A.J.P. Taylor wrote this memorable passage in English History, 1914-1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970):
Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman. He could live where he liked and as he liked. He had no official number or identity card.
A. J. P. Taylor (1906-90), historian of England.
He could travel abroad or leave his country for ever without a passport or any sort of official permission. He could exchange his money for any other currency without restriction or limit. He could buy goods from any country in the world on the same terms as he bought goods at home. For that matter, a foreigner could spend his life in this country without permit and without informing the police.
Unlike the countries of the European continent, the state did not require its citizens to perform military service. An Englishman could enlist, if he chose, in the regular army, the navy, or the territorials. He could also ignore, if he chose, the demands of national defence. Substantial householders were occasionally called on for jury service.
Otherwise, only those helped the state who wished to do so. The Englishman paid taxes on a modest scale: nearly £200 million in 1913-14, or rather less than 8 per cent. of the national income. ... broadly speaking, the state acted only to help those who could not help themselves. It left the adult citizen alone.
Comments: (1) In 2011, one can only dream of such a limited state.
(2) We have just passed the centennial of December 1910, a date forever memorialized by Virginia Wolff in her 1924 lecture, "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown," a discussion of the modern novel:
My first assertion is one that I think you will grant—that everyone in this room is a judge of character. ... And now I will hazard a second assertion, which is more disputable perhaps, to the effect that in or about December 1910, human character changed.
