The Role of Government
In his 1830 memorandum on the trade unions, Senior proposed a narrow role for government, limiting it to the protection of property and the maintenance of law and order. In a change of mind just a year later in his letter to Howick on the Irish Poor, he argued for expenditure on transport and the drainage of bogs as a means of increasing the country's productive capacity.
He also proposed the provision of health care for the disabled and the mentally ill (see Bowley 1937: 242-248). There was a clear difference in Senior's attitude to government intervention between the case of Ireland in 1831 and that in England from 1832. In Ireland, there was chronic poverty among the labouring poor, and Senior argued that a Poor Law would not be feasible. In England, he was concerned that the existing Poor Law, with arrangements for outdoor relief, could eventually pauperise the whole agricultural labour force via a downward pressure on wages. Less eligibility was a reform that could be brought into England but not Ireland.In 1836, Senior's definition of economics changed. He now argued that economics should be restricted to pure theory and the economist was not allowed to offer advice but just explain any economic principles, if required. In the following year, he used economic theory in his arguments against the reduction of hours in factories to ten and in the question of the hand-loom weavers. However, in both cases, Senior also argued for legislation to provide housing and improve living conditions. It seems that Senior found his strictures against advice difficult to conform to. Moreover, it was from 1837 that he advocated a role for government in education.
When Senior became Drummond Professor for the second time, his views had changed again. In two lectures both entitled “The Power of Government to Alter the Degree in Which Wealth Is Desirable”,[38] he maintained that ‘the only foundation of a right to govern and of a correlative duty to obey, is expediency—the general benefit of the community. It is the duty of a Government to do whatever is conducive to the welfare of the governed' (Senior quoted in Bowley 1937: 265). The sacred principle of non-interference is now thrown over. It is on the same footing as interference, that is, whether it was expedient or not (Bowley 1937: 266). Bowley argued that Senior's view in 1847 was essentially the same as that taken by John Stuart Mill in 1848 and that, this being the case, why it had not been more widely recognised in the former case while it had been in the latter. The answer she put forward was that most of Senior's writings demonstrating the development of his views were contained in reports on social and economic matters written for various members of governments, or they were contained in unpublished lectures or articles. Had Senior had the time and opportunity to write his ‘great book' perhaps the history of his own thought may have been different.
11