Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

or emolument. Nothing is gained by a popular choice worth the diffenfions, tumults, and interruption of regular industry, with which it is infeparably attended. Add to this, that a king, who owes his elevation to the event of a conteft, or to any other cause than a fixed rule of fucceffion, will be apt to regard one part of his fubjects as the affociates of his fortune, and the other as conquered foes. Nor fhould it be forgotten, amongst the advantages of an hereditary monarchy, that as plans of national improvement and reform are feldom brought to maturity by the exertions of a fingle reign, a nation cannot attain to the degree of happiness and prof. perity to which it is capable of being carried, unless an uniformity of councils, a confiftency of public measures and defigns be continued through a fucceffion of ages. This benefit may be expected with greater probability, where the fupreme power descends in the fame race, and where each prince fucceeds, in fome fort, to the aim, purfuits, and difpofition of his ancestor, than if the crown, at every change, devolve upon a stranger, whose first care will commonly be to pull down what his predeceffor had built up; and to fubftitute fyftems of ad. ministration, which muft, in their turn, give way to the more favourite novelties of the next fucceffor.

ARISTOCRACIES are of two kinds, first, where the power of the nobility belongs to them in their collective capacity alone; that is, where although the government refide in an affembly of the order, yet the members of that affembly feparately and individually poffefs no authority or privilege beyond the rest of the community:-this defcribes the conftitution of Venice. Secondly, where the nobles are severally invested with great perfonal power and immunities, and where the power of the fenate is little more than the aggregated power of the in

dividuals

dividuals who compofe it :-this is the conftitution of Poland; Of these two forms of government, the firft is more tolerable than the laft, for although the members of a fenate should many, or even all of them, be profligate enough to abufe the authority of their stations in the profecution of private defigns, yet, not being all under a temptation to the fame injuftice, not having all the fame end to gain, it would still be difficult to obtain the confent of a majority, to any specific act of oppreffion, which the iniquity of an individual might prompt him to propofe or if the will were the fame, the power is more confined; one tyrant, whether the tyranny refide in a fingle perfon, or a fenate, cannot exercise oppreffion at fo many places at the fame time, as it may be carried on by the dominion of a numerous nobility over their respective vaffals and dependents. Of all fpecies of domination this is the moft odious: the freedom and fatisfaction of private life are more constrained and haraffed by it, than by the most vexatious laws, or even by the lawless will of an arbitrary monarch; from whofe knowledge, and from whose injustice, the greatest part of his fubjects are removed by their distance, or concealed by their obfcurity.

Europe exhibits more than one modern example, where the people, aggrieved by the exactions, or provoked by the enormities, of their immediate fuperiors, have joined with the reigning prince in the overthrow of the ariftocracy, deliberately exchanging their condition for the miferies of defpotifm. About the middle of the last century, the commons of Denmark, weary of the oppreffions which they had long fuffered from the nobles, and exasperated by fome recent infults, prefented themselves at the foot of the throne, with a formal offer of their confent to establish unlimited dominion in the king. The revolution in Sweden, ftill more lately brought

about

about with the acquiefcence, not to say the affiftance of the people, owed its fuccefs to the fame cause, namely, to the profpect of deliverance, that it afforded, from the tyranny which their nobles exercised under the old conftitution. In England the people beheld the depreffion of the Barons, under the house of Tudor, with fatisfaction, although they faw the crown acquiring thereby a power, which no limitations, that the conftitution had then provided, were likely to confine. The leffon to be drawn from fuch events is this, that a mixed government, which admits a partician order into its conftitution, ought to circumfcribe the perfonal privileges of the nobility, especially claims of hereditary jurisdiction and local authority, with a jealousy equal to the folicitude with which it provides for its own prefervation. For nothing fo alienates the minds of the people from the government under which they live, by a perpetual sense of annoyance and inconveniency; or so prepares them for the practices of an enterprifing prince, or a factious demagogue, as the abuse which almost always accompanies the existence of feparate immunities.

Amongst the inferior, but by no means inconfiderable advantages of a DEMOCRATIC conftitution, or of a conftitution in which the people partake of the power of legislation, the following fhould not be neglected.

I. The direction which it gives to the education, ftudies, and pursuits of the fuperior orders of the community. The share which this has in forming the public manners and national character is very important. In countries, in which the gentry are excluded from all concern in the government, fcarce any thing is left which leads to advancement, but the profeffion of arms. They who do not addict themselves to this profeffion (and mi

ferable

ferable must that country be, which conftantly employs the military service of a great proportion of any order of its fubjects) are commonly loft by the mere want of object and deftination; that is, they either fall without referve, into the most fortifh habits of animal gratification, or entirely devote themselves to the attainment of thofe futile arts and decorations, which compofe the bufinefs and recommendation of a court: on the other hand, where the whole, or any effective portion of civil power is poffeffed by a popular affembly, more ferious purfuits will be encouraged, purer morals and a more intellectual character will engage the public efteem; thofe faculties, which qualify men for deliberation and debate, and which are the fruit of sober habits, of early and long continued application, will be roufed and animated by the reward, which, of all others, moft readily awakens the ambition of the human mind, political dignity and importance.

II. Popular elections procure to the common people courtesy from their fuperiors. That conremptuous and overbearing infolence, with which the lower orders of the community are wont to be treated by the higher, is greatly mitigated where the people have fomething to give. The affiduity, with which their favour is fought upon these occafions, ferves to generate fettled habits of condefcenfion and respect; and as human life is more embittered by affronts than injuries, whatever contributes to procure mildness and civility of manners towards thofe who are moft liable to fuffer from a contrary behaviour, corrects, with the pride, in a great meature the evil of inequality, and deferves to be accounted amongst the most generous inftitutions of focial life.

III. The

III. The fatisfaction which the people in free governments derive from the knowledge and agitation of political subjects; such as the proceedings and debates of the fenate; the conduct and character of ministers; the revolutions, intrigues, and contentions of parties; and, in general, from the difcuffion of public meafures, questions, and occurrences. Subjects of this fort excite juft enough of intereft and emotion, to afford a moderate engagement to the thoughts, without rifing to any painful degree of anxiety, or ever leaving a fixed oppreffion upon the fpirits-and what is this, but the end and aim of all those amusements, which compose so much of the bufinefs of life and of the value of riches? For my part, and I believe it to be the cafe with moft men, who are arrived at the middle age, and occupy the middle claffes of life, had I all the money, which I pay in taxes to government, at liberty to lay out upon amusement and diverfion, I know not whether I could make choice of any, in which I should find greater pleasure, than what I receive from expecting, hearing, and relating public news, reading parliamentary debates, and proceedings; canvafling the political arguments, projects, predictions, and intelligence, which are conveyed, by various channels, to every corner of the kingdom. Thefe topics, exciting univerfal curiofity, and being fuch as almost every man is ready to form, and prepared to deliver their opinion about, greatly promote, and, I think, improve converfation. They render it more rational and more innocent. They fupply a fubftitute for drinking, gaming, fcandal, and obscenity. Now the fecrecy, the jealoufy, the folitude and precipitation of defpotic governments exclude all this. But the lofs, you fay, is trifling. I know that it is poffible to render even the

mention

« AnteriorContinuar »