There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom.

Macaulay’s aphorism argues that the turbulence, disorder, or “excesses” that can accompany a people’s first experience of liberty are not best corrected by reimposing restraint or authoritarian control. Instead, the remedy is more liberty: time, practice, and the continued exercise of free institutions so that citizens learn civic habits, responsibility, and self-government. The line reflects a liberal, Whig confidence in political education through participation—freedom as both the goal and the means. It also rebukes paternalistic arguments that societies are “not ready” for liberty, insisting that readiness is produced by liberty itself.