DELEGATED POWER OF THE PEOPLE.

183

him a horse to fly from the fury of the nobles; and he was at last compelled to lay violent hands upon himself, while he invoked the wrath of the gods on his inconstant fellow

citizens.

At other times, they raised divisions among the people. Formidable combinations broke out suddenly on the eve of important transactions: and all moderate men avoided attending assemblies, where they saw that all was to be tumult and confusion.

In fine, that nothing might be wanting to the insolence with which they treated the assemblies of the people, they sometimes falsified the declarations of the number of the votes; and once they even went so far as to carry off the urns into which the citizens were to throw their suffrages.*

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SUBJECT CONCLUDED-EFFECTS THAT HAVE RESULTED IN THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT FROM THE PEOPLE'S POWER BEING COMPLETELY DELEGATED TO THEIR REPRESENTATIVES.

BUT when the people have entirely trusted their power to a moderate number of persons, affairs immediately take a widely different turn. Those who govern are from that moment obliged to leave off all those stratagems which had hitherto ensured their success. Instead of those assemblies which they affected to despise, and were perpetually

The reader, with respect to all the above observations, may see Plutarch's Lives, particularly the lives of the two Gracchi. I must add, that I have avoided drawing any instance from those assemblies in which one half of the people were made to arm themselves against the other. I have here only alluded to those times which immediately either preceded or followed the third Punic war, as these are commonly called the best period of the republic.

This is an inaccurate assertion. The power of the people of England has never been entirely delegated to their representatives. The power only of those who are qualified as electors cannot be considered as the power of the whole people. If the assertion of De Lolme were true it would amount to universal suffrage.-Ed.

comparing to storms, or to the current of the Euripus,* and in regard to which they accordingly thought themselves at liberty to pass over the rules of justice, they now find that they have to deal with men who are their equals in point of education and knowledge, and their inferiors only in point of rank and form. They, in consequence, soon find it necessary to adopt quite different methods; and, above all, become very careful not to talk to them any more about the sacred chickens, the white or black days, and the Sibylline books. As they see their new adversaries expect to have a proper regard paid to them, that single circumstance inspires them with it as they see them act in a regular manner, observe constant rules, in a word, proceed with form, they come to look upon them with respect, for the very same reason which makes them themselves to be reverenced by the people.

:

The representatives of the people, on the other hand, do not fail soon to procure for themselves every advantage that may enable them effectually to use the powers with which they have been intrusted, and to adopt every rule of proceeding that may make their resolutions to be truly the result of reflection and deliberation. Thus it was that the representatives of the English nation, soon after their first establishment, became formed into a separate assembly: they afterwards obtained the liberty of appointing a president: soon after, they insisted upon their being consulted on the last form of the acts to which they had given rise: lastly, they insisted on thenceforth framing them themselves.

In order to prevent any possibility of surprise in the course of their proceedings, it is a settled rule with them, that every proposition, or bill, must be read three times, at different prefixed days,+ before it can receive a final sanction:

*Tully makes no end of his similes on this subject. Quod enim fretum, quem Euripum, tot motus, tantas et tam varias habere putatis agitationes fluctuum, quantas perturbationes et quantos astus habet ratio comitiorum? See Orat. pro Murænâ.— Concio, says he, in another place, quæ ex imperitissimis constat, &c. De Amicitiâ, § 25.

+ It has occasionally been found expedient to pass a law without delay. This is done, as was lately the case in regard to the funeral of the Duke of Wellington, by placing that day commercially as if it were Sunday. By suspending the standing orders, the bill to that effect was read three times in both Houses in one day.-Ed.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN THE COMMONS.

185

and before each reading of the bill, as well as at its first introduction, an express resolution must be taken to continue it under consideration. If the bill be rejected in any one of those several operations, it must be dropped, and cannot be proposed again during the same session.*

The Commons have been, above all, jealous of the freedom of speech in their assembly. They have expressly stipulated, as we have mentioned above, that none of their words or speeches should be questioned in any place out of their House. In fine, in order to keep their deliberations free from every kind of influence, they have denied their president the right to give his vote, or even his opinion: they moreover have settled it as a rule, not only that the king could not send to them any express proposal about laws, or other subjects, but even that his name should never be mentioned in the deliberations.†

But that circumstance which, of all others, constitutes the superior excellence of a government in which the people act only through their representatives, that is, by means of an assembly formed of a moderate number of persons, and in which it is possible for every member to propose new subjects, and to argue and to canvass the questions that arise,-is, that such a constitution is the only one capable of the immense advantage (of which perhaps I did not convey an adequate idea to the reader when I mentioned it before) of putting into the hands of the people the moving springs of the legislative authority.

In a constitution where the people at large exercise the

It is, moreover, a settled rule in the House of Commons, that no member is to speak more than once in the some debate. When the number and nature of the clauses of a bill require that it should be discussed in a free manner, a committee is appointed for the purpose, who are to make their report afterwards to the House. When the subject is of importance, this committee is formed of the whole House, which still continues to sit in the same place, but in a less solemn manner, and under another president, who is called the chairman of the committee. In order to form the House again, the mace is replaced on the table, and the Speaker goes again into his chair.

If any person should mention in his speech, what the king wishes should be, would be glad to see, &c. he would be immediately called to order, for attempting to influence the debate.

See chap. iv. of this book.

function of enacting the laws, as it is only to those persons towards whom the citizens are accustomed to turn their eyes, that is, to the very men who govern, that the assembly have either time or inclination to listen, they acquire, at length, as has constantly been the case in all republics, the exclusive right of proposing, if they please, when they please, in what manner they please: a prerogative this, of such extent, that it would suffice to put an assembly, formed of men of the greatest parts, at the mercy of a few dunces, and renders completely illusory the boasted power of the people. Nay more, as this prerogative is thus placed in the very hands of the adversaries of the people, it forces the people to remain exposed to their attacks, in a condition perpetually passive, and takes from them the only legal means by which they might effectually oppose their usurpations.

To express the whole in a few words-A representative constitution places the remedy in the hands of those who feel the disorder :* but a popular constitution places the remedy in the hands of those who cause it: and it is necessarily productive, in the event, of the misfortune-of the political calamity, of trusting the care and the means of repressing the invasions of power, to the men who have the enjoyment of power.

CHAPTER IX.

A FARTHER DISADVANTAGE

OF REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENTS. -THE PEOPLE ARE NECESSARILY BETRAYED BY THOSE IN WHOM THEY TRUST.

HOWEVER, those general assemblies of a people who were made to determine upon things which they neither under

If a popular constitution is construed to mean that in which the authority of the multitude prevails, there would be no security against anarchy, which eventually would end in despotism. The only free government which can practically exist is one which is based on equitable representative legislation. A disproportionately great number of representatives would also render a legislative representative assembly far less practically deliberative than if the assembly were confined to a moderate number. Probably all the rotten boroughs in England might

DISADVANTAGES OF REPUBLICS.

187

stood nor examined, that general confusion in which the ambitious could at all times hide their artifices, and carry on their schemes with safety,-were not the only evils attending the ancient commonwealths. There was a more secret defect, and a defect that struck immediately at the very vitals of it, inherent in that kind of government.

As

It was impossible for the people ever to have faithful defenders. Neither those whom they had expressly chosen, nor those whom some personal advantages enabled to govern the assemblies (for the only use, I must repeat it, which the people ever make of their power, is either to give it away, or allow it to be taken from them), could possibly be united to them by any common feeling of the same concerns. their influence put them, in a great measure, upon a level with those who were invested with the executive authority, they cared little to restrain oppressions out of the reach of which they saw themselves placed. Nay, they feared they should thereby lessen a power which they knew was one day to be their own; if they had not even already an actual share in it.*

Thus, at Rome, the only end which the tribunes ever pursued with any degree of sincerity and perseverance, was to procure to the people, that is, to themselves, an admission to all the different dignities in the republic. After having obtained that a law should be enacted for admitting plebeians to the consulship, they procured for them the liberty of intermarrying with the patricians. They afterwards rendered them admissible to the dictatorship, to the office of military tribune, to the censorship: in a word, the only use they made of the power of the people was to increase privileges which they called the privileges of all, though they and their friends alone were ever likely to have the enjoyment of them.

be disfranchised with great legislative advantage; even if no new members were elected to replace their present representatives, by an extended representation of large towns and counties.-Ed.

* How could it be expected that men who entertained views of being prætors, would endeavour to restrain the power of the prætors,-that men who aimed at being one day consuls, would wish to limit the power of the consuls, that men whom their influence among the people made sure of getting into the senate, would seriously endeavour to confine the authority of the senate?