Edmund Sidney Pollock Haynes (26 September 1877 – 5 January 1949) was a British lawyer and writer.

Biography

The son of a London solicitor, Haynes was a

King's Scholar A King's Scholar, abbreviated KS in the United Kingdom, is the recipient of a scholarship from a foundation created by, or under the auspices of, a British monarch. The scholarships are awarded at certain Public school (United Kingdom), public ...

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and a winner of a

Brackenbury Scholarship Hannah Brackenbury (1795–1873) was an English philanthropist. She was unmarried and had inherited wealth from James Brackenbury, a solicitor from Manchester, England, who had made money through involvement with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railw ...

Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...

. John Moore later said that Haynes at Oxford was "witty, polished, ndbrilliant". Haynes formed a close friendship with Edward Thomas, who recorded in his diary (22 February 1899): "I like Haynes & yet detest the brilliant, vicious society at Balliol. Haynes himself is utterly immoral; but still with many fine feelings & purposes, I think..." Haynes practised as a lawyer in the same offices at 9 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, where his father had practised. A prolific author, he was a well-known figure in London's literary circles from 1900 to his death in 1949. His daughter was novelist

Renée Haynes Renée Haynes (23 July 1906 – 12 October 1992) was an English writer, historian, and psychical researcher. She was the author of an influential novel about her experience of Oxford University during the 1920s, and later coined the parapsychology ...

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc ( ; ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a French-English writer, politician, and historian. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic fait ...

's 1912 work ''

The Servile State ''The Servile State'' is a 1912 economic and political treatise by Hilaire Belloc. It serves primarily as a history of capitalism, a critique of both capitalism and socialism, and a rebuke of developments Belloc believed would bring about a fo ...

'' is dedicated to Haynes.W. H. Greenleaf, ''The British Political Tradition, Volume Two: The Ideological Heritage'' (London: Methuen, 1983), p. 95. In ''The Decline of Liberty in England'' (1916), Haynes lamented the growth of a "vast and irresponsible bureaucracy" and the decline in respect for personal rights by the state, the press and public opinion. He said that the state should run

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

but rejected the way in which "from modern Berlin

Mr Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...

and his friends have imported their experiments in establishing the Servile State". He also advocated the decriminalisation of

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

.'Books', ''The English Review'', ed. Austin Harrison (September 1916), p. 287. He ended the book with a dystopian view of England's

collectivist In sociology, a social organization is a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and groups. Characteristics of social organization can include qualities such as sexual composition, spatiotemporal cohesion, leadership, struct ...

future. ''

The English Review ''The English Review'' was an English-language literary magazine published in London from 1908 to 1937. At its peak, the journal published some of the leading writers of its day. History The magazine was started by 1908 by Ford Madox Hueffer (l ...

'' said in its review: "Mr. Haynes is a rational anarchist, or shall we say an anarchistic rationalist? It is not a bad configuration, and when he lets fly he is good reading, pleasingly fermentative, ardently cynical, almost religiously personal. He dislikes virginity, he disdains fidelity. Altogether a stimulant, for Mr. Haynes is a palpable man".

Skepticism

Haynes was an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

. He was also a rationalist, his book ''The Belief in Personal Immortality'' (1913) was skeptical of the claims of

psychical research Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, teleportation, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those r ...

and

life after death ''Life After Death'' is the second and final studio album by American rapper The Notorious B.I.G., released on March 25, 1997, by Bad Boy Records and distributed by Arista Records. A double album, it was released sixteen days after his murder. ...

. McCabe, Joseph. (1950). ''A Rationalist Encyclopaedia: A Book of Reference on Religion, Philosophy, Ethics, and Science''. Watts. p. 311

Publications

*''Standards of Taste in Art'' (1904). *''

Religious Persecution Religious persecution is the systematic oppression of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religion, religious beliefs or affiliations or their irreligion, lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within socie ...

, a Study in Political Psychology'' (1904; popular edition, 1906).
''Early Victorian and Other Papers''
(1908).
''Divorce Problems of To-Day''
(1912).
''The Belief in Personal Immortality''
(1913 and 1925). *''A Study in Bereavement, a Comedy in One Act'' (1914). *''Divorce as it might be'' (1915).
''The Decline of Liberty in England''
(1916).
''Personalia''
(1918 and 1927).
''The Case for Liberty''
(1919). *''Concerning Solicitors'' (1920). *''The Enemies of Liberty'' (1923). *''Fritto Misto'' (1924). *''Lycurgus or The Future of Law'' (1925). *''Much Ado about Women'' (1927). *''A Lawyer's Notebook'' (1932). *''More from a Lawyer's Notebook'' (1933). *''The Lawyer's Last Notebook'' (1934). *''Divorce and its Problems'' (with Derek Walker-Smith, 1935). *''Life, Law, and Letters'' (1936).

Biography

Skepticism

Publications

References

Further reading