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ure in bargaining that others find in sport. In some
parts of the country, trading horses is regarded not so
much as
a way of making money as an agreeable
and somewhat exciting pastime. And the neighbors
watch the trade as they would a game of checkers.
For both these reasons the morals of trade have been
backward. The old maxim of Roman law was caveat
emptor-" let the buyer beware." But when merchants
began to enlarge their operations, to have steady cus-
tomers, to settle down in towns, they felt the necessity
of having standards of honest work and of fair dealing.
The gilds punished members who cheated. Thus in the
records of the Leicester Gild in the year 1254 we read
that

Roger Alditch was charged with offending the laws of the Gild, having made a blanket in one part of which was a good woof, but elsewhere in many places weak stuff. He also caused a piece of weak and inferior vermillion cloth to be attached to a good piece of the same kind of cloth. It was adjudged that he should pay a fine of 6s. 8d. and, if he should commit another offence against the Gild, he should be expelled.*

Also, the gilds attempted to prevent their members from taking advantage of fellow members. If one gildsman bought a quantity of some article like tallow or wine, any other gildsman could claim a portion at the original price. This was to keep out middlemen's profits, so far as fellow members were concerned. Before the days of "one price to all" it was an important check.

merchants

Although the merchants were exempted from the Customs common law of the land, they had a Law-Merchant of of their own. This had been built up out of the " cusGross, The Gild Merchant, vol. II, p. 143.

894018

toms" which prevailed in important ports. It dealt especially with such matters as contracts and debts, and was administered by special courts. One such court declared in 1477: "it hath been at all times accoustomned, that every person coming to the said fairs should have lawful remedy of all manner of contracts, trespasses, covenants, debts, and other deeds made or done within any of the same fairs, during the time of the said fair, and within the jurisdiction of the same, and to be tried by the merchants being of the same fair."

As the ideals and morals of the gentleman come from the days of the early state and of chivalry, the ideals and standards of business honesty come from the "customs of merchants" and the life of towns.

CHAPTER XI

FIRST STEPS IN LIBERTY

HUS far we have dwelt chiefly upon early co-
operation. We turn now to the other great

TH

idea in our democracy, liberty, and look at its beginnings. It is certainly one of the great values in life. Men and nations have been willing to struggle and even to die in defense of it. America has prized liberty as one of its great aims and men have loved America because they have found liberty here. Indeed the early settlers, many of them, came to this country to find here the liberty that they could not find in the Old World. But the first steps toward liberty were taken long before our fathers came to this country. We have already referred to the fact that the towns helped their citizens to gain liberties; but the extraordinary thing is that the state, which began by conquering people and so taking away their liberty, came in time to be the great protector of liberty. It is worth while to understand how this came about, because certain things in the Constitution of the United States and in our ideas about law and government cannot be understood save as we keep in mind the way in which liberty was gained.

notice that there Six

First of all, however, we have to are several different kinds of liberty. The word is used meanings in several different senses. Of these the principal are liberty

the following:

of

1. Freedom

vs.

slavery

1. Freedom contrasted with slavery, or serfdom. This is the simplest kind of liberty.

2. National liberty, or national independence-freedom from control by a foreign power.

3. Special privilege, as when a city gained by a charter special rights of trade with freedom from tolls. To belong to a city gave one the privilege or, as it was called, the "freedom" of the city.

4. Civil liberty. This means protection especially from violence or from any arbitrary taking of property even by the government itself. The principal rights that are included under civil liberty are freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of opinion and speech, and security of property.

5. Political liberty. This is the right to have a share in the government by voting or otherwise. Very few Englishmen had this right until the year 1832, although civil liberty had been secured very much earlier.

6. Liberty or freedom, which is in contrast with any kind of constraint or bondage. If a person is a slave to a habit, or a passion, he is not free. If he is ignorant or sick, he is not free. If he is in fear of violence, or of starvation, he has very little liberty. For the most part, these last kinds of bondage and freedom depend largely on the man himself. They cannot be so easily changed by law. It is only recently that we have begun to see that by public education and public care of health much can be done to give men an opportunity to be free.

The first kind of liberty does not need much explanation. We all understand the difference between a slave and a free man. What may seem curious to us is that

for so long a time slavery or serfdom was the rule, and freedom the exception. Few of us can say that our ancestors were neither slaves (or serfs) nor slave masters. Indeed, one of the greatest men of all history, Aristotle, argued that some men are naturally incapable of directing themselves and so that it is better for them to be controlled by others, that is, to be slaves. Saint Paul cared so much about being free from the slavery of sin and passion and free from the older ceremonials of religion that he thought any other slavery of slight importance. In modern times, however, liberty has often been called a natural right or a God-given right, that is, a right which belongs to man by his very nature, or by the gift of God. The two great reasons for freedom seem to be: first, that, as Julius Cæsar long ago remarked, all men love liberty. It is cruel to thwart a deep desire of human nature unless this is necessary to secure some more important end. Second, that it is only as a man is free that he can really decide matters for himself; and it is only as he can decide matters for himself that he can be responsible, or indeed be a real person. Many people would perhaps be more comfortable if owned by kind masters than if forced to struggle for themselves. The serfs were probably better off so far as getting food and shelter went than a great many laboring people today. Nevertheless few of these people would exchange lots with the serf. Freedom is in some ways a hard school, but it is the only school in which a man can learn to

be fully a man.

The second kind of liberty, national independence, 2. National is of course the direct affair of the state. A nation independlikes to govern itself, just as a man likes to be his own master. It feels humiliated at the thought of being

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