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Concept of Social and Economic Rights 67
Suffrage Bill, published his essay in 1869, influenced by
William Thompson's writings. It was translated in the
same year and circulated widely in Europe and abroad,
becoming the bible of feminism. Mill was also significant
as inspirer of the Fabians, who in turn affected
politicians and administrators. His writings were an
important factor in the transition from earlier laissez faire
economic policy to a policy of more active intervention,
although it is the grossest of exaggerations to think that
the Victorian state was not interventionist from the
outset. 18
In talking about thinkers I shall end with one whose
photograph I pass each morning as I walk into my
College room. T. H. Green (1836-1882) affected a whole
generation of Oxford men, including Herbert Asquith
(1852-1928), whose administration was responsible for
the Liberal legislation of 1906 to 1911. Green, in his
Lectures (published posthumously as Lectures on the
Principles of Political Obligation) emphasised that the
personality was realised by playing a part in society; that
politics was about creating social conditions for moral
development; and that it was the duty of the state to
safeguard all social interests relating to the general
welfare. Green was an advocate of compulsory education,
of extension of sanitary regulations, of higher
standards of living and of the right of individuals to
share in the goods produced by society. He was cofounder
and first secretary of The Association for
Promoting the Education of Women at Oxford, which
led to the admission of women to study at the University
of Oxford.
The ideas of all these thinkers affected their own
societies, including political leaders, and ultimately the
relationships of statesmen world-wide. I hope I have
adduced sufficient evidence to show that it is thought and
its influence, which leads to changes in attitudes and