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CHAPTER VIII.

THE REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

949. WHEN a nation becomes very large, such a balanced Constitution, as we have just spoken of, in its simple form, becomes difficult or impracticable. The General Assemblies of the citizens become too numerous and too mixed, to deliberate and act with order, freedom, and virtue. When freedom has existed in large nations, it has existed under more complex Constitutions; and the struggle between Established Authority and the demands for Enlarged Liberty have assumed corresponding forms. Sometimes the struggle has been between the King and the Nobles, the Nobles contending for Liberty for themselves; while the question of Liberty between their dependents and them is left to be settled afterwards. Thus the Barons of England, as the assertors of English Liberty, obtained Magna Charta. Or the struggle may be between the King, and certain Classes of the Community, collected (they or the principal persons of them) in Assemblies, Class by Class. Such Assemblies are the Estates of the Realm: thus in England the three Estates were anciently, the Spiritual Body, the Temporal Lords, and the Commons. The Members of the Estate of the Commons, the Third Estate, may be appointed by the People in various ways; but in all its modifications, this Estate is a Representative Assembly. And in nations where Classes of Society with broad historical distinctions have never existed, or where the distinctions have been abolished, the whole body of the people may be divided into Electoral Districts; and the Representatives of these Districts may form assemblies by which free government may be exercised. for a territory, perhaps, of unlimited extent.

950. The Principle of Representation in Government is entirely of modern origin. In the ancient world we nowhere find it brought into play. As we have just said, it is a necessary condition of the freedom of a great nation; for the whole body of the citizens could not, in any other way have their share in the Government. But the conduct of national business by Representative Assemblies, has advantages much beyond its making freedom merely possible for an extensive and populous country. It prevents the tumultuous meetings and rash proceed. ings of large popular assemblies. It also, by reducing the number of the deliberative assembly, increases the calmness and reasonableness of their discussions and decisions. The members of the

assembly, not having found their place into it by chance, but being chosen for their real or supposed merits, act with a greater sense of responsibility; and will be, really, a wiser and more trustworthy set of men, than the citizens taken at hazard. Their being few in number, selected for merit, the object of public notice, makes them more likely to act for right ends, and less likely to be seduced by the prospect of personal advantage to oblique and selfish courses. The Members of such an assembly also attend to their public business more regularly and carefully than the people at large would do or could do. The Members of the Assembly become statesmen by profession, and attend to their work with a professional care and skill. They guard both order and liberty, the Rights of the State and of all citizens, more atchfully and better than the citizens would guard when own Rights.

951. On the other hand, in the Representative System, the people at large are liberated from the task of managing the Government, which they could not execute well; and are charged only with a business to which they are fully competent, that of elect

The citizens who

ing those who are to govern. would be wholly unfit to be trusted with the decision of a question of foreign polity, or domestic economy, or jurisprudence, may be qualified to choose a person as their Representative. In this manner, the whole people have a share in the government: both the masses of population in the towns, too numerous and too ignorant to rule directly; and the people of the country, too scattered otherwise to act at all in public business. For these two may be brought together without difficulty on such occasions as the choice of a Representative.

952. We see, then, that this Modern Step in Polity, the introduction of the Representative System, makes a combination of Liberty and Order possible upon any scale however large, and brings with it other vast advantages. But for this purpose, the Representative must not be merely a Delegate, who reports to the Central Assembly what his constituents have directed him to say; nor must be a Senator for life, who, once elected, is no further responsible to the electors; nor must be a Patron, who has the people whom he represents, not for his Electors, but for his Clients; and finally, he must be a Representative in an Assembly which acts for the Nation; for it is of national Government that we are speaking. Hence it has been rightly stated* as essential to Representation, that in electing him the power of the People must be parted with, and given over, for a limited time, to Deputies chosen by the People; the Deputies fully and freely exercising Power instead of the People.

953. After the Representative System is fully established, the Struggles of Parties, and especially the Struggles of the Conservative and the Movement Party in each Country, are mainly carried on by

* Lord Brougham, Polit. Phil. Part. III., 33.

means of Debates in the Representative Body. The leading Ideas of these two opposite Parties are, as we have seen, Order and Freedom. In the historical course of the struggle, these Ideas are exemplified and embodied in special forms; in Coercive Laws on the one side, and Popular Rights on the other; and the Struggle is carried on with reference to a series of special and subordinate objects of this kind.

954. When men begin to direct their thoughts and actions, not towards a Practical Order and a Practical Freedom, to be attained by the removal of Special Disorders and Special Grievances, but towards a general Notional Order and Notional Freedom; these Notions are too vague to direct their actions safely, while the very largeness of the Notions makes them disturb the tranquil progress of men's thoughts. And thus, the enthusiasts of both sides. strain after a Visionary Polity, in which they think they could realize their Notional Order or their Notional Freedom; but without making any real progress towards the Object. In Polity, as in the Inductive Sciences, every large ascent towards Truth consists of a number of small ascents; and is to be forwarded only by struggling with the difficulty at which we have arrived; not by tracing in our minds a visionary scheme of the Science, which conducts us to some complete body of knowledge. Bacon has remarked that though the human Intellect naturally tries to reach the ultimate Truth at a single flight, yet that the only way in which Truth can really be attained is by a gradual progress through many intermediate steps.* The same is the case, for the most part, in the historical progress of nations towards a realization of the combined Ideas of Order and Freedom.

VOL. II

*Nov. Org. 1. Ax. xix., xx.
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955. By means of the Representative System, Freedom has been established in some of the Monarchies of Europe, in the Democracy of the United States, and in some of the British Colonies. In all these cases, however, there has been, in addition to the Assembly directly representing the People, another Assembly, a Senate, or a House of Peers, consisting of persons, either not at all, or not so di. rectly, elected by the people. The joint assent of this Upper House and of the Lower Assembly has been made requisite for the validity of the measures of the State. And there appears to be strong reason to believe, that without such an Upper House, the balance between Order and Liberty in a State could not long be preserved. For an Assembly, chosen by the People, and brought directly into conflict with the Established Authority in its highest form; if it be strong enough to struggle at all, will be inflamed by the struggle, and will act hastily, angrily, and immoderately. The assent of another Assembly in its proceedings, if required for their validity, secures a deliberate and calm survey of the question, by men not heated and blinded by the same contagious passions and interests. With three bodies in the State; the Sovereign, the Senate, and the Representative Body, it is probable that two will be against the one which would disturb the balance of the Constitution.

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956. Yet the balance is sometimes disturbed in most States. It is only by a rare felicity, that the struggle between the Conservative and the Movement party is carried on from age to age without produc. ing such oscillations as overturn the balance. yield slowly and firmly, to advance steadily and mo derately, are rare virtues in Political Parties. More over, as we have said, besides the struggles of Parties from Principle, there are struggles of Parties fo: Power. It may happen that the Established Autho

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