334 FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 



The natural effect of the feudal constitution was to produce a martial, 

 high-spirited order of nobility, of whom the remains were lately seen 

 in Poland, and are probably now to be found in Spain, and who 

 singularly contrast with the effeminate and servile nobles of absolute 

 monarchies, who exist but in a court, and whose fate depends upon 

 the nod of a prince or a minister. How greatly "habitual slavery" 

 debases the human character has been remarked from the earliest 

 period ; and its effects are equally obvious upon the hardy native of 

 the north and the languid inhabitant of the tropics, as, on the contrary, 

 the dignifying effects of freedom are alike conspicuous in all climates: 

 but the lot of liberty or slavery to individuals is generally determined 

 by causes beyond their power of control, and small states must 

 submit to such modifications of their government as great ones please 

 to enjoin. When the rest of the civilized world had received the 

 Roman yoke, it was in vain for the Greeks to contend for their 

 independence ; and so speedily was their noble spirit broken by sub- 

 jugation, that, under the empire, the Grteculus at Rome was dis- 

 tinguished from other foreigners only by greater proficiency in the 

 arts of adulation and servility. 



Man is by nature weak and timid ; his first care is self-preservation, 

 and, if he cannot find it in the mutual protection of his fellows, he 

 will seek iijn submission to a potent master. The source to which 

 he looks for'support constitutes all the difference between the various 

 states of civil society. If he holds his security from a community of 

 which he forms a part, or from laws made and administered by persons 

 who have a common interest with himself, he feels and acts like a 

 free man : if, on the contrary, his dependence is upon the arbitrary 

 will of one or more, he sinks to the level of a slave. The habit of 

 relying on legal government, even where there is no adequate as- 

 surance of its continuance, inspires a portion of the manly confidence 

 of freedom. Thus the parliaments, or courts of law, in France dis- 

 played a noble spirit of resistance to despotism, even under the most 

 tyrannical reigns A poor man once refused to part with his cottage 

 to Frederick of Prussia, who offered him a price much beyond its 

 value. " Do not you know (said the monarch) that I could take 

 it from you without any compensation whatever?" " You might (he 

 replied) if there was no Burgher's court at Berlin." George the 

 Fourth of England felt dreadfully annoyed when he was told that the 

 blacksmith, who plied his forge opposite the pavilion at Brighton, in 

 a miserable hut, his own freehold that, if he sold, he must be paid 

 ten times its value before he parted with it. The British king knew 

 there was no law to make the son of Vulcan give up his property, 

 and therefore, ultimately, the sum demanded was paid for it. 



From the preceding considerations I should conclude that forms of 

 government are of essential importance, not only to the political state 

 of a country, but to the formation of its moral character, which can 

 never be noble or elevated when its constitution is servile. To 

 preserve in their integrity, and in spirit as welJ as in name, such as 

 have been established by the wisdom and virtue of past ages, 

 and sanctioned by long experience, is therefore one of the first 



