BOOK II.

A VIEW OF THE ADVANTAGES OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT, AND OF THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES OF THE PEOPLE; AND A CONFIRMATION, BY REFERENCE TO FACTS, OF THE PRINCIPLES STATED IN THE WORK.

CHAPTER I.

Some Advantages peculiar to the English Constitution. 1. The Unity of the Executive Power.

We have seen in former chapters the resources allotted to the different parts of the English government for balancing each other, and how their reciprocal actions and re-actions produce the freedom of the constitution, which is no more than an equilibrium between the ruling powers of the state. I now propose to show that the particular nature and functions of these same constituent parts of the government, which give it so different an appearance from that of other free states, are moreover attended

with peculiar and very great advantages, which have not hitherto been sufficiently observed.

The first peculiarity of the English government, as a free government, is its having a king, -its having thrown into one place the whole mass, if I may use the expression, of the executive power, and having invariably and for ever fixed it there. By this very circumstance also has the depositum of it been rendered sacred and inexpugnable ;-by making one great, very great man in the state, has an effectual check been put to the pretensions of those who otherwise would strive to become such; and disorders have been prevented, which, in all republics, ever brought on the ruin of liberty, and, before it was lost, obstructed the enjoyment of it.

If we cast our eyes on all the states that ever were free, we shall see that the people ever turning their jealousy, as it was natural, against the executive power, but never thinking of the means of limiting it, so happily prevalent in England*,

* The rendering that power dependent on the people for its supplies. See on this subject chap. vi. book I.

[A late writer (in the Edinburgh Review) doubts the efficacy of this supposed safeguard of our constitutional rights, the power of with-holding supplies. A refusal of granting the immense sums requisite for the service of the

never employed any other expedients beside the obvious one of trusting that power to magistrates whom they appointed annually; which was in great measure the same as keeping the management of it to themselves: whence it resulted, that the people, who, whatever may be the frame of the government, always possess, after all, the reality of power, thus uniting in themselves with this reality of power the actual exercise of it, in form as well as in fact, constituted the whole state. In order therefore legally to disturb the whole state, nothing more was requisite than to put in motion a certain number of individuals.

In a state which is small and poor, an arrangement of this kind is not attended with any great inconveniences, as every individual is taken up with the care of providing for his subsistence,

year, would, he thinks, "operate like the dissolution of "civil society." In the present critical state of affairs, such conduct might, indeed, have a very mischievous effect; and, if we had an inconsiderate and ambitious prince on the throne, he might so far trust to the forbearances of the commons in this respect, as to encroach on the liberties of the people; but such is the energy of the general system, such is the inherent spirit of the nation, and so commanding is the influence of public opinion on the ruler of a free state, that we have no reason to dread such an inva sion of our rights. EDIT.]

as great objects of ambition are wanting, and as evils cannot, in such a state, ever become much complicated. In a state that strives for aggrandisement, the difficulties and danger attending the pursuit of such a plan inspire a general spirit of caution, and every individual makes a sober use of his rights as a citizen.

But when, at length, those exterior motives cease, and the passions, and even the virtues, which they excited, are thus reduced to a state of inaction, the people turn their eyes back towards the interior of the republic; and every individual, in seeking then to concern himself in all affairs, seeks for new objects that may restore him to that state of exertion which habit, he finds, has rendered necessary to him, and aims at the exercise of a share of power which, small as it is, yet flatters his vanity.

As the preceding events must have given an influence to a certain number of citizens, they avail themselves of the general disposition of the people, to promote their private views: the legislative power is thenceforth continually in motion; and as it is badly informed and falsely directed, almost every exertion of it is attended with some injury to the laws, or the state.

This is not all; as those who compose the general assemblies cannot, in consequence of

their numbers, entertain any hopes of gratifying their private ambition, or, in general, their private passions, they at least seek to gratify their political caprices, and they accumulate the honours and dignities of the state on some favourite whom the public voice happens to raise at that time.

But, as in such a state there can be, from the irregularity of the determinations of the people, no such thing as a settled course of measures, it happens that men never can exactly tell the present state of public affairs. The power thus given away has already become very great before those for whom it was given so much as suspect it; and he himself who enjoys that power does not know its full extent: but then, on the first opportunity that offers, he suddenly pierces through the cloud which hid the summit from him, and at once seats himself upon it. The people, on the other hand, no sooner recover sight of him, than they see their favourite now become their master, and discover the evil, only to find that it is past remedy.

As this power, thus surreptitiously acquired, is destitute of the support both of the law and of the ancient course of things, and is even but indifferently respected by those who have subjected themselves to it, it cannot be maintained