GOVERNMENT. 



for the lowest kinds of unskilled labour, and 

 which fills our police-offices and courts of justice 

 with the greater number of the victims to the 

 security of society. Nor is there reason to believe 

 that any future elevation of this class will ever 

 bring it up to the condition of virtue and intelli- 

 gence to which the higher class will then have 

 attained. It is not of the lowest class alone that 

 progress may be hoped ; and if all classes pro- 

 gress, which is the only hypothesis on which the 

 progress of the community as a whole is possible, 

 the fact will afford no guarantee even for the 

 diminution of the distance which at present divides 

 them. To check the progress of the highest class 

 would be to check civilisation itself, and if all 

 classes progress equally, their relative positions 

 will remain unchanged. But as one element of 

 this, progress itself must consist in a better under- 

 standing of their relations to each other that is, 

 their respective rights and duties ; the distinctions 

 between classes will cease to be felt either as a 

 source of pride on the one hand, or of humiliation 

 on the other. Distinctions which are hedged in by 

 impassable barriers are real impediments to pro- 

 gress, and justly excite indignation on the part of 

 those whom they restrain. But these are not 

 classes, but castes, which have always been 

 repudiated by the constitution of this country, 

 and even socially have never received any con- 

 sistent recognition. So long as the son of a 

 peasant may marry the daughter of a peer, and 

 end by being a peer himself, whose son may 

 marry the daughter of a queen, there is nothing 

 really to complain of; and such is, and always has 

 been, the relation of classes in this country. It is 

 only want of mutual consideration on the part of 

 individuals that sets them against each other, and 

 the remedy demands no revolution. 



The object of what are called constitutional 

 governments is not to abolish classes, but to 

 secure equally the privileges of all classes, by a 

 definite arrangement, in place of leaving them to 

 assert themselves on each occasion as it occurs. 

 But no constitution will ever supersede the neces- 

 sity for the exercise of citizen virtues on the part 

 of the governed. Unless those to whom the 

 function of government is intrusted are selected 

 on the ground of fitness to represent the interests 

 of the community as a whole, and not simply the 

 interests of a particular class ; and unless those 

 who lead are somewhat in advance of those whom 

 they lead, there can be no social progress, and 

 there is not likely long to be even social stability. 



Despotisms. 



Out of Europe, the greater proportion of the 

 governments throughout the world are of the 

 character of despotisms. Of the multifarious des- 

 potisms which exist among barbarous nations, it 

 is here needless to say anything ; for the question 

 of form of government only becomes interesting 

 when applied to a wholly or partially civilised 

 people. There is scarcely any country in Europe 

 which can now be said to be governed despot- 

 ically, the reforms of the present emperor having 

 removed even Russia from that category. But 

 when violent democratic outbreaks occur, des- 

 potic government usually appears as a temporary 

 remedy. Of this character were the despotisms 

 of the two Napoleons in France. 



Though technically protected by codes of law, 



the subjects of despotisms are, in a great measure, 

 at the will of a supreme authority, which has no 

 check but public opinion. To insure obedience, 

 a large military force is maintained, the press is 

 under a censorship, the police act as spies on 

 private actions, and travelling is regulated by pass- 

 ports. A leading feature of such despotisms is, 

 that the whole system of government is centralised 

 in a ministry in the capital of the empire, whence 

 orders issue to all inferior authorities. By this 

 means, the people, who are kept in order like 

 children, do not acquire habits of self-government, 

 and, except when exposed to some peculiar pres- 

 sure, remain tranquil under a variety of restric- 

 tions. Offensive as such a system may appear to 

 be, it often possesses qualities which for the time 

 being recommend it to support : peace is thor- 

 oughly maintained ; life and property are pro- 

 tected ; the people, as objects of solicitude, are 

 provided with public gardens and promenades, 

 and allowed may other indulgences at the cost 

 of the country ; probably they are educated in 

 the only possible way for the discharge of citizen 

 duties, which, for the present, they are incapable 

 of performing. Moreover, by bearing down fac- 

 tious opposition, and exerting a control over 

 selfish private interests, a despotism is able to 

 execute great and beneficial public works which 

 seem to be beyond the reach of constitutional 

 legislation ; and it therefore commands a degree 

 of respect which persons beyond its sphere do 

 not readily appreciate. When it appears as a 

 substitute for anarchy, the name technically 

 applied to conditions of society in which there is 

 no established government at all, and where the 

 people are the prey of rival despots, who have 

 sprung from their own ranks, the value of a single 

 absolute ruler is still more obvious. 



Constitutional Monarchies. 



Europe abounds in constitutional monarchies 

 governments, that is to say, in which the king, or 

 other chief ruler, is restricted in his powers by 

 estates composed of representatives of, or delegates 

 from different orders of the people. We should 

 consider it quite useless to present detailed ex- 

 planations of these constitutions. Those of them 

 which are of modern origin, like that of Belgium 

 and Italy, are more or less imitations of our own, 

 and though in several the Germanic Empire, for 

 example the monarchical element is imperfectly 

 defined, and the reigning monarch can occa- 

 sionally neutralise the will of the estates, they all 

 afford extensive and substantial guarantees for 

 popular rights. From the earliest period known 

 to history, the Germanic races have possessed 

 popular along-side of aristocratic and monarchical 

 institutions. Tacitus mentions their existence 

 amongst the tribes by whom the Roman Empire 

 was overthrown, and they extended even to the 

 island of Iceland. It is in these institutions that 

 we must look for the origin of our own constitution 

 of king, lords, and commons. This arrangement, in 

 its general conception, would seem to be insepar- 

 able from the genius of the Teutonic races ; it has 

 rarely been successfully imitated by the other 

 races of mankind. In Norway and Sweden, in 

 Denmark, and in most parts of Germany, these old 

 constitutions, which varied greatly in details, but 

 rested always on some sort of widely extended, 

 though graduated suffrage, and were frequently 



