420 



CONSTITUTION. 



jectionable. 2. Some ore of a representative cha- 

 racter ; that is, all the citizens do not take an imme- 

 diate part in the government, but act by their repre- 

 sentatives. Constitutions of this sort, a. either 

 establish!! general and ei|iial representation, as Uiose 

 of the United States ; or, 6. connect the right of repre- 

 sentation with particular estates (q. v.) and corpora- 

 tions. The term representative constitution is fre- 

 quently applied exclusively to the former by way of 

 eminence. A great desideratum, in these times of 

 political agitation, is a digest of all constitutions, 

 existing and abolished, -a codex conttihttimium, ex- 

 hibiting all the different trials, which men have made, 

 to provide for their permanent security and welfare. 

 The only attempt to execute such a work, as far as 

 our knowledge extends, has been made in the German 

 language Die Europaischen Constitutionen, Leipsic, 

 1817. Though a great part of Europe is engaged in 

 a controversy on the subject of constitutions, the 

 people desiring them, the governments resisting 

 their wishes, and mercenary writers attacking and 

 vilifying their advocates, it would be ridiculous for 

 us to enter into an argument in defence of the ad- 

 vantage and necessity of constitutions, since every 

 one ot our readers is convinced that governments are 

 instituted for the welfare of the people, and tliat the 

 true welfare of nations is founded on liberty and jus- 

 tice; that liberty and justice imply restraints on 

 rulers, and the security of his rights to every citizen ; 

 and that constitutions, therefore, are essential, as as- 

 signing to every branch of government its powers 

 and limits, protecting against aggression, and ascer- 

 taining the purposes for which the government ex- 

 ists, and the rights which are guaranteed to every 

 citizen. It would be, perhaps, interesting, if we had 

 room enough, to give a sketch of the most celebrated 

 arguments against constitutions ; but the substance 

 of them amounts to this, that states and nations re- 

 semble families, the monarchs being in the place of 

 the fathers ; that the rather of a family has a divine 

 right to govern his family, and provide for his chil- 

 dren, according to his discretion, and that a family 

 would be in a most unfortunate condition, in which, 

 to prevent quarrels and discontent, the father should 

 be obliged to refer to a written instrument, in which 

 the duties of every member of the household were 

 laid down. The comparison of a state to a family 

 has come to our times, from ages when the princi- 

 ples of government were little understood, when man- 

 kind was gaining political experience at a dear rate, 

 and when the whole subject of government was very 

 ill defined, because the general principles of the 

 subject, and the limitations of the different branches 

 of the administration, were not, and perhaps could 

 not be, clearly understood. In regard to those times, 

 the comparison of the head of a government to a 

 father may be excused. But, in times like the pre- 

 sent, after so much experience, so many examples, 

 so much investigation into the nature of governments, 

 nothing but narrow-minded prejudice, wilful perver- 

 sion ot reason, or degraded servility towards the 

 powers that be, can lay down such a principle. No 

 comparison, probably, has done more mischief, than 

 the one alluded to, because it perverts the very prin- 

 ciples and elements of the subject to be elucidated. 

 No two tilings can be more different than a state and 

 a family. The ruling principle of the latter is lov, 

 forbearance, and kindness ; that of the former, stern 

 justice, strict adherence to strict law. A family is 

 composed of parents and children, bound together by 

 the ties of natural affection, and the claim of infancy 

 on manhood for protection. A state is composed of 

 men comparatively unconnected and independent. 

 Families are united by nature, states by law. How 

 unfortunate would be a family in which every member 



should insist, obstinately, on his right! How un- 

 fortunate have been those nations, which have left 

 everything to the kindness and paternal care of their 

 rulers, and have not insisted, obstinately, on their 

 rights! In very many instances, nations liave pre- 

 pared the way for the loss of their liberties l>y the 

 concessions into which they have been hurried by 

 gratitude towards great national U-nelaetors, or 

 those whom they have regarded as such. The 

 greatest favour tliat monarchs could Ix-siow on na- 

 tions, would be to give up all favour, to make jus- 

 tice the only rule ot government. 



V. To return to the subject of representative con- 

 stitutions. These may be divided into, I, such as 

 are founded on the union of the feudal estates, the. 

 clergy, nobility, citizens, and peasantry ; the two lat- 

 ter of which derive their right of representation from 

 the cliarters of the ancient corporations : 2, such as 

 establish the right of a general representation, like 

 the American constitution, and such as partake of 

 both characters, like the British constitution. Those 

 of the first class either originated in the feudal times, 

 or have been since copied from such as did. Our li- 

 mits will not allow us to discuss the mode in which 

 the estates grew up, and became the basis of these 

 constitutions. (See Estates.) U'e will only observe, 

 tliat external causes exerted here their usual influence 

 that the feudal states were conglomerates of many 

 heterogeneous bodies ; and tliat it was reserved for 

 later ages to unfold the true principles of government 

 to separate the essential from the unessential and 

 injurious to give stability, distinctness, and extent 

 to principles before unsettled, indefinite, and limited 

 hi their operation. The causes, however, which pro- 

 duced the feudal constitutions, and established the di- 

 vision of estates, have almost all ceased to operate long 

 ago. The art of printing, schools, post-offices, anil an 

 improved sense of justice, have long since overthrown 

 the barrier which separated the different classes ; and 

 the constitutions which still remain, founded on the 

 idea of estates, are equally unjust and inconsistent 

 with the spirit of the age, conferring, as they do, ex- 

 clusive privileges on particular classes, when almost 

 all the causes for which they were originally granted 

 have ceased. They are remnants of times long gone 

 by, and are kept up either by the influence ot the 

 privileged aristocracy, or by the belief of particular 

 nations, that circumstances are unfavourable to a ge- 

 neral representation ; or they have been re-establish- 

 ed for the express purpose of counteracting the spirit 

 of the age. 



The democratic tendency of time must be acknow- 

 ledged by every calm and unprejudiced observer, 

 whether he thinks the effect good or bad, whether he 

 Ijelongs to the class which deems all virtue and no- 

 bleness of character concentrated in the middle ages, 

 to those who believe in the final perfection of man- 

 kind, or to those who have no standard for measuring 

 the state of a nation but statistical tables. Every- 

 thing, from the fashion of the dress to the cultivation 

 of the intellect, tends to a democratic equality. The 

 turning point in the history of constitutions, from 

 whence we must date the introduction into practice 

 of the principles of general representation, is the es- 

 tablishment of the constitutions of the thirteen first 

 United States. France then adopted the same prin- 

 ciples ; and it will remain for ever one of the most 

 prominent facts in the history of Napoleon, that 

 wherever he became completely master of a country, 

 he abolished the estates, and, of course, bondage and 

 feudal services, and established constitutions on the 

 principle of general representation, although these, it 

 is true, were not allowed to act freely. Europe, un- 

 til the downfall of Napoleon, was continually involv- 

 ed in wars, into which the French emperor declared 



