creating a new government where none existed before-political changes which are gradual, which advance, not by a rapid onset, but step by step-which proceed with a constant reference to the existing habits and feelings of the people, are the most lasting and beneficial. (49) Even in provinces which are annexed to another state, and in which the necessity for creating a new administrative system hence arises, it has been found that the connexion with the paramount power has been most permanent, when the changes introduced have been limited to measures indispensable for maintaining the dependence of the province, and have not interfered with the native customs and usages, beyond the extent which the establishment of the imperial rule demanded.(“3) With respect to the political reforms introduced in independent states, the advantage of considering established habits, and of allowing for their disturbing action in all new measures, is still more apparent. Hence the recognition of such political maxims as 'Stare super antiquas vias,' 'Quieta non movere :' and hence (42) It is true that what is settled by custom, though it be not good, yet at least it is fit, and those things which have long gone together are, as it were, confederate within themselves; whereas new things piece not so well; but, though they help by their utility, yet they trouble by their inconformity: besides, they are like strangers, more admired and less favoured. All this is true, if time stood still; which, contrariwise, moveth so round, that a froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation; and they that reverence too much old times, are but a scorn to the new. It were good, therefore, that men in their innovations would follow the example of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived. . . . . It is good also not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident; and well to beware that it be the reformation that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth the reformation.' Lord Bacon, Essay on Innovations. Compare the article Innovatio,' No. 40 of the antitheta, in the sixth book, De Augmentis, vol. viii. p. 375. The noblest and most salutary forms and institutions, whether in civil or moral societies, when bequeathed from generation to generation, after the lapse of centuries will prove defective. However exquisitely fit they may have been, when they were first framed, it would be necessary that the vital power in states and churches should act instinctively, and evince a faculty of perpetually adapting itself to the occasion, as the ship Argo did when it spoke, if such a fitness is to last. As it is, they either continue without any outward alteration, and then are only the more certain of becoming a mere lifeless shell-or they are gradually developed and transformed, during which process their original purpose is usually little thought of, and often totally misunderstood.'-Niebuhr, History of Rome, vol. i. p. 622. (43) See Machiavel, Principe, c. 3, 5, 6. ୮ men of action, who have been placed in positions where the creation of a new government was necessary, have sought to disguise the extent of their changes by retaining the names and forms of the old institutions-by performing a process similar to that which the metaphysical theology of the church of Rome teaches to take place in the miracle of transubstantiation, viz. that the internal and unseen substance is transmuted, while the external and visible qualities of the elements remain unchanged.(") Augustus Cæsar, as is well known, adopted this policy in making the transition from the republican to the monarchical government of Rome; and Napoleon followed it, in some particulars, for effacing the remains of the revolutionary government in France. Obstacles, at first apparently insuperable, can be conquered by delay. Objections are gradually softened by an experience of the actual effects of a partial change. Even an individual has rarely the hardihood and resolution to break through a bad habit by a single effort; in general, he discontinues it by slow gradations-he weans himself from the beverage, by continually taking smaller draughts at longer intervals. (45) Bodies of men, and entire nations, are still less (44) Machiavel, in his Discorsi, i. 25, lays it down, that he who wishes to reform an ancient state into a free city ought to retain at least the shadow of the ancient institutions. Men, he says, are affected as much by appearances as by realities; sometimes even more by appearances. Hence the Romans, when they had abolished their royal government, divided the same number of lictors between the two consuls as the king alone had previously possessed; and they established an officer of high rank, entitled Rex Sacrificulus, and assigned to him certain sacrifices. This example, he proceeds, should be followed by all who wish to introduce free institutions in a state. Things, new in substance, should preserve their ancient forms; and if the number and powers of magistrates are altered, their name at least should be retained. See above, ch. iv. § 3. (45) See Bacon, Essay 38, Of Nature in Men.' Jani Anysii Sent. v. 196. 'Sed meliore fide paulatim extinguitur ignis, Ovid, Rem. Am. 649-54. prone to make abrupt changes: out of a number of men, the great majority will be attached to ancient habits, and will cling tenaciously to national customs. A nation, however, like an individual, may be induced to overcome its repugnance, by trying a slight degree, or a small amount, as the fears and dislikes of children are removed by leading them on from one point to another. In this manner, deep-rooted habits may be overcome, and a nation may be trained to a novel course. A fort which has resisted an assault may be carried by slow approaches and lines of circumvallation. Capta vides sero Pergama, capta tamen. Moreover, the hostility to an existing law is sometimes the result of a temporary sentiment, or of a transient impulse, so that when the new law has been introduced, and has been for a short time in operation, it has to encounter not only the difficulty arising from a change of habits, but also that arising from a collapse of feeling. (4) Hence there is a revulsion of popular opinion to the old state of things: thus, when the gusts of popular fury which cause revolutions are overpast, the traditionary national sentiments and usages rear their heads, and reassert their former, though temporarily-suspended power. The habits which impede the action of new laws are not always common to the entire nation, but may be confined to a particular section of the community. Whenever it happens that a class of persons who have formed habits of acquired skill in any department of profitable labour will find the demand for their services diminished, or the produce of their industry displaced, by a new legislative measure, their hostility to it may be calculated on with certainty, and their resistance may be taken as a steady counteracting force. They cannot easily turn their hands to a new employment: their acquired skill becomes, like (46) In other things, the predominancy of custom is everywhere visible; inasmuch as a man would wonder to hear men profess, protest, engage, give great words, and then do just as they have done before, as if they were dead images and engines, moved only by the wheels of custom.'Lord Bacon, Essay 39, Of Custom and Education.' capital invested in a losing trade, devoid of value. The services which formerly produced a return are no longer in demand. It is for the interest of society that skilled habits thus formed should not be an impediment to measures which tend to the general good of the community, and that no new class of persons, similarly situated, should grow up. With regard to the existing class, their loss (like the loss incurred under similar circumstances by the owners of property) may sometimes be made the subject of compensation, as when soldiers and sailors, at the close of a war, are discharged with a pension. § 10 We have now illustrated the ways in which the universality of theorems in politics is circumscribed when they come to be applied in practice, and we have shown that the necessity for narrowing and specializing their import sometimes arises from accidental variations in the subject itself, sometimes from external causes, disturbing its natural operation. It ought now to be added, that universal theories require always to be modified by theories of limited application, whenever such exist. We have already shown,(") that the peculiarities of each nation demand a limitation of the practical maxims applicable to it: there are theorems which are true of communities having certain manners, religion, opinions, and standing at a certain degree in the scale of civilization, and which are not true of other communities, differing in these respects. These axiomata media (to use Bacon's expression), (48) which are neither so abstract as propositions applicable to mankind at large, nor so special as to be confined to a single case, are of great utility in political practice. When they have been formed, the prudent politician will use them, in preference to maxims relating to human nature in general: when they have not been formed, he will endeavour, before he uses such unlimited maxims, to reduce them to the dimensions of his own age and country. $ 11 It results from the preceding inquiry, that the application of theory to practice is a process consisting of two distinct (47) Above, ch. xvi. (48) Nov. Org. i. 104. stages; first, the conversion of theorems into maxims, and, secondly, the application of the maxims to actual cases. Both these stages are subject to their appropriate errors—an unsound maxim may be formed from a true theorem; a sound maxim may be incorrectly used in practice. Precepts may be formed from theoretical propositions which the theorist never intended to suggest, and which he would have disapproved if they had been presented to him. Again, practical politicians may apply general maxims without the requisite corrections and limitations, and may thus arrive at wrong practical results, although the maxims were well-framed, with respect to the ordinary and average state of things. Politics, like other departments of human knowledge, both mental and physical, have not escaped the dominion of false theories. In the various branches of government, in civil and criminal law, in judicature, in taxation, in economical and commercial subjects, false theories have abounded, and have often been received with general assent. Upon these false theories numerous maxims have been founded, which have guided the discretion of monarchs, statesmen, and parliaments, and have governed the most important legislative and administrative acts. Not unfrequently, however, theorists have been unjustly censured for maxims, which have been incorrectly deduced by others from their abstract principles, by writers who wished to give them a preceptive form. Still more often have they been unfairly blamed, when this conversion has been hastily and crudely performed, on the spur of the moment, by practical men, without a due comparison of the elements involved in the theory, and those present in the actual case. theorist cannot be held responsible for the want of caution, or practical skill, or logical acumen, or knowledge of facts, which may be exhibited in the application of his theories. He places a certain instrument in the hands of the practician, but is not answerable for the manner in which it may be used. He can neither foresee the cases to which his general propositions may The Even be applied, nor control the persons who apply them. when sound maxims have been formed out of theories, they may |