THE PROPER OFFICES OF THE BISHOP AND DUKE; OR, "OVERSEER" AND
"LEADER."
_March 21, 1867._
69. I see, by your last letter, for which I heartily thank you, that
you would not sympathize with me in my sorrow for the desertion of his
own work by George Cruikshank, that he may fight in the front of the
temperance ranks. But you do not know what work he has left undone,
nor how much richer inheritance you might have received from his hand.
It was no more _his_ business to etch diagrams of drunkenness than it
is mine at this moment to be writing these letters against anarchy. It
is "the first mild day of March" (high time, I think, that it should
be!), and by rights I ought to be out among the budding banks and
hedges, outlining sprays of hawthorn and clusters of primrose. That is
_my_ right work; and it is not, in the inner gist and truth of it,
right nor good, for you, or for anybody else, that Cruikshank with his
great gift, and I with my weak, but yet thoroughly clear and definite
one, should both of us be tormented by agony of indignation and
compassion, till we are forced to give up our peace, and pleasure, and
power; and rush down into the streets and lanes of the city, to do the
little that is in the strength of our single hands against their
uncleanliness and iniquity. But, as in a sorely besieged town, every
man must to the ramparts, whatsoever business he leaves, so neither he
nor I have had any choice but to leave our household stuff, and go on
crusade, such as we are called to; not that I mean, if Fate may be
anywise resisted, to give up the strength of my life, as he has given
his; for I think he was wrong in doing so; and that he should only
have carried the fiery cross his appointed leagues, and then given it
to another hand; and, for my own part, I mean these very letters to
close my political work for many a day; and I write them, not in any
hope of their being at present listened to, but to disburthen my heart
of the witness I have to bear, that I may be free to go back to my
garden lawns, and paint birds and flowers there.
70. For these same statutes which we are to consider to-day, have
indeed been in my mind now these fourteen years, ever since I wrote
the last volume of the 'Stones of Venice,' in which you will find, in
the long note on Modern Education, most of what I have been now in
detail writing to you, hinted in abstract; and, at the close of it,
this sentence, of which I solemnly now avouch (in thankfulness that I
was permitted to write it), every word: "Finally, I hold it for
indisputable, that the first duty of a State is to see that every
child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed, and educated,
till it attain years of discretion. But in order to the effecting this
the Government must have an authority over the people of which we now
do not so much as dream."
That authority I did not then endeavor to define, for I knew all such
assertions would be useless, and that the necessarily resultant outcry
would merely diminish my influence in other directions. But now I do
not care about influence any more, it being only my concern to say
truly that which I know, and, if it may be, get some quiet life, yet,
among the fields in the evening shadow.
71. There is, I suppose, no word which men are prouder of the right to
attach to their names, or more envious of others who bear it, when
they themselves may not, than the word "noble." Do you know what it
originally meant, and always, in the right use of it, means? It means
a "known" person; one who has risen far enough above others to draw
men's eyes to him, and to be known (honorably) for such and such an
one. "Ignoble," on the other hand, is derived from the same root as
the word "ignorance." It means an unknown, inglorious person. And no
more singular follies have been committed by weak human creatures than
those which have been caused by the instinct, pure and simple, of
escaping from this obscurity. Instinct, which, corrupted, will
hesitate at no means, good or evil, of satisfying itself with
notoriety--instinct, nevertheless, which, like all other natural ones,
has a true and pure purpose, and ought always in a worthy way to be
satisfied.
All men ought to be in this sense "noble"; known of each other, and
desiring to be known. And the first law which a nation, desiring to
conquer all the devices of the Father of Lies, should establish among
its people, is that they _shall_ be so known.
72. Will you please now read Sec. 22 of 'Sesame and Lilies'? The
reviewers in the ecclesiastical journals laughed at it, as a rhapsody,
when the book came out; none having the slightest notion of what I
meant: (nor, indeed, do I well see how it could be otherwise!).
Nevertheless, I meant precisely and literally what is there said,
namely, that a bishop's duty being to watch over the souls of his
people, and _give_ account of every one of them, it becomes
practically necessary for him first to _get_ some account of their
bodies. Which he was wont to do in the early days of Christianity by
help of a person called "deacon" or "ministering servant," whose name
is still retained among preliminary ecclesiastical dignities, vainly
enough! Putting, however, all questions of forms and names aside, the
thing actually needing to be done is this--that over every hundred
(more or less) of the families composing a Christian State, there
should be appointed an overseer, or bishop, to render account, to the
State, of the life of every individual in those families; and to have
care both of their interest and conduct to such an extent as they may
be willing to admit, or as their faults may justify: so that it may be
impossible for any person, however humble, to suffer from unknown
want, or live in unrecognized crime;--such help and observance being
rendered without officiousness either of interference or inquisition
(the limits of both being determined by national law), but with the
patient and gentle watchfulness which true Christian pastors now
exercise over their flocks; only with a higher legal authority
presently to be defined, of interference on due occasion.
And with this farther function, that such overseers shall be not only
the pastors, but the biographers, of their people; a written statement
of the principal events in the life of each family being annually
required to be rendered by them to a superior State Officer. These
records, laid up in public offices, would soon furnish indications of
the families whom it would be advantageous to the nation to advance in
position, or distinguish with honor, and aid by such reward as it
should be the object of every Government to distribute no less
punctually, and far more frankly, than it distributes punishment:
(compare 'Munera Pulveris,' Essay IV., in paragraph on Critic Law),
while the mere fact of permanent record being kept of every event of
importance, whether disgraceful or worthy of praise, in each family,
would of itself be a deterrent from crime, and a stimulant to
well-deserving conduct, far beyond mere punishment or reward.
73. Nor need you think that there would be anything in such a system
un-English, or tending to espionage. No uninvited visits should ever
be made in any house, unless law had been violated; nothing recorded,
against its will, of any family, but what was inevitably known of its
publicly visible conduct, and the results of that conduct. What else
was written should be only by the desire, and from the communications,
of its head. And in a little while it would come to be felt that the
true history of a nation was indeed not of its wars, but of its
households; and the desire of men would rather be to obtain some
conspicuous place in these honorable annals, than to shrink behind
closed shutters from public sight. Until at last, George Herbert's
grand word of command would hold not only on the conscience, but the
actual system and outer economy of life,
"Think the King sees thee still, for _his_ King does."
74. Secondly, above these bishops or pastors, who are only to be
occupied in offices of familiar supervision and help, should be
appointed higher officers of State, having executive authority over as
large districts as might be conveniently (according to the number and
circumstances of their inhabitants) committed to their care; officers
who, according to the reports of the pastors, should enforce or
mitigate the operation of too rigid general law, and determine
measures exceptionally necessary for public advantage. For instance,
the general law being that all children of the operative classes, at a
certain age, should be sent to public schools, these superior officers
should have power, on the report of the pastors, to dispense with the
attendance of children who had sick parents to take charge of, or
whose home-life seemed to be one of better advantage for them than
that of the common schools; or who, for any other like cause, might
justifiably claim remission. And it being the general law that the
entire body of the public should contribute to the cost, and divide
the profits, of all necessary public works and undertakings, as roads,
mines, harbor protections, and the like, and that nothing of this kind
should be permitted to be in the hands of private speculators, it
should be the duty of the district officer to collect whatever
information was accessible respecting such sources of public profit;
and to represent the circumstances in Parliament: and then, with
Parliamentary authority, but on his own sole personal responsibility,
to see that such enterprises were conducted honestly and with due
energy and order.
The appointment to both these offices should be by election, and for
life; by what forms of election shall be matter of inquiry, after we
have determined some others of the necessary constitutional laws.
75. I do not doubt but that you are already beginning to think it was
with good reason I held my peace these fourteen years,--and that, for
any good likely to be done by speaking, I might as well have held it
altogether!
It may be so: but merely to complete and explain my own work, it is
necessary that I should say these things finally; and I believe that
the imminent danger to which we are now in England exposed by the
gradually accelerated fall of our aristocracy (wholly their own
fault), and the substitution of money-power for their martial one; and
by the correspondingly imminent prevalence of mob violence here, as in
America; together with the continually increasing chances of insane
war, founded on popular passion, whether of pride, fear, or
acquisitiveness,--all these dangers being further darkened and
degraded by the monstrous forms of vice and selfishness which the
appliances of recent wealth, and of vulgar mechanical art, make
possible to the million,--will soon bring us into a condition in which
men will be glad to listen to almost any words but those of a
demagogue, and to seek any means of safety rather than those in which
they have lately trusted. So, with your good leave, I will say my say
to the end, mock at it who may.
P.S.--I take due note of the regulations of trade proposed in your
letter just received[A]--all excellent. I shall come to them
presently, "Cash payment" above all. You may write that on your
trade-banners in letters of gold, wherever you would have them raised
victoriously.
[A] Appendix 6.