176 History of Local Rates 
the nation, the empire, or the world at large—a 
question of some difficulty, which does not concern us 
at present. The historical spirit has destroyed the 
old belief in the natural beneficence of a chimera 
called “the free play of individual self-interest.” It 
is becoming a commonplace of modern economic 
teaching that the beneficence of the play of self-interest 
only exists because that play is not free, but is con- 
fined to certain directions by our great social institu- 
fions, especially the Family, Property, and the terri- 
torial State. Itis recognised also that these institutions 
did not come into existence once for all, but are under- 
going continual modifications to make them suitable 
to the circumstances of the time, so that the restraints 
imposed on the action of self-interest are continually 
altering. What individual self-interest dictates as a 
course of action in any particular case depends on the 
institutions of the time and place, and how far that 
course of action is beneficent to the community at 
large depends on the excellence of those institutions. 
The same thing is true, perhaps we may say even 
more obviously true, of local self-interest. What is 
said to be for the interest of the entity, glibly spoken 
of but obscurely conceived as “the locality,” depends 
on the institutions of the moment, and whether action 
taken in the interest of the locality is beneficent to 
the community at large depends on the excellence of 
those institutions. 
The local authority is usually in England elected by 
a large section of the inhabitants! and is commonly 
1 The voters are by no means identical with the inhabitants, but 
asually comprise a considerable proportion of the adult inhabitants 
and but few persons who are not inhabitants. The Common