Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 20.djvu/28

18 for debt being abolished. Such penalties on religious independence as remained disappeared; first by removal of those directed against Protestant dissenters, and then of those which weighed on the Catholics, and then of some which told specially against Quakers and Jews. By the Parliamentary Reform Bill and Municipal Reform Bill, vast numbers were removed from the subject classes to the governing classes. Interferences with the business-transactions of citizens were diminished by allowing free trade in bullion, by permitting joint-stock banks, by abolishing multitudinous restrictions on the importation of commodities—leaving eventually but few which pay duty. And, while by these and kindred changes, such as the removal of restraining burdens on the press, impediments to the free action of the citizen were decreased, the protective action of the state was increased. By a greatly-improved police system, by county courts, and so forth, personal safety and claims to property were better secured.

Not to elaborate the argument further by adding the case of the United States, which repeats with minor differences the same relations of phenomena, the evidence given adequately supports the proposition laid down. Amid all the complexities and perturbations, comparisons show us with sufficient clearness that, in actually-existing societies, those traits which we inferred must distinguish the industrial type show themselves clearly in proportion as the social activities are predominantly characterized by exchange of services under agreement.

As in the last chapter we noted the traits of character proper to the members of a society which is habitually at war, so here we have to note the traits of character proper to the members of a society occupied exclusively in peaceful pursuits. Already in delineating above, the rudiments of the industrial type of social structure as exhibited in certain small groups of unwarlike peoples, some indications of the accompanying personal qualities have been given; but it will be well now to emphasize these and add to them, before observing the kindred personal qualities in the more advanced industrial communities.

Absence of a centralized coercive rule, implying as it does feeble political restraints exercised by the society over its units, is accompanied by a strong sense of individual freedom and a determination to maintain it. The amiable Bodo and Dhimáls, as we have seen, resist "injunctions injudiciously urged with dogged obstinacy." The peaceful Lepchas "undergo great privations rather than submit to oppression or injustice." The "simple-minded Santál" has a "strong natural sense of justice, and, should any attempt be made to coerce