Page:Giuseppe Bianchini - The Work of the Fascist Government and the Economic Reconstruction of Italy - tr. Luigi Villari.pdf/32

 luck? Who feels enslaved or crushed, among those who quietly mind their own business, who attend to public affairs, applauding or criticizing, but without any thought of sedition? Absolute freedom is a philosophical or anarchical abstraction; the whole social structure constitutes a series of limitations of freedom, and the problem is one of measure and of social convention. There is no absolute criterion in this field, because this measure has varied and continues to vary according to times and circumstances.

Even the State is an organism which must provide for its own defence, and no one can deny its right to take such measures as circumstances render necessary for its own preservation. Did not Bismarck keep Parliament closed for seven years, did he not introduce exceptional restictions into the laws dealing with the press and the right of association? History, which studies and judges facts in their general lines, outside and above the particular circumstances of the moment, has indeed recognized the greatness of the man who laid the foundations of German power. Time has also rehabilitated the per-