Page II. The Subject concluded.-The Executive Power is more easily confined when it is ONE IV. A Third Advantage peculiar to the English Government. The Business of proposing Laws, lodged in the hands of the People V. In which an Inquiry is made, whether it would be an Advantage to public liberty, that the Laws should be enacted by the Votes ofthe People VI. Advantages that accrue to the people from VII. The Subject continued.—The Advantages that Page VIII. The Subject concluded.-Effects that have resulted, in the English Government, from the People's Power being completely delegated to their IX. A farther Disadvantage of Republican Govern- X. Fundamental Difference between the English Go- vernment and the Governments just described.-In England, all Executive Authority is placed out of XV. Proofs, drawn from Facts, of the Truth of the Principles laid down in the present Work,-1. The XVIII. How far the Examples of Nations who have lost their Liberty are applicable to England 400 XIX. A few Additional Thoughts on the Attempts that may at particular Times be made to abridge the Power of the Crown, and some of the Dangers by which such Attempts may be attended XX. A few additional Observations on the Right of Taxation, which is lodged in the Hands of the Re- presentatives of the People.-What kind of Danger THE CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAN LAN D. * INTRODUCTION. THE spirit of philosophy which peculiarly distinguishes the present age, after having corrected a number of errors fatal to society, seems now to be directed towards the principles of society itself; and we see prejudices vanish which are difficult to overcome, in proportion as it is dangerous to attack them.* This rising freedom of sentiment, the necessary fore-runner of political freedom, led me to imagine that it would not be unacceptable to the public to be made acquainted with the principles of a constitution on which the eye of curiosity seems now to be universally turned, and which, though celebrated as a model of perfection, is yet but little known to its admirers. I am aware that it will be deemed presumptuous in a man, who has passed the greatest part * As every popular notion which may contribute to the support of an arbitrary government is at all times vigilantly protected by the whole strength of it, political prejudices are last of all, if ever, shaken off by a nation subjected to such a government. A great change in this respect, however, has of B of his life out of England, to attempt a delineation of the English government; a system which is supposed to be so complicated as not to be understood or developed, but by those who have been initiated in the mysteries of it from their infancy. But, though a foreigner in England, yet, as a native of a free country, I am no stranger to those circumstances which constitute or characterise liberty. Even the great disproportion between the republic of which I am a member (and in which I formed my principles) and the British empire, has perhaps only contributed to facilitate my political inquiries. As the mathematician, the better to discover the proportions he investigates, begins with freeing his equation from coefficients, or such other quantities as only perplex without properly constituting it; so it may be advantageous, to the inquirer after the causes that produce the equilibrium of a government, to have previously studied late taken place in France, where this book was first published; and opinions are now discussed there, and tenets avowed, which, in the time of Louis the Fourteenth, would have appeared downright blasphemy; it is to this an allusion is made above. [Like other observing men, M. de Lolme readily noticed that change of opinion in France, which preceded the revolution of the year 1789; but he did not foresee that the impatient spirit of the French, exulting in the decline of prejudices which had prevailed for ages, would lose the opportunity of temperate reform, precipitate the nation into horrible convulsions, and diffuse terror and calamity over Europe.-EDIT.] |