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tific Constitution'. He added, however, that such a constitution 'could hardly be transplanted to Europe'. A great student of history, and a philosophic observer of public events throughout a long life, he gave it as his judgement that British democracy was attempting to do too much at once; by this, he wrote in 1917, 'it has destroyed the feeling of security which sweetened men's lives from the Battle of Waterloo until now' [p. 195].

Probably it is by his letters on Labour that Case's politics and statesmanship will in the long run be judged. What he wrote was never popular, nor have his views been accepted, although it is likely many people in their heart of hearts believe in them. To assume that he was out of sympathy with working people would be completely erroneous. Case was compassionate, and tender, towards all people less fortunately placed than himself. His long and unyielding opposition to the strike-weapon' as used by trade unions was due to his belief not only that it diminished capital on which Labour depended, but that it prevented poor men from receiving work and wages. His theory, clearly expressed in his first letter on Labour was that a strike, with picketing, is not merely a struggle of labour against capital but a struggle of labour against labour, of those who can at all events afford to strike against those who want work-of the employed against the unemployed'. He held it to be a strange departure from English justice and generosity', that the law should allow strikers to prevent poor men from working'. It is astounding, he wrote, 'how little legal protection and what scant sympathy has been accorded to the so-called "blacklegs", who are the poor that cry and have none to help them ' [p. 128].

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Case's opposition to trade unionism (he never pretended that he was not opposed to it) was not so

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much on the ground that it diminished capital, as that it restricted freedom. 'It is to be hoped', he wrote in 1891, that the Government will be wise enough not to weaken the Conspiracy Law, which alone can secure the freedom of labour against monopoly.' His criticisms of proposals for an eighthour day show keen sympathy with the lot of the labourer: Eight hours in a quicksilver mine would be absurd and murderous; but there are other occupations where more than eight hours is not too much.' Case was in the habit of working more than eight hours himself every day. But he only advocated more than an eight-hour day for intermittent employments'. An illustration of what he meant came easily from his knowledge of railways: 'I know a signal-box at a junction of some importance where you may see the man frequently cultivating his own garden by the side of the line when he is not wanted in his box.' Case had no fear about capital. If an unreasonable labour movement injured it, it could seek investment elsewhere. To the remark of a trade unionist, Capital can take care of itself,' he replied (in Bradlaugh's words): 'Unfortunately it can, but the working-man cannot; and if you drive our industries to other countries of the world, what will happen? There will be more hunger here' [p. 152]. But if not afraid about capital, Case, always thinking of the common good, was apprehensive for Great Britain. For if trade unions succeeded in restricting production, and in raising wages to an uneconomic level, 'how can this great country hope to maintain a commercial position which was not won by fear but by freedom?' [p. 157].

Case was a sturdy patriot, and had strong views concerning the necessity of upholding the security and the dignity of the British Empire. He was a considerable student of military strategy, but his great love was for the Navy; after Aristotle and

Bacon, Nelson was the man whom he most admired, and whose career he had most closely studied. His published letters on foreign and imperial affairs are not numerous, but they are serious and weighty. The letter written in 1896 at the time of the famous telegram of the Kaiser Wilhelm II to President Kruger of the Transvaal, is judicious, sensible, and shows wide and deep knowledge of the situation in Europe as well as in South Africa [p. 206]. In 1920 he wrote an important letter on the question of British armed interference against Bolshevist Russia; the policy which he advocated was the one which the Government ultimately adopted but after something like a humiliation from which attention to his words would have saved it [p. 216].

Case's interest and wisdom in imperial affairs is shown in his three remarkable letters on the question, which arose in 1900, of the possible taxation of the colonies formed out of the Transvaal Republic and Orange Free State. The republic had just been annexed by proclamation, although the resistance of the Boers was by no means at an end. Had they been left with their independence, it would have been perfectly reasonable, Case argued, to charge them with an indemnity, at the end of their unsuccessful war. But the republics had been annexed as colonies. To tax these colonies, so that they should contribute to the cost of the war, would be unjust, if their consent were not asked. To do this would be 'to repeat the very mistake which lost us our American colonies'. Here Case, as always, was merely giving voice to the truth that was in him, regardless whether it was likely to be popular or not. The view which he stated was fair and temperate, and ultimately prevailed.

The letters on ecclesiastical and religious affairs were not the product of any particular period of his life; they appeared at widely separated intervals.

Case was a member of the Church of England. He found his philosophy to be quite compatible with acceptance of the principles and traditions of the Church. In a letter published in 1899 on The Crisis in the Church', he wrote: In the details of

scientific discovery and invention, the modern advance is undeniable. But steam engines and electric telegraphs are not exactly the materials of religion. When on the other hand one looks beyond details to principles, what strikes one is the comparative absence of paradox in the main view of the world, and of God's relation to it, which has come down to us from antiquity' [p. 278]. His wholesome outlook on life made him reject pessimism decisively: "if anybody will calmly consider his own life, and that of other men and animals, as a whole, he will surely conclude that in the great majority of instances life contains incalculably more pleasures than pains.' In all his arguments on religion he kept two things steadfastly before him-tradition and freedom [p. 121].

Case's letters on philosophy and science must be considered along with his main philosophical work, Physical Realism. In his last years he was engaged on a work on Metaphysics. In connexion with this he engaged in profound researches in electricity and mathematics. The Metaphysics was still incomplete at the time of his death. The letters give his scientific point of view, couched in his lucid, forcible language. One personal trait clearly emerges from these letters on science and philosophy, as indeed from all his letters, that is, his unfailing and charming courtesy. Herbert Spencer was not a philosopher with whom he was in any sort of agreement. Yet Case withdrew from a controversy in which he was deeply interested because to continue it at the moment in public might mar the pleasure which Spencer would naturally feel at the public subscription to

his proposed portrait. 'I feel that at so auspicious a moment it would be bad taste to say a word more than what might express a cordial approval of the proposal, with hearty congratulations to the philosopher who commands such public admiration' p. 228].

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