6 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

can secure obedience, and to this end many means have been
adopted, which become apparent when the law is disobeyed.
If A tries to steal from B, the policeman, if there is 'one near,
will restrain A; if A resists, the policeman will use force, and the
law requires that bystanders shall help him. If A assembles his
friends and puts up an organised resistance, the Armed Forces
will help the police. The police, then, deal with lesser difficulties;
if authority is seriously challenged, there are two widely different'
means for upholding it. One is the goodwill of the people, the
other a trained and equipped force, whose members are required
to obey the Government, whatever they, as individuals, may
think about it. The more just a Government is, the more can
it rely on the first of these methods. If the people think that
A is pursuing a private quarrel, putting his own desires before
the public safety, they will be willing to help the police. If they
doubt whether the Government has done all it should to help
A earn an honest living, they will hesitate before helping to
arrest him for stealing. Then the Government will either have to
improve its policy and win back popular support, or call out
its Armed Forces. The danger of Armed Forces is that they
may enable a Government to keep its power while neglecting
its duty.

Force, then, is necessary, even to just Governments, so long
as there are people whom H. G. Wells calls "recalcitrants"—
people who will not respect the rights of others unless they are
compelled to do so. The safest way of applying such force is
for all citizens to recognise their duty to prevent disorder. It is
only because this method will not always act quickly enough
that Governments can daim the right to have a trained force;
how can it be ensured that this will not turn Government into
tyranny?

First, it must be established that the members of the force
should obey the lawful Government, This does not mean, for
example, that they should always obey the members of the
present Cabinet or Parliament; they should obey whoever