GOVERNMENTS BOOTED IN SOCIAL LIFE. SiO 



eventually they must conform to it. And to say that the 

 national will finally determines them, is to say that they 

 result from the average of individual desires ; or, in 

 other words — from the average of individual natures. A 

 law so initiated, therefore, really grows out of the popular 

 character. 



In the case of a Government representing a dominant 

 class, the same things holds, though not so manifestly. 

 For the very existence of a class monopolizing all power, is 

 due to certain sentiments in the commonalty. But for the 

 feeling of loyalty on the part of retainers, a feudal system 

 could not exist. We see in the protest of the Highlanders 

 against the abolition of heritable jurisdictions, that they 

 preferred that kind of local rule. And if to the popular 

 nature, must thus be ascribed the growth of an irresponsi- 

 ble ruling class ; then to the popular nature must be as- 

 cribed the social arrangements which that class creates in 

 the pursuit of its own ends. Even w^here the Government 

 is despotic, the doctrine still holds. The character of the 

 people is, as before, the original source of this political 

 fo^m; and, as we have abundant proof, other forms sud- 

 denly created will not act, but rapidly retrograde to the 

 old form. Moreover, such regulat'ons as a despot makes, 

 if really operative, are so because of their fitness to the 

 social state. His acts being very much swayed by gen- 

 eral opinion — by precedent, by the feeling of his nobles, 

 his priesthood, his army — are in part immediate results 

 of the national character ; and when th^y are out of har- 

 mony with the national character, they are soon practically 

 abrogated. 



The failure of Cromwell permanently to establish a new 

 social condition, and the rapid revival of suppressed institu- 

 tions and practices after his death, show how powerless is 

 a monarch to change the type of the society he governs. 

 He may disturb, he may retard, or he may aid the natural 



