higher claim of the social as compared with the personal. In this very general sense we as Positivists are socialists. But we are not socialists, nor is Positivism socialism in the more restricted sense in which the term is understood and generally applied, in which it means certain special solutions of some of the social questions which are under discussion. In its admitted, usual sense it is not applicable to us, so we reject the name entirely.

So it is with Opportunists and Opportunism. There is a sense in which all sane men are Opportunists, in the general sense, that is, that they take circumstances into account and must direct their action by them. We have often to acquiesce in what we do not like, and admit as palliatives what we cannot accept in principle. But in the more restricted sense again in which the term is understood by the world around, Positivists are as little Opportunists as they are Socialists. Again we reject the name entirely. In its admitted, usual sense it is not applicable to us. No true disciple of Auguste Comte can be an opportunist. The term has its proper use in regard to political action and the conduct of statesmen. They are naturally Opportunists. Even there, however.

OPPORTUNISM. 7

what it denotes may easily be in excess. It would be difficult to deny that several of our own statesmen have suffered by such excess both in character and efficiency.

Be this as it may, opportunism and opportunist are alien to the sphere of religion. No religion, no church, is, properly speaking, opportunist. The new Religion and its Church not more than any other. It must be true to its inheritance, to the tradition of the western religions, Jewish, Christian or Islamic. Prophet or Apostle, Confessor or Martyr, Saint or religious Reformer, Monk or Pope — none of these various names savour of opportunism. We, as a religious body, as a church, have the same function as our predecessors under a difference of time and circumstances. Not any more than they can we be opportunist. A church which should be justly so characterised would be a fallen, ineffectual church. The Church of England as a state-dependent body is a case in point. Throughout its history it has been feeble as regards the higher attributes of a church, and this equally whether it has been the creature of the crown or of the aristocracy.

In more than one period of her history the medieval church was opportunist. It wore for a time the vesture of the dominant feudalism. It became feudal and military, and the ninth and tenth centuries in which it was so were a time of utter abasement. In the latter tenth and the early eleventh centuries it bowed to the ascendancy of the German power, and was in danger of continuing its corruption under a more fatal form. They were no opportunists the great Popes who shook off the yoke. The Papacy became opportunist when it removed its seat to Avignon, and again the effects were most fatal. And from them it has never recovered. It has been more or less ever since a creature of the temporal power in the interest of its own preservation. And the same may be said of the Roman Catholic church since it became subservient to the State in its several national divisions, as was said of the Church of England. It has been as weak as the English as regards all the higher attributes of a church. It has made honourable efforts to rise. It is making such an effort now. When engaged in such efforts it throws off opportunism.

8 OPPORTUNISM.

A religion proclaims its truths and bides its time, waits for acceptance, submits to temporary rejection or aversion, does not bend itself in order to secure immediate success. Positivism is a religion, the Religion of Humanity, or it is nothing. As such it is bound by the same obligations as all religions. If it swerves from them it degrades itself.

If you treat it half-heartedly, over-estimate its intellectual side, or over-estimate its political side, if you have, that is, an incomplete perception of the paramount, all-controlling, absorbing importance of the Religion in relation to the philosophy and the political construction, then there is a danger that it may assume the guise of an opportunist body. The fear of opposition and the desire to disarm it by concession, the fear of ridicule and the desire to avoid it — if we look to the effect opportunism inspired by these feelings has had upon our cause, we shall not be more disposed to view it with favour.

Avoiding as much as possible bitterness of statement, I will only say that so far as it has been admitted, it has in my judgment been very prejudicial to us. It has been so both here and in France, where it has been even more accepted than here. One definite evil result I content myself with laying my finger upon, namely, the destruction of the Occidental character of the whole movement, by making it subservient to the policy for the time considered necessary for France. In this respect we have suffered grievously from opportunism.

Neither rationally then, nor on grounds of experience, have we any reason to acquiesce in the statement that we are opportunists. There are incitements to opportunism, but they have not as yet been allowed to prevail so far as we are concerned. The appeal lies to our history.

I have spoken of the religious tradition of the Past to which we would be faithful. Our own tradition, short as it necessarily is, conforms to it. Our history in no way displays Positivism as an opportunist movement. The general judgment of outside observers does not accuse it of being so. Quite the contrary. It is objected to us that we are premature, that in some two centuries or so we shall be right, but that at present it is useless for us to expect acceptance.

OPPORTUN!S^f. i)

And, apart from any such general judgment, there is enough in all that has been said or done to exempt us from the charge.

Auguste Comte was certainly not opportunist. His most decisive step in regard to the religious movement, the step which most completely revealed his final object, was the publication of the " Catechism of the Positive Religion." Open it and read the first sentence of the Preface. It has not an opportunist character. The bold .announcement there made was never withdrawn or in any degree qualified. All his subsequent writings were marked not merely by a consistent adherence to the general principle there staled, but also by a constant advance in development of his doctrines. Nor is it beside the purpose to remark that in speaking to his intimate disciples he did not conceal his conviction that in his advance he would probably alienate by his logical developments of his doctrines many of those who had hitherto been faithful followers, that he might stand more alone than he had done. Nor was his life less free from all opportunist taint. No consequences to himself deterred him from his work. He faced starvation in his service to Humanity.

If we pass from him to his disciples, in their humbler sphere, it may be shewn that since his death those who have sought to be most true to him have not been opportunist in their action. In England certainly this is the case. " Gibraltar " was not an opportunist utterance, so little so that none assented to it when published. Nor was " India." Ten years later than " Gibraltar," there was more assent given to its teachings, and the volume on " International Policy," published in 1866, was the result of that increase of assent. It expressed the wish to give a combined support to the principles advocated in " Gibraltar." The preface to that volume, which I drew up, stated the doctrines to which the writers agreed, and it will be manifest to anyone who reads that preface that they are not the doctrines of opportunism. They " cut prejudice against the grain."

Again, such action as the English Positivists have taken in regard to special applications was for years entirely clear of opportunism, whether we regard the installation of a lo OPPORTUNISM.

direct religious worship on a small scale, or the publications in which one after another the more important events were judged. Our addresses to the ambassadors of China and Japan may be cited as entirely exonerating those who agreed to them from any charge of opportunism.

Lastly, the practice which in earlier years by a tacit agreement we adopted, and from which some have never swerved, is still that which true policy dictates. In all the solutions we offer it is always that which in our judgment is the best, the final solution that we put forward, not taking into account the question of time. I do not stop to defend the practice. I merely state it — and it will be evident that nothing can well be less opportunist.

Under whatever aspect we are judged we have then reason to disclaim the term.

GREAT BRITAIN AND BRAZIL,

THE ISLAND OF TRINIDAD,

To the Most Noble the Marquis of Salisbury. Her Maje$ty's Priticipal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

26 November, 1895.

Mv Lord,

We venture respectfully to address your Lordship on the difference which has arisen between Great Britain and Brazil in reference to the small island of Trinidad, off the coast of South America, an i^iland which Brazil claims as part of her territory'. We address your Lordship as Englishmen interested in the question whether our country is acting rightly or wrongly towards another independent State.

The island, with that of Martin \'az, was occupied in January last, under the administration of Lord Rosebery, by an English Telegraphic Company. In the month of July, the Brazilian Government on hearing of this occupation immediately remonstrated and laid before the English Envoy at Rio de Janeiro the grounds of its remonstrance. We cannot think that its allegations have been satisfactorily answered.

In the answer given our right to the island is rested on a passing occupation by a British force in 1700, an occupation which is allowed to have left no trace of itself. It is, however, treated as a taking possession of the island, and it is urged that no protest was made by Portugal. On the strength of this passing occupation the British Minister is instructed by your Lordship to state that as it is required for a Telegraph Cable Station Her Majesty's Government cannot consent to waive their right.

The Brazilian Government alleges, and supports by documents, its affirmation that, in 1724 the King of Portugal exercised sovereignty over the island (such an act is in itself a protest against the claim of Great Britain). That in the

12 GREAT BRITAIN AND BRAZIL.

year 1782 the Government of England directed the evacuation of the island by the English, who were for the time in possession of it, thus recognising the title of the Portuguese. That on the separation of the colony from Portugal in 1822 the island passed into the possession of Brazil. That since then it has been from time to time, in 1825, 1831, 1856, 1871, 1884, 1894 visited by Brazilian vessels as an unquestioned possession of the newly constituted State. That it has never been abandoned. Lastly, that the most eminent geographical authorities have recognised it as belonging to Brazil. To the authorities given at Rio we can add a German work of value, which states directly that it is a Brazilian dependency.

Neither Portugal nor Brazil then has had misgivings as to the validity of their claim. Neither seems to have had any suspicion of there being a counterclaim on the part of Great Britain.

On these considerations we would urge on your Lordship a revision of the decision announced to the Brazilian Government — a decision we think hastily taken by your predecessor and without sufficient inquiry as to the point — in whom was the sovereignty of the Island vested. We cannot think it enough to say that we want it and that we will keep it. We deprecate the disturbance of the friendly relations between England and Brazil, which must be the result if such a decision is maintained. That this result is certain we know, for we have received a very strong expression of opinion emanating from an influential and highly intelligent portion of society in Rio de Janeiro. We deprecate the dishonour to our country of our retention, on what appear to us unsatisfactory grounds, of that which is claimed by another, those claims not having been rebutted. Such action on the part of our Government would seem to us a simple assertion of superior force in undue disregard of the mutual obligations of independent countries.

We have the honour to remain, my Lord,

Yours very respectfully,

Richard Congreve.

Henry Crompton.

THE FREEDOM OF HUMANITY.

Thb Aknual Address Delivered at i

CHURCH OF HUMANITY. 19. Chapel Street, Lamb'( Conduit Street, W.C..

Onlki Ftttival ef Humanity, 105 <i January. 1893).

Introduction To The Address

With all centres of our faith, wheresoever they exist : with all its scattered disciples; with the members of all other religious organisations or beliefs, Monotheist, Polytheist, or Fetichist, all lesser distinctions being absorbed in the one bond of community of religious aim ; «-ith the whole human race; with man, that is, wherever found and in whatever condition, again all lesser distinctions being absorbed in the one bond of our common humanity; and with the animal races which, during the long effort of man to raise himself, have been, as they still are, his companions and helpers, we, on this occasion, on this Festival of Humanity, would be in conscious sympathy.

Nor with our contemporaries alone are we in sympathy, but even more with the larger portion of the race which constitutes the Past. We gratefully commemorate the services of all the generations whose labours we inherit and wish to hand down with increase to our successors. We acknowledge the sway of the Dead.

We gratefully commemorate also the services of our common Mother, the Earth, the Planet which is our home, and with her the orbs which form the Solar System, our World, We may not separate from this last commemoration that of the milieu in which we place that system, the Space which has ever been of great service to Man, and is destined to be of greater, by his wise use, as it becomes the recognised seat of abstraction, the seat of the higher laws which collectively constitute the Destiny of Man, and is introduced as such in all our intellectual and moral training.

I

H RELIGION OF HUMANITY.

From the Present and the Past we extend our sympathies to the Future, to the unborn generations which with happier lot shall follow us on this earth ; the thought of whom should be constantly present to our minds, in order to complete the conception of Humanity as revealed to man by the founder of our religion, by the full recognition of the continuity which is her noble characteristic. The memory of her greatest servant, AuGusTE CoMTE, and of his three Guardian Angels, finds a fitting place in this, her greatest Festival, consecrated as it is by its very idea to the remembrance of all her servants, known or nameless — to the remembrance of all the results they have achieved and by which they live.

Wisest and noblest of teachers ! May all of us who avow ourselves thy disciples, animated by thy example, supported by thy doctrine, guided by thy construction, face all the obstacles which indifference or hostility throws in our way, and in the midst of this revolutionary age, undebased by any hope of reward, undeterred by any ill-success of our efforts, in a spirit of submissive veneration carry forward the great work to which thy life was devoted — the work of human regeneration by and through the systematic Worship of Humanity.

Now, as on similar occasions, our thought turns with most especial interest to those who completely share in our effort, who are heartily with us in the spiritual communion of the Faith and Hope and Love of Humanity, as also in the sincere discipleship of a common Master, in obedience to Auguste Comte. Each added year adds a charm to the associations of such communion, makes more sacred the membership in one religious body. With the years also grows the determination to put forward, to carry to its utmost attainable limit, the religious character of that body, and under the guidance we inherit to form the germ of the church in which men shall in all simplicity and without reserve worship Humanity. The sense of our community flows in upon us and out from us with a strong reciprocal support, and it is in its light that we call up before us the

RETROSPECT OF MEMORIES. 15

several meetings which are held to-day, animated by the same spirit as that which animates us — Paris. Calcutta, Kio de Janeiro, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leicester. From some I am charged to convey to you their feeling of fraternal community- From all I can safely assume the same, if accidentally their expressed wish has not reached me.

Again the year on which we look back has been unmarked by any striking event in the general European life. It has rather been a year of memories, of the associations with great events of former days, a year in which our thoughts have recurred much to the past. We have kept in it the centenary of the final destruction of the old French monarchy, of the proclamation by the National Convention of the Republic which is its definitive successor. Another anniversary of interest to the whole West was the quatercentenary in October of the discoverj- of America by Columbus. It brought before us, together with a tribute of honour to a great man, the industrial and political changes dependent on that discovery. Thirdly, in the sphere of opinion, as distinct from that of political or industrial action, the commemoration of a great poet has occupied us. At first sight there is a disparity between the centenary of Shelley and the two others. Yet each has its own importance, no one of the three need be effaced. We do not under-estimate the importance attaching to the adoption of the Republic by the central nation of Europe, We do not under-estimate the achievement of Columbus. But Shelley's memory is connected with great changes in the innermost centre of human existence, with the silent advance of opinion towards a new religious attitude, a more constructive thought. Our function being so to direct opinion as to forward religious construction, it is with such movements that we are concerned as determining ultimately all the more superficial changes.

But the year does not leave exclusively a retrospect of memories. There is more to be said. What I said last year needs, however, on the whole, so little alteration that I may pass lightly over the general condition of the Western World, only noticing any fresh point of interest.

The questions are the same, the disunion is the same, the prospect is as uncertain as ever. In the first Annual Address delivered in this room twenty-two years ago, when I was estimating the results of the then doubtful victory of Prussia, I said that no nation of Europe but would arm to its full power. We know the efforts of the greater Powers, what they have been, what they continue to be. The armies of Europe are a visible thing. But the evil extends beyond the greater Powers. For instance : in the past year we have seen Sweden, a power which might seem exempted by its position, driven to share in the common strain, in view of possible contingencies.