J. S. Mill and the World of Nations
KOHN, HANS
J. S. Mill and the World of Nations Empire and Commonwealth; Self-Determination and Union By Hans Kohn 2. THOUGH Mill rejected the absolute abdication of the principle of national...
...Whether all the answers he attempted will stand the test of time only the future can show...
...Nor does the multiplication of sovereignties by national independence seem advisable in an age which demands ever higher forms of integration...
...evitable expansion of her own principles, spread the ideat of freedom and self-government...
...A war between Great Britain and the United States, were such a calamity possible, would give a new lease to tyranny and bigotry wherever they exist, and would throw back the progress of mankind for generations...
...ganization...
...Liberty provokes diversity, and diversity preserve* liberty by supplying the means of...
...Self-Determination and Union By Hans Kohn 2. THOUGH Mill rejected the absolute abdication of the principle of national self-determination, he can be regarded as one of the fathers of this modern ductsine...
...he wrote...
...But though Mill, writing between 1848 and 1871, could not foresee the implications of national self-determination for liberty and peace, his own thoughts on liberty could lead to the conclusion that a state comprising several nationalities offered from the point of view of liberty a healthier diversity and leu danger of an oppressive uniformity ot public opinion The identification of state and nationality it the desire of a historical period, nothing inherent in the eternal nature of man or society...
...in an independent nation citizens may be subject to a despotism which disregards the rights ot the individual and the elementary humsn freedoms...
...If we take the establishment of liberty for the realization of moral duties Jo be the end of civil society, we must conch de that those states are substantially the most pc feet which include various distinct nationalities without oppressing them...
...Nor hat the independence of nationalities increased mutual benevolence or shown itself to be necessarily a factor conducive ? peace...
...A aalienality which is the etate inclines towards the abaolutiiatiea of the sovereign will...
...For these reasons Mill wrote in 1870: "For my own part I think a severance of the empire would be no advantage, but the contrary, to the world in general, and to England in particular...
...At present there is less certainty whether the achievements of the English-speaking peoples of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries— the dignity of the individual and the free state—will become the lasting foundation of universal civilization as the nineteenth-century believed...
...8. To the liberal mind progress in the future seems based not on national independence and sovereignty but on a growing combination of the principles of individual liberty and federal self-government...
...In these fields the institutions of Britain and of the United States point the way Mill wished to apply both principles to the consolidation of the British Umpire, for the maintenance of which he believed that there were strong reasons...
...Let me remind you that what you say about the grasping disposition and aggressive spirit of the English, it exactly and literally what the ignorant and prejudiced part of the higher and middle classes of Great Britain sincerely think and say concerning America...
...The transformation ef the empire towards a loose federation based on self-government, bread tolerance of diversities, respect for individual liberty, and equality of justice and con-Hideration—a process which began in Mill's time and since has progressed far—was welcomed by him...
...The growing realization of tb.-principle of individual liberty and federative self-government over vast areas sets an example: it may help to promote wider unions and to overcome everywhere the growing tension between national and wider interests, a tension dangerous alike to the causes of peace and of human liberty...
...but the profound ignorance of each of hi ? which it exhibits in both countries, it t most serious danger to the world, which all who with well to mankind must esrnestly desire to cure, and which ran only be aggravated by the indulgence of such feelings at you express...
...But they'cannot form the basis of the state because they t'-nd to sacrifice the true aims of the state, liberty and prosperity, to the necessity of making the nation the mould and measure of the state...
...it was Ihe most potan* ferment of regeneration...
...The idea of liberty and law which England brought to the less advanced parts of her empire contrasted sharply with the habits and customs pre veiling there and became a model in influencing and invigorating the dependent communities...
...They began to judge themselves by this new ideal, they absorbed it and were transformed under its guidance...
...The combination of different nations in one stale is as necessary a condition <>l civilized life as the combination of men in society...
...With his experience in the adminlstrstion of dependencies he knew all the enormous difficulties of the task which he regarded as * high moral trust...
...It protects its members "frcm being sbsorbed Into a foreign state, and becoming a source of additional aggressive strength lo some rival power, even more despotic or closer at hand, than Britain...
...It is a step, aa far as it goes, towards universal peace and general friendly cooperation among nations...
...Mill himself rightly pointed out that "whatever really tends to the admixture of nationalities, and the blending of their attributes and peculiarities in a common union, is a benefit to the human race..., Nobody can suppose that it is not more beneficial to a Breton, to be brought into the current of the ideaa of a highly civilized people—to be a member of the French nationality, sharing the advantages of French protection, and the dignity and prestige of French power— than to sulk on hit own rockt...
...In neither of the two cases is the accusation true...
...The struggle for national independence leads easily to a stress upon exclusive features and rights, to a passionate appeal to the past and to praise of true or actions national glories and concerns, to the disregard of the claims of individuality and of those of humanity alike...
...He lived before it became evident how the fight for national independence tends to eeesume all energies and to divert them front the struggle for human liberty, hew nations after having gained their independence often do not use it to foster liberty nor to respect the independence and liberties of other men and groups...
...The progressive state is not a tribal community, but a society based en reason and law, an association of spiritual loyalty...
...The ferment of liberal policy worked faster than many expected...
...He underestimated the power of "the memory of the past" over rational considerations...
...England is to the population* ef Kurope the representative, by »¦» meant perfect but still the representative, of the same principles of social tnd political freedom which Americana no Justly cherish Any weakening ef her influence weald be simply ho much additional discouragement to popular institutions and to liberty <>' thought, speech, and action throughout the old continent, and strengthen ing of the hands of despotism all over Ihe world...
...The coexistence of several nations under the same state is a test, as well as the beet security of its freedom...
...The empire "has the advantage, especially valuable at the present time, of adding to the moral influence, and wtight in the councils of the world, of the power" which, whatever its grievous errors in the past, has stood for liberty...
...Nationalities, like families or communes, should be the foundation of self-government and of all the guarantees of liberty which that imajjes against the possible tyranny of the state...
...TllE burning question of Mill's day — individual liberty and national independence, the justification of war and of intervention, the ever-growing need for peace and social reform—are still with us...
...It is a first barrier against the intrusion of the government beyond the political sphere which is common to all into those departments which escape legislation...
...a state which does not include them is destitute of the chief bases of self-government...
...There is no use to disregard wishfully the immense driving power of these wills over many minds snd hearts, but should these tendencies be consciously encouraged by praise and propaganda or rather controlled and checked in the Interests of humsn liberty and peaceful progress ? In a liberal multi-racial state or empire citizens may be free and their human dignity safeguarded by law...
...There are in this sge of the world few more important problema than ho-v to organize this rule so aa to make it a good instead of an evil to the subject people...
...State and nationality belong to two different orders ef things...
...Nothing seems more important than the clarification of the current misunderstandings of national in.b prudence and human freedom...
...He believed that "it is in general a necessary condition of free institutions that the boundaries of governments should coincide in the main with those of nationalities,'' His critical penetration did not 'warn him of the great dangers which aelf-determination based on nationality might involve for human liberty...
...The existence of national feeling, of the love of and a pride in a national culture, need not conflict, and may indeed strengthen, the sense of membership in a wider commonwealth...
...The free state must be able not only to tolerate but to welcome differences and to do justice to the peculiar character of various races...
...it-has rather lent greater emotional warmth to the appeal of war anil intensified appetites and hatreds...
...What Mill proposed, has since become the common policy of Britain...
...The words which Mill addressed eighty years ago to a correspondent in Southport, Connecticut, aeem worth recalling: "Mo one disapproves more than I do of the narrow patriotism of former ages, which made thj g od of the whole human race a subordinate consideration to the good of the cruntry cf one's birth...
...England, by the Inherent and in...
...It ia in the cauldron ef the state that the fusion takes place by which the vigor, the knowledge, and the capacity of one portion ef mankind may be communicated to another...
...a state which labors to neutralise, to absorb, or to expel them, destroys its own vitality...
...In a multi-national , state which believes in liberty, an attempted excessive centralization would be destructive of the state itself while liberty could achieve its most glorious results...
...nationality, on the other hand, it a fact of aentimental na-tata which subjects the state to its own needs and tries to bind men in a close collective will to which every other in-Buenre mutt defer...
...Millenary traditioni of human degradation, of hideous superstition, of cruel oppression began to give way...
...As the will-to-power is an inherent element in human history, so the will to national independence is a potent moving factor in modern history...
...In identifying nationality and state and demanding the right to independence for the nation-state, he expressed in a famous chapter of, hi* "Considerations on Representative Government" the prevalent opinion of nineteenth century liberalism which so atreagly influenced Woodrow Wilson...
...Mill could have added that the French nationality of Bretons like Lamennais, Re-nan or Clemenceau wat not only of benefit to them but to France and mankind...
...Intolerance is sure to find a corrective in the national diversities...
...and though I would have the colonies understand that England would not oppose a deliberate wish on their part to separate, I would do nothing to- encourage that wish...
...a nationality within a multi-national atate based on freedom efficiently counteracts the tendencies of absolutism...
...Mill hoped that with the disgrace of atrocious misgovernmcnt removed, the Irish would not be insensible to the benefits of connection with England...
...Mill's contemporary...
...It is also one of the chief instruments of civilization, and indicates a state of greater advancement than national unity...
...Lord Acton, eteerly foresaw the danger that a elate which identifies itself with one definite siegle object, be it one nationality er estf class, teada to become absolute...
...The task of the empire became—to ate the words of the Montagu-Chelmsford Report on Constitutional Reforms in India in 1918—"a common realization of the ends for which it exitts, the mtintenance of peace and order over wide tpaces of territory, the maintenance of freedom and the development of the culture of each national unity of which the empire Is composed...
...A state which is incompetent to satisfy different races condemns itself...
Vol. 28 • September 1945 • No. 37
