to the national unity, and a grave danger to the very
existence of the State. We have in our midst at the present day--to
mention only the leading specimens--Ritualists who refuse to obey
judgments of the Privy Council, or to heed injunctions issued by bishops
appointed by the Crown; Anti-Vivisectionists who resist regulations
regarded as essential by the health authorities; Undenominationalists
who decline to pay rates necessary to maintain the system of education
established by law; Christian Scientists whose criminal neglect in the
case of dangerous diseases not only renders them guilty of homicide, but
also imperils the welfare of the whole community; Suffragists who defy
all law comprehensively, on the ground that the legislature from which
it emanates is not constituted as they think it ought to be; Trade
Unionists who combine to stultify any Act of Parliament which conflicts
with the rules of their own organizations; and finally, a
No-Conscription Fellowship whose members expressly "deny the right of
Government to say, 'You _shall_ bear arms,'" and threaten to "oppose
every effort to introduce compulsory military service into Great
Britain."[42] Here is a pretty collection of aliens from the
commonwealth! It contains examples of almost every variety of
anti-social eccentricity. So diverse and conflicting are the types of
passive resistance represented that there is only one thing that can be
predicated of all the members of all the groups, and it is this--that
they are rebels.

FOOTNOTE:

[42] No-Conscription Manifesto printed in full in the _Morning Post_,
May 31st, 1915.

II. PASSIVE RESISTANCE AS REBELLION

The essential preliminary to any useful discussion of passive resistance
is the clear recognition of the fact that it is rebellion, and nothing
less. To say, or admit, this is not necessarily to condemn it; for there
are few persons to-day, I suppose, who would contend that rebellion is
never justifiable. All it asserts is that passive resistance has to be
judged by the same measures and according to the same standards as any
other kind of revolt against constituted political authority. It is all
the more needful to make this plain because some of the milder but more
muddled among the resisters try to shut their eyes to the fact that they
are rebels. They claim to be sheep and not goats. They call themselves
Socialists; they profess an abnormal loyalty to the idea of the State;
they protest the