745- G O V E R 
different ages of tlie art, has been altered from time to 
time, and has been continually receiving additions and 
repairs fuited to the tafle, fortune, or conveniency, of 
its fucceffive proprietors. In fuch a building we look 
in vain for the elegance and proportion, for the juft or¬ 
der and correfpondence of parts, which we expeft in a 
niode:n edifice; and which external I’ymmetry, after 
all, contributes, much more perhaps to the amulement 
ot the beholder, than the accommodation of the inha¬ 
bitant. 
In the Britifti, and poffibly in all other conftitutions, 
there exifts a wide difference between the abfual ftate of 
the government, and the theory. The one refults from 
the otlier; but (till they are ditferent. When we con¬ 
template tiie theory of the Britifti government, we fee 
the .king iiivefted witli liie moft abfolute perfonal im¬ 
punity; with a power of rejecting laws, whicli have 
been refolved upon by both houfes of parliament; of 
conferring by his charter, upon any fet or fucceflion ot 
men lie pleafes, the privilege of fending reprefentatives 
into one houfe of parliament, as by his immediate ap¬ 
pointment he can place whom he will in the other. 
Wliat is this, a foreigner might a(k, but a more cir- 
CLiitous defpotifni ? Yet, when we turn our attention 
from the legal extent to the adtual exercife of royal au¬ 
thority ill England, we fee thefe formidable prerogatives 
dwindled into mere ceremonies; and, in their ftead, a 
fine and commanding influence, of which the conllitu- 
tion, it feenis, is totally ignorant, growing out of that 
enormous patronage, wliicii the increafed territory and 
opulence of tiie empire have placed in the difpol'al of 
tJie executive magiftrate. 
Upon queftions of reform, the habit of refleffion to be 
encouraged, is a fober comparifon of the conftitution 
under which we live, not with models of fpeculative 
perfection, but with tlie adtual chance of obtaining a 
better. This turn of thought will generate a political 
difpofition, equally removed from that puerile admira¬ 
tion of prefent eftablillinients which fees no fault, and 
can endure no cliange, and that diftempered fenfibility, 
which is alive only to perceptions of incoiiveiiiency, 
and is too impatient to be delivered from the iineafinel's 
which it feels, to compute either the peril, or expence, 
of the remedy. Political innovations commonly pro¬ 
duce many eft'etis befide thofe that are intended. The 
diredl confequence is often the leaft important. Inci¬ 
dental, remote, and unthought-of, evils or advantages, 
frequently exceed the good that is defigned, or the mif- 
chief that is forefeen. It is from the filent and unob- 
ferved operation, from the obfeure progrefs, of caufes 
fet at work for different purpofes, that the greateft re¬ 
volutions take their rife. When Elizabeth, and her 
immediate fucceftbr, applied themfelves to the encou¬ 
ragement and regulation of trade by many wife laws, 
they knew not, that, together with wealth and induftry, 
they were diilufing a confeioufnefs of ftrength and inde¬ 
pendency, which would not long endure, under the forms 
of a mixed government, the dominion of arbitrary princes. 
When it was debated whether the mutiny aft, the law by 
which the army is governed and maintained, (hould be 
temporary or perpetual, little elle, probably, occurred 
to the advocates of an annual bill, than the expediency 
of retaining a controul over the moft dangerous prero¬ 
gative of the crown—the direftion and command of a 
itanding army : whereas, in its etfeft, this Angle refer- 
vation has altered the whole frame and quality of the 
Britifti conftitution. For fince, in confequence of the 
military fyftem which prevails in neighbouring and rival 
nations, as well as on account of the internal exigencies 
of government, a ftand'ing army has become eflential to 
the fafety and adminiftration of the empire, it enables 
parliament, by difeontinuing this necelfary provifion, 
fo to enforce its refolutions upon any other fubjeft, as 
to render the king’s diifent to a law, which has received 
the approbation of both houfes, too dangerous an expe- 
N M E N T. 
riment to be in many cafes advifed. A conteft between 
the king and parliament, cannot now be perfevered in, 
without a diffolution of the government. Laftly, when 
the conftitution conferred upon the crown the nomina¬ 
tion to all employments in the public fervice, the au¬ 
thors of this arrangement were led to it, by the obvious 
propriety of leaving to a mafter the choice of his fer- 
vants; and by the manifeft inconveniency of engaging 
the national council, upon every vacancy, in tliofe per¬ 
fonal contefts which attend eleifions to places of honour 
and emolument. Our anceftors did not obferve that 
this difpofition added an influence to the regal office, 
which, as the number and value of public employments 
increafed, would fuperfede in a great meafure the forms, 
and change the charafter, of the ancient conftitution. 
They knew not, what the experience and refleftion of 
modern ages has difeovered, that patronage univerfally 
is power; that he who polfelfes in a fufficient degree 
the means of gratifying the defires of mankind after 
wealth and dllilnftion, by whatever checks and forms 
his authority may be limited or dilguifed, will direft 
the management of public affairs. Whatever be the 
mechanifm of the political engine, he will guide the 
motion. Thefe inftances are adduced Co illuftrate the 
propofition, that, in politics, the moft important and 
permanent eftefts have, for the moft pait, been inci¬ 
dental, and unforeleea : and this propofition we incul¬ 
cate, for the fake of the caution which it teaches, that 
changes ought not to be adventured upon w'ithout a 
comprekenfive difeernment of the conlequences—without a 
knov/ledge, as well of the remote tendency, as of the 
immediate defign. The courage of a ftatefman ftiould 
refemble that of a commander, who, however regardlefs 
of perfonal danger, never forgets, that with his own he 
commits the lives and fortunes of a multitude; and who 
does not confider it as any proof of zeal or valour, to 
flake the fafety of other men upon the fuccefs of a pe¬ 
rilous or defperate enterprife. 
There is one end of civil government peculiar to a 
good conftitution, namely, the happinefs of its fuhjeds', 
there is another end elfential to a good government, but 
common to it with many bad ones —its own prefervation, 
Obferving that the beft form of government would be 
defeftive, which did not provide for its own perma¬ 
nency, in our political reafonings we confider all fuch 
provifions as expedient; and are content to accept as a 
fmfficient ground for a meafure, or law, that it is necef- 
fary or conducive to the prefervation of the conftitution. 
Yet, in truth, fuch provifions are ablbiutely expedient, 
and fuch an excufe final, only whilft the conftitution is 
worth preferving; that is, until it can be exch.anged for 
a better. We premife this diftinftion, becaufe many 
things in the Englifti, as in every conftitution, are to be 
vindicated and accounted for, folely from their tendency 
to maintain the government in its prefent ftate, and the 
feveral parts of it in poffeffion of the pow'ers which the 
conftitution has affigned to them ; and becaufe we would 
wilh it to be remarked that fuch a confideration is al¬ 
ways lubordinate to another—the value and ufefulnefs 
of tiie conftitution itfelf. 
The Go VERNiMENT OF Eng L.4ND, fometimes called 
a mixed government, fometimes a limited monarchy, is 
formed, as above obferved, by a combination of the 
three regular fpecies of government. The perfedlion 
intended by fuch a fcheme is, to unite the advantages 
of the feveral Ample forms, and to exclude the incon. 
veniencies. To what degree this purpofe is attained or 
attainable in the Britilh conftitution ; wherein it is loft 
fight of or neglebled ; and by what means it may in any 
part be promoted with better iuccefs, the reader will 
be enabled to judge, by a feparate recolledion of thefe 
advantages and inconveniences, and a diftinbt applica¬ 
tion of each to the political condition of this country. 
We will prefent our remarks upon the fubjedt in a brief 
account of the expedients by which the Britilh conliitu- 
tioii 
