The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction to the Liberty Fund Edition
• Editor’s Note
• Preface to the First Edition
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Lecture I: The Relation Between Law and Public Opinion
• Lecture II: Characteristics of Law-making Opinion In England
• Lecture III: Democracy and Legislation
• Lecture IV: The Three Main Currents of Public Opinion
• I.: The Period of Old Toryism Or Legislative Quiescence (1800–1830) 1
• II.: The Period of Benthamism Or Individualism (1825–1870) 3
• III.: Period of Collectivism (1865–1900) 5
• Lecture V: The Period of Old Toryism Or Legislative Quiescence (1800–1830)
• (a): State of Opinion (1760–1830)
• (b): Absence of Changes In the Law
• (c): Why Considerable Changes Took Place During the Period of Quiescence
• (d): Close of the Period of Quiescence
• Lecture VI: The Period of Benthamism Or Individualism 1
• (a): Benthamite Ideas As to the Reform of the Law
• (b): the Acceptance of Benthamism
• (c): the Trend and Tendency of Benthamite Legislation
• Lecture VII: The Growth of Collectivism
• Tory Philanthropy and the Factory Movement
• Changed Attitude of the Working Classes
• Modification In Economic and Social Beliefs
• Characteristics of Modern Commerce
• Introduction of Household Suffrage, 1868–1884
• Lecture VIII: The Period of Collectivism
• (a): Principles of Collectivism
• (b): Trend of Collectivist Legislation
• Lecture IX: The Debt of Collectivism to Benthamism
• Lecture X: Counter-currents and Cross-currents of Legislative Opinion
• A.: the Course of Legislative Opinion
• B.: the Actual Course of Ecclesiastical Legislation
• Lecture XI: Judicial Legislation
• I.: The Special Characteristics of Judicial Legislation In Relation to Public Opinion
• II.: The Effect of Judge-made Law On Parliamentary Legislation
• Lecture XII: Relation Between Legislative Opinion and General Public Opinion
• I.: As to Analogous Changes of Opinion In Different Spheres and Also In the Lives of Individuals.
• II.: As to the Dependence of Legislative Opinion On the General Tendencies of English Thought.
• Appendix
• Note I.: The Right of Association
• Note II.: The Ecclesiastical Commission
• Note III.: University Tests
• Note IV.: Judge-made Law
• Note V.: Proposed Collectivist Legislation of 1905 *
• Introduction to the Second Edition

Preface to the Second Edition

the body of this work is a second edition, or a corrected reprint of the first edition, of my treatise on Law and Public Opinion in England during the Nineteenth Century. It is accompanied by a new Introduction, the object of which is to trace and to comment upon the rapid changes in English law and in English legislative opinion which have marked the early years of the twentieth century. In the attempt to perform a somewhat difficult task I have been much assisted by aid from many friends. Acknowledgments for such help are specially due to Professor Geldart, my successor as Vinerian Professor of English Law in the University of Oxford; to Professor Kenny, of Cambridge; and to Mr. A. B. Keith, of the Colonial Office. Nor can I omit to mention suggestions as to alterations in the modern law of France made to me by and also derived from the writings of Professor Duguit, and Professor Jéze. More information about recent French enactments than I have been able to use in a treatise which touches only incidentally on French law, has been obtained for me by my friend, Mr. André Colanéri, who has carefully examined recent French legislation in so far as it illustrates the development of socialistic ideas.

A. V. DICEY.

Oxford, 1914.

LECTURES

ON

THE RELATION BETWEEN

LAW & PUBLIC OPINION

IN ENGLAND

DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

BY

A. V. DICEY, K.C., Hon. D.C.L.

of the inner temple; formerly vinerian professor of english law

fellow of all souls college, oxford; hon. ll.d. cambridge, glasgow, and edinburgh

author of ‘introduction to the study of the law of the constitution’

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON

1917

AS A MEMORIAL

OF A HAPPY VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES

THESE LECTURES ARE DEDICATED

TO

C. W. ELIOT

PRESIDENT EMERITUS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY

WHO SUGGESTED THEIR DELIVERY

AND TO THE

PROFESSORS OF THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

WHOSE FRIENDLY RECEPTION ENCOURAGED THEIR PUBLICATION