ABSTRACT
Green began the lecture by pointing out that liberal, who in the early part of the 19th century had favoured complete freedom of contract, had in supported legislation limiting that freedom in the interests of the more vulnerable party. The civilization and freedom of the ancient world were short-lived because they were partial and exceptional. Act after act was passed preventing master and workman, parent and child, house-builder and householder, from doing as they pleased, with the result of a great addition to the real freedom of society. The powers of the human mind have probably never attained such force and keenness, the proof of what society can do for the individual has never been so strikingly exhibited, as among the small groups of men who possessed civil privileges in the small republics of antiquity. To attempt a restraining law in advance of the social sentiment necessary to give real effect to it, is always a mistake.
