about with the acquiefcence, not to say the affiftance, of the people, owed its fuccefs to the fame caufe, namely, to the profpect of deliverance, that it afforded, from the tyranny which their nobles exercifed under the old conftitution. In England the people beheld the depreffion of the barons, under the houfe of Tudor, with fatisfaction, although they faw the crown acquiring thereby a power, which no limitations, that the conftitution had then provided, were likely to confine. The leffon to be drawn from fuch events is this, that a mixed government, which admits a patrician order into its conflitution, ought to circumfcribe the personal privileges of the nobility, efpecially claims of hereditary jurifdi&tion and local authority, with a jealoufy equal to the folicitude with which it wishes its own prefervation. For nothing fo alienates the minds of the people from the government under which they live, by a perpetual fenfe of annoyance and inconveniency; or fo prepares them for the practices of an enterprifing prince, or a factious demagogue, as the abufe which almost always accompanies the exiftence of feparate immunities.

Amongst the inferior, but by no means in

confiderable advantages of a

DEMOCRATIC

con

conftitution, or of a conftitution in which the people partake of the power of legislation, the following fhould not be neglected.

I. The direction which it gives to the education, ftudies, and purfuits of the fuperior orders of the community. The fhare which this has in forming the public manners and national character is very important. In countries, in which the gentry are excluded from all concern in the government, fcarce any thing is left which leads to advancement, but the profeffion of arms. They who do not addict themselves to this profeffion (and miferable must that country be, which conftantly employs the military fervice of a great proportion of any order of its fubjects) are commonly loft by the mere want of object and deftination; that is, they either fall, without referve, into the moft fottish habits of animal gratification, or entirely devote themselves to the attainment of thofe futile arts and decorations, which compofe the business and recommendations of a court: on the other hand, where the whole, or any effective portion of civil power is poffeffed by a popular affembly, more ferious purfuits will be encouraged, purer morals, and a more intellectual characer will engage the public efteem; those fa

culties, which qualify men for deliberation and debate, and which are the fruit of fober habits, of early and long-continued application, will be roufed and animated by the reward, which, of all others, moft readily awakens the ambition of the human mind, political dignity and importance.

II. Popular elections procure to the common people courtesy from their fuperiors. That contemptuous and overbearing infolence, with which the lower orders of the community are wont to be treated by the higher, is greatly mitigated where the people have fomething to give. The affiduity, with which their favour is fought upon thefe occafions, ferves to generate fettled habits of condescension and refpect; and as human life is more embittered by affronts than injuries, whatever contributes to procure mildness and civility of manners towards thofe who are moft liable to fuffer from a contrary behaviour, corrects, with the pride, in a great measure the evil of inequality, and deferves to be accounted. amongst the moft generous inftitutions of focial life.

III. The fatisfactions which the people in free governments derive from the knowledge and agitation of political fubjects; fuch as the proccedings

ceedings and debates of the fenate; the conduct and characters of minifters; the revolutions, intrigues, and contention of parties; and, in general, from the difcuffion of public measures, queftions, and occurrences. Subjects of this fort excite just enough of interest and emotion, to afford a moderate engagement to the thoughts, without rifing to any painful degree of anxiety, or ever leaving a fixed oppreffion upon the fpirits and what is this, but the end and aim of all those amusements, which compose so much of the business of life and of the value of riches? For my part, and I believe it to be the cafe with moft men who are arrived at the middle age, and occupy the middle claffes of life; had I all the money which I pay in taxes to government, at liberty to lay out upon amusement and diverfion, I know not whether I could make choice of any, in which I could find greater pleasure, than what I receive from expecting, hearing, and relating public news; reading parliamentary debates and proceedings; canvaffing the political arguments, projects, predictions, and intelligence, which are conveyed, by various channels, to every corner of the kingdom. These topics, exciting univerfal, curiofity, and being fuch as almost every man is ready to form, and

prepared

prepared to deliver their opinion about, greatly promote, and, I think, improve converfation. They render it more rational and more innocent. They fupply a fubftitute for drinking, gaming, fcandal, and obfcenity. Now the fecrefy, the jealoufy, the folitude, and precipitation of defpotic governments, exclude all this. But the lofs, you fay, is trifling. I know that it is poffible to render even the mention of it ridiculous, by reprefenting it as the idle employment of the most infignificant part of the nation, the folly of village-ftatefmen and coffee-houfe politicians: but I allow nothing to be a trifle, which minifters to the harmlefs gratification of multitudes; nor any order of men to be infignificant, whofe number bears a refpectable proportion to the fum of the whole community.

We have been accuftomed to an opinion, that a REPUBLICAN form of government fuits only with the affairs of a finall ftate: which opinion is founded in the confideration, that unless the people, in every diftrict of the empire, be admitted to a fhare in the national reprefentation, the government is not, as to them, a republic: that elections, where the conflituents are numerous, and difperfed through a wide extent of country, are conducted with difficulty, or rather, indeed,