REAL NOBILITY. Search we the springs, And backward trace the principles of things: Dispens'd with equal hand, disposed with equal skill; The diff'rence that distinguished man from man. Uncancell'd, though diffus'd: and he whose mind Though poor in fortune, of celestial race: And he commits the crime, who calls him base. -John Dryden (1631-1700). THE FORCE OF PUBLIC OPINION. 1. The force of public opinion must be acknowledged in every government, save only that of the most purely despotic form. It has more or less a direct influence, according to the nature of the constitution under which the people live; and the momentum with which its acts varies, under the same kind of constitution, according to the degree in which the people are educated. But even in countries that enjoy little constitutional freedom, the public voice, when raised, is effectual; and even the most ignorant nation has a will which its rulers must not venture entirely to disobey; nay, in absolute monarchies, where public opinion forms the only check on misgovernment, and the people seldom exert any influence, yet, when they do interfere, it is oftentimes with terrible effect. 2. Nor is any interposition likely to be withheld merely because, from the popular ignorance, it happens to be uncalled for, or exerted in a wrong direction. How important, therefore, is it with a view to the people's only safeguard, and the ruler's only curb, that they should be well informed upon their political interests. But how immeasurably more important is it in countries living under a free government, that those whom the constitution recognizes as sharers, more or less directly, in the supreme power, should have a correct knowledge of the state of their own affairs, and the principles upon which their rights and their interests depend. 3. It must be observed that no government, even the freest, can be in the hands of the people at large; and that grand improvement of modern times, the representative system, by which extent of territory can be safely combined with a popular constitution, still leaves the exercise of supreme power in the hands of persons delegated to govern-even where there are none but elective magistrates, that is, even in republican constitutions. 4. Those delegates, then, be they executive or judicial, or legislative, require the vigilant superintendence of the community, in order to prevent errors or abuses, to quicken their diligence, or to control their faults, during the term of their office. This superintendence is most wholesome if exercised by an enlightened people, and affords the only effectual security for constant good government— the only real safeguard for popular rights. 5. How many fatal errors would rulers of all kinds, and in all ages, whether consuls and senates, or archons and assemblies of the people, or monarchs and their councils, or kings and their parliaments, or presidents and chambers, have been prevented from falling into; and how many foul crimes, both against the interests of their subjects and against the peace and happiness of the world, would they have been deterred from committing, had the nations submitted to their care been well instructed in the science of public policy, acquainted with their true interests, aware of the things most dangerous to their liberties, and impressed with that sense of duty to their species, which an enlarged knowledge of political philosophy can alone bestow. 6. Take again the instance of war- -that game, as has been well said, at which kings could never play were their subjects wise-how melancholy is it to reflect that nearly all the devastation which it has spread over the earth would have been spared, with the countless mischiefs following in its train, had only the same enlightened views prevailed which have already resulted, partly from sad experience, partly from diffused information, and which seem at the present day to have, at least for a while, taught men the guilt as well as the folly of war. But experience is a costly as well as an effectual teacher; and the same lesson might have been wholly learned without the heavy price that has been paid for it. Experience, too, is a teacher whose lessons are forgotten in the course of a little time; as the memory of wounds and the fear of fighting wear out with the pain they occasion. 7. Nothing, then, can effectually and permanently instil the sound doctrines of peace and justice into any people but an extensive political education, to instruct them in their interests and their duties. It is the same with the frauds as with the oppressions of statesmen. The sacrifice of the many to the few would be impossible in a wellinformed country. That game of party, in which the interests of the people are the counters, and the power and pelf of the gamesters themselves the only thing they play for, though not the only stake they risk, never could be played to the destruction of public virtue and the daily peril of the general good, were the people well acquainted with the principles which should govern the administration of their concerns; and possibly it is an instinctive apprehension of this truth that has made all parties so averse to the general diffusion of political knowledge. 8. But it is not merely as a control on the mismanagement of their affairs, and a check to encroachments on their rights, that the interposition of the people is required in every country, and is the very life and soul of each constitutional system; they ought to promote the progress of improvement by urging their rulers to better by all means the condition of those under their care, and, above everything, to amend the errors of their political system. As all government is made for the benefit of the community, the people have a right not only to be governed, but to be governed as well as possible, that is, with as little expense to their natural freedom and their resources as is consistent with the nature of human affairs. 9. Towards this point of perfection all the nations ought constantly to be directing their course. But the ruler having no interest of the kind, nay, rather an interest in keeping things as they are, if not making them go backwards, unless the people interfere, little progress will be made in that direction, and some risk always incurred of losing the ground already gained. Surely, then, nothing can be more manifest than that full and sound political information is necessary for those, whose strongly pronounced desire of improvement is the best security for the progress of all national reform. 10. The diffused knowledge of the general principles of policy, and an intimate acquaintance with what has been done in other countries, and with the results produced, become as sure a source of political improvements, as the diffused knowledge of mechanical science and an acquaintance with the inventions of foreigners is the source of almost all improvement in the art. 11. The education of particular classes alone may, no doubt, be better than the general prevalence of political ignorance; but as those classes for the most part have particular interests, and each has its own purposes to serve, the only security for improvements which may benefit the whole body of the people, is for the whole body of the people to understand in what their true interests consist.-Lord Brougham (1778–1868). UNIVERSAL ORDER. 1. All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 2. Cease then, nor order imperfection name; Secure to be as blessed as thou canst bear: All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; All partial evil, universal good. -Alexander Pope (1688-1744). |