4. Early Philosophical It might be thought that the economic liberals had attained unto the most perfect apotheosis of the individual, but another contemporary school exceeded them in this respect, namely, the earliest philosophical anarchists. The economic liberals proposed to retain the state for at least the function or preserving life and protecting property, but the anarchists declared for the total abolition of the state and all coercive juristic institutions. The first of this group was William Godwin (1756-1836), whose 'In quiry Concerning Political Justice' (1793) was probably the best example of the adoption of the extreme notions of the French Revolution by an English social philosopher. He held that all evils in society result from the detri mental effect of coercive human institutions. He proposed that all collective organizations larger than the parish should be abolished; that the unequal distribution of wealth should be done away with; that the institution of marriage should be wiped out; that mankind should be free from everything save the moral censure of their associates and thereby made ready for their ultimate perfection through the influence of reason. Proudhon inveighed mightily against the state which he regarded as wholly an institution for exploitation and op pression. His ideal society was to be founded upon that combination which may be created in metaphysics, but which has never yet been realized as a practical condition, namely, °the union of order and anarchy." He believed that if the obligations of contract could be en forced society would function perfectly, but he scarcely comprehended that until human nature has reached a higher state of perfection there can be no certain enforcement of con tractual obligations without the force of the law behind them. While both Godwin and Proudhon had rejected the utility of the state they had stressed the importance of society— of the concept of humanity. It was left for Max Stirner (1805-56) in his 'The Ego and His Own' (1844) to exalt the individual above even humanity and society, to assert that the individual constitutes the only extant reality, to maintain that the only limitation upon the rights of the individual is his power to obtain what he desires, and to contend that °the only right is might." While these early anarchists were guilty of many excesses of statement and offered no well-reasoned substitute for the state which they proposed to destroy, they did per form a real service in insisting that the state, as long as it was undemocratized, was un justly oppressive and a legitimate object for the suspicion of those who were excluded from participation in it.
5. The Political Revolutions of In the winter and spring of 1848 the masses throughout central, southern and western Eu rope rose in the attempt to secure for them selves freedom from oppression through par ticipation in political activity. In the German states freedom from political autocracy was desired; in the Hapsburg realms and in Italy not only political liberty, but also freedom from the social and economic burdens of feudalism were aimed at; in France political participa tion and the overthow of the oppression of the bourgeoisie were the goal; and in England the °Chartists" hoped to achieve economic better ment and that part in the world of politics which had been denied to them in the Reform Bill of 1832. For various reasons, primarily from a division of the Revolutionists through national, party or economic rivalry, the move ments failed in every country, though the aboli tion of serfdom in the Hapsburg possessions was made a permanent achievement. The fail ure of these political revolts of the masses turned many into a following of economic channels of attack upon the forces of privi lege.
The programs of social reform in the first half of the 19th century had cleared away the archaic obstructions inherent in Mercantilism and had made vigorous assaults upon the suc ceeding regime of industrialism and economic liberalism from almost every angle, ranging from an aesthetic protest to political and eco nomic rivalry. In England some progress had been made toward the beginnings of construc tive factory legislation, but elsewhere little had been achieved along this line. Nowhere were workingmen freely allowed the right of self protection through organization. In no major European country did political democracy exist in 1850. There were few constructive programs of social reform of a concrete or practical nature. Only in Prussia was there any free public education. But, in spite of these early failures to achieve permanent results, the ground was being prepared for the rise of those reform movements which have brought the be ginnings of economic as well as political de mocracy into the modern world.