COURTESY OF PARLIAMENT. 333 CHAPTER XXI. CONCLUSION.-A FEW WORDS ON THE NATURE OF THE DIVISIONS THAT TAKE PLACE IN ENGLAND. I SHALL conclude this work with a few observations on the total freedom from violence with which the political disputes and contentions in England are conducted and rests of Britain and of America from being brought to an issue-to any such clashing dilemma as would render disobedience on the one hand, and the resort to force on the other, almost unavoidable. The generality of the people fancy that ministers use a great depth of thought and much forecast in their operations; whereas the truth is, that ministers in all countries never think but of providing for present, immediate contingencies; in doing which they constantly follow the open track before them. This method does very well for the common course of human affairs, and even is the safest; but whenever cases and circumstances of a new and unknown nature occur, sad blunders and uproar are the consequences. The celebrated Count Oxenstiern, Chancellor of Sweden, one day when his son was expressing to him his diffidence of his own abilities, and the dread with which he thought of ever engaging in the management of public affairs, made the following Latin answer to him:"Nescis, mi fili, quam parvâ cum sapientiâ regitur mundus." "You do not know, my son, with what little wisdom the world is governed." Matters having come to an eruption, it was no longer to be expected they could be composed by the palliative offers sent at different times from this country to America. When the Earl of Carlisle solicited to be at the head of the solemn commission that sailed for the purpose we mention, he did not certainly show modesty equal to that of the son of Chancellor Oxenstiern. It has been said, in that stage of the contest, the Americans could not think that the proposals thus sent to them were seriously meant: however, this cannot have been the principal cause of the miscarriage of the commission. The fact is, that after the Americans had been induced to open their eyes on their political situation, and were rendered sensible of the local advantages of their country, it became in a manner impossible to strike with them any bargain at which either nation would afterwards have cause to rejoice, or even to make any bargain at all. It would be needless to say any thing more, in this place, on the subject of the American contest. The motto of one of the English nobility should have been that of ministers, in their regulations for rendering the colonies useful to the mother country-Faire sans dire. terminated, in order both to give a farther proof of the soundness of the principles on which the English government is founded, and to confute in general the opinion of foreign writers or politicians, who, misled by the apparent heat with which these disputes are sometimes carried on, and the clamour to which they give occasion, look upon England as a perpetual scene of civil broils and dissensions. In fact, if we consider, in the first place, the constant tenor of the conduct of the parliament, we shall see that whatever different views the several branches that compose it may at times pursue, and whatever use they may accordingly make of their privileges, they never go, in regard to each other, beyond the terms of decency, or even of that general good understanding which ought to prevail among them. Thus the king, though he preserves the style of his dignity, never addresses the two Houses but in terms of regard and affection: and if at any time he chooses to refuse their bills, he only says that he will consider of them (le roy s'avisera); which is certainly a gentler expression than the word veto. The two Houses on their part, though very jealous, each within their own walls, of the freedom of speech, are, on the other hand, careful that this liberty shall never break out into unguarded expressions with regard to the person of the king. It is even a constant rule amongst them never to mention him, when they mean to blame the administration; and those things which they may choose to censure, even in the speeches made by the king in person, and which are apparently his own acts, are never considered but as the deeds of his ministers, or, in general, of those who have advised him. The two Houses are also equally attentive to prevent every step that might be inconsistent with that respect which they owe to one another. The examples of their differences with each other are very rare, and have been, for the most part, mere misunderstandings. Nay, in order to prevent all subject of altercation, the custom is, that, when one House refuses to assent to a bill presented by the other, no formal declaration is made of such refusal; and that House whose bill is rejected, learns its fate only from COURTESY OF PARLIAMENT. 335 hearing no more of it, or by what the members may be told as private persons. In each House, the members take care, even in the heat of debate, never to go beyond certain bounds in their manner of speaking of each other: if they were to offend in that respect, they would certainly incur the censure of the House. And as reason has taught mankind to refrain, in their wars, from all injuries to each other that have no tendency to promote the main object of their contentions, so a kind of law of nations (if I may so express myself) has been introduced among the persons who form the parliament and take a part in the debates; they have discovered that they may very well be of opposite parties, and yet not hate. and persecute one another. Coming fresh from debates carried on even with considerable warmth, they meet without reluctance in the ordinary intercourse of life; and, suspending all hostilities, they hold every place out of parliament to be neutral ground. In regard to the generality of the people, as they never are called upon to come to a final decision with respect to any public measures, or expressly to concur in supporting them, they preserve themselves still more free from party spirit than their representatives themselves sometimes are. Considering, as we have observed, the affairs of government as only matter of speculation, they never have occasion to engage in any vehement contests among themselves on that account: much less do they think of taking an active and violent part in the differences of particular factions, or the quarrels of private individuals. And those family feuds, those party animosities, those victories and consequent outrages of factions alternately successful; in short, all those inconveniences which in so many other states have constantly been the attendants of liberty, and which authors tell us we must submit to, as the price of it, are things in very great measure unknown in England. But are not the English perpetually making complaints against the administration? and do they not speak and write as if they were continually exposed to grievances of every kind? Undoubtedly, I shall answer, in a society of beings subject to error, dissatisfaction will necessarily arise from some quarter or other; and, in a free society, they will be openly manifested by complaints. Besides, as every man in England is permitted to give his opinion upon all snbjects, and as, to watch over the administration, and complain of grievances, is the proper duty of the representatives of the people, complaints must necessarily be heard in such a government, and even more frequently, and upon more subjects, than in any other. But those complaints, it should be remembered, are not in England the cries of oppression forced at last to break its silence. They do not suppose hearts deeply wounded. Nay, I will go farther, they do not even suppose very determinate sentiments; and they are nothing more than the first vent which men give to their new and yet unsettled conceptions. The agitation of the popular mind, therefore, is not in England what it would be in other states; it is not the symptom of a profound and general discontent, and the forerunner of violent commotions. Foreseen, regulated, even hoped for by the constitution, this agitation animates all parts of the state, and is to be considered only as the beneficial vicissitude of the seasons. The governing power, being dependent on the nation, is often thwarted; but, so long as it continues to deserve the affection of the people, it can never be endangered. Like a vigorous tree which stretches its branches far and wide, the slightest breath can put it in motion; but it acquires and exerts at every moment a new degree of force, and resists the winds, by the strength and elasticity of its fibres, and the depth of its roots. In a word, whatever revolutions may at times happen among the persons who conduct the public affairs in England, they never occasion the shortest interruption of the power of the laws, or the smallest diminution of the security of individuals.* A man who should have incurred the enmity * No observation can be more just. Within the last two years, when for several days after the first resignation of Lord John Russell, and when it was said "there was no government," a distinguished foreigner, in conversation with the Editor in the portico of the Athenæum Club, alluded to the absence of excitement in such an event to the tranquillity and security which prevailed in the town and country; and he then SECURITY OF INDIVIDUALS. 337 of the most powerful men in the state-what do I say ?— though he had, like another Vatinius drawn upon himself the united detestation of all parties,-might, under the protection of the laws, and by keeping within the bounds required by them, continue to set both his enemies and the whole nation at defiance. The limits prescribed to this book do not admit of entering into any farther particulars on the subject we are treating here; but if we were to pursue this inquiry, and investigate the influence which the English government has on the manners and customs of the people, perhaps we should find that, instead of inspiring them with any disposition to disorder or anarchy, it produces in them a quite contrary effect. As they see the highest powers in the state constantly submit to the laws, and they receive, themselves, such a certain protection from those laws whenever they appeal to them, it is impossible but they must insensibly contract a deep-rooted reverence for them, which can at no time cease to have some influence on their actions. And, in fact, we see that even the lower classes of the people, in England, notwithstanding the apparent excesses into which they are sometimes hurried, possess a spirit of justice and order superior to what is to be observed in the same rank of men in other countries. The extraordinary indulgence which is shown to accused persons of every degree, is not In remarked, "that nothing could be more instructive to legislators, statesmen, and rulers, than the condition of England at that time. France," he said, "the idea of the country being without a government for a day would create consternation. Here industry is not in the least impeded; the funds and public securities are not disturbed; tranquillity prevails everywhere; every body is attending to his particular pursuit; ships arrive and depart, discharge and take on board their cargoes; railway traffic is as brisk as ever; public and private carriages roll on as usual; prices are not disturbed; intercourse by your steam-packets and by post goes on as usual; and were it not for a leading article in the newspapers, it would be difficult to ascertain that the ministry had resigned, or whether a new ministry was likely to be formed." The truth is, that in Great Britain we govern ourselves: each locality has its local self-government, and every British house is, in fact, a little government within itself. This is the secret of the tranquillity and security which has so long prevailed in our streets and in our towns, in our fields and highways, while the nations of continental Europe have been plunged in the calamities of revolution and bloodshed.-Ed. |