ffrage in 1884
tended for some years to arrest the development of liberty in various
directions. On what theory does the principle of popular sovereignty
rest, and within what limits does it hold good? Is it a part of the
general principles of liberty and equality, or are other ideas involved?
These are among the questions which we shall have to examine.

We have now passed the main phases of the Liberal movement in very
summary review, and we have noted, first, that it is co-extensive with
life. It is concerned with the individual, the family, the State. It
touches industry, law, religion, ethics. It would not be difficult, if
space allowed, to illustrate its influence in literature and art, to
describe the war with convention, insincerity, and patronage, and the
struggle for free self-expression, for reality, for the artist's soul.
Liberalism is an all-penetrating element of the life-structure of the
modern world. Secondly, it is an effective historical force. If its work
is nowhere complete, it is almost everywhere in progress. The modern
State as we see it in Europe outside Russia, in the British colonies, in
North and South America, as we begin to see it in the Russian empire and
throughout the vast continent of Asia, is the old authoritarian society
modified in greater or less degree by the absorption of Liberal
principles. Turning, thirdly, to those principles themselves, we have
recognized Liberalism in every department as a movement fairly denoted
by the name--a movement of liberation, a clearance of obstructions, an
opening of channels for the flow of free spontaneous vital activity.
Fourthly, we have seen that in a large number of cases what is under one
aspect a movement for liberty is on another side a movement towards
equality, and the habitual association of these principles is so far
confirmed. On the other hand, lastly, we have seen numerous cases in
which the exacter definition of liberty and the precise meaning of
equality remain obscure, and to discuss these will be our task. We have,
moreover, admittedly regarded Liberalism mainly in its earlier and more
negative aspect. We have seen it as a force working within an old
society and modifying it by the loosening of the bonds which its
structure imposed on human activity. We have yet to ask what
constructive social scheme, if any, could be formed on Liberal
principles; and it is here, if at all, that the fuller meaning of the
principles of Liberty and