ts best results; and
amongst them, to secure the greatest amount of such individual exertion.
We know the restraint that must exist upon all, if all are to enjoy equal
freedom. The freedom of one is not to be a terror to another. Law is
based upon this obvious principle. But there are other circumstances
also, in which individuals will find support and comfort in the general
freedom being circumscribed by some interference on the part of the state
or other bodies. Such a case occurs when the great majority of some
class of private individuals would willingly submit to wise regulations
for the general good, but cannot do so without great sacrifice, because
of the selfish recusancy of some few amongst them. Here is a juncture at
which the State might interfere to enable individuals to carry out their
benevolent intentions. But one of the main reasons for some degree of
interference from the State or other authorized bodies, in matters
connected with our present subject, is that, otherwise, the
responsibilities of individuals would be left overwhelming. It is to be
remembered by those who would restrain such interference within the
narrowest possible bounds, that they by so much increase individual
responsibility. Responsibility can, happily, by no scheme, be made to
vanish. Wherever a signal evil exists, a duty lies somewhere to attack
it. Suppose a district, for instance, in which the state of mortality is
excessive, a mortality clearly traceable to the want of sanitary
regulations. In a despotic government it may be enough to mention this
to the central body. In a free state, where the duties of a citizen come
in, more is required from the individual; and if there is no fit body of
any kind to appeal to in such a case, the burden lies upon all men
acquainted with the facts, to endeavour conjointly, or separately, to
remove the evil. While, on the one hand, we must beware of introducing
such interference, whether coming from the State or other bodies, as
might paralyse individual exertion, we must at the same time remember
that the weight to be removed may be left overwhelmingly disproportionate
to individual effort, or even to conjoint effort, if unauthorized, both
of which may thus be stiffened by despair into inaction.

In the instance we have just been considering, we must not say that the
people immediately interested in removing the evil will do so themselves.
It is part of the hypothesis that they will