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 Frecdom; 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. IT.

*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 directly, 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.

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 producing such oscillations as overturn the balance. To yield slowly and firmly, to advance steadily and moderately, are rare virtues in Political Parties. Moreover, as we have said, besides the struggles of Parties from Principle, there are struggles of Parties for Power. It may happen that the Established Autho

rity uses its Power to crush Established Liberty; and that the forms of the Constitution fail in providing adequate means of resistance. It may happen that Established Authority refuses all concessions, till the sense of practical grievances becomes intolerable, and leads to popular violence. It may happen that when the popular Party is strong, men's minds are inflamed with a Love of Notional Liberty, which no practical concessions can satiate; and then, the popular Party itself violates the Constitution. In these and many other cases, we may have Revolutions, or violent and anomalous Changes in the Constitution. They are, as we have said, cases of necessity; to be justified only by their necessity.

CHAPTER IX.

ACTUAL PROGRESS OF GOVERNMENT IN ANCIENT ROME AND IN ENGLAND.

957. THE history of ancient Rome is an example of a long-continued struggle between an aristooracy and a democracy. According to the views. of the most philosophical historians, the Patricians alone had a place in the original constitution of the Roman State. The Senate was the Administrative Council, with the King, and afterwards, with the Consuls, at its head; the Senate and the People (Senatus Populusque Romanus) had the Legislative Authority, exercised in the Comitia Curiata, the Assemblies of the Curies or Wards of the Patrician Houses (Gentes). The Plebs was a populace occupying a portion of the city, but not admitted to any place in the Senate, the Magistracy, or the Comitia, although forming a considerable portion of the army.

Servius Tullius, the sixth King, gave a legal organi. zation to the Plebs, by dividing it into thirty Tribes ; and gave it a place in the Constitution, by the institution of Classes divided into Centuries, including, as the army included, Patricians and Plebeians together; and by the introduction of an Assembly of these, Comitia Centuriata, with authority for certain purposes. But it was long before the Plebeians obtained the advantages which such a Constitution seemed to promise them. They were still oppressed and kept under by the Patricians. They were excluded from the Consulship, the Senate, and most Magistracies, and from intermarriage with Patricians. Patricians had the profitable occupancy of the land (ager publicus), which nominally belonged to the State; and in many cases, lending money to the impoverished Plebeians, acquired personal power over them, in virtue of the severe Roman Laws respecting Debtors.

The

958. This inequality of Rights and Advantages led to a Sedition, in which the Plebeians began, in a body, to separate themselves from the Roman State. They were brought back by concessions, that the debts of insolvents should be cancelled, and that they should have two magistrates appointed as their protectors; Tribunes of the Plebeians; whose persons should be inviolable, and who should have the power of interposing, so as to arrest any legal proceeding. From this time, the Plebeians, by struggles of various kinds, obtained many of the Rights from which they had at first been excluded. The practice of voting according to Tribes, in the Comitia Tributa, was employed: and by this means the power of the Plebeians was very greatly increased. Connubium, the intermarriage of Patricians and Plebeians was allowed; the Senate was thrown open to the Plebeians; afterwards it was ordained that of the two Consuls, always one should