CORNELL 
 
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 THIS BOOK IS ONE OF A 
 COLLECTION MADE BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
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 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
Cornell University Library 
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 Thoughts on government and legislation. 
 
 olin 
 
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 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
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THOUGHTS 
 
 ON 
 
 aOYEEHENT km LEGISLATION. 
 
 By lord WEOTTESLEY, F.R.S. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN MUBEAY, ALBEMAELE STEEET. 
 
 1860. 
 
 The rigM (f Fnmslation is reserved. ^i '-' . 
 
/// 
 
 /\iaoynj^ 
 
 PRIKTED BY W. CIX)\VES AND SONS, STAMFOim STREET, 
 AKD CHARniG CROSS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 r|"MIE following short treatise has no pretensions 
 to originality: it is rather of an elementary 
 character, and consists chiefly of extracts from the 
 best modem writers on the philosophy of the Art 
 of GoTemment and Legislation, with a few re- 
 marks on cognate subjects, and a short sketch of 
 the present state of this country in reference to 
 some of the matters treated of 
 
 The works, howcTer, from which the principal 
 portion of the subject-matter has been taken, are 
 in some cases out of print and hard to be pro- 
 cured, and ia others costly and beyond the means 
 of many readers. 
 
 It was therefore thought that a publication of 
 this unpretending description might possibly prove 
 useful, not only ia the higher class of schools and 
 the UniTcrsities, but, perhaps, even to those who 
 were looking forward to the possession of a seat ia 
 either House of Parliament, 
 
 Wrotteshy, March 21s*, 1859. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Paoe 
 
 Chap. I. — Of Government and its Objects .. 1 
 
 II. — Of National Happiness 28 
 
 III. — Op THE Eationale OF Government .. 59 
 
 IV. — On the Influbnob of Time and Place 
 
 ON Government AND Legislation .. 110 
 
 V. — On Legislators, their Studies and 
 
 Qualifications 147 
 
 VI. — On the Present Condition of England 186 
 
GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. 
 
 OHAPTEK I. 
 Of Goveenment aud its Objects. 
 
 "VTO one who has attentively observed and re- 
 -'-^ fleeted on the phenomena presented to his 
 senses in the temporary abode assigned to him by 
 the Great Author of his being, can have any diffi- 
 culty in arriving at the conclusion that the Creator 
 wills the happiness of all His sentient creatures. 
 
 A walk on a summer morning among rural 
 sights and sounds will present to us at almost 
 every step numberless beings employed in the 
 cheerful exercise of the faculties bestowed on 
 them ; and this very exercise seems to be a never- 
 failing source of gladness to all who partake in it. 
 The energetic movements in which the young of 
 all animals take slich evident delight, and which 
 by a wise provision are also rendered instrumental 
 to growth and development, show that when that 
 mysterious principle to which we give the name of 
 "instindt" is left to operate uncontrolled by aiii- 
 
 B 
 
2 GOVEENMENT AND ITS OBJECTS. Chap. I. 
 
 ficial restraints, it stimulates to those healthful 
 enjoyments which cause life to be felt as a real 
 blessing. Our own inward conyictions lead to the 
 conclusion that man is no exception in this general 
 scheme of benevolence, and that happiness is our 
 normal state, and the end for which we were 
 created. This happiness, however, in order to be 
 acceptable to the Author of our being, must be 
 of that quality which He would approve.* Tliis 
 being premised, it is plain that all institutions 
 which have for their object the promotion of such 
 happiness are in harmony with the wishes of the 
 Creator. In treating of these questions it is neces- 
 sary to view man in his twofold capacity, as an 
 individual, and as one of the, members of a nume- 
 rous society ; for man is evidently a social being, 
 and destined to live in company with his fellows. 
 The pleasure or happiness, therefore, which he is 
 permitted to enjoy as an individual must be such 
 as is compatible with the existence of a similar 
 state of enjoyment in other members of the com- 
 munity to which he belongs ; and society must be 
 organized accordingly. 
 
 If mankind were a community to which evil 
 passions had no access— if men were angels— the 
 distinctions above adverted to would have no apph- 
 cation : there would be no disposition in any to 
 indulge in pleasures which were inimical to the 
 
 * EuTTpoJio ixer' iperris. Aristot. Ehet., Lib. i.. Cap. 5. 
 
Chap. I. PROMOTION OF HAPPINESS. 3 
 
 happiness of the rest. Again, there is a class of 
 pleasures which, though they confer temporary 
 enjoyment, have a tendency to produce greater 
 future pain ; and this not merely to the individual 
 himself, the subject of the enjoyment (for this 
 would be an offence imder another head, to which 
 allusion will presently be made), but to the society 
 of which he is a member. It is not correct, there- 
 fore, to say that institutions which promote any 
 sort of happiness must necessarily be in harmony 
 with the wiU of God. 
 
 The mode in which institutions promote happi- 
 ness is by enjoining or forbidding certain actions. 
 Some human actions are found to forward the 
 benevolent intentions of Providence, others are 
 adverse to them. The former should be enjoined 
 or encouraged, the latter forbidden or discouraged. 
 But in estimating the effect of actions it is neces- 
 sary always to consider nqt; their immediate opera- 
 tion only, but their ultirreate tendency ; and if this 
 be beneficent or useful, the action may be assumed 
 to be comformable to His wiU ; if mischievous or 
 pernicious, to be opposed to it.* The former, 
 as promoting His benevolent purposes. He must 
 be assumed to have commanded; the latter, as 
 
 * A starving man purloins a loaf : the immediate effect is to 
 relieve a pressing necessity ; the ultimate tendency is most 
 injurious to the best interests of society, as impairing the 
 security of property. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 GOVERNMENT AND ITS OBJECTS. Chap. I. 
 
 opposed to those purposes, to have prohibited. 
 Knowing the ultimate tendencies of our actions, 
 and the benevolent intentions of our Creator, we 
 discern His tacit commands. The ultimate ten- 
 dencies, therefore— or, in other words, the sum of 
 the probable consequences of any human action — 
 are an index to the will of God, and show whether 
 that particular act is approved or condemned by 
 Him.* 
 
 If indeed His will be expressly revealed, the 
 foregoing remarks are inapplicable ; for the whole 
 of the argument assumes that God has not spoken, 
 has issued no special commands, in the cases to 
 which reference has been made. 
 
 The ultimate tendencies of many actions are 
 very hard to discover, especially when civilization 
 has made much progress ; for then human actions 
 are very various, and their effects are complicated, 
 very hard to trace, and infinitely diversified : but 
 of this we may be always sure, that those of which 
 the ultimate tendencies are proved to be injurious 
 ' to the happiness of the community, are forbidden 
 by God. Human institutions, therefore, being in- 
 tended to promote the happiness of manldnd, an 
 end agreeable to the will of God, should clearly 
 have for their object the discouragement of all 
 such actions, although they may confer some tran- 
 sient pleasure upon the actors themselves. In 
 * Austin, 'Province of Jnrisprudeuce,' pp. 35 et sea. 
 
Chap. I. . ETHICS. 5 
 
 the present state of the world the only effectual 
 discouragement is generally prohibition, with a 
 penalty for non-obedience, and this involves con- 
 trol of some kind or other ; and we thus arrive 
 at the conclusion that the happiness of a com- 
 munity cannot be secured without the exercise of 
 control. Kow, control as exercised on men living 
 together in society is only another name for 
 Grovernment. Some , kind of government must be 
 established in order that these unions of men in 
 society may enjoy that happiness which is their 
 destined lot ; and when established, as Lord Bacon 
 says of law, its " Finis et scopus non alius est, quam 
 ut cives feliciter degant." 
 
 That science to which we give the name of the 
 science of Government is a branch of that to which 
 the name of Ethics has been applied. Ethics consists 
 of two departments. — first, the science of Morals ; 
 and, secondly, the science of Government. " The 
 whole difference," says Bentham,* " between poli- 
 tics and morals is this : the one directs the opera- 
 tions of governments, the other directs the pro- 
 ceedings of individuals ; their common object is 
 happiness. That which is politically good cannot 
 be morally bad ; unless the rules of arithmetic, 
 which are true for great numbers, are false as 
 respects those which are small." 
 
 ^ 'Principles of Morals and Legislation,' Bowring's edition 
 of 1843, p. 12. 
 
6 GOVEENMENT ANB ITS OBJECTS. Chap. I. 
 
 Now, government is exercised in many different 
 ways, and the first great distinction to which it is 
 necessary to advert is that which relates to the 
 powers of those who take a part in the govern- 
 ment. These powers may be either supreme or 
 subordinate. The supreme power usually com- 
 mands that a particular course of conduct shall be 
 invariably observed ; and when these commands 
 are enforced by sanctions, that is, penalties for non- 
 obedience, they are called Laws. The supreme 
 power, therefore, exercises the art of Legislation, 
 which art is a branch of that of Government. 
 
 The subordinate powers derive their authority 
 from the supreme, and carry into execution the 
 commands or laws of their superior. In so 
 doing they often issue what may be called Ordi- 
 nances, in contradistinction to Laws properly so 
 called. 
 
 The Parliament of this country is an example of 
 the former kind of power ; the Executive Govern- 
 ment, the Judges, Ambassadors, and inferior offi- 
 cers, of the latter. 
 
 In addition to these two sources of control, men 
 are restrained from destroying the happiness of 
 their fellow-men by two other descriptions of laws, 
 —first, Those set by God, or Divine Law; se- 
 condly, Those set by public opinion of men. 
 
 In the work of Mr. Austin, to which reference 
 has been already made, are to be found accurate 
 
Chat. I. DIVISIONS OP LAWS. 7 
 
 definitions of the technical terms applicable to this 
 branch of our subject. He classes laws under three 
 great divisions : — 
 
 First, Divine Laws ; these are laws set by God 
 to human creatures. 
 
 Secondly, Positive Laws ; that is, permanent 
 rules of conduct, set by a sovereign person, or 
 sovereign determiuate body, to members of the 
 independent political society wherein that per- 
 son or body is sovereign or supreme. 
 
 Thirdly, Positive Moral Rules ; that is, first, laws 
 set by men, but not as political superiors ; and, 
 secondly, laws closely analogous to laws proper, 
 but merely opinions or sentiments held or felt by 
 men in regard to conduct,* 
 
 Mr. Austia uses the term " Natural Law" to 
 denote a portion of both Positive Laws and Positive 
 Morality, viz. those human rules, legal and moral, 
 that have obtained at all times and in all places. -j- 
 
 The distinction between Laws properly so called 
 and those commands to which the name of Ordi- 
 nances, as a general appellation, has been given, is 
 this, that the former either directly or tacitly en- 
 join or restrain generally acts of a particular class ; 
 whereas the latter apply to specifie acts only, and 
 are occasional ia their nature. A direction by the 
 supreme authority that no one shall steal on pain 
 
 * Austin, ' Province of Jurisprudence,' p. 128. 
 t Ibid. p. 135. 
 
S GOVEENMENT AND ITS OBJECTS. Chap. I. 
 
 of being transported, is a law positive ; but an or- 
 der by the judge that A. B., having been convicted 
 of that crime, shall be sent to a particular penal 
 colony, is an ordinance ; and the various subor- 
 dinate officers who are employed in carrying out 
 this sentence, are in effect executing the positive 
 law of the supreme authority. 
 
 It will be evident at once to all that laws framed 
 by men, however highly advanced in civilization, 
 are likely to fall very far short of absolute per- 
 fection. The greatest happiness of the greatest 
 number,* which has for conciseness been called 
 " Utility," should be the proximate test both of po- 
 sitive laws and morality ; but the test or index is 
 imperfect and uncertain : our notions of the ulti- 
 mate tendencies of actions must be collected by 
 observation and induction, and by noting the result 
 of a multiplicity of human actions which have been 
 imperfectly classed, and of which the effects are 
 seldom accurately ascertained. It may be that to 
 class them completely, and trace all their effects, 
 transcends human powers ; but there can be no 
 doubt that, as experience enlarges, this difficult task 
 will be proportionately better performed, and legis- 
 lative and moral rules, laws, and morality, wiU, with 
 the progress of civilization, from this among other 
 causes, receive important improvements. Human 
 knowledge cannot embrace the whole field of 
 * Austin, p. 85. 
 
Chap. I. UTILITY. 9 
 
 , kuman conduct; but as knowledge expands an 
 impulse will be given to extended inquiry, and 
 the result of that inquiry will be, that many errors 
 in laws and morality wiU be gradually corrected. 
 
 Utility,* however, is only the proximate test of 
 the value of a law, not the measure to which 
 human conduct should conform, nor the test by 
 which it should be ultimately tried ; that ultimate 
 test is the law of God. Utility is the index to the 
 measure and the test, but it is not the source of 
 the duty to be performed ; neither is it necessarily 
 the motive, which ought to determine our conduct. 
 The good of society often requires that a man 
 should prefer his own to others' interests, but never 
 that he should pursue that selfish end by means 
 inconsistent with Utility. 
 
 The law itself is the signification of a desire, by 
 a definite rational party by words or signs to 
 another rational party (liable to evil if he disobey), 
 to do or forbear. The party commanded, being 
 liable to evil if he refuse, or neglect to obey, lies 
 under a duty or obligation to do so, and it is that 
 evil to which the name of sanction is given.! 
 
 The science, of jurisprudence is conceded with 
 
 positive law, which is its appropriate matter. Its 
 
 business is to trace and expound the means adapted 
 
 .to a certain end; and that end, to denote it most 
 
 V. generally, is the protection of rights. It does not 
 
 * Austin, pp. 114 et seq. t Ibid., pp. 5 et seq. 
 
10 GOVERNMENT AND ITS OBJECTS. Chap. I. 
 
 determine what ought to be rights, or what is that 
 distribution of power which is most conducive to 
 the happiness of mankind* They are properly- 
 termed jurists who study not one code merely of 
 municipal law, that is the collection of positive laws 
 of some one country in particular, but the prin- 
 ciples or rationale of law-making in the abstract. 
 
 The positive moral rules included under the 
 first of the above classes into which such rules 
 have been divided, are of three kinds : — first, those 
 set by men in a state of nature ; secondly, those 
 set by sovereigns, but not as political superiors ; 
 and, thirdly, those set by subjects as private 
 persons, and not in pursuance of legal rights, as, 
 e. g., by parents to children. 
 
 The laws set by public opinion are improperly 
 so called, because they are set by an indeterminate 
 body, and are in effect their opinion in regard to 
 a certain course of conduct. Thus international 
 law represents the opinions current among nations.f 
 
 It has been already explained that the distinc- 
 tion between supreme and subordinate pow«-s is 
 the basis of that between legislative and execu- 
 tive acts: but these acts are not easily distin- 
 gTiished apart. Laws are often executed by other 
 laws and commands, but on this subject it is 
 sufficient now to remark that the two powers are 
 
 * Mill, ' Fragment on Mackintosh,' p. 141. 
 t Austin, pp. 143 et seq. 
 
Chap. I. SANCTIONS. ] 1 
 
 not necessarily assigned to distinct bodies. The 
 supreme authority, for example, is often employed 
 in issuing commands which axe merely executory 
 of others formerly propounded by itself : in other 
 words, it frequently appears in the character of 
 an executive, helping to carry its own laws into 
 effect. 
 
 Sanctions th6n are the penalties denounced by 
 the three classes of laws against all who refuse 
 obedience. The penalties of the Divine law have 
 chiefly reference to another and future state of 
 existence. Those of positive laws are imposed 
 by the supreme authority, and announced in the 
 formal writing by which the law is propounded. 
 Those by which obedience to moral law is enforced 
 are of various kinds, and sometimes consist in the 
 loss of character and reputation; which may be 
 a more grievous punishment than the most severe 
 of those imposed by the sovereign authority. 
 Every sanction is an evil to suffer, and it would 
 clearly be contrary to the principle of utiKty to 
 impose any kind or any extent of sufferance, 
 however small, on any of the members of a com- 
 munity, unless the good to be thereby obtained 
 more than compensate for the evil inflicted. The 
 question, therefore, whether a particular act shall 
 or shall not be visited with a penalty, is not 
 resolved when the conclusion is duly arrived at, 
 that the ultimate tendency of the act itself is 
 
12 GOVERNMENT AND ITS OBJECTS. CHAP. I. 
 
 adverse to utility; for the question still remains, 
 whether more good than evil will accrue frorn^ 
 punishing its author. 
 
 It would be entirely inconsistent with the 
 brevity which it is necessary to observe in dis- 
 cussing these matters, were an attempt to be made 
 to explain aU these subjects at length. The 
 reader will probably, in the works of Mr. Bentham 
 and Mr. Austin, find a solution of any doubts 
 which he may be disposed to entertain as, to the 
 soundness of the principles here laid down. At 
 the same time, however much one may admire 
 and honour the talents of both the distinguished 
 writers to whom reference has been made, and 
 from whose works it will be necessary to borrow 
 largely, as in no others is there to be found so 
 clear and in general so correct a statement of the 
 leading principles of the science of government, 
 including in that term the art of legislation, such 
 an admiration by no means involves an entire 
 assent to all the doctrines promulgated by those 
 able jurists. 
 
 Communities then are restrained by laws ; and 
 the first great division of positive laws is formed 
 by considering them in two principal and different 
 points of view : first, with reference to their sources ; 
 and, secondly, with reference to their purposes, and 
 the subject-matter to which they relate. Now 
 their origiu being in all cases the supreme authority 
 
Chap. I. SOVEEEIGNTY. 13 
 
 established in the community which they are framed 
 to control, we are thus naturally led in the next 
 place to consider the nature and constitution of 
 these sovereign bodies. 
 
 A sovereign or supreme authority has been 
 established wherever the majority, or at all events 
 a very large portion of a community, have been in 
 the constant habit of obedience to a determinate 
 and common superior.* This is believed to be the 
 most correct definition and surest mark of sove- 
 reignty properly so called ; and it describes also 
 the only method in which any of the existing 
 governments can Jiave ia faci; taken their rise. It 
 seems unnecessary therefore to discuss the fiction 
 of the original compact, which is now rejected by 
 most of the influential jurists and political philoso- 
 phers of the age. This at least is certain, that 
 there is no warrant in history for assuming that any 
 such primitive arrangement was the actual origiu 
 of dominion in any civilized nation ; it was not even 
 the origin or foundation of the constitution of the 
 United States. This consideration deprives the 
 hypothesis of all title to be designated as a fact ; 
 and it were easy to show that as a speculation it is 
 Worthless. 
 
 An independent political society has been 
 established when the supreme authority in any 
 
 * Austin, p. 199 ; and see Bentham's 'Fragment on Govern- 
 ment,' p. 263 et seq. 
 
14 GOVEENMENT AND ITS OBJECTS. Chap. I. 
 
 community is not in the habit of obeying any 
 other determinate human superior. A natural 
 society, as contradistinguished from an independent 
 political society, is composed of persons connected 
 indeed by mutual intercourse and so constituting a 
 society, but not members of any such body as that 
 which has been before designated by the latter 
 title. In a natural society, properly so called, aU 
 are politically independent ; none can be properly 
 said to be formally subject.* 
 
 A subordinate political society is merely a limb 
 or member of an independent political society ; all 
 the persons composing it live in a state of subjec- 
 tion to one and the same sovereign. 
 
 The terms " sovereign " and " supreme authority" 
 will be used hereafter to designate that body which 
 wields the legislative authority, and which is or 
 ought to be, as wiU be shown hereafter, omnipotent 
 in the community for which it performs that very 
 important function. The term " sovereign " is often 
 used synonymously with " King " and " Monarch" 
 and signifies a single individual armed with greater 
 or less powers of government, but it will never be 
 employed in this sense. 
 
 The marks and characteristics of sovereignty 
 and of independence above described are, doubt- 
 less, fallible and uncertain tests; but so it must 
 ever be in social questions of degree of this nature, 
 
 * Austin, p. 207. 
 
Chap. I. SOVEREIGNTY. 15 
 
 when the particular phenomenon described does 
 not admit of being defined by any event capable 
 of exact specification. It were as easy to assign 
 exactly the period at which night ends and day 
 begins, and when barbarism brightens into civili- 
 zation, as to say whether supremacy and inde- 
 pendence were at some given period of its history 
 established in any community. Would it be pos- 
 sible, for example, to define the exact instant at 
 which a supreme authority, answering to any 
 proper definition that could be given of that term, 
 was established in England after the breaking out 
 of the Great EebeUion ? but that it was established, 
 that a Government de facto, if not de jure, was 
 formed at some period between 1642 and 1660, 
 cannot be denied. 
 
 It is said iu our definition that a very large pro- 
 -portion, or the bulk, must obey ; but it would be 
 impossible to define the exact proportion : again, 
 they must have been in the habit of obeying ; but 
 it would exceed the power of any legislature to say 
 what extent of continuity and permanence of sub- 
 mission to rule should be held to satisfy that term. 
 
 It may be thought by some that the peculiar 
 obligations imposed by the Church of Eome on 
 ^uch members of independent political states as 
 (are also members of her communion, create a 
 kind of divided allegiance. There is, however, no 
 ground for this belief; the obedience which is ren- 
 
16 GOVERNMENT AND ITS OBJECTS. Chap. I. 
 
 dered to the head of this Church, whatever might 
 have been its nature in barbarous times, is now 
 ''understood to extend to matters appertaining tO - 
 religion only. 
 
 It must not, however, be imagined that the 
 sovereign, though independent of positive laws, 
 and therefore omnipotent in that sense, is yet 
 independent of and above all law ; for that body 
 is subject to a law enforced by a sanction, which, 
 in a,n advanced stage of civilization, is probably 
 one of the most powerful ; that is, the law imposed 
 by public opinion, which it cannot habitually, or 
 even occasionally, disobey, without entailing upon 
 itself the most serious consequences. Again, it 
 would be a great error to assume that, because the 
 supreme authority as a whole is omnipotent, as 
 a necessary consequence any, even the smallest 
 particle, of political power belongs to any one of 
 the constituent bodies of which it may happen to 
 be composed, when viewed ia their separate capa- 
 city ; stiU less to the individual members of those 
 constituent bodies. 
 
 In this country, as is well known, three separate 
 elements, so to speak— King, Lords, and Commons 
 —together constitute the supreme authority ; and 
 it is perfectly consistent with the omnipotency of 
 these three, when acting in combination, to sup- 
 pose that neither King, Lords, nor Commons, when 
 acting separately, have a particle of political power, 
 
Chap. I. SOVEREIGNTY. 17 
 
 or a single political privilege: but it is hardly- 
 possible to imagine a Constitution in whicb this 
 supposition is literally true in fact. 
 
 The complete exposition of the meaning of the 
 phrase, that the supreme or legislatiTO authority, 
 or sovereign (for the three terms are synonymous), 
 is omnipotent, must be reserved for a subsequent 
 chapter;* it is sufficient at present to say that 
 this exalted body is independent of all law but 
 that set to it by public opinion; that is, that 
 no means or machinery exist or can be conceived 
 by which a positive law, properly so called, can 
 be framed which shall have sufficient force to bind 
 and control the legislative proceedings, or any 
 other act of political power, of the sovereign 
 body. 
 
 The same difficulties which meet us at every 
 step in our progress when we attempt to assign 
 accurately, by verbal definition, the true nature 
 and characteristics of sovereignty, so that we may 
 be able at once to say, at some of the most critical 
 and turbulent periods in the history of any given 
 nation, whether Sovereignty did or not at those 
 periods exist — the same difficulties are again to 
 be encountered when we are explaining the true 
 meaning of the phrase, "Independent Political 
 Society." It wiU presently be seen that the defi- 
 nition above contained involves terms which re- 
 • See Chapter III., infra. 
 
18 GOVEENMENT AKD ITS OBJECTS. Chap. I. 
 
 ■quire, if not explanation, at least sometliing to be 
 said by way of supplement. 
 
 A society or community, to be a political com- 
 munity at all, must not fall short of a certain 
 number, but that number cannot be precisely 
 fixed. 
 
 It has been said that the sovereign of an inde- 
 pendent political community must not be in the 
 habit of obeying any determinate human superior. 
 This qualification is necessary, because all soye- 
 reigns render occasional obedience to the dictates 
 of that branch of Positive Moral Law which is 
 called "International Law," a term invented by 
 Bentham to denote that code of Positive Moral 
 Rules by which the rights, duties, and intercourse 
 of independent political communities are regu- 
 lated. 
 
 Agaiu, the iustitutions established by those 
 various nations to which the epithet of " civilized" 
 can justly be given, are so diversified in their cha- 
 racter, and some of them are accompanied by 
 characteristics so peculiar, that it often becomes 
 difScult to say to what extent some of those 
 nations, and more especially certain communities 
 which scarcely merit that title, ought to be classed 
 among the political societies to which the term 
 "Independent" is applied. 
 
 It is fortunate, however, that these questions 
 are seldom of much real importance ; for the na- 
 
Chap. I. GEBMANIO CONPEDEBACT. 19 
 
 tions of the world are very little swayed by verbal 
 niceties of this description, in estimating the degree 
 of weight to be assigned to any one political society 
 in particular. An illustration of the difficulty above 
 alluded to is presented by the Germanic constitu- 
 tion, which exhibits the union in a kiad of confe- 
 deracy of various States which are clearly for most 
 purposes of government iadependent, though their 
 destinies are liable to be materially affected, and 
 are.continually influenced, by the determinations of 
 a kind of sovereign parliament called "the Diet," 
 to the meetings of which each of them sends depu- 
 ties to represent their interests. The object of this 
 union is declared to be " the preservation of the 
 external and internal security of Germany, and 
 the independence and inviolability of the Con- 
 federated States.* The Diet has power to esta- 
 blish fundamental laws for the Confederation, and 
 organic regulations as to its foreign, military, and 
 internal relations. It would appear, therefore, 
 that its deliberations were to be confined to one 
 particular species of interference, or at least 
 have one principal end in view ; and that its mis- 
 sion was to cause that peculiar form of constitution 
 by which these several German States are, as it 
 were, inseparably linked together, to be respected 
 and maintained, and to carry out to their full de- 
 velopment aU the political consequences which flow 
 * ■Bee "Wheaton's 'Intematioual Law,' vol. i. pp. 69 et seq. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 GOVERNMENT AND ITS OBJECTS. Chap. I. 
 
 from this union. This is undoubtedly its primary 
 object; but the constitution of the Confederacy 
 has iuvested the Diet with powers which do in 
 effect enable it to exercise a considerable amount 
 of control over the internal affairs of each parti- 
 cular State ; to fetter, it is to be feared, materially 
 the expression of public opinion ; and, may be, to 
 delay, if not prevent, the extension of popular 
 rights and priTHeges. In case of rebellion, e.g., or 
 immiuent danger of rebellion or insurrection ia 
 the several States, the Diet may interfere on the 
 ground that such events threaten the general 
 safety of the Confederation ; and it may interfere 
 on the application of any one State ; and if the 
 local government is prevented by the insurgents 
 from making the application, upon the notoriety of 
 the fact of the existence of such insurrection to 
 suppress the same by the common force of the 
 Confederation. In case of denial or unreasonable 
 delay of justice by any State to its subjects or 
 others, the aggrieved party may appeal to 'the 
 Diet. The Diet may likewise guarantee a local 
 constitution on the application of any State. 
 
 In 1832 and 1834 the power of the Diet to con- 
 trol the internal affairs of the separate States was 
 increased ; and not only were provisions established 
 which have for their object the limiting the legis- 
 lative privileges of the local chambers in certain 
 cases threatening the permanence of the Con- 
 
Chap. I. GERMANIC CONFEDERACY. 21 
 
 federation; but others were added which must 
 necessarily exercise a very important influence 
 on the working of the various separate constitu- 
 tions. In return, and by way of recompense for 
 being thus kept in political leading-strings, the 
 smaller States doubtless do derive important bene- 
 fits from some provisions of the Union, by which 
 their territory and constitution are guaranteed 
 against external and internal violence. All the 
 States guarantee to each other the possession of 
 their respective dominions within the Union, and 
 engage to defend not only all Germany, but each 
 individual State, in case of attack. 
 
 Where war is declared by the Confederation, no 
 State can negotiate separately, but each member 
 may contract alliances with other foreign States, 
 provided they are not inimical to the Confedera- 
 tion, or the States comprising it. Again, no State 
 can make war against another member of the 
 Union ; but all must submit their differences to 
 the Diet, 
 
 In discussing the title of these separate German 
 States to be considered as independent, Mr. Austin 
 is disposed to view the deputies sent by them to the 
 Piet in the light of ambassadors, who meet together 
 for the purpose of deliberating upon the iaterests of 
 the communities whom they represent. The mear 
 sures determined upon by the Diet he considers as 
 the evidence of an agreement, as a sort of treaty. 
 
22 GOVERNMENT AND ITS OBJECTS. Chap. I. 
 
 adopted spontaneously by eacli of the States re- 
 presented. The various States of the Union are 
 clearly independent for most of the purposes for 
 which government is ordinarily instituted ; but to 
 the common machinery whereby the members of 
 pohtical societies are controlled, there is superadded 
 a peculiar contrivance for the special purpose of 
 preserving their Confederacy itself intact; and 
 though other provisions are added, which affect in 
 some degree the amount of power exercised by the 
 supreme government of each separate State in 
 regulatiag its internal affairs, yet those provisions 
 do not absolve, so to speak, any of their iadividual 
 members from obedience fo each supreme local 
 authority. The Constitution of the Union, how- 
 ever, modifies materially the nature of the inter- 
 course of each State with independent communities 
 outside the pale of the Confederation; yet it 
 can scarcely be said with truth, that the respec- 
 tive sovereigns of the Confederate States are in 
 the habit of obeying any determinate human 
 superior ; for the Diet can hardly be looked upon 
 in that light, notwithstanding the recent additions 
 to its authority ; though it is necessarily soverei^ 
 in all matters subjected to its authority. The 
 institution of the Diet differs from the measure of 
 sending ambassadors in one very important and 
 characteristic particular, viz., that it is a permanent 
 institution, analogous to those which are tlie crea- 
 
Chaf.I. SWISS OONFEDEEAOY. 23 
 
 tures of positiye laws ; whereas tlie latter is a mea- 
 sure of an executive kind. 
 
 - The Swiss Confederacy consists of an union be- 
 tween the twenty-two cantons ; the object of which 
 is declared to be the preservation of their freedom, 
 independence, and security against foreign attack ; 
 and of domestic order and tranquillity; and the 
 several cantons guarantee to each other their 
 respective constitutions and territorial possessions. 
 The Union has a common army and treasury ; and 
 .the Diet consists of a deputy from each canton, 
 each having one vote. The Diet has the exclu- 
 sive power of sending ambassadors, declaring war, 
 and concluding treaties with foreign States. It 
 also provides for the internal and extern^ security 
 of the Confederation. 
 
 This case resembles that of Germany, and, where 
 it differs, it is on the side of conceding greater 
 independence to the separate States. It is unne- 
 cessary, therefore, to pursue it further. 
 • Having discussed the case of Confederated States, 
 ,as the Constitutions of Germany and Switzerland 
 are termed, the next anomaly to be investigated is 
 that of " supreme Federal Grovernments," or " Oom- 
 pogite States," as they are sometimes called; of 
 which thc' Constitution of the United States is the 
 most iuteresting and important example. By that 
 Constitution, framed in 1787 by deputies froni 
 individual States, its object is declared to be,'^ 
 
24 GOVEENMENT AND ITS OBJECTS. Chap. I. 
 
 " To form a more perfect Union, establisli justice, 
 ensure domestic tranquillity, proyide for tlie com- 
 mon welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty 
 to the people of the United States and their pos- 
 terity." 
 
 A supreme Federal Government acts not only 
 on the several members of the Union, as in the 
 instance of Confederated States, but directly on 
 all their citizens in their individual and corporate 
 capacities ; but a ' local legislature is established 
 in each separate State, charged with the admi- 
 nistration of its own peculiar concerns. The 
 legislative power of the Union is vested in a 
 Congress, or Parliament, consisting of a Senate 
 chosen by the local legislatures, and a House of 
 Eepresentatives elected by the people in each 
 State, a large proportion of whom are entitled to 
 votes. This Congress has power to levy taxes and 
 duties, to pay the debts, and provide for the com- 
 mon defence and general welfare, of the Union; to 
 borrow and coin money, to make regulations regard- 
 ing commerce, to establish rules of naturalization, 
 fix the standard of weights and measures, and so 
 forth ; also to declare war, raise and support armies 
 and navies, and make rules for their government; 
 to provide for the administration of justice in the 
 district which is the seat of the Federal Govern- 
 ment, and in all forts, arsenals, and dockyards of 
 the Union ; and to make such laws as are neces- 
 
Chap. I. AMEEICAN UNION. 25 
 
 sary for executing all these and all the other 
 powers Tested in the Federal GoTemment. The 
 executive power is vested in a President, chosen 
 by electors appointed in each State, in such man- 
 ner as the local legislature may direct. The Pre- 
 sident holds office for four years. The power of 
 making treaties is vested exclusively iu the Pre- 
 sident and Senate. The judicial power of the 
 Union, as such, extends to all cases in law and 
 equity arising under the Constitution, laws, and 
 treaties of the Union, and is vested in a supreme 
 court, which has the singular power of examining 
 the laws passed by Congress and the local legisla- 
 tures, and deciding, in cases proper for judicial 
 determination, on the constitutional validity of 
 such laws. No State can keep an army or navy ; 
 or enter into any compact with another State or 
 foreign power ; or engage in any war unless 
 actually invaded. The Union guarantees to each 
 State a republican form of government, and en- 
 gages to protect it against invasion ; and, on 
 application of the legislature, or executive (when 
 the legislature cannot be convened), against 
 domestic violence. There are provisions by which 
 alterations in the Constitution may be proposed, 
 with the consent of two-thirds of the members of 
 both Houses, and adopted when approved by the 
 legislatures of three-fourths of the States. 
 
 The legislature of each separate State has power 
 
26 GOVEENMENT AND ITS OBJECTS. CHiP. I. 
 
 to regulate such of the internal affairs of that State 
 as are not, by the express, terms of the Union, with- 
 drawn from its jurisdiction. i 
 
 Mr, Austin considers that, in cases of this de;' 
 scription, the several tmited governments, together 
 with a government common to all, viz. the Federal 
 Government, are jointly sovereign in each society 
 and in the Federal Union ; and each of the govern- 
 ments which are parties to the federal compact, is, 
 in that character, a liftib of the sovereign body. 
 
 Mr. Austin gives the appellation of " Malf- 
 Sovereign " to those States whic}i are either, first, 
 subject, as iu the government of Dependencies; 
 secondly, Quasi-Independent, as in the Germanic 
 and Swiss Constitutions ; or, thirdly, jointly sove^ 
 reign, together with some other higher authority 
 in their own community, as in the United States, 
 
 Such a union of States as existed formerly in the 
 case of Great Britain and Hanover is called a per- 
 sonal union ; that of the different states composing 
 the Austrian Monarchy is a real union. Againj 
 the present union of Great Britain and Ireland 
 is termed an Incorporate Union. 
 
 Tributary and Vassal States are considered as 
 sovereign, so far as their sovereignty is not affected 
 by this relation ; and in the intercourse wdth foreign 
 powers, in all cases of doubt the presumption seems 
 always to be in favour of sovereignty, except so far 
 as such privilege is limited by positive regulations. 
 
Chap. I. EQUALITY, OF INDEPENDENT STATES. 27 
 
 It is a maxim of International Law, invariably 
 observed, that all Independent States are equal in 
 the eye of that law, whatever may be their relative 
 power. Nor is the sovereignty of a State impaired 
 by its occasional deference to the will of a more 
 powerful neighbour ; or even by habitual influence 
 exercised over its councils. It is only when this 
 submission assumes the form of being embodied in 
 some written compact that the privilege is injuri- 
 ously affected. 
 
28 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Chap. It. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 Op National Happiness. 
 
 A S the happiness of a nation is only another 
 ■^-^ expression for the sum of the happiness of 
 all who together constitute that nation, it becomes 
 a primary object of investigation to ascertain the 
 elements of which the happiness of each individual 
 is composed, and to separate those which fall 
 within our province from those which appertain 
 to another department of knowledge, that is, the 
 science of morals. 
 
 Now, human happiness is great in proportion 
 as we possess whatever administers to the necessi- 
 ties, comforts, and enjoyments of both miud and 
 body; but this possession must be accompanied 
 with a conviction that it is not likely to be dis- 
 turbed. A very cursory examiaation of the sub- 
 ject, however, is sufficient to show that happiaess 
 admits of a threefold division : — 
 
 First, — That which depends on circumstances 
 beyond aU human control. 
 
 Secondly, — That which depends on our own 
 conduct. And, 
 
Chap. U. THEEEFOLD DIVISION OF HAPPINESS. 29 
 
 Thirdly, — That which is dependent on the con- 
 duct of others towards us. 
 
 Of the first kind of happiness it is unnecessary 
 in this place to say more than to remark that we 
 should be on our guard against a tendency to attri- 
 bute to Providence, chance, or fate, misfortxmes 
 which might by a more careful analysis be traced 
 to the misconduct of the sufferer himself. 
 
 The second kind of happiness also is excluded ' 
 from the inquiry, and falls within the province of 
 moral science, and includes among other things all 
 that is involved in the phrase " having a good con- 
 science ;" the pleasure, for example, derived from 
 looking back upon a well-spent life, upon a long 
 career of useful labour, and progressive mental im- 
 provement, both moral and intellectual; accom- 
 panied, as it sometimes is, with the gratifying 
 fPeflection that a large proportion of our mental 
 and physical comforts are due to our own perse- 
 vering and successful exertions. Such reflections 
 are undoubtedly to be ranked among the most 
 delightftd of all human enjoyments. 
 
 It is in jthe last division, however, of the above 
 classification that we recognise the peculiar province 
 of political science ; which is concerned, — first, in 
 maintaining, and so producing a conviction of, the 
 permanence of human enjoyment, so far as it de- 
 pends for its duration on the conduct of the mem- 
 bers of a community towards each other ; without 
 
30 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Chap. Ii; 
 
 which conviction our happiness must be greatly 
 impaired by the consideration of the insecure 
 tenure on which it is held; — and, secondly, in 
 promoting human happiness in every way in which 
 the sovereign authority can properly interfere. 
 
 Now, in the performance of such functions of 
 civilized life as promote general and individual 
 happiness, man requires to be protected from such 
 acts of his fellow-men as interfere with their free 
 and undisturbed exercise. Whether engaged in 
 acquiring or distributing wealth, in gaining or 
 imparting knowledge, in worshipping or teaching 
 others to worship his Maker, he still requires 
 to be protected from all outward violence and 
 from all which militates against the efficient 
 and proper performance of these functions ; and, 
 in addition, it is necessary that he should be pro* 
 tected and maintained in the possession of all the 
 advantages, both mental and corporeal, which he 
 has inherited or acquired by any lawful means ; 
 and that such others should be placed within his 
 reach as it is competent for a benevolent and 
 paternal government to supply, without any con- 
 travention of those sound principles of civil admi- 
 nistration which ought to guicle the counsels of 
 an enlightened sovereign. Let us consider, then, 
 what are the chief characteristics of a state of 
 society in which all these conditions are duly ful- 
 filled;— in other words, what is it that constitutes 
 
Chap. n. POLITICAL HAPPINESS. 31 
 
 political happiness ? What is it that adds to the 
 blessings that can be obtained by good fortune 
 and personal good conduct the satisfaction derived 
 ffom the feeling that it is in the highest degree 
 improbable that we shall be deprived of that which 
 we have acquired by any delinquencies of our 
 neighbours, and that we shall be aided in our 
 endeavours to procure all that contributes to our 
 intellectual and physical comfort, so far as it is 
 proper for the supreme authority to interfere ? We 
 shall consider, in the first place, what may be 
 termed the protective functions of the supreme 
 authority and the laws. 
 
 Many things will immediately suggest them- 
 selves as necessary in order to attain this desirable 
 protection ; and in the first rank must be placed 
 those laws which secure the inviolability of per- 
 son, property, and character, and the maintenance 
 of public order ; but few who have not reflected 
 much on these subjects are sensible, or would be 
 willing to admit, how much may be obtained from 
 one requisite only, and that is, " an enlightened 
 public opinion brought to bear on all the transac- 
 tions of society, through the agency t)f a free but 
 not licentious public press." The history of the 
 nations most advanced in civilization seems to 
 show that there may be serious and glaring defects 
 in a constitution of a state, in its laws both written 
 and unwritten, in its commercial treaties and 
 
32 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Chap,.. II. 
 
 arrangements, in the organization of its ecclesias- 
 tical, civil, and military establishments, and in its 
 relations with foreign powers; and that all this, 
 mischief may co-exist with a very high degree of 
 certainty that political happiness will be perma^ 
 nent, provided that the community have, in spite 
 of these drawbacks, managed to attain to that 
 stage of social progress which admits of the pre- 
 valence of such enlarged views of legal and moral 
 rights and duties as are implied in the possession 
 of such an instrument of human control as that 
 just indicated. 
 
 To illustrate the truth enunciated, we may 
 instance the cases of our own country and the 
 United States. In England we find prevaiHng a 
 system of laws iu a course of progressive im- 
 provement indeed,* but very far from perfection, 
 inaccessible, Vexatiously prolix, containing many 
 extravagant provisions — laws, too, capable of being 
 greatly abused, and violating well-established prin- 
 ciples of legislation. In the latter State, sprung 
 from ourselves, we find institutions free and liberal, 
 but of which it may be truly predicated that their 
 tendency is to exclude men of intellectual and 
 moral eminence from power; to encourage the 
 
 * To no one is the country under more obligations for this 
 improvement than to Lord Brougham, who has devoted the 
 whole of a long and most useful life to unceasing efforts to im- 
 prove our laws and extend popular education. 
 
Chap. II. ENGLAND AND AMEKICA. 33 
 
 promulgation of unsound principles of administra- 
 tion, propounded often for electioneering purposes 
 only ; to cramp the wholesome action of the Exe- 
 cutive, and impair its power of restraining offences 
 against the State and public law ; and to keep the 
 country in a continual ferment of political agita- 
 tion, and frequently on the brink of war with 
 foreign States. But yet, with all these defects, 
 such is the inherent excellence of the race itself, 
 such its capacity for government, such its respect 
 for law and order, and steady disposition to 
 resist everything which strikes at the root of 
 society, and finally such is the power of public 
 opinion, that an amount of confidence in the, 
 permanence of political happiness probably exists 
 in both these great commilnities, such as was 
 never realized in the most palmy days of the 
 ancient repubhcs of Greece and Rome. It is 
 on these conservative qualities of the national 
 character that we must mainly rely for protection 
 against any ^supposed growing tendency of the 
 popular branch of the legislature to usurp to 
 themselves more than their due share of legislative 
 and administrative power. Whatever theoretical 
 objections may be urged to the constitution of 
 the House of Lords, no true patriot will deny 
 that some efficient check against hasty legislation 
 and popular passions and prejudices is indispen- 
 aably necessary, and that those who exercise this 
 
 D 
 
34 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Chap. II. 
 
 control should be independent alike of tlie Crown 
 and tlie people, and not liable to be carried awajf 
 by eacb fleeting breatb of national clamour. ; 
 
 If the influence of an enlightened public opinioH 
 on the general happiness of a community be indeed 
 so great, it cannot but be an inquiry of considerable 
 interest to trace the principal causes to which its 
 growth and maturity are to be ascribed. Now 
 there can be little doubt that one of the causes of 
 which we are in search is to be foujid in that 
 machinery of civil administration, handed down 
 to us from the remote times of our Anglo-Saxoa 
 progenitors, which gradually admits the subject to 
 such a share of political power as the state of his 
 intellectual advancement will justify. The pro- 
 visions for that purpose may be rude and imperfect, 
 but if they are adapted to the age, and are complete 
 in at least one particular, they may fulfil the 
 desired end; that is, if they afe calculated tp 
 instil gradually into the members of the com^ 
 m^nity, and keep alive, true and equitable pruii- 
 ciples of civil government and legislation. ISTot to 
 mention the old Saxon provisions for the main- 
 tenance of order, it must be admitted that the 
 institutions of County Courts and Courts Baron, of 
 Municipal Corporations and Juries, not only pre- 
 pared our rude ancestors for the more arduous tft^ 
 of legislators and administrators, but, by leading 
 them to consider and discuss questions of legal 
 
Chap. II. INFLUENCE OF THE PRESS. 35 
 
 and political science, created by degrees an en- 
 lightened pubKc opinion, of which, in the course 
 of time, men who possessed the necessary literary 
 qualifications became the expounders. Now, when 
 printing had been invented, a greater number of 
 men qualified by their information and intelligence 
 to exercise an important influence on the opinions 
 of the community began to write, and gradually 
 obtained such an extension of the licence to print and 
 publish as was calculated to give to their writings a 
 circulation as extensive as the limited demand of 
 those days required ; and when the pubhc had 
 begun to read and relish discussions relating to the 
 characters of men and measures, such writers were 
 enabled to inflict a much more effective punishment 
 on men intrusted with power which they abused, 
 than could be imposed through the instrumentality 
 of , the tardy and often expensive forms of judicial 
 procedure, — and a punishment greater in pro- 
 portion as the number of readers increased and 
 knowledge was more generally spread abroad. 
 Their lash also had the merit of reaching offenders 
 who were protected by privilege, aristocratic con- 
 nection and influence, or otherwise, from the juris- 
 diction of the ordinary courts. 
 
 These considerart;ions are so obvious that it is 
 unnecessary further to expatiate upon them, and 
 may :be an apology is due to those who have 
 reflected deeply on the circumstances to which the 
 
 D 2 
 
36 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Chap, tt 
 
 extraordinary success and almost uninterrupted 
 prosperity of the Anglo-Saxon race are due, fpr 
 enlarging so mucli on topics which must be so 
 familiar to their thoughts; but, the truth is, that 
 few persons form a due estimate of the preseajt 
 force of the moral sanction, and perceive to what 
 an extent it might, if necessary, supersede others, 
 and does, in fact, render harmless much that is 
 still faulty in our various institutions, which are 
 gradually adapting themselves to the necessities of 
 modern civilization. Mr. Austin observes, in refer» 
 ence to this subject, that where the bulk of the 
 community are duly informed, the nature of the 
 government is of comparatively little consequence, 
 — when not informed, of the highest importance.* 
 Undoubtedly, like all other things, the press is aa 
 fengine capable of great abuse, and unquestionably 
 is often abused ; but this consideration must never 
 induce us to shut our eyes for a moment to the 
 manifold advantages which we daily and hourly 
 derive from the legitimate exercise of its beneficent 
 functions. 
 
 Almost all the characteristics of such a con- 
 dition of society as shall secure, as far as human 
 institutions can secure, the permanent duration of 
 what has been termed "political happiness," may 
 be summed up in the two articles, "Securiiy of 
 Person," and "Security of Property," provided 
 * Austin, pp. 301 et seq. 
 
Chap. II. LIBERTY. 37 
 
 these terms are used in the extensive sense which 
 cfught to be given to them in these inquiries. 
 Under the term " Security of Person," for example, 
 it is intended to include the protection from every 
 act which unjustly impairs, or has a tendency to 
 impair, our physical, moral, or intellectual happi- 
 ness. Again, in " Security of Property " is included 
 protection from every act which imjustly disturbs, 
 or has a tendency to disturb, the acquisition, ' 
 possession, or enjoyment of wealth or property, 
 taken in the largest sense of which the words are 
 capable. It will be seen therefore that the first 
 head includes all unnecessary and unlawful re- 
 straints upon personal liberty. Unlimited liberty 
 would be clearly irreconcilable with security of 
 any kind. The problem to solve is to discover the 
 minimum of interference that can coexist with 
 complete protection and social order. Archdeacon 
 Paley defines liberty as it ought to be, and Mr. 
 Austin as it is.* By the definition of the former, 
 it consists in the not being restrained by any law 
 but what conduces in a greater degree to the 
 public welfare. Mr. Austin views it as it exists in 
 fact, viz. as "the freedom from legal obligation 
 left or granted by the Sovereign to the subject ;" 
 and he considers it as valuable only so far as it 
 conduces to utility, '\ and as fostered by the legal 
 Restraints to which the fanatics of political agitation 
 • Austin, p. 279. t Md. p. 288. 
 
38 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Chap. II. 
 
 are so averse.* On this subject Mr. John Stuart 
 Mill has lately published an interesting and 
 instructive essay. He states the following as the 
 maxims which form his doctrine :t — 
 
 First. That the individual is not accountable to 
 society for his actions, in so far as these concern 
 the interests of no person but himself. 
 
 Secondly. That for such actions as are prejudicial 
 to the interests of others the individual is account- 
 able, and may be subjected either to social or to 
 legal punishments, if society is of opinion that 
 the one or the other is requisite for its protection. 
 
 Some may be of opinion that Mr. Mill carries 
 his views as to absolute freedom of thought and 
 discussion, and toleration of eccentricity of conduct, 
 to a dangerous extent ; but, however this may be, 
 the last two chapters of the work in question 
 deserve the serious consideration of the political 
 student, and the whole will amply repay an 
 attentive perusal. 
 
 In addition to a guarantee from all direct viola- 
 tions of the security of the body, arising from the 
 wrongful acts of either domestic or foreign ill-doers, 
 security of the Person, as it has been defined above, 
 includes likewise protection from all acts which 
 injuriously disturb the equanimity of the mind 
 — security of reputation, for example, and free- 
 dom of conscience. For what happiness can be 
 
 * Austin, p. 290. f See Mill ' Ou Liberty,' p. 168-9. 
 
Chap. II. SECURITY OF THE PERSON. 39 
 
 enjoyed by those who are subjected to slander- 
 ous attacks upon their actions or motiyes? or 
 what pleasure can be felt in existence by a con- 
 scientious man, when the sovereign attempts to 
 compel him, by penalties or disabilities, to adopt a 
 course of conduct opposed to his convictions; or 
 to induce him to conceal or abandon opinions of 
 which he believes he has just reason to be proud ? 
 In former times Governments acted as if they were 
 of opinion that matters of faith were entirely within 
 our own control, and that incredulity was only the 
 result of obstinacy : condign punishment therefore, 
 they argued, ought to be inflicted on all who did 
 not attain to the then existing national standard of 
 belief in both religious and political questions.* 
 They carried their folly to the extent of imagining 
 that no olEces, ecclesiastical, civil, or military, 
 coxild be duly filled, or their duties properly per- 
 formed, by men who did not attain to this full 
 measure of belief, or credulity as it might in some 
 eases be more fitly denominated. Hence arose that 
 dreadful scourge of mankind, that fruitful source 
 of human misery and of hypocrisy and crime, the 
 practice of requiring tests and oaths to be taken as 
 a condition precedent to the obtaining of certain 
 temporal advantages. 
 
 * Die arme Frau ist eine von den Schwarmerinnen, die den 
 allgemeinen einzig wahren Weg naoh Gott zu wissen wahnen, 
 &c. — Lessing. 
 
40 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Ghap. 
 
 Under the foregoing definition of security 
 property is included tlie remoTal of all such i 
 perfections ia our habits and institutions as rend 
 wealth more diflScult to acquire and retain; 
 all shortcomings in our civil and military poli( 
 and in the means provided for ascertaining rigl 
 and duties and redressing injuries ; of all defe( 
 in economical arrangements, whereby we are pi 
 vented from selling commodities in the dearest ai 
 buying them in the cheapest market ; of aU exc< 
 sive and imequal taxation ; of all defects ia o 
 laws, whereby our interest in real and person 
 property is rendered less secure, or whereby i 
 are prevented from transferring or dealing wi 
 such property at the smallest cost consistent vyi 
 protection against loss, or whereby the effects 
 insolvents are rendered less available to creditor 
 for these blemishes in our laws and customs eith 
 retard the acquisition of wealth, or have a tenden 
 to compel us to part with possessions which ^ 
 should otherwise have been enabled to retain ; a 
 when this is the case, and it is brought about i 
 the instrumentality of institutions which are co 
 trary to utility, the community can hardly be sa 
 to be in that state which constitutes the perfeotii 
 of political happiness. 
 
 Then, again/there can be no perfect security i 
 person or property, in the wide sense which h 
 been given to tbe terms, without a wholesoii 
 
Chap. H. INFLUENCE OF CIVILIZATION. 41 
 
 state of relations both with our own colonies and 
 dependencies, and with foreign powers : there must 
 be a guarantee that nothing is likely to occur, 
 arising out of any imperfection in these relations, 
 which win impair our physical or moral happiness, 
 prevent our acquiring or deprive us of possessions, 
 or impair our enjoyment of them in any of the 
 various ways before-mentioned. To sum up the 
 whole, therefore, we find that it is possible for a 
 great amount of political happiness to coexist with 
 very defective laws and institutions, provided that 
 society, owing probably to its own inherent capa- 
 city for government, be sufficiently advanced for 
 the development of an enlightened public opinion, 
 of which a free but not licentious press is the expo- 
 nent. Civilization may possibly, in very advanced 
 communities, and in some future and more happy 
 age, attain to such a degree of matuiity, that it 
 shall be nearly immaterial what laws and insti- 
 tutions may prevail in the State, inasmuch as 
 the restraint imposed by public opinion may 
 be a sufficient substitute for any which could 
 by possibility be imposed by law. In the ab- 
 sence, however, of that safeguard of order and 
 civiHzation, and before society has reached that 
 condition when it becomes attainable, it is ne- 
 cessary, in order that a state of political happi- 
 ness may be predicated of any given community, 
 that security of person and property should be 
 
42 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Chap. H 
 
 therein established by other means, and that in i 
 very extended sense of those terms. It woulc 
 appear from the foregoing considerations that sucl 
 security can hardly be attaiaed, at least imti 
 public opinion has arrived at its full development 
 without the followiag provisions for controlling 
 and keeping in check the evil-disposed : — 
 
 Mrst. A Constitution moderately well fittec 
 to the peculiar requirements of the people to b( 
 governed. 
 
 Secondly/. Such laws, customs, and institutions 
 in reference to internal and commercial economy 
 as shall secure (amongst other things) the du( 
 administration of civil and criminal justice, anc 
 afford a guarantee for the maintenance of th( 
 rights of person and property. And 
 
 Thirdly. Such relations with our own depend 
 encies and with foreign communities as shall leav( 
 trade undisturbed, inspire mutual respect and con 
 fidence, and secure, as far as possible, freedom fron 
 external aggression. 
 
 We proceed to the second division of the subjec 
 of this chapter, viz. the consideration of the pro 
 visions which may be necessary for the purpose o 
 imparting to the community all such additiona 
 benefits, tending to make their happiness mor 
 complete, as it may be within the proper provinc 
 of an executive or legislative body to supply. 
 
 The extent to which a government ought t 
 
Ghap. II. INTEKFEEENCE OF GOVERNMENT. 43 
 
 interfere in the concerns of its subjects has of late 
 been much discussed, and some valuable remarks on 
 this head of political science wiU be found in the 
 last book of Mr. John Stuart MUl's masterly treatise 
 on 'Political Economy;' but it is impossible to 
 enter into detail on so extensive a subject. In the 
 first place, all those desiderata of society which 
 are generally admitted to require the intervention 
 of the supreme authority ia some shape or other, 
 may be at once dismissed ; such as the means to 
 be adopted for obtaining a public revenue, and for 
 establishing an adequate civil and military police. 
 There remain those cases in which the interference 
 of the sovereign may be said to be optional, and 
 it behoves us to consider what are the principles 
 which ought to determine the propriety of such 
 interference. Mr. Mill observes :* — " Even if the 
 Government could comprehend within itself in 
 each department all the most eminent intellectual 
 capacity and active talent of the nation, it would 
 not be the less desirable that the conduct of a large 
 portion of the affairs of society should be left in 
 the hands of the persons immediately interested in 
 them. The business of life is an essential part of 
 the practical education of a people ; without which 
 book and school instruction, though most neces- 
 sary and salutary, does not suffice to qualify them 
 
 * Mill's 'Political Economy,' edition 1848, vol. ii. pp. 513 
 
44 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Chap. II. 
 
 for conduct and for tlie adaptation of means to 
 ends. Instruction is only one of the desiderata of 
 mental improvement; another, almost as indis- 
 pensable, is a vigorous exercise of the active 
 energies, labour, contrivance, judgment, self-con^ 
 trol; and the natural stimulus to these is the 
 difficulties of life." Again : " Laisser-faire should 
 be the general practice : every departure from it, 
 unless required by some great good, is a certain 
 evil." Mr. MUl proceeds to detail some of the 
 departures from the general practice which he 
 seems to consider justifiable ; he observes : — " But 
 if the workman is generally the best selector of 
 means, can it be affirmed, with the same uni- 
 versality, that the consumer, or person served, is 
 the most competent judge of the end? Is the 
 buyer always qualified to judge of the commodity? 
 If not, the presumption in favour of the competi- 
 tion of the market does not apply to the case; 
 and if the commodity be one in the quality of 
 which society has much at stake, the balance of 
 advantages may be in favour of some mode or 
 degree of intervention by the authorized repre- 
 sentatives of the collective interest of the State." 
 These remarks, though expressed in the technical 
 language of economists, shadow forth very clearly 
 the true guiding principle of aU these excep- 
 tions, which may be thus stated : — The supreme 
 authority may intervene in cases ia which the 
 
Chap.H. INTEEFEEENCE OF GOVEENMENT. 45 
 
 subjects of the interference are incompetent judges 
 of tlie kind and quality of tlie benefits proposed 
 to be conferred, and of the necessity for imparting 
 them, either at all, or at least to the extent 
 deemed requisite by the sovereign; then the 
 true interests of society are not only promoted 
 by the boon, but may occasionally be seriously 
 injured by its being withheld. The cases to 
 which this principle will apply will generally 
 be found to be of two Mnds, — first, where the 
 subjects ia question are under some peculiar 
 physical or intellectual disabiKty; and secondly, 
 where the supreme authority is superior in in- 
 telligence to the great mass of the community 
 which it governs. The most remarkable example 
 which can be adduced of a case which completely 
 falls within the foregoing definition is that where 
 the commodity to be supplied is education, or 
 mental cultivation, of which it may be truly 
 affirmed that by none is it likely to be worse 
 appreciated, or less kindly welcomed, than by 
 those who are nearly or entirely destitute of the 
 advantages which it seeks to confer ; by none also 
 will its nature and quality be less understood; 
 -while no reflecting person can doubt that society 
 at large has the deepest interest, not only in im- 
 parting this benefit to aU, but in seeing that it 
 shall be of a quality calculated to realize to the 
 full extent all the beneficial results which should 
 
46 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Chap. It. 
 
 flow from the gift. Oa the other hand, the evils 
 consequent upon its being of an indifferent quality, 
 or wholly withheld, or conceded in small and 
 insufficient quantities, are vast and portentous. 
 Education, when the term is used in its largest 
 sense, as comprising all forms of intellectual cul- 
 tivation, not only involves the whole circle of 
 moral, religious, and secular instruction and train- 
 ing, but also that more practical mental disci- 
 pline, acquired in the busy arena of life, to which 
 reference has been already made. It is unneces- 
 sary, however, to treat of it in its latter accepta- 
 tion, for it will be at once perceived that such 
 happiness as may result from this species of 
 training is more peculiarly due to our own con- 
 duct, and does not need the interference, but 
 rather the non-interference, of others. In the 
 instance then of mental cultivation, those wh6 
 have it not can form but a very imperfect esta- , 
 mate of its value. To a man engrossed by sensual 
 pleasures, assailed by manifold temptations, a prey 
 to numerous vices, which, in the words of Bisho;^ 
 Butler, surround their victim like harpies craving 
 for their customary gratification, grovelling in th6 
 lowest abyss of moral degi-adation ; in such A 
 man there can be few, if any, aspirations for the 
 pure pleasures of intelligence. That which 'he 
 does not comprehend and cannot appreciate, he 
 will not seek; and this is true not only in the 
 
Chap. II. IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION. 47 
 
 extreme case which has been put, but in the case 
 of all adults who are devoid of intellectual training. 
 Infants again are unable from physical inability to 
 comprehend the importance of mental culture ; 
 yet who can doubt that it greatly concerns the 
 welfare of the State that this benefit, which will in 
 the great majority of instances not be sought after, 
 should be bestowed, and that freely and without 
 stint? It deeply concerns the public weal that 
 men should be taught to reverence their Maker, 
 should believe in a state of future rewards and 
 punishments, and should learn their duty to God 
 and their neighbour, and the use of those material 
 signs which are the key by which the whole trea- 
 sury of knowledge is unlocked. These are the 
 elements of education only, but they are great pre- 
 servatives against crime, and means for the attain- 
 ment of most important ends. Yet highly civilized 
 communities have continued for many generations, 
 and still continue, to spend far larger sums in the 
 punishment of wrong-doers than would suffice to 
 bestow that culture which would save many an 
 unfortunate victim from a doom unmerited so 
 far that a more enlightened policy might have 
 preserved him from it. The interests of society, 
 however, demand more than this'; they require 
 n,ot only that "chiU penury shall not repress" 
 any noble aspirations for intellectual advancement, 
 which are perhaps not whoUy unfelt by the most 
 
48 KATIONAL HAPPINESS., Chap. H. 
 
 degraded of our species, but, as to a great majority 
 at least, that " science should to them um-oU her 
 ample page." 
 
 There is a wide distinction between such an 
 education as that which is shadowed forth in the 
 last paragraph and that which was spoken of above. 
 There but the rudiments of mental cultivation were 
 specified, but these it must be remembered are 
 instruments by which, with the aid of great per- 
 severance, important ends may be achieved ; and 
 the more liberal the institutions of any country 
 may be, the greater is the value in comparison of 
 these more humble acquirements. Since the adop- 
 tion in this country of that great and wise measure, 
 the opening of public situations to those who ap- 
 prove themselves worthy at public examinations, 
 this whole question has assumed a new character ; 
 and a stimulus to mental cultivation has been pro- 
 vided which cannot fail to bear important fruits 
 hereafter. 
 
 Of the three heads under which education may 
 be considered, viz., as religious, moral, and secular, 
 it is not intended to dilate at any length on any 
 of the three. With reference to the first ; in thia 
 country the sense of its vast importance, and the 
 feeling which pervades a large portion of the com- 
 munity, that without it all other education would 
 be comparatively of Httle value, have hitherto pre- 
 vented its complete separation in practice from the 
 
Chap. II. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 49 
 
 second and third, and presented an insurmountable 
 obstacle to the formation of public educational 
 establishments, at which either secular instruction 
 alone shall be given, or secular instruction accom- 
 panied with such religious and moral teaching only 
 as aU sects agree in considering as proper and 
 necessary. ISTo one, it may be, would advocate 
 this course if there "were happily a general agree- 
 ment on religious questions among all members of 
 the commimity ; but as this is not likely ever to 
 exist, it must be admitted that the combination 
 in aU cases of religious with other teaching 
 renders it impossible to introduce any system of 
 education into the country which can properly be 
 termed general, and has hitherto greatly retarded 
 the diffusion of knowledge. It is on this ground 
 that many contend that religious instruction should 
 be given either at home, or in separate schools, as 
 shall be preferred, under such stringent conditions 
 as will render it imperative. However much one 
 may be disposed to concur in the abstract justice 
 of these views, it cannot be denied that they are 
 opposed to the sentiments of a very influential and 
 deservedly respected portion of the community, 
 and have little chance of obtaining favour. 
 
 iWe proceed to consider in what way the su- 
 preme authority should execute that portion of 
 its duties which consists in imparting what we 
 have termed " secular" instruction, to distinguish 
 
50 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Chap. II. 
 
 it from that which is properly termed religious 
 and moral. We must omit, however, all notice of 
 the machinery by which this operation is to be 
 eifected, and of the cases of those more fortunate 
 members of society whose private means are suffi- 
 cient to enable them to provide amply for their 
 own intellectual improvement. Supposing, then, 
 that the rudiments of knowledge have been already 
 taught, according to the best system known, to one 
 who may be properly described as belonging either 
 to the class of labourers or artizans, the first diffi- 
 culty which meets us on attempting to extend this 
 small modicum of knowledge, arises from the cir- 
 cumstance that the parents of the child have now 
 become anxious that he should apply himself to 
 manual labour, in order that the profits maybe 
 employed in his and their support ; and the only 
 way of meeting the difBculty is by the opening jof 
 schools, or educational establishments, on the days 
 or at the hours when no manual labour is required 
 from the student. Such establishments might sbe 
 open both to infants and to adults, and might be 
 held on Sundays and holidays, and in the evenings 
 after the hours of labour are over. But, unhappily, 
 there are at present in this country very few insti- 
 tutions competent to undertake the task of com- 
 pleting that instruction which primary educational 
 establishments have only commenced. We have 
 Sunday schools and mechanics' institutes; the, 
 
Chap. II. SECTJLAE EDUCATION. 51 
 
 former, as applied to infants, may be useful ab 
 a supplement to the ordinary school teaching; 
 as applied to adults who have already laid a 
 foundation in other schools, they may be very use- 
 ful, and it is to be regretted that they are so few 
 in number. With respect to mechanics' institutes, 
 it would be unjust to deny that they have done 
 some good service in the improvement of the 
 working classes ; but true friends to the advance- 
 ment of that portion of our feUow-subjects de- 
 plore the tendency of some of these institutions to 
 degenerate into mere lounging-places for reading 
 the periodical literature of the day, and listemng 
 to lectures, often by incompetent persons, on a 
 vast variety of subjects, some of them of little or 
 scarcely any importance, and changed continually ; 
 to the exclusion of that continuous and more sys- 
 tematic form of mental culture for adult artizans 
 which prevails in some continental institutions, but 
 which is comparatively unkno\yn in this country 
 outside the walls of our national umversities. Some 
 attempts have, however, been lately made to re- 
 medy this state of things. The Society of Arts 
 has endeavoured to improve the instruction given 
 in mechanics' institutes ; Working Men's Colleges 
 have been established in some towns, at which sys- 
 tematic teaching is carried on. Still, the efforts of 
 Government should be directed to the encourage- 
 ment of institutions resembling the " Gymnasia," 
 
 E 2 
 
52 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Chap. tl. 
 
 as they are termed, in Grermany, at wliicli young 
 men, upon leaving the rudimentary schools, receive 
 systematic instruction in ancient and modem lan- 
 guages, and in the elements of the sciences. It 
 would doubtless greatly promote the extension of 
 sound knowledge among the class of operatives, if 
 the Government were only to aid local exertions 
 directed towards the organization of educational 
 establishments of this description, to which young 
 men might be sent, either in the interval between 
 leaving school and entering upon their practical 
 pursuits, or in the evenings and at leisme hours 
 snatched from the labour of their daily avocations. 
 Some of the students would probably proceed no 
 further than to master elementary knowledge; 
 but others more persevering would aim at higher 
 objects, and perhaps obtain such an amount of 
 information as would enable them to rise far above 
 the sphere of life in which their lot was originally 
 cast. Such institutions as are above described 
 would be a valuable boon; but a Government 
 which had the interests of its subjects sincerely at 
 heart would not be satisfied with that only. It 
 would assist local efforts to establish libraries and 
 museums in the chief provincial towns, to whicli 
 all should, under proper precautions, be allowed 
 unlimited access, and, in the case of libraries, the 
 liberty of taking to their homes a certain portion 
 of the books. Public lectures also should be deh- 
 
Chap. II. SECtlLAE EDUCATION. 53 
 
 vered to students who had, by attendance at the pro- 
 posed Grymnasia, or similar institutions, acquired 
 sufficient knowledge of the laws and principles of 
 science to profit thereby. Nor should this mode 
 of instruction, viz. by the delivery of lectures, be 
 altogether withheld from those who had not been 
 able to avail themselves of these advantages ; but 
 this should be ever borne in mind, that no scien- 
 tific teaching is likely to be of much advantage in 
 after life which stops short of a thorough mastery 
 of the more important principles of abstract science, 
 and some of their more obvious applications ; and, 
 therefore, no system of instruction should be 
 encouraged by the State which does not keep this 
 object steadily in view : at the same time, there 
 win be always, even in an advanced stage of 
 society, a large proportion of the community who, 
 from a variety of causes, will be unable to avail 
 themselves of any such public provisions for con- 
 tinuous and systematic teaching as those last 
 described; and popular lectures and museums, 
 libraries and mechanics' institutes, may not be 
 without their use in furnishing such persons as 
 these with the means of acquiring some knowledge 
 at a small cost of time and labour ; and it is well 
 known that a very small amount of study, a mere 
 iutroduction only into the vestibule of science, is 
 sometimes sufficient to awaken curiosity in an 
 intelligent mind and to stimulate to greater pro- 
 
54 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. CiiAP. H. 
 
 gress. Let us picture to ourselves, for example, 
 the effect upon the mind of a mechanic naturally- 
 acute and inquiring, of a first visit to the British 
 Museum, particularly if he should be fortunate 
 enough to be accompanied by a well-informed 
 companion, competent to explain some of its con- 
 tents, at least so far as td excite interest. He may 
 be thus induced to attend a regular course of lec- 
 tures at the Institution in Jermyn-street ; and, his 
 curiosity being thoroughly aroused, he may gra- 
 dually advance, until he at last becomes painfully 
 conscious that until he has mastered the elements 
 of the mathematics and certain scientific principles 
 his course will be arrested at a certain point. If 
 he have perseverance, leisure, and means, and 
 moral worth, and resolve to conquer, the future of 
 such a person in a country like England, where 
 the great prizes of fortune are open to aU, is no 
 longer doubtful ; he will ascend many steps on the 
 ladder of society, and have ample cause for grati- 
 tude to those who placed such resources at his 
 disposal, and for respecting the institutions which 
 enabled him to turn them to account. In con- 
 templating such a pleasing picture of successful 
 exertion, it is impossible not to lament that so 
 many untoward circumstances concur in our own 
 country to render its realization so much less fre^ 
 quent than it ought to be. Among the many 
 drawbacks which have a tendency to neutralize 
 
Chap. II. SECULAR EDUCATION, 55 
 
 the advantages deriTable from our free institutions, 
 the most serious are, the habit of too early and 
 imprudent marriages; the ruinous consequences 
 of strikes for wages ; and the unhappy prevalence 
 of the taste for- dram-drinking, which has been 
 fostered by pernicious legislation, and by which 
 the natural influence of the motives to save is so 
 materially frustrated: other mischievous results 
 also flow from the ignorance which prevails of the 
 first principles of economical science. We may 
 safely prognosticate that, in proportion as the 
 spread of education and the growth of civilization 
 remove these obstructions to the advance of the 
 working classes in the social scale, so will national 
 happiness augment and abound, and our posterity 
 be at length gratified by the sight of a well- 
 educated, well-ordered, and intelligent population, 
 justly proud of their country and its institutions. 
 
 If it be true, and it can hardly be denied, that 
 it is greatly for the benefit of the community that 
 a knowledge of science should be extended, it is 
 no less true that " inducements should be held out 
 to students to acquire it, and, after the period of 
 pupilage has expired, to extend their knowledge 
 and turn it to usefiil account." 
 
 The duty of the Government, of Parliament, and 
 the Universities, in this behalf, has been elsewhere 
 discussed at length,* and the arguments need not 
 
 • See Report of the Parliameatary Oommittee of the Bri- 
 
56 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Chap. II. 
 
 therefore be repeated. In making the foregoing 
 remarks and referring to those contained in other 
 publications, it is not intended to suggest that 
 Government aid should be confined to one portion 
 of secular instruction only, i. e. the teaching of 
 science, if, on consideration of the requirements of 
 society, it should be thought expedient to give aid 
 towards the acquisition of other branches of know- 
 ledge also ; but it was thought better to select 
 science as an example, because it can hardly be 
 disputed that to a person in that station of hfe to 
 which our remarks are chiefly confined, its study 
 is likely to prove more useful m his subsequent 
 career, than that of any other branch of secular 
 knowledge to which he can turn his attention 
 during his few leisure hours. Very liberal provi- 
 sion is now made for instruction ia practical art ; 
 and much encouragement has been afforded to 
 those who are proficients therein by the building 
 of the fliew Houses of Parliament ; while abstract 
 science, " the very living principle and soul of the 
 industrial arts,"* has been comparatively neglected. 
 It is hardly necessary to prove the proposition 
 above enunciated, that " it is greatly for the benefit 
 
 tish Association to the Meeting of that Association held at 
 Glasgow in September, ]85!5; and Kesolutit)ns of the Pre- 
 sident and Council of the Royal Society of London, 1857. 
 Parliamentary Paper, No. 63, of the Session of 1857. — House of 
 Lords. 
 * 'North British Eeview' for November, 1855, p. 265. 
 
Chap. II. SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION. 57 
 
 of the community that a knowledge of science 
 should be extended ;" but if there be any one in 
 any given society who now doubts its truth, a more 
 general diffusion of knowledge will speedUy dispel 
 those doubts, and future ages wiU treat the state- 
 ment as an axiom. If however there should be 
 found, and there doubtless will be found in every 
 country, some who wiU controvert it, those sceptics 
 certainly ought not to be found among the mem- 
 bers of the Executive or Legislative bodies ; and 
 if such there be in these high places, it may well 
 be doubted whether such counsellors are provided 
 with the necessary qualifications for guiding the 
 destinies of a nation which owes a large proportion 
 of its greatness to the applications of science to 
 works of art. In truth, this case of science is just 
 one of those which should fall within the second 
 division of the instances in which the Government 
 ought to intervene, viz. the cases in which it may 
 be supposed to be wiser than the mass of its sub- 
 jects ; and there can be no doubt that many of the 
 measures which ought to be adopted for the ad- 
 vancement of science, and which depend upon 
 Government or Legislative aid for being effectually 
 carried out, are of a nature not likely to be duly 
 appreciated by a large proportion of the commu- 
 nity. And here a question arises, a difficult and 
 delicate problem to solve, viz., to what extept it 
 may be prudent in a Government to proceed in 
 
88 NATIONAL HAPPINESS. Chap. II. 
 
 advance of the age and na,tion ; but we may be sure 
 tbat, if no risks of this nature are encountered, the 
 intellectual growth of society must of necessity be 
 comparatively slow and tedious. 
 
 There are many other subjects mentioned in the 
 work to which reference has been already made 
 in which Government may lawfully interfere, such 
 as, e.g., the protection of infants and lunatics, a 
 public provision for the relief of the destitute, and so 
 forth ; but it would be improper t© pursue the dis- 
 cussion further ; it is enough to have established 
 the position, that the supreme authority in a state 
 should assist and reward, as well as coerce and 
 punish, ' 
 
Chap. Ill- THE RATIONALE OP GOVERNMENT. 59 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 Op the Eationale op Government. 
 
 rpHE elements of which national happiness is 
 -*■ composed have been described, and the ques- 
 tion now arises as to the, means to be adopted by 
 independent communities for the purpose of obtain- 
 ing the various benefits which together constitute 
 such happiness. 
 
 Now, however great may be the advantages 
 possessed by any particular race or nation, in 
 having been endowed with a natural capacity for 
 self-government, it is clear that, commencing from 
 any given epoch in the progress of civilization, 
 the utmost possible amount of national happiness 
 will be more easily and quickly attained in socie- 
 ties in which good institutions have taken firm 
 root; but before any reply can be given to the 
 question. In what does the goodness of political 
 institutions consist? there are difSculties which 
 meet us at the very threshold of the inquiry. 
 Admitting that the meaning of the epithet good 
 has been accurately defined, are institutions which 
 are confessedly good at one time and in one place, 
 necessarily so at all times and in all places ? in 
 
60 THE RATIONALE OF GOVERNMENT. Chap. III. 
 
 other words, is it goodness in the abstract, or with 
 reference to some particular period or -locality, 
 that we are in search of? Now, as to this point} 
 the experience of history seems to show that 
 Constitutions will rarely bear transplanting ; that 
 which flourishes in one locality often languishes 
 in another ; and however fruitful the plant may he 
 when growing in its own soil, it by no means 
 follows that disastrous consequences may not re- 
 sult from its sudden transference to some ungenial 
 site. 
 
 It will be convenient, however, to postpone the 
 discussion of the effect, of time and place in ren- 
 dering modifications of institutions necessary ; for 
 much preliminary consideration of the general 
 subject is necessary to enable us to estimate 
 accurately the value of nice distinctions, of the 
 kind to which we have adverted. If it be true 
 that no institutions can be viewed as either 
 good or bad in the abstract, and the peculiar 
 characteristics of the community in which they 
 are to be introduced, or in which they are already 
 established, should always be taken into account, 
 it is clear, that, in predicating of any particular 
 law or custom that it is beneficial or calculated to 
 secure happiness, we should be understood as refer- 
 ring to some average or normal condition of society, 
 and as implying that there may be qualifications 
 with which this expression must be taken if certam 
 
Chap. III. MONARCHIES. 61 
 
 conditions be materially altered. This being pre- 
 mised and duly borne ia mind, the means are to 
 be considered by which the benefits shadowed forth 
 in the last chapter are to be secured, so far as 
 they are dependent on positive regulations ; and ia 
 saying that this can only be accomplished by good 
 institutions, it is meant of course to -confine the 
 term to such as are calculated to effect those objects. 
 The term " institutions " may be said to comprise 
 the whole of the municipal laws of any State, but 
 in common parlance it is generally confined to the 
 organization of its executive Government and the 
 functionaries dependent upon it, and of its Senate 
 and Eepresentative Assembly, where such bodies 
 exist. Governments have been commonly divided 
 into, first, monarchies; secondly, aristocracies or 
 oligarchies ; and thirdly, republics. Of monarchies 
 there are two great divisions, viz., first, absolute, 
 and secondly, mixed or limited monarchy. Mr. 
 Austin, in the treatise * so often referred to, has 
 some very pertinent remarks on the impropriety 
 of this last appellation, and observes, by way of 
 illustration of his remark, that the King of Eng- 
 land is most improperly so styled ; for a monarch 
 cannot ex vi termini be subject, as that king 
 undoubtedly is, to the sovereign body; and he 
 adds that, if the English Sovereign had equal 
 power with that which he now possesses, and were 
 » Austin, ' ProYinoe,' &c., p. 233. 
 
62 THE EATIONALE OF GOVBENMENT. CHAP.m. 
 
 styled Protector, our English form of government, 
 ■whicli is more properly a mixed Aristocracy, would 
 be called a Republic. Thus is the peace of the 
 world disturbed by fools for the sake of a name.* 
 
 There is one general remark which may pro- 
 perly precede all discussions as to the policy of 
 adopting this or that kind of government; and 
 that is, that the mere form is of much less real 
 importance than superficial observers or political 
 zealots, not to say fanatics, are wiUing to believe. 
 On this subject Sir George C. Lewis observes, in 
 the preface to his ' Treatise on the Government of 
 Dependencies,' — "Whatever advantages may be- 
 long severally to monarchical, aristocratical, or 
 democratical institutions, it cannot be overlooked 
 that the chief nations of Europe and America now 
 [1841] keep nearly abreast in the march of civilizar 
 tion, notwithstanding the diversity in the forms 
 of their supreme government. Moreover, it can 
 scarcely be denied that the ulterior progress of 
 these nations mainly depends upon the nature of the 
 opinions prevailing among the bulk of the people ; 
 that, where pubKc opinion is unenlightened," no 
 political forms can be an effectual security against 
 unwise and mischievous exercises of the power of 
 Government ; and that, where the public opinitin 
 is enlightened, political forms lose a large portion 
 of their meaning and importance."t 
 
 * Austin, ibid. f Lewis, Essay, &c., Preface, p. viii. 
 
Chap. III. INFLUENCE OF PUBLIC OPINION. 63 
 
 Again, Mr. Austin obseires that the best moral 
 security for good government, and therefore for 
 national happiness so far as it be dependent thereon, 
 is not oaths, but a wide diffusion of the soundest 
 political science.* 
 
 It may seem to some that the importance of the 
 state of public opinion, as affecting and modifying 
 all our conclusions on matters connected with 
 political science, has been too much insisted on ; 
 but the truth is, that its influence is generally un- 
 derrated by historians and speculative writers on 
 political subjects. Thus the absolute monarchies 
 of the continent are sometimes spoken of as if 
 the sovereign were really despotic, in the sense in 
 which certain governments were supposed to be in 
 times long past, and happily not likely soon to 
 return ; i. e. as if he or they had an absolute com- 
 mand over the lives and fortunes of the subjects. 
 Now, not only is this not true of any existing 
 known government of a really civUized State, but 
 it may be reasonably doubted whether there ever 
 existed a State in which the supreme authority, 
 whether a Monarch, an Aristocracy, or a Demo- 
 cratical representative assembly, or a combination 
 of some or all of these forms of government, was 
 sibsolute in the foregoing sense, and able to carry 
 out the dictates of its own wiU without any con- 
 sideration of the state of public opinion. If there 
 * Austin, ' Province,' &c., p. 353. 
 
64 THE RATIONALE OF GOVEKNMENT. Chap. HI, 
 
 be any exception to the generality of the above 
 statement, it must be sought for among Oriental 
 despotisms, some of which have little claim to the 
 title of "civilized communities." Some of the 
 Eoman Emperors may seem to have been an 
 exception; but, in addition to their subservience 
 to the Praetorian guards, there were doubtless cer- 
 tain acts wliich even the most ruthless of imperial 
 tyrants would have thought it rash to commit. 
 However servile and prostrate a nation may seem 
 to be, it is perhaps always liable to be aroused 
 from slumber by some apparently trivial cause, a 
 something which grates against national prejudices, 
 oftentimes dearer to the humbler classes of the 
 population than life itself; nay, more liable per- 
 haps in proportion to its rudeness and ignorance. 
 History records many such outbreaks ; and the 
 calamities resulting from them have, due allowance 
 being made for national character, generally been 
 great in proportion as the darkness in which the 
 nation was at the time involved was more or less 
 profound. 
 
 When a wholesome state of public opinion and 
 the diffusion of sound political science are spoken 
 of as causes productive of most valuable results to 
 the community, it must not be forgotten that they 
 are also usually the effects of a long course of good 
 government. This is one of the many examplfes 
 in human affairs in which a result is by slow de- 
 
Chap. III. IMPOBTAISrCE OF PUBLIC OPINION. 65 
 
 grees brought about which would seem to be well 
 nigh impossible without the existence of conditions 
 which appear themselves to a great extent depen- 
 dent for their existence on the prior establishment 
 of the result itself. A sound public opinion seems 
 to be a consequence of good government, yet good 
 government can hardly exist except it be preceded 
 and acconapanied by a sound public opinion. In 
 the early stages of society, injuries to life and 
 property from lawless violence would generate a 
 desire for and love of order, greater in proportion 
 to the innate capacity for government of the race 
 in question ; a yearning for order would lead to 
 the establishment of a rude kind of government, 
 which in proportion as it improved would become 
 more poptdar, and, with its increased popularity, 
 public opinion would become more sound : thus 
 the growth of these political blessings would be 
 slow but simultaneous, and during their whole pro- 
 gress towards maturity they would act and react 
 beneficially on one another. There are many 
 examples of this confusion of cause and effect, and 
 of data and results founded on them, in the moral, 
 social, and even more exact sciences. Data are 
 used to obtain results, and then the results serve to 
 rectify the data employed; with such improved 
 data better results are agaia obtained. Thus in 
 astronomy we have to rely on approximations for 
 the purpose of obtaining results which are required 
 
66 THE RATIONALE OF GOVERNMENT. Chap, III. 
 
 for enabling tlie approximations themselves to take 
 rank among accurate determinations. A mode of 
 effecting this by means of what are termed equ»' 
 tions of condition, several of wliicli derived from 
 the observations are used to ascertain the most 
 probable value of the various elements employed^ 
 and thus to correct them, is a beautiful example 
 of the useful application of the higher branches of 
 analysis. 
 
 From the first revival of human knowledge after 
 the sun of civilization had set, it has been slowly 
 progressive. All honour to those who have contri- 
 buted to raise their species from the abyss of 
 darkness into which the destruction of the Eomah 
 domination plunged all mankind ! Let those who 
 cannot suppress a sigh when they reflect how 
 much has yet to be accomplished, take heast 
 again on remembering how much has been done. 
 
 The comparative advantages and disadTanta^ 
 of an absolute monarchy and a constitutidEd 
 sovereignty are too well known and familiar to 
 make it necessary to dilate upon them. It is a 
 trite but true observation, that the interests of the 
 subject many would be promoted by intrusting 
 any amount of power, however great, to a singfe 
 person for whose goodness and sincere desire to 
 promote the happiness of the greatest numberwe 
 had effectual guarantees. But as such a warraity 
 is not possible, Constitutions, speaking generaHy, 
 
Chap. III. ESSENTIALS OF GOVERNMENT. 67 
 
 must be framed with reference to the ordinary and 
 normal character of the species. This is not the 
 place to discuss any of the details of a Constitu- 
 tion ; suffice it to observe that in all communities, 
 whateTer may be the form of the actual sove- 
 reignty, certain provisions are essential to well- 
 being and even safety. There must be a supreme 
 power, and executive, judicial, and legislative 
 authority; there must be clergy, and a, civil and 
 military police. If the country in question possess 
 dependencies, institutions must be provided for 
 them with such variations from those of the 
 parent State as local circumstances dictate ; and 
 throughout the whole extent of the territories 
 subject to the dominion of the sovereign power, . 
 provision must be made for the administration of 
 equal justice both to rich and poor. All these 
 regulations are essentials, and the object of all is 
 the control of those evil passions inherent in our 
 .{species, which if allowed to run riot would possess 
 themselves of the' accumulations of industry, and 
 by rendering property insecure destroy civilization 
 and all the benefits which follow in its train. Let 
 man be only perfectly protected from violence 
 both internal and external, and the natural opera- 
 tion of the jnotive of self-interest will put him by 
 tdegrees in possession of much of the happmess 
 which a weU-ordered condition of society is cal- 
 culated to confer; 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE EA.TIONALB OF GOVERNMENT. Chap. Ill, 
 
 Now, men are restrained from indulging their 
 natural passions at the expense of their neigli- 
 bours by a fear of punishment; and punishment 
 is of four distinct kinds, — first, a punishment by 
 God; secondly, by the law; thirdly, by public 
 exposure ; and fourthly, by physical injury. These 
 are termed the religious, political, moral, and 
 physical sanctions. The second alone is the sub- 
 ject of positive law. Under the first sanction 
 men are restrained by the fear of being punished 
 for their misconduct by the Supreme Being. 
 The third sanction imposes the wholesome dread 
 of loss of reputation ; a penalty infinitely greater 
 in a country in which the press is free and in- 
 formation widely diffused, than in those in which 
 restraints exist. The fourth sanction has refer- 
 ence to the. bodily diseases which are the resulj;, 
 of intemperance in all its forms. If it had been 
 found by experience that the first, third, and 
 fourth sanctions were sufficient to control man^ 
 kind, it would be unnecessary to resort to the 
 second for that purpose; but the object of posi^' 
 tive law is not only to protect men in the enjoy- 
 ment of their lives and properties, but to define 
 rights and duties, to guard the former, and enforce 
 the performance of the latter. ' 
 
 In addition to the law peculiar to each inde- 
 pendent State, there is another kind, called "in- 
 ternational," which aU civilized nations profess to 
 
Chap. in. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. 69 
 
 observe, and this consists of maxims of morality 
 which have obtained currency among them all. 
 The municipal law of a State is commonly divided 
 into,-r-first, ecclesiastical ; secondly, constitutional ; 
 thirdly, civil ; and fourthly, criminal. The first 
 has reference, as its name imports, to matters 
 appertaining to the worship of the Deity. The 
 second is defined by Bentham to be " that branch 
 of law by which designation is made of that per- 
 son, or those persons, to whose power it is intended 
 that on each occasion the conduct of all the other 
 members of the community in question shall be 
 subjected. The power which is here conferred is 
 the supreme power."* Again the same author 
 says : — " The persons in whose hands is lodged the 
 supreme operative power, as also those in whose 
 hands the supreme designative power (appoint- 
 ment and removal included) is lodged, being deter- 
 mined, what remains for the maker of the consti- 
 tutional code is the declaring in what manner the 
 power and functions of the persons in whose hands 
 the designative power is lodged shall be exercised : 
 as likewise the marking out into a number of 
 distiact branches the whole mass of subordinate 
 power."t Our author defines the operative power 
 as exercised by the declaration made of the 
 all-directing will of the supreme power; the 
 
 * Bentliam, vol. ix. p. 9, edit, by Bowring, Edin. 1843. 
 t Ibid., vol. ix. p. 10. 
 
70 THE RATIONALE OF GOVEBNMENT. Chap. UI. 
 
 designative, or constitutive, by the determination 
 made of the individuals by whom the former is 
 exercised. 
 
 Criminal or penal law defines what shaU be 
 considered as a crime, i. e. an offence punishabfe 
 by positive law, and assigns the remedy or punisB- 
 ment. Civil law,* which properly comprehends 
 all that portion of the municipal law of a State not 
 included in the division of penal, is that which 
 creates rights and obligations and duties. The 
 connection between civil and penal law is of 
 necessity intimate ; and some have even doubted 
 whether much has been gained by making them 
 the subject of distinct codes in such systems of law 
 as have been hitherto promulgated. 
 
 This is not the place to specify in detail any 
 provisions of civil or criminal law which it may be 
 desirable to introduce in any given society, but 
 for the discussion of those questions which may be 
 properly treated of under the title given to this 
 chapter, viz. ' The Kationale of Government.' 
 
 Such questions should be among the first to 
 which the attention of a lawgiver should be directed, 
 who had been commissioned to form a code or 
 system of laws for a newly established' commu- 
 nity, where the whole field of jurisprudence was 
 
 * This term is unhappily ambiguous. It is used both j as 
 synonymous with the Boman law, and frequently also to desig- 
 nate the whole municipal law of any country. ' 
 
Chap. Ill, ciVIL LAW. 71 
 
 " Tal)ula rasa," or nearly so. Let us assume that 
 tlie society to which such system is to be applied 
 is an offshoot from some highly civilized commu- 
 nity, yet determined not to give any preference to 
 the system of law of their mother country, except 
 so far as it may seem to deserve it, but to intrust 
 to some accomplished jurist, some living Bentham 
 without his eccentricities, the task of preparing an 
 entirely new code adapted to an advanced commu- 
 nity, having personal property and about to possess 
 lands and to be engaged extensively ia trade and 
 commerce, and requiring therefore laws protective 
 of most if not aU the rights, and enforcing the 
 obligations ordinarily existing among the refine* 
 ments of highly civilized life. Let us suppose the 
 case of a colony which has just taken imdisputed 
 possession of a wide tract of land adapted, when 
 cleared and brought into cultivation, to all the 
 j»)irposes of agriculture. Such a society would be 
 subject to the restraints imposed by a fear of a 
 Supreme Governor of the universe, and to some of 
 those due to the dread of exposure to public repro- 
 bation: it would be subject also to the fourth 
 sajxction ; and the first question therefore would 
 be, assuming positive law to be required, in what 
 way it would be proper to commence ? The making 
 of a complete code of laws applica,ble to all cases, 
 assuming that such a thing is possible even at the 
 formation of a society, is necessarily in the most 
 
72 THE RATIONALE OP GOVERNMENT. Chap. HI. 
 
 expeditious hands a somewliat lengthy operation. 
 It would in practice be found necessary to begin 
 by adopting temporarily such simple provisions 
 of the law of the country from which the society 
 sprung, as with certain slight modifications preyail 
 in almost all countries and might be applicable 
 to their then condition ; and this before any 
 attempt be made to produce a formal code ; and 
 this course is in fact pursued in the case of coloni- 
 zation from this country. But as by the hypothesis 
 this system is to be superseded as soon as practi- 
 cable, so far at least as it does not meet with 
 approval, let us again revert to the question, In 
 what way is our lawgiver to commence operations ? 
 He will doubtless, considering the peculiar positiom 
 in which the community is placed, deem the first 
 point requiring regulation to be the protection of 
 the persons of the colonists, and of their personal 
 property in the shape of clothes, furniture, imple- 
 ments, and so forth, which they have brought 
 with them. He will therefore first enact provi- 
 sions contained in the Criminal Law of most 
 countries as to offences against person and pro- 
 perty ; but in legislating with this object he will 
 be able to omit many niceties, refinements, and 
 elaborate distinctions, which are found in the laws 
 of long-established societies, and which would not 
 be required as yet in the present case. The next 
 point will be the title to the lands lying \inoccu- 
 
Chap. III. CODE-MAKIKG. 73 
 
 pied and uncleared before them, comparatively 
 valueless at present, but capable of being rendered 
 by labour well applied higbly valuable. It is plain 
 that no one will be willing to bestow that labour, 
 no one will lift an arm or wield the axe to cut 
 down one of the giants of the primeval forests, 
 until he can feel reasonably secure that he shall 
 derive advantage from the results of his labour. 
 It may be, that certain portions of the country 
 have been, previously to the arrival of the settlers, 
 appropriated ; but however this may be, — whether 
 certain members of the society are already in pos- 
 session of some title to occupy ; whether prior 
 occupancy and labour bestowed are intended of 
 themselves to confer that title ; or whether some 
 person or body invested •with authority iii the 
 mother country or among the settlers themselves 
 is endowed with that power ; whether one, or any, 
 or all of these modes of acquiring property are to 
 prevail, still one of the provisions of the new laws 
 must define the right to possession itself, and all 
 its attendant duties, such, for example, as that the 
 land must be enclosed, and its boundaries suffi- 
 ciently well marked out, and so forth : and other 
 provisions no less necessary must protect the 
 settler in the enjoyment of the rights so created, 
 by imposing punishments for their violation. But 
 we must remember that all this assumes that these 
 rights of the colonists to their land, and to security 
 
74 THE BATIONALE OF GOVEENMENT. Chap. Ill, 
 
 of person aad of the property tiiey transported to 
 the country, are not sufficiently protected by the 
 three sanctions to which reference has been alfeady 
 made ; for even coercive provisions for guarding 
 life and property, to be imposed by positive law, 
 may be inexpedient if these three sanctions already 
 afford sufficient protection. It is needless to pursue 
 any further the course of legislation in the supposed 
 new settlement, as the discussion has been carried 
 to the point necessary for introducing a most 
 important question in the philosophy of govern- 
 ment, which has been raised by the example, viz. 
 the discovery of the cases in which it is expedient 
 to have recourse to the political sanction, as distin- 
 guished from those which are better left to be dealt 
 with in other modes. This difficulty occurs at the 
 very outset of any attempt at framing laws, and 
 yet, however strange it may appear, there are few 
 writers who have discussed this point to any pur- 
 pose. Bentham however, in the fifteenth and 
 nineteenth chapters * of his ' Principles of MorailS 
 and Legislation,' has some valuable remarks in 
 reference to this important subject. 
 
 Bentham mentions four cases in which punish- 
 ment should not be inflicted by positive law :— 
 
 First. Where it is grmmdless, i. e. where there 
 is no mischief to prevent. 
 
 * That is to say, the fifteenth and nineteenth in the edition 
 above referred to. 
 
Chap. III. PUNISHMENT, 75 
 
 Secondly. Where it must be inefficacioug, for it 
 caiinot prevent the mischief. 
 
 Thirdly, Where it is too expensive, that is, the 
 mischief produced is greater than that prevented ; 
 for punishment is always an evil ; it destroys 
 happiness, and is therefore admissible only so far 
 as it excludes some greater evil. 
 
 FourMy. Where it is needless ; where the mis- 
 chief may be prevented, or cease of itself, without 
 it, that IS, at a cheaper rate. 
 
 In reference to this question, Mr. Austin ob- 
 serves, * positive law may be superfluous or 
 impotent, and only produce gratuitous vexation. 
 Public opinion may suppress the evil as com- 
 pletely as it can be suppressed. Again, the 
 strongest possible fear resulting &om penalties 
 imposed by the political sanction, may be mas- 
 tered by a stronger fear of sanctions which 
 conflict with that of the law. The instance 
 of duelling is an illustration; the fear of losing 
 honour, a case falling under the third sanction, 
 has been found sufficient to overcome the dread 
 of an ignominious death. AH that is enjoined 
 or forbidden by the Divine Lawf must be holden 
 to be enjoined and forbidden by the rules of 
 positive morahty or private ethics ; but it by no 
 means foUows that acts so forbidden should also 
 
 * Austin, 'Province,' &o., pp. 171-2, and note, 
 t Austin, ibid. 
 
76 THE EATIONALE OP GOVERNMENT. Chap. III. 
 
 be punisHed by positive law ; the onus of proof 
 that a law is necessary always lies on the legislator^ 
 The immediate and principal end of punishinent* 
 is to control action either of the offender or others. 
 That of the offender is controlled by its influence 
 either on his wiU, in which case it operates in the 
 way of reformation, — or on his physical power, in 
 which case it operates by disablement : the action 
 of others it can influence no otherwise than by 
 influencing their wills, in which case it operates 
 in the way of example. Example is the most 
 iinportant end of all, in proportion as the number 
 of the persons under temptation to offend is to one. 
 
 Punishment is groundless, of course, in all cases 
 in which the act committed ought not to be treated 
 as an offence at all, either as falling under the con- 
 trol of another sanction, or, as is the case of usury, 
 e, g., constituting no wrong ; but assuming, as is 
 done in all the following examples, that the act in 
 question is rightly treated as an offence, punish- 
 ment is groundless : t — 
 
 First. 'WTiere there never has been any mis- 
 chief, as when consent was given to the performance 
 of an act which without that permission would 
 have been mischievous. 
 
 * Bentham, vol. i. p. 83, note. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 84. To avoid continual reference, it may be a3 
 well to mention that chapters 15 and 19 of the ' Principles of 
 Morals and Legislation ' of this author are the foundation of 
 many of the remarks in this chapter. 
 
Chap. III. PUNISHMENT. 77 
 
 Secondly. Where the mischief was mtweighed, 
 where the act was necessary to the production of a 
 benefit of greater value than the mischief, as, e.g., 
 the illegal execution of the Catiline conspirators 
 to save the State. 
 
 Thirdly. Where there is a certainty of 
 adequate compensation, which assumes that the 
 offence admits of compensation, and that it is sure 
 to be forthcoming. 
 
 Pimishment is inefficacious, — 
 
 First. Where the penal provision is not esta- 
 blished till the act is done, as in the cases of an 
 ex-post facto law, and a sentence beyond the law. 
 
 Secondly. Where the penal provision is not con- 
 veyed to the knowledge of the person on whom 
 it is intended to operate. 
 
 Thirdly. Where, though conveyed, it could pro- 
 duce no effect on the offender, as in the cases of 
 iextreme infancy and insanity. 
 
 Fourthly. Where the evil to be incurred, in case 
 the offence is not committed, is so great that the 
 evil denounced by the penal clause cannot appear 
 greater. This may happen in cases of personal 
 danger, or where reputation is at stake, as in the 
 instance of duelling above given. 
 
 Punishment iS' too expensive or unprofitable, — 
 Where, the nature of the offence and that of the 
 pimishment being compared together, the evil of 
 the latter exceeds that of the former. The evil of 
 
78 THE EATIONALB OF GOVEENMElirT. Chap. III. 
 
 the offence is, of course, greater or less according 
 to its nature, but tlie evil of punishment is divided 
 by Bentham into four branches, as follows : — 
 
 First. The evil felt by those by whom the law 
 is observed, i. e. the pain which it gives them to be 
 debarred from doing the act which is forbidden. 
 
 Secondly. The evil of apprehension,— ^e paii 
 which a man feels who has committed the offence 
 at the thoughts of undergoing the punishment. 
 This is felt by those by whom the law has been 
 broken. 
 
 Thirdly. The evil oi sufferance, — ^the pain felt in 
 virtue of the punishment itself from the moment 
 it has begun to be. inflicted. 
 
 Fourthly. The pain of sympathy, and the other 
 evUs endured by the connections of the offender 
 pending his punishment. 
 
 The evil of pimishment is liable to be enhanced 
 by peculiar circumstances, such as the multitude 
 of delinquents amenable, or the displeasure of 
 the community when, owing to the influence of 
 some temporary cause, they happen to imagine 
 that the offence ought not to be punished at all. 
 It is clear that, as the proportion between the 
 evil of the punishment and of the offence varies 
 with each form of delinquency, no decision can 
 be arrived at as to the unprofitableness of punish- 
 ment until each offence has been separately con- 
 sidered in detail. 
 
Chap. III. RELIGIOUS AND PHYSICAL SANCTIONS. 79 
 
 Punislimeiit, is needless where the offence may 
 be abated as effectually at a cheaper rate, as, e. g., 
 by education in the case of those offences which 
 consist in disseminating pernicious principles in 
 matters of duty. 
 
 The above then are cases in which punishments 
 should not b© inflicted. 
 
 Now to revert to the question, viz. the operation 
 of the four sanctions in reference to offences, two of 
 them, the religious and the physical, may be dis- 
 missed at once with this observation, — That they 
 must be considered as happily at all times in 
 action as restraining motives, and cooperating 
 with the other sanctions in enforcing that pro- 
 priety of demeanour and conduct which is con- 
 ducive to the best interests of society. These 
 sanctions must be viewed, therefore, as something 
 in addition, as other guarantees for good behaviour, 
 superadded to that afforded by the sanction of 
 morality, and that of law when imposed. No 
 farther remark is called for in reference to the 
 former: in discussing the cases meet for laws, 
 the comparison will always be between the 
 bounds of the respective domains of law and 
 morality. 
 
 Now, ethics consist of two departments, one 
 relating to positive morality, the other to positive 
 law ; the first comprises the science of morals* the 
 
 * Austin, ' ProTince,' &c., p. 133. 
 
80 THE RATIONALE OF GOVEENMENT. Chap. III. 
 
 second the science of government, of which the 
 science of legislation is a branch. Private ethics 
 have happiness for their object,* and so has legis- 
 lation, — ^that is, such happiness as is worthy of 
 intellectual beings ; the end they have in view 
 is of the same nature, and the persons whose 
 happiness they promote are the same. This being 
 premised, what cases ought to be left to be dealt 
 with by private ethics ? It is clear that every act 
 which is likely to militate against general happi- 
 ness is an offence against morality, and should be 
 studiously abstained from ; but it does not there- 
 fore follow that the legislator ought to compel 
 abstinence. Now, the instances in which the 
 legislator ought not to inflict punishment have 
 been stated. Are the cases so abandoned by the 
 lawgiver always proper subjects for the domain 
 of morality ? It wiU appear upon examination that 
 some of them are, and some are not : those cases 
 in which punishment was stated to be groundless 
 are likewise unfit subjects for moral restraint ; but 
 on the other hand, those in which the punishment: 
 has been described as unprofitable constitute the 
 peculiar domain of private ethics ; but it is unne- 
 cessary to pursue this investigation, because the 
 whole subject is ably treated in that work of Bent- 
 ham to which reference has been so often made. 
 The above observations relate to penal law only, 
 * Bentham, ' Principles,' &c., vol. i. pp. 144 et seq. 
 
Chap. III. LEGISLATING FOE NEW COLONIES. 81 
 
 but it is in that branch of legislation that most of the 
 questions of dotibt wiU necessarily arise. Thus in 
 a newly established colony the lawgiver may doubt 
 as to the expediency of framing and promulgatiag 
 a law containing provisions analogous to those of 
 our libel law ; but he wiU have no hesitation in 
 defining by positive law the nature of the right to 
 land, and of maintaining by like sanctions the 
 inviolability of contracts. Moreover, it will be 
 found that the principles laid down with respect 
 to the cases meet to be made the subject of penal 
 legislation wUl prove very useful guides in deciding » 
 in all cases, civil as well as criminal, the general 
 question of the limits of the domain of law and 
 morality. No one who has had any experience 
 as a legislator, or who has carefully watched the 
 conduct of deliberative assemblies, will hesitate to 
 agree with Bentham in the sentiment, that " with 
 regard to this branch of duty legislators have in 
 general been disposed to carry their interference 
 fall as far as is expedient. The great difficulty 
 here is to persuade them to confine themselves 
 within bounds. A thousand little passions and 
 prejudices have led them to narrow the liberty of 
 the subject in this Hue, in cases in. which the 
 punishment is either attended with no profit at 
 all, or with none that will make up for the 
 expense."* 
 
 * Bontham, ' Priuciplea,' &o., vol. i. p. 147. 
 
 u 
 
82 THE RATIONALE OF GOVERNMENT. Chap. lU, 
 
 Many illustrations of this truth might be given 
 by citing examples from recent legislation. Most 
 of the instances of undue interference have been 
 justified by the advocates for new laws on the 
 ground of humanity to the ignorant and unpro- 
 tected. In addition to the principles above enun- 
 ciated, the following observations may prove useful 
 guides in deciding on the propriety of imposiBg 
 the legal sanction iu any particular iostanoe. 
 
 First. Laws should never be passed which either 
 cannot be executed, or of which the execution is 
 so difficult that the temptation to neglect their 
 observance is likely to surmount the fear of the 
 punishment. 
 
 Of laws of this description the Chimney-sweepers' 
 Act is a notable example. Several instances of 
 gross cruelty on the part of master sweepers 
 towards their infant apprentices having b^ea 
 brought to the knowledge of the community, and 
 an impression prevailing that a trade which offered 
 so much temptation to severity, and was of a cha- 
 racter so revolting to the nice sensibilities oi 
 refined life, ought to be put an end to, the legis- 
 lature came to the determination to abolish the 
 practice of sweeping chimneys by the agency oi 
 boys, and to enact that they should be all swepil 
 by machines on pain of punishment. No mffieiesn} 
 preliminary inquiry seems to have been mada tc 
 ascertain whether this was feasible in respect t( 
 
Chap. III. IMPOLITIC LEGISLATION. 83 
 
 all the then existing chimneys, some of which, 
 being very ancient and of a peculiar construction, 
 oppose at all events much diiHculty to the appli- 
 cation of these instruments, even if it be admitted, 
 which some deny, that they can be properly swept 
 at all by such appliances. This difficulty seems 
 to be implied in the language of the Act itself, 
 which contaios some absurdly elaborate provisions 
 as to tbe construction of all future chimneys. 
 Now, if the statements of some of those who are 
 opposed to this measure are correct, the alternative 
 presented to those members of the community 
 who chance to be possessed of ancient mansions, 
 is either to have their houses burnt to the ground 
 or to disobey the law; and at all events, the 
 restrictive provisions as to new buildings above 
 referred to are of a nature so unlikely to meet 
 with any attention from the imperfectly educated 
 mass of provincial builders, that it seems probable 
 that they have remained' a: dead letter through the 
 greater part of the kingdom. Now, it is hardly 
 ifecessary to enlarge on the impolicy of retaining 
 any laws on the Statute Book which are not, can- 
 not, or ought not to be obeyed. It becomes known 
 to a certain portion of the members of society that 
 there are Acts of Parlianient in force, the provi- 
 sions of which are neglected with impunity ; and 
 fliis gradually induces a habit of thinking in 
 reference to these subjects, which, if the conduct 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE RATIONALE OF GOVEENMENT. Chap. Ill 
 
 of the legislature gave frequent opportunities foi 
 indulging it, would gradually undermine that 
 deference for the sacred majesty of the law so 
 characteristic of our race, and which has carried 
 us unscathed through so many perils. 
 
 The above considerations show the propriety oi 
 the step adopted in 1856 of repealing a variety oi 
 obsolete statutes. 
 
 Secondly. Laws should never be passed for- 
 bidding acts which, in the opinion of a large pro- 
 portion of the educated members of the community, 
 are in themselves innocent. 
 
 It must be admitted that many who inherit oi 
 are elected to the responsible duties of a legislator 
 have received no education of a nature to qualify 
 them suiBciently for the work they are called upon 
 to undertake ; the nice distinctions laid down by 
 jurists on the subjects which are now under dis- 
 cussion, and which have been in part stated above, 
 are unknown to them : they or their connections 
 perhaps experience some annoyance or incon- 
 venience from some act which has not as yet be^n 
 included by the legislature among the catalogue 
 of offences ; or they apprehend detriment to some 
 valued right which they or their friends enjoy ; and 
 influenced by these or other insufficient motives, 
 they instantly adopt the conclusion that a new law 
 is necessary, and not unfrequently even in cases 
 which have been already sufficiently provided foi 
 
Chap. III. IMPOLITIC LEGISLATION. 85 
 
 in previous statutes. That new law is, indeed, 
 often framed in profound ignorance of previous 
 legislation on that and cognate subjects, and with 
 a view to redress some single and detached 
 grievance which might have been included with 
 much greater propriety in some more general 
 measure ; and much confusion and complexity is 
 introduced into the Book of Statutes in con- 
 sequence. By some men, no subject, however 
 trifling, is deemed below the dignity of legislation. 
 A senator during an equestrian excursion is met 
 by a cart di'awn by dogs or goats, or some unusual 
 animal of draught, his horse is terrified, and, may 
 be, he is himself thrown ; and he immediately con- 
 cludes that carts drawn by dogs and goats ought 
 to be prohibited by law. Many arguments afford- 
 ing much better grounds for the crusade against 
 this practice than that above stated have doubtless 
 been urged to justify the petty legislation adopted 
 in 1854 on this subject : the practice was chiefly 
 condemned on the ground of its alleged cruelty, but 
 cruelty was punishable by another statute ; and 
 the experience of Arctic voyagers seems to con- 
 tradict the assumption that the dog is ill adapted 
 by his physical constitution for such employment. 
 However this may be, the instance is adduced as a 
 fair illustration of the source to which laws of this 
 petty character often owe their birth. Not that it 
 is meant to contend that the advocates for their 
 
86 THE RATIONALE OF GOVEKNMENT. Chap. IH. 
 
 adoption are influenced by any improper motives i 
 but of this we may rest assured, that if the 
 majority of the iutelligent portion of a community 
 can ever with justice say of any action, "Well, 
 there is no great harm in it, after all," it must 
 always be a very doubtful case for the interference 
 of the lawgiver, and the propriety of so interfering 
 should be very rigidly canvassed. The Act passed 
 to restrain the assumption of certain titles by 
 Koman Catholic Prelates will, by many, be con- 
 sidered as an example of an impolitic, Act coming 
 under this head. The Maine Law of the United 
 States is a notable instance. 
 
 Thirdly. Laws should not generally be passed 
 which, though good iu themselves, either too 
 much anticipate public opinion, or are hostile to 
 the deliberately-formed sentiments of a large ma^ 
 jority of the population of any country. 
 ■ To justify the propounding a new law, it is not 
 always Sufficient to prove that it is a wise measure, 
 framed with consummate skill and calculated to 
 effect a useful amelioration in the institutions- 
 of any country ; it should also be ascertained in 
 addition that the community are prepared to 
 receive it ; or at all events that it will not be con- 
 sidered unnecessary and impolitic by the bulk 
 of the population, though their opinion may be 
 grounded on imperfect information. It may be a 
 measure introducing extensive changes in depart- 
 
Chap. III. IMPOLITIC LEGISLATION. 87 
 
 ments of administration the details of whicli are 
 very inadequately understood, or involving a great 
 outlay of public money upon objects the import- 
 ance of which is fully recognised only by a few 
 of the most intelligent of the community, and in 
 reference to which popular prejudices prevail. A 
 provident and experienced statesman would say of 
 such a proposal, — " I cannot hope to pass such a 
 measure until the subject is better understood 
 and appreciated than it is at present ; the matter 
 must be well ventilated before I can venture 
 to bring the BiU in, or at least press the mea- 
 sure to a division," and so forth. There is no 
 doubt, for example, that great benefits would 
 accrue to this country if more extended en- 
 couragement were given to science than has 
 hitherto been afforded ; but in the present back- 
 ward state of the education of the people, any 
 measure which should be introduced into ParHa* 
 ment for the purpose of effecting this object 
 would require to be carefally considered with 
 reference to the objection above stated to laws 
 which are somewhat in advance of their age. At 
 the same time it cannot be too strongly urged 
 that it is the duty of those who by their position 
 and talents are enabled to take a lead in salutary 
 improvements to prepare the way for their intro- 
 duction, by gradually, raising the intelligence of 
 the masses to the point at which they wiU at least 
 
88 THE EATIONALE OF GOVEKNMENT. Chap. III. 
 
 begin to appreciate the value of such measures; 
 and then the enlightened statesman should lay 
 hold of the first favourable opportunity which may 
 present itself for propounding them. 
 
 If the opinion of a large majority of the popu- 
 lation of any country be opposed to a new law, it 
 matters little whether such opinion be right or 
 wrong so far as the imprudence of the measure 
 is concerned; though there may be exceptional 
 cases ia which the risk of proposing it must be 
 encoimtered. There may, as Bentham observes, 
 be some temporary cause in operation which may 
 make certain measures peculiarly unpalatable ; 
 some reigning prejudice under the influence of 
 which the people might be goaded into rebellioB, 
 should any change be proposed which had a ten- 
 dency to aggravate the feelings which may have 
 given rise to it. Thus, during the feverish and 
 Irrational excitement which prevailed at the 
 periods both of the Popish and Eye House Plots 
 (1678 and 1682), though the current ran in 
 opposite directions, it would not have been the 
 act of a prudent statesman to propound any law 
 which conferred any benefits upon the unhappy 
 section, as such, of the community which happened 
 to be displeasing to the bigots and fanatics whoSe 
 principles were then in the ascendency. But here 
 a distinction must clearly be drawn : it may be 
 necessary to the well-being or even safety of the 
 
Chap. III. IMPOLITIC LEGISLATION. 89 
 
 State that the GoTemment should take on itself 
 the serious responsibility of attempting to coun- 
 teract the injurious effects of some prevailing 
 prejudice, either by executive or legislative mea- 
 sures ; but the probable hostility of the people 
 should be duly weighed and considered with 
 reference to the question whether there is a 
 reasonable probability that the unpopular mea- 
 sures if adopted can be adequately enforced. 
 
 Fourthly. No attempt should be made to reform 
 the moral conduct of society by the enactments of 
 positive law, that is, to make men good and vir- 
 tuous by Act of Parliament. 
 
 However heinous may be the acts as judged 
 by Divine law against which such enactments are 
 directed, they are usually of a nature that escape 
 the eye of the pubKc; and thus their public 
 punishment, by the scandal which it creates, is 
 more injurious than their impunity. Moreover, 
 this is a notable interference with the domain of 
 private ethics, and punishment by law is inexpe- 
 dient, as inefficacious, unprofitable, and needless. 
 
 Many other instances may doubtless be ad- 
 duced of cases which require no action at all on 
 the part of the ruling authority, and are better 
 left to the operation of those motives through the 
 agency of which the moral sanction influences 
 human conduct in general ; but the observations 
 already made may be sufficient to indicate the 
 
90 THE RATIONALE OF GOVERNMENT. Chap. III. 
 
 principles which are applicable to each new case 
 that may present itself. The general maxim 
 that the onus of proving a positive law to be 
 necessary lies whoUy on the propounder of it, 
 must never be lost sight of; and the probable 
 efficacy of the religious, moral, and physical 
 sanctions in redressing the evil should always 
 be carefully weighed. 
 
 The proposer of a new measure is occasionally 
 met in limine by the objection that it is unconsti- 
 tutional, or that it is illegal, or that it is analogous 
 to some act which is an offence by law, or that it 
 is not right, or that it is not just. All who are 
 experienced in the tactics of deKberative assem- 
 blies know the value of a vague geueral term, or 
 of a hard word, conveying some obnoxious- stigma, 
 in resisting a measure which meets with their 
 disapproval ; but the employment of such expres- 
 sions can hardly be considered as proper or 
 justifiable. There is no term, however, of which 
 such extensive use has been made in attempting 
 to arrest the march of improvement as that of 
 "unconstitutional." The Keform BiU was said to 
 be unconstitutional, and no doubt it was so in the 
 sense of being a great change from that form of 
 polity which had prevailed for many years ; but 
 had those who brought forward that objection been, 
 free from party feeling, and dtily considered the 
 meaning which ought to be attached to that word, 
 
Chap. UI. ■ " UNCONSTITUTIONAL " LEGISLATION. 91 
 
 they would hare hesitated to apply the epithet to 
 that great measure. Mr. Austin* defines an 
 unconstitutional act to be one which is incon- 
 sistent with some given maxim which the 
 sovereign habitually observes, and which is by 
 the bulk of the community regarded with appro- 
 bation. These maxims the sovereign is bound by 
 moral sanctions only to observe. To violate them 
 may be immoral, but it cannot be illegal. To pass 
 an act, e. g., repealing the Articles of Union with 
 Scotland or Ireland might be immoral, irreligious, 
 or a sin, but it cannot be illegal. The sovereign 
 power is omnipotent. Again, the sovereign power 
 should in the opinion of this iauthor be said to act 
 imconstitutionally when its conduct conflicts with 
 that compound of positive morahty and positive 
 law which fixes the structure of the given supreme 
 government, that is, determines the character of 
 the persons in whom sovereignty shall reside, and 
 the mode wherein supreme power shall be shared 
 by constituent members of the sovereign body; 
 that, in short, which is properly termed the Consti- 
 tution. Mr. Austin does not of course mean that a 
 law altering some of the details of tha^ machinery 
 fcy which each one of the constituent members 
 exercises its share of power would be unconsti- 
 tutional; he would apply that term only to a 
 measure which seriously impaired or rendered 
 * Austin, ' Province,' &c., pp. 273 et eeq. 
 
92 THE EATIONALE OF GOVEKNMENT. Chap. III. 
 
 nugatory the political influence of any one of 
 those constituents. For example, the addition 
 of more electors, or more boroughs returning 
 members, would not be, while the abolition of the 
 veto of the Crown would be, unconstitutional. If 
 the King of France, e. g., who was virtually 
 sovereign from the period of Eicheheu's adminis- 
 tration tUl that of the Eevolution of 1793, had by 
 royal ordinance repealed the SaKc Law, he would 
 have done an unconstitutional not an illegal act ; 
 that is, one which conflicted with the traditional 
 maxims implanted in the affections of the bulk of 
 the people. In such a case resistance would have 
 been illegal, though it may have been agreeable 
 to positive morality, and to utility its test. 
 
 The same remarks would apply were the parlia- 
 ment of England to vest the whole sovereignty in 
 the king, or in either of its other two constituent 
 members, alone. But would such conduct hejmt, 
 would it be right? Now the terms "just" and 
 " right " * should clearly be used with relation to 
 some determiuate law which should be assumed as 
 a standard. Positive law cannot be legally unjust ; 
 for parliament being omnipotent may lawfully set 
 any commands whatsoever to its subjects, but such 
 laws may be so contrary to the plain and recog- 
 nised principles of morality, that it may become a 
 moral duty to resist and refuse obedience. On 
 * Austin, 'Province,' &c,, pp. 276-7. 
 
Chap. m. "JUST" LEGISLATION. 93 
 
 this difficult question, When does resistance 
 become morally right? there are some valuable 
 remarks in Mr. Austin's work. 
 
 Justice sometimes denotes emphatically a con- 
 formity to the ultimate test of utility, that is God's 
 law. When the act is pronounced to be in har- 
 mony with that, it may be termed jiigt ; and this 
 must be considered equivalent to an assertion that 
 it accords with the principle of utility, which is the 
 index to the Divine law ; and when the act con- 
 forms to that index it must be generally useful, 
 and tend to promote the greatest happiness of the 
 greatest number. 
 
 There is another term of constant recurrence 
 in political disquisitions, which has not received 
 the advantage of a definition by the above-men- 
 tioned able and philosophical jurist ; and that 
 is the word " Civilization." This term may pro- 
 perly be used to designate the condition of a 
 nation which not only habitually obeys a common 
 superior, but which possesses an average amount of 
 security for life and property and of intellectual 
 cultivation. 
 
 When it has been decided that the evil to be 
 redressed is a proper subject of a positive law, 
 many grave matters at once present themselves 
 for discussion : — As, e. g., should the law be in 
 all instances propounded, taken in charge, and 
 advocated by those who represent the executive 
 
94 THE RATIONALE OF GOVEENMENT. Chap. IH. 
 
 authority of the State? Or should any private 
 member of the legislative body (however unskilled 
 and incompetent) be permitted to take that im- 
 portant function upon himself? However preg- 
 nant with mischief this latter course may appear, 
 it is clearly inconsistent with the nature of a free 
 deliberative assembly to deprive its members of the 
 right of propounding measures to that legislative 
 body to which they belong ; but the Constitution 
 should provide every possible check likely to arrest 
 the evils to which this practice must of necessity 
 give rise. To some of these evils there has already 
 been occasion to allude. It has been seen that 
 inconveniences arise where laws are proposed by 
 unskilful men, who have their attention only 
 directed to some one particular grievance, the 
 remedy of which is their only object. For the 
 evil may have been already partly met by some 
 law which only requires to be slightly amended ;_ 
 or it may be only a particular case of a general 
 mischief, which would be far better redressed by a 
 general measure ; or the particular measure pro- 
 posed may be inconsistent with other laws which 
 it leaves unrepealed and even unnoticed. These 
 inconveniences are prodigiously aggravated by the 
 treatment to which laws, however sldlfuUy brought 
 forward, are usually subjected in their passage- 
 through a popular assembly. The precautions 
 which have been devised with a view to prevent 
 
Chap. III. INITIATION OF LEGISLATION. 95 
 
 hasty legislation are the origin of some of the 
 mischief. In this country, before a measure can 
 become law, it must have passed through several 
 distinct stages in two separate Houses of Parlia- 
 ment. In many of these stages the bill is subject 
 to amendment ; and these amendments are often 
 suggested by those who are imperfectly acquainted 
 both with the provisions of the new law, and with 
 the statutes already in force which relate to its 
 subject-matter; and who, even had they been 
 quite familiar with both, would in some cases 
 have been incompetent, from the want of technical 
 knowledge and the command over legal phraseo- 
 logy, to make the required alterations. It is 
 evident, therefore, that it must often happen that 
 alterations wiU be proposed and adopted which 
 either conflict with other clauses of the biU itself, 
 are inconsistent with former statutes left unre- 
 pealed, or otherwise tend to damage the measure. 
 It often happens that the member who has charge 
 of the bill is fully aware of the evil, but through 
 fear of losing his measure is compelled to submit. 
 In the session of our own Parliament of 1856 a 
 remedy was proposed to be applied to the evils 
 above described, viz. the appointment of an 
 officer of both Houses of Parliament, with a com- 
 petent staff of assistants, to revise the various biUs 
 propounded, and the amendments from time to 
 time introduced into them, and generally to aid 
 
96 THE RATIONALE OF GOVERNMENT. Chap. III. 
 
 the legislature with advice during the progress 
 of measures, without further interfering with its 
 independent action. The necessity for modifying 
 the present practice can only be thorough^ 
 appreciated by those who are at once experienced 
 lawyers and legislators : the scheme suggested 
 may not wholly remedy the evils which exist, but 
 that it wiU be productive of benefit can hardly 
 be doubted. 
 
 When a popular assembly, with or without the 
 control of a higher Chamber or Senate, but with- 
 out the control or advice of such an officer as is 
 above referred to, has for several centuries been 
 employed in exercising its legislative functions in 
 the mode just described; applying from time to 
 time a remedy to each separate grievance pre- 
 senting itself to notice, and often interfering in 
 matters which in a higher stage of civilization 
 would have been properly abandoned to the re- 
 straint of other sanctions; a state of things is 
 produced which is greatly to be deplored. An 
 enormous mass of crude, undigested, often ob- 
 scurely worded and unintelligible statutes wiU have 
 accumulated ; and though almost wholly unknown 
 to many, such laws wiU be binding on the whole 
 community, which also may be, as in this country, 
 under the obligation of obeying the dictates of 
 what is called common, customary, or unwritten 
 law, which can be collected only from the deci'^ 
 
Chap. III. STATE OF ENGLISH LAW. 97 
 
 sions of courts, as recorded in innumerable volumes 
 of reported cases, or from what are called text- 
 books, in wMch the results of such decisions are 
 stated with more or less accuracy. The incon- 
 venience, if not injustice, of calling on members of 
 a society to obey the provisions of laws with which 
 they are necessarily to a great extent unacquainted, 
 can hardly be wholly avoided ; but the mischief is 
 very much aggravated when the laws of a country 
 are in such a hapless state of prolixity and 
 obsciu'ity as that above described ; in which case 
 even those who practise law as a profession are 
 often wholly unable either to point out to their 
 clients the proper remedy for any wrong under 
 which they may happen to be suffering, or to 
 ascertain with certainty the nature of their rights, 
 or the liabilities to which they may be subject. 
 
 The state of the statute law of England, which 
 exactly answers to the above description, has led 
 to the appointment of several commissions with a 
 view of remedying this monster grievance ; but 
 the task is of a very arduous nature, and its 
 difSculties much aggravated by the peculiar con- 
 stitution of our Houses of Parliament. At the 
 outset of the labours of these commissions a 
 question presented itself of vast importance, which 
 has never yet been properly discussed and con- 
 sidered. When the laws of a country have arrived 
 at the condition above described, there are two 
 
 H 
 
98 THE RATIONALE OF GOVEENMENT. Chap. HI. 
 
 metliods by which they may be dealt with, 
 improved, and made more acceBsible to the com- 
 munity bound to observe their dictates ; the first 
 is by what is termed " Consolidation," the second 
 is " Codification." The first deals with the statute 
 law only, and is so far an incomplete remedy; 
 the second embraces the common unwritten law as 
 well as the written. 
 
 Consolidation is best performed by arranging the 
 whole body of the statute law, or at least such 
 portions of it as have any title to be considered 
 "permanent rules of conduct," under various 
 heads or classes, as, e. g., Procedure, Criminal Law, 
 Real Property Law, Marriage Law, Customs or 
 Excise Law, and so forth ; coUectiag together all 
 the various Acts and parts of Acts relating to each 
 class and sub-class, and combining their several pro- 
 visions in one or more new Acts ; but making do 
 amendments, except when absolutely necessary in 
 order to remove glaring inconsistencies and defects, 
 and always calling the attention of the legislature 
 to such amendments, when made, by notes ; taking 
 care also to preserve a certain uniformity of 
 method and diction in framing the new laws, 
 in Conformity with rules carefully considered, 
 prepared, and promulgated, before the work com- 
 mences, to the draftsmen selected to prepare the 
 several Bills. 
 
 Consolidation has the advantage of being much 
 
Chap. III. CONSOLIDATION. 99 
 
 more easily carried into effect than the other plan 
 which win be presently adverted to. This assumes 
 ^however that when the legislature shall be assured, 
 on testimony ia which they can place full reliance, 
 that the new or consolidated measures have been 
 most carefully considered by small committees of 
 distinguished lawyers, to whom they have been 
 severally referred ; that they contain few if any 
 alterations of the existing law, and those changes 
 specified in the margin of the Bill or otherwise ; that 
 then the members of both Houses of Parliament 
 win allow them to pass without referring them to 
 select committees, which would be impossible in the 
 case of such an enormous mass of legislation ; and 
 without attempting any material alterations, least of 
 all any which would amount to propositions to alter 
 the existing law, while the new measure proposes 
 only to simplify it, and render it more accessible. 
 This expectation seems not unreasonable when we 
 reflect that the new Bills would be in fact little 
 more than reprints of existing laws prepared under 
 the direction of skilful editors. This method of 
 Consolidation, however, labours under the disad- 
 vantage of leaving almost the whole unwritten law 
 untouched, and therefore still inaccessible, as before, 
 to the great majority of the community who are 
 compelled to obey its injunctions. 
 
 Authority is, however, given to one of the 
 commissions to which reference has been already 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE EATIONALE OP GOVERNMENT. Chap. III. 
 
 made, viz. to the Statute Law Commission, to 
 combine with the process of ConsoKdation "the 
 incorporation of any parts of the common or un- 
 written law, in such manner as shall seem to them 
 desirable ;" and this power may perhaps be use- 
 fully if sparingly exercised. Moreover, it is with 
 truth alleged that consolidation is a proper and 
 perhaps a necessary preliminary to codification 
 when the wi'itten law of any country has arrived 
 at the state of confusion above described. 
 
 The method of Codification, however, has a much 
 more extensive operation : it proposes to incorporate 
 in one code, or body of written law, the whole mu- 
 nicipal law of the realm, both common and statute, 
 in like manner as the same object has been partly 
 effected among our neighbours in France by the 
 enactment in the time of the first Empire of the 
 " Code Napoleon," and also in certain provinces of 
 the United States. The objections to this course 
 are its extreme difficulty, the enormous length of 
 time which it would necessarily occupy, the extent 
 to which it is likely to alter the whole body of 
 law by which the conduct, rights, and liabilities of 
 every member of an advanced state of society are 
 controlled and determined, the confusion which 
 might thus arise, and the consideration that such 
 a code, when prepared, would necessarily requiri 
 alterations from time to time which it might be 
 difficult to introduce into a system of law so 
 
Chap. III. CODIFICATION. 101 
 
 artificially framed without fatally impairing its 
 symmetry and perspicuity. An attempt was lately 
 made to codify that portion of the criminal law 
 which relates to offences against the person, and a 
 Committee of the House of Lords were occupied 
 for seyeral days in revising a BUI, very carefully 
 prepared, by which that object was supposed to 
 be accomplished. The Committee was composed 
 of aU the distinguished lawyers members of that 
 House, and other peers, some of whom had 
 received a regular legal education and practised 
 the law as a profession. When the Bill had 
 passed through the Committee, the measure as so 
 amended was referred to the learned judges, who 
 took numerous exceptions to its provisions. It 
 has been alleged that these objections were iu 
 many instances unfounded, but they led to the 
 withdrawal of the measure. 
 
 The Statute Law Commissioners appointed ia 
 August, 1854, agreed to postpone all attempts 
 at Codification properly so called till the work 
 of Consolidation had been performed. The 
 propriety of this determination wUl, perhaps, be 
 doubted by many; for in theory the subjects 
 of every sovereign have an undoubted claim 
 to be informed of the provisions of those laws 
 to which they are expected to conform under 
 severe penalties for non-obedience; but, on the 
 other hand, it may be said, though few men 
 
102 THE EATIONALE OF GOVERNMENT. Ghap. III. 
 
 know the exact terms in -which the principal 
 crimes, such as treason, burglary, larceny or 
 stealing, arson, &c., are forbidden by law, yet aU 
 know that they are forbidden ; all know that life 
 and property are protected, that contracts and 
 trusts must be executed, and so forth ; and that, 
 inasmuch as a successful Consolidation of our 
 statute law, if not a necessary preliminary, will be 
 at the least a most useful auxiliary in the ex- 
 tremely difficult operation of forming our laws 
 into a code, the determination bf the question — 
 whether this latter work should be attempted at 
 all — might well be deferred till the former be 
 completed, unless it can be shown that some spe- 
 cial mischief may be produced by such postpone- 
 ment ; that, e. g., labour and time might be lost by 
 adopting such a course ; for it may be that those 
 who are employed to consolidate our statute laws 
 might, in many cases, with very little additional 
 cost of time and toil, incorporate the provisions of 
 the unwritten law ; whereas, should this operation 
 be postponed, other draftsmen must often be em- 
 ployed upon the same heads and departments of 
 our laws, who will be compelled to acquire, for the 
 purpose of fitting themselves for the due perform- 
 ance of their task, much of the knowledge which 
 was already possessed by those who preceded 
 them ; and thus the time and cost of Codification 
 will be greatly augmented. It would be un- 
 
Chap. III. STATUTE LAW COMMISSION. 103 
 
 advisable to pursue this discussion, but no one can 
 doubt that the right decision of the question which 
 has been raised is of vital importance. 
 
 It will be vain, however, to adopt either of the 
 above processes with the laudable object of amend- 
 ing our laws and rendering them more accessible, 
 if no step be taken to guard against the recurrence 
 of similar evils in future. The Statute Law Com- 
 missioners* propounded rules for the guidance 
 of the draftsmen who framed the Bills prepared 
 under their auspices, and these rules wiU equally 
 serve as models for all engaged in the preparation 
 of Acts of Parliament ; and they proposed that 
 new machinery for the revision of Bills during 
 their passage through the two Houses which has 
 been already mentioned. It may be doubted 
 whether these measures wiU alone be sufficient. 
 Some useful ameliorations of the Standing Orders 
 of those Houses might perhaps be introduced ; 
 as, e. g., no amendments of a Bill should perhaps 
 be allowed on the third reading, nor in any case 
 in which the proposed amendment has not been 
 previously printed and circulated. The stages of 
 a Bin might possibly be usefully curtailed, at least 
 in the House of Commons ; and work which has 
 
 i " It has been asserted that these Commissioners have done 
 riotJdng. They have made four valuable Eeports, and caused 
 about one hundred consolidated BiUs to be prepared, and a 
 very useful Digest of the Statutes. 
 
104 THE RATIONALE OP GOVEENMENT. Chap. III. 
 
 been well performed in one session might be 
 allowed to stand good without being repeated. 
 Also the appointment of committees in both 
 Houses on the same subject-matter might be 
 dispensed with, and the difficulties attending the 
 proposal of a joint committee of the two Houses 
 might be in time overcome. 
 
 Bentham proposed that new laws should be 
 always accompanied with reasons justifyiag their 
 enactment ; but it may be doubted whether this is 
 necessary in any country in which the discussions 
 which take place in the legislature are public, so 
 to speak, and pubhshed almost in extenso for the 
 benefit of all interested : for it cannot but happen 
 that the reasons both for and against any measure 
 of importance which may be proposed wiU be 
 stated by some of those who take part in the 
 debate. The same enlightened jurist also advo-, 
 cates the expediency of promulgating the laws; 
 which have been passed, in order that those to 
 whom such commands are addressed may be made;, 
 acquainted with their purport. It is not probable,, 
 however, that some of the methods of promulga-j 
 tion which he advocates will meet with approval. 
 He proposes that the laws should be read in 
 churches, as, e. g., the laws in reference to the 
 relation of husband and wife during the ceremony: 
 of marriage. He proposes likewise that those 
 statutes which regulate conduct in certain locali- 
 
Chap. III. PEOMULGATION OF LAWS. 105 
 
 ties, as for example in a public market, skotdd be 
 set up in tbe places themselves* 
 
 Bentham's works contain also another sugges- 
 tion the propriety of which will not be generally 
 admitted, — that, inasmuch as in a code properly 
 prepared there would be a complete classification 
 of laws under the heads to which they respectively 
 belong, each member of society should be required 
 to provide himself with a copy of such portion of 
 the code as relates to his own condition of life ; 
 and that its being set up in a fixed place, as a 
 shop for example, should be enforced by police 
 regulations.t 
 
 Whatever may be thought of some of the fore- 
 going suggestions, few will be disposed to doubt 
 the propriety of devising some means of making 
 known to the community at large the provisions 
 of the laws enacted from time to time, which may 
 properly be termed " permanent rules of conduct," 
 and are of general application. The classification 
 of Acts of Parliament recommended in the reports 
 of the Statute Law Commissioners would so far 
 promote this desirable object that it would render 
 more accessible to each class of the community 
 that particular portion of the statutes specially 
 applicable to their own conduct and interests; 
 but in conjunction with such an improved classifi- 
 cation, some arrangements should be made pro- 
 * Bentham, vol. i. pp. 158-9. t IWd., p. 159. 
 
06 THE EATIONALE OF GOVERNMENT. Chap. III. 
 
 iding for the cheap printing and general circula- 
 on of those Acts of which the provisions affect 
 irge sections of the community. 
 
 The preceding remarks constitute necessarily 
 ut a fery cursory view of that to which the 
 jrm "rationale of government" has been applied, 
 a treating of these questions it is necessary to 
 liminate the non-essential elements of govem- 
 lent, and retain those which depend scarcely 
 t all on time or place. For this purpose it is 
 ecessary to abstract much that we have in this 
 juntry been accustomed to consider as permanent 
 igredients in every form of civil polity. Though 
 hat has been said can hardly be considered as 
 pplying to a very early stage of civilization, yet 
 lere is much that is applicable even to this period. 
 
 In every phase of society men are induced to 
 iad an orderly and submissive life, in due obe- 
 ience to the powers that be, by a variety of 
 lixed motives or springs of action: the moral 
 motion in a rude state is necessarily weak, but 
 le other three sanctions may have their full force 
 ren in the infancy of nations. 
 Enough has, perhaps, been said on the import- 
 ice of the operation of the moral sanction in an 
 Ivanced stage of a community in preserving 
 ■der and enforcing submission to the law; but 
 nong the various motives by which men are 
 duced to be obedient, we must not omit that 
 
Chap. III. FOBCE OF HABIT. 107 
 
 peculiarity in our organism by which habit is 
 permitted to exercise so important a sway over all 
 our intellectual and physical operations. All our 
 faculties are, as is well known, so constituted 
 as to be susceptible of almost miraculous improve- 
 ment by the mere act of continuous exercise. 
 Attention, however, has not been sufficiently 
 directed to the part which this element of our 
 natural constitution plays in government. We 
 know that it is by practice (another name for 
 habit) that we ascend from reading single letters 
 with difficulty to grasping at a glance several lines 
 of letterpress ; that the pencil and chisel are 
 wielded with magic skill ; and that the player on 
 the violin learns to subdivide the finger-board 
 of his tiny instrument iuto infinitesimal portions 
 of space with unerring accuracy ; and finally that 
 wonderful feats of intellectual power and skill are 
 performed. All this we know, but are apt to 
 forget how much we owe to the same principle as 
 a preserver of order in all advanced stages of 
 nations, especially where, as m this country, one 
 peculiar form of government has endured for 
 ages uninterruptedly. We obey because we and 
 our ancestors before us for many generations 
 have been in the habit of obeying, and habits 
 once acquired are hard to be broken through. It is 
 by adverting to the operation of this principle that 
 jurists obtain their definition of political society. 
 
8 THE EATIONALB OF GOVEENMENT. Chap. III.-, 
 
 When," says Mr. Bentham, " a number of per- 
 ns are in the JiaUt of paying obedience to a 
 rson or assemblage of persons, &c., such persons 
 s said to be in a state ai political society.* 
 It might be anticipating the discussions of the 
 ixt chapter, which is appropriated to the influence 
 time and place on legislation and government,' to 
 iter into detail in reference to the peculiar insti- 
 tions which have been abstracted in order to 
 esent the machine of government in its most 
 mple phase. 
 
 Of such a subject as the organization of political 
 ciety it is extremely difficult to take an unpre- 
 diced view, especially when those who venture 
 treat of it have to contend possibly with a poU- 
 ;al bias confirmed during the course of a parHa- 
 entary career of some duration : in such a case 
 ore than ordinary care is required, lest the sacred 
 terests of truth should be sacrificed to party 
 ews. It is to be hoped that no ground has been 
 ven for any complaint under this head. 
 In treating of the cases in which the political 
 nction should or should not be superadded to the 
 her three, a line of conduct has been sketched 
 it which wiU doubtless find more favour vdth the 
 jeral section of the two great parties into which 
 ir nation is now divided, than with the other: 
 it this result wiU be owing probably not so much 
 * Vol. i. p. 263. 
 
Chap. III. ILL-TIMED LEGISLATION. 109 
 
 to any particular bias as to the circumstance that 
 the leading men among the former have probably 
 directed more of their attention to the principles 
 of jurisprudence and the doctrines of the great 
 authorities on this subject than the chiefs of the 
 latter; and this is not surprising when the ad- 
 vanced liberal tendencies of these leading authori- 
 ties are considered. They have also devoted more 
 of their time to the study of economical science ; 
 and that study contributes much to enlighten those 
 who pursue it earnestly as to the limits of the duty 
 of the Executive and Parliament with reference to 
 many great social questions now continually mooted 
 by ardent philanthropists, who too often look to the 
 legislature to afford a remedy for evils which can- 
 not be remedied by any such means, but may 
 often be increased by ill-timed interference, dic- 
 tated, no doubt, by a spirit of benevolence and 
 kindly feeling towards the less fortunate members 
 of society, but adopted in defiance of well-esta- 
 blished maxims of poKtical science, and with a 
 total disregard to the hardly-bought lessons of 
 human experience, on the basis of which such 
 maxims have been carefully reared by men far in 
 ■advance of the age in which they lived. 
 
110 INFLUENCE- OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 On THE INFLUENCE OF TiME AND PlACE ON 
 
 Government and Legislation. 
 
 rpHOUGH human nature is in its general fea- 
 -*- tures the same at all places and in all times ; 
 though everywhere, and in all ages, men will seek 
 pleasure and fly from pain ; yet every nation has 
 its own peculiarities, and every nation is different 
 at different stages of its history. It is a trite but 
 true observation, that there is much analogy in 
 this latter respect between nations and the indi- 
 viduals of which they are composed ; and the seven 
 ages of man, so graphically described by our great 
 dramatist, might perhaps with little variation of 
 terms be applied to whole communities. All na- 
 tions pass through that warlike phase when they 
 seek the bubble reputation at the cannon's moutB; 
 and all subside into that more sober and staid 
 existence when more worthy objects of ambition 
 engross their thoughts ; and the lean and slippered 
 pantaloon is no bad type of the closing scenes of 
 the most splendid empire which the world has ever 
 seen. 
 
 Bentham has devoted a chapter to the influence 
 of time and place on legislation ; but it is not diffi- 
 
Chap. rv. OPINION OF BENTHAM. Ill 
 
 cult to see that the whole subject resolves itself 
 into the effect of national peculiarities, whether 
 derived from cHmate, mental or bodily constitu- 
 tion, state of civilization, or other cause. Jhe 
 character of the same nation may iu some particu- 
 lars continue the same for long periods ; in mathe- 
 matical language it may involve some constant, 
 but there must be always one or more variables, 
 and most of the elements will change during the 
 course of its progress to maturity. The two ques- 
 tions of time and place may well be considered 
 therefore under the general head of " national 
 peculiarities ;" and this term is agaiu merely de- 
 scriptive of the instruments and materials with 
 which and on which the legislator has to operate. 
 
 But are there any laws which are independent 
 of time and place? "Were I to choose," says 
 Bentham, " to what I would (most truly and rea- 
 dily) attribute these magnificent prerogatives of 
 universality and immutability, it should rather be 
 to certaiu grounds of law than to the laws them- 
 selves : to the principles on which they should be 
 founded." * Again : " The rules concerning the 
 cases that are respectively meet and unmeet for 
 punishment and for reward ; the rules concerning 
 the proportion proper to be observed between 
 offences and punishments, between acts of merit 
 and reward; the rules concerning the properties to 
 • Vol. i. p. 193 of edition of 1843. 
 
112 INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 be wished for in a lot of ptmishment and reward ; 
 the principles on which the division of offences has 
 its foundation ; the principles on which the various 
 methods of attacking offences by indirect or far- 
 fetched means ; all these, if they are just and pro- 
 per now, would at any time have been so, and 
 will be so everywhere, and to the end of time. 
 They will hold good so long as pleasure is pleasure, 
 and pain is pain ; so long as steel wounds, Are 
 bums, water seeks a level, bread nourishes, inani- 
 tion destroys ; so long as the tooth of the slanderer 
 keeps its venom ; so long as difference of sex 
 attracts ; so long as neighbour needs the help of 
 neighbour ; so long as men derive credit or for- 
 tune from their ancestors, or feel an affection for 
 their children."* 
 
 The legislature of a given country, at any given 
 epoch, frames, or rather intends to frame, its laws 
 in strict conformity vrith the character and circum- 
 stances of the nation which is to be bound by such 
 laws ; and it is chiefly, therefore, when a country 
 either conquers, colonizes, or otherwise acquires; 
 foreign possessions, that the questions now under . 
 consideration arise and demand attention. They 
 arise in this shape : Is it or not expedient to intro-j 
 duce iato the new dependency certain laws of the , 
 dominant or any other state ? For the purposes 
 of the inquiry it had better be assumed tha,t a 
 * Vol. i. p. 193 of edition of 1843. 
 
Chap. IV. TKANSFEEENCE OF LAWS. 113 
 
 perfect code of laws has been established in the do- 
 minant country, which code must be treated as the 
 model ; and an attempt must be made to ascertain 
 what modifications will be necessary before such a 
 code, or any part of it, can be safely transplanted to 
 a foreign soil. Now, as already observed, the happi- 
 ness of a people is not so entirely dependent on the 
 peculiarities of their political iastitutions as some are 
 willing to believe ; and when considering the ques- 
 tion whether the laws should be altered by which 
 any community has been hitherto governed and to 
 which they have been accustomed to look up with 
 respect, it must be borne in mind that the evil of 
 change is in itself very great, and that, even as- 
 suming that the laws_ proposed to be altered are 
 very inferior to the standard by which they are 
 compared, the remedy may yet be worse than 
 the disease. This may be the case although there 
 should be nothing special in the dependency itself 
 to interfere with the introduction of the whole 
 or certain parts of the model code. Assuming, 
 however, that the laws prevailing ia the acquired 
 territory, or some of them, are so bad, i.e. so pro- 
 ductive of mischievous effects, so injurious to the 
 happiness of the subject, that, great as may be the 
 evil of change, an alteration is clearly desirable, 
 there are several matters to be considered before 
 we are entitled to conclude that such changes may 
 be safely and wisely effected by adopting at once 
 
 I 
 
114 INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 sucli parts of the standard code as are appKcable 
 to the particular case, before we can assume that 
 laws admitted to be good when applied to one 
 community will retain that character of excel- 
 lence when transplanted to a strange soil. 
 
 The circumstances which render the intro- 
 duction of foreign laws into a country diiEcult or 
 inexpedient may be either of a physical or moral 
 nature. Of the former the most important are 
 climate, soil, and natural productions, and mental 
 or bodily constitution ; of the latter, the religion, 
 manners, customs, and • habits of the nation ia 
 question. 
 
 Climate, for example, may render one night's 
 incarceration in a confined prison intolerable and 
 even fatal. The soil may produce precious metals 
 or fruits in great abundance, which may make 
 special economical provisions and safeguards neces- 
 sary. Peculiarities of bodily constitution produced 
 by or combined with climate may render the per- 
 formance of certain worts impossible, and quite 
 beyond the physical capacity of an effeminate race 
 inhabiting a torrid region. The countries, again, 
 that are occupied by men of sterner mould may, 
 on that account, require more stringent pohtical 
 sanctions. Differences of religion, again, give 
 rise to many peculiarities, which must be most 
 carefully considered as having an important' in- 
 fluence. In Oriental countries the distinctions of 
 
Chap. rv. LAWS FOE CEYLON. 115 
 
 caste, and a variety of customs which appear most 
 extraordinary to a European, present most formi- 
 dable obstacles to a legislator who would introduce 
 into such countries the laws of a European com- 
 munity, at least without material modificgttionF. 
 Under the head of customs we may instance poly- 
 gamy, which, if retained, would make it necessary 
 to modify considerably the ordinary marriage laws 
 prevailing in most civilized countries. 
 
 When Mr. Charles Hay Cameron was called 
 upon, after having acted in the capacity of Com- 
 missioner of inquiry, to recommend a complete 
 reform of the judicial establishment and procedure 
 of the island of Ceylon, he had to contend with 
 the following difficulty, which furnishes a good 
 example under this head: — The natives of that 
 island were to a great extent insensible to the 
 obligation of speaking the truth, and perjury was 
 a most common offence. ' This evil Mr. Cameron met 
 by peculiar recommendations, obliging each party, 
 at the time of pleading, to state, subject to cross- 
 examination and punishment for falsehood, the 
 names of the witnesses to be produced at the trial 
 and the matters to be proved by them respectively: 
 he recommended also that process should not issue 
 for the production of any person or document with- 
 out the previous sanction of the judge, and made 
 a prior examination of the proposed witnesses by 
 him a necessary preliminary to a civil suit. 
 
 l2 
 
116 INFLUENCE OF TIME AKD PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 In the coTirse of this Ceylon inquiry there 
 occurred an amusing illustration of the manner in 
 which the peculiar customs of a nation alter the 
 " cireumstances influencing sensibility," and thus 
 affect not only the allotment of reward and punish- 
 ment, but exercise a certain influence on legislation 
 generally. " The same eyent which would pro- 
 duce pain or pleasure in one country would not 
 produce an effect of the same sort, or, if of the 
 same sort, not in an equal degree, in another."* 
 The natives of Ceylon, imagining that a Com- 
 missioner of inquiry, whose authority emanated 
 ,directly from the Crown, must have the power of 
 redressing as well as of investigating all abuses,! 
 sometimes laid their complaints before Mr. Came- 
 ron ; and a native chief, who aspired to the honour 
 of being preceded by a kind of drum called a 
 tom-tom, concluded a pathetic appeal for the 
 restoration of this much valued privilege by this 
 observation, " Por, sir, what is life without tom- 
 toms ? " 
 
 The truth is, that the neglect of these small 
 matters is one of the most prolific sources of dis- 
 content in the government of a dependency j and 
 many a country has revolted which might perha|)S 
 have been saved at the expense of a tom-tom, 
 
 * Bentham, vol. i. p. 172. 
 
 t Ii this respect they seem not to be singular. Our Ionian 
 subjects appear to have fallen into the same error. 
 
Chap. IV. LAWS OF THE INCAS. 117 
 
 The laws imposed by the English on their 
 colonies and dependencies, especially in the early 
 periods of their history, were perhaps very rarely 
 dictated by a disinterested regard for the welfare 
 of the latter ; and laws have been imported from 
 the dominant country with an utter neglect of the 
 principles which should regulate the transplanting 
 of laws. But the institutions introduced by the 
 Spaniards into the countries conquered by them 
 produced political fruits which perhaps present the 
 most striking example the history of the world 
 affords of the misery and ruin which may be 
 generated by neglecting common precautions in 
 the transference of institutions from one locahty 
 to another, differing from the former in many of 
 the particulars which have been above adverted to. 
 
 Of all the types of ancient civilization with 
 which the records of past transactions have made 
 us familiar, the institutions of the Incas of Peru 
 are perhaps the most curious. We have here 
 exhibited to us a most artificial system, which 
 treated a whole nation as children and regulated 
 almost every duty of hfe, if not every humau 
 action, by positive law or official ordinances ; but 
 the people were a simple r;ice, and seemed to 
 have enjoyed great happiness and many of the 
 advantages accruing from an advanced stage of 
 civilization under the mild sway of their native 
 rulers. The whole of this patriarchal machinery 
 
118 INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 was ruthlessly destroyed by their conquerors; 
 slavery was introduced, and tasks imposed by 
 avaricious and cruel task-masters which greatly 
 exceeded the physical powers of an effeminate and 
 enervated race. Then, again, the Spaniard, who ' 
 " conquered to redeem," endeavoured, by measures 
 amounting almost, if not quite, to absolute violence, 
 to impose the whole paraphernalia, aU the elaborate 
 ceremonials of the Eoman Catholic faith, on every 
 nation of North or South America which had 
 the misfortune to fall beneath his yoke ; and, as 
 if this were not enough, he sometimes enforced 
 conformity to its tenets through the agency of a 
 tribunal which may be pronounced to be one of 
 the greatest scourges which ever afflicted the ' 
 human race.* 
 
 These however are illustrations of an extravagant 
 disregard of all precautions ; we pass to instances 
 which are more in harmony with the conduct 
 which is likely to be pursued in our more enHght- * 
 
 * Codicia y perfida safta 
 Crearon ese iustituto. 
 Que a cien reinos dando luto, 
 Despueblaselos a Espafla. 
 Oon la sospeoha por guia, ] 
 
 Oiego tribunal seutenoia 
 Kigores a la inocencia, 
 Peidon a la hipocresia, 
 Propiclo al denunciador, 
 Contrario del acusados &o. 
 
 Haetzenbusch. 
 
Chap. IV. EELIGIOUS DIFFICULTIES. 119 
 
 ened age ; which does not ordinarily set utterly at 
 defiance all those considerations to which we have 
 alluded. 
 
 Diversities of religious belief present perhaps 
 the most formidable difficulties to an enlightened 
 ruler, who, actuated by feelings of disinterested 
 benevolence and love to his species, would fain 
 impart to a comparatively uncivilized race some 
 share of the benefits arising from the better laws 
 which his own country possesses. The nation in 
 question may enjoy a considerable amount of 
 happiness, and even a bastard kind of civilization. 
 There may be no cannibalism, nor usages of any 
 kind prevailing which are characteristic of bar- 
 barism ; yet there may be superstitious customs, 
 the natural progeny of a barbarous religious creed, 
 or other practices, from which an enlightened ruler 
 recoils with horror. The self-immolation of widows 
 on the tombs of their deceased husbands in India, 
 the exposiire of children iu China, the slaughter 
 of prisoners in cold blood as victims to the gods in 
 ancient Mexico, are illustrations in point. 
 
 The question arises, How are these matters to 
 be dealt with ? 
 
 The English, though fanatical enough at home 
 during the dark ages of their history, and with 
 respect to Ireland down to comparatively recenit 
 times, have paid considerable regard to peculiarities 
 of religion and customs in the government of their 
 
120 INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 foreign dependencies. In British India in par- 
 ticular they have, in the opinion of some, tolerated 
 too long the superstitious practices of their subjects, 
 and upheld usages which might with safety to 
 their empire have been long ago abolished.* 
 
 It must not be supposed that it is only in the 
 government of semi-barbarous dependencies that 
 mischiefs have resulted from an improper inter- 
 ference with peculiarities of religion, customs, and 
 so forth: the same causes have produced much 
 misery even in Europe. The Spaniards meddled 
 with a strong hand in matters of religion, and lost 
 some of the fairest provinces of their empire by so 
 doing, after inflicting an enormous amount of evil 
 on their suffering subjects. So again that fanatical 
 French monarch, who but ill deserved the epithet 
 of " gnat " which his contemporaries bestowed on 
 him, the bigot Louis XIV., drove the best and 
 most industrious artizans out of his kingdom, by 
 an outrageous breach of a solenln engagement to 
 tolerate their harmless creed. 
 
 " Before Montesquieu, a man who had a distant 
 country given him to make laws for would have 
 made short work of it. ' Name to me the people,' 
 he would have said ; ' reach me down my Bible, 
 and the business is done at once. The laws they 
 
 * This paragraph wag written before the mutiny in India, 
 and represents opinions connuonly expressed before that event 
 was known. 
 
Chap. IV. LAW-MAKING FOE FOEEIGNEES. 121 
 
 have been used to, no matter what they are, mine 
 shall supersede them; manners, they shall have 
 mine, which are the best in nature ; religion, they 
 shall have mine too, which is aU of it true, and 
 the only one that is so.' Since Montesquieu, the 
 number of documents which a legislator would 
 require is considerably enlarged. ' Send the 
 people,' he will say, ' to me, or me to the people ; 
 lay open to me the whole tenor of their life and 
 conversation ; paint to me the face and geography 
 of the country ; give me as close and minute a 
 view as possible of their present laws, their manners, 
 and their religion.' "* 
 
 The author last cited gives-f- many striking 
 examples of circumstances which might have to 
 be taken into more or less account by a legislator 
 in transplanting laws from his own to another 
 country ; but the principles to be observed in this 
 most delicate operation seem to have been almost 
 sufficiently elucidated by that which has preceded ; 
 and it would be an endless task to attempt to 
 enumerate all the facts which might exercise some 
 influence on the decision of an experienced jurist 
 when called upon to legislate under the circum- 
 stances in question. It must be remembered, 
 however, that the problem almost always presents 
 itself in this shape : — There being such and such 
 
 * Bentham, vol. i. p. 173, in note. t "Vol. i. pp. 173-7. , 
 
122 INFLUENCE OP TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV.. 
 
 laws already subsisting, wliicli are admitted to 
 produce more or less of the good effects derivable 
 from positive laws, bow far ougbt a new law or new 
 set of laws, more or less inconsistent witb tbem, to 
 be established ? Bentham lays down * the follow- 
 ing maxims : — 
 
 First. No law should be changed, nor usage 
 abolished, without special reason; unless some 
 specific assignable benefit can be shown as likely 
 to be the result of such a change. 
 
 Secondly. The changing of a custom repugnant 
 to our own manners and sentiments, to one which 
 is conformable to them, for no other reason than 
 such repugnance or conformity, is not to be reputed 
 as a benefit. 
 
 Thirdly. In all matters of indifference, let the 
 political sanction remain neuter, and let the 
 authority of the moral sanction take its course. 
 
 Fourthly. The easiest innovation is that which 
 refuses to a coercive custom the sanction of law. 
 
 Fifthly. The clear utility of a new law will be as 
 its abstract utility, deduction being made of the 
 dissatisfaction and other inconvenience occasioned 
 by it : and that dissatisfaction varies in the com- 
 pound ratio of the number dissatisfied, and its 
 intensity and duration. 
 
 Sixthly. Indirect legislation should be preferred 
 to direct — gentle means to violent. 
 * Yol. i. p. 181. 
 
Chap. IV. BENTHAM's MAXIMS. 123 
 
 Seventhly. Enact first the laws which, when 
 established, will facilitate the introduction of 
 others. 
 
 Mghthly. If slowness in the operation of a law 
 obviates dissatisfaction it may be a benefit. 
 
 The lapse of time, as has been said, alters 
 national characteristics ; and the influeiice of such 
 of the changes as might result from the progres- 
 sive growth of civilization has been in part con- 
 sidered where mention was made of the benefits 
 of an enlightened public opinion, a free but 
 not licentious press, and so forth. The subject of 
 the alterations induced by time has been discussed 
 by Bentham with his usual ability in the fifth 
 chapter of his Essay on the Influence of Time and 
 Place in Legislation,* which may be consulted 
 with profit. The general result of the author's 
 conclusions has been already stated in that 
 extract from his work in which he informs us to 
 what class of laws he would most readily attribute 
 the prerogatives of universality and immutability if 
 it may be added that this author seems to be most 
 unwilling to admit the justice of the common 
 notion, that many of the laws which we are accus- 
 tomed to regard as good and wholesome when 
 propounded as the rule of conduct in civilized 
 communities, would be inapplicable to a nation in 
 a state of comparative barbarism. 
 
 * Vol. i. pp. 188 et «eg. t See page 111. 
 
124 INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 The truth is, that to estimate properly the effect 
 of the advance of civilization on government is a 
 task of great difficulty; and the rather that in 
 this stage of the world's progress we can hardly 
 be said to be in the possession of sufficient data 
 to guide us to a safe conclusion. 
 
 There are very few nations indeed which can be 
 termed advanced, in that sense in which a real 
 lover of mankind would wish to employ the term. 
 At the present time (1857) there are scarcely any 
 of the communities into which the human race is 
 divided in which liberty of the press exists as the 
 term is understood in this country; and yet, if 
 experience teaches us any lesson on the rationale 
 of government more forcibly than another, it is 
 this, that when the moral sanction attains a certain 
 amount of force, all other sanctions are cmnfarw- 
 tively of little moment. 
 
 It is clear that positive laws enforced by a 
 political sanction, i. e. by a scale of rewards or 
 punishments legally imposed, are a means and not 
 an end. If the happiuess attainable iu this sub- 
 lunary state could be procured without them 
 through the agency of the restraint imposed on 
 men by any one or all the other sanctions, it 
 would be an unprofitable waste of human suffering 
 to have any positive laws at all. 
 
 Now, when any nation has attained to that 
 stage of progress which now characterizes the 
 
Chap. IV. POSITIVE LAWS, WHY NECESSARY. 125 
 
 English nation, it may be pronounced to have 
 nearly if not quite reached that point at which 
 either the moral sanction alone, or that combined 
 with the religious, has acquired a force sufBcient 
 to supersede the political, as a means of coercion, 
 among a certain section of the individuals composing 
 it. A very little reflection will satisfy us that the 
 last qualification is necessary. It is plain that 
 the force of the various sanctions can never be 
 equal among different classes in the same com- 
 munity ; not only because those classes are in fact 
 in different stages of progress, but because, as has 
 been well remarked by Mr. Austin, the public 
 opinion which influences action and restrains 
 from crime is not so much the general opinion of 
 the whole nation as the sentiments .of the narrow 
 circle within which each member of it revolves. 
 With respect to that unhappily numerous class 
 which pursues crime as a profession ; on the one 
 hand, that kind of pubKc exposure which would 
 operate as an effective check in the case of the 
 comparatively virtuous is perhaps, at least by 
 those guilty of the greater crimes, regarded with 
 complacency, as gratifying that morbid love of 
 notoriety, even at the expense of honour, which 
 is known to distinguish those misguided men; 
 and on the other hand, the action itself might be 
 4viewed with a certain amount of favour by that 
 degraded section of society with which the Hfe 
 
126 INFLTJBNCB OF TIME AND PLACE. Chai>. IV. 
 
 and occupations of the wrong-doer bring liim into 
 daily and hourly contact. How much of what is 
 now unintelligible to many is rendered clear by 
 the above considerations ! 
 
 UntU, therefore, a community has been nearly 
 purged from such human impurities, it would 
 seem impossible to dispense with the operation of 
 the pohtical sanction ; a corrupt nucleus of male- 
 factors will remain who can be controlled by 
 penal legislation alone. It would seem -therefore 
 that the political sanction is necessary in every 
 society as long as there exists a class of men 
 therein to whom the prospect of the loss of repu- 
 tation carries with it no terrors, or at least not 
 such as are sufficient to deter irom crime. 
 
 It is not enough, however, that there should be 
 a wholesome dread of infamy ; means must be pro- 
 vided by which disgrace shall surely and speedily 
 follow the commission of the offenCe : thei;e may be 
 those in a community who are tremblingly alive to 
 any even the smallest taint upon the unspotted 
 surface of their integrity or honour J and yet the 
 chance of any spot being observed, 6r, if observed, 
 of bemg viewed in its true colours, may be so 
 small as to strip Virtue of those powerful defences 
 which she derives from a conviction that loss of 
 reputation will quickly follow any deviation from 
 the path of rectitude. 
 
 There was never probably any class of men more 
 
Chap. IV. INFLUENCE OF REPDTATION. 127 
 
 nervously sensitive on the point of honour than 
 the Spanish nobles ; but the records of history 
 show that this quality did not prevent their com- 
 mission of many grievous crimes in a country 
 where, and at a period when, the laws had little 
 force, public opinion was led astray by false 
 notions, and its proper influence had hardly begun 
 to be felt. 
 
 There are many doubtless in England at the 
 present day who might not feel as keenly as a 
 Spanish grandee of the olden time the smallest 
 taint upon their personal honour, but would recoU 
 with horror from a proposal to take summary ven- 
 geance on a neighbour by force of arms. And why 
 is this ? It may be traced to many causes, but 
 among the most important are the following : — 
 First, the progress of civilization has produced a 
 more wholesome state of public opinion; and 
 secondly, there exists a method by which such 
 conduct would not only be punished, but instantly 
 exposed, and a fearful retribution would quickly 
 follow. 
 
 Now the most effectual means for securing 
 immediate public exposure is the existence of a 
 free press : it is in vain to establish a police for 
 the apprehension of offenders, or courts for their 
 trial and punishment ; it is in vain that certain 
 -moral offences should be visited with general 
 reprobation, if no method be provided for making 
 
128 INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 disgrace notorious as soon as the offence has been 
 committed. The above examples illustrate the 
 fact that the progress of civilization is productive 
 of two great changes, both of which must neces- 
 sarily exercise great influence on the course of 
 legislation ia any age or country. In the first 
 place, social development, one of the most import- 
 ant results of progress, must necessarily teach 
 men to discriminate more clearly between that 
 which is good and evil, considered in reference 
 to the principle of utility; and secondly, the 
 moral sanction derives increased force from the 
 certainty of disgrace following quickly upon the 
 heels of the offence. 
 
 One important result of human progress will, 
 therefore, be the enactment of better laws — laws 
 better calculated to promote the happiness of the 
 greatest number; and in proportion as society 
 advances the moral sanction will gradually extend 
 itself more and more widely among all classes of the 
 community. Another result of progress may be that 
 the religious sanction will acquire increased power, 
 or the moral sense, a lower order of sanction, but 
 one which acts as a substitute for the former, or as 
 a powerful coadjutor, in the case of those on whom 
 religious truths take a less firm hold, but who are 
 keenly alive to the importance of promoting general 
 happiness. When this epoch has arrived, educatioE 
 will be properly encouraged ; the condition of the 
 
Chap. IV. MOKAL AND RELIGIOUS SANCTIONS. 129 
 
 poor will be further ameliorated; means wiU be 
 provided for reforming our juvenile criminals ; and 
 other measures preventive of crime adopted. 
 Whether mankind will ever in any large comtnu- 
 nity attain to such a state of perfection that the 
 moral and religious sanctions alone, or one of 
 them, will suffice to deter from evil and secure 
 happiness, may reasonably be doubted. In small 
 communities, indeed, there have been already 
 instances of the religious sanction operating as an 
 , almost perfect restraint upon crime. Of this the 
 most curious instance is the Pitcaim Islanders,* a 
 community sprung from a body of lawless muti- 
 neers, but affording an interesting example of 
 purity of manners and conduct. The moral 
 sanction has, however, probably influence, even in 
 this very limited community of about two hundred 
 persons. 
 
 It is very difficult to look forward into futurity, 
 and foreshadow all the fruits of the world's pro- 
 gress. The experience of history would lead us 
 to expect many retrogressions, to anticipate the 
 annihilation of great and flourishing monarchies, 
 the repeated destruction of advanced civilizations, 
 and mankind forced to begin the weary round 
 again : on the other hand, the invention of print- 
 ing must be at least productive of this result, 
 that, though national power may pass from the 
 * Now removed to Norfolk Island. 
 
130 INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 hands of tlie present dominant comnmnities to 
 others, the great intellectual stores accumulated 
 by successive generations of the most able thinkers 
 in "all languages will stiU survive the wreck, and 
 be ready to resuscitate immediately that civilizatioa 
 which may possibly for a time have passed into 
 abeyance in one or more societies. Moreover, as 
 there seems no probability at present of any one 
 nation attaining universal rule, annihilation of the 
 power and pre-eminence of any, even the most 
 civilized, would still leave many remaining on 
 which its mantle might in time descend. 
 
 Among the advantages which may result to 
 mankind from the advance of civilization, Bent- 
 ham, in that chapter* of his work to which re- 
 ference has been already made, mentions reforms 
 of the law, " when the catalogue of prohibited acts 
 shall no longer contain actions the evil of whidi 
 is imaginary; when rights and duties shall be so 
 well defined that there shall be no suits arising 
 on points of law ; when the system of procedure 
 shall be so simplified that disputes on matters of 
 fact shall be terminated without any other expense 
 or delay than is absolutely necessary ; when the 
 courts of justice, though always open, shall he 
 rarely resorted to ; when the law shall be concise, 
 intelligible, without ambiguity, and in the hands 
 of every one." He mentions, also, the disbanding 
 * Chapter V. vol. i. p. 188, &c. 
 
Chap. IV. INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE AND AET. 131 
 
 of armies by mutual consent, and consequent 
 diminution of taxation, freedom of commerce, and 
 the perfection of constitutional law. 
 
 Among the physical changes which may exercise 
 some influence on the proceedings of the legislator, 
 the same distinguished jurist notices alterations 
 of the physical appearance of the country, such 
 as the drying up of lakes, the diversion of the 
 course of rivers, and so forth, arising from natural 
 causes and such changes as may be introduced by 
 art. No one, however, writing at that period, 
 could have foreseen the stupendous improvements 
 which Science and Art combined have effected 
 within the last Hiirty years of human progress. 
 The development of the railway system and 
 ihe invention of the electric telegraph must un- 
 doubtedly exercise a most important influence on 
 the government and legislation of all communities 
 which adopt or participate in the benefits of these 
 wonderftil inventions. The effect will be greatest 
 in countries such as England, which have many 
 distant dependencies, rapid communication with 
 which is necessarily an object of paramount im- 
 portance. A voyage to India thirty years ago 
 often occupied six months, and an answer to a 
 letter addressed to that country was seldom 
 !ieceived under a period of ten months ; when a 
 journey to India shall be performed in fourteen 
 days, and a reply to a message sent thither 
 
 K 2 
 
132 INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 received in as many minutes, the government of 
 that very distant country will become easier, so 
 far as distance from the seat of dominion is con- 
 cerned, than that of our Mediterranean depend- 
 encies at present.* There is great reason to hope 
 that many years will not now elapse before eventsj 
 which even to the last generation would have 
 seemed fabulous, will come to pass. 
 
 The extent to which government will be facili- 
 tated and the course of legislation modified by the 
 advancement of science and art opens a very wide 
 question. In our ignorance of the direction which 
 the progress of discovery will take, it is possible 
 to foresee only a very small part of the effects 
 likely to be produced ; but it would seem that an ' 
 important revolution in the art of war is likely 
 to be brought about by such means. Every day 
 almost gives birth to some new engine of destruc- 
 tion calculated to make warfare more destructive 
 to human life, and therefore shorter in its duratidtf; 
 It appears to be generally admitted that the use 
 of steam as a motive power has, to some extent, 
 impaired the security derived from the insular 
 position of England ; but, on the other hand, the 
 
 application of machinery and mechanical inven- 
 
 x' 
 * Since this was -written the electric telegraph has contrihnted 
 greatly to preserve to us our Indian empire. There is little 
 doubt that, had proper encouragement been afforded to abstracj; 
 scientific inquiry, the telegraph to America would long ere this 
 have been successfully established. 
 
Chap. IV. WANT OF A PUBLIC INSTITUTE. 133 
 
 tions of various kinds to the manufacture of 
 warlike implements must redound greatly to the 
 advantage of a country possessed of so much 
 capital and such boundless mechanical resources 
 as our own. Much evil, however, results from the 
 distrust with which the recommendations of real 
 proficients in science are sometimes received, and 
 the encouragement given to pretenders ; from the 
 want, also, of any legitimate means by which the 
 opinion of the most trustworthy can be broijght to 
 bear upon the course of the Executive. There 
 being no Institute or Academy, or analogous insti- 
 tution, in this country, recognised by Government, 
 having official existence, and therefore entitled to 
 speak from authority,* the Government are ex- 
 posed to all manner of indirect influences ; while 
 applications for advances of money for the pro- 
 motion of researches of the greatest interest and 
 value, by bodies of men thoroughly conversant 
 with the subject-matter and convinced of their 
 utUity, are contemptuously declined, large sums 
 may be, on the other hand, granted at the sug- 
 gestion of an individual who happens to have the 
 ear of some one possessing influence, for the pro- 
 motion of objects of very questionable advantage. 
 The funds now annually granted by the Par- 
 
 * The nearest approaoli to this is th^ Board of Visitors of the 
 Eoyal Observatory at Greenwich, and the Trustees of the Bri- 
 tish Museum ; but their functions are necessai'ily limited. 
 
134 INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV, 
 
 liament of this country for the promotion of intel- 
 lectual progress in some form or other amount to 
 a very large sum ; but the machinery provided for 
 their administration is sadly defective, and the whole 
 subject affords a very striking illustration of the; 
 careless method in which we in this country deal 
 with important matters which arouse no party 
 feeling, trusting to chance or to the necessities of 
 the time for perfecting that organization which 
 ought to have been elaborated d, priori by the 
 most able and skilful of those competent to be 
 intrusted with the direction of public affairs. 
 
 Everything which tends to obstruct intellec- 
 tual advancement, and under that category we 
 must include the mal-organization last referred' 
 to, must be considered as a counteracting cause 
 arresting the progress of civilization ; but this is 
 merely a question of time, it must at last overleap 
 such obstacles, and the questions remain, — What 
 is the limit of intellectual advancement and civi- 
 lization to which the human race is tending? 
 How far will the attainment of that hmit, or of 
 the successive steps or landing-places on which 
 society reposes in its painful ascent towards the 
 highest pinnacle, affect the questions of Govemii^ 
 ment and Legislation ? To the preceding observa- 
 tions, which bear on this subject, a very general 
 description only can be added of the kind of re- 
 sults which may possibly flow from that beneficial 
 
Chap. IV. EXTENSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 135 
 
 revolution in human affairs which time may pro- 
 duce. 
 
 The perfection of those inventions which tend to 
 annihilate time and space, and all that renders 
 government less costly and saves capital, promotes 
 the expansion of commerce, and diminishes poverty. 
 This increase of wealth, by placing the means of 
 iinprovement within the reach of the less fortunate 
 class, will increase knowledge. The extension of 
 knowledge wiU insure the gradual, though it is 
 to be feared slow, destruction of those existing 
 opinions and prejudices which arrest the course of 
 improvement and tend to keep mankind stationary. 
 Such knowledge will include the recognition 
 and appreciation of the doctrines of economical 
 science ; and when these are understood and 
 appreciated by artizans and operatives, they wiU 
 be in possession of a key to material prosperity ; 
 antagonism of classes will then ceaae, and the 
 many good effects arising from this will be en- 
 hanced by that moral improvement, the sure 
 offspring of intelligence, which will deter them 
 from wasting their hard-earned gains in sensual 
 indulgences. The Working Man's College and 
 adult school will then possess more attractions 
 Ijian the gin-palace or beer-shop; and whatever 
 amount of absolute wealth each member of the 
 community may then possess, he will have learnt 
 to employ it well, and to prefer intellectual to 
 
136 INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 sensual enjoyments. When the general tone of 
 society has been thus far raised, such men as we 
 have described will not be content to groTel in 
 the cellars of crowded towns, if for no other rea- 
 son, because self-respect, the moral sense, and the 
 standard of excellence will all be raised propor- 
 tionably. While those who live by their daily 
 labour thus advance in knowledge, we may 
 hope that those above them will not only not 
 remain stationary, but proportionably improve 
 their acquirements. 
 
 Upon the whole it can hardly admit of doubt 
 but that new phases of society will give rise to 
 new demands upon the ingenuity of the legislator. 
 Let us then consider the effect of its progress 
 upon legislation, arranged under ,the various 
 heads into which a code of law may provisionally 
 be considered as divided. 
 
 For the present purpose the whole municipal 
 law may be disposed under the following eleven 
 classes : — 
 
 1. The Constitutional branch. 
 
 2. The Financial. 
 
 3. That which relates to Public Economy. 
 
 4. Personal Eights. 
 
 5. Proprietary Eights. 
 
 6. Eeligion. 
 
 7. Commercial Affairs. 
 
 8. Police, CivU and Military. 
 
Chap. IV. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. 137 
 
 9. Criminal Law. 
 
 10. Colonial Affairs. 
 
 11. Foreign Affairs. 
 
 First. In the Constitutional branch alterations 
 ought doubtless to be made, and from time to 
 time, with a view of conferring a greater amount 
 of political power upon those who have qualified 
 themselves to exercise it, both by improving their 
 position in society, and by adding to their stock of 
 knowledge ; but it by no means follows that any 
 organic change in the constitution of the execu- 
 tive or legislative bodies should ever become 
 necessary or expedient; nor will it possibly be 
 demanded. As the world becomes better informed 
 on poHtical subjects, men will perceive that they 
 have been led by a natural prejudice to ascribe' a 
 larger share of the social advantages which they 
 enjoy to the mere form of their particular govern- 
 ment than is due to it. With increased intelli- 
 gence they will therefore become rather solicitous 
 for other alterations in the laws, to which re- 
 ference will presently be made, than for the 
 enactment of Reform Bills, or measures of that 
 nature. MTien all are happy and contented, 
 political revolutions cannot take place. As men 
 also advance in knowledge their reasoning powers 
 will be cultivated, and they will by degrees 
 ;^ discover the falsehood of many political fallacies 
 which now pass current for truths among certain 
 
138 INFLUENCE OF TIME AST) PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 sections of the community; and it is chiefly in 
 the discussion of social and political subjects that 
 the most mischievous fallacies exhibit themselves. 
 Secondly. The Financial laws are likely to be 
 greatly ameliorated when economical science shall 
 have taken firm root in cultivated minds ; when 
 it shall have become a reproach to the educated, 
 nay, to any class, not to be well instructed on such 
 a subject; and when its main principles have 
 become more generally diffused and understood. 
 At present Finance is a science to which few pay 
 any attention, and many of those who have a 
 professional knowledge of some branches of the 
 subject have not studied at all the details of the 
 imposition, levying, and collection of the public 
 revenue. All these matters will doubtless be 
 greatly improved as a knowledge of the true 
 principles of financial economy becomes more 
 rife. We may expect that in the three great 
 branches of customs, inland revenue, and taxes, 
 the cost of the collection wiU be minimized, and 
 the competency of the officers maximized, to use 
 a favourite expression of Bentham. Great im- 
 provements will doubtless be effected in the 
 tariff of duties, and in the mode of raising them. 
 Those excise regulations which interfere injuriously 
 with domestic industry and the employment of 
 capital wiU be modified ; and as the theory of 
 taxation is perfected the revenue wiU be collected 
 
Chap. IV. FINANCIAL LAW. 139 
 
 at a less proportionate cost in money and Taxation 
 to the nation at large. That difficult problem of 
 the imposition of an equitable property-tax may 
 perhaps be proximately solved, and assessed taxes 
 may be so levied as to faU whoUy on luxuries> and 
 not to interfere at all with necessaries. 
 
 Thirdly, Fourthly, and Fifthly. Under these 
 three heads the laws will no doubt receive amelio- 
 rations, but they embrace too vast a field to enter 
 upon with profit, especially in our ignorance of 
 the exact form which society wiU assume in its 
 ultimate state. One may, however, confidently 
 affirm that every internal improvement which has 
 a tendency to increase the sum of general happi- 
 ness is likely to be adopted. A great alteration 
 may be anticipated in those laws by which women 
 are placed under a disadvantage as compared 
 with the other sex;* such, for example, as de- 
 fine their rights while under the disability of 
 coverture. 
 
 There is great room for improvements, which 
 will no doubt be adopted, in those laws which 
 regulate the sale and transfer and the title to 
 land ; and that difficult question, the registration 
 of the conveyances and charges affecting real pro- 
 perty, wiU receive an appropriate solution. 
 
 Allusion has been already made to several other 
 
 * This was written before the passing of the late Divorce 
 Act, a step in the right direction. 
 
140 INFLUENCE 01* TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 ameliorations whicli may be advantageously intro- 
 duced into our municipal code. . 
 
 SixtUy. In tlie laws wMch relate to religion the 
 general character of the changes likely to be intro- 
 duced is not perhaps so difficult to foresee; for 
 assuming that the happiness of the greatest num- 
 ber will be the end always kept in view by the 
 legislature, it follows that the new laws enacted 
 will annihilate at once, and for ever, every rem- 
 nant of disability attaching to the conscientious 
 profession of any religious belief, and will com- 
 plete in every particular the work so auspiciously 
 inaugurated in 1829, when the Eoman Catholic 
 Eelief Act was passed. The legislature will, in 
 short, wage as determined a warfare against fana- 
 ticism as in the sixteenth and seventeenth centu- 
 ries it waged va. its behalf; and that fruitful source 
 of discord and misery, the quarrels between the 
 members of different religious sects, will be for 
 ever stopped. 
 
 Seventhly. The commercial branch of the law is 
 perhaps likely to be more improved by judicious 
 abstinence from legislation on commercial matters 
 than in any other way that can be named : at the 
 same time there are measures which may be 
 suggested which would confer great benefits on 
 trade and commerce; such, for example, as the 
 institution of Courts of Arbitration, in which mer- 
 chants and traders of eminence should act as judges. 
 
Chap. IV. COMMERCIAL LAW — POLICE. 141 
 
 or at least as assessors ; the establishment of a uni- 
 versal and decimal system of coins, weights, and 
 measures ; the improvement of the banking and 
 joint -stock systems, and of the insolvent and 
 bankrupt laws. In the state of society we are con- 
 templating, the commission of those frauds on a 
 gigantic scale with which society has of late been 
 astounded is not to be assumed as possible ; but 
 the whole subject of insolvency is so surrounded 
 with difficulty that probably a long period will 
 elapse before anything resembling a perfect sys- 
 tem of laws on this subject will be attained. 
 
 Eighthly. In that branch of the laws which relates 
 to the police, civil and military, it would seem that 
 these preservers of order at home and abroad might 
 to some extent be dispensed with in proportion as 
 society approaches nearer to perfection ; but still 
 human progress must be assumed likely to stop 
 short of that point, and there will remain some 
 internal disorders to repress ; such being the case, 
 an internal police wiU be maintained, and expe- 
 rience will no doubt dictate progressive improve- 
 ments in its constitution, so as to maximize its 
 efficiency, and minimize its cost and any abuses 
 connected with it. Again, with regard to external 
 disorders, or such as arise out of our foreign rela- 
 tions, we must bear in mind that it would be absurd 
 to suppose that all highly civilized communities 
 will advance towards perfection pari passu; and 
 
142 INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 even were that result to be realized, inasmuch as 
 a large portion of the inhabited globe is now occu- 
 pied by races of men much in arrear of others, 
 these communities will, for some time at least, be 
 left far behind in the race. It follows, therefore, 
 that when the more civilized nations have attained 
 the highest point, there will still be some so far 
 below as to bear to them for some time nearly the 
 same relation as the barbarous of the present 
 time bear to the more polished : the foreign rela- 
 tions with such communities will thus remain 
 nearly unaltered. It follows that such legislation 
 as has reference to a military police will remain 
 for a long period little changed. 
 
 There are certain enthusiasts who would have 
 us believe that, long before the happy epoch in 
 human affairs to which reference has been made, 
 wars wiU have ceased throughout the whole inha- 
 bited world. This is to assert in other words that 
 imperfectly civilized men Avill have ceased to have 
 human passions, human weaknesses, human infir- 
 mities ; that is, that some supernatural interposi- 
 tion of Providence will suddenly convert men into 
 angels : the above speculations on the contrary 
 assume that they continue men — but men im- 
 proved, in the progress of ages, to the greatest ex- 
 tent of which their natm-e is susceptible while they 
 continue sublunary beings. Improvements will 
 however be introduced into military affairs, such 
 
Chap. IV. POLICE— OEIMINAL LAW. 143 
 
 as that above alluded to, by which military ^engines 
 will be rendered more destructive to life, and the 
 duration of wars shortened. In truth, if wars are to 
 cease upon earth, they are more likely to cease, or 
 at least to become very transient in their nature, 
 from this cause, than from any perfection which 
 our race is likely to attain to for a long time yet to 
 come. Engines may be devised so murderous as 
 to decide the fate of a campaign in a single day ; 
 and one naval action might be attended with the 
 destruction of the far greater part of the ships en- 
 gaged.* The invention of the improved rifle is 
 supposed to have already altered the relation be- 
 tween artillery and infantry, by diminishing to a 
 great extent the danger to be apprehended to the 
 latter from the former, f 
 
 Ninthly. It is unnecessary to enlarge on the 
 changes likely to be introduced in the criminal 
 -law. Besides partaking in the general ameliora- 
 tion of the whole body of law of which it forms a 
 . part, some of it will be dispensed with, and certain 
 ,1Qffences which now require to be restrained by the 
 political or legal will be sufficiently controlled 
 by the other sanctions ; but enough has been al- 
 ready said on this subject. 
 . Tenthly. The condition of our dependencies, as 
 
 * This was written before the invention of the Armstrong 
 gun, which greatly supports the conclusions arrived at in the 
 text. 
 
 t The Armstrong gun may restore the balance. 
 
144 INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IV. 
 
 respects their relation to the dominant country, is 
 even now happily approaching to that state in 
 which the supremacy of the latter may be pro- 
 nounced to be rather nominal than real ; it may, 
 therefore, be predicted with tolerable confidence, 
 that when the epoch above alluded to has arrived, 
 countries now dependent on England, if not abso- 
 lutely independent, will at least have arrived at the 
 point in which interference in their concerns by the 
 mother country will no longer be attempted, ex- 
 cept, perhaps, in some very special cases occurring 
 at rare intervals, in which the collective interests 
 of many of the countries subject to British rule 
 are materially concerned, such as the proposal for 
 effecting a Federal Union between the North 
 American Colonies. 
 
 Meventhly. The subject of foreign affairs has 
 been already cursorily alluded to in speaking of a 
 military police. Though it is perfectly true, as 
 before explained, that such gradations as now sub- 
 sist between civilized and , comparately uncivilized 
 countries will continue to prevail after some one 
 or more of the most advanced communities have 
 attained the point of quasi-perfection, yet it cannot 
 be but that their relations and the laws and insti- 
 tutions affecting them will be greatly modified by 
 the progress of intelligence which must accompany 
 the advance of States to maturity. For example, 
 in former ages the negociations of ambassadors 
 
Chap. IV. COLONIAL AND FOREIGN AFFAIES. 145 
 
 were only another name for a system of fraud and 
 trickery wtncli was a disgrace to humanity. As 
 civilization has advanced, it has been discovered 
 that the maxim " Honesty is the best policy" is 
 applicable to the conduct of ambassadors as well 
 as to all the other transactions of mankind ; and 
 they would no longer make it a point of pro- 
 fessional boast that they had overreached their 
 rivals by trickery of any kind, or even by ad- 
 vancing at the commencement of their negociation 
 claims and pretensions that the wildest visionary 
 could never have expected to see admitted: 
 yet it may even now be deemed to be good 
 policy to ask more than what will satisfy the 
 State represented. The advantage of this course 
 may be doubted after a character for integrity 
 and plain dealing has been well established, and 
 instances may be cited in which great success 
 was attained, even in early times, by methods of 
 proceeding such as no honest man would blush to 
 own. The treaty concluded in 1479 by Isabella 
 the Catholic, after a short negociation, with the 
 Infanta Dona Beatrice of Portugal, may be cited 
 as an example of what niay be done in com- 
 paratively barbarous times by persons of integrity 
 animated by the same praiseworthy desire of pro- 
 moting the happiness of mankind. In the period 
 to which reference has been made the general 
 conduct of ambassadors was frequently very re- 
 
 L 
 
146 INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE. Chap. IT. 
 
 prehensible : they often joined in intrigues against 
 the GrOTernment to whicli they were accredited. 
 Time has eifected important ameliorations in this 
 respect ; and as society progresses, a higher tone 
 of morality wiU render less necessary some of those 
 laws which exist for the protection of a class 
 which, if history has not exaggerated their failings, 
 did indeed formerly stand greatly in need of some 
 immunities and privileges to shield them from the 
 natural consequences of their own acts. While 
 on the subject of ambassadors a doubt may very 
 reasonably be expressed whether the permanent 
 residence of an ambassador at a foreign court 
 always tends to the preservation of peace; and 
 whether, in a very advanced stage of civilization, 
 the institution will continue under its present 
 form ; that is, whether these ministers wiU remain, 
 as now, permanent residents at the various com-ts. 
 It would seem that most of their ordinary func- 
 tions might well be performed by a less costly 
 description of agent, and on great and abnormal 
 occasions extraordinary missions might be de- 
 spatched. 
 
Chap. V. STUDIES OF LEGISLATORS. ' 147 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 On Legislatoes, theie Studies and 
 Qualifications. 
 
 STUDIES. 
 
 rpHERE are no educational institutions, in this 
 -^ country, whose professed object is to prepare 
 the future statesman for the performance of legis- 
 lative and administrative functions ; there are no 
 books which can in strictness be said to have been 
 written with a special view to this end ; and thus 
 the noblest of aU branches of knowledge must 
 be picked up at hazard by all who aspire to 
 know. There are works which treat of matters 
 appertaining to government, but some discreet 
 and unprejudiced person should be always at hand 
 to instruct students as to the merits of writers, 
 and the trustworthiness of the statements which 
 their works contain. This is indispensably neces- 
 sary in the .case of a science in which national, 
 party, or even local views and prejudices, glaring 
 perversions of the art of reasoning, and unscrupu- 
 lous misstatements of fact, often concur to entrap 
 the ignorant and unwary. 
 
 Now where educational establishments and 
 
 L 2 
 
148 STUDIES OF LEGISLATOES. Chap. V. 
 
 teachers are not provided, the public are apt 'to 
 believe there can be little or nothing to learn. 
 Some of the effects of this illusion may have been 
 often perceived in the careless and offhand manner 
 in which questions demanding for their solution 
 an accurate knowledge of the leading principles 
 of social science are discussed in society and the 
 senate. 
 
 When we seriously reflect on the nature of the 
 functions which a statesman is called upon to 
 perform, it would seem hardly possible, within the 
 compass of an ordinary life, even for those gifted 
 with consummate natural powers, to acquire more 
 than a small portion of the knowledge necessary 
 to enable him to perform his duties in a creditable 
 manner. 
 
 Yet experience of the past would seem to con- 
 tradict this conclusion ; history presents us with 
 the names of men possessing apparently few, if any, 
 of the necessary qualifications, and yet filling the 
 post even of prime minister with tolerable success. 
 It may be that, fl.ourishing at a time when the 
 great principles of social science were known but 
 to few, they managed so adroitly to adapt their 
 conduct to the opinions or prejudices of the bulk 
 of their contemporaries as to obtain from an 
 ignorant public a certain measure of applause. 
 
 The bulk of our countrymen however will pro- 
 bably in no long space of time become far better 
 
Chap. V. WANT OF PEEPAEATION. 149 
 
 acquainted than they now are with the principles 
 of social science, and be able to form a better 
 judgment of the absolute and relative merits of 
 their rulers: the question therefore arises, how, 
 within the compass of a Kfe, is that amount of 
 knowledge to be acquired which will fit a man to 
 guide the political destinies of a great and enlight- 
 ened nation ? 
 
 It would seem at first sight that such knowledge 
 must be almost universal. On what subject may 
 not the statesman be called upon to speak and 
 legislate? The disheartening descriptions given 
 by Cicero of the amount of previous study neces- 
 sary to form an accomplished orator* will apply 
 with equal if not greater force to the senator of 
 modern times. What subjects should this know- 
 ledge comprise? Whence and how is it to be 
 sought for and acquired? To these and other 
 similar questions an answer may be expected, but 
 a complete reply to them is perhaps impossible in 
 the present state of our knowledge. 
 
 Let it be assumed that the student has received 
 the education of an accompKshed gentleman, that 
 he is tolerably well read in ancient and modern 
 classics, is acquainted with modern history, and 
 
 * Est enim et scientia comprehendenda rerum plurimarum, &o. 
 
 ac meS. quidem sententia nemo potent esse onmi laude 
 
 cumulatus orator, nisi erit omnium rerum magnarum atque 
 artium scientiam consecutus. &c. — De Oratore, lib. i. c. 5 and 6. 
 
150 STUDIES OF LEGISLATORS. Chap. Y. 
 
 has studied logic and rhetoric ; also that he has 
 some knowledge, however acquired, of the characr 
 ter, opinions, and habits of that nation in par- 
 ticular whose conduct he aspires to guide. Laws 
 that are good for the hardy, sedate, industrious, 
 and orderly Englishman may be bad for the 
 Neapolitan, imaginative, slothful, prone to excite- 
 ment, and ignorant of the principles and practice 
 of constitutional government. It wiU be well also 
 that the student should have his mind prepared for 
 reasoning by a knowledge of at least the elements 
 of mathematics and physics. He should then 
 commence the study of the general principles of 
 what may be termed Social Science, comprehend- 
 ing the Science of Human Nature, of Mind, of 
 the Formation of Character, Ethics, and Pohtical 
 Philosophy, or the whole theory of Government and 
 Legislation. Then the philosophical branch of 
 history, which tells of the gradual progress of man- 
 kind, and his own nation in particular, in the know- 
 ledge and practice of all that constitutes true 
 wisdom. " Tenenda prseterea est omnis antiquitas 
 exemplorumque vis. "* 
 
 The term "History" must be understood as 
 including all that experience, considered as a 
 guide to political conduct, teaches. This study of 
 the Philosophy of History is in strictness included in 
 that of Social Science, but the development of the 
 * Cicero, ibid. 
 
Chap. V. HISTORY— STATISTICS. 151 
 
 empirical laws of that science from the history of 
 mankind will generally follow the attempt to 
 master its general principles. A certain amount 
 of knowledge of the laws of his own country must 
 be acquired, the "jus civile " of Cicero ; not the 
 mere technicalities, but the great principles of 
 jurisprudence, and particularly the constitutional 
 branch of the existing code. 
 
 Then the science of Political Economy must be 
 studied, and the internal resources of the country, 
 its population, trade, commerce, and manufactures, 
 — in short, its general statistics, which are, in effect, 
 a species, of tabular history indispensable to the 
 legislator, as it contains the facts on which his 
 conclusions and measures must generally be 
 grounded. Besides these statistics, which" may be 
 termed general, each particular proposed amend- 
 ment of the law will, for the most part, be based 
 upon certain special facts, a knowledge of which is 
 a necessary preliminary to the proper framing of 
 any measure which may be in contemplation. 
 The general statistics of all countries are always 
 more or less incomplete, and cannot, therefore, 
 supply data for aU the reforms which the pro- 
 gress of time may render expedient. In this 
 country, in later times, and in the case of the re- 
 forms which have been duly matured, and where the 
 details have been complicated, these special facts 
 have been ascertained by previous inquiries by 
 
152 STUDIES OF LEGISLATORS. Chap. V. 
 
 Eoyal Commissioners or Committees of the Houses 
 of Parliament ; and this method of preliminary 
 inquiry by Commissions may be characterized as 
 a great improvement in the practice of modern 
 legislation. 
 
 The institutions, history, and present state of 
 our Colonial Possessions and Dependencies, open 
 up another vast field of research; but a very 
 general acquaintance -with this branch of know- 
 ledge may be deemed sufficient. 
 
 A certain portion of time should also be devoted 
 to the perusal of the speeches of eminent states- 
 men, from -which the learner will derive the same 
 kind of instruction which the artist obtains by 
 seeing fine pictures or hearing good music. 
 
 This hasty sketch may be taken as describ- 
 ing generally the home education of a senator. 
 But other countries are more or less connected 
 by intercourse, commerce, and treaties of al- 
 liance with his oivn; and the statesman must 
 not only be generally acquainted with the 
 nature of the agreements entered into with 
 those foreign societies— in other words, with the 
 existing treaties or alliances which regulate the 
 mutual intercourse of nations — but he must know 
 something of that code of positive moral rules by 
 which their conduct towards one another is in- 
 fluenced and, to a ceiiain extent, controlled ; in 
 short, he must study " International Law." To the 
 
Chap. V. FOEEIGN COMMEKCE. 153 
 
 study of this cods should be added a very general 
 knowledge of the fundamental institutions of the 
 most important of these foreign countries, greater 
 and more detailed in proportion to the interest 
 attachir(g to the country or its institutions. The 
 trade between independent communities renders a 
 , more detailed study of the principles of political 
 economy necessary than would have sufficed had no 
 such intercourse subsisted. This science is a difiS- 
 cult one ; its principles are hard to master, and 
 their application to all the Tarious cases that arise 
 in practice is embarrassing. We cannot have in 
 politics, as in the abstract sciences, accurate defi- 
 nitions of all the words we employ, and the num- 
 ber of causes in operation capable of producing a 
 given effect are so numerous that we are in con- 
 stant danger of falling on the fallacy "post hoc, 
 ergo propter hoc ; " a fallacy which lies at the root 
 of many erroneous political arguments. In de- 
 vising new measures in reference to commerce 
 (and these, if reaUy beneficial, will generally have 
 for their object the removal of ancient restraints), 
 a thorough knowledge of the principles of the 
 science in questfon is indispensable.* 
 
 * There is a striking passage in tlie ' History ' of Thierry, 
 vol. iv., p. 169, edit. 1838, -which illustrates very clearly the 
 influence which economical considerations had, even at that 
 early period, on the decision of the most important questions of 
 state : — " Beaucoup d'hommes songeaient k reunir tout le sud- 
 ouest de la Gaule en uu etat iude'pendant. Ce dessein plaisait Ji la 
 
154 STUDIES OF LEGISLATOES. Chap. V. 
 
 Assuming, then, that our student has the usual 
 education of a gentleman, with some desirable 
 additions thereto, there remain nine principal sub- 
 jects of study, which have been already mentioned, 
 and may be enumerated in the following order : — 
 
 1. Social Science. 
 
 2. The Political, or rather Philosophical, branch 
 of General History. 
 
 3. Constitutional Law, and Principles of Juris- 
 prudence. 
 
 4. Political Economy. 
 
 5. The Statistics of the Enjpire. 
 
 6. The Colonies and Dependencies of the 
 Empire. 
 
 7. International Law. 
 
 8. The fundamental Institutions of the principal 
 foreign States. 
 
 9. The more important Treaties and their 
 history. 
 
 It is not, however, intended to assert that it is 
 impossible for any one to distinguish himself in 
 parliament who is devoid of any one or even 
 several of the qualifications above described ; their 
 possession would indeed constitute a perfect pre- 
 
 classe eleve'e et aux riches bourgeois des villes de G-uienne, mais 
 le menu peuple tenait a la domination Anglalse, a cause de I'opi- 
 nion gendralement r^pandue qu'on ne saurait oil vendre les Tins 
 du pays si les marchands d'Angleterre u'etaient plus li pour les 
 emporter sur leuis vaisseaux." See also Froissart, lib. iv. 
 chap. Ixxix. 
 
Chap. V. PEIKCIPAL SUBJECTS. 155 
 
 paration (so far as study can eifect this) for a 
 most difiBcult calling ; but there are other means 
 by which success may be attained. A great part 
 of the information necessary for the discussion of 
 the subject under debate may often be collected, 
 after the question has been mooted, by those who 
 have that facility, which an experienced statesman 
 or an able practising lawyer possesses in perfection, 
 of looking for and quickly discoveriug that know- 
 ledge which is immediately in request ; and indeed 
 this must be done by all to a certain extent, but 
 perhaps those only will derive much benefit from 
 these impromptu researches who have previously 
 made themselves well acquainted with the various 
 sources of information, and have considerable 
 practice in turning data so acquired rapidly to 
 account. 
 
 A considerable amount of information on some 
 one or two important subjects, however acquired, 
 the subjects being well chosen, is one mode of 
 attaining influence, especially if it be accompanied 
 by an almost exclusive devotion to those speci- 
 alities; and on the same principle, professional 
 speeches on professional subjects are listened to 
 with respect, for the maxim " cuUibet in su^ arte 
 credendum " will always have and ought to have 
 its due weight. 
 
 Much useful work is performed in Committees 
 by men some of whom are unknown to the public 
 
156 STUDIES OF LEGISLATOES. Chap. V. 
 
 as speakers, men of business, who prefer serving 
 their country in. this quiet unobtrusive manner to 
 consuming the time of parliament by harangues, 
 containing words indeed, well arranged and well 
 and fluently delivered, but not matter, and calcu- 
 lated to obtain applause only from those who are 
 too ignorant to appreciate true merit. 
 
 " A voce pill ch' al ver drizzan li volti, 
 E cosi ferman sua opinione. 
 Prima ch' arte o ragion per lor s' ascolti." 
 
 The influence of fine speaking, as distinguished 
 from eloquence properly so called, would seem to 
 be on the wane ; the world is beginning to see 
 that the duty of promoting the happiness of man- 
 kind by sound legislation is a serious and truly 
 responsible charge, and that its due performance 
 does not depend upon the possession of oratorical 
 sMU, fine metaphors, and figures of speech, but of 
 experience and knowledge accompanied by genuine 
 kindly feeling, exhibiting itself in disinterested 
 and continuous efibrts to advance the welfare of 
 mankind. The man who blurts out a few words 
 only, if they be words of real wisdom, may confer 
 more benefit on his country than the finest orator 
 who ever caused the walls of parliament to ring 
 with approving cheers. 
 
 1. Socidl Science. — As Ethics or Ethology com- 
 prise everything which relates to the formation of 
 human character considering man as an individual, 
 
Chap. V. SOCIAL SCIENCE, 157 
 
 SO Social Science is conversant with mankind dis- 
 tributed in masses and constituting different sects, 
 tribes, nations, or independent political commu- 
 nities, as tbe case may be. There is one work, and 
 perhaps one only, which has treated this subject in 
 a philosophical spirit, and that is the Treatise on 
 Logic by Mr. John Stuart MiU ; but this author 
 cites the work of M. Comte, ' Cours de Philosophie 
 Positive,' as one entitled to great praise for the 
 manner ia which it has dealt with this very diffi- 
 cult branch of philosophical inquiry. But while 
 these may be the only treatises which take a truly 
 logical and comprehensive view of this vast field, 
 there are many works from which important infor- 
 mation may be derived on various departments of 
 the social theory ; as for instance Bentham's works, 
 particularly his ' Fragment on Government,' and 
 ' Principles of Morals 'and Legislation ;' Austin's 
 'Province of Jurisprudence determined;' Paley's 
 ' Moral Philosophy ;' Locke's ' Treatise on Govern- 
 ment;' Hobbes's 'Leviathan.' The study of the 
 two latter may weU be postponed till those works 
 which were written in a more advanced stage of 
 society are mastered, as the latter will convey to 
 the reader more just ideas of the fundamental doc- 
 triues of the science, and save him from imbibing 
 false opinions at the outset of his career. 
 
 Mr. Mill devotes the 6th and last book of his 
 treatise to the logic of the moral sciences. 
 
158 STUDIES OF LEGISLATOES. Chap. V. 
 
 After treating of the vexed question of " Liberty 
 and Necessity," he raises and discusses the ques- 
 tion whether there may be a science of Human 
 Nature, which he decides ia the affirmative. 
 
 A chapter on the Laws of Mind is followed by 
 one on Ethology, in which he speaks of what he 
 denominates the Mmpirical Laws of Human Na- 
 ture — that is, uniformities of succession or coex- 
 istence ; such laws, in fact, as are obtained by 
 observation only, without experiment, which in 
 this case is impossible. 
 
 Such laws, he shows, are not to be depended 
 upon beyond the limits of time, place, and cir- 
 cumstance in which the observations were made, 
 and they are not entitled to be called scientific 
 truths: such a title can only be given to the 
 causal laws which explain them. He then shows 
 that the laws of the formation of character cannot 
 be ascertained by experiment, but must be studied 
 deductively. 
 
 In the 6th chapter of this 6th book the 
 author discusses the question whether Social 
 Phenomena are the subject of science, which 
 he also decides ia the affirmative ; and ia 
 the 7th and 8th he describes certain modes of 
 investigating the social phenomena, which he 
 condemns as inadequate. In the 9th he enun- 
 ciates and describes his own method in the fol- 
 lowing terms: — "The social science, therefore 
 
Chap. V, SOCIAL SCIENCE. 159 
 
 (which by a convenient barbarism has been 
 termed Sociology), is a deductive science — not, 
 indeed, after the model of Geometry, but after 
 that of the more complex physical sciences. It 
 infers the law of each effect from the laws of 
 causation on which that effect depends ; not, how- 
 ever, from the law merely of one cause, as in the 
 geometrical method, but by considering all the 
 causes which conjunctly influence the effect, and 
 compounding their laws with one another. Its 
 method, in short, is the Concrete Deductive Method 
 — that of which Astronomy furnishes the most 
 perfect. Natural Philosophy a somewhat less per- 
 fect example ; and the employment of which, with 
 the adaptations and precautions required by the 
 subject, is beginning to regenerate Physiology." * 
 It may be remarked, in passing, that there is a 
 great analogy between the studies of physiology 
 and social science, in respect to the difSculties 
 which beset the inquirer's path, arising from the 
 complexity of the data; and this complexity in 
 both cases is due, in a great measure, to what, 
 borrowing a term from physiology, may be called 
 the consensus of the various organs in the one 
 case — of the various causes in the other. In the 
 human body all the various functions are so con- 
 nected that scarcely any can be deranged without 
 such derangement reacting on the others ; in like 
 * Mill, ' Logic,' vol. ii. p. 474 et seq., third edition. 
 
160 STUDIES OP LEGISLATOES. Chap. V. 
 
 manner, there is a consensus among all tlie phe- 
 nomena or causes operating in society ; and they 
 act and react to such an extent on one another, as 
 to render their investigation, in the present state 
 of our social data, an exceedingly difficult, though • 
 not, perhaps, absolutely hopeless task. 
 
 In the same chapter Mr. Mill treats of Political 
 Ethology, or the science of Natimial Character, 
 and of the Empirical Laws above referred to ; 
 also on the Verification of Social Science ; which 
 Verification is described in a former portion of 
 the work as the third essential constituent part of 
 the Deductive Method — that of collating the con- 
 clusions of reasoning, either with the phenomena 
 themselves, or when such are obtainable with their 
 empirical laws. But instead of deducing con- 
 clusions by reasoning and verifying them by 
 observation, it is necessary to begin sometimes • 
 by obtaining them conjecturally from specifics 
 experience, and afterwards to connect them with 
 the principles of human nature by a priori reason- 
 ing, which is thus a real verification. 
 
 M. Gomte considers Social Science as essentially 
 consisting of generalizations from history, verified 
 by deduction from the laws of human nature. 
 Mr. Mill thinks that this truth is enunciated too 
 genei:al]y, and that there is considerable scope left 
 iu such inquiries for the direct as well as the- 
 inverse Deductive Method; that there are cases. 
 
Chap. V. SOCIAL SCIENCE. 161 
 
 for example, in which it is impossible to obtain 
 from observation an empirical law ; but these are 
 fortunately the very cases in which the Direct 
 Method is least affected by the objections arising 
 out of the prodigious complication of the data. 
 Again : where the method of Direct Deduction is 
 inapplicable, we are able to obtain the best empiri- 
 cal laws. It is to be regretted that the general 
 conclusions of the able work to which reference is 
 now made are not more frequently illustrated 
 by specific examples drawn from history, which 
 would have added great interest to the discus- 
 sions, and possibly tended somewhat to establish 
 the conclusions. 
 
 In the 10th phapter of the same book Mr. Mill 
 treats of' the Inverse Deductive or Historical Me- 
 thod. He defines* what is meant by a state of 
 society/, enumerating the chief elements of which 
 social phenomena are composed. These are the 
 degree of knowledge, and intellectual and moral 
 culture, the state of industry, of wealth and its 
 distribution, the habitual occupations of the com- 
 munity, their division into classes and the rela- 
 tions of those classes, the common beliefs which 
 they entertain on the most important subjects, 
 and the degree of assurance with which they are 
 held ; their tastes, their form of government, and 
 more important laws and customs, &c. 
 
 * ' Logic,' ?oL ii. p. 434 5. 
 
 M 
 
162 STUDIES OF LEGISLATOKS. Chap. V. 
 
 Mr. Mill describes Social Statics as tlie science 
 of the Coexistences of Social Phenomena, Social 
 Dynamics as the science of the Successions of Social 
 Phenomena ; and then proceeds to discus's the His- 
 torical Method, which introduces our second head 
 of study. 
 
 2. The Philosophy of Q-eneral History. — The 
 preceding remarks will to some extent explain the 
 connection between this branch of knowledge and 
 social science. On this subject Mr. MiU remarks* 
 that in order to obtain better empirical laws it 
 is necessary to consider not only the progressive 
 changes of the different elements or social phe- 
 nomena, but the contemporaneovis condition of 
 each ; and thus obtain empirically the law of cor- 
 respondence not only between the simultaneous 
 states, but between the simultaneous changes of 
 those elements. This law of correspondence duly 
 verified a priori would become the real scientific 
 derivative law of the development of human affairs. 
 It would evidently be a great assistance if it should 
 happen that some one element is preeminent as 
 a prime agent in social movement. 
 
 Now the evidence of history and that of human 
 nature combine, says our author, to show that the 
 state of the speculative faculties of mankind, 
 including the nature of their beliefs, is a social 
 element which is predominant, and almost para- 
 ♦ ' Logic,' vol. ii. p. 510-14. 
 
Chap. V. PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. 163 
 
 mount among the agents of social progression. 
 When any great social change has come to pass, it 
 has had for its precursor a great change in the opi- 
 nions and modes of thinking of society. This pro- 
 position is illustrated by the effects of Polytheism, 
 Judaism, Christianity in its various forms, and the 
 philosophy and positive science of modern Europe. 
 
 Thus according to this theory the order of 
 human progression wiU mainly depend on the 
 order of progression in the intellectual convictions 
 of mankind, or the law of the successive transfor- 
 mations of human opinions ; and the question is, 
 whether tiii^ law can be determined, first, from 
 history as an empirical one, and then converted 
 into a scientific theorem by deducing it a priori 
 from the principles of human nature. For this 
 purpose we must take into consideration the whole 
 of past time, for the progress of knowledge and 
 changes in opinion are very' slow, and nianif est 
 themselves only at very long intei'vals. This 
 inquiry has been attempted by M. Comte alone, 
 who conceives that speculation on all subjects of 
 human inquiry has three successive changes; in 
 the first it tends to explain phenomena by super- 
 natui'al agencies, in the second by metaphysical 
 abstractions, in the third and final state it confines 
 itself to ascertaining their laws of succession and 
 similitude. 
 
 Mr. MiU is of opinion that this generalization 
 
 M 2 
 
164 STUDIES OP LEGISLATOES. Chap. V. 
 
 lets in a flood of light on the whole course of his- 
 tory ; but whatever may be thought of its value 
 in this respect, it is at least a good illustration of 
 the benefits which may possibly flow hereafter 
 from, the study of the philosophy of history. 
 
 After describing in the 11th chapter* the proper 
 function of rules of Art and the nature of Art, as 
 consisting of truths of science arranged in the order 
 suitable for practical use, our author proceeds to 
 the Doctrine of Ends or " Teleology ;" and com- 
 mences by observing that the definition of the end 
 forms the peculiar province of art. The builder's 
 art assumes that it is desirable to have buildings ; 
 the medical, that the care of disease is expedient ; 
 and so forth: on the other hand, propositions of 
 science assert a fact, an existence, a coexistence, a 
 succession, or a resemblance. 
 
 In practicef every one should be required to 
 justify both his approval of an end and the order 
 of precedence which he assigns to it in comparison 
 with others : for this there is need of general 
 principles, which, together with the conclusions 
 deduced therefrom, might form a body of doctrine 
 constituting the Art of Life in the three departments 
 of the Eight, the Expedient, and the Beautiful or 
 Noble in human conduct. The most elaborate 
 exposition of the laws of succession and coexistence 
 among mental or social phenomena, and of their 
 * Vol. ii. p. 517-18. t Ibid., p. 523 et seq. 
 
Chap. V. PHILOSOPHY OF HISTOBY. 165 
 
 relation to one another as causes and effects, 
 wiU be of no avail towards tlie art of life or of 
 society, if the ends to be aimed at are left to 
 vague suggestion, or taken for granted without 
 analysis. 
 
 There must therefore be some standard by which 
 to determine the value, absolute and comparative, 
 of ends, or objects of desire ; and there can be bu^ 
 one; otherwise the same conduct might be both 
 approved and condemned. 
 
 Mr. Mill declines to discuss in his treatise the 
 theory of the foundations of morality, but declares 
 his conviction "that the general principle to 
 which all rules of practice ought to conform, and 
 the test by which they should be tried, is that of 
 conduciveness to the happiness of mankind, or 
 rather of all sentient beiags." He therefore 
 adopts the greatest happiness principle of Bentham, 
 which has been already discussed. Mr. Mill, 
 however, adds, that while the promotion of hap- 
 piness should be the end of all actions^ their 
 justification and controller, it is not the sole end ; 
 because there are many virtuous actions, and 
 modes of action, by which happiness in the par- 
 ticular case is sacrificed. The justification in these 
 instances is that, on the whole, more happiness 
 will exist if feeliQgs are cultivated, a certain 
 nobleness of conduct for example, which make 
 men in certain cases regardless of happiaess. 
 
166 STUDIES OF LEGISLATOKS. Chap. V. 
 
 The Tery question, however, What constitutes 
 this elevation of character ? must itself be decided 
 by a reference to happiness as a standard. 
 
 With these and a few other remarks Mr. Mill 
 concludes that exposition of his views on the Logic 
 of the Moral Sciences which is contained in the 
 last book of his valuable treatise ; and no apology 
 can be necessary for a detailed notice and de- 
 scription of a work which contains such interesting 
 speculations on a science of the utmost importance 
 to the welfare of mankind, and which should form 
 the subject of the careful study of all who aspire 
 to control their destinies. 
 
 AU works which describe the gradual develop- 
 ment of the constitution of any particular country 
 may be important to the political student in a 
 two-fold sense, both as aiding in the study of its 
 constitutional law, and as constituting an important 
 branch of philosophical history. Thus Hallam's 
 ' Constitutional History of England ' may be 
 viewed both as a contribution to philosophical 
 history, and as an able description of the rise and 
 progress of that part of our laws and institutions 
 to which the name " Constitutional " is given. 
 
 Among the works which may properly be con- 
 sulted under this head of study may be mentioned 
 Dr. Arnold's ' Lectures on History,' and M. 
 Guizot's ' Civilisation de I'Europe,' as highly 
 deserving a careful perusal. Also Lord John 
 
Chap. V. PHILOSOPHY OF HISTOET. 167 
 
 Kussell's 'History of the Englisli Grovernment,' 
 and his Biographies of Statesmen. 
 
 Original, historians have not generally recorded 
 the peculiar manners, habits, and opinions of the 
 nations whose actions they narrate : owing to their 
 .default in this respect, the political philosopher 
 must often collect with difiSculty part of his infor- 
 mation as to the progress of civilization in any 
 country from the works of poets and writers of 
 fiction. Among the histories which have any 
 pretension to be termed philosophical may be 
 mentioned those of Thucydides, Tacitus, Gibbon, 
 and Macaulay; all of which contain many facts 
 and reflections which are quite worthy of being 
 weighed with attention. 
 
 It is much to be deplored that so few of those 
 who undertook the task of writing the history of 
 their own times were competent to distinguish, 
 among the mass of materials before them, the chaff 
 from the wheat. 
 
 Many facts which were supposed to be beneath 
 the dignity of history have thus been lost, while 
 we have in their place dreary and heartrending 
 accounts of the effects of the more conspicuous 
 vices of rulers, in the shape of narratives of battles, 
 sieges, and the like, as to many of which there can 
 be no doubt that mankind would have sustained 
 no very serious misfortune had all knowledge of 
 them entirely perished. The truth is, that the 
 
168 STUDIES OF LEGISLATOES. Chap. V. 
 
 knowledge to be derived from such descriptions 
 is best imparted by professional works, containing 
 the views of those who are competent to inform 
 the world on such matters ; as, for example, ' The 
 Commentaries of Csesar,' 'The Wellington De- 
 spatches,' ' The Military Opinions of Sir John 
 Burgoyne,' Napier's and Jomini's Histories, and 
 so forth. 
 
 While our knowledge of political science 
 teaches us how to select materials for history, 
 a proper selection embodied in a philosophical 
 history is an important aid in attaining that very 
 knowledge. 
 
 It remains to mention some other works which 
 may be perused with advantage by the student of 
 Social Science and that branch of history from 
 whence its data are to be obtained : these are — 
 Clarendon's ' History of the EebeUion ;' Sarpi's 
 'History of the Council of Trent;' Bolingbroke's 
 ' Letters * on General History, on English History, 
 and Parties, and that to Sir W. Windham, and 
 also his 'Patriot King;' Montesquieu's 'Esprit 
 des Loix ;' the two first chapters of Gibbon's ' His- 
 tory;' Mackintosh's 'History of the Revolution;' 
 Lord Brougham's ' Treatises on Political Philo- 
 sophy,' and 'Biographies of Statesmen;' Guizot's 
 'History of the Eevolution in England;' Guizot's 
 ' History of Civilization in France ;' and Lord 
 Macaulay's ' Historj' of England.' 
 
 3. Tlie. Princirtles of Jurisprudence and ConstitU' 
 
Chap. V. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. 169 
 
 tioncd Law. — For the purpose of obtaining a com- 
 petent knowledge of these branches of study, the 
 student would do well to place himself under the 
 direction of some eminent barrister, who has made 
 both the general principles of law and the consti- 
 tution of his own country the subject of his parti- 
 cular study ; but if such advantages are beyond 
 his reach, the following books may be mentioned, 
 in addition to those before named, which may 
 be perused: — The first volume of Blackstone's 
 ' Commentaries,' in the best and latest edition ; 
 Chitty's ' Prerogatives of the Crown ;' Comyn's 
 ' Digest,' article ' Parliament ; ' Hatsell's ' Prece- 
 dents,' 4 vols. 4to., Lond., 1796 ; May's ' Practical 
 Treatise on the Law, Privileges, &c., of Parlia- 
 ment,' 8vo., 1859 ; Bentham's ' Political Fallacies ;' 
 Hallam's ' History of the Middle Ages ;' Hallam's 
 'Constitutional History,' referring to the Acts of 
 Parliament ; the ' State Trials,' especially those 
 during the 17th and beginning of the 18th cen- 
 turies ; Millar ' On the English Government and 
 Constitution;' Justinian's 'Institutes,' and Gib- 
 bon's chapter on the Eoman Law ; Luder's ' Tracts 
 on the Law and History of England;' Burnet's 
 'History of his own Time.' 
 
 4. Political Hconomy. — Under this head the 
 books to be chieily studied are — Adam Smith's 
 ' Wealth of Nations,' in the edition of M'CuUoch ; 
 Eicardo's 'Principles of Political Economy and 
 Taxation ;' Senior's Treatise contained in the 
 
170 STUDIES OF LEGISLATORS. Chap. V. 
 
 'Encyclopaedia Metropolitana ;' Mr. John Stuart 
 Mill's ' Principles of Political Economy,' 2 vols. 
 8vo., '1848; Lord Overstone's 'Tracts on Cur- 
 rency.' 
 
 A diligent study of the aboye works would, 
 doubtless, go far towards enabling the future states- 
 man to steer clear of those rocks and shoals on 
 which so many are shipwrecked who think the 
 science of Political Economy unworthy of their 
 attention. But success and proficiency iu these 
 difficult studies will depend upon natural aptitude 
 and previous training ; upon the degree iu which 
 the student has been successful in acquiring cor- 
 rect habits of thought and reasoning. The perusal 
 of the above works must also be accompanied by 
 an investigation of the — 
 
 5. Statistics of the Empire. — These may be col- 
 lected from Parliamentry Reports and Documents, 
 and the Reports of Committees, and such publica- 
 tions of the Statistical Society as refer to political 
 subjects. A Treatise by the late Mr. Porter on 
 this subject, 8vo., 1847, may also be consulted with 
 advantage. 
 
 6. Colonies and Dependencies of the Empire. — 
 On this subject the following works should be 
 perused : — ' An Essay on the Government of De- 
 pendencies,' 8vo., 1841, by Sir George ComewaU 
 Lewis, Bart. ; a work on the same subject by Mr. 
 Roebuck ; and such Reports of Parliamentary Com- 
 mittees and Commissions, and other parliamentary 
 
Chap. V. INTERNATIONAL LAW. 171 
 
 documents, as illustrate the state of our numerous 
 Dependencies. Mr. Charles Hay Cameron's work 
 on the duties of England to India may be also con- 
 sulted with profit by the philosophical legislator. 
 
 The battle-cry of colonial reformers of late years 
 has been non-interference by the mother country 
 with local self-goTemment beyond that general 
 superintendence implied in the right to nominate 
 a representative of imperial majesty : the sound- 
 ness of this principle can hardly be impugned. 
 
 7. International Law. — On this branch of juris- 
 prudence the ponderous treatises of Puffendorf 
 and Grotius may occasionally be consulted, but all 
 that is really valuable will be found in the two 
 treatises of Vattel and "Wheaton. The former, 
 written in French, is a book of great authority ; 
 the latter is in English and by an American 
 who formerly fiUed a diplomatic situation. Mr. 
 Wheaton's work is highly thought of, and is very 
 valuable as containing modern treaties and many 
 recent decisions on some of the most difficult 
 questions that occur in public law ; among others 
 those arising out of a conflictus legum, a conflict 
 between the laws of different states; a class of 
 cases which, from the peculiarity of thek Federal 
 Constitution, is very abundant in the United 
 States. 
 
 The student, however, who would attain profi- 
 ciency dn this branch of learning, should read the 
 able decisions of Lord StoweU in the Admiralty 
 
172 STUDIES OF LEGISLATOES. Chap. V. 
 
 Eeports, upon cases whicli occurred during the long 
 war which followed the French Eevolution ; also 
 the decisions of the Judicial Committee of the 
 Privy Council on cases arising out of the late war 
 with Kussia ; again, the speeches of distinguished 
 statesmen and civilians on the more important 
 international questions in dispute between the great 
 powers from about . the middle of the eighteenth 
 century to the present time may be perused with 
 profit. 
 
 8. The Fundamental Institutions of the principal 
 Foreign States. — In common parlance the epithet 
 of " Great " has been assigned to five independent 
 states, viz. Austria, England, France, Prussia, and 
 Eussia ; and it will hardly be disputed that these 
 powers, together with the United States, have 
 during the last century exercised a far greater 
 influence over the destinies of the world than any 
 others. 
 
 The student whose object is to qualify himself 
 to discharge the duties of a legislator with distinc- 
 tion should endeavour to obtaiu some knowledge 
 of the leading institutions of France, Eussia, 
 Austria, and Prussia. The institutions of our Trans- 
 atlantic brethren should not be neglected, both 
 on account of their vast influence upon our own 
 welfare, and because the worldng of the American 
 constitution must ever be a spectacle of enduring 
 interest to the philosophical British statesman. 
 
Chap. V. FOREIGN INSTITUTIONS. 173 
 
 It is to be lamented that there are scarcely any 
 ■works which can be recommended to notice under 
 this head. The student may however commence 
 by reading the history of these countries in the 
 * Universal History,' which wiU be useful as a gene- 
 ral sketch, and then proceed to peruse Sismondi and 
 other Histories, not attempting to wade through the 
 whole, but selecting the more remarkable epochs 
 for peculiar study. He wiU find some notices of 
 the nature of foreign institutions in two works 
 ah-eady mentioned, viz. "V^Tieaton's 'International 
 Law,' and Lord Brougham's ' Treatises on Political 
 Science.' The Code Napoleon should be examined, 
 and such other works, inoluding modern Travels, as 
 contain any trustworthy information in reference 
 to the fundamental institutions of France and the 
 other countries named. The works of De Tocque- 
 vOle wiU of course be perused, and those of M. 
 Guizot have been already recommended, but little 
 information on these important matters is acces- 
 sible to the English student. 
 
 The catalogue of the splendid collection of 
 books contained in our national Museum contains 
 the following titles of works in foreign languages 
 relating to this department of knowledge : * — 
 
 * This list has heen supplied by Mr. Winter Jones, the able 
 and intelligent head of the Printed Books Department of the 
 British Museum. 
 
174 STUDIES OF LEGISLATORS. CiUP. V. 
 
 Collection des Constitutions, Chartes, et Lois fondamentales 
 des Peuples de I'Europe et des deux Ameriques. Par MM. 
 P. A. Dufau, J. B. Duvergier, et J. Guadet. 7 vols. 8vo., 
 Paris, 1823-30. 
 
 Die Europaischen Verfassungen seit dem Jahre 1789, bis 
 auf die neueste Zeit. Von K. H. L. Politz. ' 3 vols. 8vo., 
 Leipzig, 1832-33. 
 
 Theorie du Droit Constitutionnel Fran9ais: Esprit des 
 Constitutions de 1848 et de 1852. Precede d'un Pr&is his- 
 torique des Constitutions Pranjaises. Par F. Berriat Saint 
 Prix. 8vo., Paris, 1851-2. 
 
 Des Constitutions de la France, et du Systfime Politique 
 de I'Bmpereur Napoleon. Par Edm. de Beauverger. 8vo. 
 Paris, 1852. 
 
 Explication du Code Civil. Par M. Bousquet. ito. 
 Montpellier. 
 
 Les Codes Franpais annotes. Par MM. Teulet et D'Au- 
 villiers, et Sulpicy. ito., Paris, 1843. 
 
 Die Verfassung und Verwaltung des Preussiscten Staates. 
 Von L. von Kbnne. 4 vols. 8vo., Breslau, 1852. 
 
 9. The more important Treaties, and their Sis- 
 tori/. — The history of Treaties -wUl be contained 
 to some extent in general histories ; but with 
 reference to the text of the treaties themselves, 
 there are publications which may be consulted 
 with advantage, as, e. g., Jenkinson's ' Treaties,' in 
 3 vols. 8vo. ; the Abbe de Mably's ' Histoire des 
 Trait^s de Paix,' 3 vols. ; and ' Eecueil des 
 Traites,' 4 vols, folio, Amsterdam, 1700. 
 
 Before concluding the subject of International 
 Relations, to which the three last branches of study 
 relate, it may be mentioned that both Vattel and 
 Wheaton, and the earlier treatises on Public Law, 
 
Chap. V. QUALIFICATIONS OF LEGISLATOES. 175 
 
 contain numerous references to works some of 
 which may possibly be perused with advantage by 
 those who desire to extend their knowledge of that 
 subject; for example, Wicquefort and Bynkers- 
 hoek, and the various treatises on the Functions, 
 Privileges, and other Immunities of an Ambas- 
 sador. 
 
 The list of books above given must by no means 
 be understood as comprising all the information 
 obtainable by a diligent student, but as furnishing 
 a key by which he may be enabled to unlock, by 
 degrees, the treasures of learning: almost every 
 work win contain references to others, which may 
 often be consulted with proiit, both from their own 
 value, and as a means of verifying the author's 
 assertions who cites them. The classification of 
 works, under specific heads, is necessarily, to 
 some extent, arbitrary ; and most of them, when 
 consulted, wiU be found to contain information 
 which throws light on more than one branch of 
 Political Science. 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS. 
 
 It is assumed, of course, that the legislator 
 possesses such moral qualities as are equally a 
 desideratum in every station of Hfe. Among 
 his other qualifications, such knowledge as can 
 be obtained by study must ever occupy a prin- 
 
176 QUALIFICATIONS OP LEGISLATOES. Chap. V. 
 
 cipal place. But there are other accomphsh* 
 ments which greatly promote success in this 
 distinguished career ; among which may be men* 
 tioned that commonly called "tact" — a faculty 
 partly natural, and partly acquired by mixing 
 much in society and carefully studying the habits 
 and characters of those with whom we associate. 
 By the exercise of this accomplishment, the states- 
 man or minister is enabled to influence the conduct 
 both of friends and foes, to say and do the right 
 thing at the right time, and generally to act in a 
 manner becoming his position and high calling. 
 By the exercise of this accomplishment, also, the 
 young senator is enabled to escape shipwreck on 
 many rocks and shoals on which the indiscreetj 
 unwary, and self-sufficient are continually stranded 
 and cast away. He refrains modestly from ad" 
 dressing the House till some time, say a year, has 
 elapsed since taking his seat, and he has become 
 conversant with its forms — selects that particular 
 subject for his first address and for his "battk- 
 horse " in which he most excels, and he has it in 
 his power usually to choose his own opportunity. 
 He confines himself, for the most part, to this his 
 own specialty, like Cethegus, "cui <le republic! 
 satis suppeditabat oratio : totam enim tenebat 
 eam, penitusque cognorat ; itaque in Senatu Con- 
 sularium auctoritatem assequebatur." He is led 
 to speak with a proper deference to the know- 
 
Chap. V. COMMEBCIAL EXPEEIENCE. 177 
 
 ledge and experience of others. He abstains from 
 frequently addressing the House, and especially at 
 times when its attention is exhausted, or it is from 
 any other cause unwilling to listen. He studies 
 the character, feelings, and prejudices of his audi- 
 ence ; and will not needlessly incur unpopularity 
 by uttering sentiments which wound self-Tanity, or 
 are likely, for any other cause, to give serious 
 offence. 
 
 Many of the qualifications of a distinguished 
 advocate or judge are equally useful to the states- 
 man, such as the capacity of weighing evidence 
 brought forward for the purpose of establishing 
 facts. A dignified demeanour, a good voice and 
 dehvery, are also quite as useful to the legislator 
 as to the pleader. Distinguished success in pro- 
 fessional or commercial pursuits always inspires 
 respect; but when men engaged in trade have risen 
 from the ranks, they cannot be expected to possess 
 the refinement and elegancies of the accomphshed 
 University scholar or experienced lawyer. Bad 
 pronunciation and solecisms in grammar will excite 
 a smile in the most good-natured audience — in 
 those who are in many respects their inferiors; 
 yet such legislators often bring to their vocation 
 qualities which render them valuable members. 
 A life devoted to busiaess imparts knowledge of 
 mankind, creates a capacity of adapting means to 
 an end, and that with the greatest economy of 
 
178 QUALIFICATIONS OF LEGISLATOES. Chap. V. 
 
 time and labour. Men, also, who have spent many- 
 years of their life in the successful prosecution of 
 any business, or in the active duties of a profes- 
 sion, have often had an opportunity afforded to 
 them of watching the working of laws which either 
 immediately or remotely affect their different pur- 
 suits — a knowledge which may often be turned to 
 profitable account in legislating. 
 
 It is unhappily not unusual to see men really 
 ' well-informed on some subjects, and subjects, too, 
 which often engage the attention of Parliament, 
 and therefore constantly yield them opportunities 
 of distiaction in their own walks, so indiscreet as 
 to neglect them, or if not, at all events to make 
 ill-digested speeches on various other matters, on 
 which they are very inadequately informed, if not 
 almost wholly ignorant. 
 
 This it is which often impedes the success of 
 many distinguished members of the legal profesi- 
 sion. Accustomed to speak in public, and daily 
 address a most critical audience on matters which 
 often require much previous preparation and re- 
 search, they are apt to imagine it an easy task to 
 impress with an opinion of their wisdom and elo- 
 quence men of whose intellect and acquirements 
 they sometimes entertain a very moderate and 
 much too low an opinion: yet many of their 
 audience have at least the advantage of greater 
 parliamentary experience, together with that 
 
■Chap. V. LAWYEES IN PABLIAMENT. 179 
 
 knowledge of the pecuKarities of their auditors 
 and of the way% of the House, which nothing but 
 long experience and practice can confer, and for 
 which a forensic education is far from being an 
 adequate substitute. 
 
 It is probable, also, that the occasional failures 
 of lawyers may be in part attributed to a want of 
 due appreciation of the difference between the 
 functions of the advocate and the senator : in the 
 case of the former a certain amount of varnish 
 and colouring of the facts, or, at least, extreme 
 care in throwing into the shade all the unfaTOur- 
 able points, and placing in full relief the favour- 
 able, win be tolerated, perhaps applauded ; in" the 
 case of the latter such conduct as this, or any 
 attempt to do more than make a fair statement of 
 the grounds on which a particular measure is 
 called for, will meet with no favour. There are, 
 however, many very splendid exceptions among 
 members of the legal profession to the statement 
 that their success is not always equal to the ex- 
 pectations which their previous forensic career has 
 raised; and the examples of Wedderburn, Mans- 
 field, Dunning, EomUly, Lyndhurst, Brougham, 
 O'ConneU, and others, are more than sufficient 
 to justify the allegation that the Bar has given 
 to the Senate some of its brightest ornaments. 
 
 Some advantage might possibly accrue to a 
 young member from an exercise of the following 
 
 N 2 
 
180 QUALIFICATIONS OF LEGISLATOES. Chap, f.' 
 
 description. Let him, for example, when an im- 
 portant debate is expected on some matter of 
 great public interest, in reference to which papers 
 have been moved for and printed for the infor- 
 mation of Parliament, carefully study these docu- 
 ments, and prepare and write out such a speech aS* 
 he would deliver if compelled to address the House 
 on the subject. This document should be com- 
 posed with all the care and attention which he is 
 able to bestow upon it. Having performed this 
 task, he will have the advantage afterwards of 
 hearing the manner in which the most accom- 
 plished statesmen of the period handle the same 
 subject-matter, and of perusing their speeches 
 when printed, and comparing them with his own. 
 From these exercises even greater benefit should 
 accrue than that which the legal student derives 
 from having his draft conveyance or plea settled, as 
 the phrase is, that is, corrected by his master, who 
 converts the often rude attempt of the pupil into 
 such an instrument as he himself would have pre- 
 pared, and, by comparing this with his own rough 
 draft, the student learns his profession. 
 
 On the important subject of the preparation of 
 speeches,, it is difficult for any one to offer suggei^ 
 tions which would be generally useful, for men's 
 minds are so differently constituted by nature 
 and education, that methods which would suit 
 some might be fatal to others. Some speakers 
 
Chap. V. CONDUCT IN COMMITTEES. 181 
 
 may not be satisfied with merely writing out their 
 intended speeches at length, but commit them to 
 memory, or at least some of the most important 
 passages, and especially the commencement and 
 pgroration; but the far greater number, proba- 
 bly, merely prepare heads or notes of that which 
 ^ey intend to say. The first method is attended 
 by obvious difficulties in all cases in which 
 the speaker does not commence the debate him- 
 self. 
 
 To advert to conduct in Committees. It is pos- 
 sible, by indiscretion, to give great annoyance to 
 your colleagues. There are some members who, 
 from a conscientious feeling that they ought not 
 to decide before they thoroughly understand a 
 subject, on which, at the beginning of the inquiry, 
 they were perhaps wholly uninformed, attempt to 
 educate themselves during its progress by a long 
 ^eries of interrogatories, some of which occasionally 
 manifest so much ignorance as to excite a smile in 
 the witness, and create a feehng of annoyance and 
 vexation in the other and better-informed mem- 
 bers : the result is that the business is unduly pro- 
 tracted, and the tribunal brought into discredit. 
 Sometimes the member of a Committee will absent 
 himself for several days from its inquiries, and 
 attend after a long interval, when he has lost the 
 t^portunity of hearing several technical terms 
 and other matters explained, with which his col- 
 
182 QUALIFICATIONS OF LEGISLATOKS. Chap. V'. 
 
 leagues have made themselves familial'. They 
 are then naturally annoyed when called upon to sit 
 in silence and to waste their own time while the 
 long-absent member is completing his education 
 by putting questions to which the witnesses have 
 already given replies. 
 
 Among mattera which aj^ not common to both 
 Houses of Pai-liament, the most important is the 
 responsibility of members of the House of Com- 
 mons to a constituency. 
 
 It would be difficult to state to what extent the 
 fact of this repi-esentation is likely to render any 
 modification of the studies and qualifications of 
 the senator necessary or expedient: for consti- 
 tuencies are doubtless infinitely various in their 
 composition and requirements, and in the degree 
 to which they are disposed to exercise, or attempt 
 to exercise, control over the free will of their 
 representatives. 
 
 If members should ever be induced thereby to 
 propound opinions which ai-e not their own for the 
 purpose of pleasing others, it is much to be de- 
 plored ; they certainly are sometimes tempted from 
 this cause to speak more often than a due regard 
 to their parliamentary reputation would wan-ant, 
 in order to gratify the desire of an ambitious con- 
 stituency anxious to see their representative's 
 name in print. Members of the Lower House 
 who are thus urged to imperil thoir fame would do 
 
Chap. V. SERVICE ON COMMITTEES. 183 
 
 well sometimes to resist, and remind theii* sup- 
 porters that there are other ways besides making 
 long speeches by which Members of Parliament 
 may serve their country very effectively, viz., by 
 constant attendance in the House, and serving 
 diligently in select committees, and bringing to 
 their assistance all the information which they 
 possess on any subject which may be under inves- 
 tigation. While alluding to these Committees, it 
 is well to mention that the name of a useful and 
 intelligent Member of Parliament may often be 
 acquired by serving on some select committee 
 which happens to be engaged in an inquiry into 
 subjects on which the young member may have 
 access to superior information: the inquiry may 
 relate, for example, to some matter affecting the 
 profession to which he belongs — ^to some institution 
 with which he is connected, or to subjects into 
 which he has already himseK inquired' in the capa- 
 city of a Commissioner or Inspector; in these 
 cases he may be able to give most important aid ; 
 and no member should neglect any opportunity of 
 showing that he has knowledge that can be turned 
 to useful account. 
 
 ■ Other embarrassments result from the peculiar 
 
 nature of the relation subsisting between consti- 
 
 , tuents and their representative, who, during the 
 
 progress of a severely-contested election, is often 
 
 entrapped into making large promises difficult to 
 
184: QUALIFICATIONS OF LEGISLATOES. Chap. V. 
 
 perform. As to applications for offices, it is to 
 be hoped that the late admirable institution of 
 open public, and, in some cases, competitive ex- 
 aminations, will mitigate, if not whoUy abolish, 
 this evil. These solicitations must often place the 
 member in a most painful position. Either he 
 must do violence to his conscience by requesting 
 an office for persons who are iacompetent, or 
 whose qualities are, at least, imperfectly known to 
 him, and, ia so doing, lay himself under obliga- 
 tions to the Government, which fetter his free 
 political action, or he must refuse and offend his 
 supporters. Analogous evils flow from requests 
 for the support of local Bills of doubtful character. 
 
 There is an important difference between the 
 two Houses of Parliament in the conduct pursued 
 towards an unwelcome and unpopular speaker 
 who persists in addressing them. In the House of 
 Lords he is generally allowed to talk as long as he 
 pleases, but no one listens : in the House of Com- 
 mons he is often coughed or hooted down by cries 
 of " Question" or other tumultu.ary interruptions. 
 
 Those who have not extensive experience of 
 both the systems are incompetent judges of the 
 relative efficacy of the two remedies, either in 
 accomplislAng the object immediately in view, 
 or in causing the unwelcome intruder to forbear 
 for the future from iaflicting such annoyances on 
 his auditors. The milder method adopted in the 
 
Chap. V. UNWELCOME SPEAKEES. 185 
 
 Upper Hotise is Tery efficient as applied to men 
 who are keenly sensible to the humiliation of 
 attracting no attention; but it sometimes faUs 
 with others : yet those who have had ample expe- 
 rience in both Houses of Parliament, seem to 
 prefer the mode of proceeding in the House of 
 Lords, not only on the ground that it is more con- 
 sistent with the dignity of a legislative assembly, 
 but that it saves time in the end: first, because 
 those who are interrupted and put down by quasi 
 violence are apt to strive to revenge themselves on 
 their hearers by moving adjournments, or, on some 
 future occasion, by still more tedious and lengthy 
 discourses; and secondly, because more time is 
 often lost in the struggles to interrupt, and the 
 deprecatory apologies for undue prolixity, than 
 would be consumed by the speaker were he al- 
 lowed to proceed. , 
 
 However it may be accounted for, there can be 
 little doubt that business is done more rapidly, 
 and perhaps better, in the House of Lords than 
 in the House of Commons. But in the former 
 (speaking generally) few take any part ia the 
 debates except members of the Government, and 
 some fi.ve or six of the leaders of the opposition 
 party. 
 
36 PKESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 On the peesent* Condition op England. 
 
 HHE present condition of this country will be 
 ^ the subject of this chapter. 
 The following, as before mentioned, are some of 
 le most important circumstances which together 
 )nstitute a state or condition of society. 
 
 1. The degree of knowledge and moral and 
 itellectual culture. 
 
 2. The state of industry and habitual occupa- 
 ons of the community. 
 
 3. "The state of wealth and its distribution. 
 
 4. The division into, and relations of classes. 
 
 5. Their beliefs on the most important subjects. 
 
 6. Their tastes. 
 
 7. Their institutions. 
 
 To which might be added, 
 
 8. The state of trade and commerce. 
 
 9. Of externa] relations. 
 
 ■* 
 
 * This chapter was -written between the 28th of September 
 id the 30th of October, 1857, but some notes have since been 
 serted, and some comparatively recent Parliamentary returns 
 Ided to the text. 
 
Chap. VI. STATE OF SOCIETY. 187 
 
 The present condition of this country will be 
 eonsidered under some of the most important of 
 the above heads. 
 
 Now, whatever that condition may be, we may 
 be certain that it is susceptible of considerable im- 
 provement, but to what extent it is difficult to fore- 
 see. History teaches us that nations sometimes rise 
 to a high degree of civilization — so high, indeed^ 
 that true lovers of their species are ready to anti- 
 cipate a sort of realization, in no long space of 
 time, of a golden age, not in the sense ia which 
 that term is used by the poets, but in that in which 
 an enlightened social philosopher would employ 
 it, when describing the end of political institu- 
 tions ; but then all of a sudden, and quite unex- 
 pectedly, a retrogression takes place, and the 
 commimity is hurled back again into a state of 
 comparative moral darkness: the eye of Hope 
 turns aside with sorrow from contemplating the 
 sad spectacle, and fondly turns to some other 
 country as the only one in the then state of affairs 
 of the world at all likely to fulfil any confident 
 anticipations that may be formed of happiness for 
 man ; that other country shares the ' doom of the 
 first, and thus mankind seems always to suffer 
 shipwreck when just about to enter "port after a 
 tedious voyage exposed to many dangers. 
 
 Thus fell many monarchies and republics after 
 having attained a high degree of civilization : thus 
 
.88 PKESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAIID. Chap. VI. 
 
 ell the magnificent empire of Eome, and thus 
 aay fall our own glorious empire, which seems to 
 iffer the finest promise of arriving at a state in 
 (rhich the hopeful dreams of philosophical philan- 
 hropists will be realized at some, perhaps very 
 listant, period. 
 
 To proceed then to consider some of the ele- 
 nents of the nation's present condition, and 
 
 1. As to the degree of knowledge and moral and 
 ntelleetual culture in England. 
 
 In considering these questions we shall first 
 peak of intellectual culture, or education in the 
 )rdinary sense of the word, and as applied to the 
 ihree great divisions under which the population 
 )f a country may be classed ; that is, the Upper, 
 he Middle, and the Lower classes. The first may 
 )e considered as composed of landed and moneyed 
 Droprietors, including in that class all who live on 
 ncomes derived from accumulations, and who are 
 jlaced above the necessity of performing any spe- 
 5ies of work to be paid for as such ; also of the 
 nembers of the learned and liberal professions, 
 nerchants, and traders who are in similar cir- 
 jumstances. The Middle class contains such of the 
 ibove as cannot be said to be placed above the 
 lecessity of labouring for their livelihood ; also the 
 iiigher class of skUled artisans. The Lower class 
 ivill comprise some of the skilled artisans and 
 ihe unskilled labourers. 
 
Chap. VI. DEGREE OF KNOWLEDGE. 189 
 
 The quality of the education which the so-called 
 upper class are receiving, at any given epoch, will 
 generally depend chiefly on the state of the gram- 
 mar-schools and the first-class educational esta- 
 blishments for boys, and on the system which 
 happens to be in vogue at the various universities 
 to which most of them, or, at all events, those 
 from whom they derive their instruction, are sent. 
 
 Now, in considering the kind of education be- 
 stowed in schools and universities, those instances 
 must be dismissed from our thoughts, in which 
 transcendent geniuses educated at this or that 
 school, or in this or that college, have made won- 
 derful progress in incredibly short periods of time, 
 and in various kinds of knowledge, nay, even the 
 cases of all those who take high honours ; and 
 we must direct our attention exclusively to the 
 progress made by ordinary persons of plain average 
 understandings ; and in that event we shall not 
 find much to congratulate ourselves upon. It is 
 to be feared that the majority of boys in this class 
 of Kfe leave school with a very moderate stock of 
 Latin and Greek, and with scarcely any know- 
 ledge even of the elements of the mathematical 
 or physical sciences, or of modern geography 
 languages or history; they are frequently defi- 
 cient even in the first four rules of arithmetic and 
 fractions, and have scarcely read a single classical 
 author of tlieir own country. 
 
190 PRESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 Let US now change tlie scene to the University, 
 and examine how far our picture is improved in 
 appearance : — ^the Latin, which was probably con- 
 fined to Cornelius Nepos, part of Ovid and Virgil, 
 and a few Odes of Horace, is now extended per- 
 haps to the Satires and Epistles of the last men- 
 tioned author, the whole of Virgil, Lucretius, and 
 a few books, may be a whole decad, of Livy ; the 
 Greek, before confined to part of Homer and one 
 or two easy G-reek plays, and perhaps the Ana- 
 basis of Xenophon, may be now extended to four 
 or five books of Herodotus or Thucydides, with 
 the history and geography, ajid to four or five 
 plays of Sophocles ; to which we must add the 
 required amount of Divinity, which at Oxford is 
 considerable, and either Logic or four books of 
 Euclid ; and this often constitutes all the acquire- 
 ments of a boy who has consumed about fourteen 
 years ia study, not very diligent study perhaps ; 
 but we may fairly assume that about six hours of 
 most days were occupied, except during Sundays 
 and vacations, and perhaps the earlier portion of 
 their university career. The result, therefore, is 
 that the bulk of the young men of 'the upper 
 class in this country are said to have completed 
 their education, and receive the degree of B.A., 
 and in due course that of M.A., without having 
 learnt some of the commonest truths in Natural 
 Philosophy and Physics, or the elements of pure 
 
Chap. VI. TWIVEESITT EDUCATION. 191 
 
 Mathematics, and without that information in the 
 departments of Mod^n History, Geography, Eng- 
 lish Literature, and Belles Lettres, which even 
 the ordinary boawiing schools for ladies profess to 
 impart. This is surely a state of things which our 
 posterity wiU have great difficulty in believing, 
 and one calculated to excite alarm, even if the 
 ■education of the lower class were stationary ; but 
 if that should prove to be rapidly progressing, the 
 -danger wiU. be increased. 
 
 Within the last few years some very beneficial 
 alterations in the systems of education pursued 
 at our TJmversities have been carried out, but very 
 little has been pdone to remedy the evils which 
 have been above adverted to; true it is that 
 schools of Natural Philosophy, Civil Law, and 
 Modern History have been provided, in which 
 those who are ambitious to distinguish themselves 
 may earn those honours which of old were con- 
 fined exclusively to proficients in the Classics and 
 pure and applied Mathematics ; but as yet there 
 are not sufficient prizes provided for success in 
 these branches of knowledge to stimulate the zeajl 
 of young men who have their livelihood to earn. 
 Moreover, it stiU remains possible not only to 
 obtain an ordinary degree, but even high honoiu-s, 
 without possessing information on points on which, 
 in the present state of general knowledge, it is dis- 
 graceful for one who is supposed to have received 
 
192 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI- 
 
 the education of a gentleman to profess himself 
 ignorant; on points too on whicli many of the 
 pupils of our best industrial pauper schools possess 
 at leapt such information as can be acquired by the 
 perusal of popular works, and are quite able to 
 answer questions. At a recent examination of the 
 children of one of these schools the question was 
 asked, whether there was any one present who could, 
 explain the principle of a pump? SeTeral hands 
 of both male and female pupils were immediately 
 raised in token of assent, and a pupil was selected 
 to answer: presently was heard the sound of 
 crutches on the payed floor, and a poor boy 
 hobbled forth to give the reply ; he was lame and 
 humpbacked, and his wan and emaciated face told 
 only too clearly the tale of poverty and its conse- 
 quences, unwholesome and scanty diet in early 
 years ; but he gave forthwith so lucid and intelli- 
 gent a reply to the question put to him, that there 
 arose a feeling of admiration for the child's talents, 
 combined with a sense of shame that more infor- 
 mation should be sometimes found in some of the 
 lowest of our lower classes on matters of general 
 interest than in those far above them in worldly 
 station. Nor was this a solitary instance, for on 
 other occasions of examinations of these children-j 
 events which occurred forcibly suggested the same 
 reflections. 
 The middle classes are instructed for the most part. 
 
Chap. VI. MIDDLE CLASS EDUCATION. 193 
 
 in grammar-schools and commercial educational 
 establishments scattered throughout the country, 
 and their learning is generally confined to reading, 
 writing, arithmetic, and book-keeping, to which 
 may be added a greater or less amount of Latin, 
 according to the station of life, and sometimes 
 French, and some algebra and Euclid. Their 
 knowledge of the rules of arithmetic is doubtless 
 ' often very extensive and accurate, and they are 
 skilfal in accounts and book-keeping, but, being 
 usually ignorant of the principles on which the 
 arithmetical rules are founded, they are liable to 
 make mistakes when anything is to be done at 
 aU removed from the ordinary course ; their know^ 
 ledge of fractions is probably also not always very 
 extensive, especS,lly of the decimal notation, and 
 they are often ignorant of the use of logarithms. 
 
 The education of the middle classes, if compared, 
 not with that of the higher classes, in comparison 
 with which it may appear not deficient, but with 
 that which the necessities of their condition of life 
 would seem to require, is certainly unsatisfactory. 
 They are often not taught, for example, any 
 foreign language, not even the elements of pure 
 mathematics or physics, nor drawing, nor geo- 
 graphy. Let us consider, however, whether they 
 are not likely sometimes to find the want of such 
 acquirements. They may be farmers, for example, 
 civil or mechanical engineers, medical practi- 
 
 o 
 
194 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. TI^ 
 
 tioners, or skilled mechanics. Might it not he, 
 useful to the farmer to know something of the 
 rationale of the use of the different manures ? it isi, 
 true that the medical practitioner is taught, che^, 
 mistry in the ordinary course of his professional 
 training, but a little previous preparation by,, 
 learning first principles at school would be very 
 useful even to him. Take the case again of the, 
 engineer and mechanic ; surely a knowledge of the 
 elementary principles of mechanical science would 
 be a most useful addition to the school course in 
 this case. In the profession of the engineer again, 
 a knowledge of foreign languages, and particularly 
 French and perhaps German, would be a most 
 desirable, if not necessary accomplishment; yet 
 few, if any, of the commercial schools supply the 
 necessary instruction, and perhaps none supply it 
 properly. There is scarcely an educational estabr 
 lishment in this country for boys in which any 
 foreign language is really properly taught ; the only 
 attempt generally made is to teach the grammar 
 and to read ; but speaking and pronunciation are 
 comparatively neglected. On the other hand, on 
 the continent, and especially in Germany, the 
 Gymnasia, as they are called, or higher class of 
 commercial academies, form an excellent substitute 
 for University training for those who have not the 
 means or opportunity of obtaining it, and supply 
 to this class of persons the very kind of knowledge 
 
Chap. VI. LOWEE CLASS EDUCATIOlf. 195 
 
 they most stand in need of, and doubtless the 
 conntry, as well as the individuals, derives impor- 
 tant advantages from the teaching of these estab- 
 lishments. 
 
 ' On the points above discussed in reference to 
 the deficiencies in the education of the higher and 
 middle classes the Glasgow Report of the Parlia- 
 mentary Committee of the British Association 
 already quoted, and the evidence given to the 
 Oxford University Commissioners, will furnish im- 
 portant information. 
 
 The institution of pubKc competitive exami- 
 nations, which will be hereafter alluded to in con- 
 nexion with the education of the lower classes, but 
 more particularly the organization of the middle 
 class examinations by Oxford and Cambridge, can- 
 not fail to exercise a most important influence for 
 good on middle class education : as to the educa- 
 tion of the lower classes, so much has been written 
 and spoken upon it in vain, that it is impossible 
 to approach the subject without some feeling of 
 alarm, and the impression that it is perhaps better 
 to avoid entirely any discussion of that which has 
 already been discussed usque ad nauseam, and to so 
 little purpose. Now there can be little hesitation 
 in'pf enouncing the provision made for the education 
 of "the poor to be on the whole defective ; and yet 
 the prospect in this case is brighter than in the 
 two already discussed. StiU, in the great majority 
 
 2 
 
196 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 of the schools for the lower classes, the instruction 
 is confined to reading and writing and a little 
 arithmetic ; and it often happens that the system 
 of teaching is of a very primitive character ; anil 
 in localities where the labour of children is mucK 
 in request, they are removed from school at such an 
 early age, that but little progress can be made even 
 in learning to read, much less in other branches 
 of knowledge. In confirmation of this view of the 
 case, a remark by the late Mr. Porter may be 
 quoted : " The Keports of the Statistical Societies 
 of London and Manchester have shown how un- 
 worthy of the name of education is the result of 
 what is attempted in the majority of schools fre- 
 quented by children of the working classes, and 
 which are frequently kept by persons whose only 
 qualification for this employment seems to be their 
 unfitness for every other." * Nor must we con- 
 clude that the exertions which have been made 
 since the period to which Mr. Porter refers, great 
 though they have been, have as yet much dimi- 
 nished the evil. 
 
 The early removal of children from school, arisr 
 ing in some cases from the cupidity, but in the great 
 majority from the necessities of the parents, is the 
 great obstacle in the way of conferring anything 
 worthy of the name of education on the poorer 
 classes. But notwithstanding all this, the prospect 
 * Porter, ' Progress of the Nation,' edit. 1847, p. 703. 
 
Chap. VI. PAUPER INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. 197 
 
 is still a bright one, and the following are the cir- 
 cumstances, and they are of recent occui-rence, 
 which have so much raised the hopes of those 
 ^yho take an interest (and who does not is not wor- 
 thy of the name of a friend to humanity) in the 
 instruction of the working classes. The exertions 
 of the National and British and Foreign Societies, 
 the contributions of the State to their funds, and 
 the labours of the Committee of Privy Council, 
 also the institution of the Factory and Union 
 schools, have all doubtless produced, and still con- 
 tinue to produce, most beneficial results ; but the 
 circumstances to which allusion is made are more 
 recent. 
 
 The first point which may be mentioned is the 
 establishment of Industrial Schools in connexion 
 with pauper relief. By these institutions the chil- 
 dren are separated from their parents, for the most 
 part habitual paupers, and from workhouse con- 
 tamination, and removed to a healthy building, in 
 which the pupils collected together from various 
 neighbouring Unions receive a superior education 
 for persons in that class of life, and are, moreover, 
 instructed in those industrial avocations which 
 will enable them to earn their livelihood. Some 
 specimens of the results of this training have 
 been already given ; but if any one should be scep- 
 tical on this point, he should read the reports of 
 the Government Inspectors, and the letters of 
 
198 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 Mr. Garland, the able Head Master of the Quatt 
 School, in the Government Eeports on the schools 
 in question : he wiU there find a most interesting 
 account of the success of these establishments, inr 
 eluding letters received from those who were once 
 pauper pupils at these schools, and who, having ob- 
 tained excellent situations, and being in a fair way 
 of earning a most respectable position in the world, 
 express in homely but eloquent strains their gra- 
 titude to their masters, and to those admirable in- 
 stitutions which have saved them from degradation, 
 and enabled them to hold their own among the 
 most thriving of the working classes of the coun- 
 try, and often to rise even higher than this, for we 
 read of some of the pupils of these schools having 
 obtained the situations of engineers, clerks to soh- 
 citors, chartermasters, and so forth. 
 
 Another circumstance which more than any 
 other renders it certain that the education of the 
 lower classes must go on and prosper, and that no 
 amount of prejudice or obstructions from the jea- 
 lousies of rival religious sects, or the necessities or 
 avarice of parents, can seriously impede its pro- 
 gress, is the late institution of open public and 
 sometimes competitive examinations, by the Re- 
 sult of which the authorities are guided in the dis- 
 tribution of ofSces, while the successful candidates 
 at the examinations of the Universities and the 
 Society of Arts are presented with testimonials 
 
Chap. VI. COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS. 199' 
 
 wHcli will doubtless often enable them to obtain 
 Tespectable situations, and greatly aid their career 
 in after-life. Here we have an institution which 
 ■operates by one of the most powerful of human 
 motives, seK-interest. Hitherto parents have been 
 induced by greediness of worldly gain, or by the 
 pinchings of penury, to remove their children from 
 schools from which no worldly advantages (at least 
 so in their blindness they reasoned) could be ob- 
 tained either for themselves or their offspring : but 
 now how is the prospect changed ! May be, by some 
 sacrifices which tkey could make, their children 
 might be able to obtain such an amount of know- 
 ledge as would qualify them to be successful com- 
 petitors in these examinations, and the whole field 
 of enterprise would at once be open before them ; 
 there they might contend with the highest in 
 the land for every post which is attainable by 
 the display of superior talent. Parents are thus 
 Utged by the most potent of all stimulants, not 
 only to deny themselves every luxury, and abstain 
 from all sensual indulgences, but even to curtail 
 themselves of what some would deem necessaries, 
 to give their offspring a chance in the great race 
 of life. 
 
 Whatever, then, be the result of the intermin- 
 able discussions in our Houses of ParKament, and 
 inquiries by Commissions, on the great subject of 
 a general system of National Education,— whether 
 
200 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 this or that scheme ultimately preyail, whether 
 opinions that have been handed down to us from 
 ten generations, and which have hitherto impeded 
 the march of improvement, are destined to be 
 abandoned, or to continue to operate, — the great 
 and holy cause of National Popular Education is 
 safe — safe beyond all possibility of miscarriage; 
 for if the State wiU not provide the necessary 
 funds, there can be little doubt that those directly 
 interested will. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of competitive pubHc 
 examinations, it may be well to notice one argu- 
 ment which is most pertinaciously urged against 
 the system. Suppose that the examination precede 
 the grant of a commission in the army, or of a 
 clerkship in the Treasury, it wiQ be said, "What is 
 the use of this or that accomplishment in this or 
 that profession or office ? we do not want book- 
 worms, but men of good moral character, gentle- 
 men in feeling and habits, gallant and dashing 
 soldiers, obedient to discipline ; or steady and 
 industrious scribes, competent and willing to carry 
 out the instructions of their superiors, without 
 canvassing their propriety. Be it so; but the 
 qualities alluded to are to be ascertained, as far 
 as possible, now as before, by previous inquiry and 
 certificates and probationary service. It is not 
 the object of the examination to ascertain them, 
 but the general intellectual calibre of the can- 
 
Chap. VI. EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. 201 
 
 didate for employment, and the extent to which 
 his mind has been exercised ; yet are men likely 
 to be less dashing and gallant, the more knowledge 
 they possess ? Are they likely to be less moral, 
 less steady, less industrious, and less willing to 
 obey, because they have successfully struggled 
 with and overcome the temptations of youth, dedi- 
 cated themselves to study, and surpassed their 
 rivals in the contest for distinction ? 
 
 Another hopeful circumstance in the present 
 condition of the education of the working classes 
 is the steady increase of institutions for the im- 
 provement of adults — such as the opening of 
 schools at night, the formation of Working Men's 
 Colleges, and the like. 
 
 But can the State and ought the State to help 
 forward the education of the people ? and should 
 the exertions made be successful, and a great 
 stimulus be given to the intellectual advancement 
 of the masses, what is likely to be its effect on 
 them and those classes which are above them in 
 wealth and social position ? 
 
 Now as to the power of the State to assist iu the 
 great work there can be no doubt, and it is a power 
 which is, to a considerable extent, now exercised ; 
 but there are still some who doubt the expediency 
 of exercising it; and there is a sad amount of 
 prejudice abroad on the subject of imparting a 
 higher grade of information to the working classes. 
 
202 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 and it perhaps prevails to a greater extent among 
 the middle class than that above them. This 
 prejudice may be traced partly to a sincere and 
 honest conviction that such education is uselessly 
 lavished on those to whom it can be of no advan- 
 tage, but will prove a positive disadvantage, should, 
 it make them dissatisfied with their lot in Hfe. 
 It is, in fact, precisely the same feeling which was 
 so often expressed about the beginning of the 
 present century, when some doubted whether the 
 lowest class of agricultural labourers should be 
 taught even to read. 
 
 But to all this we may now answer, that the 
 instruction given may enable the pupil not only to 
 obtain his livelihood, but may be the means of 
 raising him to a much higher station of Kfe, if the 
 seed have fallen on very fertile soil; and there 
 only remains the old argument, so often refuted, 
 that you are making men discontented and con- 
 ceited, and loth to undertake the sort of work 
 which is alone likely to fall to their lot ; and you 
 are, besides all this, overstocking the intellectual 
 market. For, say the advocates of ignorance, 
 there are not good situations for all; all cannot 
 rise above the stations in which they were bom ; 
 and can you expect that the Latin scholar, the 
 student of Euclid, algebra, and logic, will soil 
 his hands by handling the plough ? 
 
 Now the descriptions of Colonial life at Aus- 
 
Chap. VI. EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. 203 
 
 tralia and the Cape supply examples of men whose 
 accomplishments are far greater than those which 
 are likely to fall to the lot of the bulk of the poor, 
 cheerfully undertaking to perform manual labour, 
 when they found that such a course was become 
 necessary, if not to the preservation of exist- 
 ence, at least to success in their undertakings. 
 Many log huts in the wilds of Australia are 
 tenanted by men who have taken degrees at 
 the Universities. But however this may be, it 
 cannot faU to be seen that the argument may 
 be always urged against any attempt to enable 
 men to rise above the status in which they were 
 born. 
 
 Where all are equally raised to a higher intel- 
 lectual eminence, it matters not how great the 
 elevation, none can be conceited or too proud to 
 perform the work of their station of life. If it 
 should be eventually found that the intellectual 
 market is overstocked, manual work must stiU be 
 the portion of many, however highly cultivated 
 their minds may be. It is absurd to imagine that 
 mental cultivation, as such,' renders men unfit for 
 manual labour ; no work can be done by the hands 
 alone, and cultivation of the mental powers often 
 renders most important aid, especially in all work 
 performed by skilled artisans. 
 
 However this may be, it is the bounden duty 
 of aU who enjoy so choice a blessing as that of a 
 
204 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 cultivated mind, and especially of those who possess 
 it in full measure, to devote their best energies to 
 extend it to others, and promote that which can 
 be easily proved, and has been proved, to be God's, 
 main object in creation — the happiness of all His 
 sentient creatures. Of all His gifts to man the 
 intellectual and moral faculties are the noblest; 
 they are susceptible of vast development and 
 improvement, which can be carried on throughout 
 the whole of existence ; and without such improve- 
 ment, and the further it is carried the better, real 
 genuine happiness is impossible, though there may 
 be a counterfeit, a lower sensual and degraded 
 state of enjoyment, which grovellers upon earth 
 would fain dignify by that appellation; but this 
 is prostituting a worthy name to an ignoble use. 
 Talk not, then, of education rendering men unfit 
 for the duties of life ! If this should happen in a 
 few isolated cases, and for a short time, it is a 
 state of things which cannot and wiU not long 
 endure. 
 
 If the above views should ultimately triumph, 
 and the general diffusion of something really 
 deserving to be called education among the 
 masses no longer be a name but a fact, what is 
 likely to be its effect upon the middle and higher 
 classes ? Clearly they ought not, nay, cannot 
 remain stationary. It would be an unwholesome 
 and vicious state of society, in which those who 
 
Chap. VI. FEAE FOE THE HIGHEE CLASS. 205 
 
 are comparatively unblessed with fortune's gifts 
 should be generally superior in intellectual attain- 
 ments to those above them in station. The former 
 having knowledge, and knowing well how to value 
 it, will look down with contempt on men who, 
 having had many advantages in the race which 
 they had not, neglected to appropriate to them- 
 selves such an invaluable possession. And as these, 
 together with other considerations, will, it is to 
 be hoped, stimulate the middle class to advance 
 pan passu with the lower ; so they should influence 
 the higher to keep their mental attainments above 
 the standard of those of the middle class. If this 
 stimulant should have the effect of raising their 
 intellectual condition, they would be amply repaid 
 for the support which they had afforded to mental 
 progress by the general advancement of the 
 nation in knowledge ; and eventually, in propor- 
 tion as such principles spread and such argu- 
 ments prevail in other countries, of all the human 
 race. Yet the social philosopher may well be 
 justified in feeling some alarm in reference to this 
 higher class. Their want of motives to advance 
 in proportion to the progress of those below them 
 in station is manifest. Most of them lack the 
 stimulus of a deficiency even of the luxuries of 
 life ; and the temptations of pleasure are ever at 
 hand to lead them astray, and reconcile them to a 
 life of indolence, which will then more than ever 
 
206 PRESENT CONDITION OP ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 be a life of shame. Still we may be hopeful when 
 we reflect that, when knowledge has become very 
 generally diffused, and when the lower classes are 
 threatening to oust those above them from their 
 high pre-eminence of superior learning, its advan- 
 tages wiU. not only have become still more 
 patent, but a strong spirit of emulation is sure 
 to be aroused, and then those who are sunk in a 
 lethargy of sensual indulgence will gradually be- 
 come sensible that the time for slumber has gone 
 by, and that they must put their armour on and 
 prepare for the contest. 
 
 It is to be hoped that the arguments above 
 urged, and such as may be employed hereafter by 
 men gifted with far greater powers of persuasion, 
 may have sufficient weight to prevail on the 
 higher classes to devote more of their time and 
 energies to the acquisition of knowledge : a httle 
 more attention to this object, the importance of 
 which cannot be overstated, a little less eagerness 
 in pursuing those pleasures which woo them at 
 every step, and like some fair syren seduce them 
 and lead them astray from severe application, and 
 their success cannot be doubted; for they have 
 the inestimable advantage of wealth to pur- 
 chase the means by which knowledge is ob- 
 tained, and leisure to turn those means to good 
 account. 
 
 I 
 
 It is with reference to the foregoing considera- 
 
CHiP. VI. SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION. 207 
 
 tions that reforms in grammar-schools and in the 
 UniTersities, and some attempts which have heen 
 lately made by the British Association and the 
 Council of the Eoyal Society to advocate the 
 more general cultivation of science, become of 
 paramount importance ; for there are perhaps no 
 branches of knowledge in which the mass of the 
 middle and higher classes are more deficient than 
 in those of mathematics and physics. 
 
 The Council of the Eoyal Society, in considering 
 the question — "Whether any measures could be 
 adopted by Government or Parliament to improve 
 the position of science in this country?" — were 
 naturally led to the suggestion of measures that 
 would not only materially advance that object, 
 but would also give most important increased 
 facilities for extending the knowledge of scientific 
 truths among the nation at large. In their twelve 
 resolutions which were forwarded to Lord Palmer- 
 ston in January, 1857, as the result of their 
 deliberations on the above question, they recom- 
 mend that the public schools should make physical 
 science an integral part of their course of educa- 
 tion ; that classes should be established in metro- 
 politan and prodncial schools, where those who 
 have not the means or opportunity of studying at 
 the Universities may be taught the elements of 
 physical science on a systematic plan; and that 
 provincial museums, lectures, and libraries should 
 
208 PEESEXT CO^"DITIOIf OF EKGLASD. Chap. VI. 
 
 be encouraged by pablic grants in aid of local 
 omtribntions. 
 
 The above remarks on education must be under- 
 stood as applying to the male portion of the 
 population only : with respect to the female, every 
 remark which has been made in reference to 
 ite present unsatisfectory state applies with fer 
 greater force ; for their intellectnal condition and 
 means of improving it are doubtless infmor to 
 those of the other sex. 3ir. John Stuart Mill, 
 whose able works have been so often quoted and 
 referred to, seems to be an advocate for making 
 little, if any, distinction between Hie sexes in 
 respect to education; this may, perhaps, be an 
 extreme view of the question, because a great part 
 of the intellectnal trauung of men is professional 
 or technical, and given with express reference to 
 some duties which they are afterwards to be called 
 upon to perform, and from most of which women, 
 as society is now constituted, are excluded : but 
 with reference to all those departments of know- 
 ledge which cannot be characterized as technical, 
 all thc^e, e. g., which discipline the mental faculties, 
 form the taste, and beneficially enlarge the circle 
 of ideas, and by so doing render the human mind 
 better adapted to perform ererv function in life, 
 everyUiing in fact which is taught at tiie Univer- 
 sities, there can, it is believed, be no suflScient 
 reason given why women should be exduded from 
 
Chap. VI. FEMALE EDUCATION. 209 
 
 those departments of knowledge. The arguments 
 which may be and have been urged in favour of 
 improving to the utmost the intellectual endow- 
 ments of men, seem to apply with equal force to 
 the other sex. Still there may be peculiar cir- 
 cumstances, there may be a something in their 
 position in society, which renders it inexpedient to 
 adopt the same course in reference to their train- 
 ing as is pursued in the case of the male sex. 
 Now on this question there is, and probably wiU 
 be for some time to come, pauch diversity of 
 opinion. Some object that women have not suffi- 
 cient time at their disposal for study, but un- 
 married women have generally much leisure, and 
 the domestic duties of the married often occupy 
 little if any more of their time than is engrossed 
 by the professional avocations of their husbands. 
 By some the cultivation of the female mind is 
 viewed with peculiar jealousy, as a kind of inva- 
 sion of the privileges of the other sex ; and it 
 is supposed by others that more learning would 
 impair their feminine character and sense of 
 dependence on the other sex, and would render 
 them in married life less devoted to their hus- 
 bands, less submissive to control, less disposed to 
 perform the peculiar duties which naturally fall to 
 their lot. Without attempting to give any posi- 
 tive reply tp the question under discussion, it is 
 only fair to make one remark, and that is, that 
 
 p 
 
210 PRESENT CONDITION OP ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 some of the latter objections to female education 
 are much of the same character with those which 
 are urged against giving a better education to the 
 working classes, and admit of the same answer: 
 and any one who values knowledge at its proper 
 worth, will at least have some hesitation in sufe- 
 'Scribing to the opinion that a wife will be rendered 
 a less agreeable companion by improving her 
 mental endowments. 
 
 It may not be well to conclude the above short 
 notice of the position of this country in reference 
 to the quaKty of its education, without giving some 
 information as to its quantity. The statistical 
 returns to which we are about to allude have no 
 pretensions to extreme accuracy; but they will 
 at least show good ground for believing that, in 
 this respect also, there was, and is, great defi- 
 ciency; but that strenuous exertions have been 
 made to render some kind of instruction — not, it 
 is true, of a very high grade — general. 
 
 It appears by Parliamentary returns, that ia 1818 
 there were in England and Wales 674,883 scholars 
 at infant and daily schools, out of a populatiolS 
 estimated at 11,642,683, being one scholar to every 
 17-25 of the population. In 1833, however, this 
 total number of children receiving instruction 
 was 1,276,947, out of a population estimated at 
 ,14,386,415, which gives one scholar to every 11-27 
 of the population. In 1851 there were 2,144,378 
 
Chap. VI. EDUCATIONAL EETDENS. 211 
 
 scholars out of a population of 17,927,609, being one 
 scholar to every 8-36 ; about one in 6 ought, how- 
 ever, to be the proportion receiving instruction. In 
 page 707 of Mr. Porter's instructive work will be 
 found a curious record of the number of persons 
 who sign their marriage registers with marks, as 
 being unable to write : the number of men is about 
 one-third, but of women the proportion is much 
 greater. The table, unfortunately, extends only 
 to six years, ending with 1844. This is the more 
 to be regretted, as the marriages only amount to 
 about 3 per cent, on the population. The table 
 is interesting, also, as throwing some light on the 
 comparative state of knowledge (so far as writing 
 is a test) in the various counties. 
 
 In respect to that kind of knowledge, as contra- 
 distinguished from intellectual training, which is 
 obtained by associating with men of all grades 
 of society, by performing the duties and incurring 
 the responsibilities of some active profession or 
 avocation in life, and by taking a part, though 
 perhaps a subordinate one, in the local or general 
 administration of public affairs — ^there is no lack 
 in this country of that species of mental train- 
 ing, if we except, perhaps, the lowest class of 
 agricultural labourers. 
 
 The moral state of the nation has been classed 
 with its intellectual; it will be necessary, there- 
 fore, to add some remarks upon this subject. 
 
 p 2 
 
212 PRESENT CONDITION OP ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 Now, on this point, there is undoubtedly some 
 room for rejoicing; not only may this country 
 be pronounced to be a moral country, but it is 
 impossible not to see that in this respect there 
 has been great improvement in late years. Even 
 here, however, there are some dark spots in the 
 picture, which it- would be dishonest to omit or 
 slur over in giving an accoimt of the present moral 
 condition of England. 
 
 With reference to the classes to which the ap- 
 pellations " higher " and " middle " are commonly 
 applied, there can be no doubt that there is a 
 great diminution ia those vices which meet tte 
 public eye : there is little drunkenness, scarcely 
 any, in the higher class ; and in respect to those 
 delinquencies which consist in an improper gratifi- 
 cation of the sexual appetite, there is very little 
 open profligacy. When these assertions are ha- 
 zarded, of the truth of which there can be little 
 doubt, there are always gloomy and morose alarm- 
 ists and traducers of mankind who iavariably look 
 at the bad side of every picture, and who are 
 ready to exclaim — Ay, but there is more secret 
 vice ! However this may be, when homage has 
 been paid to "Virtue by those who refuse to worship 
 at her shrine so far that they are unwilling to 
 allow their aberrations to be seen, it is a sign of a 
 condition of public opinion from which much may 
 be inferred in favour of the state of contempo- 
 
Chap. VI. MORAL STATE. 213 
 
 raneous morality. Moreoyer, it is impossible not 
 to value very highly even an outward show of 
 decorum and propriety. The state of morals 
 is always reflected, as in an unerring mirror, 
 by the state of manners; the improvement in 
 which, since the middle of the last century and 
 again since the beginning of the present, is per- 
 fectly notorious, at least so far as regards the 
 classes now under consideration. It has been 
 truly observed that Squire Western, Parson Trul- 
 liber, and Justice Thrasher, were admitted to be 
 true pictures in the time of Fielding (1750), and 
 those who have lived half a century can remember 
 something very nearly allied to them ; but every 
 one would exclaim that they were gross caricatures 
 if applied to the country gentlemen, clergy, and 
 magistrates of the present time. 
 
 The vite of drunkenness has been succeeded by 
 the habit of smoking, which, if not to be called 
 a vice, must certainly be considered as a bad 
 habit, and productive of much annoyance to all 
 with whom those addicted to it associate. From 
 about the middle of the eighteenth century tiU the 
 era of the peace of Paris, this practice had almost 
 entirely disappeared : it was revived by some 
 young men, who went abroad and imported it 
 from the. Continent at that period. There is no 
 doubt that the practice recommends itself to youth 
 by the great encouragement which it affords to 
 
214 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 listless indolence ; men who are ashamed to sit 
 with their hands before them, literally doing no- 
 'thing, feel that smoldng, being in a sense an em- 
 ployment, justifies that which, without this excuse, - 
 even they would regard with some feeling of 
 compunction. We have the evidence of the me- 
 dical profession that the practice, if carried to;' 
 excess, is injurious to health ; and there can be 
 no doubt that, on the priuciple of doing nothing 
 wilfully which can annoy your neighbour, it ought 
 to be abstained from. The allegations that smoldng 
 is ever conducive to health, or a preservative 
 against cold, and so forth, are entitled to httle 
 weight. 
 
 The almost total abandonment of the barbarous 
 practice of dueUing is another most gratifying 
 proof of the general increase of intelligence, and 
 of a more healthy state of moral feeling among 
 the higher classes of the community. 
 
 There are two practices, however, which stiU, to 
 a certain extent, prevail among the upper and 
 middle classes, which are much to be deplored—'' 
 that of imputing bad motives, and that of con- 
 demning conduct on very insufficient and incon- 
 clusive evidence. The latter was very prominently 
 exhibited during the sufferings of the Crimean 
 campaign, when all right-thinking persons were 
 daily annoyed by confident criticisms on the con- 
 duct and actions of absent men, fighting the battles 
 
Chap. VI. IMPEOVEMENT IN LOWER CLASSES. 215 
 
 of their country, from persons incompetent to form 
 a sound opioion on such a subject. That the 
 army suffered, and suffered from abuses which, 
 had they not been corrected, niight have under- 
 miued our military powter, may be freely ad- 
 mitted ; but the verdict of an impartial posterity 
 will acquit our political and military chiefs of 
 any blame for evils which were entirely beyond 
 their control. 
 
 In reference to the improvement in the morals 
 of the lower classes, there is some interesting evi- 
 dence in a Eeport of a Committee of the House 
 of Commons, appointed in 1835 to inquire into 
 the State of Education, and another Eeport of 
 a Committee, appointed in 1840, on the Import 
 Duties, which fully establishes the fact of a great 
 amendment having taken place in the morals and 
 manners of the lower classes. 
 
 One circumstance alone would almost establish 
 the truth of this allegation : there were, in 1840, 
 from 1600 to 1800 coffee-houses, frequented by 
 from 1500 to 400 persons daily, open iu the me- 
 tropolis alone, and they were rapidly increasing in 
 the country, for the sale of coffee and tea, at a 
 price of from Id. to 3d. the cup, where no intoxi- 
 cating liquor was allowed to be sold ; and some of 
 the owners of these houses paid 400?. a-year for 
 newspapers, magazines, and binding. 
 
 Mr. Porter, writing about the year 1845, says 
 
216 PBESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. CflAP. VI. 
 
 " that our multiplied abodes of want, of wretched- 
 ness, and of crime ; our town populations huddled 
 together in ill-ventilated and undrained courts and 
 cellars ; our numerous workhouses filled to over- 
 flowing with the children of want ; and our pri- 
 sons (scarcely less numerous) overloaded with the 
 votaries of crime, do-indeed but too sadly and too 
 strongly attest that all is not as it should be with 
 us, as regards this most important branch of 
 human progress."* 
 
 Since the period to which Mr. Porter refers, 
 owing to the exertions of benevolent individuals, 
 among whom Lord Shaftesbury occupies a promi- 
 nent position, considerable improvement has been 
 made in drainage, ventilation, and construction of 
 the dwellings of the poor ; and the over-crowdiig 
 has been diminished. But ia reference to pauperism 
 and crime there is, alas! but little amendment. 
 As to the former, the great reform of 1834 con- 
 tinues to produce beneficial results, and to protect 
 us from falling back again into that abyss of 
 immorality from which it delivered us ; but the 
 misplaced humanity of guardians averse to apply 
 the workhouse test in numerous cases in which it 
 ought to be applied, and the reluctance of magis- 
 trates to make orders to compel the relations to 
 maintain their pauper kindred,, by weakening the 
 * ' Progress of the Nation,' edit. 1847, pp. 638 et seq. 
 
Chap. VI. PAUPERISM AND CRIME. 217 
 
 motiyes to industry and exertion, and releasing 
 men from the performance of the noblest of 
 duties, seriously lessen the moral benefits which 
 that great measure was iutended to produce, and 
 contribute to swell the lists of out-door rehef. 
 , In reference to crime, Mr. Porter shows, that in 
 England and Wales the number of persons com- 
 mitted for trial was, at the period to which he 
 refers (1839), five times as great as in 1805, the 
 earliest year for which records are available. In 
 Ireland they were seven-fold ; and in Scotland the 
 committals had increased six-fold between 1815 
 and 1839. 
 
 The increase of crime had far outstripped the 
 increase of population; for the population of 
 England and Wales was, in 1801, 8,892,536 ; in 
 1841, 15,914,148 ; and in 1851, 17,927,609. In 
 Scotland it was, in 1801, 1,608,420; in 1841, 
 2,620,184 ; and in 1851, 2,888,742. 
 
 Before proceeding to discuss these lamentable 
 results, it may be well to mention, with respect to 
 Ireland, that the famine of 1847, an event most 
 sad and mournful indeed in itself, has yet been 
 probably the principal cause of the regeneration of 
 that country which has since taken place. The 
 great loss of life during the famine, the vast emi- 
 grations which followed it, and the numerous sales 
 of encumbered estates, which have transferred so 
 
218 PRESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI.' 
 
 much of the real property of the country into more 
 wealthy hands, have together effected so great a 
 revolution in its condition, that its statistics prior 
 to 1847 are now useful merely as matter; of 
 history. Among other beneficial effects of the 
 recent changes, crime and poverty seem to be so 
 much diminished, as to inspire us with the most : 
 cheerful anticipations as to the future of that once 
 iU-governed, distracted, and unhappy country.* 
 
 Now there can be no doubt that, though crime 
 may have increased, and this fact is undeniable, 
 we enjoy a far greater degree of protection from 
 personal violence than our ancestors. One cause 
 of this is the smaller amount of coin carried, owing 
 to the use of paper money and the other devices, . 
 of commerce for dispensing with the use of coin; 
 but it is due also to an improved system of police* 
 Owing to this latter cause in part, the proportion i 
 of convictions to committals has been raised from 
 58-8 per cent, in the five years 1805-9, to 79-15 
 per cent, in the five years 1841-5. 
 
 But this change is due also to other causes too 
 important to be omitted, as they throw much 
 light on the moral progress of the nation. It is 
 attributable, in part, to the allowance of expenses 
 to prosecutors and witnesses, and the simplification 
 
 ♦ Since the above was written some symptoms have unhap- 
 pily appeared of a revival of dastardly assassinations and of 
 secret societies. 
 
Chap. VI. AMELIORATION OP CEIMINAL CODE. 219 
 
 of the criminal law ; but it is chiefly owing to the 
 successive mitigations of the severity by which our 
 criminal code was formerly distinguished, effected 
 by the able and enlightened exertions of KomiUy, 
 Mackintosh, Wilberforce, Lords John Eussell and 
 Brougham, and others. In this respect great 
 improvements have been made even since the 
 accession of our present excellent and enlightened 
 Sovereign. In 1808 the ameKoration began, and 
 our legislators, for the first time, saw the cruelty 
 of hanging for stealing five shillings privately 
 from the person. Between 1818 and 1824, capital 
 punishments were abolished for twenty-one offences, 
 but this remission did not reach any of the larger 
 offences, and applied to some that were obsolete. 
 In 1832 we ceased to hang for sheep-stealing, and 
 stealing to the amount of five pounds in a dwelling. 
 Between that year and 1837, capital punishments 
 were abolished in respect of ten offences; and 
 since the accession of the present Queen the 
 punishment of death has been removed from aU 
 but about nine offences, of which four are of very 
 rare occurrence. The number of persons in con- 
 sequence sentenced to die has diminished from 
 1601 in 1831, to 49 in 1845. On perusing the 
 table of committals, between the years 1804 and 
 1846, given by Mr. Porter,* it is seen that the 
 committals rose from 4346 the minimum, which 
 * ' Progress of Nation,' edit. 1847, p. 642. 
 
220 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 occurred in 1806, to 31,309 the maximum, which 
 occurred in 1842, 
 
 It is satisfactory to be able to add, that in the 
 majority of the offences for which capital punish- 
 ments were repealed there has been a decrease, 
 while commitments generally have increased.* 
 
 One fact mentioned by Eomilly in 1816 is 
 conclusive as to the cruelties formerly perpetrated 
 in this country under the name of justice, viz., 
 that in 1785 no less than 97 persons were executed 
 for the offence of shoplifting in London alone. 
 
 In 1841 the proportion of offenders was one in 
 573 in England and Wales, and one in 742 in 
 Scotland, a result which may possibly be owing to 
 the more general diffusion of education in the 
 latter country. 
 
 To revert to the question of the remarkable 
 increase of crime, notwithstanding the acknow- 
 ledged improvements in our manners and morals, 
 and in our criminal code, there are two classes of 
 returns which, if they do not explain, at least 
 throw great light on this subject. Up to 1834 
 there was no classification of offences in the 
 criminal returns, but they are now classed under 
 the following six heads : — 
 
 1. Offences against the person. 
 
 2. Offences against property, committed with 
 violence. 
 
 * 'Progress,' &c., p. 645. 
 
Chap. VI. CLASSIFICATION OF OFFENCES. 221 
 
 3. Offences against property, committed without 
 violence. 
 
 4. Malicious offences against property. 
 
 5. Forgery, and offences against the currency. 
 
 6. Other offences. 
 
 Now, on inspecting the table showing the in- 
 crease of offences,* it is perceived at once, that 
 iSuch increase applies chiefly to offences against pro- 
 perty committed withoict violence, i. e. Class 3; 
 while in all the others there is no increase of im- 
 portance, and in some a decrease, and that, although 
 the population increased between 1834 and 1845 
 more than 15 per cent. The relaxation in the 
 severity of the criminal code has, therefore, no- 
 thing to do with the increase of crime, for the 
 offences of Class 3 were Httle affected by these 
 alterations; the cause must be sought elsewhere. 
 The criminal returns also tend to make us scep- 
 tical as to the truth of the common belief, that 
 crime is much promoted by bringing men together 
 in large masses. For each million of inhabitants 
 there were charged with offences : — 
 
 1805. 1840. 
 
 In 20 agricultural counties .. 446 .. 1753 
 In 20 less ditto 590 .. 1836 
 
 The other return which throws light on the 
 subject under discussion, viz. the increase of crime 
 coincident with an improvement in manners and 
 
 * Itid., p. 653. 
 
222 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAN'D. Chap. YI. 
 
 morals, is that which enables us to discover the 
 degree of education possessed by those who have 
 been committed for crime. In 1835 returns were 
 obtained of the degree of instruction that had been 
 imparted to persons committed for trial, which 
 were extended in 1836. The amount of education 
 possessed by criminals is now classed under four 
 heads, begianing with those who cannot read 
 and write, and ending with those who have re- 
 ceived what is termed " superior instruction," but 
 which means only something beyond mere ele- 
 mentary reading and writing. From these records 
 it appears that in the ten years from 1836 to 1845 
 inclusive, out of 252,544 persons committed and 
 whose amount of instruction was ascertained, there 
 were 229,300 uninstructed ; and only 1085 had 
 advanced beyond the elements of reading and 
 writing. It is clear, therefore, that it is the igno- 
 rant who fill our gaols. Surely these figures are 
 both a proof of the value of that mental training, 
 on the importance of which so much has been 
 already said ; and a sad confirmation of the neglect 
 of a nation, which would seem to prefer punish- 
 ment and misery at the greater cost to prevention 
 and happiness at the less. 
 
 But still we must not forget that the mere act 
 of sending their offspring to school is a sign of a 
 superior moral development in the parents, and 
 that ignorance therefore is an effect ; ignorance, in 
 
Chap. VI. YOUTHFUL CRIMINALS. 223 
 
 the children is the result of the moral degradation 
 of those who are responsible for their trajning. 
 
 Of the whole number of persons committed, 
 18-65 per cent, were females ; of the 1085 edu- 
 cated, 3"96 per cent, only were females. 
 
 It appears, then, tha;t it is the milder form of of- 
 fences which has increased, and that those who pilfer 
 are for the most part very ignorant ; still it is strange 
 that there should be this increase of petty crimes 
 against property, while there has been a marked 
 improvement in manners and morals. It may 
 possibly be owing to some peculiar phase or 
 change in the manners and habits of the unedu- 
 cated classes which the investigations of our Legis- 
 lators, Commissioners, or Inspectors have not yet 
 unravelled and brought to Hght. It would ap- 
 pear that larceny has become of late years more 
 than ever a kind of profession, to which unhappy 
 children of both sexes are regularly trained from 
 infancy. 
 
 The great amount of vice in persons of tender 
 years is a melancholy feature disclosed by the 
 criminal records. Thus, in 1835, there were 2002 
 males and 354 females under sixteen years of age 
 committed for trial. The numbers increase in 
 every year, until, in 1841, they amount to 2656 
 males and 556 females. These are, doubtless, 
 chiefly cases of orphans, and children either aban- 
 doned by their profligate parents, or who have 
 
224 PRESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAJSJD. Chap. VI, 
 
 been in some form or other exposed from their 
 earliest infancy to evil influences. 
 
 The lamentable extent of this mischief at length 
 powerfully awakened the attention of benevolent 
 individuals' ; and the Legislature began to perceive 
 that, if the rising generation were thus allowed to 
 persevere in their abandoned career, society would 
 soon reap a plentiful harvest of crime. Two 
 principal remedies have been applied, and with 
 success : in the first place, the young have been 
 separated in the prisons from the hardened of- 
 fenders ; and, in the second place, the ragged and 
 reformatory schools have been established, the 
 only title to admission to which is crime or mi- 
 sery. 
 
 There is undoubtedly some force in the objec- 
 tion that institutions of this kind offer a bonus to 
 crime : parents may be induced by the tempting 
 bait of an education for their children — better 
 than honest labourers in their own grade of life 
 can provide — ^to send their offspring to wander or 
 steal by way of qualifying themselves ; and they 
 may be urged by like motives to abandon their 
 children, that they may become fit subjects for 
 reformatories and ragged schools. These arc difli- 
 . culties, no doubt, but they may be partly obviated 
 by stringent provisions, compelling, wherever that 
 is possible, guilty parents to contribute to the 
 maintenance of their children when in reformer 
 
Chap. VI. RAGGED AND EEFOEMATOEY SCHOOLS. 225 
 
 tories and schools. Upon the whole, however, it 
 seems more for the interests of society, and cer- 
 tainly it is highly conducive to those of humanity, 
 to educate the child whenever circumstances place 
 him in our power. 
 
 Schools for the express purpose of reforming 
 the juvenile offender had been already established 
 in many localities by kind-hearted individuals 
 in imitation of a great institution at Mettray, 
 in France, and had been to a certain degree 
 successful; but these establishments have now 
 received the sanction of Parliament, and much 
 good may be anticipated as likely to arise from 
 them. The records of the ragged schools also 
 show a large amount of children rescued from 
 penury and vice, instructed in the elements of 
 knowledge, and provided with the means of earning 
 an honest livelihood. Of all the sights which meet 
 the eyes of one who traverses the streets of the 
 metropolis, there are few more agreeable, few 
 more suggestive of hopeful anticipations as to the 
 future of our race, than that of the little shoe- 
 blacks, who take their stand at the corners of 
 the crowded thoroughfares ready to perform their 
 humble vocation. What tales of misery and op- 
 pression could some of these rescued wanderers 
 unfold ! and doubtless that red jacket covers many 
 a heart which overflows with gratitude and joy, 
 and is beginning to be sensible of the value of 
 
 Q 
 
226 PRESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAiTD. Chap. VI 
 
 self-respect and independence. There can be little 
 hesitation in concluding that when this experimenl 
 has been fully developed, it will eventually prove 
 the means, not only of rescuing the objects of the 
 institution from penury and crime, but of raisiiig 
 some of them to opulence and fame. 
 
 The nobleman whose name has already been 
 honourably mentioned in connexion with the im- 
 proved dwellings of the poor, took also a conspi- 
 cuous part in effecting these benevolent reforms. 
 
 Allusion has been made to the separation of the 
 young from old and hardened offenders. An Act 
 was passed in 1835 for effecting greater uniformity 
 in the management of prisons, and appointing iu- 
 spectors in Great Britain. The appointment of 
 these inspectors and their reports have brought 
 to light, and have been the means of remedying, 
 many abuses ; and they have caused experiments 
 to be undertaken to ascertain the possibility of 
 reclaiming criminals. Under the control of these 
 inspectors, and under the systems introduced -in 
 conformity ■with their suggestions, our prisons have 
 ceased to be any longer schools of vice ; and no- 
 thing can exceed the cleanliness, decency, and 
 order now maintained in some of the best regu- 
 lated of our present gaols. This is admirable, con- 
 sidered in itself, and of the utmost consequence 
 as respects the reformation of the criminal ; ' but 
 )it is stiU more striking to one who has either seen 
 
Chap. VI. LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 227 
 
 or read the accounts of the former condition of 
 these receptacles of vice. 
 
 The alterations which have also taken place 
 siace the commencement of the present century 
 ia the treatment of that most unfortimate class of 
 persons who have lost their reason, are likewise 
 very satisfactory. No restraint is used, except in 
 the most extreme cases, and then only for a few 
 hours. Their dweUings are clean, airy, spacious, 
 commodious, and provided with everything which 
 can amuse and cheer their unhappy existence. 
 What a contrast to the manacles, darkness, and 
 straw of former times! These remarks apply to 
 public asylums: it is to be feared that iu some of 
 the private receptacles for the iosane, a few of the 
 old enormities stiU maintain their ground; and 
 those who are so unfortunate as to have the care 
 or guardianship of relations in this unhappy pre- 
 dicament, would do well to send them ia all cases 
 to establishments of the former class, in which 
 constant supervision is provided for. 
 
 Before concluding the notice of the moral state 
 
 iOf the country, it wiU be weU to guard against 
 
 . the notion, if any should be disposed to entertain 
 
 it, that to give that amount of instruction which 
 
 is termed "superior" in our criminal records 
 
 will destroy altogether the tendency to commit 
 
 ■ crime. It is quite true that only 44 iu 10,000 
 
 in England, and only 180 in 10,000 ia Scotland, of 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 PRESENT CONDITION OP ENGLAND. Chap. TlJ 
 
 those wlio commit crime, belong to classes wllo 
 have received the benefit of this kind of educa* 
 tion ; but we must not therefore infer that if aU 
 had this amount of learning, crime would disaji-' 
 pear, or even be diminished iu proportion to the 
 general increase of education. Where the grfekt 
 mass of the people are ignorant, the few who have 
 education are in a far better position than the im- 
 educated majority for obtaining employment If 
 , aU were equally instructed this would no longer 
 be the case. But, " knowing what we know of the 
 quality of education as it has usually been im- 
 parted to the youth of this country, dare we hope 
 that its restraining influence would be great ? It 
 is true we might even then expect to put an end 
 to much of the violence and fraud by which the 
 community is now disgraced. Merely instructed 
 persons would better calculate the worldly advan- 
 tages and disadvantages of right and wrong con- 
 duct. . . . But, further, is it not certain that an 
 instructed community would be able to apply its 
 energies more beneficially for the whole than is 
 possible where general ignorance prevails, that 
 employment would be more certain and more pro- 
 fitable, and temptations to dishonesty fewer and 
 weaker?"* 
 
 The picture, or rather sketch, which has been 
 above given, of the present state of this country 
 * Porter, p. 671. 
 
Chap. VI. SYMPATHY WITH THE POOE. 229 
 
 in reference to morals, manners, and intellectual 
 progress, though containing many gloomy features, 
 is upon the whole a hopeful one ; hut our confl- 
 jienee in a happy issue wiU be materially enhanced 
 if iwe further take into our consideration the better 
 :a,nd more earnest tone of feeling which prevails 
 among the higher and middle classes in reference 
 to these subjects, exhibiting itself in a far greater 
 regard for the spiritual and temporal interests of 
 those who have been born to an humble lot. It 
 is not unusual now to see men occupying high 
 stations, and members of both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, devoting a great part of their time to 
 various schemes for improving the condition, or 
 advancing the education, of the working classes. 
 There are instances, too, daily coming to light 
 of great companies, large manufacturers, and 
 opulent tradesmen instituting schools, museums, 
 lectures, and libraries for the instruction of the 
 labourers in their employment; and it may be 
 doubted whether any man would dare to ex- 
 press indifference to the welfare of the poor, 
 in any respectable society at the present time, 
 whatever his private opinions might be; nor is 
 IJjiere reason for believing that there is a want of 
 sincerity in this forbearance. It may be truly 
 affirmed that a benevolent regard for the iute- 
 rests of our poorer brethren, and kindly aspira- 
 tions for their prosperity and weU- doing, ex- 
 
230 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. TI." 
 
 tensively perrade all classes of society in this 
 kingdom. 
 
 All innocent recreations should be encouraged, 
 and brought within their reach. It is . a pleasing 
 feature in the present times to see a groiying taste' ' 
 for music developing itself among the working 
 classes : there is nothing that more tends to refine 
 and humanize, to soothe after severe toil the over- ' 
 strained energies of the industrious poor, or to 
 console in unmerited affliction, than the pursuit of 
 art. Would that they were permitted to enjoy 
 these pleasures fully on the only days on which 
 they are released from labour ! 
 
 The state of indkistry and the habitual occupations 
 of the people ; the state of wealth and its distribution ; 
 and the division into and relations of classes, forming 
 the second, third, and fourth heads of our inquiry 
 into the present condition of England, may well 
 be treated of together. 
 
 In all these particulars this country may be 
 said to occupy a very high position among civil- 
 ized nations ; the industry of its inhabitants is 
 great ; its wealth is vast, and very widely diffused;"' 
 the people are for the most part employed in pro- 
 ductive labour ; and many of those who hve on 
 incomes derived from accumulations, devote a very 
 considerable portion of their time to intellectual 
 pursuits from which the community at large de^ 
 rive vast beneiits. It is true that we have not that 
 
Chap. VI. STATE OF INDUSTBT. 231 
 
 law which exists among our neighbours the 
 Erench, which compels every landed proprietor, 
 whether he like it or not, to divide his estates 
 among aU his children ; but notwithstanding this, 
 there is perhaps no country in which the mass of 
 the property is better distributed, having regard 
 to the interests of productive industry. The num- 
 ber of very large fortunes either in land or money 
 is few, but the number of those, who possess a 
 decent competency is very great indeed. The 
 people of this country are also pre-emiuently a 
 saving race; the habit of accumulation is more 
 strongly developed here than in most other parts 
 of the world, partly owing to the national charac- 
 ter, but principally, doubtless, to that confidence 
 in the maintenance of order, and the security of 
 person and property, with which our admirable 
 institutions inspire every one who has the happi- 
 ness to dwell under the British Crown. We have 
 here another and excellent example of the manner 
 in which the various phenomena of society act and 
 react. Men accumulate, among other reasons, 
 because they feel confidence in the preservation 
 of order : but the possession of accumulations, the 
 having a stake in the country, greatly increases 
 their desire to maintain order, and uphold their 
 coimtry's best institutions. So it must ever be ; and 
 when a nation has once fairly entered on the right 
 path, there is tenfold security that it wiU persevere. 
 
232 PEBSENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 This makes it more difficult still to account for 
 those terrible reactions which suddenly throw 
 society headlong back into barbarism. 
 
 Information on the various topics just adverted 
 to, is to be collected only very imperfectly from 
 Parliamentary records. The science of statistics 
 is as yet in its infancy, nor can it be expected to 
 attain its maturity tiU social science is better un- 
 derstood; until -men have settled what points in 
 the history of their race are really instructive, and 
 worth a special record ; tiU that time arrives, both 
 in historical and statistical records, we shall con- 
 tinue to 'have much carefully noted that is abso- 
 lutely worthless to the social philosopher, much 
 omitted that is of the last importance to man- 
 kind. 
 
 By the census of 1841 it appeared that the per- 
 centages of the total population of Great Britain, 
 engaged in the following employments, were as 
 follows : — 
 
 England. 
 
 Wales. 
 
 Scotland. 
 
 Great 
 Britain. 
 
 Agriculture 
 
 Trade, commerce, and) 
 manufactures . . . . / 
 Domestic servants 
 Labour, not agricultural 
 TJnclassed 
 
 7-7 
 
 16-9' 
 
 6-2 
 
 4-2 
 
 65-0 
 
 n-4 
 
 9'9 
 
 6-9 
 
 5-8 
 
 66-0 
 
 8-8 
 
 18-1 
 
 6-1 
 
 3-2 
 
 63-8 
 
 7-9 
 
 16-5 
 
 6-2 
 
 4-1 
 
 65-3 
 
 The percentages of persons employed in the 
 
Chap. VI. PERCENTAGES OP EMPLOYMENTS. 233 
 
 three great classes of occupations in 1811, 1821, 
 1831, and 1841, were as under : — 
 
 Years. 
 
 Agricultural, 
 
 Commercial. 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 
 1811 
 
 35 ' 
 
 44 
 
 21 
 
 1821 
 
 33 
 
 46 
 
 21 
 
 1831 
 
 28 
 
 42 
 
 30 
 
 1841 
 
 22 
 
 46 
 
 32 
 
 This statement howeyer, prior to 1841, refers to 
 families, but in 1841 to individuals. 
 
 The Eegistrar-General says in bis Eeport, " The 
 first and most obvious distribution of the popula- 
 tion is into the two great groups of those who 
 work, and those who professedly have no definite 
 occupations. After a due correction has been 
 niade for the persons who are infirm, or who have 
 retired in advanced age from their trades or pro- 
 fessions, the number of the latter class in this 
 country will not be found to be numerous." 
 
 There are two kinds of work, manual labour, 
 and other work, which is quite as productive and 
 useful, and very often much more so than this. 
 The mental labour of the inventors of industrial 
 processes, for example ; also the labour of the cul- 
 tivator of science or speculative thinker, by whose 
 researches and experiments those processes are 
 
234 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 often suggested, and those preliminary questions 
 in science solved, without which it would be in 
 vain to expect such splendid emanations from 
 human skill and intelligence as the steamrongine, 
 railways, and the electric telegraph, by which the 
 happiness of mankind has, during the present cen- 
 tury, been so wonderfully enhanced. 
 
 On this subject there is great misapprehension ; 
 and the uneducated portion of the working classes 
 especially are too apt to designate as comparatively 
 easy, undervalue as useless, and contemn as trivial, 
 aU kind of employment which is not, strictly 
 speaking, manual. But those who work with the 
 head, as indeed all do to a certain extent, know 
 only too well, how severely human endurance is 
 sometimes taxed by continuous mental toil. 
 
 To return to the subject from which we have 
 digressed. 
 
 It may be well to preface the results of the cen- 
 sus of 1851, in reference to the occupations of the 
 people, by stating their various ages ; there were 
 in March, 1851, in Great Britain, 
 
 Of babes under one year 578,743 
 
 Infants 1 to 5 years 2,166,456 
 
 Children 5 to 10 years 2,456,066 
 
 Boys 10 to 15 years .. 1,141,933 
 
 Girls „ „ .. 1,114,882 
 
 Youths 15 to 20 years ,. 1,051,630 
 
 Maidens „ , 1,048,404 
 
 Young men 20 to 30 years 1,830,588 
 
 Young women „ „ 1,039,906 
 
Chap. VI. AGES OF THE PEOPLE. 235 
 
 Men of middle age 30 to 50 years .. 2,376,904 
 Women „ „ „ .. .. 2,482,382 
 
 Again, there were, 
 
 Of all ages in Great Britain 21,185,010 
 
 tinder 20 ; 9i558,114 
 
 Above 20 11,626,896 
 
 Again, there were, 
 
 At the age 
 
 0to20 9,558,114 
 
 20 „ 40 6,555,954 
 
 40 „ 60 3,526,342 
 
 60 „ 80 1,414,798 
 
 80 „ 100 129,483 
 
 100 and upwards 319 
 
 The following table shows the comparative num- 
 ber of the two sexes at the ages specified : — 
 
 Ages; Hdles. Females. 
 
 Oto 20 4,806,566 4,751,548 
 
 20 „ 40 .. '.. .. 3,193,496 3,362,458 , 
 
 40 „ 60 1,714,914 1,811,428 
 
 60 „ 80 648,649 766,149 
 
 80 ,, 100 53,607 75,876 
 
 100 and upwards .. Ill 208 
 
 Of every 100 males of the age of 20 and up- 
 wards in Great Britain and the adjacent islands, 
 
 30-9 were bachelors. 
 
 62'0 „ husbands. 
 
 7'0 „ widowers. 
 
 Of every 100 females, 
 
 29"5 were spinsters. 
 57'3 „ wives. 
 13"3 „ widows. 
 
236 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 The following table shows the occupations of the 
 people : — 
 
 
 Under 20. 
 
 Above 20. 
 
 PaOPOETIOH OF Pebsons. . 
 
 To 
 
 To 
 
 To 
 
 To^^^ 
 
 
 100,000 
 
 100,000 
 
 100,000 
 
 100,000 
 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Femalea. 
 
 Class 
 
 
 
 
 
 Persons engaged in — 
 
 
 
 
 
 1. the general or local 
 
 
 
 
 
 government . . 
 
 31 
 
 2 
 
 1,317 
 
 43 
 
 2. the defence of the 
 
 
 
 
 
 country 
 
 164 
 
 ,, 
 
 1,642 
 
 
 3. learned professions 
 
 262 
 
 1 
 
 1,819 
 
 "24 
 
 4. literature, science, 
 
 
 
 
 
 and the fine arts .. 
 
 99 
 
 177 
 
 770 
 
 1,086 
 
 5. Wives, widows, chil- 
 
 
 
 
 
 dren, relatives, &c. 
 
 71,350 
 
 80,361 
 
 403 
 
 54,470 
 
 Persons engaged in — 
 
 
 
 
 
 6. providingboard, lodg- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ing, clothing, &c. 
 
 2,537 
 
 9,739 
 
 9,478 
 
 22,437 
 
 7. buying, selling, keep- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ing, letting, or 
 
 
 
 
 
 lending money, 
 
 
 
 
 
 houses, or goods . . 
 
 429 
 
 57 
 
 2,413 
 
 945 
 
 8. conveying men, ani- 
 
 
 
 
 
 mals, goods, or 
 
 
 
 
 
 messages .. 
 
 2,112 
 
 115 
 
 5,287 
 
 126 
 
 9. renting and cultivat- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ing land .. .. 
 
 8,108 
 
 2,755 
 
 26,302 
 
 7,670 
 
 10. catching or employ- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ing animals . . .. 
 
 262 
 
 5 
 
 1,601 
 
 18 
 
 11. in art and mechanic 
 
 
 
 
 
 productions 
 
 2,567 
 
 112 
 
 11,556 
 
 196 
 
 12. working and dealing 
 
 
 
 
 
 in animal sub- 
 
 
 
 
 
 stances 
 
 1,917 
 
 1,794 
 
 5,432 
 
 2,749 
 
 13. ditto in vegetable 
 
 
 
 
 
 substances .. 
 
 4,062 
 
 3,937 
 
 12,118 
 
 5,772 
 
 14. ditto in mineral sub- 
 
 
 
 
 
 stances 
 
 4,420 
 
 519 
 
 12,537 
 
 579 
 
 15. undefined labour . . 
 
 1,291 
 
 52 
 
 5,973 
 
 156 
 
Chap. VI. OCCUPATIONS OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 237 
 
 
 Under 20. 
 
 Above 20. 
 
 Ekopoetioh of Peesons. 
 
 To 
 100,000 
 Males. 
 
 To 
 
 100,000 
 Females. 
 
 To 
 
 100,000 
 
 Males. 
 
 To 
 100,000 
 Females. 
 
 Cbse 
 
 16. Persons of rank and 
 
 
 
 
 
 property not other- 
 wise returned ' .. 
 
 13 
 
 40 
 
 623 
 
 2,305 
 
 17. supported by the 
 community, and 
 of no specified oc- 
 cupation 
 
 376 
 
 333 
 
 730 
 
 1,425 
 
 Other persons .. 
 
 299 
 
 703 
 
 1,014 
 
 1,245 
 
 It appears "that about one-half of the population 
 are described under some domestic appellation, 
 as -wife, daughter, niece, son, brother, child under 
 tuition at home, &c., that is, as persons to whom no 
 occupation is attributed, and who are considered as 
 dependent on the head of the family. The other 
 half of the population either possess accumiilated 
 wealth, or work with their hands or heads to ac- 
 quire it. 
 
 Of this latter half, in round numbers, 
 
 1,000,000 are servants, 
 
 1,000,000 are employed in preparing the materials of dress, 
 1,000,000 are employed in making dress, 
 1,000,000 are ordinary male agricultural labourers, 
 and 1,000,000 others, male and female, are supported by 
 farm or field operations. 
 
 Most of the aboTO numbers slightly exceed the 
 million. 
 
238 PRESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 In the census returns, 1057 different occupa- 
 tions of males were tabulated, and 746 of feniales. 
 
 Of tlie 1057 occupations for men, tlie following 
 
 feleven employ more than 100,000 : — 
 
 Agricultural labourers 1,006,728 
 
 Labourers, undefined 367,472 
 
 Farmers 275,676 
 
 Shoemakers .. , 243,052 
 
 Farm servants, Indoor 235,943 
 
 Cotton spinners and weavers 222,612 ' 
 
 Coal-miners 216,366 
 
 Carpenters .. .. , 182,846 
 
 Tailors 135,028 
 
 Blacksmiths 112,184 
 
 ■Masons .. , 101,391 
 
 Of the 746 occupations for females, the following 
 
 four employ more than 100,000 above 20 years of 
 
 Domestic servants ,. .. ,. .. 401,984* 
 
 Milliners 202,448t 
 
 Cotton spinners and weavers .. .. 143,268 
 
 Washerwomen and manglers . . . . 136,582 
 
 In the following trades there are masters who 
 
 employ 350 or more persons, viz., 
 
 113 Cotton manufacturers. 
 21 Woollen ditto. 
 
 13 Silk ditto. 
 12 Worsted ditto. 
 
 14 Engine and machine makers. 
 7 Earthenware manufacturers. 
 5 Iron manufacturers. 
 
 5 Builders. 
 
 * Besides about 200,000 entered under specific designations 
 as cook, housemaid, '&c. 
 
 t Besides 140,000 entered as needlewomen of various kinds. 
 
Chap. VI. DISTKIBUTION OF "WEALTH. 289 
 
 Moreover 390 masters employ 100 to 150 each. 
 
 236 „ 150 „ 200 „ 
 
 135 „ 200 „ 250 „ 
 
 88 „ 250 „ 300 „ 
 
 65 „ 300 „ 350 „ 
 
 228 „ 350 and upwards. 
 
 Or 1142 masters employ 100 men or upwards. 
 
 The above extracts from the Census Ketums of 
 1851 will give a general idea of the industry and 
 occupations of the people of this country. 
 
 We pass, therefore, to the next heads. The state 
 of Wealth and its Distribution, and the Division 
 into and Relations of Classes. 
 
 On these subjects it wUl not be necessary to 
 occupy much time. 
 
 A Parliamentary paper, No. 313 of the Session 
 of 1856 (House of Commons), throws considerable 
 light on the state of the distribution of wealth in 
 this country. It is entitled a 'Keturn showing 
 the Net Amount of Property and Income Tax, for 
 the year ended the 5th of April, 1855, classed 
 under the several Schedules, &c.' 
 
 This Return* shows the number of persons 
 charged to the Income-tax, for the year ending 
 the 5th of April, 1855, under Schedule D, distin- 
 guishing the number charged in each of the 
 
 * In some cases later Eetums might have heen obtained, 
 but not always so weU arranged and digested. Those selected 
 are sufficiently near to the present time to illustrate the obser- 
 vations in the text. 
 
240 PRESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAIO). Chap. VI. 
 
 classes therein specified, tlie amotuit of income on 
 which the duty is charged, and the amount of tax 
 charged on each class (so far as relates to Great 
 Britaia). Now it is true that Schedule D does not 
 include incomes derived from land,* but as it em- 
 braces almost every other description of property, 
 the document in question supplies valuable in- 
 formation on the subject of the division of property. 
 The Eeturn is as follows : — 
 
 
 
 Year ending the 5th of April, 1855. 
 
 Classes, 
 
 [ncome on which 
 
 Number of 
 
 Amount of tar .^ 
 
 
 the Duty 
 
 persoDS in 
 
 charged upon 
 
 
 is charged. 
 
 each class. 
 
 each class. K 
 
 Under £100 a-year 
 
 1,356,198 
 
 21,891 
 
 56,508 
 
 £100 and under £150 
 
 11,958,314 
 
 119,782 
 
 561,040 
 
 150 
 
 200 
 
 6,580,126 
 
 41,912 
 
 383,84f 
 
 200 
 
 300 
 
 7,296,737 
 
 32,973 
 
 •425,643* 
 
 300 
 
 400 
 
 4,845,073 
 
 15,140 
 
 282,629 
 
 400 
 
 500 
 
 3,077,327 
 
 7,308 
 
 179,510 
 
 500 
 
 600 
 
 2,812,790 
 
 5,469 
 
 164,079. 
 
 600 
 
 700 
 
 1,946,742 
 
 3,152 
 
 113,560 
 
 700 
 
 800 
 
 1,524,116 
 
 2,095 
 
 88,907 
 
 800 
 
 900 
 
 1,406,742 
 
 1,717 
 
 82,0P0 
 
 900 
 
 1000 
 
 744,549 
 
 798 
 
 48,432 
 
 1000 
 
 2000 
 
 6,950,241 
 
 5,324 
 
 405,431 
 
 2000 
 
 3000 
 
 3,535,927 
 
 1,557 
 
 206,262 
 
 3000 
 
 4000 
 
 2,690,954 
 
 819 
 
 156,972' 
 
 4000 
 
 5000 
 
 1,987,276 
 
 466 
 
 115,924 
 
 5000 
 
 , 10,000 
 
 5,164,568 
 
 773 
 
 301,266 
 
 10,000 
 
 , 50,000 
 
 7,843,065 
 
 445 
 
 457,512 
 
 50,000 and upwards . . 
 
 3,522,171 
 
 41 
 
 205,460 
 
 Total 
 
 
 75,242,916 
 
 261,662 
 
 4,230,036' 
 
 * The total assessment on land ia 6,022,753?., and the total on 
 all property for Great Britain is 13,227,2522. For Ireland 
 1,130,838J. for the same year. 
 
Chap. Vr. INCOME-TAX EETUBNS. 241 
 
 It appears, therefore, that out of a total income 
 of 75,242,916?. possessed by 261,662 persons, no 
 less a sum than 25,835,177?., or about 34 per cent, 
 or one-third, is in the hands of 194,667 persons, 
 whose incomes range from 100?. to 300?. a year, 
 and who are in number about 74 per cent., that is 
 about three-fourths, of the whole number of persons 
 assessed. Moreover, 41 persons possess incomes, 
 assessed under this Schedule, exceeding 50,000?. 
 per annum ; and 1725 persons only possess in- 
 comes above 4000?. per annum. Yet the income 
 of these 1725 persons amounts to 18,517,080?., or 
 about 25 per cent., that is one-foiirth of the whole. 
 
 The; above statement shows that a large amount 
 of property in the whole is allocated among a con- 
 siderable number of persons who have incomes of 
 an amount which is commonly termed moderate ; 
 but still sufficient to give them a stake in the 
 country, an interest in the establishment and 
 maintenance of order and good government. 
 There are other statistical documents which seem 
 to lead to the same conclusion ; such as the 
 Savings Bank Eetums. 
 
 By the last returns the general income of the 
 country is in round numbers sixty-six millions, 
 of which twenty-four millions is derived from 
 customs, eighteen from excise, eight from stamps, 
 seven and a half from property-tax, three from 
 other taxes, and three from the post-office. 
 
 B 
 
242 PRESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. YI. 
 
 Of the whole sum of sixty-six million, twenty- 
 eight and a haK million is expended in payiag 
 interest on the public debt ; two million on the 
 consolidated fond charges, that is, civil list, pen* 
 sions, salaries, courts of justice, and miscellft*- 
 neons charges ; thirty-four and a half million on 
 what are called Supply services, of which last 
 mentioned sum twelve and a half million is 
 devoted to the army, nine and a half to the 
 navy, eleven and three quarters to the miscella- 
 neous civil services and salaries of revenue depart- 
 ments. 
 
 With respect to the division into classes, that 
 subject is perhaps sufficiently elucidated by the 
 extracts already given from the population re^ 
 turns ; with respect to the reciprocal relations of 
 those classes, it may be thought that they are not 
 altogether such as seem most conducive to the 
 public weal. There would seem to be less com- 
 munity of feeling between the different grades of 
 society, less intercourse arising from the natural 
 sympathy between the employers and the em- 
 ployed, than would exist in a perfectly wholesome 
 state of social relations. This is probably owing 
 partly to a certain reserve in the national charac- 
 ter, which admits very few within the pale of inti-- 
 macy, and least readily those in the relation of 
 dependents. In these particulars, however, there 
 are probably great differences in different stations 
 
Chap. VI. RELATIONS OF CLASSES. 243 
 
 of Kfe and various employments, and it would 
 require much familiarity with all the phases of 
 society to give a true version of the facts, much 
 more to account for them and suggest remedies. 
 One thing, however, is .certain, that the gradual 
 progress of education and the benevolent exer- 
 tions of public-spirited individuals to improve the 
 ■general condition of the people, have a tendency 
 to break down the barrier which divides different 
 classes. 
 
 One cause of the estrangement which some- 
 times prevails between employers and employed 
 is that jealousy of the rich which possesses the 
 minds of many of the less educated of our opera- 
 tives, and embitters their relations with those 
 above them in station. Instead of considering 
 their interests as identified with those of their 
 masters, they are prone to look upon the pos- 
 sessors of those funds by the expenditure of which 
 all labour must be supported, as if they were 
 taskmasters whose only object was to exact as 
 much work as possible out of their overstrained 
 sinews for the smallest possible remuneration in 
 return. This mistaken feeling arises partly from 
 an ignorance of the elementary principles of 
 economical science, an ignorance which it wiU 
 take some time whoUy to remove; since it is 
 always more grateful to our feelings to lay blame 
 upon others than to acquiesce in a belief that 
 
 B 2 
 
244 PKESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 calamity is either beyond human control, or that 
 the remedy is to be sought for in some personal 
 sacrifice. 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that the conduct 
 of employers does occasionally justify the sus- 
 picion that they are not so anxious to promote 
 the welfare of their workmen as they ought to be. 
 Our great capitalists are not all of that class who 
 have been described as opening schools, museums, 
 and libraries, and building lecture-rooms for their 
 workpeople. 
 
 The state of belief on the most important subjects 
 is the next head of inquiry. It will be at once 
 admitted, that the influence of religious belief 
 upon the condition of society is far more powerful 
 and more extensively operative than that of any 
 other opinions whatever. It is to this influence 
 therefore that the following remarks wiU be con- 
 fined. 
 
 This country was among the first which em- 
 braced the Eeformed religion with eagerness, and 
 it has in later times acted up to its principles with 
 tolerable consistency. During the early times, 
 indeed, of the Eeformed Church, the spirit of reh- 
 gious intolerance, so opposed to the true genius of 
 Protestantism, perpetrated many detestable cruel- 
 ties, as soon as success had supplied the means of 
 persecution. The melancholy annals of religious 
 feuds show a marked tendency in human nature 
 
Chap. VI. RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 245 
 
 to retaliate on oppressors as soon as the mastery- 
 has been obtained ; at least in those times of less 
 extended civilization, when the bad passions de- 
 velop themselves, imcontroUed by the wholesome 
 curb of pubKc opinion and free discussion. StiU 
 all the revolting barbarities of the reigns of Queen 
 Mary and Queen Elizabeth sink into comparative 
 insignificance when compared with the inhuman 
 proceedings of Philip II. of Spain and the 
 Spanish Inquisition, and the cruelties exercised 
 towards Protestants at different periods in France. 
 We have therefore some cause for self-gratulation 
 in this country ; and yet it is impossible to read 
 that portion of the early history of any country 
 whatever, which treats of religious affairs, without 
 a blush for human nature ; for on occasions where 
 religious feeling is strongly excited, men appear 
 to divest themselves for the time of all tender 
 sympathies, and to become like wild beasts thirst- 
 ing for rapine and blood. 
 
 Ecclesiastical history also exhibits a strong ten- 
 dency in mankind to adopt those pharisaical 
 opinions which set great store by rites and cere- 
 monies and outward show, the tithes of mint and 
 cummin, and abstruse doctriaes of faith, and are 
 comparatively regardless of that duty to God 
 .and our neighbour, which is so simply and yet 
 so eloquently enforced by the Great Founder of 
 our faith in many striking passages of Scripture. 
 
246 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI:' 
 
 The man whose feelings are powerfully sub- 
 jugated by the gorgeous ceremonials of the Eoman 
 Catholic faith, who adores the power of the priest- 
 hood, who would lavish vast sums on building 
 chapels rich with every kind of architectural de- 
 coration, and in which there is perpetual glooiij 
 from the abundance of painted glass in mullioned 
 windows, is not always the same man who visits' 
 the fatherless and widows in their affliction. He 
 is not always the same man who looks with a 
 friendly eye on aU his feUow-creatures round 
 about him, whispering kind words of sympathy in 
 the season of sorrow, and stretching out a helping 
 and saving hand to those limping children of 
 poverty, who are painfully stumbling over the 
 rugged obstacles in the stony path of life. 
 
 The religious condition of this country hannon- 
 izes with its moral state : there is much outward 
 decorum, and probably fewer persons live in open 
 disregard of all religious obligations than ia 
 former periods of our history. Among evidences 
 of an increased respect for them may be men- 
 tioned the almost total disuse of the habit of 
 swearing, which prevailed so much even as late as 
 at the beginning of this century. Many ameUora- 
 tions in morals ihay also be in part ascribed to this 
 cause, such as the purification of our stage and of 
 our general literature, and the disposition in male 
 society to abstain from all such conversation as 
 
Chap. VI. EELIGIOUS CONDITION. 247 
 
 would be offensive to a female ear. We must also 
 ascribe to the same cause the exertions which have 
 been made to distribute copies of the Scriptures ; 
 the various measures adopted of late years for the 
 purpose of increasiag church accommodation and 
 clerical ministrations, more particularly in the 
 densely peopled districts of the kingdom, the cxt 
 tension of missionary labours, and so forth. 
 
 In this country toleration has, after a long and 
 bitter struggle, obtained almost a complete victory, 
 and there is also among the people a great capacity 
 for, and a great love of, managing their own affairs. 
 It might be anticipated that in such a nation 
 there would be a consideriable amount of dissent 
 from the established national Protestant creed, 
 and this, in fact, is the case ; but some of the sects 
 that have sprung out of the bosom of the Anglican 
 Church so nearly resemble her in their tenets, 
 such as the Wesleyan Methodists for example, 
 that the secession may be viewed rather as esta- 
 blishing a different form of Church government 
 than a different religion. 
 
 - There can be no doubt that dissent has been 
 productive of great good in this country ; by bring- 
 ing the spirit of emulation to bear on these sub- 
 jects, it has wholesomely stimulated the religious 
 zeal of the ministers of aU denominations ; and by 
 enlisting in the service of religion the principle of 
 division of labour, it has added millions to the roll 
 
248 PRESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 of devout Cliristians, who, if they had been left 
 to the ministrations of the clergy of the Establish- 
 ment only, would most assuredly have been over- 
 looked. 
 
 The population returns of 1851 supply some 
 valuable information as to the extent to which 
 dissent has spread, and show how far the old 
 religion still lingers among us ; they show also 
 approximately the amount of church accommoda- 
 tion provided by each sect for its adherents. 
 
 The returns in reference to religion in England 
 and Wales were procured on the principle of col- 
 lecting facts relating to, first, the amount of ac- 
 commodation which has been provided for religious 
 worship by each denomination; and to, secondly, 
 the number of persons who have availed them- 
 selves of such provision. It is, stated that, after 
 making the proper deductions for those who are 
 unable to attend divine worship — viz., infants, 
 3,000,000 in number ; the sick and infirm, 
 1,000,000 ; those left in charge of children and 
 dwellings, another 3,000,000 ; and those employed 
 in other duties, 500,000 in number — there will be 
 7,500,000 persons unable to attend. Upon the 
 whole it is estimated that accommodation is re- 
 quired for only fifty-eight per cent, of the actual 
 population of a country. Upon this assumption 
 it has been calculated there will be required 
 10,398,013 sittings for England and Wales, and 
 
Chap. VI. ATTENDANCE AT DIVINE WOKSHIP. 249 
 
 10,212,563 are supposed to have been actually 
 provided, making the proper allowances for locali- 
 ties from whence returns could not be obtained. 
 Moreover, there are 34,467 places of worship. 
 
 The returns state one fact, which certainly does 
 not tend to confirm any impression which may be 
 entertained that devotion has made great progress 
 lately ; they show that 5,288,294 persons able to 
 attend Divine Service neglect to do so ; but the 
 statement is principally grounded on the attendance 
 on one particular Sunday, viz. the 30th of March, 
 1851, and on computations mainly conjectural. 
 It is calculated, however, that on the morning of 
 this day only 4,647,482 attended to occupy 
 8,498,520 sittings. 
 
 The following Table shows the principal reli- 
 gious bodies aiTanged in the order of their frequency 
 of attendance ; the Roman Catholics being omitted, 
 as the greater number of their services prevents 
 comparison. The second column exhibits the 
 iproportion per cent, of attendance to sittings : — 
 
 Beliglous Benomlnation. 
 
 Wesleyan Reformers 
 
 Particular Baptists 
 
 Welsh Calvinistic Methodists .. 
 
 Primitive ditto 
 
 General Baptist New Connexion 
 
 Moravians 
 
 Independents 
 
 Proportion per 
 cent, of Attend- 
 ance to sittings. 
 
 45 
 42 
 41 
 41 
 41 
 39 
 38 
 
250 PRESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 Eeligious Denomination. 
 
 Proportion per 
 cent, of Attend- 
 ance to sittings. 
 
 Lady Huntingdon's Connexion 
 
 Mormons 
 
 Bible Christians . , 
 
 General Baptists 
 
 Wesleyan Original Connexion 
 
 Wesleyan New Connexion 
 
 Catholic and Apostolic Church 
 
 United Presbyterian ditto 
 
 Church of England 
 
 Wesleyan Methodist Association 
 
 Brethren 
 
 Presbyterian Church in England 
 
 Church of Scotland 
 
 Unitarians 
 
 Jews 
 
 Society of Friends 
 
 88 : ': 
 38 
 37 
 36 
 
 35 . 
 34 
 34 
 34 
 33 
 32 
 32 
 30 
 28 
 28 
 24 
 24 
 8 
 
 The following Table shows the total number of 
 places of worship, and the total number of attend- 
 ances, including the morning, . afternoon, and 
 evening services therein, in reference to each reli- 
 gious denomination. Approximate estimates have 
 been made where the returns were defective : — 
 
 JR«liglous Denomination. 
 
 Total number 
 
 of places of 
 
 Worship. 
 
 -Total number / 
 
 of 
 Attendances. 
 
 Protestant Churches. 
 
 
 
 Bbitish. 
 
 , 
 
 
 Church of England , 
 
 14,077 , 
 
 5,292,551 : 
 
 Scotch Presbyterians — 
 
 Church of Scotland 
 
 United Presbyterian Church ., 
 Presbyterian Church, England .. 
 
 18 
 66 
 76 
 
 11,758 
 31,628 
 37,124 ; 
 
 Independents .. 
 
 3,^44 
 
 1,214,059 J 
 
CpAP. VI. ATTENDANCE AT DIVDTE WOESHIP. 251 
 
 Beligious Denomination. 
 
 Total numbef 
 
 of places of 
 
 Worehip. 
 
 Total number 
 of 
 
 93 
 
 1,947 
 
 2 
 
 22,096 
 
 740,752 
 
 83 
 
 15 
 182 
 
 1,947 
 64,321 
 
 580 
 
 100,991 
 
 371 
 
 22,478 
 
 229 
 32 
 
 50,061 
 10,874 
 
 6,579 
 297 
 
 2,871 
 
 482 
 
 419 
 
 20 
 
 1^44,528 
 
 99,045 
 
 511,195 
 
 73,859 
 
 94,103 
 
 3,120 
 
 339 
 
 91,503 
 
 828 
 109 
 
 264,112 
 44,642 
 
 6 
 
 756 
 
 50 
 
 10,352 
 
 132 
 
 17,592 
 
 539 
 
 104,675 
 
 6 
 
 1,416 
 
 3 
 
 407 
 
 1 
 
 70 
 
 1 
 
 180 
 
 570 
 3 
 
 383,630 
 240 
 
 1 
 
 700 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 
 32 
 
 222 
 
 7,542 
 35,626 
 
 53 
 
 6,030 
 
 Baptists — 
 
 General 
 
 Particular 
 
 Seventh Day 
 
 Scotch.. ■ 
 
 New Connexion, General .. 
 Undefined , . . 
 
 Society of JSriends . . . . ■ . . 
 
 Unitarians. .. .. 
 
 Moravians .. .,. .. .. . 
 
 Wesleyan Metlwdists; — 
 
 Ordinal Connexion .. ^ .. 
 - New do 
 
 Primitive Methodists 
 
 Bible Christians ..' " 
 
 W. M. Association 
 
 Independent Methodists .. 
 
 Wesleyan Eeformers 
 
 Calvinistio Methodists — 
 
 Welsh Calvinistic Methodists . 
 Lady Huntingdon's Connexion . 
 
 Sandemanians 
 
 New Church 
 
 Brethren 
 
 Isolated Congregations 
 
 FOBEIGN. 
 
 Lutherans .. 
 
 French Protestants 
 
 Eeformed Church of Netherlands . 
 German Protestant Eeformers j 
 
 Othek Christian Chukches. 
 
 Eomau Catholics .. ,. 
 
 Greek Church 
 
 German Catholics 
 
 Italian Reformers 
 
 Catholic and Apostolic Church . 
 Latter-Day Saints (Irvingites) 
 
 Jews 
 
252 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 The twelve denominations, therefore, wliicli have 
 the greatest number of worshippers are the fol- 
 lowing : — I 
 
 Denomination. Number. 
 
 1. The Churcli of England .. .. .... .. 5,292,5&1 
 
 2. Wesleyan Methodists, Original Connexion .. 1,544,52^ 
 
 3. Independents ' 1,214,059 
 
 4. Particular Baptists 740,752 
 
 5. Primitive Methodists 511,195 
 
 6. Roman CathoKcs 383,630 
 
 7. Welsh Calvinistic Methodists 264,112 
 
 8. Isolated Congregations .. 104,675 
 
 9. Undefined Baptists 100,991 
 
 10. Wesleyan Methodists, New Connexion .. .. 99,045 
 
 11. Wesleyan Methodist Association 94,103 
 
 12. Wesleyan Eeformers 91,503 
 
 Without attempting to give any detailed account 
 of the religious opinions of these various deno- 
 minations of Christians, it may suffice to mention 
 that the chief differences among Protestants relate 
 to two principal points of faith^the doctrine of 
 Justification by Faith, and that of the Trinity. As 
 to the first, Calvinists contend that repentance and 
 belief cannot, in consequence of man's depravity, 
 arise in any one by his own volition, but are the 
 effect of a special exercise of Divine graces in 
 favour of those who are predestinated to be saved. 
 On the other hand, the Arminians contend that 
 men are able to accept or reject the offer of Divine 
 grace, which is made to all freely. 
 
 Apart from the question of Church government, 
 the various sects of Nonconformists are chiefly 
 
Chap. VI. EELIGIOUS OPINIONS. 253 
 
 distinguished from one another by the extent to 
 which they embrace the Calvinistic doctrines; 
 while the Established Church hovers as it were 
 between the two extremes, and is imagined by 
 some to afford a common ground on which, if not 
 the extremes, at least the moderate men of both 
 parties might reunite. 
 
 ' As to the second point, the nature of the myste- 
 rious union called the Trinity, and the question of 
 the extent to which Christ partook of the Divine 
 nature, afford other grounds of dissent, which 
 distinguish the sects of Socinians, Unitariaos, and 
 others. It is needless to specify the peculiar 
 tenets of the Koman Catholics, which, having 
 continued with little variation for centuries, must 
 be supposed to be well known. It is believed that 
 time has to a certain extent modified such of their 
 tenets as were little suited to an advanced stage 
 of social progress. 
 
 It may be doubtful whether the practices now 
 adopted by religious sects of laying down with 
 elaborate minuteness Confessions of faith and 
 reciting Creeds which embrace points of great 
 complexity and difficulty to finite understandings, 
 and also of considering as excluded from their 
 communion aU who entertain contrary opinions on 
 any one of many poiats, will survive the maturity 
 of society. However tliis may be, it is sincerely 
 to be hoped that pure religious sentiments wUl 
 
254 PBESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. Vl. 
 
 gradually more and more prevail, and extend 
 their salutary influence to all, controlling the 
 unruly wUls and affections of wayward man. 
 
 On the tastes of the inhabitants of this kingdom, 
 whicl;i is the next head to which it is necessary to 
 direct attention, it is only necessary to say, that if 
 the term be confined to their appreciation of works 
 of art and science, it must be admitted that their 
 tastes are yet susceptible of much development, 
 and are very far from having attained that stage 
 which they may be expected hereafter to reach in 
 a more advanced period of society. It would not 
 be fair perhaps to adduce the result of the great 
 Manchester Exhibition of Pictures as a proof of 
 this, when we remember the crowds which flocked 
 to see the Exhibition of 1851 ; for the difficulties 
 and expense of access to the former might alone 
 be thought sufficient to account for its condparativfe 
 unpopularity with the masses. The annual exhi- 
 bitions in the metropolis are much frequented ; 
 and there is probably a growing appreciation of 
 the advantages held out to the working classed 
 by the Government Schools of Design. There 
 cannot therefore be a doubt that these institu- 
 tions will gradually improve the national taste; 
 As to extending the taste for and knowledge of 
 science, suggestions have been already made; 
 which it is unnecessary to repeat. ' 
 
 The subject of Institutims, which constitutes 
 
pHAP. VI. INSTITUTIONS. 255 
 
 the next division, is far too extensive to be dis- 
 cussed at any length at the conclusion of a chapter 
 devoted to many other topics of great importance 
 in themselves. We live in this country imder 
 what is improperly called a limited or constitu- 
 tional Monarchy, but which has really become by 
 many insensible gradations a Eepublic, presided 
 over by a president, in whom the dignity is 
 hereditary, and where almost all the substantial 
 power is lodged in a body of above six hundred 
 persons, elected by such of their fellow-citizens as 
 are possessed of certain qualifications defined by 
 the laws. This Constitution has received its due 
 measure of admiration from ourselves and sur- 
 rounding nations for many years, but it may be 
 permitted to doubt whether our country owes the 
 greatest 'part of its present prosperity to this cause. 
 With the confusion of cause and effect which takes 
 place in the consideration of all social questions, it 
 may be said that the possession of such a Constitu- 
 tion has produced that industry and perseverance, 
 that love of order and respect for the law, that 
 desire of accumulation and general recognition 
 of the rights of person and property, which cha- 
 racterize our noble race; and no doubt this is 
 true to some extent ; but it is no less true that 
 some of these qualities helped to produce the 
 Constitution, and have also mainly contributed to 
 bring about that happy result, that prosperity, • 
 
256 PEESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 which is attributed by some to the Constitution 
 alone. On the whole, there is every reason to 
 believe that the blessings we so justly prize might 
 coexist with a Constitution differing considerably 
 from that under which we have the happiness to 
 live. 
 
 Enough has been already said on other pecu- 
 liarities in British institutions, such as the extent 
 to which local administration prevails, and so forth. 
 On the whole, while there is much that requires 
 amendment, there is also much that should excite 
 feelings of heartfelt gratitude that our lot has been 
 happily cast in a country which occupies deservedly 
 so exalted a position among the other nations of 
 the earth.* 
 
 Among the circumstances of that position which 
 have not been taken into consideration are its 
 foreign and domestic trade and commerce, and its 
 external relations. The remark which has been 
 already made in reference to institutions will apply 
 
 * In the year 1857 our countrymen and countrywomen in 
 India found themselves suddenly opposed to a mutiny of 
 100,000 fanatical soldiers, in full possession of their arms and of 
 a powerful artillery, and many strongholds and arsenals con- 
 taining an abundant supply of the munitions of war. They 
 were scattered in small hands over a country of immense ex- 
 tent, many thousand miles removed from the chief source of 
 support, which they received only after a long delay ; yet their 
 spirit never quailed, and the mutiny was put down after a glo- 
 rious struggle, in which were generally displayed, both by men 
 and women, acts of heroic devotion and sublime courage which 
 ' show how rich is the English character in the noblest qualities. 
 
Chap. VI. TRADE AND COMMEECB. 257 
 
 also with augmented force to these subjects. They 
 constitute much too large, a field to enter upon ; 
 suffice it to say that our trade and commerce, both 
 internal and foreign, have, in spite of mischievous 
 legislation, increased since the beginning of the 
 present century in a manner which may well 
 excite our amazement. Thus, e. g., cotton, that 
 great staple of our manufactures, imported for 
 home consumption, increased from 56 millions of 
 pounds in 1801 to 428 millions in 1846 ;* the 
 official value of goods exported increased from 
 24,500,000?. in 1801 to 132,250,000?. in 1846 ;t 
 the value of imports from 25,500,000?. in 1811 
 to 76,000,000?. in 1846.$ The ships employed in 
 conducting commerce between Britain and foreign 
 countries increased from 14,066 ships of 1,895,530 
 tons in 1821 to 33,821 ships of 6,101,015 tons in 
 1846.§ 
 
 On the subject of the external relations with 
 our dependencies, nothing need be added to that 
 which has been above stated. Till the breaking 
 out of the Indian mutiny they never were in so 
 satisfactory condition as at the present time. 
 
 The late events in India have deeply interested 
 a large proportion of our countrymen, and directed 
 
 * Now (1859) more than 1034 millions, 
 t Now (1859) 116,614,331^. is the total declared value of all 
 articles exported. 
 
 t Now (1859) this value is about 126 millions. 
 § Now (1859) 42,834 ships of 9,936,705 tons. 
 
258 PBESENT CONDITION OP ENGLAND, Chae. V 
 
 much of the attention of the public to that curioi 
 and remarkable specimen of an ancient civilizatio] 
 renovated by the introduction of the Europea 
 element. It is unnecessary to make any apoiog 
 therefore for subjoining the following particula] 
 of the Indian revenue from a late Parliamentar 
 Ketum. 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 INDIAN BEVENUE. 
 
 259 
 
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260 PRESENT CONDITION OF ENGLAND. Chap. VI. 
 
 As to foreign relations, we may say with con- 
 fidence that the country occupies a high posi- 
 tion. Though the last war was not signalized 
 by the acquirement of vast domains obtaiaed 
 from a rival nation by strife and bloodshed, and 
 though it was accompanied by some untoward 
 circumstances during its progress, yet it was un- 
 dertaken from "ao unworthy or ambitious motive, 
 and it was prosecuted to a successful issue. More- 
 over it was distiuguished by events which dis-, 
 played to advantage the bravery and exemplary 
 conduct of our forces both naval and military, and 
 the prodigious elasticity of the resources of the 
 country ; enabling it to recover most rapidly from 
 losses which it had unavoidably incurred. Would 
 that it might be said with truth that our foreign 
 relations are now placed upon a firm basis, and 
 one likely to endure ! predictions on such subjects 
 are always hazardous and seldpm realized. 
 
 This short treatise has now been brought to a 
 conclusion. What has been written has little 
 claim to be represented as new or original ; it may 
 be described rather as a short sketch of the doc- 
 trines of the most philosophical writers on the 
 rationale of government and legislation, with some 
 notes on kindred subjects. Still it may possibly 
 be' found to contain some suggestive matter, which 
 may be useful to young men who have either just 
 entered on the arduous and responsible functions 
 
Chap. VI. CONCLUSION. 261 
 
 of Legislation in either House of Parliament, or 
 have it in contemplation so to do. It is quite cer- 
 tain that many a conscientious man, sincerely 
 desirous of fulfilling to the utmost all the duties of 
 any vocation in which his birth, talents, or active 
 energies may have placed him, has put to himself 
 the question, on entering Parliament, " Now what 
 can I do to render myseK more fit to perform the 
 high and responsible functions that are about to 
 devolve upon me ?" If it should be thought that 
 the foregoing pages furnish no satisfactory reply to 
 such a question, asked in the sincerity of an inge- 
 nuous and earnest heart, they may perhaps be 
 deemed to furnish some clue to the sources from 
 which a reply to it must be sought. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON : PItlHTED BY TynXIAM CLOWES AKr SONS, STAMFORD STKEET, 
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PUBLISHED BY MR. MURRAY. 11 
 
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PUBLISHED BY MR. MURRAY. 13 
 
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14 LIST OF WORKS 
 
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PUBLISHED BY MR. MURRAY. 15 
 
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^ili 
 
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