On Liberty (1859) was John Stuart Mill's influential justification of individual freedom. In this book, Mill set out to establish a ‘simple principle’—that the only legitimate reason for interfering with someone's action was to protect someone else. Mill based his defence of liberty on utilitarian grounds, not on a natural right to freedom; arguing that on balance people were happier when left to choose their life-styles for themselves.
A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
