The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Foreword
• Editor’s Note
• Preface to the First Edition
• Chapter One: the Doctrine of Liberty In General
• Chapter Two: On the Liberty of Thought and Discussion
• Chapter Three: On the Distinction Between the Temporal and Spiritual Power
• Chapter Four: the Doctrine of Liberty In Its Application to Morals
• Chapter Five: Equality
• Chapter Six: Fraternity
• Chapter Seven: Conclusion
• Note On Utilitarianism
• Preface to the Second Edition

EDITOR’S NOTE

The copytext for this edition of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity is the second edition of 1874, published by Smith, Elder, & Co. In a small number of cases, I compared the second edition to the first edition of 1873.

I have made several changes in the text. I have moved Stephen’s “Preface to the Second Edition” to follow the text. This preface is a lengthy reply to two critics of the first edition of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and, since the text of the second edition is virtually identical to that of the first, this preface is best positioned following the text itself.

Stephen’s quotations from Mill are not always accurate. I have corrected these. I have silently made the change for punctuation and when Stephen has accidentally substituted a synonym; I have noted the cases in which there are more substantial differences.

All of Stephen’s footnotes are indicated as in the 1874 edition by an asterisk; editor’s footnotes are indicated by a number. These notes have been kept to a minimum, typically directing the reader to something else Stephen has written that illuminates the matter at hand. Material within brackets is in all cases my addition. Material within braces is Stephen’s addition.

I have silently modernized Stephen’s punctuation. In most cases this involved omitting one punctuation mark where two appeared together (for example, omitting a dash when it immediately followed a colon). Also, Stephen sometimes fails to place his mention of a word in single quotation marks, and I have silently added these marks (for example, I added single quotation marks in this phrase: “the words ‘temporal’ and ‘spiritual’ ”). I have also modernized the language to a certain extent—for example, transforming “any one” to “anyone,” “to-morrow” to “tomorrow,” and so on.

I have been aided in this project by conversations with Timothy Fuller, Gilbert Goldman, Emilio Pacheco, and, most especially, Inger Thomsen. I dedicate this book, with incalculable gratitude, to Harold Trueman Walsh.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

WORKS OF JAMES FITZJAMES STEPHEN

• Essays by a Barrister. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1862.
• Defence of the Rev. Rowland Williams, D.D., in the Arches Court of Canterbury. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1862.
• A General View of the Criminal Law. London: Macmillan & Co., 1863; 2nd ed., 1890.
• Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1873; 2nd ed., 1874.
• A Digest of the Law of Evidence. London: Macmillan and Co., 1874; 4th ed., 1893.
• A Digest of the Criminal Law. London: Macmillan & Co., 1877; 5th ed., 1894.
• A Digest of the Law of Criminal Procedure in Indictable Offences. London: Macmillan, 1883.
• A History of the Criminal Law of England. 3 vols. London: Macmillan and Co., 1883.
• The Story of Nuncomar and the Impeachment of Sir Elijah Impey. 2 vols. London: Macmillan & Co., 1885.
• Horae Sabbaticae. 3 vols. London: Macmillan & Co., 1892.

SELECTED SECONDARY WRITINGS

• Colaiaco, J. A. James Fitzjames Stephen and the Crisis of Victorian Thought. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983.
• Collini, Stefan. Public Moralists: Political Thought and Intellectual Life in Britain 1850–1930. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
• Cranston, Maurice. Political Dialogues. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1968.
• Kirk, Russell. The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Santayana. Chicago: Henry Regnery & Co., 1953.
• Lippincott, B. E. Victorian Critics of Democracy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1938.
• Radzinowicz, Leon. Sir James Fitzjames Stephen (1829–1894) and His Contribution to the Development of Criminal Law. Seldon Society Lecture. London: Seldon Society, 1957.**

  These works should be consulted for an extensive bibliography of Stephen’s periodical writings.

• Roach, John. “Liberalism and the Victorian Intelligentsia.” The Cambridge Historical Journal 13 (1957):58–81.
• Smith, K. J. M. James Fitzjames Stephen: Portrait of a Victorian Rationalist. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
• Stephen, Leslie. The Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1895.
• White, R. J., ed., Introduction to Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, by James Fitzjames Stephen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967.