GOVERNMENT. 



beginning to be understood. The last census 

 exhibits a very marked tendency in the poor 

 population of London to migrate from the centre 

 to the circumference, and the same tendency is 

 perceptible in Edinburgh and in many provincial 

 towns. 



Capitals, in the modern meaning of the word, 

 can hardly be said to have existed in ancient 

 times ; at least they were then only the seat of 

 the sovereign, but not the centre of all the national 

 activity, Rome only perhaps excepted ; but this 

 city was for a very long time the state itself, and, 

 at a later period, the tyrant of the whole empire, 

 rather than the head of a well- organised body. 

 In Asia, there existed, indeed, in ancient times, 

 capitals of very large empires ; but they are not 

 to be compared to the capitals of large modern 

 empires, since the channels of communication and 

 intercourse had not then reached that degree of 

 perfection which enables them in our days to 

 bring into close connection all parts of a country. 

 Each province was, therefore, left much more to 

 itself. It would be difficult to determine whether 

 the good or evil consequences of large capitals in 

 modern times are greater, and such an examina- 

 tion would far exceed our limits ; otherwise, it 

 would be very easy to point out, in every depart- 

 ment of civilisation, in science, social intercourse, 

 arts, &c. both salutary and pernicious effects re- 

 sulting from the influence of capitals. It seems 

 to us a matter of little doubt that it must be 

 regarded as disadvantageous to any country if the 

 capital ceases to be the concentration of the skill, 

 genius, and strength of a nation, for the benefit of 

 the whole ; but by a disproportionate superiority it 

 destroys the importance of the rest of the country, 

 as we find to be the case with Paris, which, as has 

 been often observed, contains France. In Germany, 

 the state of things is quite the reverse. A multi- 

 tude of university towns are scattered all over the 

 country, and there is no city which may boast 

 of being the point of intellectual concentration or 

 refinement The consequences have been very 

 advantageous to science and literature. In politics, 

 this want of a central point, as regards Northern 

 Germany, has been remedied by the adoption of 

 Berlin as the seat of the empire. London never 

 exercised that degree of influence over England 

 which Paris has over France ; one reason of which 

 may be, that the institutions for the diffusion of 

 knowledge are not seated in the metropolis. The 

 system of concentration has, there is little doubt, 

 been carried to an extreme in Europe the best of 

 everything having been collected in the capitals, 

 and the provinces having been almost stripped of 

 pictures, libraries, &c. In many countries, this 

 fault is acknowledged, and a return to a more 

 equitable system is perceptible. The injury done 

 to the provincial towns in Britain by the concen- 

 tration of institutions of various kinds in the 

 capital, is likely soon to be greatly modified, by 

 the establishment of railways and other improved 

 means of communication, which will tend to give 

 all parts of the kingdom an equality of advantages. 



GOVERNMENT. 



If all mankind were naturally virtuous, and 

 disposed to act justly and kindly towards each 

 other, there would be little use in establishing any 



kind of government. According to ancient poets, 

 there was once a period called the Golden Age, in 

 which there prevailed universal peace and loving- 

 kindness, and vice had no existence. Never was 

 there such a period. The farther back we go in 

 history, we find that society was the more rude. 

 Civilisation has been a plant of slow growth, often 

 retarded, and in particular countries almost rooted 

 out for a time by erroneous conceptions of its 

 character, and the conditions of its existence, but 

 always springing up afresh. The world never was 

 better than it is at this moment. According to 

 all experience, society cannot exist without some 

 species of government It must possess a power to 

 enforce order, to prevent the strong from oppress- 

 ing the weak, to chastise vice, and perform many 

 other necessary functions. The government may 

 be better or it may be worse, but a government 

 of some kind there must be. There will always, 

 in every society, be some who have a desire to 

 rule over others to make others work out their 

 purposes and some who are satisfied to submit 

 to the domination of those who are more ambitious. 

 There will always be among those who are ambi- 

 tious of governing, some who unite to the desire 

 the talents necessary to enable them to attain their 

 ends, and others who do not ; some who seek to 

 found their power upon their own force, or upon 

 the prejudices of others, or upon their power of 

 persuading or convincing men that they know 

 better what is good for them than they do them- 

 selves. The propensities and faculties which 

 induce and enable some men to aspire to be 

 leaders, others to contest the leadership with them, 

 and others, again, contentedly to follow the lead, 

 are implanted in them by nature ; they cannot 

 help having or exercising them. But it is with 

 these elements of our nature as it is with our 

 instinctive 'propensities to eat and drink, to love 

 or hate ; by the proper use of their knowing and 

 reflecting powers, men may so control and direct 

 them as to render them instruments for producing 

 great good and happiness to the whole human 

 race. Government exists not to annihilate the 

 power of individuals, but to direct it ; for though 

 the strong may be the greatest enemies of man- 

 kind, it is they only who can be great public bene- 

 factors. 



FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 



The patriarchal and clanship systems of govern- 

 ment have been already adverted to. With these, 

 mankind may be said to have made a beginning. 

 The next step in progress seems to have been 

 a government by kings, which is only a more 

 developed form of the patriarchal system, the 

 kingly being a centralisation of the patriarchal or 

 feudal power. In some ancient nations, a govern- 

 ment of priests superseded that of kings. This 

 species of government was called a theocracy, 

 from Theos, the Greek .vord for God ; it being 

 represented by the priests that they ruled accord- 

 ing to the will of God directly revealed to them. 

 Although to a great extent based on superstitious 

 fears, priestly governments were an advance on 

 governments of mere fighting-men. 



Out of these early systems of government, in 

 conjunction with the experience of ages, all exist- 

 ing governments have sprung. Although, how- 

 ever, there is nothing of which mankind has had 



