Few words are more ambiguous than ‘liberalism.’ Liberals of the Manchester school invoked liberalism in their efforts to liberate economic activity from state control, whereas modern liberals are even more anxious than Socialists to extend the sphere of the state’s activities. When Lord Shaftesbury, the Conservative, introduced the Factory Acts to liberate small children from the tyranny of the machines, John Bright and Cobden protested in the name of liberalism against any attempt to fetter the economic activities of the factory owners. Towards the end of the century, Mr. Lloyd George, in the name of Liberalism, imposed compulsory insurance on the nation.

My father’s Liberalism was derived not from Manchester, but from Nazareth. He was one of the last survivors of those Victorians who were Christian Liberals as opposed to secular Liberals. The Liberalism of the convinced Christian must always be qualified by the conclusions which he draws from the great premise that man is made in the image of God, and therefore has rights which no dictator and no democratic majority can over-ride. Secular Liberalism, on the other hand, with its deification of the ‘General Will,’ inevitably leads to the servile state. If man is nothing more than first cousin to the chimpanzee there is no reason why a dictator or a dictatorial majority should not put him behind bars. It is only man’s supernatural estate which alone guarantees his personal dignity and his inalienable rights.