John Stuart Mill: A Criticism with Personal Recollections

170 FUTURE OF THE LABOURING CLASSES. 1849-1872.
into his ; and was in his last years, for a few months in the
twelve, a sociable man.
The chapter above referred to, as I understand it, is occupied
with an account of the altered position of the working classes
with reference to those above, as no longer a relation of depen
dence and protection.
" We have entered into a state of
civilisation in which the bond that attaches human beings to
one another, must be disinterested admiration and sympathy
for personal qualities, or gratitude for unselfish services, and
not the emotions of protectors towards dependents, or of
dependents towards protectors. The arrangements of society
are now such that no man or woman who either possesses or is
able to earn a livelihood requires any other protection than
that of the law. This being the case, it argues great ignorance
of human nature to continue taking for granted that relations
founded on protection must always subsist, and not to see that
the assumption of the part of protector, and of the power which
belongs to it, without any of the necessities which justify it,
must engender feelings opposite to loyalty." This is the same
thesis so well worked out in the article on Claims of Labour.
The third paragraph contains an- emphatic assertion of the
necessity of opening up industrial occupation freely
to both
sexes. The second half of the chapter discusses Co-operation,
as a means of raising the condition of the labourer.
All this might certainly have grown out of Mill s own inde
pendent studies ; but we must take his word for it when he
says that his conversations with Mrs. Taylor helped
form and pressure ".
him in
giving it
"
He makes no special claim for her in regard to his Political
writings ; of which the Representative Government (composed
soon after her death) may be considered as the sum. He men
tions merely that she preceded him in turning against the
Ballot.
The Liberty was the chief production of his married life :
and in it, she bore a considerable part. His own antecedents