Right and Wrong in Politics [pp. 265-293]

RIGHT AND WRONG IN POLITICS.
And between two alternative remedial processes, that generally
has to be preferred which benefits more persons before another
which benefits fewer. Bentham's celebrated treatise on "Morals and Legislation" is nothing more than a logical expansion
of this principle and its application to the whole field of human
life. The legislator transforms himself into the moralist, and he
brings with him into the new universe he has invaded no other
implements and mechanism than the coarse materials which
fully sufficed him for his previous work.
It needed but a superficial criticism to show that, whereas
such an idea as that of happiness, or rather the restriction of
pain, has an intelligible meaning for the political reformer, it
is far too impalpable and indefinite to be of the slightest service
in indicating the aim and standard of all. moral acts. The measurement, again, of this happiness, and the calculation of the
number of persons who may be affected by any specific scheme
devised for imparting it, again imply materialistic conceptions of number, quantity, and weight, which, in connection
with the thoughts and feelings as well as the singular phenomenon of conscience, with which morality is alone concerned, are
singularly irrelevant and inappropriate. Nevertheless it has
been well pointed out that the opponents of utilitarianism have
afforded a handle to their adversaries by ignoring or appearing
to ignore the truly materialistic and calculable elements that
often must enter into moral acts. There are many cases in
which the moral agent who is scrupulously desirous of conforming to the dictates of conscience must balance the claims of diverse alternative duties by reference to the number of persons
whose interests may be affected according as one course or the
other is adopted, or by the degree, quality, or quantity, of the
interest which is at stake. The late Professor Grote, brother of
the historian of Greece, in his exhaustive "Examination of the
Utilitarian Philosophy," was among the first opponents of that
philosophy who, by recognizing the real utilitarian element,
which is inseparable from any complete moral theory, has done
more to-close the controversy forever than any other writer in
the same field.
Now it is undoubtedly in the world of politics that whatever
utilitarian element really belongs to a science of abstract moral
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