But his
restraint refers to the future, which his doctors, keepers, and wardens
have yet to investigate. The simple result will be that, in the
scientific Utopia of the "Clarion," men like Mann or Syme or Larkin will
not be put in prison because of what they have done. They will be kept in
prison because of what they might do. Indeed, the builders of the new
tyranny have already come very near to avowing this scientific and
futurist method. When the lawyers tried to stop the "Suffragette" from
appearing at all, they practically said: "We do not know your next week's
crime, because it isn't committed yet; but we are scientifically certain
you have the criminal type. And by the sublime and unalterable laws of
heredity, all your poor little papers will inherit it."
This is a purely practical question; and that is why I insist on it, even
in such strenuous times. The writers on the "Clarion" have a perfect
right to think Christianity is the foe of freedom, or even that the
stupidity and tyranny of the present Government is due to the monkish
mysticism of Lord Morley and Mr. John M. Robertson. They have a right to
think the theory of Determinism as true as Calvin thought it. But I do
not like seeing them walk straight into the enormous iron trap set open by
the Capitalists, who find it convenient to make our law even more lawless
than it is.
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