part of legislation in the hands of the representatives of the nation, and committed the care of alleviating the grievances of the people to persons who either feel them, or see them nearly, and whose surest path to advancement and fame is to be active in finding remedies for them. I mean not, however, to affirm, that the English govern. ment is free from abuses, or that all possible good laws are enacted; but that there is a constant tendency in it, both to correct the one and improve the other: and that all the laws which are in being are strictly executed, whenever appealed to, is what I look upon as the characteristic and undisputed advantage of the English constitution-a constitution the more likely to produce all the effects we have mentioned, and to procure in general the happiness of the people, since it has taken mankind as they are, and has not endeavoured to prevent every thing, but to regulate every thing; I shall add, the more difficult to discover, because its form is complicated, while its principles are natural and simple. Hence it is that the politicians of antiquity, sensible of the inconveniences of the governments they had opportunities of knowing, wished for the establishment of such a government, without much hope of ever seeing it realized:* even Tacitus, an excellent judge of political subjects, considered it as a project entirely chimerical.+ Nor was it because he had not thought of it, had not reflected on it, that he was of this opinion: he had sought for such a government, had had a glimpse of it, and yet continued to pronounce it impracticable. Let us not, therefore, ascribe to the confined views of man, to his imperfect sagacity, the discovery of this important secret. The world might have grown old, genera. tions might have succeeded generations, still seeking it in vain. It has been by a fortunate conjunction of circumstances-I shall add, by the assistance of a favourable situation-that Liberty has at last been able to erect herself a temple. Invoked by every nation, but of too delicate a nature, as it should seem, to subsist in societies formed of such im 'Statuo esse optime constitutam rempublicam quæ ex tribus generibus illis, regali, optimo, et populari, modice confusa.'-Cic. Fragm. +Cunctas nationes et urbes, populus, aut priores, aut singuli, regunt. Delecta ex his et constituta reipublica forma, laudari facilius quam eventre: vel, si evenit, haud diuturna esse potest.'-Tac. Ann. lib. iv. perfect beings as mankind, she shewed, and merely shewed herself, to the ingenious nations of antiquity who inhabit. ed the south of Europe. They were constantly mistaken in the form of the worship they paid to her. As they continually aimed at extending dominion and conquest over other nations, they were no less mistaken in the spirit of that worship; and though they continued for ages to pay their devotions to this divinity, she still continued, with regard to them, to be the unknown goddess. Excluded, since that time, from those places to which she had seemed to give a preference, driven to the extremity of the western world, banished even out of the continent, she has taken refuge in the Atlantic Ocean. There it is, that, freed from the dangers of external disturbance, and assisted by a happy pre-arrangement of things, she has been able to display the form that suited her; and she has found six centuries to have been necessary for the completion of her work. Being sheltered, as it were, within a citadel, she there reigns over a nation, which is the better entitled to her favours, as it endeavours to extend her empire, and carries with it, to every part of its dominions, the blessings of in dustry and equality. Fenced in on every side (to use the expressions of Chamberlayne) with a wide and deep ditch, the sea-guarded with strong out-works, its ships of war, and defended by the courage of her seamen-she preserves that mysterious essence, that sacred fire so difficult to be kindled, and which, if it were once extinguished, would perhaps never be lighted again. When the world shall have been again laid waste by conquerors, she will still continue to shew mankind, not only the principle that ought to unite them, but, what is of no less importance, of the form under which they ought to be united. And the philosopher, when he considers the constant fate of civil societies among men, and observes the numerous and powerful causes which seem, as it were, unavoidably to conduct them all to a state of political slavery, will take comfort in seeing that Liberty has at length disclosed her nature and genuine principles, and secured to herself an asylum, against despotism on one hand, and popular licentiousness on the other. INDEX. AMERICAN colonies, their claim of voting supplies to the 1 Appeal, in case of murder, its effects, and to whom al- Army, restrictions on the power of the king in regard to Arrest, method of, in civil causes, by the English laws, Assemblies, popular, the disadvantages they lie under in Athens, arbitrary proceedings of its magistrates, 157. Author, occasional personal remarks of his, 208. 239, Barons, originally, in a great measure, independent in Beauchamp, lord, procures the passing of a bill for limit- Bills, how deliberated upon and framed, 51, 52. 132. 136. Bill of Rights, an account of, 47. Utility of its provi- Blackstone, judge, quoted, 52. 90, note. 110, note. 201. Burnet, bishop, quoted, 203. 252. Cæsar, public speech of his quoted, 211. Censorial power, that established in Rome only a senato. Censors, in Rome, might remove a man from one tribe Chancery, court of, its office in regard to the framing of Charles I. sketch of his reign, 42-45. Maintains his Charles II. conduct of, 44. Charta Magna, substance of, 31, 32. Cicero quoted, 80. 88. 151, note. 152, note. 157, note. 197. Civil power in England, how superior to the military, 248. 250. · Civil Roman laws, the constant dislike of the English Coke, sir Edward, quoted, 107, note. 109, note. 132, note. Comines, Philip de, quoted, 38, note. Commons, English, their origin under Henry III. and the laws they have framed at particular times, 190, 191, Commonwealths, the people in them apt to be misled by Conquest, the, is the real era of the formation of the pre- Constitution, English, the eras of its formation, 22. 38. 47. |