LITERARY NOTICES. 



Ill 



by a convention; the English Constitution 

 is a growth of centuries. Books written 

 upon the two Constitutions are, therefore, 

 Ukely to differ, much as a manual of car- 

 pentry differs from a hand-book of physi- 

 ology ; the former belonging rather to the 

 province of constructive art, and the latter 

 to that of natural science. While in the 

 study of the American Constitution we are 

 occupied with the ' intentions of the fram- 

 ers,' the ' rules of construction,' and the 

 lore of lawyers, to get at the sense of a 

 printed tract, the study of the English 

 Constitution introduces us more directly 

 to facts and phenomena, or the laws of po- 

 litical activity, social change, and national 

 growth. These objects of inquiry obvious- 

 ly lend themselves to the scientific method 

 of treatment, which aims to trace out the 

 working of natural causes and inherent 

 principles, and hence has interest for all 

 ' students of political philosophy. Mr. Bage- 

 hot's work is written virtually, if not formal- 

 ly, from this point of view ; it is pervaded 

 by the scientific spirit, without taking on 

 the technical forms of scientific exposition. 

 " With the author's inclination and ca- 

 pacity to regard public questions in their 

 scientific aspects, many readers are already 

 familiar through his suggestive volume en- 

 titled ' Physics and Politics.' ' The English 

 Constitution ' is a work of the same quality, 

 and treats its subjects very much with refer- 

 ence to the principles of human nature and 

 the natural laws of human society. It is a 

 free disquisition on English polititical ex- 

 perience ; an acute, critical, and dispassion- 

 ate discussion of English institutions, de- 

 signed to show how they operate, and to 

 point out their defects and advantages. 

 The writer is not so much a partisan or an 

 advocate as a cool, philosophical inquirer, 

 with large knowledge, clear insight, inde- 

 pendent opinions, and great freedom from 

 the bias of what he terms that ' territorial 

 sectarianism called patriotism.' His criti- 

 cism of the faults of the English system is 

 searching and trenchant, and his apprecia- 

 tion of its benefits and usefulness is cordial, 

 discriminating, and wise. He discusses old 

 traditions and modern innovations, aristo- 

 cratic privileges and democratic tendencies, 

 with an absence of prejudice that comes 

 from a predominant scientific temper of 

 mind. Taking up in succession the Cabi- 



net, the Monarchy, the House of Lords, and 

 the House of Commons, he considers them 

 in what may be called their dynamical in- 

 teractions, and in relation to the habits, 

 traditions, culture, and character, of the 

 English people. The book, indeed, is full 

 of instructive episodes, and sagacious re- 

 flections on the springs of action in human 

 nature, the exercise of power by individuals 

 or political bodies, the adaptation of insti- 

 tutions to the qualities and circumstances 

 of the different classes who live under them, 

 and numerous points of political philosophy, 

 which are applicable everywhere, and have 

 an interest for all students of political and 

 social affairs. 



" There is much in Mr. Bagehot's volume 

 that bears very suggestively upon the state 

 of things in this country. His comparison, 

 in various points, of the working of cabinet 

 government with that of presidential gov- 

 ernment raises questions regarding our own 

 system which are forced into greater promi- 

 nence by every decade of our national ex- 

 perience. But the book should be read 

 by Americans not only for the interesting 

 information it contains, and the brilliant 

 light it throws upon the internal polity of a 

 great nation from which we have derived 

 so much of our own institutions, but be- 

 cause it will exert a widening and hberai- 

 izing influence upon the minds of our peo- 

 ple, who are too apt to look upon all other 

 governments with a kind of bigoted con- 

 tempt. Our intense politics, chiefly occu- 

 pied with selfish and sordid interests, and 

 bitter personal rivalries, tend to exclude 

 from this sphere of thought everything Uke 

 science, or the large and liberal study of 

 political principles. Narrow views lead to 

 a depreciation of everything foreign that 

 differs from our own system and practice. 

 A distinguished professor in one of our 

 leading colleges remarked that, when the 

 students come up in their last year to ac- 

 quire some notions of political science, their 

 want of information relating to everything 

 beyond the limits of their own country 

 their ignorance of any thing like comparative 

 poUtics is to the last degree discreditable. 

 Such narrowness is only to be corrected by 

 travel and extended observation, or by culti- 

 vating those studies and reading those books 

 that will give clear and just conceptions of 

 the policy of other leading nations. Mr. 



