The sources of Law in a Free State

1. Wordsworth Donisthorpe 3 authority · 2 neutral · 1 endorsed 6 citations · 13 passages

   ch. 2 · ch. 4 2 passages anchored here · chapter iv: adulteration · the adulteration bill 7 passages anchored here · ch. 9 · ch. 10

   The author quotes his own letter directly and relies on it as documentary authority establishing his early authorship of the voluntary-taxation idea.

   “Person” includes a company, “Court of competent jurisdiction” shall be read and have effect as if the debt or demand in respect of which the expression is used were a simple contract debt, and not a debt or demand created by statute.

2. Charles Darwin 1 authority · 1 endorsed 2 citations · 3 passages

   ch. 7 2 passages anchored here · chapter vi: marriage

   The author explicitly approves of Darwinian evolutionary theory being taught, objecting only to the unfairness of its State funding, not to the theory itself.

   and honest evolutionists have faith enough in the final triumph of truth, not to require or desire even the unconscious assistance of their adversaries.

3. Koran 2 neutral 2 citations

   ch. 3 · chapter vi: marriage

   The Koran is invoked only to identify a historical fact about religion and polygamy, without endorsing or refuting it.

   We have only to read the Koran or the Old Testament to see that polygamy and religion can be on very good terms.

4. Old Testament 1 authority · 1 neutral 2 citations · 5 passages

   ch. 3 · chapter vi: marriage 4 passages anchored here

   The Old Testament is invoked only to identify a historical fact about religion and polygamy, without endorsing or refuting it.

   Only to a free people is there any hopeful significance in the words, “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.

5. Statute of Frauds English Parliament 2 authority 2 citations

   ch. 3 · ch. 9

   The statute is invoked as a recognised legal authority to support the analogy the author draws about the State's rationale for regulating gaming contracts.

   Again, the State refuses to sanction betting contracts for the same reason that under the Statute of Frauds it requires certain agreements to be in writing;

6. Vaccination Acts Parliament 1 neutral · 1 refuted 2 citations · 3 passages

   ch. 2 3 passages anchored here

   The Act is named explicitly and merely listed among questions on which opinions differ.

   whether they should be forced to adopt certain medical precautions in the general interest, such as those required by quarantine laws, Vaccination Acts, Contagious Diseases Acts, notification and compulsory removal laws and the like;

7. Adam Smith 1 extended 1 citation

   ch. 10

   Adam Smith's doctrine is named as the direct foundation which the author's theory develops and extends.

   The theory of labour capitalisation is based on the doctrine propounded by Adam Smith, but not adhered to by him throughout his writings, that the labourer is a species of capital.

8. Ethics Baruch Spinoza 1 refuted 1 citation

   chapter vi: marriage

   Spinoza's characteristic condemnations of love and passion, quoted and paraphrased, are treated as a philosophical authority for the ascetic doctrine the essay disputes.

   And Spinoza condemns love as “a species of madness,” and as promoting “discord rather than harmony.

9. First Epistle to Timothy St. Paul 1 refuted 1 citation

   chapter vi: marriage

   The passage cites Paul's warning to Timothy as a further scriptural instance of the ascetic condemnation of unruly sexual feeling.

   Paul warns Timothy against young1 widows, because, says he, when they “wax wanton they will marry again;

10. First Epistle to the Corinthians St. Paul 1 refuted 1 citation

    chapter vi: marriage

    The passage directly quotes Paul's letter to the Corinthians as the foundational scriptural statement of the ascetic view that the author goes on to dispute.

    Paul, the Christian writer, holds this view very strongly.

11. First Principles Herbert Spencer 1 neutral 1 citation

    ch. 2

    The book is named explicitly and used as a neutral illustrative example rather than being endorsed or refuted itself.

    Such a law would give a scientific writer copyright, not only in his book, but in the discoveries and theories contained in it.

12. George Bernard Shaw 1 extended 1 citation · 2 passages

    chapter vi: marriage 2 passages anchored here

    Shaw's interpretation of the Tannhäuser legend is quoted at length and then explicitly built upon and partly qualified by the essay's own argument.

    Shaw seems to hope that although for the present the way to perfect love lies through the Venusberg, the time will come when our children will be born on the other side of it “and so be spared that fiery purgation.

13. Gospel of Matthew Matthew 1 authority 1 citation

    ch. 11

    The narrator explicitly cites chapter and verse from Matthew as authority that the phrase 'let be' is not merely colloquial but classical.

    Moreover, it is not only colloquial but classical.

14. Herbert Spencer 1 authority 1 citation

    preface

    Spencer's teachings are cited as the primary explanatory authority behind the rise of individualism described in the paragraph.

    Herbert Spencer.

15. Iliad Homer 1 neutral 1 citation

    chapter vi: marriage

    The Brisēis episode, drawn from Homer's Iliad, is invoked as a mythological example within the essay's survey of religion and custom.

    The gods of Olympus sided with the abducer of Brisēis;

16. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1 refuted 1 citation

    ch. 3

    Rousseau's Contrat Social is directly named and dismissed alongside Locke's theory as unfounded.

    Locke's pretence that the individual citizens reserved certain liberties when the State was formed is of course the merest allegory, without any more foundation, in fact, than Rousseau's Contrat Social.

17. Leviathan Thomas Hobbes 1 endorsed 1 citation · 2 passages

    ch. 3 2 passages anchored here

    Hobbes's doctrine of the absolute, unlimited power of the State is directly cited and explicitly endorsed as accurate by the author.

    And this is why Hobbes (who always built on fact) describes the power of the State as absolute.

18. News from Nowhere William Morris 1 neutral 1 citation

    chapter vi: marriage

    Morris's futurist prediction is reported by name and used as a comparison for the essay's argument about the persistence of undeveloped tastes.

    Morris tells us that this will still be so in the year two thousand and one.

19. On Liberty John Stuart Mill 1 refuted 1 citation · 3 passages

    ch. 3 3 passages anchored here

    Mill's harm principle is directly quoted and then explicitly rejected as an inadequate test after extended examination of counter-examples.

    The principle is that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection:

20. Principles of Political Economy John Stuart Mill 1 refuted 1 citation

    chapter vi: marriage

    Mill's characteristic advice on prudence and family size is quoted and explicitly criticised as cynical counsel given to workmen.

    “Prudence, my good fellow, self-control,” cry Mill and his followers;

21. Progress and Poverty Henry George 1 refuted 1 citation · 2 passages

    ch. 3 2 passages anchored here

    Henry George is named directly as a source of a priori reasoning, and his characteristic doctrine of a natural right to land is alluded to and dismissed.

    It is on a par with the “natural right” of every citizen born into the world to an acre of land and a good education.

22. Robert Burns 1 authority 1 citation

    chapter vi: marriage

    Burns's poem is invoked by name as the poetic authority that has given voice to the feeling of lifelong mutual love the essay describes.

    The mutual love which ends with the life, which is strengthened by time and memories and attachment to the children, and which is sanctified by freedom, is the latest and noblest development of the sexual emotion.

23. Samuel Johnson 1 neutral 1 citation

    chapter vi: marriage

    Johnson's well-known definition of music is invoked by name as an example of the pessimistic phraseology the essay wishes to abandon.

    Johnson define music as the least disagreeable of noises, and let St.

24. Second Treatise of Government John Locke 1 refuted 1 citation

    ch. 3

    Locke's theory that individuals reserve certain liberties upon entering civil society is directly invoked and explicitly rejected as fictional.

    Locke's pretence that the individual citizens reserved certain liberties when the State was formed is of course the merest allegory, without any more foundation, in fact, than Rousseau's Contrat Social.

Each stands at a single passage. The chapter carries the anchors.

preface 1 source

A Plea for Liberty

ch. 2 26 sources

Commentaries on the Laws of England (doctrine of absolute rights) · Contagious Diseases Acts · Free Library Acts · Licensing Acts · Metropolitan Buildings Acts · Pollard v. Photographic Co. · Prince Albert v. Strange · The School for Scandal · Voluntary Taxation · argument for a general right to privacy in thoughts, emotions, and sensations · article advocating State purchase of the railways · article on the right to privacy (Harvard Law Review, 1890) · calculation that unrestricted civilised populations double every twelve and a half years · classification of rights in rem (jurisprudential writings) · commentary that a municipality would be justified in undertaking a theatre if the majority of ratepayers desired it · doctrine of nationalising mines, factories, ships, gasworks, and land · laws relating to oaths and blasphemy · letter to Wordsworth Donisthorpe (4 November 1881) · proposal for municipal theatre nationalisation · proposed bill embodying the principle of inviolate personality · remark that a man is entitled to be protected in the exclusive use and enjoyment of that which is exclusively his · the 'Modern Babylon' newspaper exposé · the Bible (Acts of the Apostles, Gamaliel's counsel) · the law of partnerships and of joint-stock companies · the poor laws · writings on jurisprudence (doctrine of inborn natural rights)

ch. 3 30 sources

Act 23 & 24 Vict. c. 32 · Commentaries on the Laws of England (the bona fide purchaser rule) · Decameron · Frankenstein · Government: Anarchy or Regimentation? · Roman sumptuary law on meals · Statutes 2 P. & M. c. 7 and 31 Eliz. c. 12 (market overt / horse-dealing statutes) · Traite de feu · account of dress customs and clerical preaching against fashion · account of new-fangled cookery · an early statute concerning archery and unlawful games · an early statute fixing the price of poultry · an early statute restricting hunting and the keeping of hounds · an early sumptuary statute regulating dress and apparel · art criticism on drapery and the nude figure · commentary on Mr. Pickard's remark · critique of the induction argument from historical tendencies · his political writings on anarchism · his reply to Mill's principle of self-protection · his writings on anarchism · lecture on Laissez-Faire (1883) · remark on trade-union versus legislative regulation of hours · surmise on the scope of Act 23 & 24 Vict. c. 32 · the Act against making cloth by machinery · the Lord's Day Observance Act · the Statute of Labourers · the books of Moses · the seventh Tippling Act of James I and the Tippling Acts generally · the statutes of Plantagenet days against forestalling and regrating and usury · unnamed work/argument on justice and jury consensus

ch. 4 5 sources

Letter to Jus (18 November) · Remark on counting heads to save the trouble of fighting (quoted saying) · Statement on justifiable methods against the State (quoted remarks) · Statement on minorities defying majorities (quoted remarks) · Untitled essay/remarks on government, law, and taxation

chapter iv: adulteration 5 sources

British Pharmacopœia · Pharmacy Act, 1868 · R. v. Bryan · White v. Bayward · commentary on the case of R. v. Bryan

ch. 7 4 sources

French State secular-education policy (Ferry Laws) · Genesis (Adam's naming of the animals) · Socratic dialectic method · an unnamed work on education

chapter vi: marriage 17 sources

Christian Morals · Essay on the Principle of Population · Faust · Free Life (articles vindicating monogamy) · Godwin's characterization of loveless marriage as unchastity · Gospel of John (on a woman's joy after childbirth) · Herbert's stated position on marriage and enforcement of contract · History of European Morals · Il Trovatore · Lexicon of Kakophemisms · Lohengrin · Married Women's Property Acts · O'Brien's stated position on marriage contract and compensation · Personal Talk · Roman law · unnamed leading writer's statement that unchastity is union without love · unnamed writer's passage on compensating a deserted wife, quoted with approval by O'Brien

ch. 9 15 sources

A Plea for the Abolition of Illegitimacy (pamphlet) · Act of Queen Anne's reign (relief for Christian children of Jewish parents) · Act of William III (relief for Protestant children of Roman Catholic parents) · Canon law principle of legitimation per subsequens matrimonium · Code Napoléon (provisions on adoption and public acknowledgment of illegitimate children) · Commentaries on the Laws of England · Scots law of legitimation per subsequens matrimonium · Statement of the Legitimation League's objects · coined phrase 'chance pup' / 'chance children' · dictum that adoption should follow nature · early Roman law of the Republic requiring marriage before conception · old Roman law rule on eligibility for legitimation · old maxim of English law on the making of heirs · reply of the barons of England rejecting alteration of the laws of England · statement on claimant fathers and heirship

ch. 10 3 sources

critique of the capitalisation theory · letter to Wordsworth Donisthorpe · the doctrine of the tendency of wages to a minimum

ch. 11 14 sources

23 & 24 Vict. c. 32 · Blackstone · Divine Right of Kings (doctrine) · Doctrine of laissez faire · Hares and Rabbits Act · Illegitimate Children: An Inquiry into their Personal Rights, and a Plea for the Abolition of Illegitimacy · Merchant Shipping Act · Mr. Henry George, the "Orthodox" · Municipal Socialism · Political usage of the term 'National' · Stephen's Digest of the Criminal Law · Symposium on the Land Question · Tenant's Compensation Bill · The Bible