Imatges de pàgina
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tion the authority of law, was unconftitutional only in this latter fenfe.

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Moft of those who treat of the British conftitution, confider it as a fcheme of government formally planned and contrived by our ancestors, in fome certain æra of our national hiftory, and as fet up in purfuance of fuch regular plan and defign. Something of this fort is fecretly fuppofed, or referred to, in the expreflions of those who fpeak of the "principle of the conftitu"tion," of bringing back the conftitution to its" first principles," of restoring it to its "original purity," or primitive model." Now this appears to me an erroneous conception of the fubje&. No fuch plan was ever formed, confequently no fuch firft principles, original model, or ftandard exift. I mean, there never was a date or point of time in our hiftory, when the government of England was to be fet up anew, and when it was referred to any fingle perfon, or affembly, or committec, to frame a charter for the future government of the country; or when a conftitution, fo prepared and digefted, was by common confent received and eftablished. In the time of the civil wars, or rather between the death of Charles the First and the restoration of his fon, many fuch projects were published,

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but none were carried into execution. The great charter, and the bill of rights, were wife and ftrenuous efforts to obtain security against certain abuses of regal power, by which the fubject had been formerly aggrieved; but these were, either of them, much too partial modifications of the conftitution to give it a new original. The conftitution of England, like that of most countries in Europe, hath grown out of occafion and emergency; from the fluctuating policy of different ages; from the contentions, fucceffes, interefts, and opportunities of different orders and parties of men in the community. It resembles one of thofe old manfions, which instead of being built all at once, after a regular plan, and according to the rules of architecture at prefent established, has been reared in different ages of the art, has been altered from time to time, and has been continually receiving additions and repairs fuited to the tafte, fortune, or conveniency of its fucceffive proprietors. In fuch a building we look in vain for the elegance and proportion, for the juft order and correfpondence of parts, which we expect in a modern edifice; and which external fymmetry, after all, contributes much more perhaps to the amufement of the be holder,

VOL. II.

holder, than the accommodation of the inha bitant.

In the British, and poffibly in all other conftitutions, there exifts a wide difference between the actual state of the government and the theory. The one refults from the other; but ftill they are different. When we contemplate the theory of the British government, we see the King invefted with the moft abfolute perfonal impunity; with a power of rejecting laws, which have been refolved upon by both houses of parliament; of conferring by his charter, upon any set or fucceffion of men he pleases, the privilege of fending reprefentatives into one houfe of parliament, as by his immediate appointment he can place whom he will in the other. What is this, a foreigner might afk, but a more circuitous defpotifin? Yet, when we turn our attention from the legal extent to the actual exercife of royal authority in England, we fee thefe formidable prerogatives dwindled into mere ceremonies; and, in their ftead a fure and commanding influence, of which the conftitution, it feems, is totally ignorant, growing out of that enormous patronage, which the increased territory and opulence of the empire have placed in the difpofal of the executive magiftrate...

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Upon queftions of reform the habit of reflection to be encouraged, is a fober comparison of the conftitution under which we live, not with models of fpeculative perfection, but with the actual chance of obtaining a better. This turn of thought will generate a political dispofition, equally removed from that puerile admiration of present establishments which fees no fault, and can endure no change, and that diftempered fenfibility, which is alive only to perceptions of inconveniency, and is too impatient to be delivered from the uneafinefs which it feels, to compute either the peril, or expence of the remedy. Political innovations commonly produce many effects befide thofe that are intended. The direct confequence is often the leaft important. Incidental, remote, and unthought of evils or advantages frequently exceed the good that is defigned, or the mischief that is foreseen. It is from the filent and unobferved operation, from the obfcure progrefs of causes fet at work for different purposes, that the greatest revolutions take their rife. When Elizabeth, and her immediate fucceffor, applied themselves to the encouragement and regulation of trade by many wife laws, they knew not, that, together with wealth and industry, they were diffufing a consciousness

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sciousness of strength and independency, which would not long endure, under the forms of a mixed government, the dominion of arbitrary princes. When it was debated whether the mutiny act, the law by which the army is governed and maintained fhould be temporary or perpetual, little else probably, occurred to the advocates of an annual bill, than the expediency of retaining a control over the most dangerous prerogative of the crown-the direction and command of a standing army: whereas, in its effect, this fingle refervation has altered the whole frame and quality of the British 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 ftanding army has 'become effential to the fafety and administration of the empire, it enables parliament, by discontinuing this neceffary provifion, fo to enforce its refolutions upon any other fubject, as to render the King's diffent to a law, which has received the approbation of both houfes, too dangerous an experiment any longer to be advifed. A conteft between the king and parliament, cannot now be perfevered in without a diffolution of the government. Laftly, when the conftitution con

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