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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2168-h.zip b/2168-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b8cb01 --- /dev/null +++ b/2168-h.zip diff --git a/2168-h/2168-h.htm b/2168-h/2168-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..068335d --- /dev/null +++ b/2168-h/2168-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14379 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <title> + The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Volume 2 (of 4) + by Lord Macaulay + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of +Lord Macaulay, Vol. 2 (of 4), by Thomas Babington Macaulay + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 2 (of 4) + Contributions To The Edinburgh Review + +Author: Thomas Babington Macaulay + +Release Date: June 14, 2008 [EBook #2168] +Last Updated: January 8, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WRITINGS OF LORD MACAULAY *** + + + + +Produced by Mike Alder, Sue Asscher and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY. + </h1> + <h2> + CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EDINBURGH REVIEW + </h2> + <h2> + By By Thomas Babington Macaulay + </h2> + <h3> + VOLUME II. + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS OF LORD MACAULAY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> JOHN DRYDEN. (January 1828.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> HISTORY. (May 1828.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> MILL ON GOVERNMENT. (March 1829.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> WESTMINSTER REVIEWER'S DEFENCE OF MILL. (June + 1829.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> UTILITARIAN THEORY OF GOVERNMENT. (October + 1829.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> SADLER'S LAW OF POPULATION. (July 1830.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> SADLER'S REFUTATION REFUTED. (January 1831.) + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> MIRABEAU. (July 1832.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> BARERE. (April 1844.) </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS OF LORD MACAULAY. + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + JOHN DRYDEN. (January 1828.) + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The Poetical Works of John Dryden". In 2 volumes. + University Edition. London, 1826. +</pre> + <p> + The public voice has assigned to Dryden the first place in the second rank + of our poets,—no mean station in a table of intellectual precedency + so rich in illustrious names. It is allowed that, even of the few who were + his superiors in genius, none has exercised a more extensive or permanent + influence on the national habits of thought and expression. His life was + commensurate with the period during which a great revolution in the public + taste was effected; and in that revolution he played the part of Cromwell. + By unscrupulously taking the lead in its wildest excesses, he obtained the + absolute guidance of it. By trampling on laws, he acquired the authority + of a legislator. By signalising himself as the most daring and irreverent + of rebels, he raised himself to the dignity of a recognised prince. He + commenced his career by the most frantic outrages. He terminated it in the + repose of established sovereignty,—the author of a new code, the + root of a new dynasty. + </p> + <p> + Of Dryden, however, as of almost every man who has been distinguished + either in the literary or in the political world, it may be said that the + course which he pursued, and the effect which he produced, depended less + on his personal qualities than on the circumstances in which he was + placed. Those who have read history with discrimination know the fallacy + of those panegyrics and invectives which represent individuals as + effecting great moral and intellectual revolutions, subverting established + systems, and imprinting a new character on their age. The difference + between one man and another is by no means so great as the superstitious + crowd supposes. But the same feelings which in ancient Rome produced the + apotheosis of a popular emperor, and in modern Rome the canonisation of a + devout prelate, lead men to cherish an illusion which furnishes them with + something to adore. By a law of association, from the operation of which + even minds the most strictly regulated by reason are not wholly exempt, + misery disposes us to hatred, and happiness to love, although there may be + no person to whom our misery or our happiness can be ascribed. The + peevishness of an invalid vents itself even on those who alleviate his + pain. The good humour of a man elated by success often displays itself + towards enemies. In the same manner, the feelings of pleasure and + admiration, to which the contemplation of great events gives birth, make + an object where they do not find it. Thus, nations descend to the + absurdities of Egyptian idolatry, and worship stocks and reptiles—Sacheverells + and Wilkeses. They even fall prostrate before a deity to which they have + themselves given the form which commands their veneration, and which, + unless fashioned by them, would have remained a shapeless block. They + persuade themselves that they are the creatures of what they have + themselves created. For, in fact, it is the age that forms the man, not + the man that forms the age. Great minds do indeed re-act on the society + which has made them what they are; but they only pay with interest what + they have received. We extol Bacon, and sneer at Aquinas. But, if their + situations had been changed, Bacon might have been the Angelical Doctor, + the most subtle Aristotelian of the schools; the Dominican might have led + forth the sciences from their house of bondage. If Luther had been born in + the tenth century, he would have effected no reformation. If he had never + been born at all, it is evident that the sixteenth century could not have + elapsed without a great schism in the church. Voltaire, in the days of + Louis the Fourteenth, would probably have been, like most of the literary + men of that time, a zealous Jansenist, eminent among the defenders of + efficacious grace, a bitter assailant of the lax morality of the Jesuits + and the unreasonable decisions of the Sorbonne. If Pascal had entered on + his literary career when intelligence was more general, and abuses at the + same time more flagrant, when the church was polluted by the Iscariot + Dubois, the court disgraced by the orgies of Canillac, and the nation + sacrificed to the juggles of Law, if he had lived to see a dynasty of + harlots, an empty treasury and a crowded harem, an army formidable only to + those whom it should have protected, a priesthood just religious enough to + be intolerant, he might possibly, like every man of genius in France, have + imbibed extravagant prejudices against monarchy and Christianity. The wit + which blasted the sophisms of Escobar—the impassioned eloquence + which defended the sisters of Port Royal—the intellectual hardihood + which was not beaten down even by Papal authority—might have raised + him to the Patriarchate of the Philosophical Church. It was long disputed + whether the honour of inventing the method of Fluxions belonged to Newton + or to Leibnitz. It is now generally allowed that these great men made the + same discovery at the same time. Mathematical science, indeed, had then + reached such a point that, if neither of them had ever existed, the + principle must inevitably have occurred to some person within a few years. + So in our own time the doctrine of rent, now universally received by + political economists, was propounded, almost at the same moment, by two + writers unconnected with each other. Preceding speculators had long been + blundering round about it; and it could not possibly have been missed much + longer by the most heedless inquirer. We are inclined to think that, with + respect to every great addition which has been made to the stock of human + knowledge, the case has been similar; that without Copernicus we should + have been Copernicans,—that without Columbus America would have been + discovered,—that without Locke we should have possessed a just + theory of the origin of human ideas. Society indeed has its great men and + its little men, as the earth has its mountains and its valleys. But the + inequalities of intellect, like the inequalities of the surface of our + globe, bear so small a proportion to the mass, that, in calculating its + great revolutions, they may safely be neglected. The sun illuminates the + hills, while it is still below the horizon, and truth is discovered by the + highest minds a little before it becomes manifest to the multitude. This + is the extent of their superiority. They are the first to catch and + reflect a light, which, without their assistance, must, in a short time, + be visible to those who lie far beneath them. + </p> + <p> + The same remark will apply equally to the fine arts. The laws on which + depend the progress and decline of poetry, painting, and sculpture, + operate with little less certainty than those which regulate the + periodical returns of heat and cold, of fertility and barrenness. Those + who seem to lead the public taste are, in general, merely outrunning it in + the direction which it is spontaneously pursuing. Without a just + apprehension of the laws to which we have alluded the merits and defects + of Dryden can be but imperfectly understood. We will, therefore, state + what we conceive them to be. + </p> + <p> + The ages in which the master-pieces of imagination have been produced have + by no means been those in which taste has been most correct. It seems that + the creative faculty, and the critical faculty, cannot exist together in + their highest perfection. The causes of this phenomenon it is not + difficult to assign. + </p> + <p> + It is true that the man who is best able to take a machine to pieces, and + who most clearly comprehends the manner in which all its wheels and + springs conduce to its general effect, will be the man most competent to + form another machine of similar power. In all the branches of physical and + moral science which admit of perfect analysis, he who can resolve will be + able to combine. But the analysis which criticism can effect of poetry is + necessarily imperfect. One element must for ever elude its researches; and + that is the very element by which poetry is poetry. In the description of + nature, for example, a judicious reader will easily detect an incongruous + image. But he will find it impossible to explain in what consists the art + of a writer who, in a few words, brings some spot before him so vividly + that he shall know it as if he had lived there from childhood; while + another, employing the same materials, the same verdure, the same water, + and the same flowers, committing no inaccuracy, introducing nothing which + can be positively pronounced superfluous, omitting nothing which can be + positively pronounced necessary, shall produce no more effect than an + advertisement of a capital residence and a desirable pleasure-ground. To + take another example: the great features of the character of Hotspur are + obvious to the most superficial reader. We at once perceive that his + courage is splendid, his thirst of glory intense, his animal spirits high, + his temper careless, arbitrary, and petulant; that he indulges his own + humour without caring whose feelings he may wound, or whose enmity he may + provoke, by his levity. Thus far criticism will go. But something is still + wanting. A man might have all those qualities, and every other quality + which the most minute examiner can introduce into his catalogue of the + virtues and faults of Hotspur, and yet he would not be Hotspur. Almost + everything that we have said of him applies equally to Falconbridge. Yet + in the mouth of Falconbridge most of his speeches would seem out of place. + In real life this perpetually occurs. We are sensible of wide differences + between men whom, if we were required to describe them, we should describe + in almost the same terms. If we were attempting to draw elaborate + characters of them, we should scarcely be able to point out any strong + distinction; yet we approach them with feelings altogether dissimilar. We + cannot conceive of them as using the expressions or the gestures of each + other. Let us suppose that a zoologist should attempt to give an account + of some animal, a porcupine for instance, to people who had never seen it. + The porcupine, he might say, is of the class mammalia, and the order + glires. There are whiskers on its face; it is two feet long; it has four + toes before, five behind, two fore teeth, and eight grinders. Its body is + covered with hair and quills. And, when all this has been said, would any + one of the auditors have formed a just idea of a porcupine? Would any two + of them have formed the same idea? There might exist innumerable races of + animals, possessing all the characteristics which have been mentioned yet + altogether unlike to each other. What the description of our naturalist is + to a real porcupine, the remarks of criticism are to the images of poetry. + What it so imperfectly decomposes it cannot perfectly reconstruct. It is + evidently as impossible to produce an Othello or a Macbeth by reversing an + analytical process so defective, as it would be for an anatomist to form a + living man out of the fragments of his dissecting-room. In both cases the + vital principle eludes the finest instruments, and vanishes in the very + instant in which its seat is touched. Hence those who, trusting to their + critical skill, attempt to write poems give us, not images of things, but + catalogues of qualities. Their characters are allegories—not good + men and bad men, but cardinal virtues and deadly sins. We seem to have + fallen among the acquaintances of our old friend Christian: sometimes we + meet Mistrust and Timorous; sometimes Mr Hate-good and Mr Love-lust; and + then again Prudence, Piety and Charity. + </p> + <p> + That critical discernment is not sufficient to make men poets, is + generally allowed. Why it should keep them from becoming poets, is not + perhaps equally evident; but the fact is, that poetry requires not an + examining but a believing frame of mind. Those feel it most, and write it + best, who forget that it is a work of art; to whom its imitations, like + the realities from which they are taken, are subjects, not for + connoisseurship, but for tears and laughter, resentment and affection; who + are too much under the influence of the illusion to admire the genius + which has produced it; who are too much frightened for Ulysses in the cave + of Polyphemus to care whether the pun about Outis be good or bad; who + forget that such a person as Shakspeare ever existed, while they weep and + curse with Lear. It is by giving faith to the creations of the imagination + that a man becomes a poet. It is by treating those creations as + deceptions, and by resolving them, as nearly as possible, into their + elements, that he becomes a critic. In the moment in which the skill of + the artist is perceived, the spell of the art is broken. + </p> + <p> + These considerations account for the absurdities into which the greatest + writers have fallen, when they have attempted to give general rules for + composition, or to pronounce judgment on the works of others. They are + unaccustomed to analyse what they feel; they, therefore, perpetually refer + their emotions to causes which have not in the slightest degree tended to + produce them. They feel pleasure in reading a book. They never consider + that this pleasure may be the effect of ideas which some unmeaning + expression, striking on the first link of a chain of associations, may + have called up in their own minds—that they have themselves + furnished to the author the beauties which they admire. + </p> + <p> + Cervantes is the delight of all classes of readers. Every school-boy + thumbs to pieces the most wretched translations of his romance, and knows + the lantern jaws of the Knight Errant, and the broad cheeks of the Squire, + as well as the faces of his own playfellows. The most experienced and + fastidious judges are amazed at the perfection of that art which extracts + inextinguishable laughter from the greatest of human calamities without + once violating the reverence due to it; at that discriminating delicacy of + touch which makes a character exquisitely ridiculous, without impairing + its worth, its grace, or its dignity. In Don Quixote are several + dissertations on the principles of poetic and dramatic writing. No + passages in the whole work exhibit stronger marks of labour and attention; + and no passages in any work with which we are acquainted are more + worthless and puerile. In our time they would scarcely obtain admittance + into the literary department of the Morning Post. Every reader of the + Divine Comedy must be struck by the veneration which Dante expresses for + writers far inferior to himself. He will not lift up his eyes from the + ground in the presence of Brunetto, all whose works are not worth the + worst of his own hundred cantos. He does not venture to walk in the same + line with the bombastic Statius. His admiration of Virgil is absolute + idolatry. If, indeed, it had been excited by the elegant, splendid, and + harmonious diction of the Roman poet, it would not have been altogether + unreasonable; but it is rather as an authority on all points of + philosophy, than as a work of imagination, that he values the Aeneid. The + most trivial passages he regards as oracles of the highest authority, and + of the most recondite meaning. He describes his conductor as the sea of + all wisdom—the sun which heals every disordered sight. As he judged + of Virgil, the Italians of the fourteenth century judged of him; they were + proud of him; they praised him; they struck medals bearing his head; they + quarrelled for the honour of possessing his remains; they maintained + professors to expound his writings. But what they admired was not that + mighty imagination which called a new world into existence, and made all + its sights and sounds familiar to the eye and ear of the mind. They said + little of those awful and lovely creations on which later critics delight + to dwell—Farinata lifting his haughty and tranquil brow from his + couch of everlasting fire—the lion-like repose of Sordello—or + the light which shone from the celestial smile of Beatrice. They extolled + their great poet for his smattering of ancient literature and history; for + his logic and his divinity; for his absurd physics, and his most absurd + metaphysics; for everything but that in which he pre-eminently excelled. + Like the fool in the story, who ruined his dwelling by digging for gold, + which, as he had dreamed, was concealed under its foundations, they laid + waste one of the noblest works of human genius, by seeking in it for + buried treasures of wisdom which existed only in their own wild reveries. + The finest passages were little valued till they had been debased into + some monstrous allegory. Louder applause was given to the lecture on fate + and free-will, or to the ridiculous astronomical theories, than to those + tremendous lines which disclose the secrets of the tower of hunger, or to + that half-told tale of guilty love, so passionate and so full of tears. + </p> + <p> + We do not mean to say that the contemporaries of Dante read with less + emotion than their descendants of Ugolino groping among the wasted corpses + of his children, or of Francesca starting at the tremulous kiss and + dropping the fatal volume. Far from it. We believe that they admired these + things less than ourselves, but that they felt them more. We should + perhaps say that they felt them too much to admire them. The progress of a + nation from barbarism to civilisation produces a change similar to that + which takes place during the progress of an individual from infancy to + mature age. What man does not remember with regret the first time that he + read Robinson Crusoe? Then, indeed, he was unable to appreciate the powers + of the writer; or, rather, he neither knew nor cared whether the book had + a writer at all. He probably thought it not half so fine as some rant of + Macpherson about dark-browed Foldath, and white-bosomed Strinadona. He now + values Fingal and Temora only as showing with how little evidence a story + may be believed, and with how little merit a book may be popular. Of the + romance of Defoe he entertains the highest opinion. He perceives the hand + of a master in ten thousand touches which formerly he passed by without + notice. But, though he understands the merits of the narrative better than + formerly, he is far less interested by it. Xury, and Friday, and pretty + Poll, the boat with the shoulder-of-mutton sail, and the canoe which could + not be brought down to the water edge, the tent with its hedge and + ladders, the preserve of kids, and the den where the old goat died, can + never again be to him the realities which they were. The days when his + favourite volume set him upon making wheel-barrows and chairs, upon + digging caves and fencing huts in the garden, can never return. Such is + the law of our nature. Our judgment ripens; our imagination decays. We + cannot at once enjoy the flowers of the spring of life and the fruits of + its autumn, the pleasures of close investigation and those of agreeable + error. We cannot sit at once in the front of the stage and behind the + scenes. We cannot be under the illusion of the spectacle, while we are + watching the movements of the ropes and pulleys which dispose it. + </p> + <p> + The chapter in which Fielding describes the behaviour of Partridge at the + theatre affords so complete an illustration of our proposition, that we + cannot refrain from quoting some parts of it. + </p> + <p> + "Partridge gave that credit to Mr Garrick which he had denied to Jones, + and fell into so violent a trembling that his knees knocked against each + other. Jones asked him what was the matter, and whether he was afraid of + the warrior upon the stage?—'O, la, sir,' said he, 'I perceive now + it is what you told me. I am not afraid of anything, for I know it is but + a play; and if it was really a ghost, it could do one no harm at such a + distance and in so much company; and yet, if I was frightened, I am not + the only person.'—'Why, who,' cries Jones, 'dost thou take to be + such a coward here besides thyself?'—'Nay, you may call me a coward + if you will; but if that little man there upon the stage is not + frightened, I never saw any man frightened in my life'...He sat with his + eyes fixed partly on the ghost and partly on Hamlet, and with his mouth + open; the same passions which succeeded each other in Hamlet, succeeding + likewise in him... + </p> + <p> + "Little more worth remembering occurred during the play, at the end of + which Jones asked him which of the players he liked best? To this he + answered, with some appearance of indignation at the question, 'The King, + without doubt.'—'Indeed, Mr Partridge,' says Mrs Miller, 'you are + not of the same opinion with the town; for they are all agreed that Hamlet + is acted by the best player who was ever on the stage.'—'He the best + player!' cries Partridge, with a contemptuous sneer; 'why I could act as + well as he myself. I am sure if I had seen a ghost, I should have looked + in the very same manner, and done just as he did. And then to be sure, in + that scene, as you called it, between him and his mother, where you told + me he acted so fine, why any man, that is, any good man, that had such a + mother, would have done exactly the same. I know you are only joking with + me; but indeed, madam, though I never was at a play in London, yet I have + seen acting before in the country, and the King for my money; he speaks + all his words distinctly, and half as loud again as the other. Anybody may + see he is an actor.'" + </p> + <p> + In this excellent passage Partridge is represented as a very bad + theatrical critic. But none of those who laugh at him possess the tithe of + his sensibility to theatrical excellence. He admires in the wrong place; + but he trembles in the right place. It is indeed because he is so much + excited by the acting of Garrick, that he ranks him below the strutting, + mouthing performer, who personates the King. So, we have heard it said + that, in some parts of Spain and Portugal, an actor who should represent a + depraved character finely, instead of calling down the applauses of the + audience, is hissed and pelted without mercy. It would be the same in + England, if we, for one moment, thought that Shylock or Iago was standing + before us. While the dramatic art was in its infancy at Athens, it + produced similar effects on the ardent and imaginative spectators. It is + said that they blamed Aeschylus for frightening them into fits with his + Furies. Herodotus tells us that, when Phyrnichus produced his tragedy on + the fall of Miletus, they fined him in a penalty of a thousand drachmas + for torturing their feelings by so pathetic an exhibition. They did not + regard him as a great artist, but merely as a man who had given them pain. + When they woke from the distressing illusion, they treated the author of + it as they would have treated a messenger who should have brought them + fatal and alarming tidings which turned out to be false. In the same + manner, a child screams with terror at the sight of a person in an ugly + mask. He has perhaps seen the mask put on. But his imagination is too + strong for his reason; and he entreats that it may be taken off. + </p> + <p> + We should act in the same manner if the grief and horror produced in us by + works of the imagination amounted to real torture. But in us these + emotions are comparatively languid. They rarely affect our appetite or our + sleep. They leave us sufficiently at ease to trace them to their causes, + and to estimate the powers which produce them. Our attention is speedily + diverted from the images which call forth our tears to the art by which + those images have been selected and combined. We applaud the genius of the + writer. We applaud our own sagacity and sensibility; and we are comforted. + </p> + <p> + Yet, though we think that in the progress of nations towards refinement + the reasoning powers are improved at the expense of the imagination, we + acknowledge that to this rule there are many apparent exceptions. We are + not, however, quite satisfied that they are more than apparent. Men + reasoned better, for example, in the time of Elizabeth than in the time of + Egbert; and they also wrote better poetry. But we must distinguish between + poetry as a mental act, and poetry as a species of composition. If we take + it in the latter sense, its excellence depends not solely on the vigour of + the imagination, but partly also on the instruments which the imagination + employs. Within certain limits, therefore, poetry may be improving while + the poetical faculty is decaying. The vividness of the picture presented + to the reader is not necessarily proportioned to the vividness of the + prototype which exists in the mind of the writer. In the other arts we see + this clearly. Should a man, gifted by nature with all the genius of + Canova, attempt to carve a statue without instruction as to the management + of his chisel, or attention to the anatomy of the human body, he would + produce something compared with which the Highlander at the door of a + snuff shop would deserve admiration. If an uninitiated Raphael were to + attempt a painting, it would be a mere daub; indeed, the connoisseurs say + that the early works of Raphael are little better. Yet, who can attribute + this to want of imagination? Who can doubt that the youth of that great + artist was passed amidst an ideal world of beautiful and majestic forms? + Or, who will attribute the difference which appears between his first rude + essays and his magnificent Transfiguration to a change in the constitution + of his mind? In poetry, as in painting and sculpture, it is necessary that + the imitator should be well acquainted with that which he undertakes to + imitate, and expert in the mechanical part of his art. Genius will not + furnish him with a vocabulary: it will not teach him what word most + exactly corresponds to his idea, and will most fully convey it to others: + it will not make him a great descriptive poet, till he has looked with + attention on the face of nature; or a great dramatist, till he has felt + and witnessed much of the influence of the passions. Information and + experience are, therefore, necessary; not for the purpose of strengthening + the imagination, which is never so strong as in people incapable of + reasoning—savages, children, madmen, and dreamers; but for the + purpose of enabling the artist to communicate his conceptions to others. + </p> + <p> + In a barbarous age the imagination exercises a despotic power. So strong + is the perception of what is unreal that it often overpowers all the + passions of the mind and all the sensations of the body. At first, indeed, + the phantasm remains undivulged, a hidden treasure, a wordless poetry, an + invisible painting, a silent music, a dream of which the pains and + pleasures exist to the dreamer alone, a bitterness which the heart only + knoweth, a joy with which a stranger intermeddleth not. The machinery, by + which ideas are to be conveyed from one person to another, is as yet rude + and defective. Between mind and mind there is a great gulf. The imitative + arts do not exist, or are in their lowest state. But the actions of men + amply prove that the faculty which gives birth to those arts is morbidly + active. It is not yet the inspiration of poets and sculptors; but it is + the amusement of the day, the terror of the night, the fertile source of + wild superstitions. It turns the clouds into gigantic shapes, and the + winds into doleful voices. The belief which springs from it is more + absolute and undoubting than any which can be derived from evidence. It + resembles the faith which we repose in our own sensations. Thus, the Arab, + when covered with wounds, saw nothing but the dark eyes and the green + kerchief of a beckoning Houri. The Northern warrior laughed in the pangs + of death when he thought of the mead of Valhalla. + </p> + <p> + The first works of the imagination are, as we have said, poor and rude, + not from the want of genius, but from the want of materials. Phidias could + have done nothing with an old tree and a fish-bone, or Homer with the + language of New Holland. + </p> + <p> + Yet the effect of these early performances, imperfect as they must + necessarily be, is immense. All deficiencies are supplied by the + susceptibility of those to whom they are addressed. We all know what + pleasure a wooden doll, which may be bought for sixpence, will afford to a + little girl. She will require no other company. She will nurse it, dress + it, and talk to it all day. No grown-up man takes half so much delight in + one of the incomparable babies of Chantrey. In the same manner, savages + are more affected by the rude compositions of their bards than nations + more advanced in civilisation by the greatest master-pieces of poetry. + </p> + <p> + In process of time, the instruments by which the imagination works are + brought to perfection. Men have not more imagination than their rude + ancestors. We strongly suspect that they have much less. But they produce + better works of imagination. Thus, up to a certain period, the diminution + of the poetical powers is far more than compensated by the improvement of + all the appliances and means of which those powers stand in need. Then + comes the short period of splendid and consummate excellence. And then, + from causes against which it is vain to struggle, poetry begins to + decline. The progress of language, which was at first favourable, becomes + fatal to it, and, instead of compensating for the decay of the + imagination, accelerates that decay, and renders it more obvious. When the + adventurer in the Arabian tale anointed one of his eyes with the contents + of the magical box, all the riches of the earth, however widely dispersed, + however sacredly concealed, became visible to him. But, when he tried the + experiment on both eyes, he was struck with blindness. What the enchanted + elixir was to the sight of the body, language is to the sight of the + imagination. At first it calls up a world of glorious allusions; but, when + it becomes too copious, it altogether destroys the visual power. + </p> + <p> + As the development of the mind proceeds, symbols, instead of being + employed to convey images, are substituted for them. Civilised men think + as they trade, not in kind, but by means of a circulating medium. In these + circumstances, the sciences improve rapidly, and criticism among the rest; + but poetry, in the highest sense of the word, disappears. Then comes the + dotage of the fine arts, a second childhood, as feeble as the former, and + far more hopeless. This is the age of critical poetry, of poetry by + courtesy, of poetry to which the memory, the judgment, and the wit + contribute far more than the imagination. We readily allow that many works + of this description are excellent: we will not contend with those who + think them more valuable than the great poems of an earlier period. We + only maintain that they belong to a different species of composition, and + are produced by a different faculty. + </p> + <p> + It is some consolation to reflect that this critical school of poetry + improves as the science of criticism improves; and that the science of + criticism, like every other science, is constantly tending towards + perfection. As experiments are multiplied, principles are better + understood. + </p> + <p> + In some countries, in our own for example, there has been an interval + between the downfall of the creative school and the rise of the critical, + a period during which imagination has been in its decrepitude, and taste + in its infancy. Such a revolutionary interregnum as this will be deformed + by every species of extravagance. + </p> + <p> + The first victory of good taste is over the bombast and conceits which + deform such times as these. But criticism is still in a very imperfect + state. What is accidental is for a long time confounded with what is + essential. General theories are drawn from detached facts. How many hours + the action of a play may be allowed to occupy,—how many similes an + Epic Poet may introduce into his first book,—whether a piece, which + is acknowledged to have a beginning and an end, may not be without a + middle, and other questions as puerile as these, formerly occupied the + attention of men of letters in France, and even in this country. Poets, in + such circumstances as these, exhibit all the narrowness and feebleness of + the criticism by which their manner has been fashioned. From outrageous + absurdity they are preserved indeed by their timidity. But they + perpetually sacrifice nature and reason to arbitrary canons of taste. In + their eagerness to avoid the mala prohibita of a foolish code, they are + perpetually rushing on the mala in se. Their great predecessors, it is + true, were as bad critics as themselves, or perhaps worse, but those + predecessors, as we have attempted to show, were inspired by a faculty + independent of criticism, and, therefore, wrote well while they judged + ill. + </p> + <p> + In time men begin to take more rational and comprehensive views of + literature. The analysis of poetry, which, as we have remarked, must at + best be imperfect, approaches nearer and nearer to exactness. The merits + of the wonderful models of former times are justly appreciated. The frigid + productions of a later age are rated at no more than their proper value. + Pleasing and ingenious imitations of the manner of the great masters + appear. Poetry has a partial revival, a Saint Martin's Summer, which, + after a period of dreariness and decay, agreeably reminds us of the + splendour of its June. A second harvest is gathered in; though, growing on + a spent soil, it has not the heart of the former. Thus, in the present + age, Monti has successfully imitated the style of Dante; and something of + the Elizabethan inspiration has been caught by several eminent countrymen + of our own. But never will Italy produce another Inferno, or England + another Hamlet. We look on the beauties of the modern imaginations with + feelings similar to those with which we see flowers disposed in vases, to + ornament the drawing-rooms of a capital. We doubtless regard them with + pleasure, with greater pleasure, perhaps, because, in the midst of a place + ungenial to them, they remind us of the distant spots on which they + flourish in spontaneous exuberance. But we miss the sap, the freshness, + and the bloom. Or, if we may borrow another illustration from Queen + Scheherezade, we would compare the writers of this school to the jewellers + who were employed to complete the unfinished window of the palace of + Aladdin. Whatever skill or cost could do was done. Palace and bazaar were + ransacked for precious stones. Yet the artists, with all their dexterity, + with all their assiduity, and with all their vast means, were unable to + produce anything comparable to the wonders which a spirit of a higher + order had wrought in a single night. + </p> + <p> + The history of every literature with which we are acquainted confirms, we + think, the principles which we have laid down. In Greece we see the + imaginative school of poetry gradually fading into the critical. Aeschylus + and Pindar were succeeded by Sophocles, Sophocles by Euripides, Euripides + by the Alexandrian versifiers. Of these last, Theocritus alone has left + compositions which deserve to be read. The splendour and grotesque + fairyland of the Old Comedy, rich with such gorgeous hues, peopled with + such fantastic shapes, and vocal alternately with the sweetest peals of + music and the loudest bursts of elvish laughter, disappeared forever. The + master-pieces of the New Comedy are known to us by Latin translations of + extraordinary merit. From these translations, and from the expressions of + the ancient critics, it is clear that the original compositions were + distinguished by grace and sweetness, that they sparkled with wit, and + abounded with pleasing sentiment; but that the creative power was gone. + Julius Caesar called Terence a half Menander,—a sure proof that + Menander was not a quarter Aristophanes. + </p> + <p> + The literature of the Romans was merely a continuation of the literature + of the Greeks. The pupils started from the point at which their masters + had, in the course of many generations arrived. They thus almost wholly + missed the period of original invention. The only Latin poets whose + writings exhibit much vigour of imagination are Lucretius and Catullus. + The Augustan age produced nothing equal to their finer passages. + </p> + <p> + In France that licensed jester, whose jingling cap and motley coat + concealed more genius than ever mustered in the saloon of Ninon or of + Madame Geoffrin, was succeeded by writers as decorous and as tiresome as + gentlemen ushers. + </p> + <p> + The poetry of Italy and of Spain has undergone the same change. But + nowhere has the revolution been more complete and violent than in England. + The same person who, when a boy, had clapped his thrilling hands at the + first representation of the Tempest might, without attaining to a + marvellous longevity, have lived to read the earlier works of Prior and + Addison. The change, we believe, must, sooner or later, have taken place. + But its progress was accelerated, and its character modified, by the + political occurrences of the times, and particularly by two events, the + closing of the theatres under the Commonwealth, and the restoration of the + House of Stuart. + </p> + <p> + We have said that the critical and poetical faculties are not only + distinct, but almost incompatible. The state of our literature during the + reigns of Elizabeth and James the First is a strong confirmation of this + remark. The greatest works of imagination that the world has ever seen + were produced at that period. The national taste, in the meantime, was to + the last degree detestable. Alliterations, puns, antithetical forms of + expression lavishly employed where no corresponding opposition existed + between the thoughts expressed, strained allegories, pedantic allusions, + everything, in short, quaint and affected, in matter and manner, made up + what was then considered as fine writing. The eloquence of the bar, the + pulpit, and the council-board, was deformed by conceits which would have + disgraced the rhyming shepherds of an Italian academy. The king quibbled + on the throne. We might, indeed, console ourselves by reflecting that his + majesty was a fool. But the chancellor quibbled in concert from the + wool-sack: and the chancellor was Francis Bacon. It is needless to mention + Sidney and the whole tribe of Euphuists; for Shakspeare himself, the + greatest poet that ever lived, falls into the same fault whenever he means + to be particularly fine. While he abandons himself to the impulse of his + imagination, his compositions are not only the sweetest and the most + sublime, but also the most faultless, that the world has ever seen. But, + as soon as his critical powers come into play, he sinks to the level of + Cowley; or rather he does ill what Cowley did well. All that is bad in his + works is bad elaborately, and of malice aforethought. The only thing + wanting to make them perfect was, that he should never have troubled + himself with thinking whether they were good or not. Like the angels in + Milton, he sinks "with compulsion and laborious flight." His natural + tendency is upwards. That he may soar, it is only necessary that he should + not struggle to fall. He resembles an American Cacique, who, possessing in + unmeasured abundance the metals which in polished societies are esteemed + the most precious, was utterly unconscious of their value, and gave up + treasures more valuable than the imperial crowns of other countries, to + secure some gaudy and far-fetched but worthless bauble, a plated button, + or a necklace of coloured glass. + </p> + <p> + We have attempted to show that, as knowledge is extended and as the reason + develops itself, the imitative arts decay. We should, therefore, expect + that the corruption of poetry would commence in the educated classes of + society. And this, in fact, is almost constantly the case. The few great + works of imagination which appear in a critical age are, almost without + exception, the works of uneducated men. Thus, at a time when persons of + quality translated French romances, and when the universities celebrated + royal deaths in verses about tritons and fauns, a preaching tinker + produced the Pilgrim's Progress. And thus a ploughman startled a + generation which had thought Hayley and Beattie great poets, with the + adventures of Tam O'Shanter. Even in the latter part of the reign of + Elizabeth the fashionable poetry had degenerated. It retained few vestiges + of the imagination of earlier times. It had not yet been subjected to the + rules of good taste. Affectation had completely tainted madrigals and + sonnets. The grotesque conceits and the tuneless numbers of Donne were, in + the time of James, the favourite models of composition at Whitehall and at + the Temple. But, though the literature of the Court was in its decay, the + literature of the people was in its perfection. The Muses had taken + sanctuary in the theatres, the haunts of a class whose taste was not + better than that of the Right Honourables and singular good Lords who + admired metaphysical love-verses, but whose imagination retained all its + freshness and vigour; whose censure and approbation might be erroneously + bestowed, but whose tears and laughter was never in the wrong. The + infection which had tainted lyric and didactic poetry had but slightly and + partially touched the drama. While the noble and the learned were + comparing eyes to burning-glasses, and tears to terrestrial globes, + coyness to an enthymeme, absence to a pair of compasses, and an unrequited + passion to the fortieth remainder-man in an entail, Juliet leaning from + the balcony, and Miranda smiling over the chess-board, sent home many + spectators, as kind and simple-hearted as the master and mistress of + Fletcher's Ralpho, to cry themselves to sleep. + </p> + <p> + No species of fiction is so delightful to us as the old English drama. + Even its inferior productions possess a charm not to be found in any other + kind of poetry. It is the most lucid mirror that ever was held up to + nature. The creations of the great dramatists of Athens produce the effect + of magnificent sculptures, conceived by a mighty imagination, polished + with the utmost delicacy, embodying ideas of ineffable majesty and beauty, + but cold, pale, and rigid, with no bloom on the cheek, and no speculation + in the eye. In all the draperies, the figures, and the faces, in the + lovers and the tyrants, the Bacchanals and the Furies, there is the same + marble chillness and deadness. Most of the characters of the French stage + resemble the waxen gentlemen and ladies in the window of a perfumer, + rouged, curled, and bedizened, but fixed in such stiff attitudes, and + staring with eyes expressive of such utter unmeaningness, that they cannot + produce an illusion for a single moment. In the English plays alone is to + be found the warmth, the mellowness, and the reality of painting. We know + the minds of men and women, as we know the faces of the men and women of + Vandyke. + </p> + <p> + The excellence of these works is in a great measure the result of two + peculiarities, which the critics of the French school consider as defects,—from + the mixture of tragedy and comedy, and from the length and extent of the + action. The former is necessary to render the drama a just representation + of a world in which the laughers and weepers are perpetually jostling each + other,—in which every event has its serious and ludicrous side. The + latter enables us to form an intimate acquaintance with characters with + which we could not possibly become familiar during the few hours to which + the unities restrict the poet. In this respect, the works of Shakspeare, + in particular, are miracles of art. In a piece, which may be read aloud in + three hours, we see a character gradually unfold all its recesses to us. + We see it change with the change of circumstances. The petulant youth + rises into the politic and warlike sovereign. The profuse and courteous + philanthropist sours into a hater and scorner of his kind. The tyrant is + altered, by the chastening of affliction, into a pensive moralist. The + veteran general, distinguished by coolness, sagacity, and self-command, + sinks under a conflict between love strong as death, and jealousy cruel as + the grave. The brave and loyal subject passes, step by step, to the + extremities of human depravity. We trace his progress, from the first + dawnings of unlawful ambition to the cynical melancholy of his impenitent + remorse. Yet, in these pieces, there are no unnatural transitions. Nothing + is omitted: nothing is crowded. Great as are the changes, narrow as is the + compass within which they are exhibited, they shock us as little as the + gradual alterations of those familiar faces which we see every evening and + every morning. The magical skill of the poet resembles that of the Dervise + in the Spectator, who condensed all the events of seven years into the + single moment during which the king held his head under the water. + </p> + <p> + It is deserving of remark, that, at the time of which we speak, the plays + even of men not eminently distinguished by genius,—such, for + example, as Jonson,—were far superior to the best works of + imagination in other departments. Therefore, though we conceive that, from + causes which we have already investigated, our poetry must necessarily + have declined, we think that, unless its fate had been accelerated by + external attacks, it might have enjoyed an euthanasia, that genius might + have been kept alive by the drama till its place could, in some degree, be + supplied by taste,—that there would have been scarcely any interval + between the age of sublime invention and that of agreeable imitation. The + works of Shakspeare, which were not appreciated with any degree of justice + before the middle of the eighteenth century, might then have been the + recognised standards of excellence during the latter part of the + seventeenth; and he and the great Elizabethan writers might have been + almost immediately succeeded by a generation of poets similar to those who + adorn our own times. + </p> + <p> + But the Puritans drove imagination from its last asylum. They prohibited + theatrical representations, and stigmatised the whole race of dramatists + as enemies of morality and religion. Much that is objectionable may be + found in the writers whom they reprobated; but whether they took the best + measures for stopping the evil appears to us very doubtful, and must, we + think, have appeared doubtful to themselves, when, after the lapse of a + few years, they saw the unclean spirit whom they had cast out return to + his old haunts, with seven others fouler than himself. + </p> + <p> + By the extinction of the drama, the fashionable school of poetry,—a + school without truth of sentiment or harmony of versification,—without + the powers of an earlier, or the correctness of a later age,—was + left to enjoy undisputed ascendency. A vicious ingenuity, a morbid + quickness to perceive resemblances and analogies between things apparently + heterogeneous, constituted almost its only claim to admiration. Suckling + was dead. Milton was absorbed in political and theological controversy. If + Waller differed from the Cowleian sect of writers, he differed for the + worse. He had as little poetry as they, and much less wit; nor is the + languor of his verses less offensive than the ruggedness of theirs. In + Denham alone the faint dawn of a better manner was discernible. + </p> + <p> + But, low as was the state of our poetry during the civil war and the + Protectorate, a still deeper fall was at hand. Hitherto our literature had + been idiomatic. In mind as in situation we had been islanders. The + revolutions in our taste, like the revolutions in our government, had been + settled without the interference of strangers. Had this state of things + continued, the same just principles of reasoning which, about this time, + were applied with unprecedented success to every part of philosophy would + soon have conducted our ancestors to a sounder code of criticism. There + were already strong signs of improvement. Our prose had at length worked + itself clear from those quaint conceits which still deformed almost every + metrical composition. The parliamentary debates, and the diplomatic + correspondence of that eventful period, had contributed much to this + reform. In such bustling times, it was absolutely necessary to speak and + write to the purpose. The absurdities of Puritanism had, perhaps, done + more. At the time when that odious style, which deforms the writings of + Hall and of Lord Bacon, was almost universal, had appeared that stupendous + work, the English Bible,—a book which, if everything else in our + language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of + its beauty and power. The respect which the translators felt for the + original prevented them from adding any of the hideous decorations then in + fashion. The groundwork of the version, indeed, was of an earlier age. The + familiarity with which the Puritans, on almost every occasion, used the + Scriptural phrases was no doubt very ridiculous; but it produced good + effects. It was a cant; but it drove out a cant far more offensive. + </p> + <p> + The highest kind of poetry is, in a great measure, independent of those + circumstances which regulate the style of composition in prose. But with + that inferior species of poetry which succeeds to it the case is widely + different. In a few years, the good sense and good taste which had weeded + out affectation from moral and political treatises would, in the natural + course of things, have effected a similar reform in the sonnet and the + ode. The rigour of the victorious sectaries had relaxed. A dominant + religion is never ascetic. The Government connived at theatrical + representations. The influence of Shakspeare was once more felt. But + darker days were approaching. A foreign yoke was to be imposed on our + literature. Charles, surrounded by the companions of his long exile, + returned to govern a nation which ought never to have cast him out or + never to have received him back. Every year which he had passed among + strangers had rendered him more unfit to rule his countrymen. In France he + had seen the refractory magistracy humbled, and royal prerogative, though + exercised by a foreign priest in the name of a child, victorious over all + opposition. This spectacle naturally gratified a prince to whose family + the opposition of Parliaments had been so fatal. Politeness was his + solitary good quality. The insults which he had suffered in Scotland had + taught him to prize it. The effeminacy and apathy of his disposition + fitted him to excel in it. The elegance and vivacity of the French manners + fascinated him. With the political maxims and the social habits of his + favourite people, he adopted their taste in composition, and, when seated + on the throne, soon rendered it fashionable, partly by direct patronage, + but still more by that contemptible policy, which, for a time, made + England the last of the nations, and raised Louis the Fourteenth to a + height of power and fame, such as no French sovereign had ever before + attained. + </p> + <p> + It was to please Charles that rhyme was first introduced into our plays. + Thus, a rising blow, which would at any time have been mortal, was dealt + to the English Drama, then just recovering from its languishing condition. + Two detestable manners, the indigenous and the imported, were now in a + state of alternate conflict and amalgamation. The bombastic meanness of + the new style was blended with the ingenious absurdity of the old; and the + mixture produced something which the world had never before seen, and + which, we hope, it will never see again,—something, by the side of + which the worst nonsense of all other ages appears to advantage—something, + which those who have attempted to caricature it have, against their will, + been forced to flatter—of which the tragedy of Bayes is a very + favourable specimen. What Lord Dorset observed to Edward Howard might have + been addressed to almost all his contemporaries— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "As skilful divers to the bottom fall + Swifter than those who cannot swim at all; + So, in this way of writing without thinking, + Thou hast a strange alacrity in sinking." +</pre> + <p> + From this reproach some clever men of the world must be excepted, and + among them Dorset himself. Though by no means great poets, or even good + versifiers, they always wrote with meaning, and sometimes with wit. + Nothing indeed more strongly shows to what a miserable state literature + had fallen, than the immense superiority which the occasional rhymes, + carelessly thrown on paper by men of this class, possess over the + elaborate productions of almost all the professed authors. The reigning + taste was so bad, that the success of a writer was in inverse proportion + to his labour, and to his desire of excellence. An exception must be made + for Butler, who had as much wit and learning as Cowley, and who knew, what + Cowley never knew, how to use them. A great command of good homely English + distinguishes him still more from the other writers of the time. As for + Gondibert, those may criticise it who can read it. Imagination was + extinct. Taste was depraved. Poetry, driven from palaces, colleges, and + theatres, had found an asylum in the obscure dwelling where a Great Man, + born out of due season, in disgrace, penury, pain and blindness, still + kept uncontaminated a character and a genius worthy of a better age. + </p> + <p> + Everything about Milton is wonderful; but nothing is so wonderful as that, + in an age so unfavourable to poetry, he should have produced the greatest + of modern epic poems. We are not sure that this is not in some degree to + be attributed to his want of sight. The imagination is notoriously most + active when the external world is shut out. In sleep its illusions are + perfect. They produce all the effect of realities. In darkness its visions + are always more distinct than in the light. Every person who amuses + himself with what is called building castles in the air must have + experienced this. We know artists who, before they attempt to draw a face + from memory, close their eyes, that they may recall a more perfect image + of the features and the expression. We are therefore inclined to believe + that the genius of Milton may have been preserved from the influence of + times so unfavourable to it by his infirmity. Be this as it may, his works + at first enjoyed a very small share of popularity. To be neglected by his + contemporaries was the penalty which he paid for surpassing them. His + great poem was not generally studied or admired till writers far inferior + to him had, by obsequiously cringing to the public taste, acquired + sufficient favour to reform it. + </p> + <p> + Of these, Dryden was the most eminent. Amidst the crowd of authors who, + during the earlier years of Charles the Second, courted notoriety by every + species of absurdity and affectation, he speedily became conspicuous. No + man exercised so much influence on the age. The reason is obvious. On no + man did the age exercise so much influence. He was perhaps the greatest of + those whom we have designated as the critical poets; and his literary + career exhibited, on a reduced scale, the whole history of the school to + which he belonged,—the rudeness and extravagance of its infancy,—the + propriety, the grace, the dignified good sense, the temperate splendour of + its maturity. His imagination was torpid, till it was awakened by his + judgment. He began with quaint parallels and empty mouthing. He gradually + acquired the energy of the satirist, the gravity of the moralist, the + rapture of the lyric poet. The revolution through which English literature + has been passing, from the time of Cowley to that of Scott, may be seen in + miniature within the compass of his volumes. + </p> + <p> + His life divides itself into two parts. There is some debatable ground on + the common frontier; but the line may be drawn with tolerable accuracy. + The year 1678 is that on which we should be inclined to fix as the date of + a great change in his manner. During the preceding period appeared some of + his courtly panegyrics—his Annus Mirabilis, and most of his plays; + indeed, all his rhyming tragedies. To the subsequent period belong his + best dramas,—All for Love, the Spanish Friar, and Sebastian,—his + satires, his translations, his didactic poems, his fables, and his odes. + </p> + <p> + Of the small pieces which were presented to chancellors and princes it + would scarcely be fair to speak. The greatest advantage which the Fine + Arts derive from the extension of knowledge is, that the patronage of + individuals becomes unnecessary. Some writers still affect to regret the + age of patronage. None but bad writers have reason to regret it. It is + always an age of general ignorance. Where ten thousand readers are eager + for the appearance of a book, a small contribution from each makes up a + splendid remuneration for the author. Where literature is a luxury, + confined to few, each of them must pay high. If the Empress Catherine, for + example, wanted an epic poem, she must have wholly supported the poet;—just + as, in a remote country village, a man who wants a muttonchop is sometimes + forced to take the whole sheep;—a thing which never happens where + the demand is large. But men who pay largely for the gratification of + their taste, will expect to have it united with some gratification to + their vanity. Flattery is carried to a shameless extent; and the habit of + flattery almost inevitably introduces a false taste into composition. Its + language is made up of hyperbolical commonplaces,—offensive from + their triteness,—still more offensive from their extravagance. In no + school is the trick of overstepping the modesty of nature so speedily + acquired. The writer, accustomed to find exaggeration acceptable and + necessary on one subject, uses it on all. It is not strange, therefore, + that the early panegyrical verses of Dryden should be made up of meanness + and bombast. They abound with the conceits which his immediate + predecessors had brought into fashion. But his language and his + versification were already far superior to theirs. + </p> + <p> + The Annus Mirabilis shows great command of expression, and a fine ear for + heroic rhyme. Here its merits end. Not only has it no claim to be called + poetry, but it seems to be the work of a man who could never, by any + possibility, write poetry. Its affected similes are the best part of it. + Gaudy weeds present a more encouraging spectacle than utter barrenness. + There is scarcely a single stanza in this long work to which the + imagination seems to have contributed anything. It is produced, not by + creation, but by construction. It is made up, not of pictures, but of + inferences. We will give a single instance, and certainly a favourable + instance,—a quatrain which Johnson has praised. Dryden is describing + the sea-fight with the Dutch— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Amidst whole heaps of spices lights a ball; + And now their odours armed against them fly. + Some preciously by shattered porcelain fall, + And some by aromatic splinters die." +</pre> + <p> + The poet should place his readers, as nearly as possible, in the situation + of the sufferers or the spectators. His narration ought to produce + feelings similar to those which would be excited by the event itself. Is + this the case here? Who, in a sea-fight, ever thought of the price of the + china which beats out the brains of a sailor; or of the odour of the + splinter which shatters his leg? It is not by an act of the imagination, + at once calling up the scene before the interior eye, but by painful + meditation,—by turning the subject round and round,—by tracing + out facts into remote consequences,—that these incongruous topics + are introduced into the description. Homer, it is true, perpetually uses + epithets which are not peculiarly appropriate. Achilles is the + swift-footed, when he is sitting still. Ulysses is the much-enduring, when + he has nothing to endure. Every spear casts a long shadow, every ox has + crooked horns, and every woman a high bosom, though these particulars may + be quite beside the purpose. In our old ballads a similar practice + prevails. The gold is always red, and the ladies always gay, though + nothing whatever may depend on the hue of the gold, or the temper of the + ladies. But these adjectives are mere customary additions. They merge in + the substantives to which they are attached. If they at all colour the + idea, it is with a tinge so slight as in no respect to alter the general + effect. In the passage which we have quoted from Dryden the case is very + different. "Preciously" and "aromatic" divert our whole attention to + themselves, and dissolve the image of the battle in a moment. The whole + poem reminds us of Lucan, and of the worst parts of Lucan,—the + sea-fight in the Bay of Marseilles, for example. The description of the + two fleets during the night is perhaps the only passage which ought to be + exempted from this censure. If it was from the Annus Mirabilis that Milton + formed his opinion, when he pronounced Dryden a good rhymer but no poet, + he certainly judged correctly. But Dryden was, as we have said, one of + those writers in whom the period of imagination does not precede, but + follow, the period of observation and reflection. + </p> + <p> + His plays, his rhyming plays in particular, are admirable subjects for + those who wish to study the morbid anatomy of the drama. He was utterly + destitute of the power of exhibiting real human beings. Even in the far + inferior talent of composing characters out of those elements into which + the imperfect process of our reason can resolve them, he was very + deficient. His men are not even good personifications; they are not + well-assorted assemblages of qualities. Now and then, indeed, he seizes a + very coarse and marked distinction, and gives us, not a likeness, but a + strong caricature, in which a single peculiarity is protruded, and + everything else neglected; like the Marquis of Granby at an inn-door, whom + we know by nothing but his baldness; or Wilkes, who is Wilkes only in his + squint. These are the best specimens of his skill. For most of his + pictures seem, like Turkey carpets, to have been expressly designed not to + resemble anything in the heavens above, in the earth beneath, or in the + waters under the earth. + </p> + <p> + The latter manner he practises most frequently in his tragedies, the + former in his comedies. The comic characters are, without mixture, + loathsome and despicable. The men of Etherege and Vanbrugh are bad enough. + Those of Smollett are perhaps worse. But they do not approach to the + Celadons, the Wildbloods, the Woodalls, and the Rhodophils of Dryden. The + vices of these last are set off by a certain fierce hard impudence, to + which we know nothing comparable. Their love is the appetite of beasts; + their friendship the confederacy of knaves. The ladies seem to have been + expressly created to form helps meet for such gentlemen. In deceiving and + insulting their old fathers they do not perhaps exceed the license which, + by immemorial prescription, has been allowed to heroines. But they also + cheat at cards, rob strong boxes, put up their favours to auction, betray + their friends, abuse their rivals in the style of Billingsgate, and invite + their lovers in the language of the Piazza. These, it must be remembered, + are not the valets and waiting-women, the Mascarilles and Nerines, but the + recognised heroes and heroines who appear as the representatives of good + society, and who, at the end of the fifth act, marry and live very happily + ever after. The sensuality, baseness, and malice of their natures is + unredeemed by any quality of a different description,—by any touch + of kindness,—or even by any honest burst of hearty hatred and + revenge. We are in a world where there is no humanity, no veracity, no + sense of shame,—a world for which any good-natured man would gladly + take in exchange the society of Milton's devils. But as soon as we enter + the regions of Tragedy, we find a great change. There is no lack of fine + sentiment there. Metastasio is surpassed in his own department. Scuderi is + out-scuderied. We are introduced to people whose proceedings we can trace + to no motive,—of whose feelings we can form no more idea than of a + sixth sense. We have left a race of creatures, whose love is as delicate + and affectionate as the passion which an alderman feels for a turtle. We + find ourselves among beings, whose love is a purely disinterested emotion,—a + loyalty extending to passive obedience,—a religion, like that of the + Quietists, unsupported by any sanction of hope or fear. We see nothing but + despotism without power, and sacrifices without compensation. + </p> + <p> + We will give a few instances. In Aurengzebe, Arimant, governor of Agra, + falls in love with his prisoner Indamora. She rejects his suit with scorn; + but assures him that she shall make great use of her power over him. He + threatens to be angry. She answers, very coolly: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Do not: your anger, like your love, is vain: + Whene'er I please, you must be pleased again. + Knowing what power I have your will to bend, + I'll use it; for I need just such a friend." +</pre> + <p> + This is no idle menace. She soon brings a letter addressed to his rival,—orders + him to read it,—asks him whether he thinks it sufficiently tender,—and + finally commands him to carry it himself. Such tyranny as this, it may be + thought, would justify resistance. Arimant does indeed venture to + remonstrate:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "This fatal paper rather let me tear, + Than, like Bellerophon, my sentence bear." +</pre> + <p> + The answer of the lady is incomparable:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "You may; but 'twill not be your best advice; + 'Twill only give me pains of writing twice. + You know you must obey me, soon or late. + Why should you vainly struggle with your fate?" +</pre> + <p> + Poor Arimant seems to be of the same opinion. He mutters something about + fate and free-will, and walks off with the billet-doux. + </p> + <p> + In the Indian Emperor, Montezuma presents Almeria with a garland as a + token of his love, and offers to make her his queen. She replies:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "I take this garland, not as given by you; + But as my merit's and my beauty's due; + As for the crown which you, my slave, possess, + To share it with you would but make me less." +</pre> + <p> + In return for such proofs of tenderness as these, her admirer consents to + murder his two sons and a benefactor to whom he feels the warmest + gratitude. Lyndaraxa, in the Conquest of Granada, assumes the same lofty + tone with Abdelmelech. He complains that she smiles upon his rival. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Lynd. And when did I my power so far resign, + That you should regulate each look of mine? + + Abdel. Then, when you gave your love, you gave that power. + + Lynd. 'Twas during pleasure—'tis revoked this hour. + + Abdel. I'll hate you, and this visit is my last. + + Lynd. Do, if you can: you know I hold you fast." +</pre> + <p> + That these passages violate all historical propriety, that sentiments to + which nothing similar was ever even affected except by the cavaliers of + Europe, are transferred to Mexico and Agra, is a light accusation. We have + no objection to a conventional world, an Illyrian puritan, or a Bohemian + seaport. While the faces are good, we care little about the back-ground. + Sir Joshua Reynolds says that the curtains and hangings in an historical + painting ought to be, not velvet or cotton, but merely drapery. The same + principle should be applied to poetry and romance. The truth of character + is the first object; the truth of place and time is to be considered only + in the second place. Puff himself could tell the actor to turn out his + toes, and remind him that Keeper Hatton was a great dancer. We wish that, + in our own time, a writer of a very different order from Puff had not too + often forgotten human nature in the niceties of upholstery, millinery, and + cookery. + </p> + <p> + We blame Dryden, not because the persons of his dramas are not Moors or + Americans, but because they are not men and women;—not because love, + such as he represents it, could not exist in a harem or in a wigwam, but + because it could not exist anywhere. As is the love of his heroes, such + are all their other emotions. All their qualities, their courage, their + generosity, their pride, are on the same colossal scale. Justice and + prudence are virtues which can exist only in a moderate degree, and which + change their nature and their name if pushed to excess. Of justice and + prudence, therefore, Dryden leaves his favourites destitute. He did not + care to give them what he could not give without measure. The tyrants and + ruffians are merely the heroes altered by a few touches, similar to those + which transformed the honest face of Sir Roger de Coverley into the + Saracen's head. Through the grin and frown the original features are still + perceptible. + </p> + <p> + It is in the tragi-comedies that these absurdities strike us most. The two + races of men, or rather the angels and the baboons, are there presented to + us together. We meet in one scene with nothing but gross, selfish, + unblushing, lying libertines of both sexes, who, as a punishment, we + suppose, for their depravity, are condemned to talk nothing but prose. + But, as soon as we meet with people who speak in verse, we know that we + are in society which would have enraptured the Cathos and Madelon of + Moliere, in society for which Oroondates would have too little of the + lover, and Clelia too much of the coquette. + </p> + <p> + As Dryden was unable to render his plays interesting by means of that + which is the peculiar and appropriate excellence of the drama, it was + necessary that he should find some substitute for it. In his comedies he + supplied its place, sometimes by wit, but more frequently by intrigue, by + disguises, mistakes of persons, dialogues at cross purposes, hair-breadth + escapes, perplexing concealments, and surprising disclosures. He thus + succeeded at least in making these pieces very amusing. + </p> + <p> + In his tragedies he trusted, and not altogether without reason, to his + diction and his versification. It was on this account, in all probability, + that he so eagerly adopted, and so reluctantly abandoned, the practice of + rhyming in his plays. What is unnatural appears less unnatural in that + species of verse than in lines which approach more nearly to common + conversation; and in the management of the heroic couplet Dryden has never + been equalled. It is unnecessary to urge any arguments against a fashion + now universally condemned. But it is worthy of observation, that, though + Dryden was deficient in that talent which blank verse exhibits to the + greatest advantage, and was certainly the best writer of heroic rhyme in + our language, yet the plays which have, from the time of their first + appearance, been considered as his best, are in blank verse. No experiment + can be more decisive. + </p> + <p> + It must be allowed that the worst even of the rhyming tragedies contains + good description and magnificent rhetoric. But, even when we forget that + they are plays, and, passing by their dramatic improprieties, consider + them with reference to the language, we are perpetually disgusted by + passages which it is difficult to conceive how any author could have + written, or any audience have tolerated, rants in which the raving + violence of the manner forms a strange contrast with the abject tameness + of the thought. The author laid the whole fault on the audience, and + declared that, when he wrote them, he considered them bad enough to + please. This defence is unworthy of a man of genius, and after all, is no + defence. Otway pleased without rant; and so might Dryden have done, if he + had possessed the powers of Otway. The fact is, that he had a tendency to + bombast, which, though subsequently corrected by time and thought, was + never wholly removed, and which showed itself in performances not designed + to please the rude mob of the theatre. + </p> + <p> + Some indulgent critics have represented this failing as an indication of + genius, as the profusion of unlimited wealth, the wantonness of exuberant + vigour. To us it seems to bear a nearer affinity to the tawdriness of + poverty, or the spasms and convulsions of weakness. Dryden surely had not + more imagination than Homer, Dante, or Milton, who never fall into this + vice. The swelling diction of Aeschylus and Isaiah resembles that of + Almanzor and Maximin no more than the tumidity of a muscle resembles the + tumidity of a boil. The former is symptomatic of health and strength, the + latter of debility and disease. If ever Shakspeare rants, it is not when + his imagination is hurrying him along, but when he is hurrying his + imagination along,—when his mind is for a moment jaded,—when, + as was said of Euripides, he resembles a lion, who excites his own fury by + lashing himself with his tail. What happened to Shakspeare from the + occasional suspension of his powers happened to Dryden from constant + impotence. He, like his confederate Lee, had judgment enough to appreciate + the great poets of the preceding age, but not judgment enough to shun + competition with them. He felt and admired their wild and daring + sublimity. That it belonged to another age than that in which he lived and + required other talents than those which he possessed, that, in aspiring to + emulate it, he was wasting, in a hopeless attempt, powers which might + render him pre-eminent in a different career, was a lesson which he did + not learn till late. As those knavish enthusiasts, the French prophets, + courted inspiration by mimicking the writhings, swoonings, and gaspings + which they considered as its symptoms, he attempted, by affected fits of + poetical fury, to bring on a real paroxysm; and, like them, he got nothing + but his distortions for his pains. + </p> + <p> + Horace very happily compares those who, in his time, imitated Pindar to + the youth who attempted to fly to heaven on waxen wings, and who + experienced so fatal and ignominious a fall. His own admirable good sense + preserved him from this error, and taught him to cultivate a style in + which excellence was within his reach. Dryden had not the same + self-knowledge. He saw that the greatest poets were never so successful as + when they rushed beyond the ordinary bounds, and that some inexplicable + good fortune preserved them from tripping even when they staggered on the + brink of nonsense. He did not perceive that they were guided and sustained + by a power denied to himself. They wrote from the dictation of the + imagination; and they found a response in the imaginations of others. He, + on the contrary, sat down to work himself, by reflection and argument, + into a deliberate wildness, a rational frenzy. + </p> + <p> + In looking over the admirable designs which accompany the Faust, we have + always been much struck by one which represents the wizard and the tempter + riding at full speed. The demon sits on his furious horse as heedlessly as + if he were reposing on a chair. That he should keep his saddle in such a + posture, would seem impossible to any who did not know that he was secure + in the privileges of a superhuman nature. The attitude of Faust, on the + contrary, is the perfection of horsemanship. Poets of the first order + might safely write as desperately as Mephistopheles rode. But Dryden, + though admitted to communion with higher spirits, though armed with a + portion of their power, and intrusted with some of their secrets, was of + another race. What they might securely venture to do, it was madness in + him to attempt. It was necessary that taste and critical science should + supply his deficiencies. + </p> + <p> + We will give a few examples. Nothing can be finer than the description of + Hector at the Grecian wall:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + o d ar esthore phaidimos Ektor, + Nukti thoe atalantos upopia lampe de chalko + Smerdaleo, ton eesto peri chroi doia de chersi + Dour echen ouk an tis min erukakoi antibolesas, + Nosphi theun, ot esalto pulas puri d osse dedeei. + —Autika d oi men teichos uperbasan, oi de kat autas + Poietas esechunto pulas Danaioi d ephobethen + Neas ana glaphuras omados d aliastos etuchthe. +</pre> + <p> + What daring expressions! Yet how significant! How picturesque! Hector + seems to rise up in his strength and fury. The gloom of night in his + frown,—the fire burning in his eyes,—the javelins and the + blazing armour,—the mighty rush through the gates and down the + battlements,—the trampling and the infinite roar of the multitude,—everything + is with us; everything is real. + </p> + <p> + Dryden has described a very similar event in Maximin, and has done his + best to be sublime, as follows:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "There with a forest of their darts he strove, + And stood like Capaneus defying Jove; + With his broad sword the boldest beating down, + Till Fate grew pale, lest he should win the town, + And turn'd the iron leaves of its dark book + To make new dooms, or mend what it mistook." +</pre> + <p> + How exquisite is the imagery of the fairy-songs in the Tempest and the + Midsummer Night's Dream; Ariel riding through the twilight on the bat, or + sucking in the bells of flowers with the bee; or the little bower-women of + Titania, driving the spiders from the couch of the Queen! Dryden truly + said, that + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Shakspeare's magic could not copied be; + Within that circle none durst walk but he." +</pre> + <p> + It would have been well if he had not himself dared to step within the + enchanted line, and drawn on himself a fate similar to that which, + according to the old superstition, punished such presumptuous + interference. The following lines are parts of the song of his fairies:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Merry, merry, merry, we sail from the East, + Half-tippled at a rainbow feast. + In the bright moonshine, while winds whistle loud, + Tivy, tivy, tivy, we mount and we fly, + All racking along in a downy white cloud; + And lest our leap from the sky prove too far, + We slide on the back of a new falling star, + And drop from above + In a jelly of love." +</pre> + <p> + These are very favourable instances. Those who wish for a bad one may read + the dying speeches of Maximin, and may compare them with the last scenes + of Othello and Lear. + </p> + <p> + If Dryden had died before the expiration of the first of the periods into + which we have divided his literary life, he would have left a reputation, + at best, little higher than that of Lee or Davenant. He would have been + known only to men of letters; and by them he would have been mentioned as + a writer who threw away, on subjects which he was incompetent to treat, + powers which, judiciously employed, might have raised him to eminence; + whose diction and whose numbers had sometimes very high merit, but all + whose works were blemished by a false taste, and by errors of gross + negligence. A few of his prologues and epilogues might perhaps still have + been remembered and quoted. In these little pieces he early showed all the + powers which afterwards rendered him the greatest of modern satirists. + But, during the latter part of his life, he gradually abandoned the drama. + His plays appeared at longer intervals. He renounced rhyme in tragedy. His + language became less turgid—his characters less exaggerated. He did + not indeed produce correct representations of human nature; but he ceased + to daub such monstrous chimeras as those which abound in his earlier + pieces. Here and there passages occur worthy of the best ages of the + British stage. The style which the drama requires changes with every + change of character and situation. He who can vary his manner to suit the + variation is the great dramatist; but he who excels in one manner only + will, when that manner happens to be appropriate, appear to be a great + dramatist; as the hands of a watch which does not go point right once in + the twelve hours. Sometimes there is a scene of solemn debate. This a mere + rhetorician may write as well as the greatest tragedian that ever lived. + We confess that to us the speech of Sempronius in Cato seems very nearly + as good as Shakspeare could have made it. But when the senate breaks up, + and we find that the lovers and their mistresses, the hero, the villain, + and the deputy-villain, all continue to harangue in the same style, we + perceive the difference between a man who can write a play and a man who + can write a speech. In the same manner, wit, a talent for description, or + a talent for narration, may, for a time, pass for dramatic genius. Dryden + was an incomparable reasoner in verse. He was conscious of his power; he + was proud of it; and the authors of the Rehearsal justly charged him with + abusing it. His warriors and princesses are fond of discussing points of + amorous casuistry, such as would have delighted a Parliament of Love. They + frequently go still deeper, and speculate on philosophical necessity and + the origin of evil. + </p> + <p> + There were, however, some occasions which absolutely required this + peculiar talent. Then Dryden was indeed at home. All his best scenes are + of this description. They are all between men; for the heroes of Dryden, + like many other gentlemen, can never talk sense when ladies are in + company. They are all intended to exhibit the empire of reason over + violent passion. We have two interlocutors, the one eager and impassioned, + the other high, cool, and judicious. The composed and rational character + gradually acquires the ascendency. His fierce companion is first inflamed + to rage by his reproaches, then overawed by his equanimity, convinced by + his arguments, and soothed by his persuasions. This is the case in the + scene between Hector and Troilus, in that between Antony and Ventidius, + and in that between Sebastian and Dorax. Nothing of the same kind in + Shakspeare is equal to them, except the quarrel between Brutus and + Cassius, which is worth them all three. + </p> + <p> + Some years before his death, Dryden altogether ceased to write for the + stage. He had turned his powers in a new direction, with success the most + splendid and decisive. His taste had gradually awakened his creative + faculties. The first rank in poetry was beyond his reach; but he + challenged and secured the most honourable place in the second. His + imagination resembled the wings of an ostrich; it enabled him to run, + though not to soar. When he attempted the highest flights, he became + ridiculous; but, while he remained in a lower region, he out-stripped all + competitors. + </p> + <p> + All his natural and all his acquired powers fitted him to found a good + critical school of poetry. Indeed he carried his reforms too far for his + age. After his death our literature retrograded; and a century was + necessary to bring it back to the point at which he left it. The general + soundness and healthfulness of his mental constitution, his information, + of vast superficies, though of small volume, his wit scarcely inferior to + that of the most distinguished followers of Donne, his eloquence, grave, + deliberate, and commanding, could not save him from disgraceful failure as + a rival of Shakspeare, but raised him far above the level of Boileau. His + command of language was immense. With him died the secret of the old + poetical diction of England,—the art of producing rich effects by + familiar words. In the following century it was as completely lost as the + Gothic method of painting glass, and was but poorly supplied by the + laborious and tesselated imitations of Mason and Gray. On the other hand, + he was the first writer under whose skilful management the scientific + vocabulary fell into natural and pleasing verse. In this department, he + succeeded as completely as his contemporary Gibbons succeeded in the + similar enterprise of carving the most delicate flowers from heart of oak. + The toughest and most knotty parts of language became ductile at his + touch. His versification, in the same manner, while it gave the first + model of that neatness and precision which the following generation + esteemed so highly, exhibited at the same time, the last examples of + nobleness, freedom, variety of pause, and cadence. His tragedies in rhyme, + however worthless in themselves, had at least served the purpose of + nonsense-verses; they had taught him all the arts of melody which the + heroic couplet admits. For bombast, his prevailing vice, his new subjects + gave little opportunity; his better taste gradually discarded it. + </p> + <p> + He possessed, as we have said, in a pre-eminent degree the power of + reasoning in verse; and this power was now peculiarly useful to him. His + logic is by no means uniformly sound. On points of criticism, he always + reasons ingeniously; and when he is disposed to be honest, correctly. But + the theological and political questions which he undertook to treat in + verse were precisely those which he understood least. His arguments, + therefore, are often worthless. But the manner in which they are stated is + beyond all praise. The style is transparent. The topics follow each other + in the happiest order. The objections are drawn up in such a manner that + the whole fire of the reply may be brought to bear on them. The + circumlocutions which are substituted for technical phrases are clear, + neat, and exact. The illustrations at once adorn and elucidate the + reasoning. The sparkling epigrams of Cowley, and the simple garrulity of + the burlesque poets of Italy, are alternately employed, in the happiest + manner, to give effect to what is obvious or clearness to what is obscure. + </p> + <p> + His literary creed was catholic, even to latitudinarianism; not from any + want of acuteness, but from a disposition to be easily satisfied. He was + quick to discern the smallest glimpse of merit; he was indulgent even to + gross improprieties, when accompanied by any redeeming talent. When he + said a severe thing, it was to serve a temporary purpose,—to support + an argument, or to tease a rival. Never was so able a critic so free from + fastidiousness. He loved the old poets, especially Shakspeare. He admired + the ingenuity which Donne and Cowley had so wildly abused. He did justice, + amidst the general silence, to the memory of Milton. He praised to the + skies the school-boy lines of Addison. Always looking on the fair side of + every object, he admired extravagance on account of the invention which he + supposed it to indicate; he excused affectation in favour of wit; he + tolerated even tameness for the sake of the correctness which was its + concomitant. + </p> + <p> + It was probably to this turn of mind, rather than to the more disgraceful + causes which Johnson has assigned, that we are to attribute the + exaggeration which disfigures the panegyrics of Dryden. No writer, it must + be owned, has carried the flattery of dedication to a greater length. But + this was not, we suspect, merely interested servility: it was the + overflowing of a mind singularly disposed to admiration,—of a mind + which diminished vices, and magnified virtues and obligations. The most + adulatory of his addresses is that in which he dedicates the State of + Innocence to Mary of Modena. Johnson thinks it strange that any man should + use such language without self-detestation. But he has not remarked that + to the very same work is prefixed an eulogium on Milton, which certainly + could not have been acceptable at the Court of Charles the Second. Many + years later, when Whig principles were in a great measure triumphant, + Sprat refused to admit a monument of John Phillips into Westminster Abbey—because, + in the epitaph, the name of Milton incidentally occurred. The walls of his + church, he declared, should not be polluted by the name of a republican! + Dryden was attached, both by principle and interest, to the Court. But + nothing could deaden his sensibility to excellence. We are unwilling to + accuse him severely, because the same disposition, which prompted him to + pay so generous a tribute to the memory of a poet whom his patrons + detested, hurried him into extravagance when he described a princess + distinguished by the splendour of her beauty and the graciousness of her + manners. + </p> + <p> + This is an amiable temper; but it is not the temper of great men. Where + there is elevation of character, there will be fastidiousness. It is only + in novels and on tombstones that we meet with people who are indulgent to + the faults of others, and unmerciful to their own; and Dryden, at all + events, was not one of these paragons. His charity was extended most + liberally to others; but it certainly began at home. In taste he was by no + means deficient. His critical works are, beyond all comparison, superior + to any which had, till then, appeared in England. They were generally + intended as apologies for his own poems, rather than as expositions of + general principles; he, therefore, often attempts to deceive the reader by + sophistry which could scarcely have deceived himself. His dicta are the + dicta, not of a judge, but of an advocate:—often of an advocate in + an unsound cause. Yet, in the very act of misrepresenting the laws of + composition, he shows how well he understands them. But he was perpetually + acting against his better knowledge. His sins were sins against light. He + trusted that what was bad would be pardoned for the sake of what was good. + What was good, he took no pains to make better. He was not, like most + persons who rise to eminence, dissatisfied even with his best productions. + He had set up no unattainable standard of perfection, the contemplation of + which might at once improve and mortify him. His path was not attended by + an unapproachable mirage of excellence, for ever receding, and for ever + pursued. He was not disgusted by the negligence of others; and he extended + the same toleration to himself. His mind was of a slovenly character,—fond + of splendour, but indifferent to neatness. Hence most of his writings + exhibit the sluttish magnificence of a Russian noble, all vermin and + diamonds, dirty linen and inestimable sables. Those faults which spring + from affectation, time and thought in a great measure removed from his + poems. But his carelessness he retained to the last. If towards the close + of his life he less frequently went wrong from negligence, it was only + because long habits of composition rendered it more easy to go right. In + his best pieces we find false rhymes,—triplets, in which the third + line appears to be a mere intruder, and, while it breaks the music, adds + nothing to the meaning,—gigantic Alexandrines of fourteen and + sixteen syllables, and truncated verses for which he never troubled + himself to find a termination or a partner. + </p> + <p> + Such are the beauties and the faults which may be found in profusion + throughout the later works of Dryden. A more just and complete estimate of + his natural and acquired powers,—of the merits of his style and of + its blemishes,—may be formed from the Hind and Panther, than from + any of his other writings. As a didactic poem, it is far superior to the + Religio Laici. The satirical parts, particularly the character of Burnet, + are scarcely inferior to the best passages in Absalom and Achitophel. + There are, moreover, occasional touches of a tenderness which affects us + more, because it is decent, rational, and manly, and reminds us of the + best scenes in his tragedies. His versification sinks and swells in happy + unison with the subject; and his wealth of language seems to be unlimited. + Yet, the carelessness with which he has constructed his plot, and the + innumerable inconsistencies into which he is every moment falling, detract + much from the pleasure which such various excellence affords. + </p> + <p> + In Absalom and Achitophel he hit upon a new and rich vein, which he worked + with signal success. They ancient satirists were the subjects of a + despotic government. They were compelled to abstain from political topics, + and to confine their attention to the frailties of private life. They + might, indeed, sometimes venture to take liberties with public men, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis atque Latina." +</pre> + <p> + Thus Juvenal immortalised the obsequious senators who met to decide the + fate of the memorable turbot. His fourth satire frequently reminds us of + the great political poem of Dryden; but it was not written till Domitian + had fallen: and it wants something of the peculiar flavour which belongs + to contemporary invective alone. His anger has stood so long that, though + the body is not impaired, the effervescence, the first cream, is gone. + Boileau lay under similar restraints; and, if he had been free from all + restraints, would have been no match for our countryman. + </p> + <p> + The advantages which Dryden derived from the nature of his subject he + improved to the very utmost. His manner is almost perfect. The style of + Horace and Boileau is fit only for light subjects. The Frenchman did + indeed attempt to turn the theological reasonings of the Provincial + Letters into verse, but with very indifferent success. The glitter of Pope + is gold. The ardour of Persius is without brilliancy. Magnificent + versification and ingenious combinations rarely harmonise with the + expression of deep feeling. In Juvenal and Dryden alone we have the + sparkle and the heat together. Those great satirists succeeded in + communicating the fervour of their feelings to materials the most + incombustible, and kindled the whole mass into a blaze, at once dazzling + and destructive. We cannot, indeed, think, without regret, of the part + which so eminent a writer as Dryden took in the disputes of that period. + There was, no doubt, madness and wickedness on both sides. But there was + liberty on the one, and despotism on the other. On this point, however, we + will not dwell. At Talavera the English and French troops for a moment + suspended their conflict, to drink of a stream which flowed between them. + The shells were passed across from enemy to enemy without apprehension or + molestation. We, in the same manner, would rather assist our political + adversaries to drink with us of that fountain of intellectual pleasure, + which should be the common refreshment of both parties, than disturb and + pollute it with the havoc of unseasonable hostilities. + </p> + <p> + Macflecnoe is inferior to Absalom and Achitophel only in the subject. In + the execution it is even superior. But the greatest work of Dryden was the + last, the Ode on Saint Cecilia's Day. It is the masterpiece of the second + class of poetry, and ranks but just below the great models of the first. + It reminds us of the Pedasus of Achilles— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + os, kai thnetos eon, epeth ippois athanatoisi. +</pre> + <p> + By comparing it with the impotent ravings of the heroic tragedies we may + measure the progress which the mind of Dryden had made. He had learned to + avoid a too audacious competition with higher natures, to keep at a + distance from the verge of bombast or nonsense, to venture on no + expression which did not convey a distinct idea to his own mind. There is + none of that "darkness visible" of style which he had formerly affected, + and in which the greatest poets only can succeed. Everything is definite, + significant, and picturesque. His early writings resembled the gigantic + works of those Chinese gardeners who attempt to rival nature herself, to + form cataracts of terrific height and sound, to raise precipitous ridges + of mountains, and to imitate in artificial plantations the vastness and + the gloom of some primeval forest. This manner he abandoned; nor did he + ever adopt the Dutch taste which Pope affected, the trim parterres, and + the rectangular walks. He rather resembled our Kents and Browns, who + imitating the great features of landscape without emulating them, + consulting the genius of the place, assisting nature and carefully + disguising their art, produced, not a Chamouni or a Niagara, but a Stowe + or a Hagley. + </p> + <p> + We are, on the whole, inclined to regret that Dryden did not accomplish + his purpose of writing an epic poem. It certainly would not have been a + work of the highest rank. It would not have rivalled the Iliad, the + Odyssey, or the Paradise Lost; but it would have been superior to the + productions of Apollonius, Lucan, or Statius, and not inferior to the + Jerusalem Delivered. It would probably have been a vigorous narrative, + animated with something of the spirit of the old romances, enriched with + much splendid description, and interspersed with fine declamations and + disquisitions. The danger of Dryden would have been from aiming too high; + from dwelling too much, for example, on his angels of kingdoms, and + attempting a competition with that great writer who in his own time had so + incomparably succeeded in representing to us the sights and sounds of + another world. To Milton, and to Milton alone, belonged the secrets of the + great deep, the beach of sulphur, the ocean of fire, the palaces of the + fallen dominations, glimmering through the everlasting shade, the silent + wilderness of verdure and fragrance where armed angels kept watch over the + sleep of the first lovers, the portico of diamond, the sea of jasper, the + sapphire pavement empurpled with celestial roses, and the infinite ranks + of the Cherubim, blazing with adamant and gold. The council, the + tournament, the procession, the crowded cathedral, the camp, the + guard-room, the chase, were the proper scenes for Dryden. + </p> + <p> + But we have not space to pass in review all the works which Dryden wrote. + We, therefore, will not speculate longer on those which he might possibly + have written. He may, on the whole, be pronounced to have been a man + possessed of splendid talents, which he often abused, and of a sound + judgment, the admonitions of which he often neglected; a man who succeeded + only in an inferior department of his art, but who, in that department, + succeeded pre-eminently; and who with a more independent spirit, a more + anxious desire of excellence, and more respect for himself, would, in his + own walk, have attained to absolute perfection. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + HISTORY. (May 1828.) + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The Romance of History. England." By Henry Neele. + London, 1828. +</pre> + <p> + To write history respectably—that is, to abbreviate despatches, and + make extracts from speeches, to intersperse in due proportion epithets of + praise and abhorrence, to draw up antithetical characters of great men, + setting forth how many contradictory virtues and vices they united, and + abounding in "withs" and "withouts"—all this is very easy. But to be + a really great historian is perhaps the rarest of intellectual + distinctions. Many scientific works are, in their kind, absolutely + perfect. There are poems which we should be inclined to designate as + faultless, or as disfigured only by blemishes which pass unnoticed in the + general blaze of excellence. There are speeches, some speeches of + Demosthenes particularly, in which it would be impossible to alter a word + without altering it for the worse. But we are acquainted with no history + which approaches to our notion of what a history ought to be—with no + history which does not widely depart, either on the right hand or on the + left, from the exact line. + </p> + <p> + The cause may easily be assigned. This province of literature is a + debatable land. It lies on the confines of two distinct territories. It is + under the jurisdiction of two hostile powers; and, like other districts + similarly situated, it is ill defined, ill cultivated, and ill regulated. + Instead of being equally shared between its two rulers, the Reason and the + Imagination, it falls alternately under the sole and absolute dominion of + each. It is sometimes fiction. It is sometimes theory. + </p> + <p> + History, it has been said, is philosophy teaching by examples. Unhappily, + what the philosophy gains in soundness and depth the examples generally + lose in vividness. A perfect historian must possess an imagination + sufficiently powerful to make his narrative affecting and picturesque. Yet + he must control it so absolutely as to content himself with the materials + which he finds, and to refrain from supplying deficiencies by additions of + his own. He must be a profound and ingenious reasoner. Yet he must possess + sufficient self-command to abstain from casting his facts in the mould of + his hypothesis. Those who can justly estimate these almost insuperable + difficulties will not think it strange that every writer should have + failed, either in the narrative or in the speculative department of + history. + </p> + <p> + It may be laid down as a general rule, though subject to considerable + qualifications and exceptions, that history begins in novel and ends in + essay. Of the romantic historians Herodotus is the earliest and the best. + His animation, his simple-hearted tenderness, his wonderful talent for + description and dialogue, and the pure sweet flow of his language, place + him at the head of narrators. He reminds us of a delightful child. There + is a grace beyond the reach of affectation in his awkwardness, a malice in + his innocence, an intelligence in his nonsense, an insinuating eloquence + in his lisp. We know of no writer who makes such interest for himself and + his book in the heart of the reader. At the distance of three-and-twenty + centuries, we feel for him the same sort of pitying fondness which + Fontaine and Gay are said to have inspired in society. He has written an + incomparable book. He has written something better perhaps than the best + history; but he has not written a good history; he is, from the first to + the last chapter, an inventor. We do not here refer merely to those gross + fictions with which he has been reproached by the critics of later times. + We speak of that colouring which is equally diffused over his whole + narrative, and which perpetually leaves the most sagacious reader in doubt + what to reject and what to receive. The most authentic parts of his work + bear the same relation to his wildest legends which Henry the Fifth bears + to the Tempest. There was an expedition undertaken by Xerxes against + Greece; and there was an invasion of France. There was a battle at + Plataea; and there was a battle at Agincourt. Cambridge and Exeter, the + Constable and the Dauphin, were persons as real as Demaratus and + Pausanias. The harangue of the Archbishop on the Salic Law and the Book of + Numbers differs much less from the orations which have in all ages + proceeded from the right reverend bench than the speeches of Mardonius and + Artabanus from those which were delivered at the council-board of Susa. + Shakspeare gives us enumerations of armies, and returns of killed and + wounded, which are not, we suspect, much less accurate than those of + Herodotus. There are passages in Herodotus nearly as long as acts of + Shakspeare, in which everything is told dramatically, and in which the + narrative serves only the purpose of stage-directions. It is possible, no + doubt, that the substance of some real conversations may have been + reported to the historian. But events which, if they ever happened, + happened in ages and nations so remote that the particulars could never + have been known to him, are related with the greatest minuteness of + detail. We have all that Candaules said to Gyges, and all that passed + between Astyages and Harpagus. We are, therefore, unable to judge whether, + in the account which he gives of transactions respecting which he might + possibly have been well informed, we can trust to anything beyond the + naked outline; whether, for example, the answer of Gelon to the + ambassadors of the Grecian confederacy, or the expressions which passed + between Aristides and Themistocles at their famous interview, have been + correctly transmitted to us. The great events are, no doubt, faithfully + related. So, probably, are many of the slighter circumstances; but which + of them it is impossible to ascertain. The fictions are so much like the + facts, and the facts so much like the fictions, that, with respect to many + most interesting particulars, our belief is neither given nor withheld, + but remains in an uneasy and interminable state of abeyance. We know that + there is truth; but we cannot exactly decide where it lies. + </p> + <p> + The faults of Herodotus are the faults of a simple and imaginative mind. + Children and servants are remarkably Herodotean in their style of + narration. They tell everything dramatically. Their "says hes" and "says + shes" are proverbial. Every person who has had to settle their disputes + knows that, even when they have no intention to deceive, their reports of + conversation always require to be carefully sifted. If an educated man + were giving an account of the late change of administration, he would say—"Lord + Goderich resigned; and the King, in consequence, sent for the Duke of + Wellington." A porter tells the story as if he had been hid behind the + curtains of the royal bed at Windsor: "So Lord Goderich says, 'I cannot + manage this business; I must go out.' So the King says,—says he, + 'Well, then, I must send for the Duke of Wellington—that's all.'" + This is in the very manner of the father of history. + </p> + <p> + Herodotus wrote as it was natural that he should write. He wrote for a + nation susceptible, curious, lively, insatiably desirous of novelty and + excitement; for a nation in which the fine arts had attained their highest + excellence, but in which philosophy was still in its infancy. His + countrymen had but recently begun to cultivate prose composition. Public + transactions had generally been recorded in verse. The first historians + might, therefore, indulge without fear of censure in the license allowed + to their predecessors the bards. Books were few. The events of former + times were learned from tradition and from popular ballads; the manners of + foreign countries from the reports of travellers. It is well known that + the mystery which overhangs what is distant, either in space or time, + frequently prevents us from censuring as unnatural what we perceive to be + impossible. We stare at a dragoon who has killed three French cuirassiers, + as a prodigy; yet we read, without the least disgust, how Godfrey slew his + thousands, and Rinaldo his ten thousands. Within the last hundred years, + stories about China and Bantam, which ought not to have imposed on an old + nurse, were gravely laid down as foundations of political theories by + eminent philosophers. What the time of the Crusades is to us, the + generation of Croesus and Solon was to the Greeks of the time of + Herodotus. Babylon was to them what Pekin was to the French academicians + of the last century. + </p> + <p> + For such a people was the book of Herodotus composed; and, if we may trust + to a report, not sanctioned indeed by writers of high authority, but in + itself not improbable, it was composed, not to be read, but to be heard. + It was not to the slow circulation of a few copies, which the rich only + could possess, that the aspiring author looked for his reward. The great + Olympian festival,—the solemnity which collected multitudes, proud + of the Grecian name, from the wildest mountains of Doris, and the remotest + colonies of Italy and Libya,—was to witness his triumph. The + interest of the narrative, and the beauty of the style, were aided by the + imposing effect of recitation,—by the splendour of the spectacle,—by + the powerful influence of sympathy. A critic who could have asked for + authorities in the midst of such a scene must have been of a cold and + sceptical nature; and few such critics were there. As was the historian, + such were the auditors,—inquisitive, credulous, easily moved by + religious awe or patriotic enthusiasm. They were the very men to hear with + delight of strange beasts, and birds, and trees,—of dwarfs, and + giants, and cannibals—of gods, whose very names it was impiety to + utter,—of ancient dynasties, which had left behind them monuments + surpassing all the works of later times,—of towns like provinces,—of + rivers like seas,—of stupendous walls, and temples, and pyramids,—of + the rites which the Magi performed at daybreak on the tops of the + mountains,—of the secrets inscribed on the eternal obelisks of + Memphis. With equal delight they would have listened to the graceful + romances of their own country. They now heard of the exact accomplishment + of obscure predictions, of the punishment of crimes over which the justice + of heaven had seemed to slumber,—of dreams, omens, warnings from the + dead,—of princesses, for whom noble suitors contended in every + generous exercise of strength and skill,—of infants, strangely + preserved from the dagger of the assassin, to fulfil high destinies. + </p> + <p> + As the narrative approached their own times, the interest became still + more absorbing. The chronicler had now to tell the story of that great + conflict from which Europe dates its intellectual and political supremacy,—a + story which, even at this distance of time, is the most marvellous and the + most touching in the annals of the human race,—a story abounding + with all that is wild and wonderful, with all that is pathetic and + animating; with the gigantic caprices of infinite wealth and despotic + power—with the mightier miracles of wisdom, of virtue, and of + courage. He told them of rivers dried up in a day,—of provinces + famished for a meal,—of a passage for ships hewn through the + mountains,—of a road for armies spread upon the waves,—of + monarchies and commonwealths swept away,—of anxiety, of terror, of + confusion, of despair!—and then of proud and stubborn hearts tried + in that extremity of evil, and not found wanting,—of resistance long + maintained against desperate odds,—of lives dearly sold, when + resistance could be maintained no more,—of signal deliverance, and + of unsparing revenge. Whatever gave a stronger air of reality to a + narrative so well calculated to inflame the passions, and to flatter + national pride, was certain to be favourably received. + </p> + <p> + Between the time at which Herodotus is said to have composed his history, + and the close of the Peloponnesian war, about forty years elapsed,—forty + years, crowded with great military and political events. The circumstances + of that period produced a great effect on the Grecian character; and + nowhere was this effect so remarkable as in the illustrious democracy of + Athens. An Athenian, indeed, even in the time of Herodotus, would scarcely + have written a book so romantic and garrulous as that of Herodotus. As + civilisation advanced, the citizens of that famous republic became still + less visionary, and still less simple-hearted. They aspired to know where + their ancestors had been content to doubt; they began to doubt where their + ancestors had thought it their duty to believe. Aristophanes is fond of + alluding to this change in the temper of his countrymen. The father and + son, in the Clouds, are evidently representatives of the generations to + which they respectively belonged. Nothing more clearly illustrates the + nature of this moral revolution than the change which passed upon tragedy. + The wild sublimity of Aeschylus became the scoff of every young + Phidippides. Lectures on abstruse points of philosophy, the fine + distinctions of casuistry, and the dazzling fence of rhetoric, were + substituted for poetry. The language lost something of that infantine + sweetness which had characterised it. It became less like the ancient + Tuscan, and more like the modern French. + </p> + <p> + The fashionable logic of the Greeks was, indeed, far from strict. Logic + never can be strict where books are scarce, and where information is + conveyed orally. We are all aware how frequently fallacies, which, when + set down on paper, are at once detected, pass for unanswerable arguments + when dexterously and volubly urged in Parliament, at the bar, or in + private conversation. The reason is evident. We cannot inspect them + closely enough to perceive their inaccuracy. We cannot readily compare + them with each other. We lose sight of one part of the subject before + another, which ought to be received in connection with it, comes before + us; and as there is no immutable record of what has been admitted and of + what has been denied, direct contradictions pass muster with little + difficulty. Almost all the education of a Greek consisted in talking and + listening. His opinions on government were picked up in the debates of the + assembly. If he wished to study metaphysics, instead of shutting himself + up with a book, he walked down to the market-place to look for a sophist. + So completely were men formed to these habits, that even writing acquired + a conversational air. The philosophers adopted the form of dialogue, as + the most natural mode of communicating knowledge. Their reasonings have + the merits and the defects which belong to that species of composition, + and are characterised rather by quickness and subtilty than by depth and + precision. Truth is exhibited in parts, and by glimpses. Innumerable + clever hints are given; but no sound and durable system is erected. The + argumentum ad hominem, a kind of argument most efficacious in debate, but + utterly useless for the investigation of general principles, is among + their favourite resources. Hence, though nothing can be more admirable + than the skill which Socrates displays in the conversations which Plato + has reported or invented, his victories, for the most part, seem to us + unprofitable. A trophy is set up; but no new province is added to the + dominions of the human mind. + </p> + <p> + Still, where thousands of keen and ready intellects were constantly + employed in speculating on the qualiies of actions and on the principles + of government, it was impossible that history should retain its whole + character. It became less gossiping and less picturesque; but much more + accurate, and somewhat more scientific. + </p> + <p> + The history of Thucydides differs from that of Herodotus as a portrait + differs from the representation of an imaginary scene; as the Burke or Fox + of Reynolds differs from his Ugolino or his Beaufort. In the former case, + the archetype is given: in the latter it is created. The faculties which + are required for the latter purpose are of a higher and rarer order than + those which suffice for the former, and indeed necessarily comprise them. + He who is able to paint what he sees with the eye of the mind will surely + be able to paint what he sees with the eye of the body. He who can invent + a story, and tell it well, will also be able to tell, in an interesting + manner, a story which he has not invented. If, in practice, some of the + best writers of fiction have been among the worst writers of history, it + has been because one of their talents had merged in another so completely + that it could not be severed; because, having long been habituated to + invent and narrate at the same time, they found it impossible to narrate + without inventing. + </p> + <p> + Some capricious and discontented artists have affected to consider + portrait-painting as unworthy of a man of genius. Some critics have spoken + in the same contemptuous manner of history. Johnson puts the case thus: + The historian tells either what is false or what is true: in the former + case he is no historian: in the latter he has no opportunity for + displaying his abilities: for truth is one: and all who tell the truth + must tell it alike. + </p> + <p> + It is not difficult to elude both the horns of this dilemma. We will recur + to the analogous art of portrait-painting. Any man with eyes and hands may + be taught to take a likeness. The process, up to a certain point, is + merely mechanical. If this were all, a man of talents might justly despise + the occupation. But we could mention portraits which are resemblances,—but + not mere resemblances; faithful,—but much more than faithful; + portraits which condense into one point of time, and exhibit, at a single + glance, the whole history of turbid and eventful lives—in which the + eye seems to scrutinise us, and the mouth to command us—in which the + brow menaces, and the lip almost quivers with scorn—in which every + wrinkle is a comment on some important transaction. The account which + Thucydides has given of the retreat from Syracuse is, among narratives, + what Vandyke's Lord Strafford is among paintings. + </p> + <p> + Diversity, it is said, implies error: truth is one, and admits of no + degrees. We answer, that this principle holds good only in abstract + reasonings. When we talk of the truth of imitation in the fine arts, we + mean an imperfect and a graduated truth. No picture is exactly like the + original; nor is a picture good in proportion as it is like the original. + When Sir Thomas Lawrence paints a handsome peeress, he does not + contemplate her through a powerful microscope, and transfer to the canvas + the pores of the skin, the blood-vessels of the eye, and all the other + beauties which Gulliver discovered in the Brobdingnagian maids of honour. + If he were to do this, the effect would not merely be unpleasant, but, + unless the scale of the picture were proportionably enlarged, would be + absolutely FALSE. And, after all, a microscope of greater power than that + which he had employed would convict him of innumerable omissions. The same + may be said of history. Perfectly and absolutely true it cannot be: for, + to be perfectly and absolutely true, it ought to record ALL the slightest + particulars of the slightest transactions—all the things done and + all the words uttered during the time of which it treats. The omission of + any circumstance, however insignificant, would be a defect. If history + were written thus, the Bodleian Library would not contain the occurrences + of a week. What is told in the fullest and most accurate annals bears an + infinitely small proportion to what is suppressed. The difference between + the copious work of Clarendon and the account of the civil wars in the + abridgment of Goldsmith vanishes when compared with the immense mass of + facts respecting which both are equally silent. + </p> + <p> + No picture, then, and no history, can present us with the whole truth: but + those are the best pictures and the best histories which exhibit such + parts of the truth as most nearly produce the effect of the whole. He who + is deficient in the art of selection may, by showing nothing but the + truth, produce all the effect of the grossest falsehood. It perpetually + happens that one writer tells less truth than another, merely because he + tells more truths. In the imitative arts we constantly see this. There are + lines in the human face, and objects in landscape, which stand in such + relations to each other, that they ought either to be all introduced into + a painting together or all omitted together. A sketch into which none of + them enters may be excellent; but, if some are given and others left out, + though there are more points of likeness, there is less likeness. An + outline scrawled with a pen, which seizes the marked features of a + countenance, will give a much stronger idea of it than a bad painting in + oils. Yet the worst painting in oils that ever hung at Somerset House + resembles the original in many more particulars. A bust of white marble + may give an excellent idea of a blooming face. Colour the lips and cheeks + of the bust, leaving the hair and eyes unaltered, and the similarity, + instead of being more striking, will be less so. + </p> + <p> + History has its foreground and its background: and it is principally in + the management of its perspective that one artist differs from another. + Some events must be represented on a large scale, others diminished; the + great majority will be lost in the dimness of the horizon; and a general + idea of their joint effect will be given by a few slight touches. + </p> + <p> + In this respect no writer has ever equalled Thucydides. He was a perfect + master of the art of gradual diminution. His history is sometimes as + concise as a chronological chart; yet it is always perspicuous. It is + sometimes as minute as one of Lovelace's letters; yet it is never prolix. + He never fails to contract and to expand it in the right place. + </p> + <p> + Thucydides borrowed from Herodotus the practice of putting speeches of his + own into the mouths of his characters. In Herodotus this usage is scarcely + censurable. It is of a piece with his whole manner. But it is altogether + incongruous in the work of his successor, and violates, not only the + accuracy of history, but the decencies of fiction. When once we enter into + the spirit of Herodotus, we find no inconsistency. The conventional + probability of his drama is preserved from the beginning to the end. The + deliberate orations, and the familiar dialogues, are in strict keeping + with each other. But the speeches of Thucydides are neither preceded nor + followed by anything with which they harmonise. They give to the whole + book something of the grotesque character of those Chinese + pleasure-grounds in which perpendicular rocks of granite start up in the + midst of a soft green plain. Invention is shocking where truth is in such + close juxtaposition with it. + </p> + <p> + Thucydides honestly tells us that some of these discourses are purely + fictitious. He may have reported the substance of others correctly, but it + is clear from the internal evidence that he has preserved no more than the + substance. His own peculiar habits of thought and expression are + everywhere discernible. Individual and national peculiarities are seldom + to be traced in the sentiments, and never in the diction. The oratory of + the Corinthians and Thebans is not less Attic, either in matter or in + manner, than that of the Athenians. The style of Cleon is as pure, as + austere, as terse, and as significant, as that of Pericles. + </p> + <p> + In spite of this great fault, it must be allowed that Thucydides has + surpassed all his rivals in the art of historical narration, in the art of + producing an effect on the imagination, by skilful selection and + disposition, without indulging in the license of invention. But narration, + though an important part of the business of a historian, is not the whole. + To append a moral to a work of fiction is either useless or superfluous. A + fiction may give a more impressive effect to what is already known; but it + can teach nothing new. If it presents to us characters and trains of + events to which our experience furnishes us with nothing similar, instead + of deriving instruction from it, we pronounce it unnatural. We do not form + our opinions from it; but we try it by our preconceived opinions. Fiction, + therefore, is essentially imitative. Its merit consists in its resemblance + to a model with which we are already familiar, or to which at least we can + instantly refer. Hence it is that the anecdotes which interest us most + strongly in authentic narrative are offensive when introduced into novels; + that what is called the romantic part of history is in fact the least + romantic. It is delightful as history, because it contradicts our previous + notions of human nature, and of the connection of causes and effects. It + is, on that very account, shocking and incongruous in fiction. In fiction, + the principles are given, to find the facts: in history, the facts are + given, to find the principles; and the writer who does not explain the + phenomena as well as state them, performs only one half of his office. + Facts are the mere dross of history. It is from the abstract truth which + interpenetrates them, and lies latent among them like gold in the ore, + that the mass derives its whole value: and the precious particles are + generally combined with the baser in such a manner that the separation is + a task of the utmost difficulty. + </p> + <p> + Here Thucydides is deficient: the deficiency, indeed, is not discreditable + to him. It was the inevitable effect of circumstances. It was in the + nature of things necessary that, in some part of its progress through + political science, the human mind should reach that point which it + attained in his time. Knowledge advances by steps, and not by leaps. The + axioms of an English debating club would have been startling and + mysterious paradoxes to the most enlightened statesmen of Athens. But it + would be as absurd to speak contemptuously of the Athenian on this account + as to ridicule Strabo for not having given us an account of Chili, or to + talk of Ptolemy as we talk of Sir Richard Phillips. Still, when we wish + for solid geographical information, we must prefer the solemn coxcombry of + Pinkerton to the noble work of Strabo. If we wanted instruction respecting + the solar system, we should consult the silliest girl from a + boarding-school, rather than Ptolemy. + </p> + <p> + Thucydides was undoubtedly a sagacious and reflecting man. This clearly + appears from the ability with which he discusses practical questions. But + the talent of deciding on the circumstances of a particular case is often + possessed in the highest perfection by persons destitute of the power of + generalisation. Men skilled in the military tactics of civilised nations + have been amazed at the far-sightedness and penetration which a Mohawk + displays in concerting his stratagems, or in discerning those of his + enemies. In England, no class possesses so much of that peculiar ability + which is required for constructing ingenious schemes, and for obviating + remote difficulties, as the thieves and the thief-takers. Women have more + of this dexterity than men. Lawyers have more of it than statesmen: + statesmen have more of it than philosophers. Monk had more of it than + Harrington and all his club. Walpole had more of it than Adam Smith or + Beccaria. Indeed, the species of discipline by which this dexterity is + acquired tends to contract the mind, and to render it incapable of + abstract reasoning. + </p> + <p> + The Grecian statesmen of the age of Thucydides were distinguished by their + practical sagacity, their insight into motives, their skill in devising + means for the attainment of their ends. A state of society in which the + rich were constantly planning the oppression of the poor, and the poor the + spoliation of the rich, in which the ties of party had superseded those of + country, in which revolutions and counter-revolutions were events of daily + occurrence, was naturally prolific in desperate and crafty political + adventurers. This was the very school in which men were likely to acquire + the dissimulation of Mazarin, the judicious temerity of Richelieu, the + penetration, the exquisite tact, the almost instinctive presentiment of + approaching events which gave so much authority to the counsel of + Shaftesbury, that "it was as if a man had inquired of the oracle of God." + In this school Thucydides studied; and his wisdom is that which such a + school would naturally afford. He judges better of circumstances than of + principles. The more a question is narrowed, the better he reasons upon + it. His work suggests many most important considerations respecting the + first principles of government and morals, the growth of factions, the + organisation of armies, and the mutual relations of communities. Yet all + his general observations on these subjects are very superficial. His most + judicious remarks differ from the remarks of a really philosophical + historian, as a sum correctly cast up by a bookkeeper from a general + expression discovered by an algebraist. The former is useful only in a + single transaction; the latter may be applied to an infinite number of + cases. + </p> + <p> + This opinion will, we fear, be considered as heterodox. For, not to speak + of the illusion which the sight of a Greek type, or the sound of a Greek + diphthong, often produces, there are some peculiarities in the manner of + Thucydides which in no small degree have tended to secure to him the + reputation of profundity. His book is evidently the book of a man and a + statesman; and in this respect presents a remarkable contrast to the + delightful childishness of Herodotus. Throughout it there is an air of + matured power, of grave and melancholy reflection, of impartiality and + habitual self-command. His feelings are rarely indulged, and speedily + repressed. Vulgar prejudices of every kind, and particularly vulgar + superstitions, he treats with a cold and sober disdain peculiar to + himself. His style is weighty, condensed, antithetical, and not + unfrequently obscure. But, when we look at his political philosophy, + without regard to these circumstances, we find him to have been, what + indeed it would have been a miracle if he had not been, simply an Athenian + of the fifth century before Christ. + </p> + <p> + Xenophon is commonly placed, but we think without much reason, in the same + rank with Herodotus and Thucydides. He resembles them, indeed, in the + purity and sweetness of his style; but in spirit, he rather resembles that + later school of historians whose works seem to be fables composed for a + moral, and who, in their eagerness to give us warnings and examples, + forget to give us men and women. The Life of Cyrus, whether we look upon + it as a history or as a romance, seems to us a very wretched performance. + The Expedition of the Ten Thousand, and the History of Grecian Affairs, + are certainly pleasant reading; but they indicate no great power of mind. + In truth, Xenophon, though his taste was elegant, his disposition amiable, + and his intercourse with the world extensive, had, we suspect, rather a + weak head. Such was evidently the opinion of that extraordinary man to + whom he early attached himself, and for whose memory he entertained an + idolatrous veneration. He came in only for the milk with which Socrates + nourished his babes in philosophy. A few saws of morality, and a few of + the simplest doctrines of natural religion, were enough for the good young + man. The strong meat, the bold speculations on physical and metaphysical + science, were reserved for auditors of a different description. Even the + lawless habits of a captain of mercenary troops could not change the + tendency which the character of Xenophon early acquired. To the last, he + seems to have retained a sort of heathen Puritanism. The sentiments of + piety and virtue which abound in his works are those of a well-meaning + man, somewhat timid and narrow-minded, devout from constitution rather + than from rational conviction. He was as superstitious as Herodotus, but + in a way far more offensive. The very peculiarities which charm us in an + infant, the toothless mumbling, the stammering, the tottering, the + helplessness, the causeless tears and laughter, are disgusting in old age. + In the same manner, the absurdity which precedes a period of general + intelligence is often pleasing; that which follows it is contemptible. The + nonsense of Herodotus is that of a baby. The nonsense of Xenophon is that + of a dotard. His stories about dreams, omens, and prophecies, present a + strange contrast to the passages in which the shrewd and incredulous + Thucydides mentions the popular superstitions. It is not quite clear that + Xenophon was honest in his credulity; his fanaticism was in some degree + politic. He would have made an excellent member of the Apostolic + Camarilla. An alarmist by nature, an aristocrat by party, he carried to an + unreasonable excess his horror of popular turbulence. The quiet atrocity + of Sparta did not shock him in the same manner; for he hated tumult more + than crimes. He was desirous to find restraints which might curb the + passions of the multitude; and he absurdly fancied that he had found them + in a religion without evidences or sanction, precepts or example, in a + frigid system of Theophilanthropy, supported by nursery tales. + </p> + <p> + Polybius and Arrian have given us authentic accounts of facts; and here + their merit ends. They were not men of comprehensive minds; they had not + the art of telling a story in an interesting manner. They have in + consequence been thrown into the shade by writers who, though less + studious of truth than themselves, understood far better the art of + producing effect,—by Livy and Quintus Curtius. + </p> + <p> + Yet Polybius and Arrian deserve high praise when compared with the writers + of that school of which Plutarch may be considered as the head. For the + historians of this class we must confess that we entertain a peculiar + aversion. They seem to have been pedants, who, though destitute of those + valuable qualities which are frequently found in conjunction with + pedantry, thought themselves great philosophers and great politicians. + They not only mislead their readers in every page, as to particular facts, + but they appear to have altogether misconceived the whole character of the + times of which they write. They were inhabitants of an empire bounded by + the Atlantic Ocean and the Euphrates, by the ice of Scythia and the sands + of Mauritania; composed of nations whose manners, whose languages, whose + religion, whose countenances and complexions, were widely different; + governed by one mighty despotism, which had risen on the ruins of a + thousand commonwealths and kingdoms. Of liberty, such as it is in small + democracies, of patriotism, such as it is in small independent communities + of any kind, they had, and they could have, no experimental knowledge. But + they had read of men who exerted themselves in the cause of their country + with an energy unknown in later times, who had violated the dearest of + domestic charities, or voluntarily devoted themselves to death for the + public good; and they wondered at the degeneracy of their contemporaries. + It never occurred to them that the feelings which they so greatly admired + sprung from local and occasional causes; that they will always grow up + spontaneously in small societies; and that, in large empires, though they + may be forced into existence for a short time by peculiar circumstances, + they cannot be general or permanent. It is impossible that any man should + feel for a fortress on a remote frontier as he feels for his own house; + that he should grieve for a defeat in which ten thousand people whom he + never saw have fallen as he grieves for a defeat which has half unpeopled + the street in which he lives; that he should leave his home for a military + expedition in order to preserve the balance of power, as cheerfully as he + would leave it to repel invaders who had begun to burn all the corn fields + in his neighbourhood. + </p> + <p> + The writers of whom we speak should have considered this. They should have + considered that in patriotism, such as it existed amongst the Greeks, + there was nothing essentially and eternally good; that an exclusive + attachment to a particular society, though a natural, and, under certain + restrictions, a most useful sentiment, implies no extraordinary + attainments in wisdom or virtue; that, where it has existed in an intense + degree, it has turned states into gangs of robbers whom their mutual + fidelity has rendered more dangerous, has given a character of peculiar + atrocity to war, and has generated that worst of all political evils, the + tyranny of nations over nations. + </p> + <p> + Enthusiastically attached to the name of liberty, these historians + troubled themselves little about its definition. The Spartans, tormented + by ten thousand absurd restraints, unable to please themselves in the + choice of their wives, their suppers, or their company, compelled to + assume a peculiar manner, and to talk in a peculiar style, gloried in + their liberty. The aristocracy of Rome repeatedly made liberty a plea for + cutting off the favourites of the people. In almost all the little + commonwealths of antiquity, liberty was used as a pretext for measures + directed against everything which makes liberty valuable, for measures + which stifled discussion, corrupted the administration of justice, and + discouraged the accumulation of property. The writers, whose works we are + considering, confounded the sound with the substance, and the means with + the end. Their imaginations were inflamed by mystery. They conceived of + liberty as monks conceive of love, as cockneys conceive of the happiness + and innocence of rural life, as novel-reading sempstresses conceive of + Almack's and Grosvenor Square, accomplished Marquesses and handsome + Colonels of the Guards. In the relation of events, and the delineation of + characters, they have paid little attention to facts, to the costume of + the times of which they pretend to treat, or to the general principles of + human nature. They have been faithful only to their own puerile and + extravagant doctrines. Generals and statesmen are metamorphosed into + magnanimous coxcombs, from whose fulsome virtues we turn away with + disgust. The fine sayings and exploits of their heroes remind us of the + insufferable perfections of Sir Charles Grandison, and affect us with a + nausea similar to that which we feel when an actor, in one of Morton's or + Kotzebue's plays, lays his hand on his heart, advances to the + ground-lights, and mouths a moral sentence for the edification of the + gods. + </p> + <p> + These writers, men who knew not what it was to have a country, men who had + never enjoyed political rights, brought into fashion an offensive cant + about patriotism and zeal for freedom. What the English Puritans did for + the language of Christianity, what Scuderi did for the language of love, + they did for the language of public spirit. By habitual exaggeration they + made it mean. By monotonous emphasis they made it feeble. They abused it + till it became scarcely possible to use it with effect. + </p> + <p> + Their ordinary rules of morality are deduced from extreme cases. The + common regimen which they prescribe for society is made up of those + desperate remedies which only its most desperate distempers require. They + look with peculiar complacency on actions which even those who approve + them consider as exceptions to laws of almost universal application—which + bear so close an affinity to the most atrocious crimes that, even where it + may be unjust to censure them, it is unsafe to praise them. It is not + strange, therefore, that some flagitious instances of perfidy and cruelty + should have been passed unchallenged in such company, that grave + moralists, with no personal interest at stake, should have extolled, in + the highest terms, deeds of which the atrocity appalled even the + infuriated factions in whose cause they were perpetrated. The part which + Timoleon took in the assassination of his brother shocked many of his own + partisans. The recollection of it preyed long on his own mind. But it was + reserved for historians who lived some centuries later to discover that + his conduct was a glorious display of virtue, and to lament that, from the + frailty of human nature, a man who could perform so great an exploit could + repent of it. + </p> + <p> + The writings of these men, and of their modern imitators, have produced + effects which deserve some notice. The English have been so long + accustomed to political speculation, and have enjoyed so large a measure + of practical liberty, that such works have produced little effect on their + minds. We have classical associations and great names of our own which we + can confidently oppose to the most splendid of ancient times. Senate has + not to our ears a sound so venerable as Parliament. We respect to the + Great Charter more than the laws of Solon. The Capitol and the Forum + impress us with less awe than our own Westminster Hall and Westminster + Abbey, the place where the great men of twenty generations have contended, + the place where they sleep together! The list of warriors and statesmen by + whom our constitution was founded or preserved, from De Montfort down to + Fox, may well stand a comparison with the Fasti of Rome. The dying + thanksgiving of Sidney is as noble as the libation which Thrasea poured to + Liberating Jove: and we think with far less pleasure of Cato tearing out + his entrails than of Russell saying, as he turned away from his wife, that + the bitterness of death was past. Even those parts of our history over + which, on some accounts, we would gladly throw a veil may be proudly + opposed to those on which the moralists of antiquity loved most to dwell. + The enemy of English liberty was not murdered by men whom he had pardoned + and loaded with benefits. He was not stabbed in the back by those who + smiled and cringed before his face. He was vanquished on fields of + stricken battle; he was arraigned, sentenced, and executed in the face of + heaven and earth. Our liberty is neither Greek nor Roman; but essentially + English. It has a character of its own,—a character which has taken + a tinge from the sentiments of the chivalrous ages, and which accords with + the peculiarities of our manners and of our insular situation. It has a + language, too, of its own, and a language singularly idiomatic, full of + meaning to ourselves, scarcely intelligible to strangers. + </p> + <p> + Here, therefore, the effect of books such as those which we have been + considering has been harmless. They have, indeed, given currency to many + very erroneous opinions with respect to ancient history. They have heated + the imaginations of boys. They have misled the judgment and corrupted the + taste of some men of letters, such as Akenside and Sir William Jones. But + on persons engaged in public affairs they have had very little influence. + The foundations of our constitution were laid by men who knew nothing of + the Greeks but that they denied the orthodox procession and cheated the + Crusaders; and nothing of Rome, but that the Pope lived there. Those who + followed, contented themselves with improving on the original plan. They + found models at home and therefore they did not look for them abroad. But, + when enlightened men on the Continent began to think about political + reformation, having no patterns before their eyes in their domestic + history, they naturally had recourse to those remains of antiquity, the + study of which is considered throughout Europe as an important part of + education. The historians of whom we have been speaking had been members + of large communities, and subjects of absolute sovereigns. Hence it is, as + we have already said, that they commit such gross errors in speaking of + the little republics of antiquity. Their works were now read in the spirit + in which they had been written. They were read by men placed in + circumstances closely resembling their own, unacquainted with the real + nature of liberty, but inclined to believe everything good which could be + told respecting it. How powerfully these books impressed these speculative + reformers, is well known to all who have paid any attention to the French + literature of the last century. But, perhaps, the writer on whom they + produced the greatest effect was Vittorio Alfieri. In some of his plays, + particularly in Virginia, Timoleon, and Brutus the Younger, he has even + caricatured the extravagance of his masters. + </p> + <p> + It was not strange that the blind, thus led by the blind, should stumble. + The transactions of the French Revolution, in some measure, took their + character from these works. Without the assistance of these works, indeed, + a revolution would have taken place,—a revolution productive of much + good and much evil, tremendous but shortlived, evil dearly purchased, but + durable good. But it would not have been exactly such a revolution. The + style, the accessories, would have been in many respects different. There + would have been less of bombast in language, less of affectation in + manner, less of solemn trifling and ostentatious simplicity. The acts of + legislative assemblies, and the correspondence of diplomatists, would not + have been disgraced by rants worthy only of a college declamation. The + government of a great and polished nation would not have rendered itself + ridiculous by attempting to revive the usages of a world which had long + passed away, or rather of a world which had never existed except in the + description of a fantastic school of writers. These second-hand imitations + resembled the originals about as much as the classical feast with which + the Doctor in Peregrine Pickle turned the stomachs of all his guests + resembled one of the suppers of Lucullus in the Hall of Apollo. + </p> + <p> + These were mere follies. But the spirit excited by these writers produced + more serious effects. The greater part of the crimes which disgraced the + revolution sprung indeed from the relaxation of law, from popular + ignorance, from the remembrance of past oppression, from the fear of + foreign conquest, from rapacity, from ambition, from party-spirit. But + many atrocious proceedings must, doubtless, be ascribed to heated + imagination, to perverted principle, to a distaste for what was vulgar in + morals, and a passion for what was startling and dubious. Mr Burke has + touched on this subject with great felicity of expression: "The gradation + of their republic," says he, "is laid in moral paradoxes. All those + instances to be found in history, whether real or fabulous, of a doubtful + public spirit, at which morality is perplexed, reason is staggered, and + from which affrighted nature recoils, are their chosen and almost sole + examples for the instruction of their youth." This evil, we believe, is to + be directly ascribed to the influence of the historians whom we have + mentioned, and their modern imitators. + </p> + <p> + Livy had some faults in common with these writers. But on the whole he + must be considered as forming a class by himself: no historian with whom + we are acquainted has shown so complete an indifference to truth. He seems + to have cared only about the picturesque effect of his book, and the + honour of his country. On the other hand, we do not know, in the whole + range of literature, an instance of a bad thing so well done. The painting + of the narrative is beyond description vivid and graceful. The abundance + of interesting sentiments and splendid imagery in the speeches is almost + miraculous. His mind is a soil which is never over-teemed, a fountain + which never seems to trickle. It pours forth profusely; yet it gives no + sign of exhaustion. It was probably to this exuberance of thought and + language, always fresh, always sweet, always pure, no sooner yielded than + repaired, that the critics applied that expression which has been so much + discussed lactea ubertas. + </p> + <p> + All the merits and all the defects of Livy take a colouring from the + character of his nation. He was a writer peculiarly Roman; the proud + citizen of a commonwealth which had indeed lost the reality of liberty, + but which still sacredly preserved its forms—in fact, the subject of + an arbitrary prince, but in his own estimation one of the masters of the + world, with a hundred kings below him, and only the gods above him. He, + therefore, looked back on former times with feelings far different from + those which were naturally entertained by his Greek contemporaries, and + which at a later period became general among men of letters throughout the + Roman Empire. He contemplated the past with interest and delight, not + because it furnished a contrast to the present, but because it had led to + the present. He recurred to it, not to lose in proud recollections the + sense of national degradation, but to trace the progress of national + glory. It is true that his veneration for antiquity produced on him some + of the effects which it produced on those who arrived at it by a very + different road. He has something of their exaggeration, something of their + cant, something of their fondness for anomalies and lusus naturae in + morality. Yet even here we perceive a difference. They talk rapturously of + patriotism and liberty in the abstract. He does not seem to think any + country but Rome deserving of love; nor is it for liberty as liberty, but + for liberty as a part of the Roman institutions, that he is zealous. + </p> + <p> + Of the concise and elegant accounts of the campaigns of Caesar little can + be said. They are incomparable models for military despatches. But + histories they are not, and do not pretend to be. + </p> + <p> + The ancient critics placed Sallust in the same rank with Livy; and + unquestionably the small portion of his works which has come down to us is + calculated to give a high opinion of his talents. But his style is not + very pleasant: and his most powerful work, the account of the Conspiracy + of Catiline, has rather the air of a clever party pamphlet than that of a + history. It abounds with strange inconsistencies, which, unexplained as + they are, necessarily excite doubts as to the fairness of the narrative. + It is true, that many circumstances now forgotten may have been familiar + to his contemporaries, and may have rendered passages clear to them which + to us appear dubious and perplexing. But a great historian should remember + that he writes for distant generations, for men who will perceive the + apparent contradictions, and will possess no means of reconciling them. We + can only vindicate the fidelity of Sallust at the expense of his skill. + But in fact all the information which we have from contemporaries + respecting this famous plot is liable to the same objection, and is read + by discerning men with the same incredulity. It is all on one side. No + answer has reached our times. Yet on the showing of the accusers the + accused seem entitled to acquittal. Catiline, we are told, intrigued with + a Vestal virgin, and murdered his own son. His house was a den of gamblers + and debauchees. No young man could cross his threshold without danger to + his fortune and reputation. Yet this is the man with whom Cicero was + willing to coalesce in a contest for the first magistracy of the republic; + and whom he described, long after the fatal termination of the conspiracy, + as an accomplished hypocrite, by whom he had himself been deceived, and + who had acted with consummate skill the character of a good citizen and a + good friend. We are told that the plot was the most wicked and desperate + ever known, and, almost in the same breath, that the great body of the + people, and many of the nobles, favoured it; that the richest citizens of + Rome were eager for the spoliation of all property, and its highest + functionaries for the destruction of all order; that Crassus, Caesar, the + Praetor Lentulus, one of the consuls of the year, one of the consuls + elect, were proved or suspected to be engaged in a scheme for subverting + institutions to which they owed the highest honours, and introducing + universal anarchy. We are told that a government, which knew all this, + suffered the conspirator, whose rank, talents, and courage rendered him + most dangerous, to quit Rome without molestation. We are told that bondmen + and gladiators were to be armed against the citizens. Yet we find that + Catiline rejected the slaves who crowded to enlist in his army, lest, as + Sallust himself expresses it, "he should seem to identify their cause with + that of the citizens." Finally, we are told that the magistrate, who was + universally allowed to have saved all classes of his countrymen from + conflagration and massacre, rendered himself so unpopular by his conduct + that a marked insult was offered to him at the expiration of his office, + and a severe punishment inflicted on him shortly after. + </p> + <p> + Sallust tells us, what, indeed, the letters and speeches of Cicero + sufficiently prove, that some persons consider the shocking, and atrocious + parts of the plot as mere inventions of the government, designed to excuse + its unconstitutional measures. We must confess ourselves to be of that + opinion. There was, undoubtedly, a strong party desirous to change the + administration. While Pompey held the command of an army, they could not + effect their purpose without preparing means for repelling force, if + necessary, by force. In all this there is nothing different from the + ordinary practice of Roman factions. The other charges brought against the + conspirators are so inconsistent and improbable, that we give no credit + whatever to them. If our readers think this scepticism unreasonable, let + them turn to the contemporary accounts of the Popish plot. Let them look + over the votes of Parliament, and the speeches of the king; the charges of + Scroggs, and the harangues of the managers employed against Strafford. A + person who should form his judgment from these pieces alone would believe + that London was set on fire by the Papists, and that Sir Edmondbury + Godfrey was murdered for his religion. Yet these stories are now + altogether exploded. They have been abandoned by statesmen to aldermen, by + aldermen to clergymen, by clergymen to old women, and by old women to Sir + Harcourt Lees. + </p> + <p> + Of the Latin historians, Tacitus was certainly the greatest. His style, + indeed, is not only faulty in itself, but is, in some respects, peculiarly + unfit for historical composition. He carries his love of effect far beyond + the limits of moderation. He tells a fine story finely, but he cannot tell + a plain story plainly. He stimulates till stimulants lose their power. + Thucydides, as we have already observed, relates ordinary transactions + with the unpretending clearness and succinctness of a gazette. His great + powers of painting he reserves for events of which the slightest details + are interesting. The simplicity of the setting gives additional lustre to + the brilliants. There are passages in the narrative of Tacitus superior to + the best which can be quoted from Thucydides. But they are not enchased + and relieved with the same skill. They are far more striking when + extracted from the body of the work to which they belong than when they + occur in their place, and are read in connection with what precedes and + follows. + </p> + <p> + In the delineation of character, Tacitus is unrivalled among historians, + and has very few superiors among dramatists and novelists. By the + delineation of character, we do not mean the practice of drawing up + epigrammatic catalogues of good and bad qualities, and appending them to + the names of eminent men. No writer, indeed, has done this more skilfully + than Tacitus; but this is not his peculiar glory. All the persons who + occupy a large space in his works have an individuality of character which + seems to pervade all their words and actions. We know them as if we had + lived with them. Claudius, Nero, Otho, both the Agrippinas, are + masterpieces. But Tiberius is a still higher miracle of art. The historian + undertook to make us intimately acquainted with a man singularly dark and + inscrutable,—with a man whose real disposition long remained swathed + up in intricate folds of factitious virtues, and over whose actions the + hypocrisy of his youth, and the seclusion of his old age, threw a singular + mystery. He was to exhibit the specious qualities of the tyrant in a light + which might render them transparent, and enable us at once to perceive the + covering and the vices which it concealed. He was to trace the gradations + by which the first magistrate of a republic, a senator mingling freely in + debate, a noble associating with his brother nobles, was transformed into + an Asiatic sultan; he was to exhibit a character, distinguished by + courage, self-command, and profound policy, yet defiled by all + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "th' extravagancy + And crazy ribaldry of fancy." +</pre> + <p> + He was to mark the gradual effect of advancing age and approaching death + on this strange compound of strength and weakness; to exhibit the old + sovereign of the world sinking into a dotage which, though it rendered his + appetites eccentric, and his temper savage, never impaired the powers of + his stern and penetrating mind—conscious of failing strength, raging + with capricious sensuality, yet to the last the keenest of observers, the + most artful of dissemblers, and the most terrible of masters. The task was + one of extreme difficulty. The execution is almost perfect. + </p> + <p> + The talent which is required to write history thus bears a considerable + affinity to the talent of a great dramatist. There is one obvious + distinction. The dramatist creates; the historian only disposes. The + difference is not in the mode of execution, but in the mode of conception. + Shakspeare is guided by a model which exists in his imagination; Tacitus, + by a model furnished from without. Hamlet is to Tiberius what the Laocoon + is to the Newton of Roubilliac. + </p> + <p> + In this part of his art Tacitus certainly had neither equal nor second + among the ancient historians. Herodotus, though he wrote in a dramatic + form, had little of dramatic genius. The frequent dialogues which he + introduces give vivacity and movement to the narrative, but are not + strikingly characteristic. Xenophon is fond of telling his readers, at + considerable length, what he thought of the persons whose adventures he + relates. But he does not show them the men, and enable them to judge for + themselves. The heroes of Livy are the most insipid of all beings, real or + imaginary, the heroes of Plutarch always excepted. Indeed, the manner of + Plutarch in this respect reminds us of the cookery of those continental + inns, the horror of English travellers, in which a certain nondescript + broth is kept constantly boiling, and copiously poured, without + distinction, over every dish as it comes up to table. Thucydides, though + at a wide interval, comes next to Tacitus. His Pericles, his Nicias, his + Cleon, his Brasidas, are happily discriminated. The lines are few, the + colouring faint: but the general air and expression is caught. + </p> + <p> + We begin, like the priest in Don Quixote's library, to be tired with + taking down books one after another for separate judgment, and feel + inclined to pass sentence on them in masses. We shall therefore, instead + of pointing out the defects and merits of the different modern historians, + state generally in what particulars they have surpassed their + predecessors, and in what we conceive them to have failed. + </p> + <p> + They have certainly been, in one sense, far more strict in their adherence + to truth than most of the Greek and Roman writers. They do not think + themselves entitled to render their narrative interesting by introducing + descriptions, conversations, and harangues which have no existence but in + their own imagination. This improvement was gradually introduced. History + commenced among the modern nations of Europe, as it had commenced among + the Greeks, in romance. Froissart was our Herodotus. Italy was to Europe + what Athens was to Greece. In Italy, therefore, a more accurate and manly + mode of narration was early introduced. Machiavelli and Guicciardini, in + imitation of Livy and Thucydides, composed speeches for their historical + personages. But, as the classical enthusiasm which distinguished the age + of Lorenzo and Leo gradually subsided, this absurd practice was abandoned. + In France, we fear, it still, in some degree, keeps its ground. In our own + country, a writer who should venture on it would be laughed to scorn. + Whether the historians of the last two centuries tell more truth than + those of antiquity, may perhaps be doubted. But it is quite certain that + they tell fewer falsehoods. + </p> + <p> + In the philosophy of history, the moderns have very far surpassed the + ancients. It is not, indeed, strange that the Greeks and Romans should not + have carried the science of government, or any other experimental science, + so far as it has been carried in our time; for the experimental sciences + are generally in a state of progression. They were better understood in + the seventeenth century than in the sixteenth, and in the eighteenth + century than in the seventeenth. But this constant improvement, this + natural growth of knowledge, will not altogether account for the immense + superiority of the modern writers. The difference is a difference not in + degree, but of kind. It is not merely that new principles have been + discovered, but that new faculties seem to be exerted. It is not that at + one time the human intellect should have made but small progress, and at + another time have advanced far: but that at one time it should have been + stationary, and at another time constantly proceeding. In taste and + imagination, in the graces of style, in the arts of persuasion, in the + magnificence of public works, the ancients were at least our equals. They + reasoned as justly as ourselves on subjects which required pure + demonstration. But in the moral sciences they made scarcely any advance. + During the long period which elapsed between the fifth century before the + Christian era and the fifth century after it little perceptible progress + was made. All the metaphysical discoveries of all the philosophers, from + the time of Socrates to the northern invasion, are not to be compared in + importance with those which have been made in England every fifty years + since the time of Elizabeth. There is not the least reason to believe that + the principles of government, legislation, and political economy, were + better understood in the time of Augustus Caesar than in the time of + Pericles. In our own country, the sound doctrines of trade and + jurisprudence have been, within the lifetime of a single generation, dimly + hinted, boldly propounded, defended, systematised, adopted by all + reflecting men of all parties, quoted in legislative assemblies, + incorporated into laws and treaties. + </p> + <p> + To what is this change to be attributed? Partly, no doubt, to the + discovery of printing, a discovery which has not only diffused knowledge + widely, but, as we have already observed, has also introduced into + reasoning a precision unknown in those ancient communities, in which + information, was, for the most part, conveyed orally. There was, we + suspect, another cause, less obvious, but still more powerful. + </p> + <p> + The spirit of the two most famous nations of antiquity was remarkably + exclusive. In the time of Homer the Greeks had not begun to consider + themselves as a distinct race. They still looked with something of + childish wonder and awe on the riches and wisdom of Sidon and Egypt. From + what causes, and by what gradations, their feelings underwent a change, it + is not easy to determine. Their history, from the Trojan to the Persian + war, is covered with an obscurity broken only by dim and scattered gleams + of truth. But it is certain that a great alteration took place. They + regarded themselves as a separate people. They had common religious rites, + and common principles of public law, in which foreigners had no part. In + all their political systems, monarchical, aristocratical, and + democratical, there was a strong family likeness. After the retreat of + Xerxes and the fall of Mardonius, national pride rendered the separation + between the Greeks and the barbarians complete. The conquerors considered + themselves men of a superior breed, men who, in their intercourse with + neighbouring nations, were to teach, and not to learn. They looked for + nothing out of themselves. They borrowed nothing. They translated nothing. + We cannot call to mind a single expression of any Greek writer earlier + than the age of Augustus, indicating an opinion that anything worth + reading could be written in any language except his own. The feelings + which sprung from national glory were not altogether extinguished by + national degradation. They were fondly cherished through ages of slavery + and shame. The literature of Rome herself was regarded with contempt by + those who had fled before her arms, and who bowed beneath her fasces. + Voltaire says, in one of his six thousand pamphlets, that he was the first + person who told the French that England had produced eminent men besides + the Duke of Marlborough. Down to a very late period, the Greeks seem to + have stood in need of similar information with respect to their masters. + With Paulus Aemilius, Sylla, and Caesar, they were well acquainted. But + the notions which they entertained respecting Cicero and Virgil were, + probably, not unlike those which Boileau may have formed about Shakspeare. + Dionysius lived in the most splendid age of Latin poetry and eloquence. He + was a critic, and, after the manner of his age, an able critic. He studied + the language of Rome, associated with its learned men, and compiled its + history. Yet he seems to have thought its literature valuable only for the + purpose of illustrating its antiquities. His reading appears to have been + confined to its public records, and to a few old annalists. Once, and but + once, if we remember rightly, he quotes Ennius, to solve a question of + etymology. He has written much on the art of oratory: yet he has not + mentioned the name of Cicero. + </p> + <p> + The Romans submitted to the pretensions of a race which they despised. + Their epic poet, while he claimed for them pre-eminence in the arts of + government and war, acknowledged their inferiority in taste, eloquence, + and science. Men of letters affected to understand the Greek language + better than their own. Pomponius preferred the honour of becoming an + Athenian, by intellectual naturalisation, to all the distinctions which + were to be acquired in the political contests of Rome. His great friend + composed Greek poems and memoirs. It is well-known that Petrarch + considered that beautiful language in which his sonnets are written, as a + barbarous jargon, and intrusted his fame to those wretched Latin + hexameters which, during the last four centuries, have scarcely found four + readers. Many eminent Romans appear to have felt the same contempt for + their native tongue as compared with the Greek. The prejudice continued to + a very late period. Julian was as partial to the Greek language as + Frederic the Great to the French: and it seems that he could not express + himself with elegance in the dialect of the state which he ruled. + </p> + <p> + Even those Latin writers who did not carry this affectation so far looked + on Greece as the only fount of knowledge. From Greece they derived the + measures of their poetry, and, indeed, all of poetry that can be imported. + From Greece they borrowed the principles and the vocabulary of their + philosophy. To the literature of other nations they do not seem to have + paid the slightest attention. The sacred books of the Hebrews, for + example, books which, considered merely as human compositions, are + invaluable to the critic, the antiquarian, and the philosopher, seem to + have been utterly unnoticed by them. The peculiarities of Judaism, and the + rapid growth of Christianity, attracted their notice. They made war + against the Jews. They made laws against the Christians. But they never + opened the books of Moses. Juvenal quotes the Pentateuch with censure. The + author of the treatise on "the Sublime" quotes it with praise: but both of + them quote it erroneously. When we consider what sublime poetry, what + curious history, what striking and peculiar views of the Divine nature and + of the social duties of men, are to be found in the Jewish scriptures, + when we consider that two sects on which the attention of the government + was constantly fixed appealed to those scriptures as the rule of their + faith and practice, this indifference is astonishing. The fact seems to + be, that the Greeks admired only themselves, and that the Romans admired + only themselves and the Greeks. Literary men turned away with disgust from + modes of thought and expression so widely different from all that they had + been accustomed to admire. The effect was narrowness and sameness of + thought. Their minds, if we may so express ourselves, bred in and in, and + were accordingly cursed with barrenness and degeneracy. No extraneous + beauty or vigour was engrafted on the decaying stock. By an exclusive + attention to one class of phenomena, by an exclusive taste for one species + of excellence, the human intellect was stunted. Occasional coincidences + were turned into general rules. Prejudices were confounded with instincts. + On man, as he was found in a particular state of society—on + government, as it had existed in a particular corner of the world, many + just observations were made; but of man as man, or government as + government, little was known. Philosophy remained stationary. Slight + changes, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the better, were made + in the superstructure. But nobody thought of examining the foundations. + </p> + <p> + The vast despotism of the Caesars, gradually effacing all national + peculiarities, and assimilating the remotest provinces of the empire to + each other, augmented the evil. At the close of the third century after + Christ, the prospects of mankind were fearfully dreary. A system of + etiquette, as pompously frivolous as that of the Escurial, had been + established. A sovereign almost invisible; a crowd of dignitaries minutely + distinguished by badges and titles; rhetoricians who said nothing but what + had been said ten thousand times; schools in which nothing was taught but + what had been known for ages: such was the machinery provided for the + government and instruction of the most enlightened part of the human race. + That great community was then in danger of experiencing a calamity far + more terrible than any of the quick, inflammatory, destroying maladies, to + which nations are liable,—a tottering, drivelling, paralytic + longevity, the immortality of the Struldbrugs, a Chinese civilisation. It + would be easy to indicate many points of resemblance between the subjects + of Diocletian and the people of that Celestial Empire, where, during many + centuries, nothing has been learned or unlearned; where government, where + education, where the whole system of life, is a ceremony; where knowledge + forgets to increase and multiply, and, like the talent buried in the + earth, or the pound wrapped up in the napkin, experiences neither waste no + augmentation. + </p> + <p> + The torpor was broken by two great revolutions, the one moral, the other + political, the one from within, the other from without. The victory of + Christianity over Paganism, considered with relation to this subject only, + was of great importance. It overthrew the old system of morals; and with + it much of the old system of metaphysics. It furnished the orator with new + topics of declamation, and the logician with new points of controversy. + Above all, it introduced a new principle, of which the operation was + constantly felt in every part of society. It stirred the stagnant mass + from the inmost depths. It excited all the passions of a stormy democracy + in the quiet and listless population of an overgrown empire. The fear of + heresy did what the sense of oppression could not do; it changed men, + accustomed to be turned over like sheep from tyrant to tyrant, into + devoted partisans and obstinate rebels. The tones of an eloquence which + had been silent for ages resounded from the pulpit of Gregory. A spirit + which had been extinguished on the plains of Philippi revived in + Athanasius and Ambrose. + </p> + <p> + Yet even this remedy was not sufficiently violent for the disease. It did + not prevent the empire of Constantinople from relapsing, after a short + paroxysm of excitement, into a state of stupefaction, to which history + furnishes scarcely any parallel. We there find that a polished society, a + society in which a most intricate and elaborate system of jurisprudence + was established, in which the arts of luxury were well understood, in + which the works of the great ancient writers were preserved and studied, + existed for nearly a thousand years without making one great discovery in + science, or producing one book which is read by any but curious inquirers. + There were tumults, too, and controversies, and wars in abundance: and + these things, bad as they are in themselves, have generally been + favourable to the progress of the intellect. But here they tormented + without stimulating. The waters were troubled; but no healing influence + descended. The agitations resembled the grinnings and writhings of a + galvanised corpse, not the struggles of an athletic man. + </p> + <p> + From this miserable state the Western Empire was saved by the fiercest and + most destroying visitation with which God has ever chastened his creatures—the + invasion of the Northern nations. Such a cure was required for such a + distemper. The fire of London, it has been observed was a blessing. It + burned down the city; but it burned out the plague. The same may be said + of the tremendous devastation of the Roman dominions. It annihilated the + noisome recesses in which lurked the seeds of great moral maladies; it + cleared an atmosphere fatal to the health and vigour of the human mind. It + cost Europe a thousand years of barbarism to escape the fate of China. + </p> + <p> + At length the terrible purification was accomplished; and the second + civilisation of mankind commenced, under circumstances which afforded a + strong security that it would never retrograde and never pause. Europe was + now a great federal community. Her numerous states were united by the easy + ties of international law and a common religion. Their institutions, their + languages, their manners, their tastes in literature, their modes of + education, were widely different. Their connection was close enough to + allow of mutual observation and improvement, yet not so close as to + destroy the idioms of national opinion and feeling. + </p> + <p> + The balance of moral and intellectual influence thus established between + the nations of Europe is far more important than the balance of political + power. Indeed, we are inclined to think that the latter is valuable + principally because it tends to maintain the former. The civilised world + has thus been preserved from a uniformity of character fatal to all + improvement. Every part of it has been illuminated with light reflected + from every other. Competition has produced activity where monopoly would + have produced sluggishness. The number of experiments in moral science + which the speculator has an opportunity of witnessing has been increased + beyond all calculation. Society and human nature, instead of being seen in + a single point of view, are presented to him under ten thousand different + aspects. By observing the manners of surrounding nations, by studying + their literature, by comparing it with that of his own country and of the + ancient republics, he is enabled to correct those errors into which the + most acute men must fall when they reason from a single species to a + genus. He learns to distinguish what is local from what is universal: what + is transitory from what is eternal; to discriminate between exceptions and + rules; to trace the operation of disturbing causes; to separate those + general principles which are always true and everywhere applicable from + the accidental circumstances with which, in every community, they are + blended, and with which, in an isolated community, they are confounded by + the most philosophical mind. + </p> + <p> + Hence it is that, in generalisation, the writers of modern times have far + surpassed those of antiquity. The historians of our own country are + unequalled in depth and precision of reason; and, even in the works of our + mere compilers, we often meet with speculations beyond the reach of + Thucydides or Tacitus. + </p> + <p> + But it must, at the same time, be admitted that they have characteristic + faults, so closely connected with their characteristic merits, and of such + magnitude, that it may well be doubted whether, on the whole, this + department of literature has gained or lost during the last two-and-twenty + centuries. + </p> + <p> + The best historians of later times have been seduced from truth, not by + their imagination, but by their reason. They far excel their predecessors + in the art of deducing general principles from facts. But unhappily they + have fallen into the error of distorting facts to suit general principles. + They arrive at a theory from looking at some of the phenomena; and the + remaining phenomena they strain or curtail to suit the theory. For this + purpose it is not necessary that they should assert what is absolutely + false; for all questions in morals and politics are questions of + comparison and degree. Any proposition which does not involve a + contradiction in terms may by possibility be true; and, if all the + circumstances which raise a probability in its favour, be stated and + enforced, and those which lead to an opposite conclusion be omitted or + lightly passed over, it may appear to be demonstrated. In every human + character and transaction there is a mixture of good and evil: a little + exaggeration, a little suppression, a judicious use of epithets, a + watchful and searching scepticism with respect to the evidence on one + side, a convenient credulity with respect to every report or tradition on + the other, may easily make a saint of Laud, or a tyrant of Henry the + Fourth. + </p> + <p> + This species of misrepresentation abounds in the most valuable works of + modern historians. Herodotus tells his story like a slovenly witness, who, + heated by partialities and prejudices, unacquainted with the established + rules of evidence, and uninstructed as to the obligations of his oath, + confounds what he imagines with what he has seen and heard, and brings out + facts, reports, conjectures, and fancies, in one mass. Hume is an + accomplished advocate. Without positively asserting much more than he can + prove, he gives prominence to all the circumstances which support his + case; he glides lightly over those which are unfavourable to it; his own + witnesses are applauded and encouraged; the statements which seem to throw + discredit on them are controverted; the contradictions into which they + fall are explained away; a clear and connected abstract of their evidence + is given. Everything that is offered on the other side is scrutinised with + the utmost severity; every suspicious circumstance is a ground for comment + and invective; what cannot be denied is extenuated, or passed by without + notice; concessions even are sometimes made: but this insidious candour + only increases the effect of the vast mass of sophistry. + </p> + <p> + We have mentioned Hume as the ablest and most popular writer of his class; + but the charge which we have brought against him is one to which all our + most distinguished historians are in some degree obnoxious. Gibbon, in + particular, deserves very severe censure. Of all the numerous culprits, + however, none is more deeply guilty than Mr Mitford. We willingly + acknowledge the obligations which are due to his talents and industry. The + modern historians of Greece had been in the habit of writing as if the + world had learned nothing new during the last sixteen hundred years. + Instead of illustrating the events which they narrated by the philosophy + of a more enlightened age, they judged of antiquity by itself alone. They + seemed to think that notions, long driven from every other corner of + literature, had a prescriptive right to occupy this last fastness. They + considered all the ancient historians as equally authentic. They scarcely + made any distinction between him who related events at which he had + himself been present and him who five hundred years after composed a + philosophic romance for a society which had in the interval undergone a + complete change. It was all Greek, and all true! The centuries which + separated Plutarch from Thucydides seemed as nothing to men who lived in + an age so remote. The distance of time produced an error similar to that + which is sometimes produced by distance of place. There are many good + ladies who think that all the people in India live together, and who + charge a friend setting out for Calcutta with kind messages to Bombay. To + Rollin and Barthelemi, in the same manner, all the classics were + contemporaries. + </p> + <p> + Mr Mitford certainly introduced great improvements; he showed us that men + who wrote in Greek and Latin sometimes told lies; he showed us that + ancient history might be related in such a manner as to furnish not only + allusions to schoolboys, but important lessons to statesmen. From that + love of theatrical effect and high-flown sentiment which had poisoned + almost every other work on the same subject his book is perfectly free. + But his passion for a theory as false, and far more ungenerous, led him + substantially to violate truth in every page. Statements unfavourable to + democracy are made with unhesitating confidence, and with the utmost + bitterness of language. Every charge brought against a monarch or an + aristocracy is sifted with the utmost care. If it cannot be denied, some + palliating supposition is suggested; or we are at least reminded that some + circumstances now unknown MAY have justified what at present appears + unjustifiable. Two events are reported by the same author in the same + sentence; their truth rests on the same testimony; but the one supports + the darling hypothesis, and the other seems inconsistent with it. The one + is taken and the other is left. + </p> + <p> + The practice of distorting narrative into a conformity with theory is a + vice not so unfavourable as at first sight it may appear to the interests + of political science. We have compared the writers who indulge in it to + advocates; and we may add, that their conflicting fallacies, like those of + advocates, correct each other. It has always been held, in the most + enlightened nations, that a tribunal will decide a judicial question most + fairly when it has heard two able men argue, as unfairly as possible, on + the two opposite sides of it; and we are inclined to think that this + opinion is just. Sometimes, it is true, superior eloquence and dexterity + will make the worse appear the better reason; but it is at least certain + that the judge will be compelled to contemplate the case under two + different aspects. It is certain that no important consideration will + altogether escape notice. + </p> + <p> + This is at present the state of history. The poet laureate appears for the + Church of England, Lingard for the Church of Rome. Brodie has moved to set + aside the verdicts obtained by Hume; and the cause in which Mitford + succeeded is, we understand, about to be reheard. In the midst of these + disputes, however, history proper, if we may use the term, is + disappearing. The high, grave, impartial summing up of Thucydides is + nowhere to be found. + </p> + <p> + While our historians are practising all the arts of controversy, they + miserably neglect the art of narration, the art of interesting the + affections and presenting pictures to the imagination. That a writer may + produce these effects without violating truth is sufficiently proved by + many excellent biographical works. The immense popularity which + well-written books of this kind have acquired deserves the serious + consideration of historians. Voltaire's Charles the Twelfth, Marmontel's + Memoirs, Boswell's Life of Johnson, Southey's account of Nelson, are + perused with delight by the most frivolous and indolent. Whenever any + tolerable book of the same description makes its appearance, the + circulating libraries are mobbed; the book societies are in commotion; the + new novel lies uncut; the magazines and newspapers fill their columns with + extracts. In the meantime histories of great empires, written by men of + eminent ability, lie unread on the shelves of ostentatious libraries. + </p> + <p> + The writers of history seem to entertain an aristocratical contempt for + the writers of memoirs. They think it beneath the dignity of men who + describe the revolutions of nations to dwell on the details which + constitute the charm of biography. They have imposed on themselves a code + of conventional decencies as absurd as that which has been the bane of the + French drama. The most characteristic and interesting circumstances are + omitted or softened down, because, as we are told, they are too trivial + for the majesty of history. The majesty of history seems to resemble the + majesty of the poor King of Spain, who died a martyr to ceremony because + the proper dignitaries were not at hand to render him assistance. + </p> + <p> + That history would be more amusing if this etiquette were relaxed will, we + suppose, be acknowledged. But would it be less dignified or less useful? + What do we mean when we say that one past event is important and another + insignificant? No past event has any intrinsic importance. The knowledge + of it is valuable only as it leads us to form just calculations with + respect to the future. A history which does not serve this purpose, though + it may be filled with battles, treaties, and commotions, is as useless as + the series of turnpike tickets collected by Sir Matthew Mite. + </p> + <p> + Let us suppose that Lord Clarendon, instead of filling hundreds of folio + pages with copies of state papers, in which the same assertions and + contradictions are repeated till the reader is overpowered with weariness, + had condescended to be the Boswell of the Long Parliament. Let us suppose + that he had exhibited to us the wise and lofty self-government of Hampden, + leading while he seemed to follow, and propounding unanswerable arguments + in the strongest forms with the modest air of an inquirer anxious for + information; the delusions which misled the noble spirit of Vane; the + coarse fanaticism which concealed the yet loftier genius of Cromwell, + destined to control a motionless army and a factious people, to abase the + flag of Holland, to arrest the victorious arms of Sweden, and to hold the + balance firm between the rival monarchies of France and Spain. Let us + suppose that he had made his Cavaliers and Roundheads talk in their own + style; that he had reported some of the ribaldry of Rupert's pages, and + some of the cant of Harrison and Fleetwood. Would not his work in that + case have been more interesting? Would it not have been more accurate? + </p> + <p> + A history in which every particular incident may be true may on the whole + be false. The circumstances which have most influence on the happiness of + mankind, the changes of manners and morals, the transition of communities + from poverty to wealth, from knowledge to ignorance, from ferocity to + humanity—these are, for the most part, noiseless revolutions. Their + progress is rarely indicated by what historians are pleased to call + important events. They are not achieved by armies, or enacted by senates. + They are sanctioned by no treaties, and recorded in no archives. They are + carried on in every school, in every church, behind ten thousand counters, + at ten thousand firesides. The upper current of society presents no + certain criterion by which we can judge of the direction in which the + under current flows. We read of defeats and victories. But we know that + nations may be miserable amidst victories and prosperous amidst defeats. + We read of the fall of wise ministers and of the rise of profligate + favourites. But we must remember how small a proportion the good or evil + effected by a single statesman can bear to the good or evil of a great + social system. + </p> + <p> + Bishop Watson compares a geologist to a gnat mounted on an elephant, and + laying down theories as to the whole internal structure of the vast + animal, from the phenomena of the hide. The comparison is unjust to the + geologists; but is very applicable to those historians who write as if the + body politic were homogeneous, who look only on the surface of affairs, + and never think of the mighty and various organisation which lies deep + below. + </p> + <p> + In the works of such writers as these, England, at the close of the Seven + Years' War, is in the highest state of prosperity: at the close of the + American war she is in a miserable and degraded condition; as if the + people were not on the whole as rich, as well governed, and as well + educated at the latter period as at the former. We have read books called + Histories of England, under the reign of George the Second, in which the + rise of Methodism is not even mentioned. A hundred years hence this breed + of authors will, we hope, be extinct. If it should still exist, the late + ministerial interregnum will be described in terms which will seem to + imply that all government was at an end; that the social contract was + annulled; and that the hand of every man was against his neighbour, until + the wisdom and virtue of the new cabinet educed order out of the chaos of + anarchy. We are quite certain that misconceptions as gross prevail at this + moment respecting many important parts of our annals. + </p> + <p> + The effect of historical reading is analogous, in many respects, to that + produced by foreign travel. The student, like the tourist, is transported + into a new state of society. He sees new fashions. He hears new modes of + expression. His mind is enlarged by contemplating the wide diversities of + laws, of morals, and of manners. But men may travel far, and return with + minds as contracted as if they had never stirred from their own + market-town. In the same manner, men may know the dates of many battles + and the genealogies of many royal houses, and yet be no wiser. Most people + look at past times as princes look at foreign countries. More than one + illustrious stranger has landed on our island amidst the shouts of a mob, + has dined with the king, has hunted with the master of the stag-hounds, + has seen the guards reviewed, and a knight of the garter installed, has + cantered along Regent Street, has visited Saint Paul's, and noted down its + dimensions; and has then departed, thinking that he has seen England. He + has, in fact, seen a few public buildings, public men, and public + ceremonies. But of the vast and complex system of society, of the fine + shades of national character, of the practical operation of government and + laws, he knows nothing. He who would understand these things rightly must + not confine his observations to palaces and solemn days. He must see + ordinary men as they appear in their ordinary business and in their + ordinary pleasures. He must mingle in the crowds of the exchange and the + coffee-house. He must obtain admittance to the convivial table and the + domestic hearth. He must bear with vulgar expressions. He must not shrink + from exploring even the retreats of misery. He who wishes to understand + the condition of mankind in former ages must proceed on the same + principle. If he attends only to public transactions, to wars, congresses, + and debates, his studies will be as unprofitable as the travels of those + imperial, royal, and serene sovereigns who form their judgment of our + island from having gone in state to a few fine sights, and from having + held formal conferences with a few great officers. + </p> + <p> + The perfect historian is he in whose work the character and spirit of an + age is exhibited in miniature. He relates no fact, he attributes no + expression to his characters, which is not authenticated by sufficient + testimony. But, by judicious selection, rejection, and arrangement, he + gives to truth those attractions which have been usurped by fiction. In + his narrative a due subordination is observed: some transactions are + prominent; others retire. But the scale on which he represents them is + increased or diminished, not according to the dignity of the persons + concerned in them, but according to the degree in which they elucidate the + condition of society and the nature of man. He shows us the court, the + camp, and the senate. But he shows us also the nation. He considers no + anecdote, no peculiarity of manner, no familiar saying, as too + insignificant for his notice which is not too insignificant to illustrate + the operation of laws, of religion, and of education, and to mark the + progress of the human mind. Men will not merely be described, but will be + made intimately known to us. The changes of manners will be indicated, not + merely by a few general phrases or a few extracts from statistical + documents, but by appropriate images presented in every line. + </p> + <p> + If a man, such as we are supposing, should write the history of England, + he would assuredly not omit the battles, the sieges, the negotiations, the + seditions, the ministerial changes. But with these he would intersperse + the details which are the charm of historical romances. At Lincoln + Cathedral there is a beautiful painted window, which was made by an + apprentice out of the pieces of glass which had been rejected by his + master. It is so far superior to every other in the church, that, + according to the tradition, the vanquished artist killed himself from + mortification. Sir Walter Scott, in the same manner, has used those + fragments of truth which historians have scornfully thrown behind them in + a manner which may well excite their envy. He has constructed out of their + gleanings works which, even considered as histories, are scarcely less + valuable than theirs. But a truly great historian would reclaim those + materials which the novelist has appropriated. The history of the + government, and the history of the people, would be exhibited in that mode + in which alone they can be exhibited justly, in inseparable conjunction + and intermixture. We should not then have to look for the wars and votes + of the Puritans in Clarendon, and for their phraseology in Old Mortality; + for one half of King James in Hume, and for the other half in the Fortunes + of Nigel. + </p> + <p> + The early part of our imaginary history would be rich with colouring from + romance, ballad, and chronicle. We should find ourselves in the company of + knights such as those of Froissart, and of pilgrims such as those who rode + with Chaucer from the Tabard. Society would be shown from the highest to + the lowest,—from the royal cloth of state to the den of the outlaw; + from the throne of the legate to the chimney-corner where the begging + friar regaled himself. Palmers, minstrels, crusaders,—the stately + monastery, with the good cheer in its refectory and the high-mass in its + chapel,—the manor-house, with its hunting and hawking,—the + tournament, with the heralds and ladies, the trumpets and the cloth of + gold,—would give truth and life to the representation. We should + perceive, in a thousand slight touches, the importance of the privileged + burgher, and the fierce and haughty spirit which swelled under the collar + of the degraded villain. The revival of letters would not merely be + described in a few magnificent periods. We should discern, in innumerable + particulars, the fermentation of mind, the eager appetite for knowledge, + which distinguished the sixteenth from the fifteenth century. In the + Reformation we should see, not merely a schism which changed the + ecclesiastical constitution of England and the mutual relations of the + European powers, but a moral war which raged in every family, which set + the father against the son, and the son against the father, the mother + against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother. Henry would be + painted with the skill of Tacitus. We should have the change of his + character from his profuse and joyous youth to his savage and imperious + old age. We should perceive the gradual progress of selfish and tyrannical + passions in a mind not naturally insensible or ungenerous; and to the last + we should detect some remains of that open and noble temper which endeared + him to a people whom he oppressed, struggling with the hardness of + despotism and the irritability of disease. We should see Elizabeth in all + her weakness and in all her strength, surrounded by the handsome + favourites whom she never trusted, and the wise old statesmen whom she + never dismissed, uniting in herself the most contradictory qualities of + both her parents,—the coquetry, the caprice, the petty malice of + Anne,—the haughty and resolute spirit of Henry. We have no + hesitation in saying that a great artist might produce a portrait of this + remarkable woman at least as striking as that in the novel of Kenilworth, + without employing a single trait not authenticated by ample testimony. In + the meantime, we should see arts cultivated, wealth accumulated, the + conveniences of life improved. We should see the keeps, where nobles, + insecure themselves, spread insecurity around them, gradually giving place + to the halls of peaceful opulence, to the oriels of Longleat, and the + stately pinnacles of Burleigh. We should see towns extended, deserts + cultivated, the hamlets of fishermen turned into wealthy havens, the meal + of the peasant improved, and his hut more commodiously furnished. We + should see those opinions and feelings which produced the great struggle + against the House of Stuart slowly growing up in the bosom of private + families, before they manifested themselves in parliamentary debates. Then + would come the civil war. Those skirmishes on which Clarendon dwells so + minutely would be told, as Thucydides would have told them, with + perspicuous conciseness. They are merely connecting links. But the great + characteristics of the age, the loyal enthusiasm of the brave English + gentry, the fierce licentiousness of the swearing, dicing, drunken + reprobates, whose excesses disgraced the royal cause,—the austerity + of the Presbyterian Sabbaths in the city, the extravagance of the + independent preachers in the camp, the precise garb, the severe + countenance, the petty scruples, the affected accent, the absurd names and + phrases which marked the Puritans,—the valour, the policy, the + public spirit, which lurked beneath these ungraceful disguises,—the + dreams of the raving Fifth-monarchy-man, the dreams, scarcely less wild, + of the philosophic republican, all these would enter into the + representation, and render it at once more exact and more striking. + </p> + <p> + The instruction derived from history thus written would be of a vivid and + practical character. It would be received by the imagination as well as by + the reason. It would be not merely traced on the mind, but branded into + it. Many truths, too, would be learned, which can be learned in no other + manner. As the history of states is generally written, the greatest and + most momentous revolutions seem to come upon them like supernatural + inflictions, without warning or cause. But the fact is, that such + revolutions are almost always the consequences of moral changes, which + have gradually passed on the mass of the community, and which originally + proceed far before their progress is indicated by any public measure. An + intimate knowledge of the domestic history of nations is therefore + absolutely necessary to the prognosis of political events. A narrative, + defective in this respect, is as useless as a medical treatise which + should pass by all the symptoms attendant on the early stage of a disease + and mention only what occurs when the patient is beyond the reach of + remedies. + </p> + <p> + A historian, such as we have been attempting to describe, would indeed be + an intellectual prodigy. In his mind, powers scarcely compatible with each + other must be tempered into an exquisite harmony. We shall sooner see + another Shakspeare or another Homer. The highest excellence to which any + single faculty can be brought would be less surprising than such a happy + and delicate combination of qualities. Yet the contemplation of imaginary + models is not an unpleasant or useless employment of the mind. It cannot + indeed produce perfection; but it produces improvement and nourishes that + generous and liberal fastidiousness which is not inconsistent with the + strongest sensibility to merit, and which, while it exalts our conceptions + of the art, does not render us unjust to the artist. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MILL ON GOVERNMENT. (March 1829.) + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Essays on Government, Jurisprudence, the Liberty of the + Press, Prisons, and Prison Discipline, Colonies, the Law of + Nations, and Education." By James Mill, Esq., author of the + History of British India. Reprinted by permission from the + Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. (Not for sale.) + London, 1828. +</pre> + <p> + Of those philosophers who call themselves Utilitarians, and whom others + generally call Benthamites, Mr Mill is, with the exception of the + illustrious founder of the sect, by far the most distinguished. The little + work now before us contains a summary of the opinions held by this + gentleman and his brethren on several subjects most important to society. + All the seven essays of which it consists abound in curious matter. But at + present we intend to confine our remarks to the Treatise on Government, + which stands first in the volume. On some future occasion, we may perhaps + attempt to do justice to the rest. + </p> + <p> + It must be owned that to do justice to any composition of Mr Mill is not, + in the opinion of his admirers, a very easy task. They do not, indeed, + place him in the same rank with Mr Bentham; but the terms in which they + extol the disciple, though feeble when compared with the hyperboles of + adoration employed by them in speaking of the master, are as strong as any + sober man would allow himself to use concerning Locke or Bacon. The essay + before us is perhaps the most remarkable of the works to which Mr Mill + owes his fame. By the members of his sect, it is considered as perfect and + unanswerable. Every part of it is an article of their faith; and the + damnatory clauses, in which their creed abounds far beyond any theological + symbol with which we are acquainted, are strong and full against all who + reject any portion of what is so irrefragably established. No man, they + maintain, who has understanding sufficient to carry him through the first + proposition of Euclid, can read this masterpiece of demonstration and + honestly declare that he remains unconvinced. + </p> + <p> + We have formed a very different opinion of this work. We think that the + theory of Mr Mill rests altogether on false principles, and that even on + those false principles he does not reason logically. Nevertheless, we do + not think it strange that his speculations should have filled the + Utilitarians with admiration. We have been for some time past inclined to + suspect that these people, whom some regard as the lights of the world and + others as incarnate demons, are in general ordinary men, with narrow + understandings and little information. The contempt which they express for + elegant literature is evidently the contempt of ignorance. We apprehend + that many of them are persons who, having read little or nothing, are + delighted to be rescued from the sense of their own inferiority by some + teacher who assures them that the studies which they have neglected are of + no value, puts five or six phrases into their mouths, lends them an old + number of the Westminster Review, and in a month transforms them into + philosophers. Mingled with these smatterers, whose attainments just + suffice to elevate them from the insignificance of dunces to the dignity + of bores, and to spread dismay among their pious aunts and grandmothers, + there are, we well know, many well-meaning men who have really read and + thought much; but whose reading and meditation have been almost + exclusively confined to one class of subjects; and who, consequently, + though they possess much valuable knowledge respecting those subjects, are + by no means so well qualified to judge of a great system as if they had + taken a more enlarged view of literature and society. + </p> + <p> + Nothing is more amusing or instructive than to observe the manner in which + people who think themselves wiser than all the rest of the world fall into + snares which the simple good sense of their neighbours detects and avoids. + It is one of the principle tenets of the Utilitarians that sentiment and + eloquence serve only to impede the pursuit of truth. They therefore affect + a quakerly plainness, or rather a cynical negligence and impurity, of + style. The strongest arguments, when clothed in brilliant language, seem + to them so much wordy nonsense. In the meantime they surrender their + understandings, with a facility found in no other party, to the meanest + and most abject sophisms, provided those sophisms come before them + disguised with the externals of demonstration. They do not seem to know + that logic has its illusions as well as rhetoric,—that a fallacy may + lurk in a syllogism as well as in a metaphor. + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill is exactly the writer to please people of this description. His + arguments are stated with the utmost affectation of precision; his + divisions are awfully formal; and his style is generally as dry as that of + Euclid's Elements. Whether this be a merit, we must be permitted to doubt. + Thus much is certain: that the ages in which the true principles of + philosophy were least understood were those in which the ceremonial of + logic was most strictly observed, and that the time from which we date the + rapid progress of the experimental sciences was also the time at which a + less exact and formal way of writing came into use. + </p> + <p> + The style which the Utilitarians admire suits only those subjects on which + it is possible to reason a priori. It grew up with the verbal sophistry + which flourished during the dark ages. With that sophistry it fell before + the Baconian philosopher in the day of the great deliverance of the human + mind. The inductive method not only endured but required greater freedom + of diction. It was impossible to reason from phenomena up to principles, + to mark slight shades of difference in quality, or to estimate the + comparative effect of two opposite considerations between which there was + no common measure, by means of the naked and meagre jargon of the + schoolmen. Of those schoolmen Mr Mill has inherited both the spirit and + the style. He is an Aristotelian of the fifteenth century, born out of due + season. We have here an elaborate treatise on Government, from which, but + for two or three passing allusions, it would not appear that the author + was aware that any governments actually existed among men. Certain + propensities of human nature are assumed; and from these premises the + whole science of politics is synthetically deduced! We can scarcely + persuade ourselves that we are not reading a book written before the time + of Bacon and Galileo,—a book written in those days in which + physicians reasoned from the nature of heat to the treatment of fever, and + astronomers proved syllogistically that the planets could have no + independent motion,—because the heavens were incorruptible, and + nature abhorred a vacuum! + </p> + <p> + The reason, too, which Mr Mill has assigned for taking this course strikes + us as most extraordinary. + </p> + <p> + "Experience," says he, "if we look only at the outside of the facts, + appears to be DIVIDED on this subject. Absolute monarchy, under Neros and + Caligulas, under such men as the Emperors of Morocco and Sultans of + Turkey, is the scourge of human nature. On the other side, the people of + Denmark, tired out with the oppression of an aristocracy, resolved that + their king should be absolute; and, under their absolute monarch, are as + well governed as any people in Europe." + </p> + <p> + This Mr Mill actually gives as a reason for pursuing the a priori method. + But, in our judgment, the very circumstances which he mentions + irresistibly prove that the a priori method is altogether unfit for + investigations of this kind, and that the only way to arrive at the truth + is by induction. EXPERIENCE can never be divided, or even appear to be + divided, except with reference to some hypothesis. When we say that one + fact is inconsistent with another fact, we mean only that it is + inconsistent with THE THEORY which we have founded on that other fact. + But, if the fact be certain, the unavoidable conclusion is that our theory + is false; and, in order to correct it, we must reason back from an + enlarged collection of facts to principles. + </p> + <p> + Now here we have two governments which, by Mr Mill's own account, come + under the same head in his THEORETICAL classification. It is evident, + therefore, that, by reasoning on that theoretical classification, we shall + be brought to the conclusion that these two forms of government must + produce the same effects. But Mr Mill himself tells us that they do not + produce the same effects. Hence he infers that the only way to get at + truth is to place implicit confidence in that chain of proof a priori from + which it appears that they must produce the same effects! To believe at + once in a theory and in a fact which contradicts it is an exercise of + faith sufficiently hard: but to believe in a theory BECAUSE a fact + contradicts it is what neither philosopher nor pope ever before required. + This, however, is what Mr Mill demands of us. He seems to think that, if + all despots, without exception, governed ill, it would be unnecessary to + prove, by a synthetical argument, what would then be sufficiently clear + from experience. But, as some despots will be so perverse as to govern + well, he finds himself compelled to prove the impossibility of their + governing well by that synthetical argument which would have been + superfluous had not the facts contradicted it. He reasons a priori, + because the phenomena are not what, by reasoning a priori, he will prove + them to be. In other words, he reasons a priori, because, by so reasoning, + he is certain to arrive at a false conclusion! + </p> + <p> + In the course of the examination to which we propose to subject the + speculations of Mr Mill we shall have to notice many other curious + instances of that turn of mind which the passage above quoted indicates. + </p> + <p> + The first chapter of his Essay relates to the ends of government. The + conception on this subject, he tells us, which exists in the minds of most + men is vague and undistinguishing. He first assumes, justly enough, that + the end of government is "to increase to the utmost the pleasures, and + diminish to the utmost the pains, which men derive from each other." He + then proceeds to show, with great form, that "the greatest possible + happiness of society is attained by insuring to every man the greatest + possible quantity of the produce of his labour." To effect this is, in his + opinion, the end of government. It is remarkable that Mr Mill, with all + his affected display of precision, has here given a description of the + ends of government far less precise than that which is in the mouths of + the vulgar. The first man with whom Mr Mill may travel in a stage coach + will tell him that government exists for the protection of the PERSONS and + property of men. But Mr Mill seems to think that the preservation of + property is the first and only object. It is true, doubtless, that many of + the injuries which are offered to the persons of men proceed from a desire + to possess their property. But the practice of vindictive assassination as + it has existed in some parts of Europe—the practice of fighting + wanton and sanguinary duels, like those of the sixteenth and seventeenth + centuries, in which bands of seconds risked their lives as well as the + principals;—these practices, and many others which might be named, + are evidently injurious to society; and we do not see how a government + which tolerated them could be said "to diminish to the utmost the pains + which men derive from each other." Therefore, according to Mr Mill's very + correct assumption, such a government would not perfectly accomplish the + end of its institution. Yet such a government might, as far as we can + perceive, "insure to every man the greatest possible quantity of the + produce of his labour." Therefore such a government might, according to Mr + Mill's subsequent doctrine, perfectly accomplish the end of its + institution. The matter is not of much consequence, except as an instance + of that slovenliness of thinking which is often concealed beneath a + peculiar ostentation of logical neatness. + </p> + <p> + Having determined the ends, Mr Mill proceeds to consider the means. For + the preservation of property some portion of the community must be + intrusted with power. This is government; and the question is, how are + those to whom the necessary power is intrusted to be prevented from + abusing it? + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill first passes in review the simple forms of government. He allows + that it would be inconvenient, if not physically impossible, that the + whole community should meet in a mass; it follows, therefore, that the + powers of government cannot be directly exercised by the people. But he + sees no objection to pure and direct Democracy, except the difficulty + which we have mentioned. + </p> + <p> + "The community," says he, "cannot have an interest opposite to its + interests. To affirm this would be a contradiction in terms. The community + within itself, and with respect to itself, can have no sinister interest. + One community may intend the evil of another; never its own. This is an + indubitable proposition, and one of great importance." + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill then proceeds to demonstrate that a purely aristocratical form of + government is necessarily bad. + </p> + <p> + "The reason for which government exists is, that one man, if stronger than + another, will take from him whatever that other possesses and he desires. + But if one man will do this, so will several. And if powers are put into + the hands of a comparatively small number, called an aristocracy,—powers + which make them stronger than the rest of the community, they will take + from the rest of the community as much as they please of the objects of + desire. They will thus defeat the very end for which government was + instituted. The unfitness, therefore, of an aristocracy to be intrusted + with the powers of government, rests on demonstration." + </p> + <p> + In exactly the same manner Mr Mill proves absolute monarchy to be a bad + form of government. + </p> + <p> + "If government is founded upon this as a law of human nature, that a man, + if able, will take from others anything which they have and he desires, it + is sufficiently evident, that when a man is called a king he does not + change his nature; so that when he has got power to enable him to take + from every man what he pleases, he will take whatever he pleases. To + suppose that he will not, is to affirm that government is unnecessary, and + that human beings will abstain from injuring one another of their own + accord." + </p> + <p> + "It is very evident that this reasoning extends to every modification of + the smaller number. Whenever the powers of government are placed in any + hands other than those of the community, whether those of one man, of a + few, or of several, those principles of human nature which imply that + government is at all necessary, imply that those persons will make use of + them to defeat the very end for which government exists." + </p> + <p> + But is it not possible that a king or an aristocracy may soon be saturated + with the objects of their desires, and may then protect the community in + the enjoyment of the rest? Mr Mill answers in the negative. He proves, + with great pomp, that every man desires to have the actions of every other + correspondent to his will. Others can be induced to conform to our will + only by motives derived from pleasure or from pain. The infliction of pain + is of course direct injury; and, even if it take the milder course, in + order to produce obedience by motives derived from pleasure, the + government must confer favours. But, as there is no limit to its desire of + obedience, there will be no limit to its disposition to confer favours; + and, as it can confer favours only by plundering the people, there will be + no limit to its disposition to plunder the people. It is therefore not + true that there is in the mind of a king, or in the minds of an + aristocracy, any point of saturation with the objects of desire. + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill then proceeds to show that, as monarchical and oligarchical + governments can influence men by motives drawn from pain, as well as by + motives drawn from pleasure, they will carry their cruelty, as well as + their rapacity, to a frightful extent. As he seems greatly to admire his + own reasonings on this subject, we think it but fair to let him speak for + himself. + </p> + <p> + "The chain of inference in this case is close and strong to a most unusual + degree. A man desires that the actions of other men shall be instantly and + accurately correspondent to his will. He desires that the actions of the + greatest possible number shall be so. Terror is the grand instrument. + Terror can work only through assurance that evil will follow any failure + of conformity between the will and the actions willed. Every failure must + therefore be punished. As there are no bounds to the mind's desire of its + pleasure, there are, of course, no bounds to its desire of perfection in + the instruments of that pleasure. There are, therefore, no bounds to its + desire of exactness in the conformity between its will and the actions + willed; and by consequence to the strength of that terror which is its + procuring cause. Even the most minute failure must be visited with the + heaviest infliction; and as failure in extreme exactness must frequently + happen, the occasions of cruelty must be incessant. + </p> + <p> + "We have thus arrived at several conclusions of the highest possible + importance. We have seen that the principle of human nature, upon which + the necessity of government is founded, the propensity of one man to + possess himself of the objects of desire at the cost of another, leads on, + by infallible sequence, where power over a community is attained, and + nothing checks, not only to that degree of plunder which leaves the + members (excepting always the recipients and instruments of the plunder) + the bare means of subsistence, but to that degree of cruelty which is + necessary to keep in existence the most intense terrors." + </p> + <p> + Now, no man who has the least knowledge of the real state of the world, + either in former ages or at the present moment, can possibly be convinced, + though he may perhaps be bewildered, by arguments like these. During the + last two centuries, some hundreds of absolute princes have reigned in + Europe. Is it true, that their cruelty has kept in existence the most + intense degree of terror; that their rapacity has left no more than the + bare means of subsistence to any of their subjects, their ministers and + soldiers excepted? Is this true of all of them? Of one half of them? Of + one tenth part of them? Of a single one? Is it true, in the full extent, + even of Philip the Second, of Louis the Fifteenth, or of the Emperor Paul? + But it is scarcely necessary to quote history. No man of common sense, + however ignorant he may be of books, can be imposed on by Mr Mill's + argument; because no man of common sense can live among his + fellow-creatures for a day without seeing innumerable facts which + contradict it. It is our business, however, to point out its fallacy; and + happily the fallacy is not very recondite. + </p> + <p> + We grant that rulers will take as much as they can of the objects of their + desires; and that, when the agency of other men is necessary to that end, + they will attempt by all means in their power to enforce the prompt + obedience of such men. But what are the objects of human desire? Physical + pleasure, no doubt, in part. But the mere appetites which we have in + common with the animals would be gratified almost as cheaply and easily as + those of the animals are gratified, if nothing were given to taste, to + ostentation, or to the affections. How small a portion of the income of a + gentleman in easy circumstances is laid out merely in giving pleasurable + sensations to the body of the possessor! The greater part even of what is + spent on his kitchen and his cellar goes, not to titillate his palate, but + to keep up his character for hospitality, to save him from the reproach of + meanness in housekeeping, and to cement the ties of good neighbourhood. It + is clear that a king or an aristocracy may be supplied to satiety with + mere corporal pleasures, at an expense which the rudest and poorest + community would scarcely feel. + </p> + <p> + Those tastes and propensities which belong to us as reasoning and + imaginative beings are not indeed so easily gratified. There is, we admit, + no point of saturation with objects of desire which come under this head. + And therefore the argument of Mr Mill will be just, unless there be + something in the nature of the objects of desire themselves which is + inconsistent with it. Now, of these objects there is none which men in + general seem to desire more than the good opinion of others. The hatred + and contempt of the public are generally felt to be intolerable. It is + probable that our regard for the sentiments of our fellow-creatures + springs, by association, from a sense of their ability to hurt or to serve + us. But, be this as it may, it is notorious that, when the habit of mind + of which we speak has once been formed, men feel extremely solicitous + about the opinions of those by whom it is most improbable, nay, absolutely + impossible, that they should ever be in the slightest degree injured or + benefited. The desire of posthumous fame and the dread of posthumous + reproach and execration are feelings from the influence of which scarcely + any man is perfectly free, and which in many men are powerful and constant + motives of action. As we are afraid that, if we handle this part of the + argument after our own manner, we shall incur the reproach of + sentimentality, a word which, in the sacred language of the Benthamites, + is synonymous with idiocy, we will quote what Mr Mill himself says on the + subject, in his Treatise on Jurisprudence. + </p> + <p> + "Pains from the moral source are the pains derived from the unfavourable + sentiments of mankind...These pains are capable of rising to a height with + which hardly any other pains incident to our nature can be compared. There + is a certain degree of unfavourableness in the sentiments of his + fellow-creatures, under which hardly any man, not below the standard of + humanity, can endure to live. + </p> + <p> + "The importance of this powerful agency, for the prevention of injurious + acts, is too obvious to need to be illustrated. If sufficiently at + command, it would almost supersede the use of other means... + </p> + <p> + "To know how to direct the unfavourable sentiments of mankind, it is + necessary to know in as complete, that is, in as comprehensive, a way as + possible, what it is which gives them birth. Without entering into the + metaphysics of the question, it is a sufficient practical answer, for the + present purpose, to say that the unfavourable sentiments of man are + excited by everything which hurts them." + </p> + <p> + It is strange that a writer who considers the pain derived from the + unfavourable sentiments of others as so acute that, if sufficiently at + command, it would supersede the use of the gallows and the tread-mill, + should take no notice of this most important restraint when discussing the + question of government. We will attempt to deduce a theory of politics in + the mathematical form, in which Mr Mill delights, from the premises with + which he has himself furnished us. + </p> + <p> + PROPOSITION I. THEOREM. + </p> + <p> + No rulers will do anything which may hurt the people. + </p> + <p> + This is the thesis to be maintained; and the following we humbly offer to + Mr Mill, as its syllogistic demonstration. + </p> + <p> + No rulers will do that which produces pain to themselves. + </p> + <p> + But the unfavourable sentiments of the people will give pain to them. + </p> + <p> + Therefore no rulers will do anything which may excite the unfavourable + sentiments of the people. + </p> + <p> + But the unfavourable sentiments of the people are excited by everything + which hurts them. + </p> + <p> + Therefore no rulers will do anything which may hurt the people. Which was + the thing to be proved. + </p> + <p> + Having thus, as we think, not unsuccessfully imitated Mr Mill's logic, we + do not see why we should not imitate, what is at least equally perfect in + its kind, its self-complacency, and proclaim our Eureka in his own words: + "The chain of inference, in this case, is close and strong to a most + unusual degree." + </p> + <p> + The fact is, that, when men, in treating of things which cannot be + circumscribed by precise definitions, adopt this mode of reasoning, when + once they begin to talk of power, happiness, misery, pain, pleasure, + motives, objects of desire, as they talk of lines and numbers, there is no + end to the contradictions and absurdities into which they fall. There is + no proposition so monstrously untrue in morals or politics that we will + not undertake to prove it, by something which shall sound like a logical + demonstration from admitted principles. + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill argues that, if men are not inclined to plunder each other, + government is unnecessary; and that, if they are so inclined, the powers + of government, when entrusted to a small number of them, will necessarily + be abused. Surely it is not by propounding dilemmas of this sort that we + are likely to arrive at sound conclusions in any moral science. The whole + question is a question of degree. If all men preferred the moderate + approbation of their neighbours to any degree of wealth or grandeur, or + sensual pleasure, government would be unnecessary. If all men desired + wealth so intensely as to be willing to brave the hatred of their + fellow-creatures for sixpence, Mr Mill's argument against monarchies and + aristocracies would be true to the full extent. But the fact is, that all + men have some desires which impel them to injure their neighbours, and + some desires which impel them to benefit their neighbours. Now, if there + were a community consisting of two classes of men, one of which should be + principally influenced by the one set of motives and the other by the + other, government would clearly be necessary to restrain the class which + was eager for plunder and careless of reputation: and yet the powers of + government might be safely intrusted to the class which was chiefly + actuated by the love of approbation. Now, it might with no small + plausibility be maintained that, in many countries, THERE ARE two classes + which, in some degree, answer to this description; that the poor compose + the class which government is established to restrain, and the people of + some property the class to which the powers of government may without + danger be confided. It might be said that a man who can barely earn a + livelihood by severe labour is under stronger temptations to pillage + others than a man who enjoys many luxuries. It might be said that a man + who is lost in the crowd is less likely to have the fear of public opinion + before his eyes than a man whose station and mode of living render him + conspicuous. We do not assert all this. We only say that it was Mr Mill's + business to prove the contrary; and that, not having proved the contrary, + he is not entitled to say, "that those principles which imply that + government is at all necessary, imply that an aristocracy will make use of + its power to defeat the end for which governments exist." This is not + true, unless it be true that a rich man is as likely to covet the goods of + his neighbours as a poor man, and that a poor man is as likely to be + solicitous about the opinions of his neighbours as a rich man. + </p> + <p> + But we do not see that, by reasoning a priori on such subjects as these, + it is possible to advance one single step. We know that every man has some + desires which he can gratify only by hurting his neighbours, and some + which he can gratify only by pleasing them. Mr Mill has chosen to look + only at one-half of human nature, and to reason on the motives which impel + men to oppress and despoil others, as if they were the only motives by + which men could possibly be influenced. We have already shown that, by + taking the other half of the human character, and reasoning on it as if it + were the whole, we can bring out a result diametrically opposite to that + at which Mr Mill has arrived. We can, by such a process, easily prove that + any form of government is good, or that all government is superfluous. + </p> + <p> + We must now accompany Mr Mill on the next stage of his argument. + </p> + <p> + Does any combination of the three simple forms of government afford the + requisite securities against the abuse of power? Mr Mill complains that + those who maintain the affirmative generally beg the question; and + proceeds to settle the point by proving, after his fashion, that no + combination of the three simple forms, or of any two of them, can possibly + exist. + </p> + <p> + "From the principles which we have already laid down it follows that, of + the objects of human desire, and, speaking more definitely, of the means + to the ends of human desire, namely, wealth and power, each party will + endeavour to obtain as much as possible. + </p> + <p> + "If any expedient presents itself to any of the supposed parties effectual + to this end, and not opposed to any preferred object of pursuit, we may + infer with certainty that it will be adopted. One effectual expedient is + not more effectual than obvious. Any two of the parties, by combining, may + swallow up the third. That such combination will take place appears to be + as certain as anything which depends upon human will; because there are + strong motives in favour of it, and none that can be conceived in + opposition to it...The mixture of three of the kinds of government, it is + thus evident, cannot possibly exist...It may be proper to enquire whether + an union may not be possible of two of them... + </p> + <p> + "Let us first suppose, that monarchy is united with aristocracy. Their + power is equal or not equal. If it is not equal, it follows, as a + necessary consequence, from the principles which we have already + established, that the stronger will take from the weaker till it engrosses + the whole. The only question therefore is, What will happen when the power + is equal? + </p> + <p> + "In the first place, it seems impossible that such equality should ever + exist. How is it to be established? or, by what criterion is it to be + ascertained? If there is no such criterion, it must, in all cases, be the + result of chance. If so, the chances against it are as infinity to one. + The idea, therefore, is wholly chimerical and absurd... + </p> + <p> + "In this doctrine of the mixture of the simple forms of government is + included the celebrated theory of the balance among the component parts of + a government. By this it is supposed that, when a government is composed + of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, they balance one another, and by + mutual checks produce good government. A few words will suffice to show + that, if any theory deserves the epithets of 'wild, visionary, and + chimerical,' it is that of the balance. If there are three powers, how is + it possible to prevent two of them from combining to swallow up the third? + </p> + <p> + "The analysis which we have already performed will enable us to trace + rapidly the concatenation of causes and effects in this imagined case. + </p> + <p> + "We have already seen that the interests of the community, considered in + the aggregate, or in the democratical point of view, is, that each + individual should receive protection; and that the powers which are + constituted for that purpose should be employed exclusively for that + purpose...We have also seen that the interest of the king and of the + governing aristocracy is directly the reverse. It is to have unlimited + power over the rest of the community, and to use it for their own + advantage. In the supposed case of the balance of the monarchical, + aristocratical, and democratical powers, it cannot be for the interest of + either the monarchy or the aristocracy to combine with the democracy; + because it is the interest of the democracy, or community at large, that + neither the king nor the aristocracy should have one particle of power, or + one particle of the wealth of the community, for their own advantage. + </p> + <p> + "The democracy or community have all possible motives to endeavour to + prevent the monarchy and aristocracy from exercising power, or obtaining + the wealth of the community for their own advantage. The monarchy and + aristocracy have all possible motives for endeavouring to obtain unlimited + power over the persons and property of the community. The consequence is + inevitable: they have all possible motives for combining to obtain that + power." + </p> + <p> + If any part of this passage be more eminently absurd than another, it is, + we think, the argument by which Mr Mill proves that there cannot be an + union of monarchy and aristocracy. Their power, he says, must be equal or + not equal. But of equality there is no criterion. Therefore the chances + against its existence are as infinity to one. If the power be not equal, + then it follows, from the principles of human nature, that the stronger + will take from the weaker, till it has engrossed the whole. + </p> + <p> + Now, if there be no criterion of equality between two portions of power + there can be no common measure of portions of power. Therefore it is + utterly impossible to compare them together. But where two portions of + power are of the same kind, there is no difficulty in ascertaining, + sufficiently for all practical purposes, whether they are equal or + unequal. It is easy to judge whether two men run equally fast, or can lift + equal weights. Two arbitrators, whose joint decision is to be final, and + neither of whom can do anything without the assent of the other, possess + equal power. Two electors, each of whom has a vote for a borough, possess, + in that respect, equal power. If not, all Mr Mill's political theories + fall to the ground at once. For, if it be impossible to ascertain whether + two portions of power are equal, he never can show that even under a + system of universal suffrage, a minority might not carry every thing their + own way, against the wishes and interests of the majority. + </p> + <p> + Where there are two portions of power differing in kind, there is, we + admit, no criterion of equality. But then, in such a case, it is absurd to + talk, as Mr Mill does, about the stronger and the weaker. Popularly, + indeed, and with reference to some particular objects, these words may + very fairly be used. But to use them mathematically is altogether + improper. If we are speaking of a boxing-match, we may say that some + famous bruiser has greater bodily power than any man in England. If we are + speaking of a pantomime, we may say the same of some very agile harlequin. + But it would be talking nonsense to say, in general, that the power of + Harlequin either exceeded that of the pugilist or fell short of it. + </p> + <p> + If Mr Mill's argument be good as between different branches of a + legislature, it is equally good as between sovereign powers. Every + government, it may be said, will, if it can, take the objects of its + desires from every other. If the French government can subdue England it + will do so. If the English government can subdue France it will do so. But + the power of England and France is either equal or not equal. The chance + that it is not exactly equal is as infinity to one, and may safely be left + out of the account; and then the stronger will infallibly take from the + weaker till the weaker is altogether enslaved. + </p> + <p> + Surely the answer to all this hubbub of unmeaning words is the plainest + possible. For some purposes France is stronger than England. For some + purposes England is stronger than France. For some, neither has any power + at all. France has the greater population, England the greater capital; + France has the greater army, England the greater fleet. For an expedition + to Rio Janeiro or the Philippines, England has the greater power. For a + war on the Po or the Danube, France has the greater power. But neither has + power sufficient to keep the other in quiet subjection for a month. + Invasion would be very perilous; the idea of complete conquest on either + side utterly ridiculous. This is the manly and sensible way of discussing + such questions. The ergo, or rather the argal, of Mr Mill cannot impose on + a child. Yet we ought scarcely to say this; for we remember to have heard + A CHILD ask whether Bonaparte was stronger than an elephant! + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill reminds us of those philosophers of the sixteenth century who, + having satisfied themselves a priori that the rapidity with which bodies + descended to the earth varied exactly as their weights, refused to believe + the contrary on the evidence of their own eyes and ears. The British + constitution, according to Mr Mill's classification, is a mixture of + monarchy and aristocracy; one House of Parliament being composed of + hereditary nobles, and the other almost entirely chosen by a privileged + class who possess the elective franchise on account of their property, or + their connection with certain corporations. Mr Mill's argument proves + that, from the time that these two powers were mingled in our government, + that is, from the very first dawn of our history, one or the other must + have been constantly encroaching. According to him, moreover, all the + encroachments must have been on one side. For the first encroachment could + only have been made by the stronger; and that first encroachment would + have made the stronger stronger still. It is, therefore, matter of + absolute demonstration, that either the Parliament was stronger than the + Crown in the reign of Henry VIII., or that the Crown was stronger than the + Parliament in 1641. "Hippocrate dira ce que lui plaira," says the girl in + Moliere; "mais le cocher est mort." Mr Mill may say what he pleases; but + the English constitution is still alive. That since the Revolution the + Parliament has possessed great power in the State, is what nobody will + dispute. The King, on the other hand, can create new peers, and can + dissolve Parliaments. William sustained severe mortifications from the + House of Commons, and was, indeed, unjustifiably oppressed. Anne was + desirous to change a ministry which had a majority in both Houses. She + watched her moment for a dissolution, created twelve Tory peers, and + succeeded. Thirty years later, the House of Commons drove Walpole from his + seat. In 1784, George III. was able to keep Mr Pitt in office in the face + of a majority of the House of Commons. In 1804, the apprehension of a + defeat in Parliament compelled the same King to part from his most + favoured minister. But, in 1807, he was able to do exactly what Anne had + done nearly a hundred years before. Now, had the power of the King + increased during the intervening century, or had it remained stationary? + Is it possible that the one lot among the infinite number should have + fallen to us? If not, Mr Mill has proved that one of the two parties must + have been constantly taking from the other. Many of the ablest men in + England think that the influence of the Crown has, on the whole, increased + since the reign of Anne. Others think that the Parliament has been growing + in strength. But of this there is no doubt, that both sides possessed + great power then, and possess great power now. Surely, if there were the + least truth in the argument of Mr Mill, it could not possibly be a matter + of doubt, at the end of a hundred and twenty years, whether the one side + or the other had been the gainer. + </p> + <p> + But we ask pardon. We forgot that a fact, irreconcilable with Mr Mill's + theory, furnishes, in his opinion, the strongest reason for adhering to + the theory. To take up the question in another manner, is it not plain + that there may be two bodies, each possessing a perfect and entire power, + which cannot be taken from it without its own concurrence? What is the + meaning of the words stronger and weaker, when applied to such bodies as + these? The one may, indeed, by physical force, altogether destroy the + other. But this is not the question. A third party, a general of their + own, for example, may, by physical force, subjugate them both. Nor is + there any form of government, Mr Mill's utopian democracy not excepted, + secure from such an occurrence. We are speaking of the powers with which + the constitution invests the two branches of the legislature; and we ask + Mr Mill how, on his own principles, he can maintain that one of them will + be able to encroach on the other, if the consent of the other be necessary + to such encroachment? + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill tells us that, if a government be composed of the three simple + forms, which he will not admit the British constitution to be, two of the + component parts will inevitably join against the third. Now, if two of + them combine and act as one, this case evidently resolves itself into the + last: and all the observations which we have just made will fully apply to + it. Mr Mill says, that "any two of the parties, by combining, may swallow + up the third;" and afterwards asks, "How is it possible to prevent two of + them from combining to swallow up the third?" Surely Mr Mill must be aware + that in politics two is not always the double of one. If the concurrence + of all the three branches of the legislature be necessary to every law, + each branch will possess constitutional power sufficient to protect it + against anything but that physical force from which no form of government + is secure. Mr Mill reminds us of the Irishman, who could not be brought to + understand how one juryman could possibly starve out eleven others. + </p> + <p> + But is it certain that two of the branches of the legislature will combine + against the third? "It appears to be as certain," says Mr Mill, "as + anything which depends upon human will; because there are strong motives + in favour of it, and none that can be conceived in opposition to it." He + subsequently sets forth what these motives are. The interest of the + democracy is that each individual should receive protection. The interest + of the King and the aristocracy is to have all the power that they can + obtain, and to use it for their own ends. Therefore the King and the + aristocracy have all possible motives for combining against the people. If + our readers will look back to the passage quoted above, they will see that + we represent Mr Mill's argument quite fairly. + </p> + <p> + Now we should have thought that, without the help of either history or + experience, Mr Mill would have discovered, by the light of his own logic, + the fallacy which lurks, and indeed scarcely lurks, under this pretended + demonstration. The interest of the King may be opposed to that of the + people. But is it identical with that of the aristocracy? In the very page + which contains this argument, intended to prove that the King and the + aristocracy will coalesce against the people, Mr Mill attempts to show + that there is so strong an opposition of interest between the King and the + aristocracy that if the powers of government are divided between them the + one will inevitably usurp the power of the other. If so, he is not + entitled to conclude that they will combine to destroy the power of the + people merely because their interests may be at variance with those of the + people. He is bound to show, not merely that in all communities the + interest of a king must be opposed to that of the people, but also that, + in all communities, it must be more directly opposed to the interest of + the people than to the interest of the aristocracy. But he has not shown + this. Therefore he has not proved his proposition on his own principles. + To quote history would be a mere waste of time. Every schoolboy, whose + studies have gone so far as the Abridgments of Goldsmith, can mention + instances in which sovereigns have allied themselves with the people + against the aristocracy, and in which the nobles have allied themselves + with the people against the sovereign. In general, when there are three + parties, every one of which has much to fear from the others, it is not + found that two of them combine to plunder the third. If such a combination + be formed, it scarcely ever effects its purpose. It soon becomes evident + which member of the coalition is likely to be the greater gainer by the + transaction. He becomes an object of jealousy to his ally, who, in all + probability, changes sides, and compels him to restore what he has taken. + Everybody knows how Henry VIII. trimmed between Francis and the Emperor + Charles. But it is idle to cite examples of the operation of a principle + which is illustrated in almost every page of history, ancient or modern, + and to which almost every state in Europe has, at one time or another, + been indebted for its independence. + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill has now, as he conceives, demonstrated that the simple forms of + government are bad, and that the mixed forms cannot possibly exist. There + is still, however, it seems, a hope for mankind. + </p> + <p> + "In the grand discovery of modern times, the system of representation, the + solution of all the difficulties, both speculative and practical, will + perhaps be found. If it cannot, we seem to be forced upon the + extraordinary conclusion, that good government is impossible. For, as + there is no individual or combination of individuals, except the community + itself, who would not have an interest in bad government if intrusted with + its powers, and as the community itself is incapable of exercising those + powers, and must intrust them to certain individuals, the conclusion is + obvious: the community itself must check those individuals; else they will + follow their interest, and produce bad government. But how is it the + community can check? The community can act only when assembled; and when + assembled, it is incapable of acting. The community, however, can choose + representatives." + </p> + <p> + The next question is—How must the representative body be + constituted? Mr Mill lays down two principles, about which, he says, "it + is unlikely that there will be any dispute." + </p> + <p> + "First, The checking body must have a degree of power sufficient for the + business of checking." + </p> + <p> + "Secondly, It must have an identity of interest with the community. + Otherwise, it will make a mischievous use of its power." + </p> + <p> + The first of these propositions certainly admits of no dispute. As to the + second, we shall hereafter take occasion to make some remarks on the sense + in which Mr Mill understands the words "interest of the community." + </p> + <p> + It does not appear very easy, on Mr Mill's principles, to find out any + mode of making the interest of the representative body identical with that + of the constituent body. The plan proposed by Mr Mill is simply that of + very frequent election. "As it appears," says he, "that limiting the + duration of their power is a security against the sinister interest of the + people's representatives, so it appears that it is the only security of + which the nature of the case admits." But all the arguments by which Mr + Mill has proved monarchy and aristocracy to be pernicious will, as it + appears to us, equally prove this security to be no security at all. Is it + not clear that the representatives, as soon as they are elected, are an + aristocracy, with an interest opposed to the interest of the community? + Why should they not pass a law for extending the term of their power from + one year to ten years, or declare themselves senators for life? If the + whole legislative power is given to them, they will be constitutionally + competent to do this. If part of the legislative power is withheld from + them, to whom is that part given? Is the people to retain it, and to + express its assent or dissent in primary assemblies? Mr Mill himself tells + us that the community can only act when assembled, and that, when + assembled, it is incapable of acting. Or is it to be provided, as in some + of the American republics, that no change in the fundamental laws shall be + made without the consent of a convention, specially elected for the + purpose? Still the difficulty recurs: Why may not the members of the + convention betray their trust, as well as the members of the ordinary + legislature? When private men, they may have been zealous for the + interests of the community. When candidates, they may have pledged + themselves to the cause of the constitution. But, as soon as they are a + convention, as soon as they are separated from the people, as soon as the + supreme power is put into their hands, commences that interest opposite to + the interest of the community which must, according to Mr Mill, produce + measures opposite to the interests of the community. We must find some + other means, therefore, of checking this check upon a check; some other + prop to carry the tortoise, that carries the elephant, that carries the + world. + </p> + <p> + We know well that there is no real danger in such a case. But there is no + danger only because there is no truth in Mr Mill's principles. If men were + what he represents them to be, the letter of the very constitution which + he recommends would afford no safeguard against bad government. The real + security is this, that legislators will be deterred by the fear of + resistance and of infamy from acting in the manner which we have + described. But restraints, exactly the same in kind, and differing only in + degree, exist in all forms of government. That broad line of distinction + which Mr Mill tries to point out between monarchies and aristocracies on + the one side, and democracies on the other, has in fact no existence. In + no form of government is there an absolute identity of interest between + the people and their rulers. In every form of government, the rulers stand + in some awe of the people. The fear of resistance and the sense of shame + operate in a certain degree, on the most absolute kings and the most + illiberal oligarchies. And nothing but the fear of resistance and the + sense of shame preserves the freedom of the most democratic communities + from the encroachments of their annual and biennial delegates. + </p> + <p> + We have seen how Mr Mill proposes to render the interest of the + representative body identical with that of the constituent body. The next + question is, in what manner the interest of the constituent body is to be + rendered identical with that of the community. Mr Mill shows that a + minority of the community, consisting even of many thousands, would be a + bad constituent body, and, indeed, merely a numerous aristocracy. + </p> + <p> + "The benefits of the representative system," says he, "are lost in all + cases in which the interests of the choosing body are not the same with + those of the community. It is very evident, that if the community itself + were the choosing body, the interests of the community and that of the + choosing body would be the same." + </p> + <p> + On these grounds Mr Mill recommends that all males of mature age, rich and + poor, educated and ignorant, shall have votes. But why not the women too? + This question has often been asked in parliamentary debate, and has never, + to our knowledge, received a plausible answer. Mr Mill escapes from it as + fast as he can. But we shall take the liberty to dwell a little on the + words of the oracle. "One thing," says he, "is pretty clear, that all + those individuals whose interests are involved in those of other + individuals, may be struck off without inconvenience...In this light women + may be regarded, the interest of almost all of whom is involved either in + that of their fathers, or in that of their husbands." + </p> + <p> + If we were to content ourselves with saying, in answer to all the + arguments in Mr Mill's essay, that the interest of a king is involved in + that of the community, we should be accused, and justly, of talking + nonsense. Yet such an assertion would not, as far as we can perceive, be + more unreasonable than that which Mr Mill has here ventured to make. + Without adducing one fact, without taking the trouble to perplex the + question by one sophism, he placidly dogmatises away the interest of one + half of the human race. If there be a word of truth in history, women have + always been, and still are, over the greater part of the globe, humble + companions, play things, captives, menials, beasts of burden. Except in a + few happy and highly civilised communities, they are strictly in a state + of personal slavery. Even in those countries where they are best treated, + the laws are generally unfavourable to them, with respect to almost all + the points in which they are most deeply interested. + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill is not legislating for England or the United States, but for + mankind. Is then the interest of a Turk the same with that of the girls + who compose his harem? Is the interest of a Chinese the same with that of + the woman whom he harnesses to his plough? Is the interest of an Italian + the same with that of the daughter whom he devotes to God? The interest of + a respectable Englishman may be said, without any impropriety, to be + identical with that of his wife. But why is it so? Because human nature is + NOT what Mr Mill conceives it to be; because civilised men, pursuing their + own happiness in a social state, are not Yahoos fighting for carrion; + because there is a pleasure in being loved and esteemed, as well as in + being feared and servilely obeyed. Why does not a gentleman restrict his + wife to the bare maintenance which the law would compel him to allow her, + that he may have more to spend on his personal pleasures? Because, if he + loves her, he has pleasure in seeing her pleased; and because, even if he + dislikes her, he is unwilling that the whole neighbourhood should cry + shame on his meanness and ill-nature. Why does not the legislature, + altogether composed of males, pass a law to deprive women of all civil + privileges whatever, and reduce them to the state of slaves? By passing + such a law, they would gratify what Mr Mill tells us is an inseparable + part of human nature, the desire to possess unlimited power of inflicting + pain upon others. That they do not pass such a law, though they have the + power to pass it, and that no man in England wishes to see such a law + passed, proves that the desire to possess unlimited power of inflicting + pain is not inseparable from human nature. + </p> + <p> + If there be in this country an identity of interest between the two sexes, + it cannot possibly arise from anything but the pleasure of being loved, + and of communicating happiness. For, that it does not spring from the mere + instinct of sex, the treatment which women experience over the greater + part of the world abundantly proves. And, if it be said that our laws of + marriage have produced it, this only removes the argument a step further; + for those laws have been made by males. Now, if the kind feelings of one + half of the species be a sufficient security for the happiness of the + other, why may not the kind feelings of a monarch or an aristocracy be + sufficient at least to prevent them from grinding the people to the very + utmost of their power? + </p> + <p> + If Mr Mill will examine why it is that women are better treated in England + than in Persia, he may perhaps find out, in the course of his inquiries, + why it is that the Danes are better governed than the subjects of + Caligula. + </p> + <p> + We now come to the most important practical question in the whole essay. + Is it desirable that all males arrived at years of discretion should vote + for representatives, or should a pecuniary qualification be required? Mr + Mill's opinion is, that the lower the qualification the better; and that + the best system is that in which there is none at all. + </p> + <p> + "The qualification," says he, "must either be such as to embrace the + majority of the population, or something less than the majority. Suppose, + in the first place, that it embraces the majority, the question is, + whether the majority would have an interest in oppressing those who, upon + this supposition, would be deprived of political power? If we reduce the + calculation to its elements, we shall see that the interest which they + would have of this deplorable kind, though it would be something, would + not be very great. Each man of the majority, if the majority were + constituted the governing body, would have something less than the benefit + of oppressing a single man. If the majority were twice as great as the + minority, each man of the majority would only have one half the benefit of + oppressing a single man...Suppose in the second place, that the + qualification did not admit a body of electors so large as the majority, + in that case, taking again the calculation in its elements, we shall see + that each man would have a benefit equal to that derived from the + oppression of more than one man; and that, in proportion as the elective + body constituted a smaller and smaller minority, the benefit of misrule to + the elective body would be increased, and bad government would be + insured." + </p> + <p> + The first remark which we have to make on this argument is, that, by Mr + Mill's own account, even a government in which every human being should + vote would still be defective. For, under a system of universal suffrage, + the majority of the electors return the representative, and the majority + of the representatives make the law. The whole people may vote, therefore; + but only the majority govern. So that, by Mr Mill's own confession, the + most perfect system of government conceivable is one in which the interest + of the ruling body to oppress, though not great, is something. + </p> + <p> + But is Mr Mill in the right when he says that such an interest could not + be very great? We think not. If, indeed, every man in the community + possessed an equal share of what Mr Mill calls the objects of desire, the + majority would probably abstain from plundering the minority. A large + minority would offer a vigorous resistance; and the property of a small + minority would not repay the other members of the community for the + trouble of dividing it. But it happens that in all civilised communities + there is a small minority of rich men, and a great majority of poor men. + If there were a thousand men with ten pounds apiece, it would not be worth + while for nine hundred and ninety of them to rob ten, and it would be a + bold attempt for six hundred of them to rob four hundred. But, if ten of + them had a hundred thousand pounds apiece, the case would be very + different. There would then be much to be got, and nothing to be feared. + </p> + <p> + "That one human being will desire to render the person and property of + another subservient to his pleasures, notwithstanding the pain or loss of + pleasure which it may occasion to that other individual, is," according to + Mr Mill, "the foundation of government." That the property of the rich + minority can be made subservient to the pleasures of the poor majority + will scarcely be denied. But Mr Mill proposes to give the poor majority + power over the rich minority. Is it possible to doubt to what, on his own + principles, such an arrangement must lead? + </p> + <p> + It may perhaps be said that, in the long run, it is for the interest of + the people that property should be secure, and that therefore they will + respect it. We answer thus:—It cannot be pretended that it is not + for the immediate interest of the people to plunder the rich. Therefore, + even if it were quite certain that, in the long run, the people would, as + a body, lose by doing so, it would not necessarily follow that the fear of + remote ill consequences would overcome the desire of immediate + acquisitions. Every individual might flatter himself that the punishment + would not fall on him. Mr Mill himself tells us, in his Essay on + Jurisprudence, that no quantity of evil which is remote and uncertain will + suffice to prevent crime. + </p> + <p> + But we are rather inclined to think that it would, on the whole, be for + the interest of the majority to plunder the rich. If so, the Utilitarians + will say, that the rich OUGHT to be plundered. We deny the inference. For, + in the first place, if the object of government be the greatest happiness + of the greatest number, the intensity of the suffering which a measure + inflicts must be taken into consideration, as well as the number of the + sufferers. In the next place, we have to notice one most important + distinction which Mr Mill has altogether overlooked. Throughout his essay, + he confounds the community with the species. He talks of the greatest + happiness of the greatest number: but, when we examine his reasonings, we + find that he thinks only of the greatest number of a single generation. + </p> + <p> + Therefore, even if we were to concede that all those arguments of which we + have exposed the fallacy are unanswerable, we might still deny the + conclusion at which the essayist arrives. Even if we were to grant that he + had found out the form of government which is best for the majority of the + people now living on the face of the earth, we might still without + inconsistency maintain that form of government to be pernicious to + mankind. It would still be incumbent on Mr Mill to prove that the interest + of every generation is identical with the interest of all succeeding + generations. And how on his own principles he could do this we are at a + loss to conceive. + </p> + <p> + The case, indeed, is strictly analogous to that of an aristocratic + government. In an aristocracy, says Mr Mill, the few being invested with + the powers of government, can take the objects of their desires from the + people. In the same manner, every generation in turn can gratify itself at + the expense of posterity,—priority of time, in the latter case, + giving an advantage exactly corresponding to that which superiority of + station gives in the former. That an aristocracy will abuse its advantage, + is, according to Mr Mill, matter of demonstration. Is it not equally + certain that the whole people will do the same: that, if they have the + power, they will commit waste of every sort on the estate of mankind, and + transmit it to posterity impoverished and desolated? + </p> + <p> + How is it possible for any person who holds the doctrines of Mr Mill to + doubt that the rich, in a democracy such as that which he recommends, + would be pillaged as unmercifully as under a Turkish Pacha? It is no doubt + for the interest of the next generation, and it may be for the remote + interest of the present generation, that property should be held sacred. + And so no doubt it will be for the interest of the next Pacha, and even + for that of the present Pacha, if he should hold office long, that the + inhabitants of his Pachalik should be encouraged to accumulate wealth. + Scarcely any despotic sovereign has plundered his subjects to a large + extent without having reason before the end of his reign to regret it. + Everybody knows how bitterly Louis the Fourteenth, towards the close of + his life, lamented his former extravagance. If that magnificent prince had + not expended millions on Marli and Versailles, and tens of millions on the + aggrandisement of his grandson, he would not have been compelled at last + to pay servile court to low-born money-lenders, to humble himself before + men on whom, in the days of his pride, he would not have vouchsafed to + look, for the means of supporting even his own household. Examples to the + same effect might easily be multiplied. But despots, we see, do plunder + their subjects, though history and experience tell them that, by + prematurely exacting the means of profusion, they are in fact devouring + the seed-corn from which the future harvest of revenue is to spring. Why + then should we suppose that the people will be deterred from procuring + immediate relief and enjoyment by the fear of distant calamities, of + calamities which perhaps may not be fully felt till the times of their + grandchildren? + </p> + <p> + These conclusions are strictly drawn from Mr Mill's own principles: and, + unlike most of the conclusions which he has himself drawn from those + principles, they are not as far as we know contradicted by facts. The case + of the United States is not in point. In a country where the necessaries + of life are cheap and the wages of labour high, where a man who has no + capital but his legs and arms may expect to become rich by industry and + frugality, it is not very decidedly even for the immediate advantage of + the poor to plunder the rich; and the punishment of doing so would very + speedily follow the offence. But in countries in which the great majority + live from hand to mouth, and in which vast masses of wealth have been + accumulated by a comparatively small number, the case is widely different. + The immediate want is, at particular seasons, craving, imperious, + irresistible. In our own time it has steeled men to the fear of the + gallows, and urged them on the point of the bayonet. And, if these men had + at their command that gallows and those bayonets which now scarcely + restrain them, what is to be expected? Nor is this state of things one + which can exist only under a bad government. If there be the least truth + in the doctrines of the school to which Mr Mill belongs, the increase of + population will necessarily produce it everywhere. The increase of + population is accelerated by good and cheap government. Therefore, the + better the government, the greater is the inequality of conditions: and + the greater the inequality of conditions, the stronger are the motives + which impel the populace to spoliation. As for America, we appeal to the + twentieth century. + </p> + <p> + It is scarcely necessary to discuss the effects which a general spoliation + of the rich would produce. It may indeed happen that, where a legal and + political system full of abuses is inseparably bound up with the + institution of property, a nation may gain by a single convulsion, in + which both perish together. The price is fearful. But if, when the shock + is over, a new order of things should arise under which property may enjoy + security, the industry of individuals will soon repair the devastation. + Thus we entertain no doubt that the Revolution was, on the whole, a most + salutary event for France. But would France have gained if, ever since the + year 1793, she had been governed by a democratic convention? If Mr Mill's + principles be sound, we say that almost her whole capital would by this + time have been annihilated. As soon as the first explosion was beginning + to be forgotten, as soon as wealth again began to germinate, as soon as + the poor again began to compare their cottages and salads with the hotels + and banquets of the rich, there would have been another scramble for + property, another maximum, another general confiscation, another reign of + terror. Four or five such convulsions following each other, at intervals + of ten or twelve years, would reduce the most flourishing countries of + Europe to the state of Barbary or the Morea. + </p> + <p> + The civilised part of the world has now nothing to fear from the hostility + of savage nations. Once the deluge of barbarism has passed over it, to + destroy and to fertilise; and in the present state of mankind we enjoy a + full security against that calamity. That flood will no more return to + cover the earth. But is it possible that in the bosom of civilisation + itself may be engendered the malady which shall destroy it? Is it possible + that institutions may be established which, without the help of + earthquake, of famine, of pestilence, or of the foreign sword, may undo + the work of so many ages of wisdom and glory, and gradually sweep away + taste, literature, science, commerce, manufactures, everything but the + rude arts necessary to the support of animal life? Is it possible that, in + two or three hundred years, a few lean and half-naked fishermen may divide + with owls and foxes the ruins of the greatest European cities—may + wash their nets amidst the relics of her gigantic docks, and build their + huts out of the capitals of her stately cathedrals? If the principles of + Mr Mill be sound, we say, without hesitation, that the form of government + which he recommends will assuredly produce all this. But, if these + principles be unsound, if the reasonings by which we have opposed them be + just, the higher and middling orders are the natural representatives of + the human race. Their interest may be opposed in some things to that of + their poorer contemporaries; but it is identical with that of the + innumerable generations which are to follow. + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill concludes his essay, by answering an objection often made to the + project of universal suffrage—that the people do not understand + their own interests. We shall not go through his arguments on this + subject, because, till he has proved that it is for the interest of the + people to respect property, he only makes matters worse by proving that + they understand their interests. But we cannot refrain from treating our + readers with a delicious bonne bouche of wisdom, which he has kept for the + last moment. + </p> + <p> + "The opinions of that class of the people who are below the middle rank + are formed, and their minds are directed, by that intelligent, that + virtuous rank, who come the most immediately in contact with them, who are + in the constant habit of intimate communication with them, to whom they + fly for advice and assistance in all their numerous difficulties, upon + whom they feel an immediate and daily dependence in health and in + sickness, in infancy and in old age, to whom their children look up as + models for their imitation, whose opinions they hear daily repeated, and + account it their honour to adopt. There can be no doubt that the middle + rank, which gives to science, to art, and to legislation itself their most + distinguished ornaments, and is the chief source of all that has exalted + and refined human nature, is that portion of the community, of which, if + the basis of representation were ever so far extended, the opinion would + ultimately decide. Of the people beneath them, a vast majority would be + sure to be guided by their advice and example." + </p> + <p> + This single paragraph is sufficient to upset Mr Mill's theory. Will the + people act against their own interest? Or will the middle rank act against + its own interest? Or is the interest of the middle rank identical with the + interest of the people? If the people act according to the directions of + the middle rank, as Mr Mill says that they assuredly will, one of these + three questions must be answered in the affirmative. But, if any one of + the three be answered in the affirmative, his whole system falls to the + ground. If the interest of the middle rank be identical with that of the + people, why should not the powers of government be intrusted to that rank? + If the powers of government were intrusted to that rank, there would + evidently be an aristocracy of wealth; and "to constitute an aristocracy + of wealth, though it were a very numerous one, would," according to Mr + Mill, "leave the community without protection, and exposed to all the + evils of unbridled power." Will not the same motives which induce the + middle classes to abuse one kind of power induce them to abuse another? If + their interest be the same with that of the people they will govern the + people well. If it be opposite to that of the people they will advise the + people ill. The system of universal suffrage, therefore, according to Mr + Mill's own account, is only a device for doing circuitously what a + representative system, with a pretty high qualification, would do + directly. + </p> + <p> + So ends this celebrated Essay. And such is this philosophy for which the + experience of three thousand years is to be discarded; this philosophy, + the professors of which speak as if it had guided the world to the + knowledge of navigation and alphabetical writing; as if, before its dawn, + the inhabitants of Europe had lived in caverns and eaten each other! We + are sick, it seems, like the children of Israel, of the objects of our old + and legitimate worship. We pine for a new idolatry. All that is costly and + all that is ornamental in our intellectual treasures must be delivered up, + and cast into the furnace—and there comes out this Calf! + </p> + <p> + Our readers can scarcely mistake our object in writing this article. They + will not suspect us of any disposition to advocate the cause of absolute + monarchy, or of any narrow form of oligarchy, or to exaggerate the evils + of popular government. Our object at present is, not so much to attack or + defend any particular system of polity, as to expose the vices of a kind + of reasoning utterly unfit for moral and political discussions; of a kind + of reasoning which may so readily be turned to purposes of falsehood that + it ought to receive no quarter, even when by accident it may be employed + on the side of truth. + </p> + <p> + Our objection to the essay of Mr Mill is fundamental. We believe that it + is utterly impossible to deduce the science of government from the + principles of human nature. + </p> + <p> + What proposition is there respecting human nature which is absolutely and + universally true? We know of only one: and that is not only true, but + identical; that men always act from self-interest. This truism the + Utilitarians proclaim with as much pride as if it were new, and as much + zeal as if it were important. But in fact, when explained, it means only + that men, if they can, will do as they choose. When we see the actions of + a man we know with certainty what he thinks his interest to be. But it is + impossible to reason with certainty from what WE take to be his interest + to his actions. One man goes without a dinner that he may add a shilling + to a hundred thousand pounds: another runs in debt to give balls and + masquerades. One man cuts his father's throat to get possession of his old + clothes: another hazards his own life to save that of an enemy. One man + volunteers on a forlorn hope: another is drummed out of a regiment for + cowardice. Each of these men has, no doubt, acted from self-interest. But + we gain nothing by knowing this, except the pleasure, if it be one, of + multiplying useless words. In fact, this principle is just as recondite + and just as important as the great truth that whatever is, is. If a + philosopher were always to state facts in the following form—"There + is a shower: but whatever is, is; therefore, there is a shower,"—his + reasoning would be perfectly sound; but we do not apprehend that it would + materially enlarge the circle of human knowledge. And it is equally idle + to attribute any importance to a proposition, which, when interpreted + means only that a man had rather do what he had rather do. + </p> + <p> + If the doctrine, that men always act from self-interest, be laid down in + any other sense than this—if the meaning of the word self-interest + be narrowed so as to exclude any one of the motives which may by + possibility act on any human being, the proposition ceases to be + identical: but at the same time it ceases to be true. + </p> + <p> + What we have said of the word "self-interest" applies to all the synonymes + and circumlocutions which are employed to convey the same meaning; pain + and pleasure, happiness and misery, objects of desire, and so forth. + </p> + <p> + The whole art of Mr Mill's essay consists in one simple trick of + legerdemain. It consists in using words of the sort which we have been + describing first in one sense and then in another. Men will take the + objects of their desire if they can. Unquestionably:—but this is an + identical proposition: for an object of desire means merely a thing which + a man will procure if he can. Nothing can possibly be inferred from a + maxim of this kind. When we see a man take something we shall know that it + was an object of his desire. But till then we have no means of judging + with certainty what he desires or what he will take. The general + proposition, however, having been admitted, Mr Mill proceeds to reason as + if men had no desires but those which can be gratified only by spoliation + and oppression. It then becomes easy to deduce doctrines of vast + importance from the original axiom. The only misfortune is, that by thus + narrowing the meaning of the word desire the axiom becomes false, and all + the doctrines consequent upon it are false likewise. + </p> + <p> + When we pass beyond those maxims which it is impossible to deny without a + contradiction in terms, and which, therefore, do not enable us to advance + a single step in practical knowledge, we do not believe that it is + possible to lay down a single general rule respecting the motives which + influence human actions. There is nothing which may not, by association or + by comparison, become an object either of desire or of aversion. The fear + of death is generally considered as one of the strongest of our feelings. + It is the most formidable sanction which legislators have been able to + devise. Yet it is notorious that, as Lord Bacon has observed, there is no + passion by which that fear has not been often overcome. Physical pain is + indisputably an evil; yet it has been often endured and even welcomed. + Innumerable martyrs have exulted in torments which made the spectators + shudder: and to use a more homely illustration, there are few wives who do + not long to be mothers. + </p> + <p> + Is the love of approbation a stronger motive than the love of wealth? It + is impossible to answer this question generally even in the case of an + individual with whom we are very intimate. We often say, indeed, that a + man loves fame more than money, or money more than fame. But this is said + in a loose and popular sense; for there is scarcely a man who would not + endure a few sneers for a great sum of money, if he were in pecuniary + distress; and scarcely a man, on the other hand, who, if he were in + flourishing circumstances, would expose himself to the hatred and contempt + of the public for a trifle. In order, therefore, to return a precise + answer even about a single human being, we must know what is the amount of + the sacrifice of reputation demanded and of the pecuniary advantage + offered, and in what situation the person to whom the temptation is + proposed stands at the time. But, when the question is propounded + generally about the whole species, the impossibility of answering is still + more evident. Man differs from man; generation from generation; nation + from nation. Education, station, sex, age, accidental associations, + produce infinite shades of variety. + </p> + <p> + Now, the only mode in which we can conceive it possible to deduce a theory + of government from the principles of human nature is this. We must find + out what are the motives which, in a particular form of government, impel + rulers to bad measures, and what are those which impel them to good + measures. We must then compare the effect of the two classes of motives; + and according as we find the one or the other to prevail, we must + pronounce the form of government in question good or bad. + </p> + <p> + Now let it be supposed that, in aristocratical and monarchical states, the + desire of wealth and other desires of the same class always tend to + produce misgovernment, and that the love of approbation and other kindred + feelings always tend to produce good government. Then, if it be + impossible, as we have shown that it is, to pronounce generally which of + the two classes of motives is the more influential, it is impossible to + find out, a priori, whether a monarchical or aristocratical form of + government be good or bad. + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill has avoided the difficulty of making the comparison, by very + coolly putting all the weights into one of the scales,—by reasoning + as if no human being had ever sympathised with the feelings, been + gratified by the thanks, or been galled by the execrations, of another. + </p> + <p> + The case, as we have put it, is decisive against Mr Mill, and yet we have + put it in a manner far too favourable to him. For, in fact, it is + impossible to lay it down as a general rule that the love of wealth in a + sovereign always produces misgovernment, or the love of approbation good + government. A patient and far-sighted ruler, for example, who is less + desirous of raising a great sum immediately than of securing an + unencumbered and progressive revenue, will, by taking off restraints from + trade and giving perfect security to property, encourage accumulation and + entice capital from foreign countries. The commercial policy of Prussia, + which is perhaps superior to that of any country in the world, and which + puts to shame the absurdities of our republican brethren on the other side + of the Atlantic, has probably sprung from the desire of an absolute ruler + to enrich himself. On the other hand, when the popular estimate of virtues + and vices is erroneous, which is too often the case, the love of + approbation leads sovereigns to spend the wealth of the nation on useless + shows, or to engage in wanton and destructive wars. If then we can neither + compare the strength of two motives, nor determine with certainty to what + description of actions either motive will lead, how can we possibly deduce + a theory of government from the nature of man? + </p> + <p> + How, then, are we to arrive at just conclusions on a subject so important + to the happiness of mankind? Surely by that method which, in every + experimental science to which it has been applied, has signally increased + the power and knowledge of our species,—by that method for which our + new philosophers would substitute quibbles scarcely worthy of the + barbarous respondents and opponents of the middle ages,—by the + method of Induction;—by observing the present state of the world,—by + assiduously studying the history of past ages,—by sifting the + evidence of facts,—by carefully combining and contrasting those + which are authentic,—by generalising with judgment and diffidence,—by + perpetually bringing the theory which we have constructed to the test of + new facts,—by correcting, or altogether abandoning it, according as + those new facts prove it to be partially or fundamentally unsound. + Proceeding thus,—patiently,—diligently,—candidly,—we + may hope to form a system as far inferior in pretension to that which we + have been examining and as far superior to it in real utility as the + prescriptions of a great physician, varying with every stage of every + malady and with the constitution of every patient, to the pill of the + advertising quack which is to cure all human beings, in all climates, of + all diseases. + </p> + <p> + This is that noble Science of Politics, which is equally removed from the + barren theories of the Utilitarian sophists, and from the petty craft, so + often mistaken for statesmanship by minds grown narrow in habits of + intrigue, jobbing, and official etiquette;—which of all sciences is + the most important to the welfare of nations,—which of all sciences + most tends to expand and invigorate the mind,—which draws nutriment + and ornament from every part of philosophy and literature, and dispenses + in return nutriment and ornament to all. We are sorry and surprised when + we see men of good intentions and good natural abilities abandon this + healthful and generous study to pore over speculations like those which we + have been examining. And we should heartily rejoice to find that our + remarks had induced any person of this description to employ, in + researches of real utility, the talents and industry which are now wasted + on verbal sophisms, wretched of their wretched kind. + </p> + <p> + As to the greater part of the sect, it is, we apprehend, of little + consequence what they study or under whom. It would be more amusing, to be + sure, and more reputable, if they would take up the old republican cant + and declaim about Brutus and Timoleon, the duty of killing tyrants and the + blessedness of dying for liberty. But, on the whole, they might have + chosen worse. They may as well be Utilitarians as jockeys or dandies. And, + though quibbling about self-interest and motives, and objects of desire, + and the greatest happiness of the greatest number, is but a poor + employment for a grown man, it certainly hurts the health less than hard + drinking, and the fortune less than high play; it is not much more + laughable than phrenology, and is immeasurably more humane than + cock-fighting. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + WESTMINSTER REVIEWER'S DEFENCE OF MILL. (June 1829.) + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Westminster Review" Number XXI., Article XVI. "Edinburgh + Review" Number XCVII., Article on Mill's Essays on + Government, etc. +</pre> + <p> + We have had great reason, we think, to be gratified by the success of our + late attack on the Utilitarians. We could publish a long list of the cures + which it has wrought in cases previously considered as hopeless. Delicacy + forbids us to divulge names; but we cannot refrain from alluding to two + remarkable instances. A respectable lady writes to inform us that her son, + who was plucked at Cambridge last January, has not been heard to call Sir + James Mackintosh a poor ignorant fool more than twice since the appearance + of our article. A distinguished political writer in the Westminster and + Parliamentary Reviews has borrowed Hume's History, and has actually got as + far as the battle of Agincourt. He assures us that he takes great pleasure + in his new study, and that he is very impatient to learn how Scotland and + England became one kingdom. But the greatest compliment that we have + received is that Mr Bentham himself should have condescended to take the + field in defence of Mr Mill. We have not been in the habit of reviewing + reviews: but, as Mr Bentham is a truly great man, and as his party have + thought fit to announce in puffs and placards that this article is written + by him, and contains not only an answer to our attacks, but a development + of the "greatest happiness principle," with the latest improvements of the + author, we shall for once depart from our general rule. However the + conflict may terminate, we shall at least not have been vanquished by an + ignoble hand. + </p> + <p> + Of Mr Bentham himself we shall endeavour, even while defending ourselves + against his reproaches, to speak with the respect to which his venerable + age, his genius, and his public services entitle him. If any harsh + expression should escape us, we trust that he will attribute it to + inadvertence, to the momentary warmth of controversy,—to anything, + in short, rather than to a design of affronting him. Though we have + nothing in common with the crew of Hurds and Boswells, who, either from + interested motives, or from the habit of intellectual servility and + dependence, pamper and vitiate his appetite with the noxious sweetness of + their undiscerning praise, we are not perhaps less competent than they to + appreciate his merit, or less sincerely disposed to acknowledge it. Though + we may sometimes think his reasonings on moral and political questions + feeble and sophistical—though we may sometimes smile at his + extraordinary language—we can never be weary of admiring the + amplitude of his comprehension, the keenness of his penetration, the + exuberant fertility with which his mind pours forth arguments and + illustrations. However sharply he may speak of us, we can never cease to + revere in him the father of the philosophy of Jurisprudence. He has a full + right to all the privileges of a great inventor: and, in our court of + criticism, those privileges will never be pleaded in vain. But they are + limited in the same manner in which, fortunately for the ends of justice, + the privileges of the peerage are now limited. The advantage is personal + and incommunicable. A nobleman can now no longer cover with his protection + every lackey who follows his heels, or every bully who draws in his + quarrel: and, highly as we respect the exalted rank which Mr Bentham holds + among the writers of our time, yet when, for the due maintenance of + literary police, we shall think it necessary to confute sophists, or to + bring pretenders to shame, we shall not depart from the ordinary course of + our proceedings because the offenders call themselves Benthamites. + </p> + <p> + Whether Mr Mill has much reason to thank Mr Bentham for undertaking his + defence, our readers, when they have finished this article, will perhaps + be inclined to doubt. Great as Mr Bentham's talents are, he has, we think, + shown an undue confidence in them. He should have considered how dangerous + it is for any man, however eloquent and ingenious he may be, to attack or + defend a book without reading it: and we feel quite convinced that Mr + Bentham would never have written the article before us if he had, before + he began, perused our review with attention, and compared it with Mr + Mill's Essay. + </p> + <p> + He has utterly mistaken our object and meaning. He seems to think that we + have undertaken to set up some theory of government in opposition to that + of Mr Mill. But we distinctly disclaimed any such design. From the + beginning to the end of our article, there is not, as far as we remember, + a single sentence which, when fairly construed, can be considered as + indicating any such design. If such an expression can be found, it has + been dropped by inadvertence. Our object was to prove, not that monarchy + and aristocracy are good, but that Mr Mill had not proved them to be bad; + not that democracy is bad, but that Mr Mill had not proved it to be good. + The points in issue are these: whether the famous Essay on Government be, + as it has been called, a perfect solution of the great political problem, + or a series of sophisms and blunders; and whether the sect which, while it + glories in the precision of its logic, extols this Essay as a masterpiece + of demonstration be a sect deserving of the respect or of the derision of + mankind. These, we say, are the issues; and on these we with full + confidence put ourselves on the country. + </p> + <p> + It is not necessary, for the purposes of this investigation, that we + should state what our political creed is, or whether we have any political + creed at all. A man who cannot act the most trivial part in a farce has a + right to hiss Romeo Coates: a man who does not know a vein from an artery + may caution a simple neighbour against the advertisements of Dr Eady. A + complete theory of government would indeed be a noble present to mankind; + but it is a present which we do not hope and do not pretend that we can + offer. If, however, we cannot lay the foundation, it is something to clear + away the rubbish; if we cannot set up truth, it is something to pull down + error. Even if the subjects of which the Utilitarians treat were subjects + of less fearful importance, we should think it no small service to the + cause of good sense and good taste to point out the contrast between their + magnificent pretensions and their miserable performances. Some of them + have, however, thought fit to display their ingenuity on questions of the + most momentous kind, and on questions concerning which men cannot reason + ill with impunity. We think it, under these circumstances, an absolute + duty to expose the fallacy of their arguments. It is no matter of pride or + of pleasure. To read their works is the most soporific employment that we + know; and a man ought no more to be proud of refuting them than of having + two legs. We must now come to close quarters with Mr Bentham, whom, we + need not say, we do not mean to include in this observation. He charges us + with maintaining,— + </p> + <p> + "First, 'That it is not true that all despots govern ill;'—whereon + the world is in a mistake, and the Whigs have the true light. And for + proof, principally,—that the King of Denmark is not Caligula. To + which the answer is, that the King of Denmark is not a despot. He was put + in his present situation by the people turning the scale in his favour in + a balanced contest between himself and the nobility. And it is quite clear + that the same power would turn the scale the other way the moment a King + of Denmark should take into his head to be Caligula. It is of little + consequence by what congeries of letters the Majesty of Denmark is + typified in the royal press of Copenhagen, while the real fact is that the + sword of the people is suspended over his head, in case of ill-behaviour, + as effectually as in other countries where more noise is made upon the + subject. Everybody believes the sovereign of Denmark to be a good and + virtuous gentleman; but there is no more superhuman merit in his being so + than in the case of a rural squire who does not shoot his land-steward or + quarter his wife with his yeomanry sabre. + </p> + <p> + "It is true that there are partial exceptions to the rule, that all men + use power as badly as they dare. There may have been such things as + amiable negro-drivers and sentimental masters of press-gangs; and here and + there, among the odd freaks of human nature, there may have been specimens + of men who were 'No tyrants, though bred up to tyranny.' But it would be + as wise to recommend wolves for nurses at the Foundling on the credit of + Romulus and Remus as to substitute the exception for the general fact, and + advise mankind to take to trusting to arbitrary power on the credit of + these specimens." + </p> + <p> + Now, in the first place, we never cited the case of Denmark to prove that + all despots do not govern ill. We cited it to prove that Mr Mill did not + know how to reason. Mr Mill gave it as a reason for deducing the theory of + government from the general laws of human nature that the King of Denmark + was not Caligula. This we said, and we still say, was absurd. + </p> + <p> + In the second place, it was not we, but Mr Mill, who said that the King of + Denmark was a despot. His words are these:—"The people of Denmark, + tired out with the oppression of an aristocracy, resolved that their king + should be absolute; and under their absolute monarch are as well governed + as any people in Europe." We leave Mr Bentham to settle with Mr Mill the + distinction between a despot and an absolute king. + </p> + <p> + In the third place, Mr Bentham says that there was in Denmark a balanced + contest between the king and the nobility. We find some difficulty in + believing that Mr Bentham seriously means to say this, when we consider + that Mr Mill has demonstrated the chance to be as infinity to one against + the existence of such a balanced contest. + </p> + <p> + Fourthly, Mr Bentham says that in this balanced contest the people turned + the scale in favour of the king against the aristocracy. But Mr Mill has + demonstrated that it cannot possibly be for the interest of the monarchy + and democracy to join against the aristocracy; and that wherever the three + parties exist, the king and the aristocracy will combine against the + people. This, Mr Mill assures us, is as certain as anything which depends + upon human will. + </p> + <p> + Fifthly, Mr Bentham says that, if the King of Denmark were to oppress his + people, the people and nobles would combine against the king. But Mr Mill + has proved that it can never be for the interest of the aristocracy to + combine with the democracy against the king. It is evidently Mr Bentham's + opinion, that "monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy may balance each + other, and by mutual checks produce good government." But this is the very + theory which Mr Mill pronounces to be the wildest, the most visionary, the + most chimerical ever broached on the subject of government. + </p> + <p> + We have no dispute on these heads with Mr Bentham. On the contrary, we + think his explanation true—or at least, true in part; and we + heartily thank him for lending us his assistance to demolish the essay of + his follower. His wit and his sarcasm are sport to us; but they are death + to his unhappy disciple. + </p> + <p> + Mr Bentham seems to imagine that we have said something implying an + opinion favourable to despotism. We can scarcely suppose that, as he has + not condescended to read that portion of our work which he undertook to + answer, he can have bestowed much attention on its general character. Had + he done so he would, we think, scarcely have entertained such a suspicion. + Mr Mill asserts, and pretends to prove, that under no despotic government + does any human being, except the tools of the sovereign, possess more than + the necessaries of life, and that the most intense degree of terror is + kept up by constant cruelty. This, we say, is untrue. It is not merely a + rule to which there are exceptions: but it is not the rule. Despotism is + bad; but it is scarcely anywhere so bad as Mr Mill says that it is + everywhere. This we are sure Mr Bentham will allow. If a man were to say + that five hundred thousand people die every year in London of + dram-drinking, he would not assert a proposition more monstrously false + than Mr Mill's. Would it be just to charge us with defending intoxication + because we might say that such a man was grossly in the wrong? + </p> + <p> + We say with Mr Bentham that despotism is a bad thing. We say with Mr + Bentham that the exceptions do not destroy the authority of the rule. But + this we say—that a single exception overthrows an argument which + either does not prove the rule at all, or else proves the rule to be TRUE + WITHOUT EXCEPTIONS; and such an argument is Mr Mill's argument against + despotism. In this respect there is a great difference between rules drawn + from experience and rules deduced a priori. We might believe that there + had been a fall of snow last August, and yet not think it likely that + there would be snow next August. A single occurrence opposed to our + general experience would tell for very little in our calculation of the + chances. But, if we could once satisfy ourselves that in ANY single + right-angled triangle the square of the hypothenuse might be less than the + squares of the sides, we must reject the forty-seventh proposition of + Euclid altogether. We willingly adopt Mr Bentham's lively illustration + about the wolf; and we will say in passing that it gives us real pleasure + to see how little old age has diminished the gaiety of this eminent man. + We can assure him that his merriment gives us far more pleasure on his + account than pain on our own. We say with him, Keep the wolf out of the + nursery, in spite of the story of Romulus and Remus. But, if the shepherd + who saw the wolf licking and suckling those famous twins were, after + telling this story to his companions, to assert that it was an infallible + rule that no wolf ever had spared, or ever would spare, any living thing + which might fall in its way—that its nature was carnivorous—and + that it could not possibly disobey its nature, we think that the hearers + might have been excused for staring. It may be strange, but is not + inconsistent, that a wolf which has eaten ninety-nine children should + spare the hundredth. But the fact that a wolf has once spared a child is + sufficient to show that there must be some flaw in the chain of reasoning + purporting to prove that wolves cannot possibly spare children. + </p> + <p> + Mr Bentham proceeds to attack another position which he conceives us to + maintain:— + </p> + <p> + "Secondly, That a government not under the control of the community (for + there is no question upon any other) 'MAY SOON BE SATURATED.' Tell it not + in Bow Street, whisper it not in Hatton Garden,—that there is a plan + for preventing injustice by 'saturation.' With what peals of unearthly + merriment would Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus be aroused upon their + benches, if the 'light wings of saffron and of blue' should bear this + theory into their grim domains! Why do not the owners of + pocket-handkerchiefs try to 'saturate?' Why does not the cheated publican + beg leave to check the gulosity of his defrauder with a repetatur haustus, + and the pummelled plaintiff neutralise the malice of his adversary, by + requesting to have the rest of the beating in presence of the court,—if + it is not that such conduct would run counter to all the conclusions of + experience, and be the procreation of the mischief it affected to destroy? + Woful is the man whose wealth depends on his having more than somebody + else can be persuaded to take from him; and woful also is the people that + is in such a case!" + </p> + <p> + Now this is certainly very pleasant writing: but there is no great + difficulty in answering the argument. The real reason which makes it + absurd to think of preventing theft by pensioning off thieves is this, + that there is no limit to the number of thieves. If there were only a + hundred thieves in a place, and we were quite sure that no person not + already addicted to theft would take to it, it might become a question + whether to keep the thieves from dishonesty by raising them above distress + would not be a better course than to employ officers against them. But the + actual cases are not parallel. Every man who chooses can become a thief; + but a man cannot become a king or a member of the aristocracy whenever he + chooses. The number of the depredators is limited; and therefore the + amount of depredation, so far as physical pleasures are concerned, must be + limited also. Now, we made the remark which Mr Bentham censures with + reference to physical pleasures only. The pleasures of ostentation, of + taste, of revenge, and other pleasures of the same description, have, we + distinctly allowed, no limit. Our words are these:—"a king or an + aristocracy may be supplied to satiety with CORPORAL PLEASURES, at an + expense which the rudest and poorest community would scarcely feel." Does + Mr Bentham deny this? If he does, we leave him to Mr Mill. "What," says + that philosopher, in his Essay on Education, "what are the ordinary + pursuits of wealth and power, which kindle to such a height the ardour of + mankind? Not the mere love of eating and of drinking, or all the physical + objects together which wealth can purchase or power command. With these + every man is in the long run speedily satisfied." What the difference is + between being speedily satisfied and being soon saturated, we leave Mr + Bentham and Mr Mill to settle together. + </p> + <p> + The word "saturation," however, seems to provoke Mr Bentham's mirth. It + certainly did not strike us as very pure English; but, as Mr Mill used it, + we supposed it to be good Benthamese. With the latter language we are not + critically acquainted, though, as it has many roots in common with our + mother tongue, we can contrive, by the help of a converted Utilitarian, + who attends us in the capacity of Moonshee, to make out a little. But Mr + Bentham's authority is of course decisive; and we bow to it. + </p> + <p> + Mr Bentham next represents us as maintaining:— + </p> + <p> + "Thirdly, That 'though there may be some tastes and propensities that have + no point of saturation, there exists a sufficient check in the desire of + the good opinion of others.' The misfortune of this argument is, that no + man cares for the good opinion of those he has been accustomed to wrong, + If oysters have opinions, it is probable they think very ill of those who + eat them in August; but small is the effect upon the autumnal glutton that + engulfs their gentle substances within his own. The planter and the + slave-driver care just as much about negro opinion, as the epicure about + the sentiments of oysters. M. Ude throwing live eels into the fire as a + kindly method of divesting them of the unsavoury oil that lodges beneath + their skins, is not more convinced of the immense aggregate of good which + arises to the lordlier parts of the creation, than is the gentle peer who + strips his fellow man of country and of family for a wild-fowl slain. The + goodly landowner, who lives by morsels squeezed indiscriminately from the + waxy hands of the cobbler and the polluted ones of the nightman, is in no + small degree the object of both hatred and contempt; but it is to be + feared that he is a long way from feeling them to be intolerable. The + principle of 'At mihi plaudo ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in + arca,' is sufficient to make a wide interval between the opinions of the + plaintiff and defendant in such cases. In short, to banish law and leave + all plaintiffs to trust to the desire of reputation on the opposite side, + would only be transporting the theory of the Whigs from the House of + Commons to Westminster Hall." + </p> + <p> + Now, in the first place, we never maintained the proposition which Mr + Bentham puts into our mouths. We said, and say, that there is a CERTAIN + check to the rapacity and cruelty of men, in their desire of the good + opinion of others. We never said that it was sufficient. Let Mr Mill show + it to be insufficient. It is enough for us to prove that there is a + set-off against the principle from which Mr Mill deduces the whole theory + of government. The balance may be, and, we believe, will be, against + despotism and the narrower forms of aristocracy. But what is this to the + correctness or incorrectness of Mr Mill's accounts? The question is not, + whether the motives which lead rulers to behave ill are stronger than + those which lead them to behave well;—but, whether we ought to form + a theory of government by looking ONLY at the motives which lead rulers to + behave ill and never noticing those which lead them to behave well. + </p> + <p> + Absolute rulers, says Mr Bentham, do not care for the good opinion of + their subjects; for no man cares for the good opinion of those whom he has + been accustomed to wrong. By Mr Bentham's leave, this is a plain begging + of the question. The point at issue is this:—Will kings and nobles + wrong the people? The argument in favour of kings and nobles is this:—they + will not wrong the people, because they care for the good opinion of the + people. But this argument Mr Bentham meets thus:—they will not care + for the good opinion of the people, because they are accustomed to wrong + the people. + </p> + <p> + Here Mr Mill differs, as usual, from Mr Bentham. "The greatest princes," + says he, in his Essay on Education, "the most despotical masters of human + destiny, when asked what they aim at by their wars and conquests, would + answer, if sincere, as Frederick of Prussia answered, pour faire parler de + soi;—to occupy a large space in the admiration of mankind." Putting + Mr Mill's and Mr Bentham's principles together, we might make out very + easily that "the greatest princes, the most despotical masters of human + destiny," would never abuse their power. + </p> + <p> + A man who has been long accustomed to injure people must also have been + long accustomed to do without their love, and to endure their aversion. + Such a man may not miss the pleasure of popularity; for men seldom miss a + pleasure which they have long denied themselves. An old tyrant does + without popularity just as an old water-drinker does without wine. But, + though it is perfectly true that men who for the good of their health have + long abstained from wine feel the want of it very little, it would be + absurd to infer that men will always abstain from wine when their health + requires that they should do so. And it would be equally absurd to say, + because men who have been accustomed to oppress care little for + popularity, that men will therefore necessarily prefer the pleasure of + oppression to those of popularity. + </p> + <p> + Then, again, a man may be accustomed to wrong people in one point and not + in another. He may care for their good opinion with regard to one point + and not with regard to another. The Regent Orleans laughed at charges of + impiety, libertinism, extravagance, idleness, disgraceful promotions. But + the slightest allusion to the charge of poisoning threw him into + convulsions. Louis the Fifteenth braved the hatred and contempt of his + subjects during many years of the most odious and imbecile misgovernment. + But, when a report was spread that he used human blood for his baths, he + was almost driven mad by it. Surely Mr Bentham's position "that no man + cares for the good opinion of those whom he has been accustomed to wrong" + would be objectionable, as far too sweeping and indiscriminate, even if it + did not involve, as in the present case we have shown that it does, a + direct begging of the question at issue. + </p> + <p> + Mr Bentham proceeds:— + </p> + <p> + "Fourthly, The Edinburgh Reviewers are of opinion, that 'it might, with no + small plausibility, be maintained, that in many countries, there are two + classes which, in some degree, answer to this description;' [viz.] 'that + the poor compose the class which government is established to restrain; + and the people of some property the class to which the powers of + government may without danger be confided.' + </p> + <p> + "They take great pains, it is true, to say this and not to say it. They + shuffle and creep about, to secure a hole to escape at, if 'what they do + not assert' should be found in any degree inconvenient. A man might waste + his life in trying to find out whether the Misses of the 'Edinburgh' mean + to say Yes or No in their political coquetry. But whichever way the lovely + spinsters may decide, it is diametrically opposed to history and the + evidence of facts, that the poor ARE the class whom there is any + difficulty in restraining. It is not the poor but the rich that have a + propensity to take the property of other people. There is no instance upon + earth of the poor having combined to take away the property of the rich; + and all the instances habitually brought forward in support of it are + gross misrepresentations, founded upon the most necessary acts of + self-defence on the part of the most numerous classes. Such a + misrepresentation is the common one of the Agrarian law; which was nothing + but an attempt on the part of the Roman people to get back some part of + what had been taken from them by undisguised robbery. Such another is the + stock example of the French Revolution, appealed to by the 'Edinburgh + Review' in the actual case. It is utterly untrue that the French + Revolution took place because 'the poor began to compare their cottages + and salads with the hotels and banquets of the rich;' it took place + because they were robbed of their cottages and salads to support the + hotels and banquets of their oppressors. It is utterly untrue that there + was either a scramble for property or a general confiscation; the classes + who took part with the foreign invaders lost their property, as they would + have done here, and ought to do everywhere. All these are the vulgar + errors of the man on the lion's back,—which the lion will set to + rights when he can tell his own story. History is nothing but the relation + of the sufferings of the poor from the rich; except precisely so far as + the numerous classes of the community have contrived to keep the virtual + power in their hands, or, in other words, to establish free governments. + If a poor man injures the rich, the law is instantly at his heels; the + injuries of the rich towards the poor are always inflicted BY the law. And + to enable the rich to do this to any extent that may be practicable or + prudent, there is clearly one postulate required, which is, that the rich + shall make the law." + </p> + <p> + This passage is alone sufficient to prove that Mr Bentham has not taken + the trouble to read our article from beginning to end. We are quite sure + that he would not stoop to misrepresent it. And, if he had read it with + any attention, he would have perceived that all this coquetry, this + hesitation, this Yes and No, this saying and not saying, is simply an + exercise of the undeniable right which in controversy belongs to the + defensive side—to the side which proposes to establish nothing. The + affirmative of the issue and the burden of the proof are with Mr Mill, not + with us. We are not bound, perhaps we are not able, to show that the form + of government which he recommends is bad. It is quite enough if we can + show that he does not prove it to be good. In his proof, among many other + flaws, is this—He says, that if men are not inclined to plunder each + other, government is unnecessary, and that, if men are so inclined, kings + and aristocracies will plunder the people. Now, this we say, is a fallacy. + That SOME men will plunder their neighbours if they can, is a sufficient + reason for the existence of governments. But it is not demonstrated that + kings and aristocracies will plunder the people, unless it be true that + ALL men will plunder their neighbours, if they can. Men are placed in very + different situations. Some have all the bodily pleasures that they desire, + and many other pleasures besides, without plundering anybody. Others can + scarcely obtain their daily bread without plundering. It may be true, but + surely it is not self-evident, that the former class is under as strong + temptations to plunder as the latter. Mr Mill was therefore bound to prove + it. That he has not proved it is one of thirty or forty fatal errors in + his argument. It is not necessary that we should express an opinion or + even have an opinion on the subject. Perhaps we are in a state of perfect + scepticism: but what then? Are we the theorymakers? When we bring before + the world a theory of government, it will be time to call upon us to offer + proof at every step. At present we stand on our undoubted logical right. + We concede nothing; and we deny nothing. We say to the Utilitarian + theorists:—When you prove your doctrine, we will believe it; and, + till you prove it, we will not believe it. + </p> + <p> + Mr Bentham has quite misunderstood what we said about the French + Revolution. We never alluded to that event for the purpose of proving that + the poor were inclined to rob the rich. Mr Mill's principles of human + nature furnished us with that part of our argument ready-made. We alluded + to the French Revolution for the purpose of illustrating the effects which + general spoliation produces on society, not for the purpose of showing + that general spoliation will take place under a democracy. We allowed + distinctly that, in the peculiar circumstances of the French monarchy, the + Revolution, though accompanied by a great shock to the institution of + property, was a blessing. Surely Mr Bentham will not maintain that the + injury produced by the deluge of assignats and by the maximum fell only on + the emigrants,—or that there were not many emigrants who would have + stayed and lived peaceably under any government if their persons and + property had been secure. + </p> + <p> + We never said that the French Revolution took place because the poor began + to compare their cottages and salads with the hotels and banquets of the + rich. We were not speaking about THE CAUSES of the Revolution, or thinking + about them. This we said, and say, that, if a democratic government had + been established in France, the poor, when they began to compare their + cottages and salads with the hotels and banquets of the rich, would, on + the supposition that Mr Mill's principles are sound, have plundered the + rich, and repeated without provocation all the severities and + confiscations which at the time of the Revolution, were committed with + provocation. We say that Mr Mill's favourite form of government would, if + his own views of human nature be just, make those violent convulsions and + transfers of property which now rarely happen, except, as in the case of + the French Revolution, when the people are maddened by oppression, events + of annual or biennial occurrence. We gave no opinion of our own. We give + none now. We say that this proposition may be proved from Mr Mill's own + premises, by steps strictly analogous to those by which he proves monarchy + and aristocracy to be bad forms of government. To say this, is not to say + that the proposition is true. For we hold both Mr Mill's premises and his + deduction to be unsound throughout. + </p> + <p> + Mr Bentham challenges us to prove from history that the people will + plunder the rich. What does history say to Mr Mill's doctrine, that + absolute kings will always plunder their subjects so unmercifully as to + leave nothing but a bare subsistence to any except their own creatures? If + experience is to be the test, Mr Mill's theory is unsound. If Mr Mill's + reasoning a priori be sound, the people in a democracy will plunder the + rich. Let us use one weight and one measure. Let us not throw history + aside when we are proving a theory, and take it up again when we have to + refute an objection founded on the principles of that theory. + </p> + <p> + We have not done, however, with Mr Bentham's charges against us. + </p> + <p> + "Among other specimens of their ingenuity, they think they embarrass the + subject by asking why, on the principles in question, women should not + have votes as well as men. AND WHY NOT? + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'Gentle shepherd, tell me why?'— +</pre> + <p> + If the mode of election was what it ought to be, there would be no more + difficulty in women voting for a representative in Parliament than for a + director at the India House. The world will find out at some time that the + readiest way to secure justice on some points is to be just on all:—that + the whole is easier to accomplish than the part; and that, whenever the + camel is driven through the eye of the needle, it would be simple folly + and debility that would leave a hoof behind." + </p> + <p> + Why, says or sings Mr Bentham, should not women vote? It may seem uncivil + in us to turn a deaf ear to his Arcadian warblings. But we submit, with + great deference, that it is not OUR business to tell him why. We fully + agree with him that the principle of female suffrage is not so palpably + absurd that a chain of reasoning ought to be pronounced unsound merely + because it leads to female suffrage. We say that every argument which + tells in favour of the universal suffrage of the males tells equally in + favour of female suffrage. Mr Mill, however, wishes to see all men vote, + but says that it is unnecessary that women should vote; and for making + this distinction HE gives as a reason an assertion which, in the first + place, is not true, and which, in the next place, would, if true, overset + his whole theory of human nature; namely, that the interest of the women + is identical with that of the men. We side with Mr Bentham, so far, at + least, as this: that, when we join to drive the camel through the needle, + he shall go through hoof and all. We at present desire to be excused from + driving the camel. It is Mr Mill who leaves the hoof behind. But we should + think it uncourteous to reproach him in the language which Mr Bentham, in + the exercise of his paternal authority over the sect, thinks himself + entitled to employ. + </p> + <p> + "Another of their perverted ingenuities is, that 'they are rather inclined + to think,' that it would, on the whole, be for the interest of the + majority to plunder the rich; and if so, the Utilitarians will say that + the rich OUGHT to be plundered. On which it is sufficient to reply, that + for the majority to plunder the rich would amount to a declaration that + nobody should be rich; which, as all men wish to be rich, would involve a + suicide of hope. And as nobody has shown a fragment of reason why such a + proceeding should be for the general happiness, it does not follow that + the 'Utilitarians' would recommend it. The Edinburgh Reviewers have a + waiting gentlewoman's ideas of 'Utilitarianism.' It is unsupported by + anything but the pitiable 'We are rather inclined to think'—and is + utterly contradicted by the whole course of history and human experience + besides,—that there is either danger or possibility of such a + consummation as the majority agreeing on the plunder of the rich. There + have been instances in human memory, of their agreeing to plunder rich + oppressors, rich traitors, rich enemies,—but the rich simpliciter + never. It is as true now as in the days of Harrington that 'a people never + will, nor ever can, never did, nor ever shall, take up arms for + levelling.' All the commotions in the world have been for something else; + and 'levelling' is brought forward as the blind to conceal what the other + was." + </p> + <p> + We say, again and again, that we are on the defensive. We do not think it + necessary to prove that a quack medicine is poison. Let the vendor prove + it to be sanative. We do not pretend to show that universal suffrage is an + evil. Let its advocates show it to be a good. Mr Mill tells us that, if + power be given for short terms to representatives elected by all the males + of mature age, it will then be for the interest of those representatives + to promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number. To prove this, + it is necessary that he should prove three propositions: first, that the + interest of such a representative body will be identical with the interest + of the constituent body; secondly, that the interest of the constituent + body will be identical with that of the community; thirdly, that the + interest of one generation of a community is identical with that of all + succeeding generations. The two first propositions Mr Mill attempts to + prove and fails. The last he does not even attempt to prove. We therefore + refuse our assent to his conclusions. Is this unreasonable? + </p> + <p> + We never even dreamed, what Mr Bentham conceives us to have maintained, + that it could be for the greatest happiness of MANKIND to plunder the + rich. But we are "rather inclined to think," though doubtingly and with a + disposition to yield to conviction, that it may be for the pecuniary + interest of the majority of a single generation in a thickly-peopled + country to plunder the rich. Why we are inclined to think so we will + explain, whenever we send a theory of government to an Encyclopaedia. At + present we are bound to say only that we think so, and shall think so till + somebody shows us a reason for thinking otherwise. + </p> + <p> + Mr Bentham's answer to us is simple assertion. He must not think that we + mean any discourtesy by meeting it with a simple denial. The fact is, that + almost all the governments that have ever existed in the civilised world + have been, in part at least, monarchical and aristocratical. The first + government constituted on principles approaching to those which the + Utilitarians hold was, we think, that of the United States. That the poor + have never combined to plunder the rich in the governments of the old + world, no more proves that they might not combine to plunder the rich + under a system of universal suffrage, than the fact that the English kings + of the House of Brunswick have not been Neros and Domitians proves that + sovereigns may safely be intrusted with absolute power. Of what the people + would do in a state of perfect sovereignty we can judge only by + indications, which, though rarely of much moment in themselves, and though + always suppressed with little difficulty, are yet of great significance, + and resemble those by which our domestic animals sometimes remind us that + they are of kin with the fiercest monsters of the forest. It would not be + wise to reason from the behaviour of a dog crouching under the lash, which + is the case of the Italian people, or from the behaviour of a dog pampered + with the best morsels of a plentiful kitchen, which is the case of the + purpose of America, to the behaviour of a wolf, which is nothing but a dog + run wild, after a week's fast among the snows of the Pyrenees. No + commotion, says Mr Bentham, was ever really produced by the wish of + levelling; the wish has been put forward as a blind; but something else + has been the real object. Grant all this. But why has levelling been put + forward as a blind in times of commotion to conceal the real objects of + the agitators? Is it with declarations which involve "a suicide of hope" + that man attempt to allure others? Was famine, pestilence, slavery, ever + held out to attract the people? If levelling has been made a pretence for + disturbances, the argument against Mr Bentham's doctrine is as strong as + if it had been the real object of disturbances. + </p> + <p> + But the great objection which Mr Bentham makes to our review, still + remains to be noticed:— + </p> + <p> + "The pith of the charge against the author of the Essays is, that he has + written 'an elaborate Treatise on Government,' and 'deduced the whole + science from the assumption of certain propensities of human nature.' Now, + in the name of Sir Richard Birnie and all saints, from what else SHOULD it + be deduced? What did ever anybody imagine to be the end, object, and + design of government AS IT OUGHT TO BE but the same operation, on an + extended scale, which that meritorious chief magistrate conducts on a + limited one at Bow Street; to wit, the preventing one man from injuring + another? Imagine, then, that the Whiggery of Bow Street were to rise up + against the proposition that their science was to be deduced from 'certain + propensities of human nature,' and thereon were to ratiocinate as follows:— + </p> + <p> + "'How then are we to arrive at just conclusions on a subject so important + to the happiness of mankind? Surely by that method, which, in every + experimental science to which it has been applied, has signally increased + the power and knowledge of our species,—by that method for which our + new philosophers would substitute quibbles scarcely worthy of the + barbarous respondents and opponents of the middle ages,—by the + method of induction,—by observing the present state of the world,—by + assiduously studying the history of past ages,—by sifting the + evidence of facts,—by carefully combining and contrasting those + which are authentic,—by generalising with judgment and diffidence,—by + perpetually bringing the theory which we have constructed to the test of + new facts,—by correcting, or altogether abandoning it, according as + those new facts prove it to be partially or fundamentally unsound. + Proceeding thus,—patiently, diligently, candidly, we may hope to + form a system as far inferior in pretension to that which we have been + examining, and as far superior to it in real utility, as the prescriptions + of a great physician, varying with every stage of every malady, and with + the constitution of every patient, to the pill of the advertising quack, + which is to cure all human beings, in all climates, of all diseases.' + </p> + <p> + "Fancy now,—only fancy,—the delivery of these wise words at + Bow Street; and think how speedily the practical catchpolls would reply, + that all this might be very fine, but, as far as they had studied history, + the naked story was, after all, that numbers of men had a propensity to + thieving, and their business was to catch them; that they, too, had been + sifters of facts; and, to say the truth, their simple opinion was, that + their brethren of the red waistcoat—though they should be sorry to + think ill of any man—had somehow contracted a leaning to the other + side, and were more bent on puzzling the case for the benefit of the + defendants, than on doing the duty of good officers and true. Such would, + beyond all doubt, be the sentence passed on such trimmers in the microcosm + of Bow Street. It might not absolutely follow that they were in a plot to + rob the goldsmiths' shops, or to set fire to the House of Commons; but it + would be quite clear that they had got A FEELING,—that they were in + process of siding with the thieves,—and that it was not to them that + any man must look who was anxious that pantries should be safe." + </p> + <p> + This is all very witty; but it does not touch us. On the present occasion, + we cannot but flatter ourselves that we bear a much greater resemblance to + a practical catchpoll than either Mr Mill or Mr Bentham. It would, to be + sure, be very absurd in a magistrate discussing the arrangements of a + police-office, to spout in the style either of our article or Mr + Bentham's; but, in substance, he would proceed, if he were a man of sense, + exactly as WE recommend. He would, on being appointed to provide for the + security of property in a town, study attentively the state of the town. + He would learn at what places, at what times, and under what + circumstances, theft and outrage were most frequent. Are the streets, he + would ask, most infested with thieves at sunset or at midnight? Are there + any public places of resort which give peculiar facilities to pickpockets? + Are there any districts completely inhabited by a lawless population? + Which are the flash houses, and which the shops of receivers? Having made + himself master of the facts, he would act accordingly. A strong detachment + of officers might be necessary for Petticoat Lane; another for the pit + entrance of Covent Garden Theatre. Grosvenor Square and Hamilton Place + would require little or no protection. Exactly thus should we reason about + government. Lombardy is oppressed by tyrants; and constitutional checks, + such as may produce security to the people, are required. It is, so to + speak, one of the resorts of thieves; and there is great need of + police-officers. Denmark resembles one of those respectable streets in + which it is scarcely necessary to station a catchpoll, because the + inhabitants would at once join to seize a thief. Yet, even in such a + street, we should wish to see an officer appear now and then, as his + occasional superintence would render the security more complete. And even + Denmark, we think, would be better off under a constitutional form of + government. + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill proceeds like a director of police, who, without asking a single + question about the state of his district, should give his orders thus:—"My + maxim is, that every man will take what he can. Every man in London would + be a thief, but for the thieftakers. This is an undeniable principle of + human nature. Some of my predecessors have wasted their time in enquiring + about particular pawnbrokers, and particular alehouses. Experience is + altogether divided. Of people placed in exactly the same situation, I see + that one steals, and that another would sooner burn his hand off. + THEREFORE I trust to the laws of human nature alone, and pronounce all men + thieves alike. Let everybody, high and low, be watched. Let Townsend take + particular care that the Duke of Wellington does not steal the silk + handkerchief of the lord in waiting at the levee. A person has lost a + watch. Go to Lord Fitzwilliam and search him for it; he is as great a + receiver of stolen goods as Ikey Solomons himself. Don't tell me about his + rank, and character, and fortune. He is a man; and a man does not change + his nature when he is called a lord. ("If Government is founded upon this, + as a law of human nature, that a man, if able, will take from others + anything which they have and he desires, it is sufficiently evident that + when a man is called a king, he does not change his nature, so that, when + he has power to take what he pleases, he will take what he pleases. To + suppose that he will not, is to affirm that government is unnecessary and + that human beings will abstain from injuring one another of their own + accord."—"Mill on Government".) Either men will steal or they will + not steal. If they will not, why do I sit here? If they will, his lordship + must be a thief." The Whiggery of Bow Street would perhaps rise up against + this wisdom. Would Mr Bentham think that the Whiggery of Bow Street was in + the wrong? + </p> + <p> + We blamed Mr Mill for deducing his theory of government from the + principles of human nature. "In the name of Sir Richard Birnie and all + saints," cries Mr Bentham, "from what else should it be deduced?" In spite + of this solemn adjuration, with shall venture to answer Mr Bentham's + question by another. How does he arrive at those principles of human + nature from which he proposes to deduce the science of government? We + think that we may venture to put an answer into his mouth; for in truth + there is but one possible answer. He will say—By experience. But + what is the extent of this experience? Is it an experience which includes + experience of the conduct of men intrusted with the powers of government; + or is it exclusive of that experience? If it includes experience of the + manner in which men act when intrusted with the powers of government, then + those principles of human nature from which the science of government is + to be deduced can only be known after going through that inductive process + by which we propose to arrive at the science of government. Our knowledge + of human nature, instead of being prior in order to our knowledge of the + science of government, will be posterior to it. And it would be correct to + say, that by means of the science of government, and of other kindred + sciences—the science of education, for example, which falls under + exactly the same principle—we arrive at the science of human nature. + </p> + <p> + If, on the other hand, we are to deduce the theory of government from + principles of human nature, in arriving at which principles we have not + taken into the account the manner in which men act when invested with the + powers of government, then those principles must be defective. They have + not been formed by a sufficiently copious induction. We are reasoning, + from what a man does in one situation, to what he will do in another. + Sometimes we may be quite justified in reasoning thus. When we have no + means of acquiring information about the particular case before us, we are + compelled to resort to cases which bear some resemblance to it. But the + more satisfactory course is to obtain information about the particular + case; and, whenever this can be obtained, it ought to be obtained. When + first the yellow fever broke out, a physician might be justified in + treating it as he had been accustomed to treat those complaints which, on + the whole, had the most symptoms in common with it. But what should we + think of a physician who should now tell us that he deduced his treatment + of yellow fever from the general theory of pathology? Surely we should ask + him, Whether, in constructing his theory of pathology, he had or had not + taken into the account the facts which had been ascertained respecting the + yellow fever? If he had, then it would be more correct to say that he had + arrived at the principles of pathology partly by his experience of cases + of yellow fever than that he had deduced his treatment of yellow fever + from the principles of pathology. If he had not, he should not prescribe + for us. If we had the yellow fever, we should prefer a man who had never + treated any cases but cases of yellow fever to a man who had walked the + hospitals of London and Paris for years, but who knew nothing of our + particular disease. + </p> + <p> + Let Lord Bacon speak for us: "Inductionem censemus eam esse demonstrandi + formam, quae sensum tuetur, et naturam premit, et operibus imminet, ac + fere immiscetur. Itaque ordo quoque demonstrandi plane invertitur. Adhuc + enim res ita geri consuevit, ut a sensu et particularibus primo loco ad + maxime generalia advoletur, tanquam ad polos fixos, circa quos + disputationes vertantur; ab illis caetera, per media, deriventur; via + certe compendiaria, sed praecipiti, et ad naturam impervia, ad + disputationes proclivi et accommodata. At, secundum nos, axiomata + continenter et gradatim excitantur, ut non, nisi postremo loco, ad maxime + generalia veniatur." Can any words more exactly describe the political + reasonings of Mr Mill than those in which Lord Bacon thus describes the + logomachies of the schoolmen? Mr Mill springs at once to a general + principle of the widest extent, and from that general principle deduces + syllogistically every thing which is included in it. We say with Bacon—"non, + nisi postremo loco, ad maxime generalia veniatur." In the present inquiry, + the science of human nature is the "maxime generale." To this the + Utilitarian rushes at once, and from this he deduces a hundred sciences. + But the true philosopher, the inductive reasoner, travels up to it slowly, + through those hundred sciences, of which the science of government is one. + </p> + <p> + As we have lying before us that incomparable volume, the noblest and most + useful of all the works of the human reason, the Novum Organum, we will + transcribe a few lines, in which the Utilitarian philosophy is portrayed + to the life. + </p> + <p> + "Syllogismus ad 'Principia' scientiarum non adhibetur, ad media axiomata + frustra adhibetur, cum sit subtilitati naturae longe impar. Assensum + itaque constringit, non res. Syllogismus ex propositionibus constat, + propositiones ex verbis, verba notionum tesserae sunt. Itaque si notiones + ipsae, id quod basis rei est, confusae sint, et tenere a rebus abstractae, + nihil in iis quae superstruuntur est firmitudinis. Itaque spes est una in + Inductione vera. In notionibus nil sani est, nec in Logicis nec in + physicis. Non substantia, non qualitas, agere, pati, ipsum esse, bonae + notiones sunt; multo minus grave, leve, densum, tenue, humidum, siccum, + generatio, corruptio, attrahere, fugare, elementum, materia, forma, et id + genus, sed omnes phantasticae et male terminatae." + </p> + <p> + Substitute for the "substantia," the "generatio," the "corruptio," the + "elementum," the "materia," of the old schoolmen, Mr Mill's pain, + pleasure, interest, power, objects of desire,—and the words of Bacon + will seem to suit the current year as well as the beginning of the + seventeenth century. + </p> + <p> + We have now gone through the objections that Mr Bentham makes to our + article: and we submit ourselves on all the charges to the judgment of the + public. + </p> + <p> + The rest of Mr Bentham's article consists of an exposition of the + Utilitarian principle, or, as he decrees that it shall be called, the + "greatest happiness principle." He seems to think that we have been + assailing it. We never said a syllable against it. We spoke slightingly of + the Utilitarian sect, as we thought of them, and think of them; but it was + not for holding this doctrine that we blamed them. In attacking them we no + more meant to attack the "greatest happiness principle" than when we say + that Mahometanism is a false religion we mean to deny the unity of God, + which is the first article of the Mahometan creed;—no more than Mr + Bentham, when he sneers at the Whigs means to blame them for denying the + divine right of kings. We reasoned throughout our article on the + supposition that the end of government was to produce the greatest + happiness to mankind. + </p> + <p> + Mr Bentham gives an account of the manner in which he arrived at the + discovery of the "greatest happiness principle." He then proceeds to + describe the effects which, as he conceives, that discovery is producing + in language so rhetorical and ardent that, if it had been written by any + other person, a genuine Utilitarian would certainly have thrown down the + book in disgust. + </p> + <p> + "The only rivals of any note to the new principle which were brought + forward, were those known by the names of the 'moral sense,' and the + 'original contract.' The new principle superseded the first of these, by + presenting it with a guide for its decisions; and the other, by making it + unnecessary to resort to a remote and imaginary contract for what was + clearly the business of every man and every hour. Throughout the whole + horizon of morals and of politics, the consequences were glorious and + vast. It might be said without danger of exaggeration, that they who sat + in darkness had seen a great light. The mists in which mankind had jousted + against each other were swept away, as when the sun of astronomical + science arose in the full development of the principle of gravitation. If + the object of legislation was the greatest happiness, MORALITY was the + promotion of the same end by the conduct of the individual; and by + analogy, the happiness of the world was the morality of nations. + </p> + <p> + "...All the sublime obscurities, which had haunted the mind of man from + the first formation of society,—the phantoms whose steps had been on + earth, and their heads among the clouds—marshalled themselves at the + sound of this new principle of connection and of union, and stood a + regulated band, where all was order, symmetry, and force. What men had + struggled for and bled, while they saw it but as through a glass darkly, + was made the object of substantial knowledge and lively apprehension. The + bones of sages and of patriots stirred within their tombs, that what they + dimly saw and followed had become the world's common heritage. And the + great result was wrought by no supernatural means, nor produced by any + unparallelable concatenation of events. It was foretold by no oracles, and + ushered by no portents; but was brought about by the quiet and reiterated + exercise of God's first gift of common sense." + </p> + <p> + Mr Bentham's discovery does not, as we think we shall be able to show, + approach in importance to that of gravitation, to which he compares it. At + all events, Mr Bentham seems to us to act much as Sir Isaac Newton would + have done if he had gone about boasting that he was the first person who + taught bricklayers not to jump off scaffolds and break their legs. + </p> + <p> + Does Mr Bentham profess to hold out any new motive which may induce men to + promote the happiness of the species to which they belong? Not at all. He + distinctly admits that, if he is asked why government should attempt to + produce the greatest possible happiness, he can give no answer. + </p> + <p> + "The real answer," says he, "appeared to be, that men at large OUGHT not + to allow a government to afflict them with more evil or less good than + they can help. What A GOVERNMENT ought to do is a mysterious and searching + question, which those may answer who know what it means; but what other + men ought to do is a question of no mystery at all. The word OUGHT, if it + means anything, must have reference to some kind of interest or motives; + and what interest a government has in doing right, when it happens to be + interested in doing wrong, is a question for the schoolmen. The fact + appears to be, that OUGHT is not predicable of governments. The question + is not why governments are bound not to do this or that, but why OTHER MEN + should let them if they can help it. The point is not to determine why the + lion should not eat sheep, but why men should not eat their own mutton if + they can." + </p> + <p> + The principle of Mr Bentham, if we understand it, is this, that mankind + ought to act so as to produce their greatest happiness. The word OUGHT, he + tells us, has no meaning, unless it be used with reference to some + interest. But the interest of a man is synonymous with his greatest + happiness:—and therefore to say that a man ought to do a thing, is + to say that it is for his greatest happiness to do it. And to say that + mankind OUGHT to act so as to produce their greatest happiness, is to say + that the greatest happiness is the greatest happiness—and this is + all! + </p> + <p> + Does Mr Bentham's principle tend to make any man wish for anything for + which he would not have wished, or do anything which he would not have + done, if the principle had never been heard of? If not, it is an utterly + useless principle. Now, every man pursues his own happiness or interest—call + it which you will. If his happiness coincides with the happiness of the + species, then, whether he ever heard of the "greatest happiness principle" + or not, he will, to the best of his knowledge and ability, attempt to + produce the greatest happiness of the species. But, if what he thinks his + happiness be inconsistent with the greatest happiness of mankind, will + this new principle convert him to another frame of mind? Mr Bentham + himself allows, as we have seen, that he can give no reason why a man + should promote the greatest happiness of others if their greatest + happiness be inconsistent with what he thinks his own. We should very much + like to know how the Utilitarian principle would run when reduced to one + plain imperative proposition? Will it run thus—pursue your own + happiness? This is superfluous. Every man pursues it, according to his + light, and always has pursued it, and always must pursue it. To say that a + man has done anything, is to say that he thought it for his happiness to + do it. Will the principle run thus—pursue the greatest happiness of + mankind, whether it be your own greatest happiness or not? This is absurd + and impossible; and Bentham himself allows it to be so. But, if the + principle be not stated in one of these two ways, we cannot imagine how it + is to be stated at all. Stated in one of these ways, it is an identical + proposition,—true, but utterly barren of consequences. Stated in the + other way, it is a contradiction in terms. Mr Bentham has distinctly + declined the absurdity. Are we then to suppose that he adopts the truism? + </p> + <p> + There are thus, it seems, two great truths which the Utilitarian + philosophy is to communicate to mankind—two truths which are to + produce a revolution in morals, in laws, in governments, in literature, in + the whole system of life. The first of these is speculative; the second is + practical. The speculative truth is, that the greatest happiness is the + greatest happiness. The practical rule is very simple; for it imports + merely that men should never omit, when they wish for anything, to wish + for it, or when they do anything, to do it! It is a great comfort to us to + think that we readily assented to the former of these great doctrines as + soon as it was stated to us; and that we have long endeavoured, as far as + human frailty would permit, to conform to the latter in our practice. We + are, however, inclined to suspect that the calamities of the human race + have been owing, less to their not knowing that happiness was happiness, + than to their not knowing how to obtain it—less to their neglecting + to do what they did, than to their not being able to do what they wished, + or not wishing to do what they ought. + </p> + <p> + Thus frivolous, thus useless is this philosophy,—"controversiarum + ferax, operum effoeta, ad garriendum prompta, ad generandum invalida." + (Bacon, "Novum Organum".) The humble mechanic who discovers some slight + improvement in the construction of safety lamps or steam-vessels does more + for the happiness of mankind than the "magnificent principle," as Mr + Bentham calls it, will do in ten thousand years. The mechanic teaches us + how we may in a small degree be better off than we were. The Utilitarian + advises us with great pomp to be as well off as we can. + </p> + <p> + The doctrine of a moral sense may be very unphilosophical; but we do not + think that it can be proved to be pernicious. Men did not entertain + certain desires and aversions because they believed in a moral sense, but + they gave the name of moral sense to a feeling which they found in their + minds, however it came there. If they had given it no name at all it would + still have influenced their actions; and it will not be very easy to + demonstrate that it has influenced their actions the more because they + have called it the moral sense. The theory of the original contract is a + fiction, and a very absurd fiction; but in practice it meant, what the + "greatest happiness principle," if ever it becomes a watchword of + political warfare, will mean—that is to say, whatever served the + turn of those who used it. Both the one expression and the other sound + very well in debating clubs; but in the real conflicts of life our + passions and interests bid them stand aside and know their place. The + "greatest happiness principle" has always been latent under the words, + social contract, justice, benevolence, patriotism, liberty, and so forth, + just as far as it was for the happiness, real or imagined, of those who + used these words to promote the greatest happiness of mankind. And of this + we may be sure, that the words "greatest happiness" will never, in any + man's mouth, mean more than the greatest happiness of others which is + consistent with what he thinks his own. The project of mending a bad world + by teaching people to give new names to old things reminds us of Walter + Shandy's scheme for compensating the loss of his son's nose by christening + him Trismegistus. What society wants is a new motive—not a new cant. + If Mr Bentham can find out any argument yet undiscovered which may induce + men to pursue the general happiness, he will indeed be a great benefactor + to our species. But those whose happiness is identical with the general + happiness are even now promoting the general happiness to the very best of + their power and knowledge; and Mr Bentham himself confesses that he has no + means of persuading those whose happiness is not identical with the + general happiness to act upon his principle. Is not this, then, darkening + counsel by words without knowledge? If the only fruit of the "magnificent + principle" is to be, that the oppressors and pilferers of the next + generation are to talk of seeking the greatest happiness of the greatest + number, just as the same class of men have talked in our time of seeking + to uphold the Protestant constitution—just as they talked under Anne + of seeking the good of the Church, and under Cromwell of seeking the Lord—where + is the gain? Is not every great question already enveloped in a + sufficiently dark cloud of unmeaning words? Is it so difficult for a man + to cant some one or more of the good old English cants which his father + and grandfather canted before him, that he must learn, in the schools of + the Utilitarians, a new sleight of tongue, to make fools clap and wise men + sneer? Let our countrymen keep their eyes on the neophytes of this sect, + and see whether we turn out to be mistaken in the prediction which we now + hazard. It will before long be found, we prophesy, that, as the corruption + of a dunce is the generation of an Utilitarian, so is the corruption of an + Utilitarian the generation of a jobber. + </p> + <p> + The most elevated station that the "greatest happiness principle" is ever + likely to attain is this, that it may be a fashionable phrase among + newspaper writers and members of parliament—that it may succeed to + the dignity which has been enjoyed by the "original contract," by the + "constitution of 1688," and other expressions of the same kind. We do not + apprehend that it is a less flexible cant than those which have preceded + it, or that it will less easily furnish a pretext for any design for which + a pretext may be required. The "original contract" meant in the Convention + Parliament the co-ordinate authority of the Three Estates. If there were + to be a radical insurrection tomorrow, the "original contract" would stand + just as well for annual parliaments and universal suffrage. The "Glorious + Constitution," again, has meant everything in turn: the Habeas Corpus Act, + the Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, the Test Act, the Repeal of the + Test Act. There has not been for many years a single important measure + which has not been unconstitutional with its opponents, and which its + supporters have not maintained to be agreeable to the true spirit of the + constitution. Is it easier to ascertain what is for the greatest happiness + of the human race than what is the constitution of England? If not, the + "greatest happiness principle" will be what the "principles of the + constitution" are, a thing to be appealed to by everybody, and understood + by everybody in the sense which suits him best. It will mean cheap bread, + dear bread, free trade, protecting duties, annual parliaments, septennial + parliaments, universal suffrage, Old Sarum, trial by jury, martial law—everything, + in short, good, bad, or indifferent, of which any person, from rapacity or + from benevolence, chooses to undertake the defence. It will mean + six-and-eightpence with the attorney, tithes at the rectory, and game-laws + at the manor-house. The Statute of Uses, in appearance the most sweeping + legislative reform in our history, was said to have produced no other + effect than that of adding three words to a conveyance. The universal + admission of Mr Bentham's great principle would, as far as we can see, + produce no other effect than that those orators who, while waiting for a + meaning, gain time (like bankers paying in sixpences during a run) by + uttering words that mean nothing would substitute "the greatest + happiness," or rather, as the longer phrase, "the greatest happiness of + the greatest number," for "under existing circumstances,"—"now that + I am on my legs,"—and "Mr Speaker, I, for one, am free to say." In + fact, principles of this sort resemble those forms which are sold by + law-stationers, with blanks for the names of parties, and for the special + circumstances of every case—mere customary headings and conclusions, + which are equally at the command of the most honest and of the most + unrighteous claimant. It is on the filling up that everything depends. + </p> + <p> + The "greatest happiness principle" of Mr Bentham is included in the + Christian morality; and, to our thinking, it is there exhibited in an + infinitely more sound and philosophical form than in the Utilitarian + speculations. For in the New Testament it is neither an identical + proposition, nor a contradiction in terms; and, as laid down by Mr + Bentham, it must be either the one or the other. "Do as you would be done + by: Love your neighbour as yourself:" these are the precepts of Jesus + Christ. Understood in an enlarged sense, these precepts are, in fact, a + direction to every man to promote the greatest happiness of the greatest + number. But this direction would be utterly unmeaning, as it actually is + in Mr Bentham's philosophy, unless it were accompanied by a sanction. In + the Christian scheme, accordingly, it is accompanied by a sanction of + immense force. To a man whose greatest happiness in this world is + inconsistent with the greatest happiness of the greatest number is held + out the prospect of an infinite happiness hereafter, from which he + excludes himself by wronging his fellow-creatures here. + </p> + <p> + This is practical philosophy, as practical as that on which penal + legislation is founded. A man is told to do something which otherwise he + would not do, and is furnished with a new motive for doing it. Mr Bentham + has no new motive to furnish his disciples with. He has talents sufficient + to effect anything that can be effected. But to induce men to act without + an inducement is too much, even for him. He should reflect that the whole + vast world of morals cannot be moved unless the mover can obtain some + stand for his engines beyond it. He acts as Archimedes would have done, if + he had attempted to move the earth by a lever fixed on the earth. The + action and reaction neutralise each other. The artist labours, and the + world remains at rest. Mr Bentham can only tell us to do something which + we have always been doing, and should still have continued to do, if we + had never heard of the "greatest happiness principle"—or else to do + something which we have no conceivable motive for doing, and therefore + shall not do. Mr Bentham's principle is at best no more than the golden + rule of the Gospel without its sanction. Whatever evils, therefore, have + existed in societies in which the authority of the Gospel is recognised + may, a fortiori, as it appears to us, exist in societies in which the + Utilitarian principle is recognised. We do not apprehend that it is more + difficult for a tyrant or a persecutor to persuade himself and others that + in putting to death those who oppose his power or differ from his opinions + he is pursuing "the greatest happiness," than that he is doing as he would + be done by. But religion gives him a motive for doing as he would be done + by: and Mr Bentham furnishes him no motive to induce him to promote the + general happiness. If, on the other hand, Mr Bentham's principle mean only + that every man should pursue his own greatest happiness, he merely asserts + what everybody knows, and recommends what everybody does. + </p> + <p> + It is not upon this "greatest happiness principle" that the fame of Mr + Bentham will rest. He has not taught people to pursue their own happiness; + for that they always did. He has not taught them to promote the happiness + of others, at the expense of their own; for that they will not and cannot + do. But he has taught them HOW, in some most important points, to promote + their own happiness; and, if his school had emulated him as successfully + in this respect as in the trick of passing off truisms for discoveries, + the name of Benthamite would have been no word for the scoffer. But few of + those who consider themselves as in a more especial manner his followers + have anything in common with him but his faults. The whole science of + Jurisprudence is his. He has done much for political economy; but we are + not aware that in either department any improvement has been made by + members of his sect. He discovered truths; all that THEY have done has + been to make those truths unpopular. He investigated the philosophy of + law; he could teach them only to snarl at lawyers. + </p> + <p> + We entertain no apprehensions of danger to the institutions of this + country from the Utilitarians. Our fears are of a different kind. We dread + the odium and discredit of their alliance. We wish to see a broad and + clear line drawn between the judicious friends of practical reform and a + sect which, having derived all its influence from the countenance which + they have imprudently bestowed upon it, hates them with the deadly hatred + of ingratitude. There is not, and we firmly believe that there never was, + in this country a party so unpopular. They have already made the science + of political economy—a science of vast importance to the welfare of + nations—an object of disgust to the majority of the community. The + question of parliamentary reform will share the same fate if once an + association be formed in the public mind between Reform and + Utilitarianism. + </p> + <p> + We bear no enmity to any member of the sect; and for Mr Bentham we + entertain very high admiration. We know that among his followers there are + some well-intentioned men, and some men of talents; but we cannot say that + we think the logic on which they pride themselves likely to improve their + heads, or the scheme of morality which they have adopted likely to improve + their hearts. Their theory of morals, however, well deserves an article to + itself; and perhaps, on some future occasion, we may discuss it more fully + than time and space at present allow. + </p> + <p> + The preceding article was written, and was actually in types, when a + letter from Mr Bentham appeared in the newspapers, importing that, "though + he had furnished the Westminster Review with some memoranda respecting + 'the greatest happiness principle,' he had nothing to do with the remarks + on our former article." We are truly happy to find that this illustrious + man had so small a share in a performance which, for his sake, we have + treated with far greater lenity than it deserved. The mistake, however, + does not in the least affect any part of our arguments; and we have + therefore thought it unnecessary to cancel or cast anew any of the + foregoing pages. Indeed, we are not sorry that the world should see how + respectfully we were disposed to treat a great man, even when we + considered him as the author of a very weak and very unfair attack on + ourselves. We wish, however, to intimate to the actual writer of that + attack that our civilities were intended for the author of the "Preuves + Judiciaires," and the "Defence of Usury"—and not for him. We cannot + conclude, indeed, without expressing a wish—though we fear it has + but little chance of reaching Mr Bentham—that he would endeavour to + find better editors for his compositions. If M. Dumont had not been a + redacteur of a different description from some of his successors, Mr + Bentham would never have attained the distinction of even giving his name + to a sect. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + UTILITARIAN THEORY OF GOVERNMENT. (October 1829.) + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Westminster Review (XXII., Article 16), on the Strictures + of the Edinburgh Review (XCVIII., Article 1), on the + Utilitarian Theory of Government, and the "Greatest + Happiness Principle." +</pre> + <p> + We have long been of opinion that the Utilitarians have owed all their + influence to a mere delusion—that, while professing to have + submitted their minds to an intellectual discipline of peculiar severity, + to have discarded all sentimentality, and to have acquired consummate + skill in the art of reasoning, they are decidedly inferior to the mass of + educated men in the very qualities in which they conceive themselves to + excel. They have undoubtedly freed themselves from the dominion of some + absurd notions. But their struggle for intellectual emancipation has + ended, as injudicious and violent struggles for political emancipation too + often end, in a mere change of tyrants. Indeed, we are not sure that we do + not prefer the venerable nonsense which holds prescriptive sway over the + ultra-Tory to the upstart dynasty of prejudices and sophisms by which the + revolutionists of the moral world have suffered themselves to be enslaved. + </p> + <p> + The Utilitarians have sometimes been abused as intolerant, arrogant, + irreligious,—as enemies of literature, of the fine arts, and of the + domestic charities. They have been reviled for some things of which they + were guilty, and for some of which they were innocent. But scarcely + anybody seems to have perceived that almost all their peculiar faults + arise from the utter want both of comprehensiveness and of precision in + their mode of reasoning. We have, for some time past, been convinced that + this was really the case; and that, whenever their philosophy should be + boldly and unsparingly scrutinised, the world would see that it had been + under a mistake respecting them. + </p> + <p> + We have made the experiment; and it has succeeded far beyond our most + sanguine expectations. A chosen champion of the School has come forth + against us. A specimen of his logical abilities now lies before us; and we + pledge ourselves to show that no prebendary at an anti-Catholic meeting, + no true-blue baronet after the third bottle at a Pitt Club, ever displayed + such utter incapacity of comprehending or answering an argument as appears + in the speculations of this Utilitarian apostle; that he does not + understand our meaning, or Mr Mill's meaning, or Mr Bentham's meaning, or + his own meaning; and that the various parts of his system—if the + name of system can be so misapplied—directly contradict each other. + </p> + <p> + Having shown this, we intend to leave him in undisputed possession of + whatever advantage he may derive from the last word. We propose only to + convince the public that there is nothing in the far-framed logic of the + Utilitarians of which any plain man has reason to be afraid; that this + logic will impose on no man who dares to look it in the face. + </p> + <p> + The Westminster Reviewer begins by charging us with having misrepresented + an important part of Mr Mill's argument. + </p> + <p> + "The first extract given by the Edinburgh Reviewers from the Essay was an + insulated passage, purposely despoiled of what had preceded and what + followed. The author had been observing, that 'some profound and + benevolent investigators of human affairs had adopted the conclusion that, + of all the possible forms of government, absolute monarchy is the best.' + This is what the reviewers have omitted at the beginning. He then adds, as + in the extract, that 'Experience, IF WE LOOK ONLY AT THE OUTSIDE OF THE + FACTS, appears to be divided on this subject;' there are Caligulas in one + place, and kings of Denmark in another. 'As the surface of history + affords, therefore, no certain principle of decision, WE MUST GO BEYOND + THE SURFACE, and penetrate to the springs within.' This is what the + reviewers have omitted at the end." + </p> + <p> + It is perfectly true that our quotation from Mr Mill's essay was, like + most other quotations, preceded and followed by something which we did not + quote. But, if the Westminster Reviewer means to say that either what + preceded or what followed would, if quoted, have shown that we put a wrong + interpretation on the passage which was extracted, he does not understand + Mr Mill rightly. + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill undoubtedly says that, "as the surface of history affords no + certain principle of decision, we must go beyond the surface, and + penetrate to the springs within." But these expressions will admit of + several interpretations. In what sense, then, does Mr Mill use them? If he + means that we ought to inspect the facts with close attention, he means + what is rational. But, if he means that we ought to leave the facts, with + all their apparent inconsistencies, unexplained—to lay down a + general principle of the widest extent, and to deduce doctrines from that + principle by syllogistic argument, without pausing to consider whether + those doctrines be or be not consistent with the facts,—then he + means what is irrational; and this is clearly what he does mean: for he + immediately begins, without offering the least explanation of the + contradictory appearances which he has himself described, to go beyond the + surface in the following manner:—"That one human being will desire + to render the person and property of another subservient to his pleasures, + notwithstanding the pain or loss of pleasure which it may occasion to that + other individual, is the foundation of government. The desire of the + object implies the desire of the power necessary to accomplish the + object." And thus he proceeds to deduce consequences directly inconsistent + with what he has himself stated respecting the situation of the Danish + people. + </p> + <p> + If we assume that the object of government is the preservation of the + persons and property of men, then we must hold that, wherever that object + is attained, there the principle of good government exists. If that object + be attained both in Denmark and in the United States of America, then that + which makes government good must exist, under whatever disguise of title + or name, both in Denmark and in the United States. If men lived in fear + for their lives and their possessions under Nero and under the National + Convention, it follows that the causes from which misgovernment proceeds + existed both in the despotism of Rome and in the democracy of France. + What, then, is that which, being found in Denmark and in the United + States, and not being found in the Roman Empire or under the + administration of Robespierre, renders governments, widely differing in + their external form, practically good? Be it what it may, it certainly is + not that which Mr Mill proves a priori that it must be,—a democratic + representative assembly. For the Danes have no such assembly. + </p> + <p> + The latent principle of good government ought to be tracked, as it appears + to us, in the same manner in which Lord Bacon proposed to track the + principle of Heat. Make as large a list as possible, said that great man, + of those bodies in which, however widely they differ from each other in + appearance, we perceive heat; and as large a list as possible of those + which, while they bear a general resemblance to hot bodies, are + nevertheless not hot. Observe the different degrees of heat in different + hot bodies; and then, if there be something which is found in all hot + bodies, and of which the increase or diminution is always accompanied by + an increase or diminution of heat, we may hope that we have really + discovered the object of our search. In the same manner we ought to + examine the constitution of all those communities in which, under whatever + form, the blessings of good government are enjoyed; and to discover, if + possible, in what they resemble each other, and in what they all differ + from those societies in which the object of government is not attained. By + proceeding thus we shall arrive, not indeed at a perfect theory of + government, but at a theory which will be of great practical use, and + which the experience of every successive generation will probably bring + nearer and nearer to perfection. + </p> + <p> + The inconsistencies into which Mr Mill has been betrayed by taking a + different course ought to serve as a warning to all speculators. Because + Denmark is well governed by a monarch who, in appearance at least, is + absolute, Mr Mill thinks that the only mode of arriving at the true + principles of government is to deduce them a priori from the laws of human + nature. And what conclusion does he bring out by this deduction? We will + give it in his own words:—"In the grand discovery of modern times, + the system of representation, the solution of all the difficulties, both + speculative and practical, will perhaps be found. If it cannot, we seem to + be forced upon the extraordinary conclusion that good government is + impossible." That the Danes are well governed without a representation is + a reason for deducing the theory of government from a general principle + from which it necessarily follows that good government is impossible + without a representation! We have done our best to put this question + plainly; and we think that, if the Westminster Reviewer will read over + what we have written twice or thrice with patience and attention, some + glimpse of our meaning will break in even on his mind. + </p> + <p> + Some objections follow, so frivolous and unfair, that we are almost + ashamed to notice them. + </p> + <p> + "When it was said that there was in Denmark a balanced contest between the + king and the nobility, what was said was, that there was a balanced + contest, but it did not last. It was balanced till something put an end to + the balance; and so is everything else. That such a balance will not last, + is precisely what Mr Mill had demonstrated." + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill, we positively affirm, pretends to demonstrate, not merely that a + balanced contest between the king and the aristocracy will not last, but + that the chances are as infinity to one against the existence of such a + balanced contest. This is a mere question of fact. We quote the words of + the essay, and defy the Westminster Reviewer to impeach our accuracy:— + </p> + <p> + "It seems impossible that such equality should ever exist. How is it to be + established? Or by what criterion is it to be ascertained? If there is no + such criterion, it must, in all cases, be the result of chance. If so, the + chances against it are as infinity to one." + </p> + <p> + The Reviewer has confounded the division of power with the balance or + equal division of power. Mr Mill says that the division of power can never + exist long, because it is next to impossible that the equal division of + power should ever exist at all. + </p> + <p> + "When Mr Mill asserted that it cannot be for the interest of either the + monarchy or the aristocracy to combine with the democracy, it is plain he + did not assert that if the monarchy and aristocracy were in doubtful + contest with each other, they would not, either of them, accept of the + assistance of the democracy. He spoke of their taking the side of the + democracy; not of their allowing the democracy to take side with + themselves." + </p> + <p> + If Mr Mill meant anything, he must have meant this—that the monarchy + and the aristocracy will never forget their enmity to the democracy in + their enmity to each other. + </p> + <p> + "The monarchy and aristocracy," says he, "have all possible motives for + endeavouring to obtain unlimited power over the persons and property of + the community. The consequence is inevitable. They have all possible + motives for combining to obtain that power, and unless the people have + power enough to be a match for both they have no protection. The balance, + therefore, is a thing the existence of which upon the best possible + evidence is to be regarded as impossible." + </p> + <p> + If Mr Mill meant only what the Westminster Reviewer conceives him to have + meant, his argument would leave the popular theory of the balance quite + untouched. For it is the very theory of the balance that the help of the + people will be solicited by the nobles when hard pressed by the king, and + by the king when hard pressed by the nobles; and that, as the price of + giving alternate support to the crown and the aristocracy, they will + obtain something for themselves, as the Reviewer admits that they have + done in Denmark. If Mr Mill admits this, he admits the only theory of the + balance of which we ever heard—that very theory which he has + declared to be wild and chimerical. If he denies it, he is at issue with + the Westminster Reviewer as to the phenomena of the Danish government. + </p> + <p> + We now come to a more important passage. Our opponent has discovered, as + he conceives, a radical error which runs through our whole argument, and + vitiates every part of it. We suspect that we shall spoil his triumph. + </p> + <p> + "Mr Mill never asserted 'THAT UNDER NO DESPOTIC GOVERNMENT DOES ANY HUMAN + BEING, EXCEPT THE TOOLS OF THE SOVEREIGN, POSSESS MORE THAN THE + NECESSARIES OF LIFE, AND THAT THE MOST INTENSE DEGREE OF TERROR IS KEPT UP + BY CONSTANT CRUELTY.' He said that absolute power leads to such results + 'by infallible sequence, where power over a community is attained, AND + NOTHING CHECKS.' The critic on the Mount never made a more palpable + misquotation. + </p> + <p> + "The spirit of this misquotation runs through every part of the reply of + the Edinburgh Review that relates to the Essay on Government; and is + repeated in as many shapes as the Roman pork. The whole description of 'Mr + Mill's argument against despotism,'—including the illustration from + right-angled triangles and the square of the hypothenuse,—is founded + on this invention of saying what an author has not said, and leaving + unsaid what he has." + </p> + <p> + We thought, and still think, for reasons which our readers will soon + understand, that we represented Mr Mill's principle quite fairly, and + according to the rule of law and common sense, ut res magis valeat quam + pereat. Let us, however, give him all the advantage of the explanation + tendered by his advocate, and see what he will gain by it. + </p> + <p> + The Utilitarian doctrine then is, not that despots and aristocracies will + always plunder and oppress the people to the last point, but that they + will do so if nothing checks them. + </p> + <p> + In the first place, it is quite clear that the doctrine thus stated is of + no use at all, unless the force of the checks be estimated. The first law + of motion is, that a ball once projected will fly on to all eternity with + undiminished velocity, unless something checks. The fact is, that a ball + stops in a few seconds after proceeding a few yards with very variable + motion. Every man would wring his child's neck and pick his friend's + pocket if nothing checked him. In fact, the principle thus stated means + only that governments will oppress unless they abstain from oppressing. + This is quite true, we own. But we might with equal propriety turn the + maxim round, and lay it down, as the fundamental principle of government, + that all rulers will govern well, unless some motive interferes to keep + them from doing so. + </p> + <p> + If there be, as the Westminster Reviewer acknowledges, certain checks + which, under political institutions the most arbitrary in seeming, + sometimes produce good government, and almost always place some restraint + on the rapacity and cruelty of the powerful, surely the knowledge of those + checks, of their nature, and of their effect, must be a most important + part of the science of government. Does Mr Mill say anything upon this + part of the subject? Not one word. + </p> + <p> + The line of defence now taken by the Utilitarians evidently degrades Mr + Mill's theory of government from the rank which, till within the last few + months, was claimed for it by the whole sect. It is no longer a practical + system, fit to guide statesmen, but merely a barren exercise of the + intellect, like those propositions in mechanics in which the effect of + friction and of the resistance of the air is left out of the question; and + which, therefore, though correctly deduced from the premises, are in + practice utterly false. For, if Mr Mill professes to prove only that + absolute monarchy and aristocracy are pernicious without checks,—if + he allows that there are checks which produce good government even under + absolute monarchs and aristocracies,—and if he omits to tell us what + those checks are, and what effects they produce under different + circumstances,—he surely gives us no information which can be of + real utility. + </p> + <p> + But the fact is,—and it is most extraordinary that the Westminster + Reviewer should not have perceived it—that if once the existence of + checks on the abuse of power in monarchies and aristocracies be admitted, + the whole of Mr Mill's theory falls to the ground at once. This is so + palpable, that in spite of the opinion of the Westminster Reviewer, we + must acquit Mr Mill of having intended to make such an admission. We still + think that the words, "where power over a community is attained, and + nothing checks," must not be understood to mean that under a monarchical + or aristocratical form of government there can really be any check which + can in any degree mitigate the wretchedness of the people. + </p> + <p> + For all possible checks may be classed under two general heads,—want + of will, and want of power. Now, if a king or an aristocracy, having the + power to plunder and oppress the people, can want the will, all Mr Mill's + principles of human nature must be pronounced unsound. He tells us, "that + the desire to possess unlimited power of inflicting pain upon others, is + an inseparable part of human nature;" and that "a chain of inference, + close and strong to a most unusual degree," leads to the conclusion that + those who possess this power will always desire to use it. It is plain, + therefore, that, if Mr Mill's principles be sound, the check on a + monarchical or an aristocratical government will not be the want of will + to oppress. + </p> + <p> + If a king or an aristocracy, having, as Mr Mill tells us that they always + must have, the will to oppress the people with the utmost severity, want + the power, then the government, by whatever name it may be called, must be + virtually a mixed government or a pure democracy: for it is quite clear + that the people possess some power in the state—some means of + influencing the nominal rulers. But Mr Mill has demonstrated that no mixed + government can possibly exist, or at least that such a government must + come to a very speedy end: therefore, every country in which people not in + the service of the government have, for any length of time, been permitted + to accumulate more than the bare means of subsistence must be a pure + democracy. That is to say, France before the revolution, and Ireland + during the last century, were pure democracies. Prussia, Austria, Russia, + all the governments of the civilised world, are pure democracies. If this + be not a reductio ad absurdum, we do not know what is. + </p> + <p> + The errors of Mr Mill proceed principally from that radical vice in his + reasoning which, in our last number we described in the words of Lord + Bacon. The Westminster Reviewer is unable to discover the meaning of our + extracts from the "Novum Organum", and expresses himself as follows: + </p> + <p> + "The quotations from Lord Bacon are misapplications, such as anybody may + make to anything he dislikes. There is no more resemblance between pain, + pleasure, motives, etc., and substantia, generatio, corruptio, elementum, + materia,—than between lines angles, magnitudes, etc., and the same." + </p> + <p> + It would perhaps be unreasonable to expect that a writer who cannot + understand his own English should understand Lord Bacon's Latin. We will + therefore attempt to make our meaning clearer. + </p> + <p> + What Lord Bacon blames in the schoolmen of his time is this,—that + they reasoned syllogistically on words which had not been defined with + precision; such as moist, dry, generation, corruption, and so forth. Mr + Mill's error is exactly of the same kind. He reasons syllogistically about + power, pleasure, and pain, without attaching any definite notion to any + one of those words. There is no more resemblance, says the Westminster + Reviewer, between pain and substantia than between pain and a line or an + angle. By his permission, in the very point to which Lord Bacon's + observation applies, Mr Mill's subjects do resemble the substantia and + elementum of the schoolmen and differ from the lines and magnitudes of + Euclid. We can reason a priori on mathematics, because we can define with + an exactitude which precludes all possibility of confusion. If a + mathematician were to admit the least laxity into his notions, if he were + to allow himself to be deluded by the vague sense which words bear in + popular use, or by the aspect of an ill-drawn diagram, if he were to + forget in his reasonings that a point was indivisible, or that the + definition of a line excluded breadth, there would be no end to his + blunders. The schoolmen tried to reason mathematically about things which + had not been, and perhaps could not be, defined with mathematical + accuracy. We know the result. Mr Mill has in our time attempted to do the + same. He talks of power, for example, as if the meaning of the word power + were as determinate as the meaning of the word circle. But, when we + analyse his speculations, we find that his notion of power is, in the + words of Bacon, "phantiastica et male terminata." + </p> + <p> + There are two senses in which we may use the word "power," and those words + which denote the various distributions of power, as, for example, + "monarchy":—the one sense popular and superficial, the other more + scientific and accurate. Mr Mill, since he chose to reason a priori, ought + to have clearly pointed out in which sense he intended to use words of + this kind, and to have adhered inflexibly to the sense on which he fixed. + Instead of doing this, he flies backwards and forwards from the one sense + to the other, and brings out conclusions at last which suit neither. + </p> + <p> + The state of those two communities to which he has himself referred—the + kingdom of Denmark and the empire of Rome—may serve to illustrate + our meaning. Looking merely at the surface of things, we should call + Denmark a despotic monarchy, and the Roman world, in the first century + after Christ, an aristocratical republic. Caligula was, in theory, nothing + more than a magistrate elected by the senate, and subject to the senate. + That irresponsible dignity which, in the most limited monarchies of our + time, is ascribed to the person of the sovereign never belonged to the + earlier Caesars. The sentence of death which the great council of the + commonwealth passed on Nero was strictly according to the theory of the + constitution. Yet, in fact, the power of the Roman emperors approached + nearer to absolute dominion than that of any prince in modern Europe. On + the other hand, the King of Denmark, in theory the most despotic of + princes, would in practice find it most perilous to indulge in cruelty and + licentiousness. Nor is there, we believe, at the present moment a single + sovereign in our part of the world who has so much real power over the + lives of his subjects as Robespierre, while he lodged at a chandler's and + dined at a restaurateur's, exercised over the lives of those whom he + called his fellow citizens. + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill and the Westminster Reviewer seem to agree that there cannot long + exist in any society a division of power between a monarch, an + aristocracy, and the people, or between any two of them. However the power + be distributed, one of the three parties will, according to them, + inevitably monopolise the whole. Now, what is here meant by power? If Mr + Mill speaks of the external semblance of power,—of power recognised + by the theory of the constitution,—he is palpably wrong. In England, + for example, we have had for ages the name and form of a mixed government, + if nothing more. Indeed, Mr Mill himself owns that there are appearances + which have given colour to the theory of the balance, though he maintains + that these appearances are delusive. But, if he uses the word power in a + deeper and philosophical sense, he is, if possible, still more in the + wrong than on the former supposition. For, if he had considered in what + the power of one human being over other human beings must ultimately + consist, he would have perceived, not only that there are mixed + governments in the world, but that all the governments in the world, and + all the governments which can even be conceived as existing in the world, + are virtually mixed. + </p> + <p> + If a king possessed the lamp of Aladdin,—if he governed by the help + of a genius who carried away the daughters and wives of his subjects + through the air to the royal Parc-aux-cerfs, and turned into stone every + man who wagged a finger against his majesty's government, there would + indeed be an unmixed despotism. But, fortunately, a ruler can be gratified + only by means of his subjects. His power depends on their obedience; and, + as any three or four of them are more than a match for him by himself, he + can only enforce the unwilling obedience of some by means of the willing + obedience of others. + </p> + <p> + Take any of those who are popularly called absolute princes—Napoleon + for example. Could Napoleon have walked through Paris, cutting off the + head of one person in every house which he passed? Certainly not without + the assistance of an army. If not, why not? Because the people had + sufficient physical power to resist him, and would have put forth that + power in defence of their lives and of the lives of their children. In + other words, there was a portion of power in the democracy under Napoleon. + Napoleon might probably have indulged himself in such an atrocious freak + of power if his army would have seconded him. But, if his army had taken + part with the people, he would have found himself utterly helpless; and, + even if they had obeyed his orders against the people, they would not have + suffered him to decimate their own body. In other words, there was a + portion of power in the hands of a minority of the people, that is to say, + in the hands of an aristocracy, under the reign of Napoleon. + </p> + <p> + To come nearer home,—Mr Mill tells us that it is a mistake to + imagine that the English government is mixed. He holds, we suppose, with + all the politicians of the Utilitarian school, that it is purely + aristocratical. There certainly is an aristocracy in England; and we are + afraid that their power is greater than it ought to be. They have power + enough to keep up the game-laws and corn-laws; but they have not power + enough to subject the bodies of men of the lowest class to wanton outrage + at their pleasure. Suppose that they were to make a law that any gentleman + of two thousand a-year might have a day-labourer or a pauper flogged with + a cat-of-nine-tails whenever the whim might take him. It is quite clear + that the first day on which such flagellation should be administered would + be the last day of the English aristocracy. In this point, and in many + other points which might be named, the commonalty in our island enjoy a + security quite as complete as if they exercised the right of universal + suffrage. We say, therefore, that the English people have in their own + hands a sufficient guarantee that in some points the aristocracy will + conform to their wishes;—in other words, they have a certain portion + of power over the aristocracy. Therefore the English government is mixed. + </p> + <p> + Wherever a king or an oligarchy refrains from the last extremity of + rapacity and tyranny through fear of the resistance of the people, there + the constitution, whatever it may be called, is in some measure + democratical. The admixture of democratic power may be slight. It may be + much slighter than it ought to be; but some admixture there is. Wherever a + numerical minority, by means of superior wealth or intelligence, of + political concert, or of military discipline, exercises a greater + influence on the society than any other equal number of persons,—there, + whatever the form of government may be called, a mixture of aristocracy + does in fact exist. And, wherever a single man, from whatever cause, is so + necessary to the community, or to any portion of it, that he possesses + more power than any other man, there is a mixture of monarchy. This is the + philosophical classification of governments: and if we use this + classification we shall find, not only that there are mixed governments, + but that all governments are, and must always be, mixed. But we may safely + challenge Mr Mill to give any definition of power, or to make any + classification of governments, which shall bear him out in his assertion + that a lasting division of authority is impracticable. + </p> + <p> + It is evidently on the real distribution of power, and not on names and + badges, that the happiness of nations must depend. The representative + system, though doubtless a great and precious discovery in politics, is + only one of the many modes in which the democratic part of the community + can efficiently check the governing few. That certain men have been chosen + as deputies of the people,—that there is a piece of paper stating + such deputies to possess certain powers,—these circumstances in + themselves constitute no security for good government. Such a constitution + nominally existed in France; while, in fact, an oligarchy of committees + and clubs trampled at once on the electors and the elected. Representation + is a very happy contrivance for enabling large bodies of men to exert + their power with less risk of disorder than there would otherwise be. But, + assuredly, it does not of itself give power. Unless a representative + assembly is sure of being supported in the last resort by the physical + strength of large masses who have spirit to defend the constitution and + sense to defend it in concert, the mob of the town in which it meets may + overawe it;—the howls of the listeners in its glory may silence its + deliberations;—an able and daring individual may dissolve it. And, + if that sense and that spirit of which we speak be diffused through a + society, then, even without a representative assembly, that society will + enjoy many of the blessings of good government. + </p> + <p> + Which is the better able to defend himself;—a strong man with + nothing but his fists, or a paralytic cripple encumbered with a sword + which he cannot lift? Such, we believe, is the difference between Denmark + and some new republics in which the constitutional forms of the United + States have been most sedulously imitated. + </p> + <p> + Look at the Long Parliament on the day on which Charles came to seize the + five members: and look at it again on the day when Cromwell stamped with + his foot on its floor. On which day was its apparent power the greater? On + which day was its real power the less? Nominally subject, it was able to + defy the sovereign. Nominally sovereign, it was turned out of doors by its + servant. + </p> + <p> + Constitutions are in politics what paper money is in commerce. They afford + great facilities and conveniences. But we must not attribute to them that + value which really belongs to what they represent. They are not power, but + symbols of power, and will, in an emergency, prove altogether useless + unless the power for which they stand be forthcoming. The real power by + which the community is governed is made up of all the means which all its + members possess of giving pleasure or pain to each other. + </p> + <p> + Great light may be thrown on the nature of a circulating medium by the + phenomena of a state of barter. And in the same manner it may be useful to + those who wish to comprehend the nature and operation of the outward signs + of power to look at communities in which no such signs exist; for example, + at the great community of nations. There we find nothing analogous to a + constitution; but do we not find a government? We do in fact find + government in its purest, and simplest, and most intelligible form. We see + one portion of power acting directly on another portion of power. We see a + certain police kept up; the weak to a certain degree protected; the strong + to a certain degree restrained. We see the principle of the balance in + constant operation. We see the whole system sometimes undisturbed by any + attempt at encroachment for twenty or thirty years at a time; and all this + is produced without a legislative assembly, or an executive magistracy—without + tribunals—without any code which deserves the name; solely by the + mutual hopes and fears of the various members of the federation. In the + community of nations, the first appeal is to physical force. In + communities of men, forms of government serve to put off that appeal, and + often render it unnecessary. But it is still open to the oppressed or the + ambitious. + </p> + <p> + Of course, we do not mean to deny that a form of government will, after it + has existed for a long time, materially affect the real distribution of + power throughout the community. This is because those who administer a + government, with their dependants, form a compact and disciplined body, + which, acting methodically and in concert, is more powerful than any other + equally numerous body which is inferior in organisation. The power of + rulers is not, as superficial observers sometimes seem to think, a thing + sui generis. It is exactly similar in kind, though generally superior in + amount, to that of any set of conspirators who plot to overthrow it. We + have seen in our time the most extensive and the best organised conspiracy + that ever existed—a conspiracy which possessed all the elements of + real power in so great a degree that it was able to cope with a strong + government, and to triumph over it—the Catholic Association. An + Utilitarian would tell us, we suppose, that the Irish Catholics had no + portion of political power whatever on the first day of the late Session + of Parliament. + </p> + <p> + Let us really go beyond the surface of facts: let us, in the sound sense + of the words, penetrate to the springs within; and the deeper we go the + more reason shall we find to smile at those theorists who hold that the + sole hope of the human race is in a rule-of-three sum and a ballot-box. + </p> + <p> + We must now return to the Westminster Reviewer. The following paragraph is + an excellent specimen of his peculiar mode of understanding and answering + arguments. + </p> + <p> + "The reply to the argument against 'saturation,' supplies its own answer. + The reason why it is of no use to try to 'saturate' is precisely what the + Edinburgh Reviewers have suggested,—'THAT THERE IS NO LIMIT TO THE + NUMBER OF THIEVES.' There are the thieves, and the thieves' cousins,—with + their men-servants, their maid-servants, and their little ones, to the + fortieth generation. It is true, that 'a man cannot become a king or a + member of the aristocracy whenever he chooses;' but if there is to be no + limit to the depredators except their own inclination to increase and + multiply, the situation of those who are to suffer is as wretched as it + needs be. It is impossible to define what ARE 'corporal pleasures.' A + Duchess of Cleveland was 'a corporal pleasure.' The most disgraceful + period in the history of any nation—that of the Restoration—presents + an instance of the length to which it is possible to go in an attempt to + 'saturate' with pleasures of this kind." + </p> + <p> + To reason with such a writer is like talking to a deaf man who catches at + a stray word, makes answer beside the mark, and is led further and further + into error by every attempt to explain. Yet, that our readers may fully + appreciate the abilities of the new philosophers, we shall take the + trouble to go over some of our ground again. + </p> + <p> + Mr Mill attempts to prove that there is no point of saturation with the + objects of human desire. He then takes it for granted that men have no + objects of desire but those which can be obtained only at the expense of + the happiness of others. Hence he infers that absolute monarchs and + aristocracies will necessarily oppress and pillage the people to a + frightful extent. + </p> + <p> + We answered in substance thus. There are two kinds of objects of desire; + those which give mere bodily pleasure, and those which please through the + medium of associations. Objects of the former class, it is true, a man + cannot obtain without depriving somebody else of a share. But then with + these every man is soon satisfied. A king or an aristocracy cannot spend + any very large portion of the national wealth on the mere pleasures of + sense. With the pleasures which belong to us as reasoning and imaginative + beings we are never satiated, it is true; but then, on the other hand, + many of those pleasures can be obtained without injury to any person, and + some of them can be obtained only by doing good to others. + </p> + <p> + The Westminster Reviewer, in his former attack on us, laughed at us for + saying that a king or an aristocracy could not be easily satiated with the + pleasures of sense, and asked why the same course was not tried with + thieves. We were not a little surprised at so silly an objection from the + pen, as we imagined, of Mr Bentham. We returned, however, a very simple + answer. There is no limit to the number of thieves. Any man who chooses + can steal: but a man cannot become a member of the aristocracy or a king + whenever he chooses. To satiate one thief, is to tempt twenty other people + to steal. But by satiating one king or five hundred nobles with bodily + pleasures we do not produce more kings or more nobles. The answer of the + Westminster Reviewer we have quoted above; and it will amply repay our + readers for the trouble of examining it. We never read any passage which + indicated notions so vague and confused. The number of the thieves, says + our Utilitarian, is not limited. For there are the dependants and friends + of the king and of the nobles. Is it possible that he should not perceive + that this comes under a different head? The bodily pleasures which a man + in power dispenses among his creatures are bodily pleasures as respects + his creatures, no doubt. But the pleasure which he derives from bestowing + them is not a bodily pleasure. It is one of those pleasures which belong + to him as a reasoning and imaginative being. No man of common + understanding can have failed to perceive that, when we said that a king + or an aristocracy might easily be supplied to satiety with sensual + pleasures, we were speaking of sensual pleasures directly enjoyed by + themselves. But "it is impossible," says the Reviewer, "to define what are + corporal pleasures." Our brother would indeed, we suspect, find it a + difficult task; nor, if we are to judge of his genius for classification + from the specimen which immediately follows, would we advise him to make + the attempt. "A Duchess of Cleveland was a corporal pleasure." And to this + wise remark is appended a note, setting forth that Charles the Second gave + to the Duchess of Cleveland the money which he ought to have spent on the + war with Holland. We scarcely know how to answer a man who unites so much + pretension to so much ignorance. There are, among the many Utilitarians + who talk about Hume, Condillac, and Hartley, a few who have read those + writers. Let the Reviewer ask one of these what he thinks on the subject. + We shall not undertake to whip a pupil of so little promise through his + first course of metaphysics. We shall, therefore, only say—leaving + him to guess and wonder what we can mean—that, in our opinion, the + Duchess of Cleveland was not a merely corporal pleasure,—that the + feeling which leads a prince to prefer one woman to all others, and to + lavish the wealth of kingdoms on her, is a feeling which can only be + explained by the law of association. + </p> + <p> + But we are tired, and even more ashamed than tired, of exposing these + blunders. The whole article is of a piece. One passage, however, we must + select, because it contains a very gross misrepresentation. + </p> + <p> + "'THEY NEVER ALLUDED TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVING + THAT THE POOR WERE INCLINED TO ROB THE RICH.' They only said, 'as soon as + the poor AGAIN began to compare their cottages and salads with the hotels + and banquets of the rich, there would have been another scramble for + property, another general confiscation,' etc." + </p> + <p> + We said that, IF MR MILL'S PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN NATURE WERE CORRECT, there + would have been another scramble for property, and another confiscation. + We particularly pointed this out in our last article. We showed the + Westminster Reviewer that he had misunderstood us. We dwelt particularly + on the condition which was introduced into our statement. We said that we + had not given, and did not mean to give, any opinion of our own. And, + after this, the Westminster Reviewer thinks proper to repeat his former + misrepresentation, without taking the least notice of that qualification + to which we, in the most marked manner, called his attention. + </p> + <p> + We hasten on to the most curious part of the article under our + consideration—the defence of the "greatest happiness principle." The + Reviewer charges us with having quite mistaken its nature. + </p> + <p> + "All that they have established is, that they do not understand it. + Instead of the truism of the Whigs, 'that the greatest happiness is the + greatest happiness,' what Mr Bentham had demonstrated, or at all events + had laid such foundations that there was no trouble in demonstrating, was, + that the greatest happiness of the individual was in the long run to be + obtained by pursuing the greatest happiness of the aggregate." + </p> + <p> + It was distinctly admitted by the Westminster Reviewer, as we remarked in + our last article, that he could give no answer to the question,—why + governments should attempt to produce the greatest possible happiness? The + Reviewer replies thus:— + </p> + <p> + "Nothing of the kind will be admitted at all. In the passage thus selected + to be tacked to the other, the question started was, concerning 'the + object of government;' in which government was spoken of as an operation, + not as anything that is capable of feeling pleasure or pain. In this sense + it is true enough, that OUGHT is not predicable of governments." + </p> + <p> + We will quote, once again, the passage which we quoted in our last Number; + and we really hope that our brother critic will feel something like shame + while he peruses it. + </p> + <p> + "The real answer appeared to be, that men at large OUGHT not to allow a + government to afflict them with more evil or less good, than they can + help. What a GOVERNMENT ought to do is a mysterious and searching question + which those may answer who know what it means; but what other men ought to + do is a question of no mystery at all. The word OUGHT, if it means + anything, must have reference to some kind of interest or motives; and + what interest a government has in doing right, when it happens to be + interested in doing wrong, is a question for the schoolmen. The fact + appears to be that OUGHT is not predicable of governments. The question is + not, why governments are bound not to do this or that, but why other men + should let them if they can help it. The point is not to determine why the + lion should not eat sheep, but why men should not eat their own mutton if + they can." + </p> + <p> + We defy the Westminster Reviewer to reconcile this passage with the + "general happiness principle" as he now states it. He tells us that he + meant by government, not the people invested with the powers of + government, but a mere OPERATION incapable of feeling pleasure or pain. We + say, that he meant the people invested with the powers of government, and + nothing else. It is true that OUGHT is not predicable of an operation. But + who would ever dream of raising any question about the DUTIES of an + operation? What did the Reviewer mean by saying, that a government could + not be interested in doing right because it was interested in doing wrong? + Can an operation be interested in either? And what did he mean by his + comparison about the lion? Is a lion an operation incapable of pain or + pleasure? And what did he mean by the expression, "other men," so + obviously opposed to the word "government?" But let the public judge + between us. It is superfluous to argue a point so clear. + </p> + <p> + The Reviewer does indeed seem to feel that his expressions cannot be + explained away, and attempts to shuffle out of the difficulty by owning, + that "the double meaning of the word government was not got clear of + without confusion." He has now, at all events, he assures us, made himself + master of Mr Bentham's philosophy. The real and genuine "greatest + happiness principle" is, that the greatest happiness of every individual + is identical with the greatest happiness of society; and all other + "greatest happiness principles" whatever are counterfeits. "This," says + he, "is the spirit of Mr Bentham's principle; and if there is anything + opposed to it in any former statement it may be corrected by the present." + </p> + <p> + Assuredly, if a fair and honourable opponent had, in discussing a question + so abstruse as that concerning the origin of moral obligation, made some + unguarded admission inconsistent with the spirit of his doctrines, we + should not be inclined to triumph over him. But no tenderness is due to a + writer who, in the very act of confessing his blunders, insults those by + whom his blunders have been detected, and accuses them of misunderstanding + what, in fact, he has himself mis-stated. + </p> + <p> + The whole of this transaction illustrates excellently the real character + of this sect. A paper comes forth, professing to contain a full + development of the "greatest happiness principle," with the latest + improvements of Mr Bentham. The writer boasts that his article has the + honour of being the announcement and the organ of this wonderful + discovery, which is to make "the bones of sages and patriots stir within + their tombs." + </p> + <p> + This "magnificent principle" is then stated thus: Mankind ought to pursue + their greatest happiness. But there are persons whose interest is opposed + to the greatest happiness of mankind. OUGHT is not predicable of such + persons. For the word OUGHT has no meaning unless it be used with + reference to some interest. + </p> + <p> + We answered, with much more lenity than we should have shown to such + nonsense, had it not proceeded, as we supposed, from Mr Bentham, that + interest was synonymous with greatest happiness; and that, therefore, if + the word OUGHT has no meaning, unless used with reference to interest, + then, to say that mankind ought to pursue their greatest happiness, is + simply to say, that the greatest happiness is the greatest happiness; that + every individual pursues his own happiness; that either what he thinks his + happiness must coincide with the greatest happiness of society or not; + that, if what he thinks his happiness coincides with the greatest + happiness of society, he will attempt to promote the greatest happiness of + society whether he ever heard of the "greatest happiness principle" or + not; and that, by the admission of the Westminster Reviewer, if his + happiness is inconsistent with the greatest happiness of society, there is + no reason why he should promote the greatest happiness of society. Now, + that there are individuals who think that for their happiness which is not + for the greatest happiness of society is evident. The Westminster Reviewer + allowed that some of these individuals were in the right; and did not + pretend to give any reason which could induce any one of them to think + himself in the wrong. So that the "magnificent principle" turned out to + be, either a truism or a contradiction in terms; either this maxim—"Do + what you do;" or this maxim, "Do what you cannot do." + </p> + <p> + The Westminster Reviewer had the wit to see that he could not defend this + palpable nonsense; but, instead of manfully owning that he had + misunderstood the whole nature of the "greatest happiness principle" in + the summer, and had obtained new light during the autumn, he attempts to + withdraw the former principle unobserved, and to substitute another, + directly opposed to it, in its place; clamouring all the time against our + unfairness, like one who, while changing the cards, diverts the attention + of the table from his sleight of hand by vociferating charges of foul play + against other people. + </p> + <p> + The "greatest happiness principle" for the present quarter is then this,—that + every individual will best promote his own happiness in this world, + religious considerations being left out of the question, by promoting the + greatest happiness of the whole species. And this principle, we are told, + holds good with respect to kings and aristocracies as well as with other + people. + </p> + <p> + "It is certain that the individual operators in any government, if they + were thoroughly intelligent and entered into a perfect calculation of all + existing chances, would seek for their own happiness in the promotion of + the general; which brings them, if they knew it, under Mr Bentham's rule. + The mistake of supposing the contrary, lies in confounding criminals who + have had the luck to escape punishment with those who have the risk still + before them. Suppose, for instance, a member of the House of Commons were + at this moment to debate within himself, whether it would be for his + ultimate happiness to begin, according to his ability, to misgovern. If he + could be sure of being as lucky as some that are dead and gone, there + might be difficulty in finding him an answer. But he is NOT sure; and + never can be, till he is dead. He does not know that he is not close upon + the moment when misgovernment such as he is tempted to contemplate, will + be made a terrible example of. It is not fair to pick out the instance of + the thief that has died unhanged. The question is, whether thieving is at + this moment an advisable trade to begin with all the possibilities of + hanging not got over? This is the spirit of Mr Bentham's principle; and if + there is anything opposed to it in any former statement, it may be + corrected by the present." + </p> + <p> + We hope that we have now at last got to the real "magnificent principle,"—to + the principle which is really to make "the bones of the sages and patriots + stir." What effect it may produce on the bones of the dead we shall not + pretend to decide; but we are sure that it will do very little for the + happiness of the living. + </p> + <p> + In the first place, nothing is more certain than this, that the + Utilitarian theory of government, as developed in Mr Mill's Essay and in + all the other works on the subject which have been put forth by the sect, + rests on those two principles,—that men follow their interest, and + that the interest of individuals may be, and in fact perpetually is, + opposed to the interest of society. Unless these two principles be + granted, Mr Mill's Essay does not contain one sound sentence. All his + arguments against monarchy and aristocracy, all his arguments in favour of + democracy, nay, the very argument by which he shows that there is any + necessity for having government at all, must be rejected as utterly + worthless. + </p> + <p> + This is so palpable that even the Westminster Reviewer, though not the + most clear-sighted of men, could not help seeing it. Accordingly, he + attempts to guard himself against the objection, after the manner of such + reasoners, by committing two blunders instead of one. "All this," says he, + "only shows that the members of a government would do well if they were + all-wise," and he proceeds to tell us that, as rulers are not all-wise, + they will invariably act against this principle wherever they can, so that + the democratical checks will still be necessary to produce good + government. + </p> + <p> + No form which human folly takes is so richly and exquisitely laughable as + the spectacle of an Utilitarian in a dilemma. What earthly good can there + be in a principle upon which no man will act until he is all-wise? A + certain most important doctrine, we are told, has been demonstrated so + clearly that it ought to be the foundation of the science of government. + And yet the whole frame of government is to be constituted exactly as if + this fundamental doctrine were false, and on the supposition that no human + being will ever act as if he believed it to be true! + </p> + <p> + The whole argument of the Utilitarians in favour of universal suffrage + proceeds on the supposition that even the rudest and most uneducated men + cannot, for any length of time, be deluded into acting against their own + true interest. Yet now they tell us that, in all aristocratical + communities, the higher and more educated class will, not occasionally, + but invariably, act against its own interest. Now, the only use of proving + anything, as far as we can see, is that people may believe it. To say that + a man does what he believes to be against his happiness is a contradiction + in terms. If, therefore, government and laws are to be constituted on the + supposition on which Mr Mill's Essay is founded, that all individuals + will, whenever they have power over others put into their hands, act in + opposition to the general happiness, then government and laws must be + constituted on the supposition that no individual believes, or ever will + believe, his own happiness to be identical with the happiness of society. + That is to say, government and laws are to be constituted on the + supposition that no human being will ever be satisfied by Mr Bentham's + proof of his "greatest happiness principle,"—a supposition which may + be true enough, but which says little, we think, for the principle in + question. + </p> + <p> + But where has this principle been demonstrated? We are curious, we + confess, to see this demonstration which is to change the face of the + world and yet is to convince nobody. The most amusing circumstance is that + the Westminster Reviewer himself does not seem to know whether the + principle has been demonstrated or not. "Mr Bentham," he says, "has + demonstrated it, or at all events has laid such foundations that there is + no trouble in demonstrating it." Surely it is rather strange that such a + matter should be left in doubt. The Reviewer proposed, in his former + article, a slight verbal emendation in the statement of the principle; he + then announced that the principle had received its last improvement; and + gloried in the circumstance that the Westminster Review had been selected + as the organ of that improvement. Did it never occur to him that one + slight improvement to a doctrine is to prove it? + </p> + <p> + Mr Bentham has not demonstrated the "greatest happiness principle," as now + stated. He is far too wise a man to think of demonstrating any such thing. + In those sections of his "Introduction to the Principles of Morals and + Legislation", to which the Reviewer refers us in his note, there is not a + word of the kind. Mr Bentham says, most truly, that there are no occasions + in which a man has not SOME motives for consulting the happiness of other + men; and he proceeds to set forth what those motives are—sympathy on + all occasions, and the love of reputation on most occasions. This is the + very doctrine which we have been maintaining against Mr Mill and the + Westminster Reviewer. The principal charge which we brought against Mr + Mill was, that those motives to which Mr Bentham ascribes so much + influence were quite left out of consideration in his theory. The + Westminster Reviewer, in the very article now before us, abuses us for + saying, in the spirit, and almost in the words of Mr Bentham, that "there + is a certain check to the rapacity and cruelty of men in their desire of + the good opinion of others." But does this principle, in which we fully + agree with Mr Bentham, go the length of the new "greatest happiness + principle?" The question is, not whether men have SOME motives for + promoting the greatest happiness, but whether the STRONGER motives be + those which impel them to promote the greatest happiness. That this would + always be the case if men knew their own worldly interests is the + assertion of the Reviewer. As he expresses some doubt whether Mr Bentham + has demonstrated this or not, we would advise him to set the point at rest + by giving his own demonstration. + </p> + <p> + The Reviewer has not attempted to give a general confirmation of the + "greatest happiness principle;" but he has tried to prove that it holds + good in one or two particular cases. And even in those particular cases he + has utterly failed. A man, says he, who calculated the chances fairly + would perceive that it would be for his greatest happiness to abstain from + stealing; for a thief runs a greater risk of being hanged than an honest + man. + </p> + <p> + It would have been wise, we think, in the Westminster Reviewer, before he + entered on a discussion of this sort, to settle in what human happiness + consists. Each of the ancient sects of philosophy held some tenet on this + subject which served for a distinguishing badge. The summum bonum of the + Utilitarians, as far as we can judge from the passage which we are now + considering, is the not being hanged. + </p> + <p> + That it is an unpleasant thing to be hanged, we most willingly concede to + our brother. But that the whole question of happiness or misery resolves + itself into this single point, we cannot so easily admit. We must look at + the thing purchased as well as the price paid for it. A thief, assuredly, + runs a greater risk of being hanged than a labourer; and so an officer in + the army runs a greater risk of being shot than a banker's clerk; and a + governor of India runs a greater risk of dying of cholera than a lord of + the bedchamber. But does it therefore follow that every man, whatever his + habits or feelings may be, would, if he knew his own happiness, become a + clerk rather than a cornet, or goldstick in waiting rather than governor + of India? + </p> + <p> + Nothing can be more absurd than to suppose, like the Westminster Reviewer, + that thieves steal only because they do not calculate the chances of being + hanged as correctly as honest men. It never seems to have occurred to him + as possible that a man may so greatly prefer the life of a thief to the + life of a labourer that he may determine to brave the risk of detection + and punishment, though he may even think that risk greater than it really + is. And how, on Utilitarian principles, is such a man to be convinced that + he is in the wrong? "You will be found out."—"Undoubtedly."—"You + will be hanged within two years."—"I expect to be hanged within one + year."—"Then why do you pursue this lawless mode of life?"—"Because + I would rather live for one year with plenty of money, dressed like a + gentleman, eating and drinking of the best, frequenting public places, and + visiting a dashing mistress, than break stones on the road, or sit down to + the loom, with the certainty of attaining a good old age. It is my humour. + Are you answered?" + </p> + <p> + A king, says the Reviewer again, would govern well, if he were wise, for + fear of provoking his subjects to insurrection. Therefore the true + happiness of a king is identical with the greatest happiness of society. + Tell Charles II. that, if he will be constant to his queen, sober at + table, regular at prayers, frugal in his expenses, active in the + transaction of business, if he will drive the herd of slaves, buffoons, + and procurers from Whitehall, and make the happiness of his people the + rule of his conduct, he will have a much greater chance of reigning in + comfort to an advanced age; that his profusion and tyranny have + exasperated his subjects, and may, perhaps, bring him to an end as + terrible as his father's. He might answer, that he saw the danger, but + that life was not worth having without ease and vicious pleasures. And + what has our philosopher to say? Does he not see that it is no more + possible to reason a man out of liking a short life and a merry one more + than a long life and a dull one than to reason a Greenlander out of his + train oil? We may say that the tastes of the thief and the tyrant differ + from ours; but what right have we to say, looking at this world alone, + that they do not pursue their greatest happiness very judiciously? + </p> + <p> + It is the grossest ignorance of human nature to suppose that another man + calculates the chances differently from us, merely because he does what, + in his place, we should not do. Every man has tastes and propensities, + which he is disposed to gratify at a risk and expense which people of + different temperaments and habits think extravagant. "Why," says Horace, + "does one brother like to lounge in the forum, to play in the Campus, and + to anoint himself in the baths, so well, that he would not put himself out + of his way for all the wealth of the richest plantations of the East; + while the other toils from sunrise to sunset for the purpose of increasing + his fortune?" Horace attributes the diversity to the influence of the + Genius and the natal star: and eighteen hundred years have taught us only + to disguise our ignorance beneath a more philosophical language. + </p> + <p> + We think, therefore, that the Westminster Reviewer, even if we admit his + calculation of the chances to be right, does not make out his case. But he + appears to us to miscalculate chances more grossly than any person who + ever acted or speculated in this world. "It is for the happiness," says + he, "of a member of the House of Commons to govern well; for he never can + tell that he is not close on the moment when misgovernment will be + terribly punished: if he was sure that he should be as lucky as his + predecessors, it might be for his happiness to misgovern; but he is not + sure." Certainly a member of Parliament is not sure that he shall not be + torn in pieces by a mob, or guillotined by a revolutionary tribunal for + his opposition to reform. Nor is the Westminster Reviewer sure that he + shall not be hanged for writing in favour of universal suffrage. We may + have democratical massacres. We may also have aristocratical + proscriptions. It is not very likely, thank God, that we should see + either. But the radical, we think, runs as much danger as the aristocrat. + As to our friend the Westminster Reviewer, he, it must be owned, has as + good a right as any man on his side, "Antoni gladios contemnere." But take + the man whose votes, ever since he has sate in Parliament, have been the + most uniformly bad, and oppose him to the man whose votes have been the + most uniformly good. The Westminster Reviewer would probably select Mr + Sadler and Mr Hume. Now, does any rational man think,—will the + Westminster Reviewer himself say,—that Mr Sadler runs more risk of + coming to a miserable end on account of his public conduct than Mr Hume? + Mr Sadler does not know that he is not close on the moment when he will be + made an example of; for Mr Sadler knows, if possible, less about the + future than about the past. But he has no more reason to expect that he + shall be made an example of than to expect that London will be swallowed + up by an earthquake next spring; and it would be as foolish in him to act + on the former supposition as on the latter. There is a risk; for there is + a risk of everything which does not involve a contradiction; but it is a + risk from which no man in his wits would give a shilling to be insured. + Yet our Westminster Reviewer tells us that this risk alone, apart from all + considerations of religion, honour or benevolence, would, as a matter of + mere calculation, induce a wise member of the House of Commons to refuse + any emoluments which might be offered him as the price of his support to + pernicious measures. + </p> + <p> + We have hitherto been examining cases proposed by our opponent. It is now + our turn to propose one; and we beg that he will spare no wisdom in + solving it. + </p> + <p> + A thief is condemned to be hanged. On the eve of the day fixed for the + execution a turnkey enters his cell and tells him that all is safe, that + he has only to slip out, that his friends are waiting in the neighbourhood + with disguises, and that a passage is taken for him in an American packet. + Now, it is clearly for the greatest happiness of society that the thief + should be hanged and the corrupt turnkey exposed and punished. Will the + Westminster Reviewer tell us that it is for the greatest happiness of the + thief to summon the head jailer and tell the whole story? Now, either it + is for the greatest happiness of a thief to be hanged or it is not. If it + is, then the argument, by which the Westminster Reviewer attempts to prove + that men do not promote their own happiness by thieving, falls to the + ground. If it is not, then there are men whose greatest happiness is at + variance with the greatest happiness of the community. + </p> + <p> + To sum up our arguments shortly, we say that the "greatest happiness + principle," as now stated, is diametrically opposed to the principle + stated in the Westminster Review three months ago. + </p> + <p> + We say that, if the "greatest happiness principle," as now stated, be + sound, Mr Mill's Essay, and all other works concerning Government which, + like that Essay, proceed on the supposition that individuals may have an + interest opposed to the greatest happiness of society, are fundamentally + erroneous. + </p> + <p> + We say that those who hold this principle to be sound must be prepared to + maintain, either that monarchs and aristocracies may be trusted to govern + the community, or else that men cannot be trusted to follow their own + interest when that interest is demonstrated to them. + </p> + <p> + We say that, if men cannot be trusted to follow their own interest when + that interest has been demonstrated to them, then the Utilitarian + arguments in favour of universal suffrage are good for nothing. + </p> + <p> + We say that the "greatest happiness principle" has not been proved; that + it cannot be generally proved; that even in the particular cases selected + by the Reviewer it is not clear that the principle is true; and that many + cases might be stated in which the common sense of mankind would at once + pronounce it to be false. + </p> + <p> + We now leave the Westminster Reviewer to alter and amend his "magnificent + principle" as he thinks best. Unlimited, it is false. Properly limited, it + will be barren. The "greatest happiness principle" of the 1st of July, as + far as we could discern its meaning through a cloud of rodomontade, was an + idle truism. The "greatest happiness principle" of the 1st of October is, + in the phrase of the American newspapers, "important if true." But + unhappily it is not true. It is not our business to conjecture what new + maxim is to make the bones of sages and patriots stir on the 1st of + December. We can only say that, unless it be something infinitely more + ingenious than its two predecessors, we shall leave it unmolested. The + Westminster Reviewer may, if he pleases, indulge himself like Sultan + Schahriar with espousing a rapid succession of virgin theories. But we + must beg to be excused from playing the part of the vizier who regularly + attended on the day after the wedding to strangle the new Sultana. + </p> + <p> + The Westminster Reviewer charges us with urging it as an objection to the + "greatest happiness principle" that "it is included in the Christian + morality." This is a mere fiction of his own. We never attacked the + morality of the Gospel. We blamed the Utilitarians for claiming the credit + of a discovery, when they had merely stolen that morality, and spoiled it + in the stealing. They have taken the precept of Christ and left the + motive; and they demand the praise of a most wonderful and beneficial + invention, when all that they have done has been to make a most useful + maxim useless by separating it from its sanction. On religious principles + it is true that every individual will best promote his own happiness by + promoting the happiness of others. But if religious considerations be left + out of the question it is not true. If we do not reason on the supposition + of a future state, where is the motive? If we do reason on that + supposition, where is the discovery? + </p> + <p> + The Westminster Reviewer tells us that "we wish to see the science of + Government unsettled because we see no prospect of a settlement which + accords with our interests." His angry eagerness to have questions settled + resembles that of a judge in one of Dryden's plays—the Amphitryon, + we think—who wishes to decide a cause after hearing only one party, + and, when he has been at last compelled to listen to the statement of the + defendant, flies into a passion, and exclaims, "There now, sir! See what + you have done. The case was quite clear a minute ago; and you must come + and puzzle it!" He is the zealot of a sect. We are searchers after truth. + He wishes to have the question settled. We wish to have it sifted first. + The querulous manner in which we have been blamed for attacking Mr Mill's + system, and propounding no system of our own, reminds us of the horror + with which that shallow dogmatist, Epicurus, the worst parts of whose + nonsense the Utilitarians have attempted to revive, shrank from the keen + and searching scepticism of the second Academy. + </p> + <p> + It is not our fault that an experimental science of vast extent does not + admit of being settled by a short demonstration; that the subtilty of + nature, in the moral as in the physical world, triumphs over the subtilty + of syllogism. The quack, who declares on affidavit that, by using his + pills and attending to his printed directions, hundreds who had been + dismissed incurable from the hospitals have renewed their youth like the + eagles, may, perhaps, think that Sir Henry Halford, when he feels the + pulses of patients, inquires about their symptoms, and prescribes a + different remedy to each, is unsettling the science of medicine for the + sake of a fee. + </p> + <p> + If, in the course of this controversy, we have refrained from expressing + any opinion respecting the political institutions of England, it is not + because we have not an opinion, or because we shrink from avowing it. The + Utilitarians, indeed, conscious that their boasted theory of government + would not bear investigation, were desirous to turn the dispute about Mr + Mill's Essay into a dispute about the Whig party, rotten boroughs, unpaid + magistrates, and ex-officio informations. When we blamed them for talking + nonsense, they cried out that they were insulted for being reformers,—just + as poor Ancient Pistol swore that the scars which he had received from the + cudgel of Fluellen were got in the Gallia wars. We, however, did not think + it desirable to mix up political questions, about which the public mind is + violently agitated, with a great problem in moral philosophy. + </p> + <p> + Our notions about Government are not, however, altogether unsettled. We + have an opinion about parliamentary reform, though we have not arrived at + that opinion by the royal road which Mr Mill has opened for the explorers + of political science. As we are taking leave, probably for the last time, + of this controversy, we will state very concisely what our doctrines are. + On some future occasion we may, perhaps, explain and defend them at + length. + </p> + <p> + Our fervent wish, and we will add our sanguine hope, is that we may see + such a reform of the House of Commons as may render its votes the express + image of the opinion of the middle orders of Britain. A pecuniary + qualification we think absolutely necessary; and in settling its amount, + our object would be to draw the line in such a manner that every decent + farmer and shopkeeper might possess the elective franchise. We should wish + to see an end put to all the advantages which particular forms of property + possess over other forms, and particular portions of property over other + equal portions. And this would content us. Such a reform would, according + to Mr Mill, establish an aristocracy of wealth, and leave the community + without protection and exposed to all the evils of unbridled power. Most + willingly would we stake the whole controversy between us on the success + of the experiment which we propose. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SADLER'S LAW OF POPULATION. (July 1830.) + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The Law of Population; a Treatise in Six Books, in Disproof + of the Superfecundity of Human Beings, and developing the + real Principle of their Increase". By Michael Thomas + Sadler, M.P. 2 volumes 8vo. London: 1830. +</pre> + <p> + We did not expect a good book from Mr Sadler: and it is well that we did + not; for he has given us a very bad one. The matter of his treatise is + extraordinary; the manner more extraordinary still. His arrangement is + confused, his repetitions endless, his style everything which it ought not + to be. Instead of saying what he has to say with the perspicuity, the + precision, and the simplicity in which consists the eloquence proper to + scientific writing, he indulges without measure in vague, bombastic + declamation, made up of those fine things which boys of fifteen admire, + and which everybody, who is not destined to be a boy all his life, weeds + vigorously out of his compositions after five-and-twenty. That portion of + his two thick volumes which is not made up of statistical tables, consists + principally of ejaculations, apostrophes, metaphors, similes,—all + the worst of their respective kinds. His thoughts are dressed up in this + shabby finery with so much profusion and so little discrimination, that + they remind us of a company of wretched strolling players, who have + huddled on suits of ragged and faded tinsel, taken from a common wardrobe, + and fitting neither their persons nor their parts; and who then exhibit + themselves to the laughing and pitying spectators, in a state of + strutting, ranting, painted, gilded beggary. "Oh, rare Daniels!" + "Political economist, go and do thou likewise!" "Hear, ye political + economists and anti-populationists!" "Population, if not proscribed and + worried down by the Cerberean dogs of this wretched and cruel system, + really does press against the level of the means of subsistence, and still + elevating that level, it continues thus to urge society through advancing + stages, till at length the strong and resistless hand of necessity presses + the secret spring of human prosperity, and the portals of Providence fly + open, and disclose to the enraptured gaze the promised land of contented + and rewarded labour." These are specimens, taken at random, of Mr Sadler's + eloquence. We could easily multiply them; but our readers, we fear, are + already inclined to cry for mercy. + </p> + <p> + Much blank verse and much rhyme is also scattered through these volumes, + sometimes rightly quoted, sometimes wrongly,—sometimes good, + sometimes insufferable,—sometimes taken from Shakspeare, and + sometimes, for aught we know, Mr Sadler's own. "Let man," cries the + philosopher, "take heed how he rashly violates his trust;" and thereupon + he breaks forth into singing as follows: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "What myriads wait in destiny's dark womb, + Doubtful of life or an eternal tomb! + 'Tis his to blot them from the book of fate, + Or, like a second Deity, create; + To dry the stream of being in its source, + Or bid it, widening, win its restless course; + While, earth and heaven replenishing, the flood + Rolls to its Ocean fount, and rests in God." +</pre> + <p> + If these lines are not Mr Sadler's, we heartily beg his pardon for our + suspicion—a suspicion which, we acknowledge, ought not to be lightly + entertained of any human being. We can only say that we never met with + them before, and that we do not much care how long it may be before we + meet with them, or with any others like them, again. + </p> + <p> + The spirit of this work is as bad as its style. We never met with a book + which so strongly indicated that the writer was in a good humour with + himself, and in a bad humour with everybody else; which contained so much + of that kind of reproach which is vulgarly said to be no slander, and of + that kind of praise which is vulgarly said to be no commendation. Mr + Malthus is attacked in language which it would be scarcely decent to + employ respecting Titus Oates. "Atrocious," "execrable," "blasphemous," + and other epithets of the same kind, are poured forth against that able, + excellent, and honourable man, with a profusion which in the early part of + the work excites indignation, but after the first hundred pages, produces + mere weariness and nausea. In the preface, Mr Sadler excuses himself on + the plea of haste. Two-thirds of his book, he tells us, were written in a + few months. If any terms have escaped him which can be construed into + personal disrespect, he shall deeply regret that he had not more time to + revise them. We must inform him that the tone of his book required a very + different apology; and that a quarter of a year, though it is a short time + for a man to be engaged in writing a book, is a very long time for a man + to be in a passion. + </p> + <p> + The imputation of being in a passion Mr Sadler will not disclaim. His is a + theme, he tells us, on which "it were impious to be calm;" and he boasts + that, "instead of conforming to the candour of the present age, he has + imitated the honesty of preceding ones, in expressing himself with the + utmost plainness and freedom throughout." If Mr Sadler really wishes that + the controversy about his new principle of population should be carried on + with all the license of the seventeenth century, we can have no personal + objections. We are quite as little afraid of a contest in which quarter + shall be neither given nor taken as he can be. But we would advise him + seriously to consider, before he publishes the promised continuation of + his work, whether he be not one of that class of writers who stand + peculiarly in need of the candour which he insults, and who would have + most to fear from that unsparing severity which he practises and + recommends. + </p> + <p> + There is only one excuse for the extreme acrimony with which this book is + written; and that excuse is but a bad one. Mr Sadler imagines that the + theory of Mr Malthus is inconsistent with Christianity, and even with the + purer forms of Deism. Now, even had this been the case, a greater degree + of mildness and self-command than Mr Sadler has shown would have been + becoming in a writer who had undertaken to defend the religion of charity. + But, in fact, the imputation which has been thrown on Mr Malthus and his + followers is so absurd as scarcely to deserve an answer. As it appears, + however, in almost every page of Mr Sadler's book, we will say a few words + respecting it. + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler describes Mr Malthus's principle in the following words:— + </p> + <p> + "It pronounces that there exists an evil in the principle of population; + an evil, not accidental, but inherent; not of occasional occurrence, but + in perpetual operation; not light, transient, or mitigated, but productive + of miseries, compared with which all those inflicted by human + institutions, that is to say, by the weakness and wickedness of man, + however instigated, are 'light;' an evil, finally, for which there is no + remedy save one, which had been long overlooked, and which is now + enunciated in terms which evince anything rather than confidence. It is a + principle, moreover, pre-eminently bold, as well as 'clear.' With a + presumption, to call it by no fitter name, of which it may be doubted + whether literature, heathen or Christian, furnishes a parallel, it + professes to trace this supposed evil to its source, 'the laws of nature, + which are those of God;' thereby implying, and indeed asserting, that the + law by which the Deity multiplies his offspring, and that by which he + makes provision for their sustentation, are different, and, indeed, + irreconcilable." + </p> + <p> + "This theory," he adds, "in the plain apprehension of the many, lowers the + character of the Deity in that attribute, which, as Rousseau has well + observed, is the most essential to him, his goodness; or otherwise, + impugns his wisdom." + </p> + <p> + Now nothing is more certain than that there is physical and moral evil in + the world. Whoever, therefore, believes, as we do most firmly believe, in + the goodness of God, must believe that there is no incompatibility between + the goodness of God and the existence of physical and moral evil. If, + then, the goodness of God be not incompatible with the existence of + physical and moral evil, on what grounds does Mr Sadler maintain that the + goodness of God is incompatible with the law of population laid down by Mr + Malthus? + </p> + <p> + Is there any difference between the particular form of evil which would be + produced by over-population, and other forms of evil which we know to + exist in the world? It is, says Mr Sadler, not a light or transient evil, + but a great and permanent evil. What then? The question of the origin of + evil is a question of ay or no,—not a question of more or less. If + any explanation can be found by which the slightest inconvenience ever + sustained by any sentient being can be reconciled with the divine + attribute of benevolence, that explanation will equally apply to the most + dreadful and extensive calamities that can ever afflict the human race. + The difficulty arises from an apparent contradiction in terms; and that + difficulty is as complete in the case of a headache which lasts for an + hour as in the case of a pestilence which unpeoples an empire,—in + the case of the gust which makes us shiver for a moment as in the case of + the hurricane in which an Armada is cast away. + </p> + <p> + It is, according to Mr Sadler, an instance of presumption unparalleled in + literature, heathen or Christian, to trace an evil to "the laws of nature, + which are those of God," as its source. Is not hydrophobia an evil? And is + it not a law of nature that hydrophobia should be communicated by the bite + of a mad dog? Is not malaria an evil? And is it not a law of nature that + in particular situations the human frame should be liable to malaria? We + know that there is evil in the world. If it is not to be traced to the + laws of nature, how did it come into the world? Is it supernatural? And, + if we suppose it to be supernatural, is not the difficulty of reconciling + it with the divine attributes as great as if we suppose it to be natural? + Or, rather, what do the words natural and supernatural mean when applied + to the operations of the Supreme Mind? + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler has attempted, in another part of his work, to meet these + obvious arguments, by a distinction without a difference. + </p> + <p> + "The scourges of human existence, as necessary regulators of the numbers + of mankind, it is also agreed by some, are not inconsistent with the + wisdom or benevolence of the Governor of the universe; though such think + that it is a mere after-concern to 'reconcile the undeniable state of the + fact to the attributes we assign to the Deity.' 'The purpose of the + earthquake,' say they, 'the hurricane, the drought, or the famine, by + which thousands, and sometimes almost millions, of the human race, are at + once overwhelmed, or left the victims of lingering want, is certainly + inscrutable.' How singular is it that a sophism like this, so false, as a + mere illustration, should pass for an argument, as it has long done! The + principle of population is declared to be naturally productive of evils to + mankind, and as having that constant and manifest tendency to increase + their numbers beyond the means of their subsistence, which has produced + the unhappy and disgusting consequences so often enumerated. This is, + then, its universal tendency or rule. But is there in Nature the same + constant tendency to these earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts, and famines + by which so many myriads, if not millions, are overwhelmed or reduced at + once to ruin? No; these awful events are strange exceptions to the + ordinary course of things; their visitations are partial, and they occur + at distant intervals of time. While Religion has assigned to them a very + solemn office, Philosophy readily refers them to those great and + benevolent principles of Nature by which the universe is regulated. But + were there a constantly operating tendency to these calamitous + occurrences; did we feel the earth beneath us tremulous, and giving + ceaseless and certain tokens of the coming catastrophe of Nature; were the + hurricane heard mustering its devastating powers, and perpetually + muttering around us; were the skies 'like brass,' without a cloud to + produce one genial drop to refresh the thirsty earth, and famine, + consequently, visibly on the approach; I say, would such a state of + things, as resulting from the constant laws of Nature, be 'reconcilable + with the attributes we assign to the Deity,' or with any attributes which + in these inventive days could be assigned to him, so as to represent him + as anything but the tormenter, rather than the kind benefactor, of his + creatures? Life, in such a condition, would be like the unceasingly + threatened and miserable existence of Damocles at the table of Dionysius, + and the tyrant himself the worthy image of the Deity of the + anti-populationists." + </p> + <p> + Surely this is wretched trifling. Is it on the number of bad harvests, or + of volcanic eruptions, that this great question depends? Mr Sadler's + piety, it seems, would be proof against one rainy summer, but would be + overcome by three or four in succession. On the coasts of the + Mediterranean, where earthquakes are rare, he would be an optimist. South + America would make him a sceptic, and Java a decided Manichean. To say + that religion assigns a solemn office to these visitations is nothing to + the purpose. Why was man so constituted as to need such warnings? It is + equally unmeaning to say that philosophy refers these events to benevolent + general laws of nature. In so far as the laws of nature produce evil, they + are clearly not benevolent. They may produce much good. But why is this + good mixed with evil? The most subtle and powerful intellects have been + labouring for centuries to solve these difficulties. The true solution, we + are inclined to think, is that which has been rather suggested, than + developed, by Paley and Butler. But there is not one solution which will + not apply quite as well to the evils of over-population as to any other + evil. Many excellent people think that it is presumptuous to meddle with + such high questions at all, and that, though there doubtless is an + explanation, our faculties are not sufficiently enlarged to comprehend + that explanation. This mode of getting rid of the difficulty, again, will + apply quite as well to the evils of over-population as to any other evils. + We are sure that those who humbly confess their inability to expound the + great enigma act more rationally and more decorously than Mr Sadler, who + tells us, with the utmost confidence, which are the means and which the + ends,—which the exceptions and which the rules, in the government of + the universe;—who consents to bear a little evil without denying the + divine benevolence, but distinctly announces that a certain quantity of + dry weather or stormy weather would force him to regard the Deity as the + tyrant of his creatures. + </p> + <p> + The great discovery by which Mr Sadler has, as he conceives, vindicated + the ways of Providence is enounced with all the pomp of capital letters. + We must particularly beg that our readers will peruse it with attention. + </p> + <p> + "No one fact relative to the human species is more clearly ascertained, + whether by general observation or actual proof, than that their fecundity + varies in different communities and countries. The principle which effects + this variation, without the necessity of those cruel and unnatural + expedients so frequently adverted to, constitutes what I presume to call + THE LAW OF POPULATION; and that law may be thus briefly enunciated:— + </p> + <p> + "THE PROLIFICNESS OF HUMAN BEINGS, OTHERWISE SIMILARLY CIRCUMSTANCED, + VARIES INVERSELY AS THEIR NUMBERS. + </p> + <p> + "The preceding definition may be thus amplified and explained. Premising, + as a mere truism, that marriages under precisely similar circumstances + will, on the average, be equally fruitful everywhere, I proceed to state, + first, that the prolificness of a given number of marriages will, all + other circumstances being the same, vary in proportion to the condensation + of the population, so that that prolificness shall be greatest where the + numbers on an equal space are the fewest, and, on the contrary, the + smallest where those numbers are the largest." + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler, at setting out, abuses Mr Malthus for enouncing his theory in + terms taken from the exact sciences. "Applied to the mensuration of human + fecundity," he tells us, "the most fallacious of all things is geometrical + demonstration;" and he again informs us that those "act an irrational and + irrelevant part who affect to measure the mighty depth of God's mercies by + their arithmetic, and to demonstrate, by their geometrical ratios, that it + is inadequate to receive and contain the efflux of that fountain of life + which is in Him." + </p> + <p> + It appears, however, that it is not to the use of mathematical words, but + only to the use of those words in their right senses that Mr Sadler + objects. The law of inverse variation, or inverse proportion, is as much a + part of mathematical science as the law of geometric progression. The only + difference in this respect between Mr Malthus and Mr Sadler is, that Mr + Malthus knows what is meant by geometric progression, and that Mr Sadler + has not the faintest notion of what is meant by inverse variation. Had he + understood the proposition which he has enounced with so much pomp, its + ludicrous absurdity must at once have flashed on his mind. + </p> + <p> + Let it be supposed that there is a tract in the back settlements of + America, or in New South Wales, equal in size to London, with only a + single couple, a man and his wife, living upon it. The population of + London, with its immediate suburbs, is now probably about a million and a + half. The average fecundity of a marriage in London is, as Mr Sadler tells + us 2.35. How many children will the woman in the back settlements bear + according to Mr Sadler's theory? The solution of the problem is easy. As + the population in this tract in the back settlements is to the population + of London, so will be the number of children born from a marriage in + London to the number of children born from the marriage of this couple in + the back settlements. That is to say— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 2 : 1,500,000 :: 2.35 : 1,762,500. +</pre> + <p> + The lady will have 1,762,500 children: a large "efflux of the fountain of + life," to borrow Mr Sadler's sonorous rhetoric, as the most + philoprogenitive parent could possibly desire. + </p> + <p> + But let us, instead of putting cases of our own, look at some of those + which Mr Sadler has brought forward in support of his theory. The + following table, he tells us, exhibits a striking proof of the truth of + his main position. It seems to us to prove only that Mr Sadler does not + know what inverse proportion means. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Countries Inhabitants on a Children to a + Square Mile, about Marriage + + Cape of Good Hope 1 5.48 + North America 4 5.22 + Russia in Europe 23 4.94 + Denmark 73 4.89 + Prussia 100 4.70 + France 140 4.22 + England 160 3.66 +</pre> + <p> + Is 1 to 160 as 3.66 to 5.48? If Mr Sadler's principle were just, the + number of children produced by a marriage at the Cape would be, not 5.48, + but very near 600. Or take America and France. Is 4 to 140 as 4.22 to + 5.22? The number of births to a marriage in North America ought, according + to this proportion, to be about 150. + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler states the law of population in England thus:— + </p> + <p> + "Where the inhabitants are found to be on the square mile, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + From To Counties Number of births to 100 marriages + + 50 100 2 420 + 100 150 9 396 + 150 200 16 390 + 200 250 4 388 + 250 300 5 378 + 300 350 3 353 + 500 600 2 331 + 4000 and upwards 1 246 +</pre> + <p> + "Now, I think it quite reasonable to conclude, that, were there not + another document in existence relative to this subject, the facts thus + deduced from the census of England are fully sufficient to demonstrate the + position, that the fecundity of human beings varies inversely as their + numbers. How, I ask, can it be evaded?" + </p> + <p> + What, we ask, is there to evade? Is 246 to 420 as 50 to 4000? Is 331 to + 396 as 100 to 500? If the law propounded by Mr Sadler were correct, the + births to a hundred marriages in the least populous part of England, would + be 246 x 4000 / 50, that is 19,680,—nearly two hundred children to + every mother. But we will not carry on these calculations. The absurdity + of Mr Sadler's proposition is so palpable that it is unnecessary to select + particular instances. Let us see what are the extremes of population and + fecundity in well-known countries. The space which Mr Sadler generally + takes is a square mile. The population at the Cape of Good Hope is, + according to him, one to the square mile. That of London is two hundred + thousand to the square mile. The number of children at the Cape, Mr Sadler + informs us, is 5.48 to a marriage. In London, he states it at 2.35 to a + marriage. Now how can that of which all the variations lie between 2.35 + and 5.48 vary, either directly or inversely, as that which admits of all + the variations between one and two hundred thousand? Mr Sadler evidently + does not know the meaning of the word proportion. A million is a larger + quantity than ten. A hundred is a larger quantity than five. Mr Sadler + thinks, therefore, that there is no impropriety in saying that a hundred + is to five as a million is to ten, or in the inverse ratio of ten to a + million. He proposes to prove that the fecundity of marriages varies in + inverse proportion to the density of the population. But all that he + attempts to prove is that, while the population increases from one to a + hundred and sixty on the square mile, the fecundity will diminish from + 5.48 to 3.66; and that again, while the population increases from one + hundred and sixty to two hundred thousand on the square mile, the + fecundity will diminish from 3.66 to 2.35. + </p> + <p> + The proposition which Mr Sadler enounces, without understanding the words + which he uses, would indeed, if it could be proved, set us at ease as to + the dangers of over-population. But it is, as we have shown, a proposition + so grossly absurd that it is difficult for any man to keep his countenance + while he repeats it. The utmost that Mr Sadler has ever attempted to prove + is this,—that the fecundity of the human race diminishes as + population becomes more condensed,—but that the diminution of + fecundity bears a very small ratio to the increase of population,—so + that, while the population on a square mile is multiplied two + hundred-thousand-fold, the fecundity decreases by little more than one + half. + </p> + <p> + Does this principle vindicate the honour of God? Does it hold out any new + hope or comfort to man? Not at all. We pledge ourselves to show, with the + utmost strictness of reasoning, from Mr Sadler's own principles, and from + facts of the most notorious description, that every consequence which + follows from the law of geometrical progression, laid down by Mr Malthus, + will follow from the law, miscalled a law of inverse variation, which has + been laid down by Mr Sadler. + </p> + <p> + London is the most thickly peopled spot of its size in the known world. + Therefore the fecundity of the population of London must, according to Mr + Sadler, be less than the fecundity of human beings living on any other + spot of equal size. Mr Sadler tells us, that "the ratios of mortality are + influenced by the different degrees in which the population is + condensated; and that, other circumstances being similar, the relative + number of deaths in a thinly-populated, or country district, is less than + that which takes place in towns, and in towns of a moderate size less + again than that which exists in large and populous cities." Therefore the + mortality in London must, according to him, be greater than in other + places. But, though, according to Mr Sadler, the fecundity is less in + London than elsewhere, and though the mortality is greater there than + elsewhere, we find that even in London the number of births greatly + exceeds the number of deaths. During the ten years which ended with 1820, + there were fifty thousand more baptisms than burials within the bills of + mortality. It follows, therefore, that, even within London itself, an + increase of the population is taking place by internal propagation. + </p> + <p> + Now, if the population of a place in which the fecundity is less and the + mortality greater than in other places still goes on increasing by + propagation, it follows that in other places the population will increase, + and increase still faster. There is clearly nothing in Mr Sadler's boasted + law of fecundity which will keep the population from multiplying till the + whole earth is as thick with human beings as St Giles's parish. If Mr + Sadler denies this, he must hold that, in places less thickly peopled than + London, marriages may be less fruitful than in London, which is directly + contrary to his own principles; or that in places less thickly peopled + than London, and similarly situated, people will die faster than in + London, which is again directly contrary to his own principles. Now, if it + follows, as it clearly does follow, from Mr Sadler's own doctrines, that + the human race might be stowed together by three or four hundred to the + acre, and might still, as far as the principle of propagation is + concerned, go on increasing, what advantage, in a religious or moral point + of view, has his theory over that of Mr Malthus? The principle of Mr + Malthus, says Mr Sadler, leads to consequences of the most frightful + description. Be it so. But do not all these consequences spring equally + from his own principle? Revealed religion condemns Mr Malthus. Be it so. + But Mr Sadler must share in the reproach of heresy. The theory of Mr + Malthus represents the Deity as a Dionysius hanging the sword over the + heads of his trembling slaves. Be it so. But under what rhetorical figure + are we to represent the Deity of Mr Sadler? + </p> + <p> + A man who wishes to serve the cause of religion ought to hesitate long + before he stakes the truth of religion on the event of a controversy + respecting facts in the physical world. For a time he may succeed in + making a theory which he dislikes unpopular by persuading the public that + it contradicts the Scriptures and is inconsistent with the attributes of + the Deity. But, if at last an overwhelming force of evidence proves this + maligned theory to be true, what is the effect of the arguments by which + the objector has attempted to prove that it is irreconcilable with natural + and revealed religion? Merely this, to make men infidels. Like the + Israelites, in their battle with the Philistines, he has presumptuously + and without warrant brought down the ark of God into the camp as a means + of ensuring victory:—and the consequence of this profanation is + that, when the battle is lost, the ark is taken. + </p> + <p> + In every age the Church has been cautioned against this fatal and impious + rashness by its most illustrious members,—by the fervid Augustin, by + the subtle Aquinas, by the all-accomplished Pascal. The warning has been + given in vain. That close alliance which, under the disguise of the most + deadly enmity, has always subsisted between fanaticism and atheism is + still unbroken. At one time, the cry was,—"If you hold that the + earth moves round the sun, you deny the truth of the Bible." Popes, + conclaves, and religious orders, rose up against the Copernican heresy. + But, as Pascal said, they could not prevent the earth from moving, or + themselves from moving along with it. One thing, however, they could do, + and they did. They could teach numbers to consider the Bible as a + collection of old women's stories which the progress of civilisation and + knowledge was refuting one by one. They had attempted to show that the + Ptolemaic system was as much a part of Christianity as the resurrection of + the dead. Was it strange, then, that when the Ptolemaic system became an + object of ridicule to every man of education in Catholic countries, the + doctrine of the resurrection should be in peril? In the present + generation, and in our own country, the prevailing system of geology has + been, with equal folly, attacked on the ground that it is inconsistent + with the Mosaic dates. And here we have Mr Sadler, out of his especial + zeal for religion, first proving that the doctrine of superfecundity is + irreconcilable with the goodness of God, and then laying down principles, + and stating facts, from which the doctrine of superfecundity necessarily + follows. This blundering piety reminds us of the adventures of a certain + missionary who went to convert the inhabitants of Madagascar. The good + father had an audience of the king, and began to instruct his majesty in + the history of the human race as given in the Scriptures. "Thus, sir," + said he, "was woman made out of the rib of man, and ever since that time a + woman has had one rib more than a man." "Surely, father, you must be + mistaken there," said the king. "Mistaken!" said the missionary. "It is an + indisputable fact. My faith upon it! My life upon it!" The good man had + heard the fact asserted by his nurse when he was a child,—had always + considered it as a strong confirmation of the Scriptures, and fully + believed it without having ever thought of verifying it. The king ordered + a man and woman, the leanest that could be found, to be brought before + him, and desired his spiritual instructor to count their ribs. The father + counted over and over, upward and downward, and still found the same + number in both. He then cleared his throat, stammered, stuttered, and + began to assure the king that though he had committed a little error in + saying that a woman had more ribs than a man, he was quite right in saying + that the first woman was made out of the rib of the first man. "How can I + tell that?" said the king. "You come to me with a strange story which you + say is revealed to you from heaven. I have already made you confess that + one half of it is a lie: and how can you have the face to expect that I + shall believe the other half?" + </p> + <p> + We have shown that Mr Sadler's theory, if it be true, is as much a theory + of superfecundity as that of Mr Malthus. But it is not true. And from Mr + Sadler's own tables we will prove that it is not true. + </p> + <p> + The fecundity of the human race in England Mr Sadler rates as follows:— + </p> + <p> + "Where the inhabitants are found to be on the square mile— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + From To Counties Number of births per 100 marriages + + 50 100 2 420 + 100 150 9 396 + 150 200 16 390 + 200 250 4 388 + 250 300 5 378 + 300 350 3 353 + 500 600 2 331 + 4000 and upwards 1 246 +</pre> + <p> + Having given this table, he begins, as usual, to boast and triumph. "Were + there not another document on the subject in existence," says he, "the + facts thus deduced from the census of England are sufficient to + demonstrate the position, that the fecundity of human beings varies + inversely as their numbers." In no case would these facts demonstrate that + the fecundity of human beings varies inversely as their numbers in the + right sense of the words inverse variation. But certainly they would, "if + there were no other document in existence," appear to indicate something + like what Mr Sadler means by inverse variation. Unhappily for him, + however, there are other documents in existence; and he has himself + furnished us with them. We will extract another of his tables:— + </p> + <p> + TABLE LXIV. + </p> + <p> + Showing the Operation of the Law of Population in the different Hundreds + of the County of Lancaster. + </p> + <p> + (In the following table the name of the Hundred is followed in order by: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Population on each Square Mile. + Square Miles. + Population in 1821, exclusive of Towns of separate Jurisdiction. + Marriages from 1811 to 1821. + Baptisms from 1811 to 1821. + Baptisms to 100 Marriages.) + + Lonsdale : 96 : 441 : 42,486 : 3,651 : 16,129 : 442 + Almondness : 267 : 228 : 60,930 : 3,670 : 15,228 : 415 + Leyland : 354 : 126 : 44,583 : 2,858 : 11,182 : 391 + West Derby : 409 : 377 : 154,040 : 24,182 : 86,407 : 357 + Blackburn : 513 : 286 : 146,608 : 10,814 : 31,463 : 291 + Salford : 869 : 373 : 322,592 : 40,143 : 114,941 : 286 +</pre> + <p> + Mr Sadler rejoices much over this table. The results, he says, have + surprised himself; and, indeed, as we shall show, they might well have + done so. + </p> + <p> + The result of his inquiries with respect to France he presents in the + following table: + </p> + <p> + "In those departments where there are to each inhabitant— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Hectares Departments Legitimate births to + every 1000 marriages + + 4 to 5 2 5130 + 3 to 4 3 4372 + 2 to 3 30 4250 + 1 to 2 44 4234 + .06 to 1 5 4146 + .06 1 2557 +</pre> + <p> + Then comes the shout of exaltation as regularly as the Gloria Patri at the + end of a Psalm. "Is there any possibility of gainsaying the conclusions + these facts force upon us; namely that the fecundity of marriages is + regulated by the density of the population, and inversely to it?" + </p> + <p> + Certainly these tables, taken separately, look well for Mr Sadler's + theory. He must be a bungling gamester who cannot win when he is suffered + to pack the cards his own way. We must beg leave to shuffle them a little; + and we will venture to promise our readers that some curious results will + follow from the operation. In nine counties of England, says Mr Sadler, in + which the population is from 100 to 150 on the square mile, the births to + 100 marriages are 396. He afterwards expresses some doubt as to the + accuracy of the documents from which this estimate has been formed, and + rates the number of births as high as 414. Let him take his choice. We + will allow him every advantage. + </p> + <p> + In the table which we have quoted, numbered lxiv., he tells us that in + Almondness, where the population is 267 to the square mile, there are 415 + births to 100 marriages. The population of Almondness is twice as thick as + the population of the nine counties referred to in the other table. Yet + the number of births to a marriage is greater in Almondness than in those + counties. + </p> + <p> + Once more, he tells us that in three counties, in which the population was + from 300 to 350 on the square mile, the births to 100 marriages were 353. + He afterwards rates them at 375. Again we say, let him take his choice. + But from his table of the population of Lancashire it appears that, in the + hundred of Leyland, where the population is 354 to the square mile, the + number of births to 100 marriages is 391. Here again we have the marriages + becoming more fruitful as the population becomes denser. + </p> + <p> + Let us now shuffle the censuses of England and France together. In two + English counties which contain from 50 to 100 inhabitants on the square + mile, the births to 100 marriages are, according to Mr Sadler, 420. But in + forty-four departments of France, in which there are from one to two + hecatares to each inhabitant, that is to say, in which the population is + from 125 to 250 or rather more, to the square mile, the number of births + to 100 marriages is 423 and a fraction. + </p> + <p> + Again, in five departments of France in which there is less than one + hecatare to each inhabitant, that is to say, in which the population is + more than 250 to the square mile, the number of births to 100 marriages is + 414 and a fraction. But in the four counties of England in which the + population is from 200 to 250 on the square mile, the number of births to + 100 marriages is, according to one of Mr Sadler's tables, only 388, and by + his very highest estimate no more than 402. + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler gives us a long table of all the towns of England and Ireland, + which, he tells us, irrefragably demonstrates his principle. We assert, + and will prove, that these tables are alone sufficient to upset his whole + theory. + </p> + <p> + It is very true that, in the great towns the number of births to a + marriage appears to be smaller than in the less populous towns. But we + learn some other facts from these tables which we should be glad to know + how Mr Sadler will explain. We find that the fecundity in towns of fewer + than 3000 inhabitants is actually much greater than the average fecundity + of the kingdom, and that the fecundity in towns of between 3000 and 4000 + inhabitants is at least as great as the average fecundity of the kingdom. + The average fecundity of a marriage in towns of fewer than 3000 + inhabitants is about four; in towns of between 3000 and 4000 inhabitants + it is 3.60. Now, the average fecundity of England, when it contained only + 160 inhabitants to a square mile, and when, therefore, according to the + new law of population, the fecundity must have been greater than it now + is, was only, according to Mr Sadler, 3.66 to a marriage. To proceed,—the + fecundity of a marriage in the English towns of between 4000 and 5000 + inhabitants is stated at 3.56. But, when we turn to Mr Sadler's table of + counties, we find the fecundity of a marriage in Warwickshire and + Staffordshire rated at only 3.48, and in Lancashire and Surrey at only + 3.41. + </p> + <p> + These facts disprove Mr Sadler's principle; and the fact on which he lays + so much stress—that the fecundity is less in the great towns than in + the small towns—does not tend in any degree to prove his principle. + There is not the least reason to believe that the population is more + dense, ON A GIVEN SPACE, in London or Manchester than in a town of 4000 + inhabitants. But it is quite certain that the population is more dense in + a town of 4000 inhabitants than in Warwickshire or Lancashire. That the + fecundity of Manchester is less than the fecundity of Sandwich or + Guildford is a circumstance which has nothing whatever to do with Mr + Sadler's theory. But that the fecundity of Sandwich is greater than the + average fecundity of Kent,—that the fecundity of Guildford is + greater than the average fecundity of Surrey,—as from his own tables + appears to be the case,—these are facts utterly inconsistent with + his theory. + </p> + <p> + We need not here examine why it is that the human race is less fruitful in + great cities than in small towns or in the open country. The fact has long + been notorious. We are inclined to attribute it to the same causes which + tend to abridge human life in great cities,—to general sickliness + and want of tone, produced by close air and sedentary employments. Thus + far, and thus far only, we agree with Mr Sadler, that, when population is + crowded together in such masses that the general health and energy of the + frame are impaired by the condensation, and by the habits attending on the + condensation, then the fecundity of the race diminishes. But this is + evidently a check of the same class with war, pestilence, and famine. It + is a check for the operation of which Mr Malthus has allowed. + </p> + <p> + That any condensation which does not affect the general health will affect + fecundity, is not only not proved—it is disproved—by Mr + Sadler's own tables. + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler passes on to Prussia, and sums up his information respecting + that country as follows:— + </p> + <p> + (In the following table numbers appear in the order: Inhabitants on a + Square Mile, German. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Number of Provinces. + Births to 100 Marriages, 1754. + Births to 100 Marriages, 1784. + Births to 100 Marriages, Busching.) + + Under 1000 : 2 : 434 : 472 : 503 + 1000 to 2000 : 4 : 414 : 455 : 454 + 2000 to 3000 : 6 : 384 : 424 : 426 + 3000 to 4000 : 2 : 365 : 408 : 394 +</pre> + <p> + After the table comes the boast as usual: + </p> + <p> + "Thus is the law of population deduced from the registers of Prussia also: + and were the argument to pause here, it is conclusive. The results + obtained from the registers of this and the preceding countries, + exhibiting, as they do most clearly, the principle of human increase, it + is utterly impossible should have been the work of chance; on the + contrary, the regularity with which the facts class themselves in + conformity with that principle, and the striking analogy which the whole + of them bear to each other, demonstrate equally the design of Nature, and + the certainty of its accomplishment." + </p> + <p> + We are sorry to disturb Mr Sadler's complacency. But, in our opinion, this + table completely disproves his whole principle. If we read the columns + perpendicularly, indeed, they seem to be in his favour. But how stands the + case if we read horizontally? Does Mr Sadler believe that, during the + thirty years which elapsed between 1754 and 1784, the population of + Prussia had been diminishing? No fact in history is better ascertained + than that, during the long peace which followed the seven years' war, it + increased with great rapidity. Indeed, if the fecundity were what Mr + Sadler states it to have been, it must have increased with great rapidity. + Yet, the ratio of births to marriages is greater in 1784 than in 1754, and + that in every province. It is, therefore, perfectly clear that the + fecundity does not diminish whenever the density of the population + increases. + </p> + <p> + We will try another of Mr Sadler's tables: + </p> + <p> + TABLE LXXXI. + </p> + <p> + Showing the Estimated Prolificness of Marriages in England at the close of + the Seventeenth Century. + </p> + <p> + (In the following table the name of the Place is followed in order by: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Number of Inhabitants. + One Annual Marriage, to. + Number of Marriages. + Children to one Marriage. + Total Number of Births. + + London : 530,000 : 106 : 5,000 : 4. : 20,000 + Large Towns : 870,000 : 128 : 6,800 : 4.5 : 30,000 + Small Towns and + Country Places : 4,100,000 : 141 : 29,200 : 4.8 : 140,160 + —————————————————————- + : 5,500,000 : 134 : 41,000 : 4.65 : 190,760 +</pre> + <p> + Standing by itself, this table, like most of the others, seems to support + Mr Sadler's theory. But surely London, at the close of the seventeenth + century, was far more thickly peopled than the kingdom of England now is. + Yet the fecundity in London at the close of the seventeenth century was 4; + and the average fecundity of the whole kingdom now is not more, according + to Mr Sadler, than 3 1/2. Then again, the large towns in 1700 were far + more thickly peopled than Westmoreland and the North Riding of Yorkshire + now are. Yet the fecundity in those large towns was then 4.5. And Mr + Sadler tells us that it is now only 4.2 in Westmoreland and the North + Riding. + </p> + <p> + It is scarcely necessary to say anything about the censuses of the + Netherlands, as Mr Sadler himself confesses that there is some difficulty + in reconciling them with his theory, and helps out his awkward explanation + by supposing, quite gratuitously, as it seems to us, that the official + documents are inaccurate. The argument which he has drawn from the United + States will detain us but for a very short time. He has not told us,—perhaps + he had not the means of telling us,—what proportion the number of + births in the different parts of that country bears to the number of + marriages. He shows that in the thinly peopled states the number of + children bears a greater proportion to the number of grown-up people than + in the old states; and this, he conceives, is a sufficient proof that the + condensation of the population is unfavourable to fecundity. We deny the + inference altogether. Nothing can be more obvious than the explanation of + the phenomenon. The back settlements are for the most part peopled by + emigration from the old states; and emigrants are almost always breeders. + They are almost always vigorous people in the prime of life. Mr Sadler + himself, in another part of his book, in which he tries very + unsuccessfully to show that the rapid multiplication of the people of + America is principally owing to emigration from Europe, states this fact + in the plainest manner: + </p> + <p> + "Nothing is more certain, than that emigration is almost universally + supplied by 'single persons in the beginning of mature life;' nor, + secondly, that such persons, as Dr Franklin long ago asserted, 'marry and + raise families.' + </p> + <p> + "Nor is this all. It is not more true, that emigrants, generally speaking, + consist of individuals in the prime of life, than that 'they are the most + active and vigorous' of that age, as Dr Seybert describes them to be. They + are, as it respects the principle at issue, a select class, even compared + with that of their own age, generally considered. Their very object in + leaving their native countries is to settle in life, a phrase that needs + no explanation; and they do so. No equal number of human beings, + therefore, have ever given so large or rapid an increase to a community as + 'settlers' have invariably done." + </p> + <p> + It is perfectly clear that children are more numerous in the back + settlements of America than in the maritime states, not because unoccupied + land makes people prolific, but because the most prolific people go to the + unoccupied land. + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler having, as he conceives, fully established his theory of + population by statistical evidence, proceeds to prove, "that it is in + unison, or rather required by the principles of physiology." The + difference between himself and his opponents he states as follows:— + </p> + <p> + "In pursuing this part of my subject, I must begin by reminding the reader + of the difference between those who hold the superfecundity of mankind and + myself, in regard to those principles which will form the basis of the + present argument. They contend, that production precedes population; I, on + the contrary, maintain that population precedes, and is indeed the cause + of, production. They teach that man breeds up to the capital, or in + proportion to the abundance of the food, he possesses: I assert, that he + is comparatively sterile when he is wealthy, and that he breeds in + proportion to his poverty; not meaning, however, by that poverty, a state + of privation approaching to actual starvation, any more than, I suppose, + they would contend, that extreme and culpable excess is the grand patron + of population. In a word, they hold that a state of ease and affluence is + the great promoter of prolificness. I maintain that a considerable degree + of labour, and even privation, is a more efficient cause of an increased + degree of human fecundity." + </p> + <p> + To prove this point, he quotes Aristotle, Hippocrates, Dr Short, Dr + Gregory, Dr Perceval, M. Villermi, Lord Bacon, and Rousseau. We will not + dispute about it; for it seems quite clear to us that if he succeeds in + establishing it he overturns his own theory. If men breed in proportion to + their poverty, as he tells us here,—and at the same time breed in + inverse proportion to their numbers, as he told us before,—it + necessarily follows that the poverty of men must be in inverse proportion + to their numbers. Inverse proportion, indeed, as we have shown, is not the + phrase which expresses Mr Sadler's meaning. To speak more correctly, it + follows, from his own positions, that, if one population be thinner than + another, it will also be poorer. Is this the fact? Mr Sadler tells us, in + one of those tables which we have already quoted, that in the United + States the population is four to a square mile, and the fecundity 5.22 to + a marriage, and that in Russia the population is twenty-three to a square + mile, and the fecundity 4.94 to a marriage. Is the North American labourer + poorer than the Russian boor? If not, what becomes of Mr Sadler's + argument? + </p> + <p> + The most decisive proof of Mr Sadler's theory, according to him, is that + which he has kept for the last. It is derived from the registers of the + English Peerage. The peers, he says, and says truly, are the class with + respect to whom we possess the most accurate statistical information. + </p> + <p> + "Touching their NUMBER, this has been accurately known and recorded ever + since the order has existed in the country. For several centuries past, + the addition to it of a single individual has been a matter of public + interest and notoriety: this hereditary honour conferring not personal + dignity merely, but important privileges, and being almost always + identified with great wealth and influence. The records relating to it are + kept with the most scrupulous attention, not only by heirs and expectants, + but they are appealed to by more distant connections, as conferring + distinction on all who can claim such affinity. Hence there are few + disputes concerning successions to this rank, but such as go back to very + remote periods. In later times, the marriages, births, and deaths, of the + nobility, have not only been registered by and known to those personally + interested, but have been published periodically, and, consequently, + subject to perpetual correction and revision; while many of the most + powerful motives which can influence the human mind conspire to preserve + these records from the slightest falsification. Compared with these, + therefore, all other registers, or reports, whether of sworn searchers or + others, are incorrectness itself." + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler goes on to tell us that the peers are a marrying class, and that + their general longevity proves them to be a healthy class. Still peerages + often become extinct;—and from this fact he infers that they are a + sterile class. So far, says he, from increasing in geometrical + progression, they do not even keep up their numbers. "Nature interdicts + their increase." + </p> + <p> + "Thus," says he, "in all ages of the world, and in every nation of it, + have the highest ranks of the community been the most sterile, and the + lowest the most prolific. As it respects our own country, from the lowest + grade of society, the Irish peasant, to the highest, the British peer, + this remains a conspicuous truth; and the regulation of the degree of + fecundity conformably to this principle, through the intermediate + gradations of society, constitutes one of the features of the system + developed in these pages." + </p> + <p> + We take the issue which Mr Sadler has himself offered. We agree with him, + that the registers of the English Peerage are of far higher authority than + any other statistical documents. We are content that by those registers + his principle should be judged. And we meet him by positively denying his + facts. We assert that the English nobles are not only not a sterile, but + an eminently prolific, part of the community. Mr Sadler concludes that + they are sterile, merely because peerages often become extinct. Is this + the proper way of ascertaining the point? Is it thus that he avails + himself of those registers on the accuracy and fulness of which he + descants so largely? Surely his right course would have been to count the + marriages, and the number of births in the Peerage. This he has not done;—but + we have done it. And what is the result? + </p> + <p> + It appears from the last edition of Debrett's "Peerage", published in + 1828, that there were at that time 287 peers of the United Kingdom, who + had been married once or oftener. The whole number of marriages contracted + by these 287 peers was 333. The number of children by these marriages was + 1437,—more than five to a peer,—more than 4.3 to a marriage,—more, + that is to say, than the average number in those counties of England in + which, according to Mr Sadler's own statement, the fecundity is the + greatest. + </p> + <p> + But this is not all. These marriages had not, in 1828, produced their full + effect. Some of them had been very lately contracted. In a very large + proportion of them there was every probability of additional issue. To + allow for this probability, we may safely add one to the average which we + have already obtained, and rate the fecundity of a noble marriage in + England at 5.3;—higher than the fecundity which Mr Sadler assigns to + the people of the United States. Even if we do not make this allowance, + the average fecundity of marriages of peers is higher by one-fifth than + the average fecundity of marriages throughout the kingdom. And this is the + sterile class! This is the class which "Nature has interdicted from + increasing!" The evidence to which Mr Sadler has himself appealed proves + that his principle is false,—utterly false,—wildly and + extravagantly false. It proves that a class, living during half of every + year in the most crowded population in the world, breeds faster than those + who live in the country;—that the class which enjoys the greatest + degree of luxury and ease breeds faster than the class which undergoes + labour and privation. To talk a little in Mr Sadler's style, we must own + that we are ourselves surprised at the results which our examination of + the peerage has brought out. We certainly should have thought that the + habits of fashionable life, and long residence even in the most airy parts + of so great a city as London, would have been more unfavourable to the + fecundity of the higher orders than they appear to be. + </p> + <p> + Peerages, it is true, often become extinct. But it is quite clear, from + what we have stated, that this is not because peeresses are barren. There + is no difficulty in discovering what the causes really are. In the first + place, most of the titles of our nobles are limited to heirs male; so + that, though the average fecundity of a noble marriage is upwards of five, + yet, for the purpose of keeping up a peerage, it cannot be reckoned at + much more than two and a half. Secondly, though the peers are, as Mr + Sadler says, a marrying class, the younger sons of peers are decidedly not + a marrying class; so that a peer, though he has at least as great a chance + of having a son as his neighbours, has less chance than they of having a + collateral heir. + </p> + <p> + We have now disposed, we think, of Mr Sadler's principle of population. + Our readers must, by this time, be pretty well satisfied as to his + qualifications for setting up theories of his own. We will, therefore, + present them with a few instances of the skill and fairness which he shows + when he undertakes to pull down the theories of other men. The doctrine of + Mr Malthus, that population, if not checked by want, by vice, by excessive + mortality, or by the prudent self-denial of individuals, would increase in + a geometric progression, is, in Mr Sadler's opinion, at once false and + atrocious. + </p> + <p> + "It may at once be denied," says he, "that human increase proceeds + geometrically; and for this simple but decisive reason, that the existence + of a geometrical ratio of increase in the works of nature is neither true + nor possible. It would fling into utter confusion all order, time, + magnitude, and space." + </p> + <p> + This is as curious a specimen of reasoning as any that has been offered to + the world since the days when theories were founded on the principle that + nature abhors a vacuum. We proceed a few pages further, however; and we + then find that geometric progression is unnatural only in those cases in + which Mr Malthus conceives that it exists; and that, in all cases in which + Mr Malthus denies the existence of a geometric ratio, nature changes + sides, and adopts that ratio as the rule of increase. + </p> + <p> + Mr Malthus holds that subsistence will increase only in an arithmetical + ratio. "As far as nature has to do with the question," says Mr Sadler, + "men might, for instance, plant twice the number of peas, and breed from a + double number of the same animals, with equal prospect of their + multiplication." Now, if Mr Sadler thinks that, as far as nature is + concerned, four sheep will double as fast as two, and eight as fast as + four, how can he deny that the geometrical ratio of increase does exist in + the works of nature? Or has he a definition of his own for geometrical + progression, as well as for inverse proportion? + </p> + <p> + Mr Malthus, and those who agree with him, have generally referred to the + United States, as a country in which the human race increases in a + geometrical ratio, and have fixed on thirty-five years as the term in + which the population of that country doubles itself. Mr Sadler contends + that it is physically impossible for a people to double in twenty-five + years; nay, that thirty-five years is far too short a period,—that + the Americans do not double by procreation in less than forty-seven years,—and + that the rapid increase of their numbers is produced by emigration from + Europe. + </p> + <p> + Emigration has certainly had some effect in increasing the population of + the United States. But so great has the rate of that increase been that, + after making full allowance for the effect of emigration, there will be a + residue, attributable to procreation alone, amply sufficient to double the + population in twenty-five years. + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler states the results of the four censuses as follows:— + </p> + <p> + "There were, of white inhabitants, in the whole of the United States in + 1790, 3,093,111; in 1800, 4,309,656; in 1810, 5,862,093; and in 1820, + 7,861,710. The increase, in the first term, being 39 per cent.; that in + the second, 36 per cent.; and that in the third and last, 33 per cent. It + is superfluous to say, that it is utterly impossible to deduce the + geometric theory of human increase, whatever be the period of duplication, + from such terms as these." + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler is a bad arithmetician. The increase in the last term is not as + he states it, 33 per cent., but more than 34 per cent. Now, an increase of + 32 per cent. in ten years, is more than sufficient to double the + population in twenty-five years. And there is, we think, very strong + reason to believe that the white population of the United States does + increase by 32 per cent. every ten years. + </p> + <p> + Our reason is this. There is in the United States a class of persons whose + numbers are not increased by emigration,—the negro slaves. During + the interval which elapsed between the census of 1810 and the census of + 1820, the change in their numbers must have been produced by procreation, + and by procreation alone. Their situation, though much happier than that + of the wretched beings who cultivate the sugar plantations of Trinidad and + Demerara, cannot be supposed to be more favourable to health and fecundity + than that of free labourers. In 1810, the slave-trade had been but + recently abolished; and there were in consequence many more male than + female slaves,—a circumstance, of course, very unfavourable to + procreation. Slaves are perpetually passing into the class of freemen; but + no freeman ever descends into servitude; so that the census will not + exhibit the whole effect of the procreation which really takes place. + </p> + <p> + We find, by the census of 1810, that the number of slaves in the Union was + then 1,191,000. In 1820, they had increased to 1,538,000. That is to say, + in ten years, they had increased 29 per cent.—within three per cent. + of that rate of increase which would double their numbers in twenty-five + years. We may, we think, fairly calculate that, if the female slaves had + been as numerous as the males, and if no manumissions had taken place, the + census of the slave population would have exhibited an increase of 32 per + cent. in ten years. + </p> + <p> + If we are right in fixing on 32 per cent. as the rate at which the white + population of America increases by procreation in ten years, it will + follow that, during the last ten years of the eighteenth century, nearly + one-sixth of the increase was the effect of emigration; from 1800 to 1810, + about one-ninth; and from 1810 to 1820, about one-seventeenth. This is + what we should have expected; for it is clear that, unless the number of + emigrants be constantly increasing, it must, as compared with the resident + population, be relatively decreasing. The number of persons added to the + population of the United States by emigration, between 1810 and 1820, + would be nearly 120,000. From the data furnished by Mr Sadler himself, we + should be inclined to think that this would be a fair estimate. + </p> + <p> + "Dr Seybert says, that the passengers to ten of the principal ports of the + United States, in the year 1817, amounted to 22,235; of whom 11,977 were + from Great Britain and Ireland; 4164 from Germany and Holland; 1245 from + France; 58 from Italy, 2901 from the British possessions in North America; + 1569 from the West Indies; and from all other countries, 321. These, + however, we may conclude, with the editor of Styles's Register, were far + short of the number that arrived." + </p> + <p> + We have not the honour of knowing either Dr Seybert or the editor of + Styles's Register. We cannot, therefore, decide on their respective claims + to our confidence so peremptorily as Mr Sadler thinks fit to do. Nor can + we agree to what Mr Sadler very gravely assigns as a reason for + disbelieving Dr Seyberts's testimony. "Such accounts," he says, "if not + wilfully exaggerated, must always fall short of the truth." It would be a + curious question of casuistry to determine what a man ought to do in a + case in which he cannot tell the truth except by being guilty of wilful + exaggeration. We will, however, suppose, with Mr Sadler, that Dr Seybert, + finding himself compelled to choose between two sins, preferred telling a + falsehood to exaggerating; and that he has consequently underrated the + number of emigrants. We will take it at double of the Doctor's estimate, + and suppose that, in 1817, 45,000 Europeans crossed to the United States. + Now, it must be remembered that the year 1817 was a year of the severest + and most general distress all over Europe,—a year of scarcity + everywhere, and of cruel famine in some places. There can, therefore, be + no doubt that the emigration of 1817 was very far above the average, + probably more than three times that of an ordinary year. Till the year + 1815, the war rendered it almost impossible to emigrate to the United + States either from England or from the Continent. If we suppose the + average emigration of the remaining years to have been 16,000, we shall + probably not be much mistaken. In 1818 and 1819, the number was certainly + much beyond that average; in 1815 and 1816, probably much below it. But, + even if we were to suppose that, in every year from the peace to 1820, the + number of emigrants had been as high as we have supposed it to be in 1817, + the increase by procreation among the white inhabitants of the United + States would still appear to be about 30 per cent. in ten years. + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler acknowledges that Cobbett exaggerates the number of emigrants + when he states it at 150,000 a year. Yet even this estimate, absurdly + great as it is, would not be sufficient to explain the increase of the + population of the United States on Mr Sadler's principles. He is, he tells + us, "convinced that doubling in 35 years is a far more rapid duplication + than ever has taken place in that country from procreation only." An + increase of 20 per cent. in ten years, by procreation, would therefore be + the very utmost that he would allow to be possible. We have already shown, + by reference to the census of the slave population, that this doctrine is + quite absurd. And, if we suppose it to be sound, we shall be driven to the + conclusion that above eight hundred thousand people emigrated from Europe + to the United States in a space of little more than five years. The whole + increase of the white population from 1810 to 1820 was within a few + hundreds of 2,000,000. If we are to attribute to procreation only 20 per + cent. on the number returned by the census of 1810, we shall have about + 830,000 persons to account for in some other way;—and to suppose + that the emigrants who went to America between the peace of 1815 and the + census of 1820, with the children who were born to them there, would make + up that number, would be the height of absurdity. + </p> + <p> + We could say much more; but we think it quite unnecessary at present. We + have shown that Mr Sadler is careless in the collection of facts,—that + he is incapable of reasoning on facts when he has collected them,—that + he does not understand the simplest terms of science,—that he has + enounced a proposition of which he does not know the meaning,—that + the proposition which he means to enounce, and which he tries to prove, + leads directly to all those consequences which he represents as impious + and immoral,—and that, from the very documents to which he has + himself appealed, it may be demonstrated that his theory is false. We may, + perhaps, resume the subject when his next volume appears. Meanwhile, we + hope that he will delay its publication until he has learned a little + arithmetic, and unlearned a great deal of eloquence. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SADLER'S REFUTATION REFUTED. (January 1831.) + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "A Refutation of an Article in the Edinburgh Review (No. + CII.) entitled, 'Sadler's Law of Population, and disproof of + Human Superfecundity;' containing also Additional Proofs of + the Principle enunciated in that Treatise, founded on the + Censuses of different Countries recently published." By + Michael Thomas Sadler, M.P. 8vo. London: 1830. +</pre> + <p> + "Before anything came out against my Essay, I was told I must prepare + myself for a storm coming against it, it being resolved by some men that + it was necessary that book of mine should, as it is phrased, be run down."—John + Locke. + </p> + <p> + We have, in violation of our usual practice, transcribed Mr Sadler's + title-page from top to bottom, motto and all. The parallel implied between + the Essay on the Human Understanding and the Essay on Superfecundity is + exquisitely laughable. We can match it, however, with mottoes as + ludicrous. We remember to have heard of a dramatic piece, entitled "News + from Camperdown," written soon after Lord Duncan's victory, by a man once + as much in his own good graces as Mr Sadler is, and now as much forgotten + as Mr Sadler will soon be, Robert Heron. His piece was brought upon the + stage, and damned, "as it is phrased," in the second act; but the author, + thinking that it had been unfairly and unjustly "run down," published it, + in order to put his critics to shame, with this motto from Swift: "When a + true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this mark—that + the dunces are all in confederacy against him." We remember another + anecdote, which may perhaps be acceptable to so zealous a churchman as Mr + Sadler. A certain Antinomian preacher, the oracle of a barn, in a county + of which we do not think it proper to mention the name, finding that + divinity was not by itself a sufficiently lucrative profession, resolved + to combine with it that of dog-stealing. He was, by ill-fortune, detected + in several offences of this description, and was in consequence brought + before two justices, who, in virtue of the powers given them by an act of + parliament, sentenced him to a whipping for each theft. The degrading + punishment inflicted on the pastor naturally thinned the flock; and the + poor man was in danger of wanting bread. He accordingly put forth a + handbill solemnly protesting his innocence, describing his sufferings, and + appealing to the Christian charity of the public; and to his pathetic + address he prefixed this most appropriate text: "Thrice was I beaten with + rods.—St Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians." He did not perceive + that, though St Paul had been scourged, no number of whippings, however + severe, will of themselves entitle a man to be considered as an apostle. + Mr Sadler seems to us to have fallen into a somewhat similar error. He + should remember that, though Locke may have been laughed at, so has Sir + Claudius Hunter; and that it takes something more than the laughter of all + the world to make a Locke. + </p> + <p> + The body of this pamphlet by no means justifies the parallel so modestly + insinuated on the title-page. Yet we must own that, though Mr Sadler has + not risen to the level of Locke, he has done what was almost as difficult, + if not as honourable—he has fallen below his own. He is at best a + bad writer. His arrangement is an elaborate confusion. His style has been + constructed, with great care, in such a manner as to produce the least + possible effect by means of the greatest possible number of words. + Aspiring to the exalted character of a Christian philosopher, he can never + preserve through a single paragraph either the calmness of a philosopher + or the meekness of a Christian. His ill-nature would make a very little + wit formidable. But, happily, his efforts to wound resemble those of a + juggler's snake. The bags of poison are full, but the fang is wanting. In + this foolish pamphlet, all the unpleasant peculiarities of his style and + temper are brought out in the strongest manner. He is from the beginning + to the end in a paroxysm of rage, and would certainly do us some mischief + if he knew how. We will give a single instance for the present. Others + will present themselves as we proceed. We laughed at some doggerel verses + which he cited, and which we, never having seen them before, suspected to + be his own. We are now sure that if the principle on which Solomon decided + a famous case of filiation were correct, there can be no doubt as to the + justice of our suspicion. Mr Sadler, who, whatever elements of the + poetical character he may lack, possesses the poetical irritability in an + abundance which might have sufficed for Homer himself, resolved to + retaliate on the person, who, as he supposed, had reviewed him. He has, + accordingly, ransacked some collection of college verses, in the hope of + finding, among the performances of his supposed antagonist, something as + bad as his own. And we must in fairness admit that he has succeeded pretty + well. We must admit that the gentleman in question sometimes put into his + exercises, at seventeen, almost as great nonsense as Mr Sadler is in the + habit of putting into his books at sixty. + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler complains that we have devoted whole pages to mere abuse of him. + We deny the charge. We have, indeed, characterised, in terms of just + reprehension, that spirit which shows itself in every part of his prolix + work. Those terms of reprehension we are by no means inclined to retract; + and we conceive that we might have used much stronger expressions, without + the least offence either to truth or to decorum. There is a limit + prescribed to us by our sense of what is due to ourselves. But we think + that no indulgence is due to Mr Sadler. A writer who distinctly announces + that he has not conformed to the candour of the age—who makes it his + boast that he expresses himself throughout with the greatest plainness and + freedom—and whose constant practice proves that by plainness and + freedom he means coarseness and rancour—has no right to expect that + others shall remember courtesies which he has forgotten, or shall respect + one who has ceased to respect himself. + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler declares that he has never vilified Mr Malthus personally, and + has confined himself to attacking the doctrines which that gentleman + maintains. We should wish to leave that point to the decision of all who + have read Mr Sadler's book, or any twenty pages of it. To quote particular + instances of a temper which penetrates and inspires the whole work, is to + weaken our charge. Yet, that we may not be suspected of flinching, we will + give two specimens,—the two first which occur to our recollection. + "Whose minister is it that speaks thus?" says Mr Sadler, after + misrepresenting in a most extraordinary manner, though, we are willing to + believe, unintentionally, one of the positions of Mr Malthus. "Whose + minister is it that speaks thus? That of the lover and avenger of little + children?" Again, Mr Malthus recommends, erroneously perhaps, but + assuredly from humane motives, that alms, when given, should be given very + sparingly. Mr Sadler quotes the recommendation, and adds the following + courteous comment:—"The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." We + cannot think that a writer who indulges in these indecent and unjust + attacks on professional and personal character has any right to complain + of our sarcasms on his metaphors and rhymes. + </p> + <p> + We will now proceed to examine the reply which Mr Sadler has thought fit + to make to our arguments. He begins by attacking our remarks on the origin + of evil. They are, says he, too profound for common apprehension; and he + hopes that they are too profound for our own. That they seem profound to + him we can well believe. Profundity, in its secondary as in its primary + sense, is a relative term. When Grildrig was nearly drowned in the + Brobdingnagian cream-jug he doubtless thought it very deep. But to common + apprehension our reasoning would, we are persuaded, appear perfectly + simple. + </p> + <p> + The theory of Mr Malthus, says Mr Sadler, cannot be true, because it + asserts the existence of a great and terrible evil, and is therefore + inconsistent with the goodness of God. We answer thus. We know that there + are in the world great and terrible evils. In spite of these evils, we + believe in the goodness of God. Why may we not then continue to believe in + his goodness, though another evil should be added to the list? + </p> + <p> + How does Mr Sadler answer this? Merely by telling us, that we are too + wicked to be reasoned with. He completely shrinks from the question; a + question, be it remembered, not raised by us—a question which we + should have felt strong objections to raising unnecessarily—a + question put forward by himself, as intimately connected with the subject + of his two ponderous volumes. He attempts to carp at detached parts of our + reasoning on the subject. With what success he carries on this guerilla + war after declining a general action with the main body of our argument + our readers shall see. + </p> + <p> + "The Reviewer sends me to Paley, who is, I confess, rather more + intelligible on the subject, and who, fortunately, has decided the very + point in dispute. I will first give the words of the Reviewer, who, when + speaking of my general argument regarding the magnitude of the evils, + moral and physical, implied in the theory I oppose, sums up his ideas + thus:—'Mr Sadler says, that it is not a light or transient evil, but + a great and permanent evil. What then? The question of the origin of evil + is a question of aye or no,—not a question of MORE or LESS.' But + what says Paley? His express rule is this, that 'when we cannot resolve + all appearances into benevolence of design, we make the FEW give place to + the MANY, the LITTLE to the GREAT; that we take our judgment from a large + and decided preponderancy.' Now in weighing these two authorities, + directly at issue on this point, I think there will be little trouble in + determining which we shall make 'to give place;' or, if we 'look to a + large and decided preponderancy' of either talent, learning, or + benevolence, from whom we shall 'take our judgment.' The effrontery, or, + to speak more charitably, the ignorance of a reference to Paley on this + subject, and in this instance, is really marvellous." + </p> + <p> + Now, does not Mr Sadler see that the very words which he quotes from Paley + contain in themselves a refutation of his whole argument? Paley says, + indeed, as every man in his senses would say, that in a certain case, + which he has specified, the more and the less come into question. But in + what case? "When we CANNOT resolve all appearances into the benevolence of + design." It is better that there should be a little evil than a great deal + of evil. This is self-evident. But it is also self-evident, that no evil + is better than a little evil. Why, then, is there any evil? It is a + mystery which we cannot solve. It is a mystery which Paley, by the very + words which Mr Sadler has quoted, acknowledges himself unable to solve; + and it is because he cannot solve that mystery that he proceeds to take + into consideration the more and the less. Believing in the divine + goodness, we must necessarily believe that the evils which exist are + necessary to avert greater evils. But what those greater evils are, we do + not know. How the happiness of any part of the sentient creation would be + in any respect diminished if, for example, children cut their teeth + without pain, we cannot understand. The case is exactly the same with the + principle of Mr Malthus. If superfecundity exists, it exists, no doubt, + because it is a less evil than some other evil which otherwise would + exist. Can Mr Sadler prove that this is an impossibility? + </p> + <p> + One single expression which Mr Sadler employs on this subject is + sufficient to show how utterly incompetent he is to discuss it. "On the + Christian hypothesis," says he, "no doubt exists as to the origin of + evil." He does not, we think, understand what is meant by the origin of + evil. The Christian Scriptures profess to give no solution of that + mystery. They relate facts: but they leave the metaphysical question + undetermined. They tell us that man fell; but why he was not so + constituted as to be incapable of falling, or why the Supreme Being has + not mitigated the consequences of the Fall more than they actually have + been mitigated, the Scriptures did not tell us, and, it may without + presumption be said, could not tell us, unless we had been creatures + different from what we are. There is something, either in the nature of + our faculties or in the nature of the machinery employed by us for the + purpose of reasoning, which condemns us, on this and similar subjects, to + hopeless ignorance. Man can understand these high matters only by ceasing + to be man, just as a fly can understand a lemma of Newton only by ceasing + to be a fly. To make it an objection to the Christian system that it gives + us no solution of these difficulties, is to make it an objection to the + Christian system that it is a system formed for human beings. Of the + puzzles of the Academy, there is not one which does not apply as strongly + to Deism as to Christianity, and to Atheism as to Deism. There are + difficulties in everything. Yet we are sure that something must be true. + </p> + <p> + If revelation speaks on the subject of the origin of evil it speaks only + to discourage dogmatism and temerity. In the most ancient, the most + beautiful, and the most profound of all works on the subject, the Book of + Job, both the sufferer who complains of the divine government, and the + injudicious advisers who attempt to defend it on wrong principles, are + silenced by the voice of supreme wisdom, and reminded that the question is + beyond the reach of the human intellect. St Paul silences the supposed + objector, who strives to force him into controversy, in the same manner. + The church has been, ever since the apostolic times, agitated by this + question, and by a question which is inseparable from it, the question of + fate and free-will. The greatest theologians and philosophers have + acknowledged that these things were too high for them, and have contended + themselves with hinting at what seemed to be the most probable solution. + What says Johnson? "All our effort ends in belief that for the evils of + life there is some good reason, and in confession that the reason cannot + be found." What says Paley? "Of the origin of evil no universal solution + has been discovered. I mean no solution which reaches to all cases of + complaint.—The consideration of general laws, although it may + concern the question of the origin of evil very nearly, which I think it + does, rests in views disproportionate to our faculties, and in a knowledge + which we do not possess. It serves rather to account for the obscurity of + the subject, than to supply us with distinct answers to our difficulties." + What says presumptuous ignorance? "No doubt whatever exists as to the + origin of evil." It is remarkable that Mr Sadler does not tell us what his + solution is. The world, we suspect, will lose little by his silence. + </p> + <p> + He falls on the reviewer again. + </p> + <p> + "Though I have shown," says he, "and on authorities from which none can + lightly differ, not only the cruelty and immorality which this system + necessarily involves, but its most revolting feature, its gross + partiality, he has wholly suppressed this, the most important part of my + argument; as even the bare notice of it would have instantly exposed the + sophistry to which he has had recourse. If, however, he would fairly meet + the whole question, let him show me that 'hydrophobia,' which he gives as + an example of the laws of God and nature, is a calamity to which the poor + alone are liable; or that 'malaria,' which, with singular infelicity, he + has chosen as an illustration of the fancied evils of population, is a + respecter of persons." + </p> + <p> + We said nothing about this argument, as Mr Sadler calls it, merely because + we did not think it worth while: and we are half ashamed to say anything + about it now. But, since Mr Sadler is so urgent for an answer, he shall + have one. If there is evil, it must be either partial or universal. Which + is the better of the two? Hydrophobia, says this great philosopher, is no + argument against the divine goodness, because mad dogs bite rich and poor + alike; but if the rich were exempted, and only nine people suffered for + ten who suffer now, hydrophobia would forthwith, simply because it would + produce less evil than at present, become an argument against the divine + goodness! To state such a proposition, is to refute it. And is not the + malaria a respecter of persons? It infests Rome. Does it infest London? + There are complaints peculiar to the tropical countries. There are others + which are found only in mountainous districts; others which are confined + to marshy regions; others again which run in particular families. Is not + this partiality? Why is it more inconsistent with the divine goodness that + poor men should suffer an evil from which rich men are exempt, than that a + particular portion of the community should inherit gout, scrofula, + insanity, and other maladies? And are there no miseries under which, in + fact, the poor alone are suffering? Mr Sadler himself acknowledges, in + this very paragraph, that there are such; but he tells us that these + calamities are the effects of misgovernment, and that this misgovernment + is the effect of political economy. Be it so. But does he not see that he + is only removing the difficulty one step further? Why does Providence + suffer men, whose minds are filled with false and pernicious notions, to + have power in the state? For good ends, we doubt not, if the fact be so; + but for ends inscrutable to us, who see only a small part of the vast + scheme, and who see that small part only for a short period. Does Mr + Sadler doubt that the Supreme Being has power as absolute over the + revolutions of political as over the organisation of natural bodies? + Surely not: and, if not, we do not see that he vindicates the ways of + Providence by attributing the distresses, which the poor, as he confesses, + endure, to an error in legislation rather than to a law of physiology. + Turn the question as we may, disguise it as we may, we shall find that it + at last resolves itself into the same great enigma,—the origin of + physical and moral evil: an enigma which the highest human intellects have + given up in despair, but which Mr Sadler thinks himself perfectly able to + solve. + </p> + <p> + He next accuses us of having paused long on verbal criticism. We certainly + did object to his improper use of the words "inverse variation." Mr Sadler + complains of this with his usual bitterness. + </p> + <p> + "Now what is the Reviewer's quarrel with me on this occasion? That he does + not understand the meaning of my terms? No. He acknowledges the contrary. + That I have not fully explained the sense in which I have used them? No. + An explanation, he knows, is immediately subjoined, though he has + carefully suppressed it. That I have varied the sense in which I have + applied them? No. I challenge him to show it. But he nevertheless goes on + for many pages together in arguing against what he knows, and, in fact, + acknowledges, I did not mean; and then turns round and argues again, + though much more feebly, indeed, against what he says I did mean! Now, + even had I been in error as to the use of a word, I appeal to the reader + whether such an unworthy and disingenuous course would not, if generally + pursued, make controversy on all subjects, however important, that into + which, in such hands, it always degenerates—a dispute about words." + </p> + <p> + The best way to avoid controversies about words is to use words in their + proper senses. Mr Sadler may think our objection captious; but how he can + think it disingenuous we do not well understand. If we had represented him + as meaning what we knew that he did not mean, we should have acted in a + disgraceful manner. But we did not represent him, and he allows that we + did not represent him, as meaning what he did not mean. We blamed him, and + with perfect justice and propriety, for saying what he did not mean. Every + man has in one sense a right to define his own terms; that is to say, if + he chooses to call one two, and two seven, it would be absurd to charge + him with false arithmetic for saying that seven is the double of one. But + it would be perfectly fair to blame him for changing the established sense + of words. The words, "inverse variation," in matters not purely + scientific, have often been used in the loose way in which Mr Sadler has + used them. But we shall be surprised if he can find a single instance of + their having been so used in a matter of pure arithmetic. + </p> + <p> + We will illustrate our meaning thus. Lord Thurlow, in one of his speeches + about Indian affairs, said that one Hastings was worth twenty Macartneys. + He might, with equal propriety, have said ten Macartneys, or a hundred + Macartneys. Nor would there have been the least inconsistency in his using + all the three expressions in one speech. But would this be an excuse for a + financier who, in a matter of account, should reason as if ten, twenty, + and a hundred were the same number? + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler tells us that he purposely avoided the use of the word + proportion in stating his principle. He seems, therefore, to allow that + the word proportion would have been improper. Yet he did in fact employ it + in explaining his principle, accompanied with an awkward explanation + intended to signify that, though he said proportion, he meant something + quite different from proportion. We should not have said so much on this + subject either in our former article, or at present, but that there is in + all Mr Sadler's writings an air of scientific pedantry, which renders his + errors fair game. We will now let the matter rest; and, instead of + assailing Mr Sadler with our verbal criticism, proceed to defend ourselves + against his literal criticism. + </p> + <p> + "The Reviewer promised his readers that some curious results should follow + from his shuffling. We will enable him to keep his word. + </p> + <p> + "'In two English counties,' says he, 'which contain from 50 to 100 + inhabitants on the square mile, the births to 100 marriages are, according + to Mr Sadler, 420; but in 44 departments of France, in which there are + from one to two hecatares [hectares] to each inhabitant, that is to say, + in which the population is from 125 to 250, or rather more, to the square + mile, the number of births to one hundred marriages is 423 and a + fraction.' + </p> + <p> + "The first curious result is, that our Reviewer is ignorant, not only of + the name, but of the extent, of a French hectare; otherwise he is guilty + of a practice which, even if transferred to the gambling-table, would, I + presume, prevent him from being allowed ever to shuffle, even there, + again. He was most ready to pronounce upon a mistake of one per cent. in a + calculation of mine, the difference in no wise affecting the argument in + hand; but here I must inform him, that his error, whether wilfully or + ignorantly put forth, involves his entire argument. + </p> + <p> + "The French hectare I had calculated to contain 107,708 67/100 English + square feet, or 2 47265/100000 acres; Dr Kelly takes it, on authority + which he gives, at 107,644 143923/1000000 English square feet, or 2 + 471169/1000000 acres. The last French "Annuaires", however, state it, I + perceive, as being equal to 2 473614/1000000 acres. The difference is very + trifling, and will not in the slightest degree cover our critic's error. + The first calculation gives about 258 83/100 hectares to an English square + mile; the second, 258 73/100; the last, or French calculation 258 98/100. + When, therefore, the Reviewer calculates the population of the departments + of France thus: 'from one to two hectares to each inhabitant, that is to + say, in which the population is from 125 to 250, or rather more, to the + square mile; his 'that is to say,' is that which he ought not to have said—no + rare case with him, as we shall show throughout." + </p> + <p> + We must inform Mr Sadler, in the first place, that we inserted the vowel + which amuses him so much, not from ignorance or from carelessness, but + advisedly, and in conformity with the practice of several respectable + writers. He will find the word hecatare in Ree's Cyclopaedia. He will find + it also in Dr Young. We prefer the form which we have employed, because it + is etymologically correct. Mr Sadler seems not to know that a hecatare is + so-called, because it contains a hundred ares. + </p> + <p> + We were perfectly acquainted with the extent as well as with the name of a + hecatare. Is it at all strange that we should use the words "250, or + rather more," in speaking of 258 and a fraction? Do not people constantly + employ round numbers with still greater looseness, in translating foreign + distances and foreign money? If indeed, as Mr Sadler says, the difference + which he chooses to call an error involved the entire argument, or any + part of the argument, we should have been guilty of gross unfairness. But + it is not so. The difference between 258 and 250, as even Mr Sadler would + see if he were not blind with fury, was a difference to his advantage. Our + point was this. The fecundity of a dense population in certain departments + of France is greater than that of a thinly scattered population in certain + counties of England. The more dense, therefore, the population in those + departments of France, the stronger was our case. By putting 250, instead + of 258, we understated our case. Mr Sadler's correction of our orthography + leads us to suspect that he knows very little of Greek; and his correction + of our calculation quite satisfies us that he knows very little of logic. + </p> + <p> + But, to come to the gist of the controversy. Our argument, drawn from Mr + Sadler's own tables, remains absolutely untouched. He makes excuses + indeed; for an excuse is the last thing that Mr Sadler will ever want. + There is something half laughable and half provoking in the facility with + which he asserts and retracts, says and unsays, exactly as suits his + argument. Sometimes the register of baptisms is imperfect, and sometimes + the register of burials. Then again these registers become all at once + exact almost to an unit. He brings forward a census of Prussia in proof of + his theory. We show that it directly confutes his theory; and it forthwith + becomes "notoriously and grossly defective." The census of the Netherlands + is not to be easily dealt with; and the census of the Netherlands is + therefore pronounced inaccurate. In his book on the Law of Population, he + tells us that "in the slave-holding States of America, the male slaves + constitute a decided majority of that unfortunate class." This fact we + turned against him; and, forgetting that he had himself stated it, he + tells us that "it is as erroneous as many other ideas which we entertain," + and that "he will venture to assert that the female slaves were, at the + nubile age, as numerous as the males." The increase of the negroes in the + United States puzzles him; and he creates a vast slave-trade to solve it. + He confounds together things perfectly different; the slave-trade carried + on under the American flag, and the slave-trade carried on for the supply + of the American soil,—the slave-trade with Africa, and the internal + slave-trade between the different States. He exaggerates a few occasional + acts of smuggling into an immense and regular importation, and makes his + escape as well as he can under cover of this hubbub of words. Documents + are authentic and facts true precisely in proportion to the support which + they afford to his theory. This is one way, undoubtedly, of making books; + but we question much whether it be the way to make discoveries. + </p> + <p> + As to the inconsistencies which we pointed out between his theory and his + own tables, he finds no difficulty in explaining them away or facing them + out. In one case there would have been no contradiction if, instead of + taking one of his tables, we had multiplied the number of three tables + together, and taken the average. Another would never have existed if there + had not been a great migration of people into Lancashire. Another is not + to be got over by any device. But then it is very small, and of no + consequence to the argument. + </p> + <p> + Here, indeed, he is perhaps right. The inconsistencies which we noticed, + were, in themselves, of little moment. We give them as samples,—as + mere hints, to caution those of our readers who might also happen to be + readers of Mr Sadler against being deceived by his packing. He complains + of the word packing. We repeat it; and, since he has defied us to the + proof, we will go fully into the question which, in our last article, we + only glanced at, and prove, in such a manner as shall not leave even to Mr + Sadler any shadow of excuse, that his theory owes its speciousness to + packing, and to packing alone. + </p> + <p> + That our readers may fully understand our reasoning, we will again state + what Mr Sadler's proposition is. He asserts that, on a given space, the + number of children to a marriage becomes less and less as the population + becomes more and more numerous. + </p> + <p> + We will begin with the census of France given by Mr Sadler. By joining the + departments together in combinations which suit his purpose, he has + contrived to produce three tables, which he presents as decisive proofs of + his theory. + </p> + <p> + The first is as follows:— + </p> + <p> + "The legitimate births are, in those departments where there are to each + inhabitant— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Hectares Departments To every 1000 marriages + + 4 to 5 2 130 + 3 to 4 3 4372 + 2 to 3 30 4250 + 1 to 2 44 4234 + .06 to 1 5 4146 + .06 1 2657 +</pre> + <p> + The two other computations he has given in one table. We subjoin it. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Hect. to each Number of Legit. Births to Legit. Births to + Inhabitant Departments 100 Marriages 100 Mar. (1826) + + 4 to 5 2 497 397 + 3 to 4 3 439 389 + 2 to 3 30 424 379 + 1 to 2 44 420 375 + under 1 5 415 372 + and .06 1 263 253 +</pre> + <p> + These tables, as we said in our former article, certainly look well for Mr + Sadler's theory. "Do they?" says he. "Assuredly they do; and in admitting + this, the Reviewer has admitted the theory to be proved." We cannot + absolutely agree to this. A theory is not proved, we must tell Mr Sadler, + merely because the evidence in its favour looks well at first sight. There + is an old proverb, very homely in expression, but well deserving to be had + in constant remembrance by all men, engaged either in action or in + speculation—"One story is good till another is told!" + </p> + <p> + We affirm, then, that the results which these tables present, and which + seem so favourable to Mr Sadler's theory, are produced by packing, and by + packing alone. + </p> + <p> + In the first place, if we look at the departments singly, the whole is in + disorder. About the department in which Paris is situated there is no + dispute: Mr Malthus distinctly admits that great cities prevent + propagation. There remain eighty-four departments; and of these there is + not, we believe, a single one in the place which, according to Mr Sadler's + principle, it ought to occupy. + </p> + <p> + That which ought to be highest in fecundity is tenth in one table, + fourteenth in another, and only thirty-first according to the third. That + which ought to be third is twenty-second by the table, which places it + highest. That which ought to be fourth is fortieth by the table, which + places it highest. That which ought to be eighth is fiftieth or sixtieth. + That which ought to be tenth from the top is at about the same distance + from the bottom. On the other hand, that which, according to Mr Sadler's + principle, ought to be last but two of all the eighty-four is third in two + of the tables, and seventh in that which places it lowest; and that which + ought to be last is, in one of Mr Sadler's tables, above that which ought + to be first, in two of them, above that which ought to be third, and, in + all of them, above that which ought to be fourth. + </p> + <p> + By dividing the departments in a particular manner, Mr Sadler has produced + results which he contemplates with great satisfaction. But, if we draw the + lines a little higher up or a little lower down, we shall find that all + his calculations are thrown into utter confusion; and that the phenomena, + if they indicate anything, indicate a law the very reverse of that which + he has propounded. + </p> + <p> + Let us take, for example, the thirty-two departments, as they stand in Mr + Sadler's table, from Lozere to Meuse inclusive, and divide them into two + sets of sixteen departments each. The set from Lozere and Loiret inclusive + consists of those departments in which the space to each inhabitant is + from 3.8 hecatares to 2.42. The set from Cantal to Meuse inclusive + consists of those departments in which the space to each inhabitant is + from 2.42 hecatares to 2.07. That is to say, in the former set the + inhabitants are from 68 to 107 on the square mile, or thereabouts. In the + latter they are from 107 to 125. Therefore, on Mr Sadler's principle, the + fecundity ought to be smaller in the latter set than in the former. It is, + however, greater, and that in every one of Mr Sadler's three tables. + </p> + <p> + Let us now go a little lower down, and take another set of sixteen + departments—those which lie together in Mr Sadler's tables, from + Herault to Jura inclusive. Here the population is still thicker than in + the second of those sets which we before compared. The fecundity, + therefore, ought, on Mr Sadler's principle, to be less than in that set. + But it is again greater, and that in all Mr Sadler's three tables. We have + a regularly ascending series, where, if his theory had any truth in it, we + ought to have a regularly descending series. We will give the results of + our calculation. + </p> + <p> + The number of children to 1000 marriages is— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 1st Table 2nd Table 3rd Table + + In the sixteen departments where + there are from 68 to 107 people + on a square mile................ 4188 4226 3780 + + In the sixteen departments where + there are from 107 to 125 people + on a square mile................ 4374 4332 3855 + + In the sixteen departments where + there are from 134 to 155 people + on a square mile................ 4484 4416 3914 +</pre> + <p> + We will give another instance, if possible still more decisive. We will + take the three departments of France which ought, on Mr Sadler's + principle, to be the lowest in fecundity of all the eighty-five, saving + only that in which Paris stands; and we will compare them with the three + departments in which the fecundity ought, according to him, to be greater + than in any other department of France, two only excepted. We will compare + Bas Rhin, Rhone, and Nord, with Lozere, Landes, and Indre. In Lozere, + Landes, and Indre, the population is from 68 to 84 on the square mile or + nearly so. In Bas Rhin, Rhone, and Nord, it is from 300 to 417 on the + square mile. There cannot be a more overwhelming answer to Mr Sadler's + theory than the table which we subjoin: + </p> + <p> + The number of births to 1000 marriages is— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 1st Table 2nd Table 3rd Table + + In the three departments in which + there are from 68 to 84 people + on the square mile............... 4372 4390 3890 + + In the three departments in which + there are from 300 to 417 people + on the square mile............... 4457 4510 4060 +</pre> + <p> + These are strong cases. But we have a still stronger case. Take the whole + of the third, fourth, and fifth divisions into which Mr Sadler has + portioned out the French departments. These three divisions make up almost + the whole kingdom of France. They contain seventy-nine out of the + eighty-five departments. Mr Sadler has contrived to divide them in such a + manner that, to a person who looks merely at his averages, the fecundity + seems to diminish as the population thickens. We will separate them into + two parts instead of three. We will draw the line between the department + of Gironde and that of Herault. On the one side are the thirty-two + departments from Cher to Gironde inclusive. On the other side are the + forty-six departments from Herault to Nord inclusive. In all the + departments of the former set, the population is under 132 on the square + mile. In all the departments of the latter set, it is above 132 on the + square mile. It is clear that, if there be one word of truth in Mr + Sadler's theory, the fecundity in the latter of these divisions must be + very decidedly smaller than in the former. Is it so? It is, on the + contrary, greater in all the three tables. We give the result. + </p> + <p> + The number of births to 1000 marriages is— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 1st Table 2nd Table 3rd Table + + In the thirty-two departments in + which there are from 86 to 132 + people on the square mile....... 4210 4199 3760 + + In the forty-seven departments in + which there are from 132 to 417 + people on the square mile........ 4250 4224 3766 +</pre> + <p> + This fact is alone enough to decide the question. Yet it is only one of a + crowd of similar facts. If the line between Mr Sadler's second and third + division be drawn six departments lower down, the third and fourth + divisions will, in all the tables, be above the second. If the line + between the third and fourth divisions be drawn two departments lower + down, the fourth division will be above the third in all the tables. If + the line between the fourth and fifth division be drawn two departments + lower down, the fifth will, in all the tables, be above the fourth, above + the third, and even above the second. How, then, has Mr Sadler obtained + his results? By packing solely. By placing in one compartment a district + no larger than the Isle of Wight; in another, a district somewhat less + than Yorkshire; in the third, a territory much larger than the island of + Great Britain. + </p> + <p> + By the same artifice it is that he has obtained from the census of England + those delusive averages which he brings forward with the utmost + ostentation in proof of his principle. We will examine the facts relating + to England, as we have examined those relating to France. + </p> + <p> + If we look at the counties one by one, Mr Sadler's principle utterly + fails. Hertfordshire with 251 on the square mile; Worcester with 258; and + Kent with 282, exhibit a far greater fecundity than the East Riding of + York, which has 151 on the square mile; Monmouthshire, which has 145; or + Northumberland, which has 108. The fecundity of Staffordshire, which has + more than 300 on the square mile, is as high as the average fecundity of + the counties which have from 150 to 200 on the square mile. But, instead + of confining ourselves to particular instances, we will try masses. + </p> + <p> + Take the eight counties of England which stand together in Mr Sadler's + list, from Cumberland to Dorset inclusive. In these the population is from + 107 to 150 on the square mile. Compare with these the eight counties from + Berks to Durham inclusive, in which the population is from 175 to 200 on + the square mile. Is the fecundity in the latter counties smaller than in + the former? On the contrary, the result stands thus: + </p> + <p> + The number of children to 100 marriages is— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + In the eight counties of England, in which there are + from 107 to 146 people on the square mile............. 388 + + In the eight counties of England, in which there are + from 175 to 200 people on the square mile..............402 +</pre> + <p> + Take the six districts from the East Riding of York to the County of + Norfolk inclusive. Here the population is from 150 to 170 on the square + mile. To these oppose the six counties from Derby to Worcester inclusive. + The population is from 200 to 260. Here again we find that a law, directly + the reverse of that which Mr Sadler has laid down, appears to regulate the + fecundity of the inhabitants. + </p> + <p> + The number of children to 100 marriages is— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + In the six counties in which there are from 150 to 170 + people on the square mile................................392 + + In the six counties in which there are from 200 to 260 + people on the square mile................................399 +</pre> + <p> + But we will make another experiment on Mr Sadler's tables, if possible + more decisive than any of those which we have hitherto made. We will take + the four largest divisions into which he has distributed the English + counties, and which follow each other in regular order. That our readers + may fully comprehend the nature of that packing by which his theory is + supported, we will set before them this part of his table. + </p> + <p> + (Here follows a table showing for population on a square mile the + proportion of births to 100 marriages, based on figures for the years 1810 + to 1821. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 100 to 150...396 + 150 to 200...390 + 200 to 250...388 + 250 to 300...378) +</pre> + <p> + These averages look well, undoubtedly, for Mr Sadler's theory. The numbers + 396, 390, 388, 378, follow each other very speciously in a descending + order. But let our readers divide these thirty-four counties into two + equal sets of seventeen counties each, and try whether the principle will + then hold good. We have made this calculation, and we present them with + the following result. + </p> + <p> + The number of children to 100 marriages is— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + In the seventeen counties of England in which there + are from 100 to 177 people on the square mile..........387 + + In the seventeen counties in which there + are from 177 to 282 people on the square mile..........389 +</pre> + <p> + The difference is small, but not smaller than differences which Mr Sadler + has brought forward as proofs of his theory. We say that these English + tables no more prove that fecundity increases with the population than + that it diminishes with the population. The thirty-four counties which we + have taken make up, at least four-fifths of the kingdom: and we see that, + through those thirty-four counties, the phenomena are directly opposed to + Mr Sadler's principle. That in the capital, and in great manufacturing + towns, marriages are less prolific than in the open country, we admit, and + Mr Malthus admits. But that any condensation of the population, short of + that which injures all physical energies, will diminish the prolific + powers of man, is, from these very tables of Mr Sadler, completely + disproved. + </p> + <p> + It is scarcely worth while to proceed with instances, after proofs so + overwhelming as those which we have given. Yet we will show that Mr Sadler + has formed his averages on the census of Prussia by an artifice exactly + similar to that which we have already exposed. + </p> + <p> + Demonstrating the Law of Population from the Censuses of Prussia at two + several Periods. + </p> + <p> + (Here follows a table showing for inhabitants on a square league the + average number of births to each marriage from two different censuses.) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 1756 1784 + + 832 to 928...4.34 and 4.72 + 1175 to 1909...4.14 and 4.45 (including East Prussia at 1175) + 2083 to 2700...3.84 and 4.24 + 3142 to 3461...3.65 and 4.08 +</pre> + <p> + Of the census of 1756 we will say nothing, as Mr Sadler, finding himself + hard pressed by the argument which we drew from it, now declares it to be + grossly defective. We confine ourselves to the census of 1784: and we will + draw our lines at points somewhat different from those at which Mr Sadler + has drawn his. Let the first compartment remain as it stands. Let East + Prussia, which contains a much larger population than his last + compartment, stand alone in the second division. Let the third consist of + the New Mark, the Mark of Brandenburg, East Friesland and Guelderland, and + the fourth of the remaining provinces. Our readers will find that, on this + arrangement, the division which, on Mr Sadler's principle, ought to be + second in fecundity stands higher than that which ought to be first; and + that the division which ought to be fourth stands higher than that which + ought to be third. We will give the result in one view. + </p> + <p> + The number of births to a marriage is— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + In those provinces of Prussia where there are fewer than + 1000 people on the square league.......................4.72 + + In the province in which there are 1175 people on the + square league..........................................5.10 + + In the provinces in which there are from 1190 to 2083 + people on the square league............................4.10 + + In the provinces in which there are from 2314 to 3461 + people on the square league............................4.27 +</pre> + <p> + We will go no further with this examination. In fact, we have nothing more + to examine. The tables which we have scrutinised constitute the whole + strength of Mr Sadler's case; and we confidently leave it to our readers + to say, whether we have not shown that the strength of his case is + weakness. + </p> + <p> + Be it remembered too that we are reasoning on data furnished by Mr Sadler + himself. We have not made collections of facts to set against his, as we + easily might have done. It is on his own showing, it is out of his own + mouth, that his theory stands condemned. + </p> + <p> + That packing which we have exposed is not the only sort of packing which + Mr Sadler has practised. We mentioned in our review some facts relating to + the towns of England, which appear from Mr Sadler's tables, and which it + seems impossible to explain if his principles be sound. The average + fecundity of a marriage in towns of fewer than 3000 inhabitants is greater + than the average fecundity of the kingdom. The average fecundity in towns + of from 4000 to 5000 inhabitants is greater than the average fecundity of + Warwickshire, Lancashire, or Surrey. How is it, we asked, if Mr Sadler's + principle be correct, that the fecundity of Guildford should be greater + than the average fecundity of the county in which it stands? + </p> + <p> + Mr Sadler, in reply, talks about "the absurdity of comparing the fecundity + in the small towns alluded to with that in the counties of Warwick and + Stafford, or in those of Lancaster and Surrey." He proceeds thus— + </p> + <p> + "In Warwickshire, far above half the population is comprised in large + towns, including, of course, the immense metropolis of one great branch of + our manufactures, Birmingham. In the county of Stafford, besides the large + and populous towns in its iron districts, situated so close together as + almost to form, for considerable distances, a continuous street; there is, + in its potteries, a great population, recently accumulated, not included, + indeed, in the towns distinctly enumerated in the censuses, but vastly + exceeding in its condensation that found in the places to which the + Reviewer alludes. In Lancashire, again, to which he also appeals, + one-fourth of the entire population is made up of the inhabitants of two + only of the towns of that county; far above half of it is contained in + towns, compared with which those he refers to are villages: even the + hamlets of the manufacturing parts of Lancashire are often far more + populous than the places he mentions. But he presents us with a climax of + absurdity in appealing lastly to the population of Surrey as quite rural + compared with that of the twelve towns having less than 5000 inhabitants + in their respective jurisdictions, such as Saffron-Walden, Monmouth, etc. + Now, in the last census, Surrey numbered 398,658 inhabitants, and to say + not a word about the other towns of the county, much above two hundred + thousands of these are WITHIN THE BILLS OF MORTALITY! 'We should, + therefore, be glad to know' how it is utterly inconsistent with my + principle that the fecundity of Guildford, which numbers about 3000 + inhabitants, should be greater than the average fecundity of Surrey, made + up, as the bulk of the population of Surrey is, of the inhabitants of some + of the worst parts of the metropolis? Or why the fecundity of a given + number of marriages in the eleven little rural towns he alludes to, being + somewhat higher than that of an equal number, half taken, for instance, + from the heart of Birmingham or Manchester, and half from the populous + districts by which they are surrounded, is inconsistent with my theory? + </p> + <p> + "Had the Reviewer's object, in this instance, been to discover the truth, + or had he known how to pursue it, it is perfectly clear, at first sight, + that he would not have instituted a comparison between the prolificness + which exists in the small towns he has alluded to, and that in certain + districts, the population of which is made up, partly of rural inhabitants + and partly of accumulations of people in immense masses, the prolificness + of which, if he will allow me still the use of the phrase, is inversely as + their magnitude; but he would have compared these small towns with the + country places properly so called, and then again the different classes of + towns with each other; this method would have led him to certain + conclusions on the subject." + </p> + <p> + Now, this reply shows that Mr Sadler does not in the least understand the + principle which he has himself laid down. What is that principle? It is + this, that the fecundity of human beings ON GIVEN SPACES, varies inversely + as their numbers. We know what he means by inverse variation. But we must + suppose that he uses the words, "given spaces," in the proper sense. Given + spaces are equal spaces. Is there any reason to believe, that in those + parts of Surrey which lie within the bills of mortality, there is any + space equal in area to the space on which Guildford stands, which is more + thickly peopled than the space on which Guildford stands? We do not know + that there is any such. We are sure that there are not many. Why, + therefore, on Mr Sadler's principle, should the people of Guildford be + more prolific than the people who live within the bills of mortality? And, + if the people of Guildford ought, as on Mr Sadler's principle they + unquestionably ought, to stand as low in the scale of fecundity as the + people of Southwark itself, it follows, most clearly, that they ought to + stand far lower than the average obtained by taking all the people of + Surrey together. + </p> + <p> + The same remark applies to the case of Birmingham, and to all the other + cases which Mr Sadler mentions. Towns of 5000 inhabitants may be, and + often are, as thickly peopled "on a given space," as Birmingham. They are, + in other words, as thickly peopled as a portion of Birmingham, equal to + them in area. If so, on Mr Sadler's principle, they ought to be as low in + the scale of fecundity as Birmingham. But they are not so. On the + contrary, they stand higher than the average obtained by taking the + fecundity of Birmingham in combination with the fecundity of the rural + districts of Warwickshire. + </p> + <p> + The plain fact is, that Mr Sadler has confounded the population of a city + with its population "on a given space,"—a mistake which, in a + gentleman who assures us that mathematical science was one of his early + and favourite studies, is somewhat curious. It is as absurd, on his + principle, to say that the fecundity of London ought to be less than the + fecundity of Edinburgh, because London has a greater population than + Edinburgh, as to say that the fecundity of Russia ought to be greater than + that of England, because Russia has a greater population than England. He + cannot say that the spaces on which towns stand are too small to exemplify + the truth of his principle. For he has himself brought forward the scale + of fecundity in towns, as a proof of his principle. And, in the very + passage which we quoted above, he tells us that, if we knew how to pursue + truth or wished to find it, we "should have compared these small towns + with country places, and the different classes of towns with each other." + That is to say, we ought to compare together such unequal spaces as give + results favourable to his theory, and never to compare such equal spaces + as give results opposed to it. Does he mean anything by "a given space?" + Or does he mean merely such a space as suits his argument? It is perfectly + clear that, if he is allowed to take this course, he may prove anything. + No fact can come amiss to him. Suppose, for example, that the fecundity of + New York should prove to be smaller than the fecundity of Liverpool. + "That," says Mr Sadler, "makes for my theory. For there are more people + within two miles of the Broadway of New York, than within two miles of the + Exchange of Liverpool." Suppose, on the other hand, that the fecundity of + New York should be greater than the fecundity of Liverpool. "This," says + Mr Sadler again, "is an unanswerable proof of my theory. For there are + many more people within forty miles of Liverpool than within forty miles + of New York." In order to obtain his numbers, he takes spaces in any + combinations which may suit him. In order to obtain his averages, he takes + numbers in any combinations which may suit him. And then he tells us that, + because his tables, at the first glance, look well for his theory, his + theory is irrefragably proved. + </p> + <p> + We will add a few words respecting the argument which we drew from the + peerage. Mr Sadler asserted that the peers were a class condemned by + nature to sterility. We denied this, and showed from the last edition of + Debrett, that the peers of the United Kingdom have considerably more than + the average number of children to a marriage. Mr Sadler's answer has + amused us much. He denies the accuracy of our counting, and, by reckoning + all the Scotch and Irish peers as peers of the United Kingdom, certainly + makes very different numbers from those which we gave. A member of the + Parliament of the United Kingdom might have been expected, we think, to + know better what a peer of the United Kingdom is. + </p> + <p> + By taking the Scotch and Irish peers, Mr Sadler has altered the average. + But it is considerably higher than the average fecundity of England, and + still, therefore, constitutes an unanswerable argument against his theory. + </p> + <p> + The shifts to which, in this difficulty, he has recourse, are exceedingly + diverting. "The average fecundity of the marriages of peers," said we, "is + higher by one-fifth than the average fecundity of marriages throughout the + kingdom." + </p> + <p> + "Where, or by whom did the Reviewer find it supposed," answers Mr Sadler, + "that the registered baptisms expressed the full fecundity of the + marriages of England?" + </p> + <p> + Assuredly, if the registers of England are so defective as to explain the + difference which, on our calculation, exists between the fecundity of the + peers and the fecundity of the people, no argument against Mr Sadler's + theory can be drawn from that difference. But what becomes of all the + other arguments which Mr Sadler has founded on these very registers? Above + all, what becomes of his comparison between the censuses of England and + France? In the pamphlet before us, he dwells with great complacency on a + coincidence which seems to him to support his theory, and which to us + seems, of itself, sufficient to overthrow it. + </p> + <p> + "In my table of the population of France in the forty-four departments in + which there are from one to two hectares to each inhabitant, the fecundity + of 100 marriages, calculated on the average of the results of the three + computations relating to different periods given in my table, is 406 7/10. + In the twenty-two counties of England in which there is from one to two + hectares to each inhabitant, or from 129 to 259 on the square mile,—beginning, + therefore, with Huntingdonshire, and ending with Worcestershire,—the + whole number of marriages during ten years will be found to amount to + 379,624, and the whole number of the births during the same term to + 1,545,549—or 407 1/10 births to 100 marriages! A difference of one + in one thousand only, compared with the French proportion!" + </p> + <p> + Does not Mr Sadler see that, if the registers of England, which are + notoriously very defective, give a result exactly corresponding almost to + an unit with that obtained from the registers of France, which are + notoriously very full and accurate, this proves the very reverse of what + he employs it to prove? The correspondence of the registers proves that + there is no correspondence in the facts. In order to raise the average + fecundity of England even to the level of the average fecundity of the + peers of the three kingdoms, which is 3.81 to a marriage, it is necessary + to add nearly six per cent. to the number of births given in the English + registers. But, if this addition be made, we shall have, in the counties + of England, from Huntingdonshire to Worcestershire inclusive, 4.30 births + to a marriage or thereabouts: and the boasted coincidence between the + phenomena of propagation in France and England disappears at once. This is + a curious specimen of Mr Sadler's proficiency in the art of making + excuses. In the same pamphlet he reasons as if the same registers were + accurate to one in a thousand, and as if they were wrong at the very least + by one in eighteen. + </p> + <p> + He tries to show that we have not taken a fair criterion of the fecundity + of the peers. We are not quite sure that we understand his reasoning on + this subject. The order of his observations is more than usually confused, + and the cloud of words more than usually thick. We will give the argument + on which he seems to lay most stress in his own words:— + </p> + <p> + "But I shall first notice a far more obvious and important blunder into + which the Reviewer has fallen; or into which, I rather fear, he knowingly + wishes to precipitate his readers, since I have distinctly pointed out + what ought to have preserved him from it in the very chapter he is + criticising and contradicting. It is this:—he has entirely omitted + 'counting' the sterile marriages of all those peerages which have become + extinct during the very period his counting embraces. He counts, for + instance, Earl Fitzwilliam, his marriages, and heir; but has he not + omitted to enumerate the marriages of those branches of the same noble + house, which have become extinct since that venerable individual possessed + his title? He talks of my having appealed merely to the extinction of + peerages in my argument; but, on his plan of computation, extinctions are + perpetually and wholly lost sight of. In computing the average + prolificness of the marriages of the nobles, he positively counts from a + select class of them only, one from which the unprolific are constantly + weeded, and regularly disappear; and he thus comes to the conclusion, that + the peers are 'an eminently prolific class!' Just as though a farmer + should compute the rate of increase; not from the quantity of seed sown, + but from that part of it only which comes to perfection, entirely omitting + all which had failed to spring up or come to maturity. Upon this principle + the most scanty crop ever obtained, in which the husbandman should fail to + receive 'seed again,' as the phrase is, might be so 'counted' as to appear + 'eminently prolific' indeed." + </p> + <p> + If we understand this passage rightly, it decisively proves that Mr Sadler + is incompetent to perform even the lowest offices of statistical research. + What shadow of reason is there to believe that the peers who were alive in + the year 1828 differed as to their prolificness from any other equally + numerous set of peers taken at random? In what sense were the peers who + were alive in 1828 analogous to that part of the seed which comes to + perfection? Did we entirely omit all that failed? On the contrary, we + counted the sterile as well as the fruitful marriages of all the peers of + the United Kingdom living at one time. In what way were the peers who were + alive in 1828 a select class? In what way were the sterile weeded from + among them? Did every peer who had been married without having issue die + in 1827? What shadow of reason is there to suppose that there was not the + ordinary proportion of barren marriages among the marriages contracted by + the noblemen whose names are in Debrett's last edition? But we ought, says + Mr Sadler, to have counted all the sterile marriages of all the peers + "whose titles had become extinct during the period which our counting + embraced;" that is to say, since the earliest marriage contracted by any + peer living in 1828. Was such a proposition ever heard of before? Surely + we were bound to do no such thing, unless at the same time we had counted + also the children born from all the fruitful marriages contracted by peers + during the same period. Mr Sadler would have us divide the number of + children born to peers living in 1828, not by the number of marriages + which those peers contracted, but by the number of marriages which those + peers contracted added to a crowd of marriages selected, on account of + their sterility, from among the noble marriages which have taken place + during the last fifty years. Is this the way to obtain fair averages? We + might as well require that all the noble marriages which during the last + fifty years have produced ten children apiece should be added to those of + the peers living in 1828. The proper way to ascertain whether a set of + people be prolific or sterile is, not to take marriages selected from the + mass either on account of their fruitfulness or on account of their + sterility, but to take a collection of marriages which there is no reason + to think either more or less fruitful than others. What reason is there to + think that the marriages contracted by the peers who were alive in 1828 + were more fruitful than those contracted by the peers who were alive in + 1800 or in 1750? + </p> + <p> + We will add another passage from Mr Sadler's pamphlet on this subject. We + attributed the extinction of peerages partly to the fact that those + honours are for the most part limited to heirs male. + </p> + <p> + "This is a discovery indeed! Peeresses 'eminently prolific,' do not, as + Macbeth conjured his spouse, 'bring forth men-children only;' they + actually produce daughters as well as sons!! Why, does not the Reviewer + see, that so long as the rule of nature, which proportions the sexes so + accurately to each other, continues to exist, a tendency to a diminution + in one sex proves, as certainly as the demonstration of any mathematical + problem, a tendency to a diminution in both; but to talk of 'eminently + prolific' peeresses, and still maintain that the rapid extinction in + peerages is owing to their not bearing male children exclusively, is + arrant nonsense." + </p> + <p> + Now, if there be any proposition on the face of the earth which we should + not have expected to hear characterised as arrant nonsense, it is this,—that + an honour limited to males alone is more likely to become extinct than an + honour which, like the crown of England, descends indifferently to sons + and daughters. We have heard, nay, we actually know families, in which, + much as Mr Sadler may marvel at it, there are daughters and no sons. Nay, + we know many such families. We are as much inclined as Mr Sadler to trace + the benevolent and wise arrangements of Providence in the physical world, + when once we are satisfied as to the facts on which we proceed. And we + have always considered it as an arrangement deserving of the highest + admiration, that, though in families the number of males and females + differs widely, yet in great collections of human beings the disparity + almost disappears. The chance undoubtedly is, that in a thousand marriages + the number of daughters will not very much exceed the number of sons. But + the chance also is, that several of those marriages will produce + daughters, and daughters only. In every generation of the peerage there + are several such cases. When a peer whose title is limited to male heirs + dies, leaving only daughters, his peerage must expire, unless he have, not + only a collateral heir, but a collateral heir descended through an + uninterrupted line of males from the first possessor of the honour. If the + deceased peer was the first nobleman of his family, then, by the + supposition, his peerage will become extinct. If he was the second, it + will become extinct, unless he leaves a brother or a brother's son. If the + second peer had a brother, the first peer must have had at least two sons; + and this is more than the average number of sons to a marriage in England. + When, therefore, it is considered how many peerages are in the first and + second generation, it will not appear strange that extinctions should + frequently take place. There are peerages which descend to females as well + as males. But, in such cases, if a peer dies, leaving only daughters, the + very fecundity of the marriage is a cause of the extinction of the + peerage. If there were only one daughter, the honour would descend. If + there are several, it falls into abeyance. + </p> + <p> + But it is needless to multiply words in a case so clear; and, indeed it is + needless to say anything more about Mr Sadler's book. We have, if we do + not deceive ourselves, completely exposed the calculations on which his + theory rests; and we do not think that we should either amuse our readers + or serve the cause of science if we were to rebut in succession a series + of futile charges brought in the most angry spirit against ourselves; + ignorant imputations of ignorance, and unfair complaints of unfairness,—conveyed + in long, dreary, declamations, so prolix that we cannot find space to + quote them, and so confused that we cannot venture to abridge them. + </p> + <p> + There is much indeed in this foolish pamphlet to laugh at, from the motto + in the first page down to some wisdom about cows in the last. One part of + it indeed is solemn enough, we mean a certain jeu d'esprit of Mr Sadler's + touching a tract of Dr Arbuthnot's. This is indeed "very tragical mirth," + as Peter Quince's playbill has it; and we would not advise any person who + reads for amusement to venture on it as long as he can procure a volume of + the Statutes at Large. This, however, to do Mr Sadler justice, is an + exception. His witticisms, and his tables of figures, constitute the only + parts of his work which can be perused with perfect gravity. His blunders + are diverting, his excuses exquisitely comic. But his anger is the most + grotesque exhibition that we ever saw. He foams at the mouth with the love + of truth, and vindicates the Divine benevolence with a most edifying + heartiness of hatred. On this subject we will give him one word of parting + advice. If he raves in this way to ease his mind, or because he thinks + that he does himself credit by it, or from a sense of religious duty, far + be it from us to interfere. His peace, his reputation, and his religion + are his own concern; and he, like the nobleman to whom his treatise is + dedicated, has a right to do what he will with his own. But, if he has + adopted his abusive style from a notion that it would hurt our feelings, + we must inform him that he is altogether mistaken; and that he would do + well in future to give us his arguments, if he has any, and to keep his + anger for those who fear it. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MIRABEAU. (July 1832.) + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Souvenirs sur Mirabeau, et sur les deux Premieres + Assemblees Legislatives". Par Etienne Dumont, de Geneve: + ouvrage posthume publie par M.J.L. Duval, Membre du Conseil + Representatif du Canton du Geneve. 8vo. Paris: 1832. +</pre> + <p> + This is a very amusing and a very instructive book: but even if it were + less amusing and less instructive, it would still be interesting as a + relic of a wise and virtuous man. M. Dumont was one of those persons, the + care of whose fame belongs in an especial manner to mankind. For he was + one of those persons who have, for the sake of mankind, neglected the care + of their own fame. In his walk through life there was no obtrusiveness, no + pushing, no elbowing, none of the little arts which bring forward little + men. With every right to the head of the board, he took the lowest room, + and well deserved to be greeted with—Friend, go up higher. Though no + man was more capable of achieving for himself a separate and independent + renown, he attached himself to others; he laboured to raise their fame; he + was content to receive as his share of the reward the mere overflowings + which redounded from the full measure of their glory. Not that he was of a + servile and idolatrous habit of mind:—not that he was one of the + tribe of Boswells,—those literary Gibeonites, born to be hewers of + wood and drawers of water to the higher intellectual castes. Possessed of + talents and acquirements which made him great, he wished only to be + useful. In the prime of manhood, at the very time of life at which + ambitious men are most ambitious, he was not solicitous to proclaim that + he furnished information, arguments, and eloquence to Mirabeau. In his + later years he was perfectly willing that his renown should merge in that + of Mr Bentham. + </p> + <p> + The services which M. Dumont has rendered to society can be fully + appreciated only by those who have studied Mr Bentham's works, both in + their rude and in their finished state. The difference both for show and + for use is as great as the difference between a lump of golden ore and a + rouleau of sovereigns fresh from the mint. Of Mr Bentham we would at all + times speak with the reverence which is due to a great original thinker, + and to a sincere and ardent friend of the human race. If a few weaknesses + were mingled with his eminent virtues,—if a few errors insinuated + themselves among the many valuable truths which he taught,—this is + assuredly no time for noticing those weaknesses or those errors in an + unkind or sarcastic spirit. A great man has gone from among us, full of + years, of good works, and of deserved honours. In some of the highest + departments in which the human intellect can exert itself he has not left + his equal or his second behind him. From his contemporaries he has had, + according to the usual lot, more or less than justice. He has had blind + flatterers and blind detractors—flatterers who could see nothing but + perfection in his style, detractors who could see nothing but nonsense in + his matter. He will now have judges. Posterity will pronounce its calm and + impartial decision; and that decision will, we firmly believe, place in + the same rank with Galileo, and with Locke, the man who found + jurisprudence a gibberish and left it a science. Never was there a + literary partnership so fortunate as that of Mr Bentham and M. Dumont. The + raw material which Mr Bentham furnished was most precious; but it was + unmarketable. He was, assuredly, at once a great logician and a great + rhetorician. But the effect of his logic was injured by a vicious + arrangement, and the effect of his rhetoric by a vicious style. His mind + was vigorous, comprehensive, subtile, fertile of arguments, fertile of + illustrations. But he spoke in an unknown tongue; and, that the + congregation might be edified, it was necessary that some brother having + the gift of interpretation should expound the invaluable jargon. His + oracles were of high import; but they were traced on leaves and flung + loose to the wind. So negligent was he of the arts of selection, + distribution, and compression, that to persons who formed their judgment + of him from his works in their undigested state he seemed to be the least + systematic of all philosophers. The truth is, that his opinions formed a + system, which, whether sound or unsound, is more exact, more entire, and + more consistent with itself than any other. Yet to superficial readers of + his works in their original form, and indeed to all readers of those works + who did not bring great industry and great acuteness to the study, he + seemed to be a man of a quick and ingenious but ill-regulated mind,—who + saw truth only by glimpses,—who threw out many striking hints, but + who had never thought of combining his doctrines in one harmonious whole. + </p> + <p> + M. Dumont was admirably qualified to supply what was wanting in Mr + Bentham. In the qualities in which the French writers surpass those of all + other nations—neatness, clearness, precision, condensation—he + surpassed all French writers. If M. Dumont had never been born, Mr Bentham + would still have been a very great man. But he would have been great to + himself alone. The fertility of his mind would have resembled the + fertility of those vast American wildernesses in which blossoms and decays + a rich but unprofitable vegetation, "wherewith the reaper filleth not his + hand, neither he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosom." It would have + been with his discoveries as it has been with the "Century of Inventions." + His speculations on laws would have been of no more practical use than + Lord Worcester's speculations on steam-engines. Some generations hence, + perhaps, when legislation had found its Watt, an antiquarian might have + published to the world the curious fact that, in the reign of George the + Third, there had been a man called Bentham, who had given hints of many + discoveries made since his time, and who had really, for his age, taken a + most philosophical view of the principles of jurisprudence. + </p> + <p> + Many persons have attempted to interpret between this powerful mind and + the public. But, in our opinion, M. Dumont alone has succeeded. It is + remarkable that, in foreign countries, where Mr Bentham's works are known + solely through the medium of the French version, his merit is almost + universally acknowledged. Even those who are most decidedly opposed to his + political opinions—the very chiefs of the Holy Alliance—have + publicly testified their respect for him. In England, on the contrary, + many persons who certainly entertained no prejudice against him on + political grounds were long in the habit of mentioning him contemptuously. + Indeed, what was said of Bacon's philosophy may be said of Bentham's. It + was in little repute among us, till judgments in its favour came from + beyond sea, and convinced us, to our shame, that we had been abusing and + laughing at one of the greatest men of the age. + </p> + <p> + M. Dumont might easily have found employments more gratifying to personal + vanity than that of arranging works not his own. But he could have found + no employment more useful or more truly honourable. The book before us, + hastily written as it is, contains abundant proof, if proof were needed, + that he did not become an editor because he wanted the talents which would + have made him eminent as a writer. + </p> + <p> + Persons who hold democratical opinions, and who have been accustomed to + consider M. Dumont as one of their party, have been surprised and + mortified to learn that he speaks with very little respect of the French + Revolution and of its authors. Some zealous Tories have naturally + expressed great satisfaction at finding their doctrines, in some respects, + confirmed by the testimony of an unwilling witness. The date of the work, + we think, explains everything. If it had been written ten years earlier, + or twenty years later, it would have been very different from what it is. + It was written, neither during the first excitement of the Revolution, nor + at that later period when the practical good produced by the Revolution + had become manifest to the most prejudiced observers; but in those + wretched times when the enthusiasm had abated, and the solid advantages + were not yet fully seen. It was written in the year 1799,—a year in + which the most sanguine friend of liberty might well feel some misgivings + as to the effects of what the National Assembly had done. The evils which + attend every great change had been severely felt. The benefit was still to + come. The price—a heavy price—had been paid. The thing + purchased had not yet been delivered. Europe was swarming with French + exiles. The fleets and armies of the second coalition were victorious. + Within France, the reign of terror was over; but the reign of law had not + commenced. There had been, indeed, during three or four years, a written + Constitution, by which rights were defined and checks provided. But these + rights had been repeatedly violated; and those checks had proved utterly + inefficient. The laws which had been framed to secure the distinct + authority of the executive magistrates and of the legislative assemblies—the + freedom of election—the freedom of debate—the freedom of the + press—the personal freedom of citizens—were a dead letter. The + ordinary mode in which the Republic was governed was by coups d'etat. On + one occasion, the legislative councils were placed under military + restraint by the directors. Then, again, directors were deposed by the + legislative councils. Elections were set aside by the executive authority. + Ship-loads of writers and speakers were sent, without a legal trial, to + die of fever in Guiana. France, in short, was in that state in which + revolutions, effected by violence, almost always leave a nation. The habit + of obedience had been lost. The spell of prescription had been broken. + Those associations on which, far more than on any arguments about property + and order, the authority of magistrates rests, had completely passed away. + The power of the government consisted merely in the physical force which + it could bring to its support. Moral force it had none. It was itself a + government sprung from a recent convulsion. Its own fundamental maxim was, + that rebellion might be justifiable. Its own existence proved that + rebellion might be successful. The people had been accustomed, during + several years, to offer resistance to the constituted authorities on the + slightest provocation, and to see the constituted authorities yield to + that resistance. The whole political world was "without form and void"—an + incessant whirl of hostile atoms, which, every moment, formed some new + combination. The only man who could fix the agitated elements of society + in a stable form was following a wild vision of glory and empire through + the Syrian deserts. The time was not yet come, when + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Confusion heard his voice; and wild uproar + Stood ruled:" +</pre> + <p> + when, out of the chaos into which the old society had been resolved, were + to rise a new dynasty, a new peerage, a new church, and a new code. + </p> + <p> + The dying words of Madame Roland, "Oh, Liberty! how many crimes are + committed in thy name!" were at that time echoed by many of the most + upright and benevolent of mankind. M. Guizot has, in one of his admirable + pamphlets, happily and justly described M. Laine as "an honest and liberal + man, discouraged by the Revolution." This description, at the time when M. + Dumont's Memoirs were written, would have applied to almost every honest + and liberal man in Europe; and would, beyond all doubt, have applied to M. + Dumont himself. To that fanatical worship of the all-wise and all-good + people, which had been common a few years before, had succeeded an uneasy + suspicion that the follies and vices of the people would frustrate all + attempts to serve them. The wild and joyous exaltation, with which the + meeting of the States-General and the fall of the Bastile had been hailed, + had passed away. In its place was dejection, and a gloomy distrust of + suspicious appearances. The philosophers and philanthropists had reigned. + And what had their reign produced? Philosophy had brought with it + mummeries as absurd as any which had been practised by the most + superstitious zealot of the darkest age. Philanthropy had brought with it + crimes as horrible as the massacre of Saint Bartholomew. This was the + emancipation of the human mind. These were the fruits of the great victory + of reason over prejudice. France had rejected the faith of Pascal and + Descartes as a nursery fable, that a courtezan might be her idol, and a + madman her priest. She had asserted her freedom against Louis, that she + might bow down before Robespierre. For a time men thought that all the + boasted wisdom of the eighteenth century was folly; and that those hopes + of great political and social ameliorations which had been cherished by + Voltaire and Condorcet were utterly delusive. + </p> + <p> + Under the influence of these feelings, M. Dumont has gone so far as to say + that the writings of Mr Burke on the French Revolution, though disfigured + by exaggeration, and though containing doctrines subversive of all public + liberty, had been, on the whole, justified by events, and had probably + saved Europe from great disasters. That such a man as the friend and + fellow-labourer of Mr Bentham should have expressed such an opinion is a + circumstance which well deserves the consideration of uncharitable + politicians. These Memoirs have not convinced us that the French + Revolution was not a great blessing to mankind. But they have convinced us + that very great indulgence is due to those who, while the Revolution was + actually taking place, regarded it with unmixed aversion and horror. We + can perceive where their error lay. We can perceive that the evil was + temporary, and the good durable. But we cannot be sure that, if our lot + had been cast in their times, we should not, like them, have been + discouraged and disgusted—that we should not, like them, have seen, + in that great victory of the French people, only insanity and crime. + </p> + <p> + It is curious to observe how some men are applauded, and others reviled, + for merely being what all their neighbours are,—for merely going + passively down the stream of events,—for merely representing the + opinions and passions of a whole generation. The friends of popular + government ordinarily speak with extreme severity of Mr Pitt, and with + respect and tenderness of Mr Canning. Yet the whole difference, we + suspect, consisted merely in this,—that Mr Pitt died in 1806, and Mr + Canning in 1827. During the years which were common to the public life of + both, Mr Canning was assuredly not a more liberal statesman than his + patron. The truth is that Mr Pitt began his political life at the end of + the American War, when the nation was suffering from the effects of + corruption. He closed it in the midst of the calamities produced by the + French Revolution, when the nation was still strongly impressed with the + horrors of anarchy. He changed, undoubtedly. In his youth he had brought + in reform bills. In his manhood he brought in gagging bills. But the + change, though lamentable, was, in our opinion, perfectly natural, and + might have been perfectly honest. He changed with the great body of his + countrymen. Mr Canning on the other hand, entered into public life when + Europe was in dread of the Jacobins. He closed his public life when Europe + was suffering under the tyranny of the Holy Alliance. He, too, changed + with the nation. As the crimes of the Jacobins had turned the master into + something very like a Tory, the events which followed the Congress of + Vienna turned the pupil into something very like a Whig. + </p> + <p> + So much are men the creatures of circumstances. We see that, if M. Dumont + had died in 1799, he would have died, to use the new cant word, a decided + "Conservative." If Mr Pitt had lived in 1832, it is our firm belief that + he would have been a decided Reformer. + </p> + <p> + The judgment passed by M. Dumont in this work on the French Revolution + must be taken with considerable allowances. It resembles a criticism on a + play of which only the first act has been performed, or on a building from + which the scaffolding has not yet been taken down. We have no doubt that, + if the excellent author had revised these Memoirs thirty years after the + time at which they were written, he would have seen reason to omit a few + passages, and to add many qualifications and explanations. + </p> + <p> + He would not probably have been inclined to retract the censures, just, + though severe, which he has passed on the ignorance, the presumption, and + the pedantry, of the National Assembly. But he would have admitted that, + in spite of those faults, perhaps even by reason of those faults, that + Assembly had conferred inestimable benefits on mankind. It is clear that, + among the French of that day, political knowledge was absolutely in its + infancy. It would indeed have been strange if it had attained maturity in + the time of censors, of lettres-de-cachet, and of beds of justice. The + electors did not know how to elect. The representatives did not know how + to deliberate. M. Dumont taught the constituent body of Montreuil how to + perform their functions, and found them apt to learn. He afterwards tried, + in concert with Mirabeau, to instruct the National Assembly in that + admirable system of Parliamentary tactics which has been long established + in the English House of Commons, and which has made the House of Commons, + in spite of all the defects in its composition, the best and fairest + debating society in the world. But these accomplished legislators, though + quite as ignorant as the mob of Montreuil, proved much less docile, and + cried out that they did not want to go to school to the English. Their + debates consisted of endless successions of trashy pamphlets, all + beginning with something about the original compact of society, man in the + hunting state, and other such foolery. They sometimes diversified and + enlivened these long readings by a little rioting. They bawled; they + hooted; they shook their fists. They kept no order among themselves. They + were insulted with impunity by the crowd which filled their galleries. + They gave long and solemn consideration to trifles. They hurried through + the most important resolutions with fearful expedition. They wasted months + in quibbling about the words of that false and childish Declaration of + Rights on which they professed to found their new constitution, and which + was at irreconcilable variance with every clause of that constitution. + They annihilated in a single night privileges, many of which partook of + the nature of property, and ought therefore to have been most delicately + handled. + </p> + <p> + They are called the Constituent Assembly. Never was a name less + appropriate. They were not constituent, but the very reverse of + constituent. They constituted nothing that stood or that deserved to last. + They had not, and they could not possibly have, the information or the + habits of mind which are necessary for the framing of that most exquisite + of all machines—a government. The metaphysical cant with which they + prefaced their constitution has long been the scoff of all parties. Their + constitution itself,—that constitution which they described as + absolutely perfect, and to which they predicted immortality,—disappeared + in a few months, and left no trace behind it. They were great only in the + work of destruction. + </p> + <p> + The glory of the National Assembly is this, that they were in truth, what + Mr Burke called them in austere irony, the ablest architects of ruin that + ever the world saw. They were utterly incompetent to perform any work + which required a discriminating eye and a skilful hand. But the work which + was then to be done was a work of devastation. They had to deal with + abuses so horrible and so deeply rooted that the highest political wisdom + could scarcely have produced greater good to mankind than was produced by + their fierce and senseless temerity. Demolition is undoubtedly a vulgar + task; the highest glory of the statesman is to construct. But there is a + time for everything,—a time to set up, and a time to pull down. The + talents of revolutionary leaders and those of the legislator have equally + their use and their season. It is the natural, the almost universal, law, + that the age of insurrections and proscriptions shall precede the age of + good government, of temperate liberty, and liberal order. + </p> + <p> + And how should it be otherwise? It is not in swaddling-bands that we learn + to walk. It is not in the dark that we learn to distinguish colours. It is + not under oppression that we learn how to use freedom. The ordinary + sophism by which misrule is defended is, when truly stated, this:—The + people must continue in slavery, because slavery has generated in them all + the vices of slaves. Because they are ignorant, they must remain under a + power which has made and which keeps them ignorant. Because they have been + made ferocious by misgovernment, they must be misgoverned for ever. If the + system under which they live were so mild and liberal that under its + operation they had become humane and enlightened, it would be safe to + venture on a change. But, as this system has destroyed morality, and + prevented the development of the intellect,—as it has turned men, + who might under different training have formed a virtuous and happy + community, into savage and stupid wild beasts,—therefore it ought to + last for ever. The English Revolution, it is said, was truly a glorious + Revolution. Practical evils were redressed; no excesses were committed; no + sweeping confiscations took place; the authority of the laws was scarcely + for a moment suspended; the fullest and freest discussion was tolerated in + Parliament; the nation showed, by the calm and temperate manner in which + it asserted its liberty, that it was fit to enjoy liberty. The French + Revolution was, on the other hand, the most horrible event recorded in + history,—all madness and wickedness,—absurdity in theory, and + atrocity in practice. What folly and injustice in the revolutionary laws! + What grotesque affectation in the revolutionary ceremonies! What + fanaticism! What licentiousness! What cruelty! Anacharsis Clootz and + Marat,—feasts of the Supreme Being, and marriages of the Loire—trees + of liberty, and heads dancing on pikes—the whole forms a kind of + infernal farce, made up of everything ridiculous, and everything + frightful. This it is to give freedom to those who have neither wisdom nor + virtue. + </p> + <p> + It is not only by bad men interested in the defence of abuses that + arguments like these have been urged against all schemes of political + improvement. Some of the highest and purest of human beings conceived such + scorn and aversion for the follies and crimes of the French Revolution + that they recanted, in the moment of triumph, those liberal opinions to + which they had clung in defiance of persecution. And, if we inquire why it + was that they began to doubt whether liberty were a blessing, we shall + find that it was only because events had proved, in the clearest manner, + that liberty is the parent of virtue and of order. They ceased to abhor + tyranny merely because it had been signally shown that the effect of + tyranny on the hearts and understandings of men is more demoralising and + more stupifying than had ever been imagined by the most zealous friend of + popular rights. The truth is, that a stronger argument against the old + monarchy of France may be drawn from the noyades and the fusillades than + from the Bastile and the Parc-aux-cerfs. We believe it to be a rule + without an exception, that the violence of a revolution corresponds to the + degree of misgovernment which has produced that revolution. Why was the + French Revolution so bloody and destructive? Why was our revolution of + 1641 comparatively mild? Why was our revolution of 1688 milder still? Why + was the American Revolution, considered as an internal movement, the + mildest of all? There is an obvious and complete solution of the problem. + The English under James the First and Charles the First were less + oppressed than the French under Louis the Fifteenth and Louis the + Sixteenth. The English were less oppressed after the Restoration than + before the great Rebellion. And America under George the Third was less + oppressed than England under the Stuarts. The reaction was exactly + proportioned to the pressure,—the vengeance to the provocation. + </p> + <p> + When Mr Burke was reminded in his later years of the zeal which he had + displayed in the cause of the Americans, he vindicated himself from the + charge of inconsistency, by contrasting the wisdom and moderation of the + Colonial insurgents of 1776 with the fanaticism and wickedness of the + Jacobins of 1792. He was in fact bringing an argument a fortiori against + himself. The circumstances on which he rested his vindication fully proved + that the old government of France stood in far more need of a complete + change than the old government of America. The difference between + Washington and Robespierre,—the difference between Franklin and + Barere,—the difference between the destruction of a few barrels of + tea and the confiscation of thousands of square miles,—the + difference between the tarring and feathering of a tax-gatherer and the + massacres of September,—measure the difference between the + government of America under the rule of England and the government of + France under the rule of the Bourbons. + </p> + <p> + Louis the Sixteenth made great voluntary concessions to his people; and + they sent him to the scaffold. Charles the Tenth violated the fundamental + laws of the state, established a despotism, and butchered his subjects for + not submitting quietly to that despotism. He failed in his wicked attempt. + He was at the mercy of those whom he had injured. The pavements of Paris + were still heaped up in barricades;—the hospitals were still full of + the wounded;—the dead were still unburied;—a thousand families + were in mourning;—a hundred thousand citizens were in arms. The + crime was recent;—the life of the criminal was in the hands of the + sufferers;—and they touched not one hair of his head. In the first + revolution, victims were sent to death by scores for the most trifling + acts proved by the lowest testimony, before the most partial tribunals. + After the second revolution, those ministers who had signed the + ordinances, those ministers, whose guilt, as it was of the foulest kind, + was proved by the clearest evidence,—were punished only with + imprisonment. In the first revolution, property was attacked. In the + second, it was held sacred. Both revolutions, it is true, left the public + mind of France in an unsettled state. Both revolutions were followed by + insurrectionary movements. But, after the first revolution, the insurgents + were almost always stronger than the law; and, since the second + revolution, the law has invariably been found stronger than the + insurgents. There is, indeed, much in the present state of France which + may well excite the uneasiness of those who desire to see her free, happy, + powerful, and secure. Yet, if we compare the present state of France with + the state in which she was forty years ago, how vast a change for the + better has taken place! How little effect, for example, during the first + revolution, would the sentence of a judicial body have produced on an + armed and victorious partty! If, after the 10th of August, or after the + proscription of the Gironde, or after the 9th of Thermidor, or after the + carnage of Vendemiaire, or after the arrests of Fructidor, any tribunal + had decided against the conquerors in favour of the conquered, with what + contempt, with what derision, would its award have been received! The + judges would have lost their heads, or would have been sent to die in some + unwholesome colony. The fate of the victim whom they had endeavoured to + save would only have been made darker and more hopeless by their + interference. We have lately seen a signal proof that, in France, the law + is now stronger than the sword. We have seen a government, in the very + moment of triumph and revenge, submitting itself to the authority of a + court of law. A just and independent sentence has been pronounced—a + sentence worthy of the ancient renown of that magistracy to which belong + the noblest recollections of French history—which, in an age of + persecutors, produced L'Hopital,—which, in an age of courtiers, + produced D'Aguesseau,—which, in an age of wickedness and madness, + exhibited to mankind a pattern of every virtue in the life and in the + death of Malesherbes. The respectful manner in which that sentence has + been received is alone sufficient to show how widely the French of this + generation differ from their fathers. And how is the difference to be + explained? The race, the soil, the climate, are the same. If those dull, + honest Englishmen, who explain the events of 1793 and 1794 by saying that + the French are naturally frivolous and cruel, were in the right, why is + the guillotine now standing idle? Not surely for want of Carlists, of + aristocrats, of people guilty of incivism, of people suspected of being + suspicious characters. Is not the true explanation this, that the + Frenchman of 1832 has been far better governed than the Frenchman of 1789,—that + his soul has never been galled by the oppressive privileges of a separate + caste,—that he has been in some degree accustomed to discuss + political questions, and to perform political functions,—that he has + lived for seventeen or eighteen years under institutions which, however + defective, have yet been far superior to any institutions that had before + existed in France? + </p> + <p> + As the second French Revolution has been far milder than the first, so + that great change which has just been effected in England has been milder + even than the second French Revolution,—milder than any revolution + recorded in history. Some orators have described the reform of the House + of Commons as a revolution. Others have denied the propriety of the term. + The question, though in seeming merely a question of definition, suggests + much curious and interesting matter for reflection. If we look at the + magnitude of the reform, it may well be called a revolution. If we look at + the means by which it has been effected, it is merely an Act of + Parliament, regularly brought in, read, committed, and passed. In the + whole history of England, there is no prouder circumstance than this,—that + a change, which could not, in any other age, or in any other country, have + been effected without physical violence, should here have been effected by + the force of reason, and under the forms of law. The work of three civil + wars has been accomplished by three sessions of Parliament. An ancient and + deeply rooted system of abuses has been fiercely attacked and stubbornly + defended. It has fallen; and not one sword has been drawn; not one estate + has been confiscated; not one family has been forced to emigrate. The bank + has kept its credit. The funds have kept their price. Every man has gone + forth to his work and to his labour till the evening. During the fiercest + excitement of the contest,—during the first fortnight of that + immortal May,—there was not one moment at which any sanguinary act + committed on the person of any of the most unpopular men in England would + not have filled the country with horror and indignation. + </p> + <p> + And now that the victory is won, has it been abused? An immense mass of + power has been transferred from an oligarchy to the nation. Are the + members of the vanquished oligarchy insecure? Does the nation seem + disposed to play the tyrant? Are not those who, in any other state of + society, would have been visited with the severest vengeance of the + triumphant party,—would have been pining in dungeons, or flying to + foreign countries,—still enjoying their possessions and their + honours, still taking part as freely as ever in public affairs? Two years + ago they were dominant. They are now vanquished. Yet the whole people + would regard with horror any man who should dare to propose any vindictive + measure. So common is this feeling,—so much is it a matter of course + among us,—that many of our readers will scarcely understand what we + see to admire in it. + </p> + <p> + To what are we to attribute the unparalleled moderation and humanity which + the English people had displayed at this great conjuncture? The answer is + plain. This moderation, this humanity, are the fruits of a hundred and + fifty years of liberty. During many generations we have had legislative + assemblies which, however defective their constitution might be, have + always contained many members chosen by the people, and many others eager + to obtain the approbation of the people:—assemblies in which perfect + freedom of debate was allowed;—assemblies in which the smallest + minority had a fair hearing; assemblies in which abuses, even when they + were not redressed, were at least exposed. For many generations we have + had the trial by jury, the Habeas Corpus Act, the freedom of the press, + the right of meeting to discuss public affairs, the right of petitioning + the legislature. A vast portion of the population has long been accustomed + to the exercise of political functions, and has been thoroughly seasoned + to political excitement. In most other countries there is no middle course + between absolute submission and open rebellion. In England there has + always been for centuries a constitutional opposition. Thus our + institutions had been so good that they had educated us into a capacity + for better institutions. There is not a large town in the kingdom which + does not contain better materials for a legislature than all France could + furnish in 1789. There is not a spouting-club at any pot-house in London + in which the rules of debate are not better understood, and more strictly + observed, than in the Constituent Assembly. There is scarcely a Political + Union which could not frame in half an hour a declaration of rights + superior to that which occupied the collective wisdom of France for + several months. + </p> + <p> + It would be impossible even to glance at all the causes of the French + Revolution within the limits to which we must confine ourselves. One thing + is clear. The government, the aristocracy, and the church were rewarded + after their works. They reaped that which they had sown. They found the + nation such as they had made it. That the people had become possessed of + irresistible power before they had attained the slightest knowledge of the + art of government—that practical questions of vast moment were left + to be solved by men to whom politics had been only matter of theory—that + a legislature was composed of persons who were scarcely fit to compose a + debating society—that the whole nation was ready to lend an ear to + any flatterer who appealed to its cupidity, to its fears, or to its thirst + for vengeance—all this was the effect of misrule, obstinately + continued in defiance of solemn warnings, and of the visible signs of an + approaching retribution. + </p> + <p> + Even while the monarchy seemed to be in its highest and most palmy state, + the causes of that great destruction had already begun to operate. They + may be distinctly traced even under the reign of Louis the Fourteenth. + That reign is the time to which the Ultra-Royalists refer as the Golden + Age of France. It was in truth one of those periods which shine with an + unnatural and delusive splendour, and which are rapidly followed by gloom + and decay. + </p> + <p> + Concerning Louis the Fourteenth himself, the world seems at last to have + formed a correct judgment. He was not a great general; he was not a great + statesman; but he was, in one sense of the words, a great king. Never was + there so consummate a master of what our James the First would have called + kingcraft,—of all those arts which most advantageously display the + merits of a prince, and most completely hide his defects. Though his + internal administration was bad,—though the military triumphs which + gave splendour to the early part of his reign were not achieved by + himself,—though his later years were crowded with defeats and + humiliations,—though he was so ignorant that he scarcely understood + the Latin of his mass-book,—though he fell under the control of a + cunning Jesuit and of a more cunning old woman,—he succeeded in + passing himself off on his people as a being above humanity. And this is + the more extraordinary because he did not seclude himself from the public + gaze like those Oriental despots whose faces are never seen, and whose + very names it is a crime to pronounce lightly. It has been said that no + man is a hero to his valet;—and all the world saw as much of Louis + the Fourteenth as his valet could see. Five hundred people assembled to + see him shave and put on his breeches in the morning. He then kneeled down + at the side of his bed, and said his prayer while the whole assembly + awaited the end in solemn silence—the ecclesiastics on their knees, + and the laymen with their hats before their faces. He walked about his + gardens with a train of two hundred courtiers at his heels. All Versailles + came to see him dine and sup. He was put to bed at night in the midst of a + crowd as great as that which had met to see him rise in the morning. He + took his very emetics in state, and vomited majestically in the presence + of all the grandes and petites entrees. Yet, though he constantly exposed + himself to the public gaze in situations in which it is scarcely possible + for any man to preserve much personal dignity, he to the last impressed + those who surrounded him with the deepest awe and reverence. The illusion + which he produced on his worshippers can be compared only to those + illusions to which lovers are proverbially subject during the season of + courtship. It was an illusion which affected even the senses. The + contemporaries of Louis thought him tall. Voltaire, who might have seen + him, and who had lived with some of the most distinguished members of his + court, speaks repeatedly of his majestic stature. Yet it is as certain as + any fact can be, that he was rather below than above the middle size. He + had, it seems, a way of holding himself, a way of walking, a way of + swelling his chest and rearing his head, which deceived the eyes of the + multitude. Eighty years after his death, the royal cemetery was violated + by the revolutionists, his coffin was opened; his body was dragged out; + and it appeared that the prince, whose majestic figure had been so long + and loudly extolled, was in truth a little man. (Even M. de Chateaubriand, + to whom we should have thought all the Bourbons would have seemed at least + six feet high, admits this fact. "C'est une erreur," says he in his + strange memoirs of the Duke of Berri, "de croire que Louis XIV. etait + d'une haute stature. Une cuirasse qui nous reste de lui, et les + exhumations de St Denys, n'ont laisse sur certain point aucun doute.") + That fine expression of Juvenal is singularly applicable, both in its + literal and in its metaphorical sense, to Louis the Fourteenth: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Mors sola fatetur + Quantula sint hominum corpuscula." +</pre> + <p> + His person and his government have had the same fate. He had the art of + making both appear grand and august, in spite of the clearest evidence + that both were below the ordinary standard. Death and time have exposed + both the deceptions. The body of the great king has been measured more + justly than it was measured by the courtiers who were afraid to look above + his shoe-tie. His public character has been scrutinized by men free from + the hopes and fears of Boileau and Moliere. In the grave, the most + majestic of princes is only five feet eight. In history, the hero and the + politician dwindles into a vain and feeble tyrant,—the slave of + priests and women—little in war,—little in government,—little + in everything but the art of simulating greatness. + </p> + <p> + He left to his infant successor a famished and miserable people, a beaten + and humbled army, provinces turned into deserts by misgovernment and + persecution, factions dividing the court, a schism raging in the church, + an immense debt, an empty treasury, immeasurable palaces, an innumerable + household, inestimable jewels and furniture. All the sap and nutriment of + the state seemed to have been drawn to feed one bloated and unwholesome + excrescence. The nation was withered. The court was morbidly flourishing. + Yet it does not appear that the associations which attached the people to + the monarchy had lost strength during his reign. He had neglected or + sacrificed their dearest interests; but he had struck their imaginations. + The very things which ought to have made him most unpopular,—the + prodigies of luxury and magnificence with which his person was surrounded, + while, beyond the inclosure of his parks, nothing was to be seen but + starvation and despair,—seemed to increase the respectful attachment + which his subjects felt for him. That governments exist only for the good + of the people, appears to be the most obvious and simple of all truths. + Yet history proves that it is one of the most recondite. We can scarcely + wonder that it should be so seldom present to the minds of rulers, when we + see how slowly, and through how much suffering, nations arrive at the + knowledge of it. + </p> + <p> + There was indeed one Frenchman who had discovered those principles which + it now seems impossible to miss,—that the many are not made for the + use of one,—that the truly good government is not that which + concentrates magnificence in a court, but that which diffuses happiness + among a people,—that a king who gains victory after victory, and + adds province to province, may deserve, not the admiration, but the + abhorrence and contempt of mankind. These were the doctrines which Fenelon + taught. Considered as an epic poem, Telemachus can scarcely be placed + above Glover's Leonidas or Wilkie's Epigoniad. Considered as a treatise on + politics and morals, it abounds with errors of detail; and the truths + which it inculcates seem trite to a modern reader. But, if we compare the + spirit in which it is written with the spirit which pervades the rest of + the French literature of that age, we shall perceive that, though in + appearance trite, it was in truth one of the most original works that have + ever appeared. The fundamental principles of Fenelon's political morality, + the test by which he judged of institutions and of men, were absolutely + new to his countrymen. He had taught them indeed, with the happiest + effect, to his royal pupil. But how incomprehensible they were to most + people, we learn from Saint Simon. That amusing writer tells us, as a + thing almost incredible, that the Duke of Burgundy declared it to be his + opinion that kings existed for the good of the people, and not the people + for the good of kings. Saint Simon is delighted with the benevolence of + this saying; but startled by its novelty and terrified by its boldness. + Indeed he distinctly says that it was not safe to repeat the sentiment in + the court of Louis. Saint Simon was, of all the members of that court, the + least courtly. He was as nearly an oppositionist as any man of his time. + His disposition was proud, bitter, and cynical. In religion he was a + Jansenist; in politics, a less hearty royalist than most of his + neighbours. His opinions and his temper had preserved him from the + illusions which the demeanour of Louis produced on others. He neither + loved nor respected the king. Yet even this man,—one of the most + liberal men in France,—was struck dumb with astonishment at hearing + the fundamental axiom of all government propounded,—an axiom which, + in our time, nobody in England or France would dispute,—which the + stoutest Tory takes for granted as much as the fiercest Radical, and + concerning which the Carlist would agree with the most republican deputy + of the "extreme left." No person will do justice to Fenelon, who does not + constantly keep in mind that Telemachus was written in an age and nation + in which bold and independent thinkers stared to hear that twenty millions + of human beings did not exist for the gratification of one. That work is + commonly considered as a schoolbook, very fit for children, because its + style is easy and its morality blameless, but unworthy of the attention of + statesmen and philosophers. We can distinguish in it, if we are not + greatly mistaken, the first faint dawn of a long and splendid day of + intellectual light,—the dim promise of a great deliverance,—the + undeveloped germ of the charter and of the code. + </p> + <p> + What mighty interests were staked on the life of the Duke of Burgundy! and + how different an aspect might the history of France have borne if he had + attained the age of his grandfather or of his son;—if he had been + permitted to show how much could be done for humanity by the highest + virtue in the highest fortune! There is scarcely anything in history more + remarkable than the descriptions which remain to us of that extraordinary + man. The fierce and impetuous temper which he showed in early youth,—the + complete change which a judicious education produced in his character,—his + fervid piety,—his large benevolence,—the strictness with which + he judged himself,—the liberality with which he judged others,—the + fortitude with which alone, in the whole court, he stood up against the + commands of Louis, when a religious scruple was concerned,—the + charity with which alone, in the whole court, he defended the profligate + Orleans against calumniators,—his great projects for the good of the + people,—his activity in business,—his taste for letters,—his + strong domestic attachments,—even the ungraceful person and the shy + and awkward manner which concealed from the eyes of the sneering courtiers + of his grandfather so many rare endowments,—make his character the + most interesting that is to be found in the annals of his house. He had + resolved, if he came to the throne, to disperse that ostentatious court, + which was supported at an expense ruinous to the nation,—to preserve + peace,—to correct the abuses which were found in every part of the + system of revenue,—to abolish or modify oppressive privileges,—to + reform the administration of justice,—to revive the institution of + the States-General. If he had ruled over France during forty or fifty + years, that great movement of the human mind, which no government could + have arrested, which bad government only rendered more violent, would, we + are inclined to think, have been conducted, by peaceable means to a happy + termination. + </p> + <p> + Disease and sorrow removed from the world that wisdom and virtue of which + it was not worthy. During two generations France was ruled by men who, + with all the vices of Louis the Fourteenth, had none of the art by which + that magnificent prince passed off his vices for virtues. The people had + now to see tyranny naked. That foul Duessa was stripped of her gorgeous + ornaments. She had always been hideous; but a strange enchantment had made + her seem fair and glorious in the eyes of her willing slaves. The spell + was now broken; the deformity was made manifest; and the lovers, lately so + happy and so proud, turned away loathing and horror-struck. + </p> + <p> + First came the Regency. The strictness with which Louis had, towards the + close of his life, exacted from those around him an outward attention to + religious duties, produced an effect similar to that which the rigour of + the Puritans had produced in England. It was the boast of Madame de + Maintenon, in the time of her greatness, that devotion had become the + fashion. A fashion indeed it was; and, like a fashion, it passed away. The + austerity of the tyrant's old age had injured the morality of the higher + orders more than even the licentiousness of his youth. Not only had he not + reformed their vices, but, by forcing them to be hypocrites, he had shaken + their belief in virtue. They had found it so easy to perform the grimace + of piety, that it was natural for them to consider all piety as grimace. + The times were changed. Pensions, regiments, and abbeys, were no longer to + be obtained by regular confession and severe penance: and the obsequious + courtiers, who had kept Lent like monks of La Trappe, and who had turned + up the whites of their eyes at the edifying parts of sermons preached + before the king, aspired to the title of roue as ardently as they had + aspired to that of devot; and went, during Passion Week, to the revels of + the Palais Royal as readily as they had formerly repaired to the sermons + of Massillon. + </p> + <p> + The Regent was in many respects the fac-simile of our Charles the Second. + Like Charles, he was a good-natured man, uttl destitute of sensibility. + Like Charles, he had good natural talents, which a deplorable indolence + rendered useless to the state. Like Charles, he thought all men corrupted + and interested, and yet did not dislike them for being so. His opinion of + human nature was Gulliver's; but he did not regard human nature with + Gulliver's horror. He thought that he and his fellow-creatures were + Yahoos; and he thought a Yahoo a very agreeable kind of animal. No princes + were ever more social than Charles and Philip of Orleans: yet no princes + ever had less capacity for friendship. The tempers of these clever cynics + were so easy, and their minds so languid, that habit supplied in them the + place of affection, and made them the tools of people for whom they cared + not one straw. In love, both were mere sensualists without delicacy or + tenderness. In politics, both were utterly careless of faith and of + national honour. Charles shut up the Exchequer. Philip patronised the + System. The councils of Charles were swayed by the gold of Barillon; the + councils of Philip by the gold of Walpole. Charles for private objects + made war on Holland, the natural ally of England. Philip for private + objects made war on the Spanish branch of the house of Bourbon, the + natural ally, indeed the creature of France. Even in trifling + circumstances the parallel might be carried on. Both these princes were + fond of experimental philosophy, and passed in the laboratory much time + which would have been more advantageously passed at the council-table. + Both were more strongly attached to their female relatives than to any + other human being; and in both cases it was suspected that this attachment + was not perfectly innocent. In personal courage, and in all the virtues + which are connected with personal courage, the Regent was indisputably + superior to Charles. Indeed Charles but narrowly escaped the stain of + cowardice. Philip was eminently brave, and, like most brave men, was + generally open and sincere. Charles added dissimulation to his other + vices. + </p> + <p> + The administration of the Regent was scarcely less pernicious, and + infinitely more scandalous, than that of the deceased monarch. It was by + magnificent public works, and by wars conducted on a gigantic scale, that + Louis had brought distress on his people. The Regent aggravated that + distress by frauds of which a lame duck on the stock-exchange would have + been ashamed. France, even while suffering under the most severe + calamities, had reverenced the conqueror. She despised the swindler. + </p> + <p> + When Orleans and the wretched Dubois had disappeared, the power passed to + the Duke of Bourbon; a prince degraded in the public eye by the infamously + lucrative part which he had taken in the juggles of the System, and by the + humility with which he bore the caprices of a loose and imperious woman. + It seemed to be decreed that every branch of the royal family should + successively incur the abhorrence and contempt of the nation. + </p> + <p> + Between the fall of the Duke of Bourbon and the death of Fleury, a few + years of frugal and moderate government intervened. Then recommenced the + downward progress of the monarchy. Profligacy in the court, extravagance + in the finances, schism in the church, faction in the Parliaments, unjust + war terminated by ignominious peace,—all that indicates and all that + produces the ruin of great empires, make up the history of that miserable + period. Abroad, the French were beaten and humbled everywhere, by land and + by sea, on the Elbe and on the Rhine, in Asia and in America. At home, + they were turned over from vizier to vizier, and from sultana to sultana, + till they had reached that point beneath which there was no lower abyss of + infamy,—till the yoke of Maupeou had made them pine for Choiseul,—till + Madame du Barri had taught them to regret Madame de Pompadour. + </p> + <p> + But unpopular as the monarchy had become, the aristocracy was more + unpopular still; and not without reason. The tyranny of an individual is + far more supportable than the tyranny of a caste. The old privileges were + galling and hateful to the new wealth and the new knowledge. Everything + indicated the approach of no common revolution,—of a revolution + destined to change, not merely the form of government, but the + distribution of property and the whole social system,—of a + revolution the effects of which were to be felt at every fireside in + France,—of a new Jaquerie, in which the victory was to remain with + Jaques bonhomme. In the van of the movement were the moneyed men and the + men of letters,—the wounded pride of wealth, and the wounded pride + of intellect. An immense multitude, made ignorant and cruel by oppression, + was raging in the rear. + </p> + <p> + We greatly doubt whether any course which could have been pursued by Louis + the Sixteenth could have averted a great convulsion. But we are sure that, + if there was such a course, it was the course recommended by M. Turgot. + The church and the aristocracy, with that blindness to danger, that + incapacity of believing that anything can be except what has been, which + the long possession of power seldom fails to generate, mocked at the + counsel which might have saved them. They would not have reform; and they + had revolution. They would not pay a small contribution in place of the + odious corvees; and they lived to see their castles demolished, and their + lands sold to strangers. They would not endure Turgot; and they were + forced to endure Robespierre. + </p> + <p> + Then the rulers of France, as if smitten with judicial blindness, plunged + headlong into the American war. They thus committed at once two great + errors. They encouraged the spirit of revolution. They augmented at the + same time those public burdens, the pressure of which is generally the + immediate cause of revolutions. The event of the war carried to the height + the enthusiasm of speculative democrats. The financial difficulties + produced by the war carried to the height the discontent of that larger + body of people who cared little about theories, and much about taxes. + </p> + <p> + The meeting of the States-General was the signal for the explosion of all + the hoarded passions of a century. In that assembly, there were + undoubtedly very able men. But they had no practical knowledge of the art + of government. All the great English revolutions have been conducted by + practical statesmen. The French Revolution was conducted by mere + speculators. Our constitution has never been so far behind the age as to + have become an object of aversion to the people. The English revolutions + have therefore been undertaken for the purpose of defending, correcting, + and restoring,—never for the mere purpose of destroying. Our + countrymen have always, even in times of the greatest excitement, spoken + reverently of the form of government under which they lived, and attacked + only what they regarded as its corruptions. In the very act of innovating + they have constantly appealed to ancient prescription; they have seldom + looked abroad for models; they have seldom troubled themselves with + Utopian theories; they have not been anxious to prove that liberty is a + natural right of men; they have been content to regard it as the lawful + birthright of Englishmen. Their social contract is no fiction. It is still + extant on the original parchment, sealed with wax which was affixed at + Runnymede, and attested by the lordly names of the Marischals and + Fitzherberts. No general arguments about the original equality of men, no + fine stories out of Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos, have ever affected them + so much as their own familiar words,—Magna Charta,—Habeas + Corpus,—Trial by Jury,—Bill of Rights. This part of our + national character has undoubtedly its disadvantages. An Englishman too + often reasons on politics in the spirit rather of a lawyer than of a + philosopher. There is too often something narrow, something exclusive, + something Jewish, if we may use the word, in his love of freedom. He is + disposed to consider popular rights as the special heritage of the chosen + race to which he belongs. He is inclined rather to repel than to encourage + the alien proselyte who aspires to a share of his privileges. Very + different was the spirit of the Constituent Assembly. They had none of our + narrowness; but they had none of our practical skill in the management of + affairs. They did not understand how to regulate the order of their own + debates; and they thought themselves able to legislate for the whole + world. All the past was loathsome to them. All their agreeable + associations were connected with the future. Hopes were to them all that + recollections are to us. In the institutions of their country they found + nothing to love or to admire. As far back as they could look, they saw + only the tyranny of one class and the degradation of another,—Frank + and Gaul, knight and villein, gentleman and roturier. They hated the + monarchy, the church, the nobility. They cared nothing for the States or + the Parliament. It was long the fashion to ascribe all the follies which + they committed to the writings of the philosophers. We believe that it was + misrule, and nothing but misrule, that put the sting into those writings. + It is not true that the French abandoned experience for theories. They + took up with theories because they had no experience of good government. + It was because they had no charter that they ranted about the original + contract. As soon as tolerable institutions were given to them, they began + to look to those institutions. In 1830 their rallying cry was "Vive la + Charte". In 1789 they had nothing but theories round which to rally. They + had seen social distinctions only in a bad form; and it was therefore + natural that they should be deluded by sophisms about the equality of men. + They had experienced so much evil from the sovereignty of kings that they + might be excused for lending a ready ear to those who preached, in an + exaggerated form, the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people. + </p> + <p> + The English, content with their own national recollections and names, have + never sought for models in the institutions of Greece or Rome. The French, + having nothing in their own history to which they could look back with + pleasure, had recourse to the history of the great ancient commonwealths: + they drew their notions of those commonwealths, not from contemporary + writers, but from romances written by pedantic moralists long after the + extinction of public liberty. They neglected Thucydides for Plutarch. + Blind themselves, they took blind guides. They had no experience of + freedom; and they took their opinions concerning it from men who had no + more experience of it than themselves, and whose imaginations, inflamed by + mystery and privation, exaggerated the unknown enjoyment;—from men + who raved about patriotism without having ever had a country, and + eulogised tyrannicide while crouching before tyrants. The maxim which the + French legislators learned in this school was, that political liberty is + an end, and not a means; that it is not merely valuable as the great + safeguard of order, of property, and of morality, but that it is in itself + a high and exquisite happiness to which order, property, and morality + ought without one scruple to be sacrificed. The lessons which may be + learned from ancient history are indeed most useful and important; but + they were not likely to be learned by men who, in all their rhapsodies + about the Athenian democracy, seemed utterly to forget that in that + democracy there were ten slaves to one citizen; and who constantly + decorated their invectives against the aristocrats with panegyrics on + Brutus and Cato,—two aristocrats, fiercer, prouder, and more + exclusive, than any that emigrated with the Count of Artois. + </p> + <p> + We have never met with so vivid and interesting a picture of the National + Assembly as that which M. Dumont has set before us. His Mirabeau, in + particular, is incomparable. All the former Mirabeaus were daubs in + comparison. Some were merely painted from the imagination—others + were gross caricatures: this is the very individual, neither god nor + demon, but a man—a Frenchman—a Frenchman of the eighteenth + century, with great talents, with strong passions, depraved by bad + education, surrounded by temptations of every kind,—made desperate + at one time by disgrace, and then again intoxicated by fame. All his + opposite and seemingly inconsistent qualities are in this representation + so blended together as to make up a harmonious and natural whole. Till + now, Mirabeau was to us, and, we believe, to most readers of history, not + a man, but a string of antitheses. Henceforth he will be a real human + being, a remarkable and eccentric being indeed, but perfectly conceivable. + </p> + <p> + He was fond, M. Dumont tells us, of giving odd compound nicknames. Thus, + M. de Lafayette was Grandison-Cromwell; the King of Prussia was + Alaric-Cottin; D'Espremenil was Crispin-Catiline. We think that Mirabeau + himself might be described, after his own fashion, as a Wilkes-Chatham. He + had Wilkes's sensuality, Wilkes's levity, Wilkes's insensibility to shame. + Like Wilkes, he had brought on himself the censure even of men of pleasure + by the peculiar grossness of his immorality, and by the obscenity of his + writings. Like Wilkes, he was heedless, not only of the laws of morality, + but of the laws of honour. Yet he affected, like Wilkes, to unite the + character of the demagogue to that of the fine gentleman. Like Wilkes, he + conciliated, by his good-humour and his high spirits, the regard of many + who despised his character. Like Wilkes, he was hideously ugly; like + Wilkes, he made a jest of his own ugliness; and, like Wilkes, he was, in + spite of his ugliness, very attentive to his dress, and very successful in + affairs of gallantry. + </p> + <p> + Resembling Wilkes in the lower and grosser parts of his character, he had, + in his higher qualities, some affinity to Chatham. His eloquence, as far + as we can judge of it, bore no inconsiderable resemblance to that of the + great English minister. He was not eminently successful in long set + speeches. He was not, on the other hand, a close and ready debater. Sudden + bursts, which seemed to be the effect of inspiration—short sentences + which came like lightning, dazzling, burning, striking down everything + before them—sentences which, spoken at critical moments, decided the + fate of great questions—sentences which at once became proverbs—sentences + which everybody still knows by heart—in these chiefly lay the + oratorical power both of Chatham and of Mirabeau. There have been far + greater speakers, and far greater statesmen, than either of them; but we + doubt whether any men have, in modern times, exercised such vast personal + influence over stormy and divided assemblies. The power of both was as + much moral as intellectual. In true dignity of character, in private and + public virtue, it may seem absurd to institute any comparison between + them; but they had the same haughtiness and vehemence of temper. In their + language and manner there was a disdainful self-confidence, an + imperiousness, a fierceness of passion, before which all common minds + quailed. Even Murray and Charles Townshend, though intellectually not + inferior to Chatham, were always cowed by him. Barnave, in the same + manner, though the best debater in the National Assembly, flinched before + the energy of Mirabeau. Men, except in bad novels, are not all good or all + evil. It can scarcely be denied that the virtue of Lord Chatham was a + little theatrical. On the other hand there was in Mirabeau, not indeed + anything deserving the name of virtue, but that imperfect substitute for + virtue which is found in almost all superior minds,—a sensibility to + the beautiful and the good, which sometimes amounted to sincere + enthusiasm; and which, mingled with the desire of admiration, sometimes + gave to his character a lustre resembling the lustre of true goodness,—as + the "faded splendour wan" which lingered round the fallen archangel + resembled the exceeding brightness of those spirits who had kept their + first estate. + </p> + <p> + There are several other admirable portraits of eminent men in these + Memoirs. That of Sieyes in particular, and that of Talleyrand, are + master-pieces, full of life and expression. But nothing in the book has + interested us more than the view which M. Dumont has presented to us, + unostentatiously, and, we may say, unconsciously, of his own character. + The sturdy rectitude, the large charity, the good-nature, the modesty, the + independent spirit, the ardent philanthropy, the unaffected indifference + to money and to fame, make up a character which, while it has nothing + unnatural, seems to us to approach nearer to perfection than any of the + Grandisons and Allworthys of fiction. The work is not indeed precisely + such a work as we had anticipated—it is more lively, more + picturesque, more amusing than we had promised ourselves; and it is, on + the other hand, less profound and philosophic. But, if it is not, in all + respects, such as might have been expected from the intellect of M. + Dumont, it is assuredly such as might have been expected from his heart. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BARERE. (April 1844.) + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Memoires de Bertrand Barere": publies par MM. Hippolyte + Carnot, Membre de la Chambre des Deputes, et David d'Angers, + Membre de l'Institut: precedes d'une Notice Historique par + H. Carnot. 4 tomes. Paris: 1843. +</pre> + <p> + This book has more than one title to our serious attention. It is an + appeal, solemnly made to posterity by a man who played a conspicuous part + in great events, and who represents himself as deeply aggrieved by the + rash and malevolent censure of his contemporaries. To such an appeal we + shall always give ready audience. We can perform no duty more useful to + society, or more agreeable to our own feelings, than that of making, as + far as our power extends, reparation to the slandered and persecuted + benefactors of mankind. We therefore promptly took into our consideration + this copious apology for the life of Bertrand Barere. We have made up our + minds; and we now purpose to do him, by the blessing of God, full and + signal justice. It is to be observed that the appellant in this case does + not come into court alone. He is attended to the bar of public opinion by + two compurgators who occupy highly honourable stations. One of these is M. + David of Angers, member of the institute, an eminent sculptor, and, if we + have been rightly informed, a favourite pupil, though not a kinsman, of + the painter who bore the same name. The other, to whom we owe the + biographical preface, is M. Hippolyte Carnot, member of the Chamber of + Deputies, and son of the celebrated Director. In the judgment of M. David + and of M. Hippolyte Carnot, Barere was a deserving and an ill-used man—a + man who, though by no means faultless, must yet, when due allowance is + made for the force of circumstances and the infirmity of human nature, be + considered as on the whole entitled to our esteem. It will be for the + public to determine, after a full hearing, whether the editors have, by + thus connecting their names with that of Barere, raised his character or + lowered their own. + </p> + <p> + We are not conscious that, when we opened this book, we were under the + influence of any feeling likely to pervert our judgment. Undoubtedly we + had long entertained a most unfavourable opinion of Barere: but to this + opinion we were not tied by any passion or by any interest. Our dislike + was a reasonable dislike, and might have been removed by reason. Indeed + our expectation was, that these Memoirs would in some measure clear + Barere's fame. That he could vindicate himself from all the charges which + had been brought against him, we knew to be impossible; and his editors + admit that he has not done so. But we thought it highly probable that some + grave accusations would be refuted, and that many offences to which he + would have been forced to plead guilty would be greatly extenuated. We + were not disposed to be severe. We were fully aware that temptations such + as those to which the members of the Convention and of the Committee of + Public Safety were exposed must try severely the strength of the firmest + virtue. Indeed our inclination has always been to regard with an + indulgence, which to some rigid moralists appears excessive, those faults + into which gentle and noble spirits are sometimes hurried by the + excitement of conflict, by the maddening influence of sympathy, and by + ill-regulated zeal for a public cause. + </p> + <p> + With such feelings we read this book, and compared it with other accounts + of the events in which Barere bore a part. It is now our duty to express + the opinion to which this investigation has led us. + </p> + <p> + Our opinion then is this: that Barere approached nearer than any person + mentioned in history or fiction, whether man or devil, to the idea of + consummate and universal depravity. In him the qualities which are the + proper objects of hatred, and the qualities which are the proper objects + of contempt, preserve an exquisite and absolute harmony. In almost every + particular sort of wickedness he has had rivals. His sensuality was + immoderate; but this was a failing common to him with many great and + amiable men. There have been many men as cowardly as he, some as cruel, a + few as mean, a few as impudent. There may also have been as great liars, + though we never met with them or read of them. But when we put everything + together, sensuality, poltroonery, baseness, effrontery, mendacity, + barbarity, the result is something which in a novel we should condemn as + caricature, and to which, we venture to say, no parallel can be found in + history. + </p> + <p> + It would be grossly unjust, we acknowledge, to try a man situated as + Barere was by a severe standard. Nor have we done so. We have formed our + opinion of him, by comparing him, not with politicians of stainless + character, not with Chancellor D'Aguesseau, or General Washington, or Mr + Wilberforce, or Earl Grey, but with his own colleagues of the Mountain. + That party included a considerable number of the worst men that ever + lived; but we see in it nothing like Barere. Compared with him, Fouche + seems honest; Billaud seems humane; Hebert seems to rise into dignity. + Every other chief of a party, says M. Hippolyte Carnot, has found + apologists: one set of men exalts the Girondists; another set justifies + Danton; a third deifies Robespierre: but Barere has remained without a + defender. We venture to suggest a very simple solution of this phenomenon. + All the other chiefs of parties had some good qualities; and Barere had + none. The genius, courage, patriotism, and humanity of the Girondist + statesmen more than atoned for what was culpable in their conduct, and + should have protected them from the insult of being compared with such a + thing as Barere. Danton and Robespierre were indeed bad men; but in both + of them some important parts of the mind remained sound. Danton was brave + and resolute, fond of pleasure, of power, and of distinction, with + vehement passions, with lax principles, but with some kind and manly + feelings, capable of great crimes, but capable also of friendship and of + compassion. He, therefore, naturally finds admirers among persons of bold + and sanguine dispositions. Robespierre was a vain, envious, and suspicious + man, with a hard heart, weak nerves, and a gloomy temper. But we cannot + with truth deny that he was, in the vulgar sense of the word, + disinterested, that his private life was correct, or that he was sincerely + zealous for his own system of politics and morals. He, therefore, + naturally finds admirers among honest but moody and bitter democrats. If + no class has taken the reputation of Barere under its patronage, the + reason is plain: Barere had not a single virtue, nor even the semblance of + one. + </p> + <p> + It is true that he was not, as far as we are able to judge, originally of + a savage disposition; but this circumstance seems to us only to aggravate + his guilt. There are some unhappy men constitutionally prone to the darker + passions, men all whose blood is gall, and to whom bitter words and harsh + actions are as natural as snarling and biting to a ferocious dog. To come + into the world with this wretched mental disease is a greater calamity + than to be born blind or deaf. A man who, having such a temper, keeps it + in subjection, and constrains himself to behave habitually with justice + and humanity towards those who are in his power, seems to us worthy of the + highest admiration. There have been instances of this self-command; and + they are among the most signal triumphs of philosophy and religion. On the + other hand, a man who, having been blessed by nature with a bland + disposition, gradually brings himself to inflict misery on his + fellow-creatures with indifference, with satisfaction, and at length with + a hideous rapture, deserves to be regarded as a portent of wickedness; and + such a man was Barere. The history of his downward progress is full of + instruction. Weakness, cowardice, and fickleness were born with him; the + best quality which he received from nature was a good temper. These, it is + true, are not very promising materials; yet, out of materials as + unpromising, high sentiments of piety and of honour have sometimes made + martyrs and heroes. Rigid principles often do for feeble minds what stays + do for feeble bodies. But Barere had no principles at all. His character + was equally destitute of natural and of acquired strength. Neither in the + commerce of life, nor in books, did we ever become acquainted with any + mind so unstable, so utterly destitute of tone, so incapable of + independent thought and earnest preference, so ready to take impressions + and so ready to lose them. He resembled those creepers which must lean on + something, and which, as soon as their prop is removed, fall down in utter + helplessness. He could no more stand up, erect and self-supported, in any + cause, than the ivy can rear itself like the oak, or the wild vine shoot + to heaven like the cedar of Lebanon. It is barely possible that, under + good guidance and in favourable circumstances, such a man might have + slipped through life without discredit. But the unseaworthy craft, which + even in still water would have been in danger of going down from its own + rottenness, was launched on a raging ocean, amidst a storm in which a + whole armada of gallant ships was cast away. The weakest and most servile + of human beings found himself on a sudden an actor in a Revolution which + convulsed the whole civilised world. At first he fell under the influence + of humane and moderate men, and talked the language of humanity and + moderation. But he soon found himself surrounded by fierce and resolute + spirits, scared by no danger and restrained by no scruple. He had to + choose whether he would be their victim or their accomplice. His choice + was soon made. He tasted blood, and felt no loathing; he tasted it again, + and liked it well. Cruelty became with him, first a habit, then a passion, + at last a madness. So complete and rapid was the degeneracy of his nature, + that within a very few months after the time when he had passed for a + good-natured man, he had brought himself to look on the despair and misery + of his fellow-creatures with a glee resembling that of the fiends whom + Dante saw watching the pool of seething pitch in Malebolge. He had many + associates in guilt; but he distinguished himself from them all by the + Bacchanalian exaltation which he seemed to feel in the work of death. He + was drunk with innocent and noble blood, laughed and shouted as he + butchered, and howled strange songs and reeled in strange dances amidst + the carnage. Then came a sudden and violent turn of fortune. The miserable + man was hurled down from the height of power to hopeless ruin and infamy. + The shock sobered him at once. The fumes of his horrible intoxication + passed away. But he was now so irrecoverably depraved that the discipline + of adversity only drove him further into wickedness. Ferocious vices, of + which he had never been suspected, had been developed in him by power. + Another class of vices, less hateful perhaps, but more despicable, was now + developed in him by poverty and disgrace. Having appalled the whole world + by great crimes perpetrated under the pretence of zeal for liberty, he + became the meanest of all the tools of despotism. It is not easy to settle + the order of precedence among his vices, but we are inclined to think that + his baseness was, on the whole, a rarer and more marvellous thing than his + cruelty. + </p> + <p> + This is the view which we have long taken of Barere's character; but, till + we read these Memoirs, we held our opinion with the diffidence which + becomes a judge who has only heard one side. The case seemed strong, and + in parts unanswerable; yet we did not know what the accused party might + have to say for himself; and, not being much inclined to take our + fellow-creatures either for angels of light or for angels of darkness, we + could not but feel some suspicion that his offences had been exaggerated. + That suspicion is now at an end. The vindication is before us. It occupies + four volumes. It was the work of forty years. It would be absurd to + suppose that it does not refute every serious charge which admitted of + refutation. How many serious charges, then, are here refuted? Not a single + one. Most of the imputations which have been thrown on Barere he does not + even notice. In such cases, of course, judgment must go against him by + default. The fact is, that nothing can be more meagre and uninteresting + than his account of the great public transactions in which he was engaged. + He gives us hardly a word of new information respecting the proceedings of + the Committee of Public Safety; and, by way of compensation, tells us long + stories about things which happened before he emerged from obscurity, and + after he had again sunk into it. Nor is this the worst. As soon as he + ceases to write trifles, he begins to write lies; and such lies! A man who + has never been within the tropics does not know what a thunderstorm means; + a man who has never looked on Niagara has but a faint idea of a cataract; + and he who has not read Barere's Memoirs may be said not to know what it + is to lie. Among the numerous classes which make up the great genus + Mendacium, the Mendacium Vasconicum, or Gascon lie, has, during some + centuries, been highly esteemed as peculiarly circumstantial and + peculiarly impudent; and, among the Mendacia Vasconica, the Mendacium + Barerianum is, without doubt, the finest species. It is indeed a superb + variety, and quite throws into the shade some Mendacia which we were used + to regard with admiration. The Mendacium Wraxallianum, for example, though + by no means to be despised, will not sustain the comparison for a moment. + Seriously, we think that M. Hippolyte Carnot is much to blame in this + matter. We can hardly suppose him to be worse read than ourselves in the + history of the Convention, a history which must interest him deeply, not + only as a Frenchman, but also as a son. He must, therefore, be perfectly + aware that many of the most important statements which these volumes + contain are falsehoods, such as Corneille's Dorante, or Moliere's Scapin, + or Colin d'Harleville's Monsieur de Crac would have been ashamed to utter. + We are far, indeed, from holding M. Hippolyte Carnot answerable for + Barere's want of veracity; but M. Hippolyte Carnot has arranged these + Memoirs, has introduced them to the world by a laudatory preface, has + described them as documents of great historical value, and has illustrated + them by notes. We cannot but think that, by acting thus, he contracted + some obligations of which he does not seem to have been at all aware; and + that he ought not to have suffered any monstrous fiction to go forth under + the sanction of his name, without adding a line at the foot of the page + for the purpose of cautioning the reader. + </p> + <p> + We will content ourselves at present with pointing out two instances of + Barere's wilful and deliberate mendacity; namely, his account of the death + of Marie Antoinette, and his account of the death of the Girondists. His + account of the death of Marie Antoinette is as follows:—"Robespierre + in his turn proposed that the members of the Capet family should be + banished, and that Marie Antoinette should be brought to trial before the + Revolutionary Tribunal. He would have been better employed in concerting + military measures which might have repaired our disasters in Belgium, and + might have arrested the progress of the enemies of the Revolution in the + west."—(Volume ii. page 312.) + </p> + <p> + Now, it is notorious that Marie Antoinette was sent before the + Revolutionary Tribunal, not at Robespierre's instance, but in direct + opposition to Robespierre's wishes. We will cite a single authority, which + is quite decisive. Bonaparte, who had no conceivable motive to disguise + the truth, who had the best opportunities of knowing the truth, and who, + after his marriage with the Archduchess, naturally felt an interest in the + fate of his wife's kinswomen, distinctly affirmed that Robespierre opposed + the trying of the Queen. (O'Meara's "Voice from St Helena", ii. 170.) Who, + then, was the person who really did propose that the Capet family should + be banished, and that Marie Antoinette should be tried? Full information + will be found in the "Moniteur". ("Moniteur", 2d, 7th and 9th of August, + 1793.) From that valuable record it appears that, on the first of August + 1793, an orator, deputed by the Committee of Public Safety, addressed the + Convention in a long and elaborate discourse. He asked, in passionate + language, how it happened that the enemies of the Republic still continued + to hope for success. "Is it," he cried, "because we have too long + forgotten the crimes of the Austrian woman? Is it because we have shown so + strange an indulgence to the race of our ancient tyrants? It is time that + this unwise apathy should cease; it is time to extirpate from the soil of + the Republic the last roots of royalty. As for the children of Louis the + conspirator, they are hostages for the Republic. The charge of their + maintenance shall be reduced to what is necessary for the food and keep of + two individuals. The public treasure shall no longer be lavished on + creatures who have too long been considered as privileged. But behind them + lurks a woman who has been the cause of all the disasters of France, and + whose share in every project adverse to the revolution has long been + known. National justice claims its rights over her. It is to the tribunal + appointed for the trial of conspirators that she ought to be sent. It is + only by striking the Austrian woman that you can make Francis and George, + Charles and William, sensible of the crimes which their ministers and + their armies have committed." The speaker concluded by moving that Marie + Antoinette should be brought to judgment, and should, for that end, be + forthwith transferred to the Conciergerie; and that all the members of the + house of Capet, with the exception of those who were under the sword of + the law, and of the two children of Louis, should be banished from the + French territory. The motion was carried without debate. + </p> + <p> + Now, who was the person who made this speech and this motion? It was + Barere himself. It is clear, then, that Barere attributed his own mean + insolence and barbarity to one who, whatever his crimes may have been, was + in this matter innocent. The only question remaining is, whether Barere + was misled by his memory, or wrote a deliberate falsehood. + </p> + <p> + We are convinced that he wrote a deliberate falsehood. His memory is + described by his editors as remarkably good, and must have been bad indeed + if he could not remember such a fact as this. It is true that the number + of murders in which he subsequently bore a part was so great that he might + well confound one with another, that he might well forget what part of the + daily hecatomb was consigned to death by himself, and what part by his + colleagues. But two circumstances make it quite incredible that the share + which he took in the death of Marie Antoinette should have escaped his + recollection. She was one of his earliest victims. She was one of his most + illustrious victims. The most hardened assassin remembers the first time + that he shed blood; and the widow of Louis was no ordinary sufferer. If + the question had been about some milliner, butchered for hiding in her + garret her brother who had let drop a word against the Jacobin Club—if + the question had been about some old nun, dragged to death for having + mumbled what were called fanatical words over her beads—Barere's + memory might well have deceived him. It would be as unreasonable to expect + him to remember all the wretches whom he slew as all the pinches of snuff + that he took. But, though Barere murdered many hundreds of human beings, + he murdered only one Queen. That he, a small country lawyer, who, a few + years before, would have thought himself honoured by a glance or a word + from the daughter of so many Caesars, should call her the Austrian woman, + should send her from jail to jail, should deliver her over to the + executioner, was surely a great event in his life. Whether he had reason + to be proud of it or ashamed of it, is a question on which we may perhaps + differ from his editors; but they will admit, we think, that he could not + have forgotten it. + </p> + <p> + We, therefore, confidently charge Barere with having written a deliberate + falsehood; and we have no hesitation in saying that we never, in the + course of any historical researches that we have happened to make, fell in + with a falsehood so audacious, except only the falsehood which we are + about to expose. + </p> + <p> + Of the proceeding against the Girondists, Barere speaks with just + severity. He calls it an atrocious injustice perpetrated against the + legislators of the republic. He complains that distinguished deputies, who + ought to have been readmitted to their seats in the Convention, were sent + to the scaffold as conspirators. The day, he exclaims, was a day of + mourning for France. It mutilated the national representation; it weakened + the sacred principle, that the delegates of the people were inviolable. He + protests that he had no share in the guilt. "I have had," he says, "the + patience to go through the 'Moniteur', extracting all the charges brought + against deputies, and all the decrees for arresting and impeaching + deputies. Nowhere will you find my name. I never brought a charge against + any of my colleagues, or made a report against any, or drew up an + impeachment against any." (Volume ii. 407.) + </p> + <p> + Now, we affirm that this is a lie. We affirm that Barere himself took the + lead in the proceedings of the Convention against the Girondists. We + affirm that he, on the twenty-eighth of July 1793, proposed a decree for + bringing nine Girondist deputies to trial, and for putting to death + sixteen other Girondist deputies without any trial at all. We affirm that, + when the accused deputies had been brought to trial, and when some + apprehension arose that their eloquence might produce an effect even on + the Revolutionary Tribunal, Barere did, on the 8th of Brumaire, second a + motion for a decree authorising the tribunal to decide without hearing out + the defence; and, for the truth of every one of these things so affirmed + by us, we appeal to the very "Moniteur" to which Barere has dared to + appeal. ("Moniteur", 31st of July 1793, and Nonidi, first Decade of + Brumaire, in the year 2(?).) + </p> + <p> + What M. Hippolyte Carnot, knowing, as he must know, that this book + contains such falsehoods as those which we have exposed, can have meant, + when he described it as a valuable addition to our stock of historical + information, passes our comprehension. When a man is not ashamed to tell + lies about events which took place before hundreds of witnesses, and which + are recorded in well-known and accessible books, what credit can we give + to his account of things done in corners? No historian who does not wish + to be laughed at will ever cite the unsupported authority of Barere as + sufficient to prove any fact whatever. The only thing, as far as we can + see, on which these volumes throw any light, is the exceeding baseness of + the author. + </p> + <p> + So much for the veracity of the Memoirs. In a literary point of view, they + are beneath criticism. They are as shallow, flippant, and affected, as + Barere's oratory in the Convention. They are also, what his oratory in the + Convention was not, utterly insipid. In fact, they are the mere dregs and + rinsings of a bottle of which even the first froth was but of very + questionable flavour. + </p> + <p> + We will now try to present our readers with a sketch of this man's life. + We shall, of course, make very sparing use indeed of his own Memoirs; and + never without distrust, except where they are confirmed by other evidence. + </p> + <p> + Bertrand Barere was born in the year 1755, at Tarbes in Gascony. His + father was the proprietor of a small estate at Vieuzac, in the beautiful + vale of Argeles. Bertrand always loved to be called Barere de Vieuzac, and + flattered himself with the hope that, by the help of this feudal addition + to his name, he might pass for a gentleman. He was educated for the bar at + Toulouse, the seat of one of the most celebrated parliaments of the + kingdom, practised as an advocate with considerable success, and wrote + some small pieces, which he sent to the principal literary societies in + the south of France. Among provincial towns, Toulouse seems to have been + remarkably rich in indifferent versifiers and critics. It gloried + especially in one venerable institution, called the Academy of the Floral + Games. This body held every year a grand meeting which was a subject of + intense interest to the whole city, and at which flowers of gold and + silver were given as prizes for odes, for idyls, and for something that + was called eloquence. These bounties produced of course the ordinary + effect of bounties, and turned people who might have been thriving + attorneys and useful apothecaries into small wits and bad poets. Barere + does not appear to have been so lucky as to obtain any of these precious + flowers; but one of his performances was mentioned with honour. At + Montauban he was more fortunate. The academy of that town bestowed on him + several prizes, one for a panegyric on Louis the Twelfth, in which the + blessings of monarchy and the loyalty of the French nation were set forth; + and another for a panegyric on poor Franc de Pompignan, in which, as may + easily be supposed, the philosophy of the eighteenth century was sharply + assailed. Then Barere found an old stone inscribed with three Latin words, + and wrote a dissertation upon it, which procured him a seat in a learned + Assembly, called the Toulouse Academy of Sciences, Inscriptions, and + Polite Literature. At length the doors of the Academy of the Floral Games + were opened to so much merit. Barere, in his thirty-third year, took his + seat as one of that illustrious brotherhood, and made an inaugural oration + which was greatly admired. He apologises for recounting these triumphs of + his youthful genius. We own that we cannot blame him for dwelling long on + the least disgraceful portion of his existence. To send in declamations + for prizes offered by provincial academies is indeed no very useful or + dignified employment for a bearded man; but it would have been well if + Barere had always been so employed. + </p> + <p> + In 1785 he married a young lady of considerable fortune. Whether she was + in other respects qualified to make a home happy, is a point respecting + which we are imperfectly informed. In a little work, entitled "Melancholy + Pages", which was written in 1797, Barere avers that his marriage was one + of mere convenience, that at the altar his heart was heavy with sorrowful + forebodings, that he turned pale as he pronounced the solemn "Yes," that + unbidden tears rolled down his cheeks, that his mother shared his + presentiment, and that the evil omen was accomplished. "My marriage," he + says, "was one of the most unhappy of marriages." So romantic a tale, told + by so noted a liar, did not command our belief. We were, therefore, not + much surprised to discover that, in his Memoirs, he calls his wife a most + amiable woman, and declares that, after he had been united to her six + years, he found her as amiable as ever. He complains, indeed, that she was + too much attached to royalty and to the old superstition; but he assures + us that his respect for her virtues induced him to tolerate her + prejudices. Now Barere, at the time of his marriage, was himself a + Royalist and a Catholic. He had gained one prize by flattering the Throne, + and another by defending the Church. It is hardly possible, therefore, + that disputes about politics or religion should have embittered his + domestic life till some time after he became a husband. Our own guess is, + that his wife was, as he says, a virtuous and amiable woman, and that she + did her best to make him happy during some years. It seems clear that, + when circumstances developed the latent atrocity of his character, she + could no longer endure him, refused to see him, and sent back his letters + unopened. Then it was, we imagine, that he invented the fable about his + distress on his wedding day. + </p> + <p> + In 1788 Barere paid his first visit to Paris, attended reviews, heard + Laharpe at the Lycaeum, and Condorcet at the Academy of Sciences, stared + at the envoys of Tippoo Sahib, saw the Royal Family dine at Versailles, + and kept a journal in which he noted down adventures and speculations. + Some parts of this journal are printed in the first volume of the work + before us, and are certainly most characteristic. The worst vices of the + writer had not yet shown themselves; but the weakness which was the parent + of those vices appears in every line. His levity, his inconsistency, his + servility, were already what they were to the last. All his opinions, all + his feelings, spin round and round like a weathercock in a whirlwind. Nay, + the very impressions which he receives through his senses are not the same + two days together. He sees Louis the Sixteenth, and is so much blinded by + loyalty as to find his Majesty handsome. "I fixed my eyes," he says, "with + a lively curiosity on his fine countenance, which I thought open and + noble." The next time that the king appears all is altered. His Majesty's + eyes are without the smallest expression; he has a vulgar laugh which + seems like idiocy, an ignoble figure, an awkward gait, and the look of a + big boy ill brought up. It is the same with more important questions. + Barere is for the parliaments on the Monday and against the parliaments on + the Tuesday, for feudality in the morning and against feudality in the + afternoon. One day he admires the English constitution; then he shudders + to think that, in the struggles by which that constitution had been + obtained, the barbarous islanders had murdered a king, and gives the + preference to the constitution of Bearn. Bearn, he says, has a sublime + constitution, a beautiful constitution. There the nobility and clergy meet + in one house, and the Commons in another. If the houses differ, the King + has the casting vote. A few weeks later we find him raving against the + principles of this sublime and beautiful constitution. To admit deputies + of the nobility and clergy into the legislature is, he says, neither more + nor less than to admit enemies of the nation into the legislature. + </p> + <p> + In this state of mind, without one settled purpose or opinion, the slave + of the last word, royalist, aristocrat, democrat, according to the + prevailing sentiment of the coffee-house or drawing-room into which he had + just looked, did Barere enter into public life. The States-General had + been summoned. Barere went down to his own province, was there elected one + of the representatives of the Third Estate, and returned to Paris in May + 1789. + </p> + <p> + A great crisis, often predicted, had at last arrived. In no country, we + conceive, have intellectual freedom and political servitude existed + together so long as in France, during the seventy or eighty years which + preceded the last convocation of the Orders. Ancient abuses and new + theories flourished in equal vigour side by side. The people, having no + constitutional means of checking even the most flagitious misgovernment, + were indemnified for oppression by being suffered to luxuriate in + anarchical speculation, and to deny or ridicule every principle on which + the institutions of the State reposed. Neither those who attribute the + downfall of the old French institutions to the public grievances, nor + those who attribute it to the doctrines of the philosophers, appear to us + to have taken into their view more than one half of the subject. + Grievances as heavy have often been endured without producing a + revolution; doctrines as bold have often been propounded without producing + a revolution. The question, whether the French nation was alienated from + its old polity by the follies and vices of the Viziers and Sultanas who + pillaged and disgraced it, or by the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau, + seems to us as idle as the question whether it was fire or gunpowder that + blew up the mills at Hounslow. Neither cause would have sufficed alone. + Tyranny may last through ages where discussion is suppressed. Discussion + may safely be left free by rulers who act on popular principles. But + combine a press like that of London with a government like that of St + Petersburg; and the inevitable effect will be an explosion that will shake + the world. So it was in France. Despotism and License, mingling in + unblessed union, engendered that mighty Revolution in which the lineaments + of both parents were strangely blended. The long gestation was + accomplished; and Europe saw, with mixed hope and terror, that agonising + travail and that portentous birth. + </p> + <p> + Among the crowd of legislators which at this conjuncture poured from all + the provinces of France into Paris, Barere made no contemptible figure. + The opinions which he for the moment professed were popular, yet not + extreme. His character was fair; his personal advantages are said to have + been considerable; and, from the portrait which is prefixed to these + Memoirs, and which represents him as he appeared in the Convention, we + would judge that his features must have been strikingly handsome, though + we think that we can read in them cowardice and meanness very legibly + written by the hand of God. His conversation was lively and easy; his + manners remarkably good for a country lawyer. Women of rank and wit said + that he was the only man who, on his first arrival from a remote province, + had that indescribable air which it was supposed that Paris alone could + give. His eloquence, indeed, was by no means so much admired in the + capital as it had been by the ingenious academicians of Montauban and + Toulouse. His style was thought very bad; and very bad, if a foreigner may + venture to judge, it continued to the last. It would, however, be unjust + to deny that he had some talents for speaking and writing. His rhetoric, + though deformed by every imaginable fault of taste, from bombast down to + buffoonery, was not wholly without force and vivacity. He had also one + quality which, in active life, often gives fourth-rate men an advantage + over first-rate men. Whatever he could do, he could do without effort, at + any moment, in any abundance, and on any side of any question. There was, + indeed, a perfect harmony between his moral character and his intellectual + character. His temper was that of a slave; his abilities were exactly + those which qualified him to be a useful slave. Of thinking to purpose, he + was utterly incapable; but he had wonderful readiness in arranging and + expressing thoughts furnished by others. + </p> + <p> + In the National Assembly he had no opportunity of displaying the full + extent either of his talents or of his vices. He was indeed eclipsed by + much abler men. He went, as was his habit, with the stream, spoke + occasionally with some success, and edited a journal called the "Point du + Jour", in which the debates of the Assembly were reported. + </p> + <p> + He at first ranked by no means among the violent reformers. He was not + friendly to that new division of the French territory which was among the + most important changes introduced by the Revolution, and was especially + unwilling to see his native province dismembered. He was entrusted with + the task of framing Reports on the Woods and Forests. Louis was + exceedingly anxious about this matter; for his majesty was a keen + sportsman, and would much rather have gone without the Veto, or the + prerogative of making peace and war, than without his hunting and + shooting. Gentlemen of the royal household were sent to Barere, in order + to intercede for the deer and pheasants. Nor was this intercession + unsuccessful. The reports were so drawn that Barere was afterwards accused + of having dishonestly sacrificed the interests of the public to the tastes + of the court. To one of these reports he had the inconceivable folly and + bad taste to prefix a punning motto from Virgil, fit only for such essays + as he had been in the habit of composing for the Floral Games— + </p> + <p> + "Si canimus sylvas, sylvae sint Consule dignae." + </p> + <p> + This literary foppery was one of the few things in which he was + consistent. Royalist or Girondist, Jacobin or Imperialist, he was always a + Trissotin. + </p> + <p> + As the monarchical party became weaker and weaker, Barere gradually + estranged himself more and more from it, and drew closer and closer to the + republicans. It would seem that, during this transition, he was for a time + closely connected with the family of Orleans. It is certain that he was + entrusted with the guardianship of the celebrated Pamela, afterwards Lady + Edward Fitzgerald; and it was asserted that he received during some years + a pension of twelve thousand francs from the Palais Royal. + </p> + <p> + At the end of September 1791, the labours of the National Assembly + terminated, and those of the first and last Legislative Assembly + commenced. + </p> + <p> + It had been enacted that no member of the National Assembly should sit in + the Legislative Assembly; a preposterous and mischievous regulation, to + which the disasters which followed must in part be ascribed. In England, + what would be thought of a Parliament which did not contain one single + person who had ever sat in parliament before? Yet it may safely be + affirmed that the number of Englishmen who, never having taken any share + in public affairs, are yet well qualified, by knowledge and observation, + to be members of the legislature is at least a hundred times as great as + the number of Frenchmen who were so qualified in 1791. How, indeed, should + it have been otherwise? In England, centuries of representative government + have made all educated people in some measure statesmen. In France the + National Assembly had probably been composed of as good materials as were + then to be found. It had undoubtedly removed a vast mass of abuses; some + of its members had read and thought much about theories of government; and + others had shown great oratorical talents. But that kind of skill which is + required for the constructing, launching, and steering of a polity was + lamentably wanting; for it is a kind of skill to which practice + contributes more than books. Books are indeed useful to the politician, as + they are useful to the navigator and to the surgeon. But the real + navigator is formed on the waves; the real surgeon is formed at bedsides; + and the conflicts of free states are the real school of constitutional + statesmen. The National Assembly had, however, now served an + apprenticeship of two laborious and eventful years. It had, indeed, by no + means finished its education; but it was no longer, as on the day when it + met, altogether rude to political functions. Its later proceedings contain + abundant proof that the members had profited by their experience. Beyond + all doubt there was not in France any equal number of persons possessing + in an equal degree the qualities necessary for the judicious direction of + public affairs; and, just at this moment, these legislators, misled by a + childish wish to display their own disinterestedness, deserted the duties + which they had half learned, and which nobody else had learned at all, and + left their hall to a second crowd of novices, who had still to master the + first rudiments of political business. When Barere wrote his Memoirs, the + absurdity of this self-denying ordinance had been proved by events, and + was, we believe, acknowledged by all parties. He accordingly, with his + usual mendacity, speaks of it in terms implying that he had opposed it. + There was, he tells us, no good citizen who did not regret this fatal + vote. Nay, all wise men, he says, wished the National Assembly to continue + its sittings as the first Legislative Assembly. But no attention was paid + to the wishes of the enlightened friends of liberty; and the generous but + fatal suicide was perpetrated. Now the fact is, that Barere, far from + opposing this ill-advised measure, was one of those who most eagerly + supported it; that he described it from the tribune as wise and + magnanimous; that he assigned, as his reasons for taking this view, some + of those phrases in which orators of his class delight, and which, on all + men who have the smallest insight into politics, produce an effect very + similar to that of ipecacuanha. "Those," he said, "who have framed a + constitution for their country are, so to speak, out of the pale of that + social state of which they are the authors; for creative power is not in + the same sphere with that which it has created." + </p> + <p> + M. Hippolyte Carnot has noticed this untruth, and attributes it to mere + forgetfulness. We leave it to him to reconcile his very charitable + supposition with what he elsewhere says of the remarkable excellence of + Barere's memory. + </p> + <p> + Many members of the National Assembly were indemnified for the sacrifice + of legislative power by appointments in various departments of the public + service. Of these fortunate persons Barere was one. A high Court of Appeal + had just been instituted. This court was to sit at Paris: but its + jurisdiction was to extend over the whole realm; and the departments were + to choose the judges. Barere was nominated by the department of the Upper + Pyrenees, and took his seat in the Palace of Justice. He asserts, and our + readers may, if they choose, believe, that it was about this time in + contemplation to make him Minister of the Interior, and that in order to + avoid so grave a responsibility, he obtained permission to pay a visit to + his native place. It is certain that he left Paris early in the year 1792, + and passed some months in the south of France. + </p> + <p> + In the mean time, it became clear that the constitution of 1791 would not + work. It was, indeed, not to be expected that a constitution new both in + its principles and its details would at first work easily. Had the chief + magistrate enjoyed the entire confidence of the people, had he performed + his part with the utmost zeal, fidelity, and ability—had the + representative body included all the wisest statesmen of France, the + difficulties might still have been found insuperable. But, in fact, the + experiment was made under every disadvantage. The King, very naturally, + hated the constitution. In the Legislative Assembly were men of genius and + men of good intentions, but not a single man of experience. Nevertheless, + if France had been suffered to settle her own affairs without foreign + interference, it is possible that the calamities which followed might have + been averted. The King, who, with many good qualities, was sluggish and + sensual, might have found compensation for his lost prerogatives in his + immense civil list, in his palaces and hunting grounds, in soups, Perigord + pies, and champagne. The people, finding themselves secure in the + enjoyment of the valuable reforms which the National Assembly had, in the + midst of all its errors, effected, would not have been easily excited by + demagogues to acts of atrocity; or, if acts of atrocity had been + committed, those acts would probably have produced a speedy and violent + reaction. Had tolerable quiet been preserved during a few years, the + constitution of 1791 might perhaps have taken root, might have gradually + acquired the strength which time alone can give, and might, with some + modifications which were undoubtedly needed, have lasted down to the + present time. The European coalition against the Revolution extinguished + all hope of such a result. The deposition of Louis was, in our opinion, + the necessary consequence of that coalition. The question was now no + longer, whether the King should have an absolute Veto or a suspensive + Veto, whether there should be one chamber or two chambers, whether the + members of the representative body should be re-eligible or not; but + whether France should belong to the French. The independence of the + nation, the integrity of the territory, were at stake; and we must say + plainly that we cordially approve of the conduct of those Frenchmen who, + at that conjuncture, resolved, like our own Blake, to play the men for + their country, under whatever form of government their country might fall. + </p> + <p> + It seems to us clear that the war with the Continental coalition was, on + the side of France, at first a defensive war, and therefore a just war. It + was not a war for small objects, or against despicable enemies. On the + event were staked all the dearest interests of the French people. Foremost + among the threatening powers appeared two great and martial monarchies, + either of which, situated as France then was, might be regarded as a + formidable assailant. It is evident that, under such circumstances, the + French could not, without extreme imprudence, entrust the supreme + administration of their affairs to any person whose attachment to the + national cause admitted of doubt. Now, it is no reproach to the memory of + Louis to say that he was not attached to the national cause. Had he been + so, he would have been something more than man. He had held absolute + power, not by usurpation, but by the accident of birth, and by the ancient + polity of the kingdom. That power he had, on the whole, used with lenity. + He had meant well by his people. He had been willing to make to them, of + his own mere motion, concessions such as scarcely any other sovereign has + ever made except under duress. He had paid the penalty of faults not his + own, of the haughtiness and ambition of some of his predecessors, of the + dissoluteness and baseness of others. He had been vanquished, taken + captive, led in triumph, put in ward. He had escaped; he had been caught; + he had been dragged back like a runaway galley-slave to the oar. He was + still a state prisoner. His quiet was broken by daily affronts and + lampoons. Accustomed from the cradle to be treated with profound + reverence, he was now forced to command his feelings, while men who, a few + months before, had been hackney writers or country attorneys, sat in his + presence with covered heads, and addressed him in the easy tone of + equality. Conscious of fair intentions, sensible of hard usage, he + doubtless detested the Revolution; and, while charged with the conduct of + the war against the confederates, pined in secret for the sight of the + German eagles and the sound of the German drums. We do not blame him for + this. But can we blame those who, being resolved to defend the work of the + National Assembly against the interference of strangers, were not disposed + to have him at their head in the fearful struggle which was approaching? + We have nothing to say in defence or extenuation of the insolence, + injustice, and cruelty with which, after the victory of the republicans, + he and his family were treated. But this we say, that the French had only + one alternative, to deprive him of the powers of first magistrate, or to + ground their arms and submit patiently to foreign dictation. The events of + the tenth of August sprang inevitably from the league of Pilnitz. The + King's palace was stormed; his guards were slaughtered. He was suspended + from his regal functions; and the Legislative Assembly invited the nation + to elect an extraordinary Convention, with the full powers which the + conjuncture required. To this Convention the members of the National + Assembly were eligible; and Barere was chosen by his own department. + </p> + <p> + The Convention met on the 21st of September 1792. The first proceedings + were unanimous. Royalty was abolished by acclamation. No objections were + made to this great change; and no reasons were assigned for it. For + certainly we cannot honour with the name of reasons such apophthegms, as + that kings are in the moral world what monsters are in the physical world; + and that the history of kings is the martyrology of nations. But, though + the discussion was worthy only of a debating club of schoolboys, the + resolution to which the Convention came seems to have been that which + sound policy dictated. In saying this, we do not mean to express an + opinion that a republic is, either in the abstract the best form of + government, or is, under ordinary circumstances, the form of government + best suited to the French people. Our own opinion is, that the best + governments which have ever existed in the world have been limited + monarchies; and that France, in particular, has never enjoyed so much + prosperity and freedom as under a limited monarchy. Nevertheless, we + approve of the vote of the Convention which abolished kingly government. + The interference of foreign powers had brought on a crisis which made + extraordinary measures necessary. Hereditary monarchy may be, and we + believe that it is, a very useful institution in a country like France. + And masts are very useful parts of a ship. But, if the ship is on her + beam-ends, it may be necessary to cut the masts away. When once she has + righted, she may come safe into port under jury rigging, and there be + completely repaired. But, in the meantime, she must be hacked with + unsparing hand, lest that which, under ordinary circumstances, is an + essential part of her fabric should, in her extreme distress, sink her to + the bottom. Even so there are political emergencies in which it is + necessary that governments should be mutilated of their fair proportions + for a time, lest they be cast away forever; and with such an emergency the + Convention had to deal. The first object of a good Frenchman should have + been to save France from the fate of Poland. The first requisite of a + government was entire devotion to the national cause. That requisite was + wanting in Louis; and such a want, at such a moment, could not be supplied + by any public or private virtues. If the king were set aside, the + abolition of kingship necessarily followed. In the state in which the + public mind then was, it would have been idle to think of doing what our + ancestors did in 1688, and what the French Chamber of Deputies did in + 1830. Such an attempt would have failed amidst universal derision and + execration. It would have disgusted all zealous men of all opinions; and + there were then few men who were not zealous. Parties fatigued by long + conflict, and instructed by the severe discipline of that school in which + alone mankind will learn, are disposed to listen to the voice of a + mediator. But when they are in their first heady youth, devoid of + experience, fresh for exertion, flushed with hope, burning with animosity, + they agree only in spurning out of their way the daysman who strives to + take his stand between them and to lay his hand upon them both. Such was + in 1792 the state of France. On one side was the great name of the heir of + Hugh Capet, the thirty-third king of the third race; on the other side was + the great name of the republic. There was no rallying point save these + two. It was necessary to make a choice; and those, in our opinion, judged + well who, waving for the moment all subordinate questions, preferred + independence to subjugation, and the natal soil to the emigrant camp. + </p> + <p> + As to the abolition of royalty, and as to the vigorous prosecution of the + war, the whole Convention seemed to be united as one man. But a deep and + broad gulf separated the representative body into two great parties. + </p> + <p> + On one side were those statesmen who are called, from the name of the + department which some of them represented, the Girondists, and, from the + name of one of their most conspicuous leaders, the Brissotines. In + activity and practical ability, Brissot and Gensonne were the most + conspicuous among them. In parliamentary eloquence, no Frenchman of that + time can be considered as equal to Vergniaud. In a foreign country, and + after the lapse of half a century, some parts of his speeches are still + read with mournful admiration. No man, we are inclined to believe, ever + rose so rapidly to such a height of oratorical excellence. His whole + public life lasted barely two years. This is a circumstance which + distinguishes him from our own greatest speakers, Fox, Burke, Pitt, + Sheridan, Windham, Canning. Which of these celebrated men would now be + remembered as an orator, if he had died two years after he first took his + seat in the House of Commons? Condorcet brought to the Girondist party a + different kind of strength. The public regarded him with justice as an + eminent mathematician, and, with less reason, as a great master of ethical + and political science; the philosophers considered him as their chief, as + the rightful heir, by intellectual descent and by solemn adoption, of + their deceased sovereign D'Alembert. In the same ranks were found Guadet, + Isnard, Barbaroux, Buzot, Louvet, too well known as the author of a very + ingenious and very licentious romance, and more honourably distinguished + by the generosity with which he pleaded for the unfortunate, and by the + intrepidity with which he defied the wicked and powerful. Two persons + whose talents were not brilliant, but who enjoyed a high reputation for + probity and public spirit, Petion and Roland, lent the whole weight of + their names to the Girondist connection. The wife of Roland brought to the + deliberations of her husband's friends masculine courage and force of + thought, tempered by womanly grace and vivacity. Nor was the splendour of + a great military reputation wanting to this celebrated party. Dumourier, + then victorious over the foreign invaders, and at the height of popular + favour, must be reckoned among the allies of the Gironde. + </p> + <p> + The errors of the Brissotines were undoubtedly neither few nor small; but, + when we fairly compare their conduct with the conduct of any other party + which acted or suffered during the French Revolution, we are forced to + admit their superiority in every quality except that single quality which + in such times prevails over every other, decision. They were zealous for + the great social reform which had been effected by the National Assembly; + and they were right. For, though that reform was, in some respects, + carried too far, it was a blessing well worth even the fearful price which + has been paid for it. They were resolved to maintain the independence of + their country against foreign invaders; and they were right. For the + heaviest of all yokes is the yoke of the stranger. They thought that, if + Louis remained at their head, they could not carry on with the requisite + energy the conflict against the European coalition. They therefore + concurred in establishing a republican government; and here, again, they + were right. For, in that struggle for life and death, it would have been + madness to trust a hostile or even a half hearted leader. + </p> + <p> + Thus far they went along with the revolutionary movement. At this point + they stopped; and, in our judgment, they were right in stopping, as they + had been right in moving. For great ends, and under extraordinary + circumstances, they had concurred in measures which, together with much + good, had necessarily produced much evil; which had unsettled the public + mind; which had taken away from government the sanction of prescription; + which had loosened the very foundations of property and law. They thought + that it was now their duty to prop what it had recently been their duty to + batter. They loved liberty, but liberty associated with order, with + justice, with mercy, and with civilisation. They were republicans; but + they were desirous to adorn their republic with all that had given grace + and dignity to the fallen monarchy. They hoped that the humanity, the + courtesy, the taste, which had done much in old times to mitigate the + slavery of France, would now lend additional charms to her freedom. They + saw with horror crimes exceeding in atrocity those which had disgraced the + infuriated religious factions of the sixteenth century, perpetrated in the + name of reason and philanthropy. They demanded, with eloquent vehemence, + that the authors of the lawless massacre, which, just before the meeting + of the Convention, had been committed in the prisons of Paris, should be + brought to condign punishment. They treated with just contempt the pleas + which have been set up for that great crime. They admitted that the public + danger was pressing; but they denied that it justified a violation of + those principles of morality on which all society rests. The independence + and honour of France were indeed to be vindicated, but to be vindicated by + triumphs and not by murders. + </p> + <p> + Opposed to the Girondists was a party which, having been long execrated + throughout the civilised world, has of late—such is the ebb and flow + of opinion—found not only apologists, but even eulogists. We are not + disposed to deny that some members of the Mountain were sincere and public + spirited men. But even the best of them, Carnot, for example, and Cambon, + were far too unscrupulous as to the means which they employed for the + purpose of attaining great ends. In the train of these enthusiasts + followed a crowd, composed of all who, from sensual, sordid, or malignant + motives, wished for a period of boundless license. + </p> + <p> + When the Convention met, the majority were with the Girondists, and Barere + was with the majority. On the King's trial, indeed, he quitted the party + with which he ordinarily acted, voted with the Mountain, and spoke against + the prisoner with a violence such as few members even of the Mountain + showed. + </p> + <p> + The conduct of the leading Girondists on that occasion was little to their + honour. Of cruelty, indeed, we fully acquit them; but it is impossible to + acquit them of criminal irresolution and disingenuousness. They were far, + indeed, from thirsting for the blood of Louis: on the contrary, they were + most desirous to protect him. But they were afraid that, if they went + straight forward to their object, the sincerity of their attachment to + republican institutions would be suspected. They wished to save the King's + life, and yet to obtain all the credit of having been regicides. + Accordingly, they traced out for themselves a crooked course, by which + they hoped to attain both their objects. They first voted the King guilty. + They then voted for referring the question respecting his fate to the + whole body of the people. Defeated in this attempt to rescue him, they + reluctantly, and with ill-suppressed shame and concern, voted for the + capital sentence. Then they made a last attempt in his favour, and voted + for respiting the execution. These zigzag politics produced the effect + which any man conversant with public affairs might have foreseen. The + Girondists, instead of attaining both their ends, failed of both. The + Mountain justly charged them with having attempted to save the King by + underhand means. Their own consciences told them, with equal justice, that + their hands had been dipped in the blood of the most inoffensive and most + unfortunate of men. The direct path was here, as usual, the path not only + of honour, but of safety. The principle on which the Girondists stood as a + party was, that the season for revolutionary violence was over, and that + the reign of law and order ought now to commence. But the proceeding + against the King was clearly revolutionary in its nature. It was not in + conformity with the laws. The only plea for it was, that all ordinary + rules of jurisprudence and morality were suspended by the extreme public + danger. This was the very plea which the Mountain urged in defence of the + massacre of September, and to which, when so urged, the Girondists refused + to listen. They therefore, by voting for the death of the King, conceded + to the Mountain the chief point at issue between the two parties. Had they + given a manful vote against the capital sentence, the regicides would have + been in a minority. It is probable that there would have been an immediate + appeal to force. The Girondists might have been victorious. In the worst + event, they would have fallen with unblemished honour. Thus much is + certain, that their boldness and honesty could not possibly have produced + a worse effect than was actually produced by their timidity and their + stratagems. + </p> + <p> + Barere, as we have said, sided with the Mountain on this occasion. He + voted against the appeal to the people and against the respite. His + demeanour and his language also were widely different from those of the + Girondists. Their hearts were heavy, and their deportment was that of men + oppressed by sorrow. It was Vergniaud's duty to proclaim the result of the + roll-call. His face was pale, and he trembled with emotion, as in a low + and broken voice he announced that Louis was condemned to death. Barere + had not, it is true, yet attained to full perfection in the art of + mingling jests and conceits with words of death; but he already gave + promise of his future excellence in this high department of Jacobin + oratory. He concluded his speech with a sentence worthy of his head and + heart. "The tree of liberty," he said, "as an ancient author remarks, + flourishes when it is watered with the blood of all classes of tyrants." + M. Hippolyte Carnot has quoted this passage in order, as we suppose, to do + honour to his hero. We wish that a note had been added to inform us from + what ancient author Barere quoted. In the course of our own small reading + among the Greek and Latin writers, we have not happened to fall in with + trees of liberty and watering-pots full of blood; nor can we, such is our + ignorance of classical antiquity, even imagine an Attic or Roman orator + employing imagery of that sort. In plain words, when Barere talked about + an ancient author, he was lying, as he generally was when he asserted any + fact, great or small. Why he lied on this occasion we cannot guess, unless + indeed it was to keep his hand in. + </p> + <p> + It is not improbable that, but for the one circumstance, Barere would, + like most of those with whom he ordinarily acted, have voted for the + appeal to the people and for the respite. But, just before the + commencement of the trial, papers had been discovered which proved that, + while a member of the National Assembly, he had been in communication with + the Court respecting his Reports on the Woods and Forests. He was + acquitted of all criminality by the Convention; but the fiercer + Republicans considered him as a tool of the fallen monarch; and this + reproach was long repeated in the journal of Marat, and in the speeches at + the Jacobin club. It was natural that a man like Barere should, under such + circumstances, try to distinguish himself among the crowd of regicides by + peculiar ferocity. It was because he had been a royalist that he was one + of the foremost in shedding blood. + </p> + <p> + The King was no more. The leading Girondists had, by their conduct towards + him, lowered their character in the eyes both of friends and foes. They + still, however, maintained the contest against the Mountain, called for + vengeance on the assassins of September, and protested against the + anarchical and sanguinary doctrines of Marat. For a time they seemed + likely to prevail. As publicists and orators, they had no rivals in the + Convention. They had with them, beyond all doubt, the great majority both + of the deputies and of the French nation. These advantages, it should + seem, ought to have decided the event of the struggle. But the opposite + party had compensating advantages of a different kind. The chiefs of the + Mountain, though not eminently distinguished by eloquence or knowledge, + had great audacity, activity, and determination. The Convention and France + were against them; but the mob of Paris, the clubs of Paris, and the + municipal government of Paris, were on their side. + </p> + <p> + The policy of the Jacobins, in this situation, was to subject France to an + aristocracy infinitely worse than that aristocracy which had emigrated + with the count of Artois—to an aristocracy not of birth, not of + wealth, not of education, but of mere locality. They would not hear of + privileged orders; but they wished to have a privileged city. That + twenty-five millions of Frenchmen should be ruled by a hundred thousand + gentlemen and clergymen was insufferable; but that twenty-five millions of + Frenchmen should be ruled by a hundred thousand Parisians was as it should + be. The qualification of a member of the new oligarchy was simply that he + should live near the hall where the Convention met, and should be able to + squeeze himself daily into the gallery during a debate, and now and then + to attend with a pike for the purpose of blockading the doors. It was + quite agreeable to the maxims of the Mountain that a score of draymen from + Santerre's brewery, or of devils from Hebert's printing-house, should be + permitted to drown the voices of men commissioned to speak the sense of + such cities as Marseilles, Bordeaux, and Lyons; and that a rabble of + half-naked porters from the Faubourg St Antoine should have power to annul + decrees for which the representatives of fifty or sixty departments had + voted. It was necessary to find some pretext for so odious and absurd a + tyranny. Such a pretext was found. To the old phrases of liberty and + equality were added the sonorous watchwords, unity and indivisability. A + new crime was invented, and called by the name of federalism. The object + of the Girondists, it was asserted, was to break up the great nation into + little independent commonwealths, bound together only by a league like + that which connects the Swiss Cantons or the United States of America. The + great obstacle in the way of this pernicious design was the influence of + Paris. To strengthen the influence of Paris ought therefore to be the + chief object of every patriot. + </p> + <p> + The accusation brought against the leaders of the Girondist party was a + mere calumny. They were undoubtedly desirous to prevent the capital from + domineering over the republic, and would gladly have seen the Convention + removed for a time to some provincial town, or placed under the protection + of a trusty guard, which might have overawed the Parisian mob; but there + is not the slightest reason to suspect them of any design against the + unity of the state. Barere, however, really was a federalist, and, we are + inclined to believe, the only federalist in the Convention. As far as a + man so unstable and servile can be said to have felt any preference for + any form of government, he felt a preference for federal government. He + was born under the Pyrenees; he was a Gascon of the Gascons, one of a + people strongly distinguished by intellectual and moral character, by + manners, by modes of speech, by accent, and by physiognomy, from the + French of the Seine and of the Loire; and he had many of the peculiarities + of the race to which he belonged. When he first left his own province he + had attained his thirty-fourth year, and had acquired a high local + reputation for eloquence and literature. He had then visited Paris for the + first time. He had found himself in a new world. His feelings were those + of a banished man. It is clear also that he had been by no means without + his share of the small disappointments and humiliations so often + experienced by men of letters who, elated by provincial applause, venture + to display their powers before the fastidious critics of a capital. On the + other hand, whenever he revisited the mountains among which he had been + born, he found himself an object of general admiration. His dislike of + Paris, and his partiality to his native district, were therefore as strong + and durable as any sentiments of a mind like his could be. He long + continued to maintain that the ascendency of one great city was the bane + of France; that the superiority of taste and intelligence which it was the + fashion to ascribe to the inhabitants of that city were wholly imaginary; + and that the nation would never enjoy a really good government till the + Alsatian people, the Breton people, the people of Bearn, the people of + Provence, should have each an independent existence, and laws suited to + its own tastes and habits. These communities he proposed to unite by a tie + similar to that which binds together the grave Puritans of Connecticut and + the dissolute slave-drivers of New Orleans. To Paris he was unwilling to + grant even the rank which Washington holds in the United States. He + thought it desirable that the congress of the French federation should + have no fixed place of meeting, but should sit sometimes at Rouen, + sometimes at Bordeaux, sometimes at his own Toulouse. + </p> + <p> + Animated by such feelings, he was, till the close of May 1793, a + Girondist, if not an ultra-Girondist. He exclaimed against those impure + and bloodthirsty men who wished to make the public danger a pretext for + cruelty and rapine. "Peril," he said, "could be no excuse for crime. It is + when the wind blows hard, and the waves run high, that the anchor is most + needed; it is when a revolution is raging, that the great laws of morality + are most necessary to the safety of a state." Of Marat he spoke with + abhorrence and contempt; of the municipal authorities of Paris with just + severity. He loudly complained that there were Frenchmen who paid to the + Mountain that homage which was due to the Convention alone. When the + establishment of the Revolutionary Tribunal was first proposed, he joined + himself to Vergniaud and Buzot, who strongly objected to that odious + measure. "It cannot be," exclaimed Barere, "that men really attached to + liberty will imitate the most frightful excesses of despotism!" He proved + to the Convention, after his fashion, out of Sallust, that such arbitrary + courts may indeed, for a time, be severe only on real criminals, but must + inevitably degenerate into instruments of private cupidity and revenge. + When, on the tenth of March, the worst part of the population of Paris + made the first unsuccessful attempt to destroy the Girondists, Barere + eagerly called for vigorous measures of repression and punishment. On the + second of April, another attempt of the Jacobins of Paris to usurp supreme + dominion over the republic was brought to the knowledge of the Convention; + and again Barere spoke with warmth against the new tyranny which afflicted + France, and declared that the people of the departments would never crouch + beneath the tyranny of one ambitious city. He even proposed a resolution + to the effect that the Convention would exert against the demagogues of + the capital the same energy which had been exerted against the tyrant + Louis. We are assured that, in private as in public, he at this time + uniformly spoke with strong aversion of the Mountain. + </p> + <p> + His apparent zeal for the cause of humanity and order had its reward. + Early in April came the tidings of Dumourier's defection. This was a heavy + blow to the Girondists. Dumourier was their general. His victories had + thrown a lustre on the whole party; his army, it had been hoped, would, in + the worst event, protect the deputies of the nation against the ragged + pikemen of the garrets of Paris. He was now a deserter and an exile; and + those who had lately placed their chief reliance on his support were + compelled to join with their deadliest enemies in execrating his treason. + At this perilous conjuncture, it was resolved to appoint a Committee of + Public Safety, and to arm that committee with powers, small indeed when + compared with those which it afterwards drew to itself, but still great + and formidable. The moderate party, regarding Barere as a representative + of their feelings and opinions, elected him a member. In his new situation + he soon began to make himself useful. He brought to the deliberations of + the Committee, not indeed the knowledge or the ability of a great + statesman, but a tongue and a pen which, if others would only supply + ideas, never paused for want of words. His mind was a mere organ of + communication between other minds. It originated nothing; it retained + nothing; but it transmitted everything. The post assigned to him by his + colleagues was not really of the highest importance; but it was prominent, + and drew the attention of all Europe. When a great measure was to be + brought forward, when an account was to be rendered of an important event, + he was generally the mouthpiece of the administration. He was therefore + not unnaturally considered, by persons who lived at a distance from the + seat of government, and above all by foreigners, who, while the war raged, + knew France only from journals, as the head of that administration of + which, in truth, he was only the secretary and the spokesman. The author + of the History of Europe, in our own Annual Registers, appears to have + been completely under this delusion. + </p> + <p> + The conflict between the hostile parties was meanwhile fast approaching to + a crisis. The temper of Paris grew daily fiercer and fiercer. Delegates + appointed by thirty-five of the forty-eight wards of the city appeared at + the bar of the Convention, and demanded that Vergniaud, Brissot, Guadet, + Gensonne, Barbaroux, Buzot, Petion, Louvet, and many other deputies, + should be expelled. This demand was disapproved by at least three-fourths + of the Assembly, and, when known in the departments, called forth a + general cry of indignation. Bordeaux declared that it would stand by its + representatives, and would, if necessary, defend them by the sword against + the tyranny of Paris. Lyons and Marseilles were animated by a similar + spirit. These manifestations of public opinion gave courage to the + majority of the Convention. Thanks were voted to the people of Bordeaux + for their patriotic declaration; and a commission consisting of twelve + members was appointed for the purpose of investigating the conduct of the + municipal authorities of Paris, and was empowered to place under arrest + such persons as should appear to have been concerned in any plot against + the authority of the Convention. This measure was adopted on the motion of + Barere. + </p> + <p> + A few days of stormy excitement and profound anxiety followed; and then + came the crash. On the thirty-first of May the mob of Paris rose; the + palace of the Tuileries was besieged by a vast array of pikes; the + majority of the deputies, after vain struggles and remonstrances, yielded + to violence, and suffered the Mountain to carry a decree for the + suspension and arrest of the deputies whom the wards of the capital had + accused. + </p> + <p> + During this contest, Barere had been tossed backwards and forwards between + the two raging factions. His feelings, languid and unsteady as they always + were, drew him to the Girondists; but he was awed by the vigour and + determination of the Mountain. At one moment he held high and firm + language, complained that the Convention was not free, and protested + against the validity of any vote passed under coercion. At another moment + he proposed to conciliate the Parisians by abolishing that commission of + twelve which he had himself proposed only a few days before; and himself + drew up a paper condemning the very measures which had been adopted at his + own instance, and eulogising the public spirit of the insurgents. To do + him justice, it was not without some symptoms of shame that he read his + document from the tribune, where he had so often expressed very different + sentiments. It is said that, at some passages, he was even seen to blush. + It may have been so; he was still in his novitiate of infamy. + </p> + <p> + Some days later he proposed that hostages for the personal safety of the + accused deputies should be sent to the departments, and offered to be + himself one of those hostages. Nor do we in the least doubt that the offer + was sincere. He would, we firmly believe, have thought himself far safer + at Bordeaux or Marseilles than at Paris. His proposition, however, was not + carried into effect; and he remained in the power of the victorious + Mountain. + </p> + <p> + This was the great crisis of his life. Hitherto he had done nothing + inexpiable, nothing which marked him out as a much worse man than most of + his colleagues in the Convention. His voice had generally been on the side + of moderate measures. Had he bravely cast in his lot with the Girondists, + and suffered with them, he would, like them, have had a not dishonourable + place in history. Had he, like the great body of deputies who meant well, + but who had not the courage to expose themselves to martyrdom, crouched + quietly under the dominion of the triumphant minority, and suffered every + motion of Robespierre and Billaud to pass unopposed, he would have + incurred no peculiar ignominy. But it is probable that this course was not + open to him. He had been too prominent among the adversaries of the + Mountain to be admitted to quarter without making some atonement. It was + necessary that, if he hoped to find pardon from his new lords, he should + not be merely a silent and passive slave. What passed in private between + him and them cannot be accurately related; but the result was soon + apparent. The Committee of Public Safety was renewed. Several of the + fiercest of the dominant faction, Couthon for example, and Saint Just, + were substituted for more moderate politicians; but Barere was suffered to + retain his seat at the Board. + </p> + <p> + The indulgence with which he was treated excited the murmurs of some stern + and ardent zealots. Marat, in the very last words that he wrote, words not + published till the dagger of Charlotte Corday had avenged France and + mankind, complained that a man who had no principles, who was always on + the side of the strongest, who had been a royalist, and who was ready, in + case of a turn of fortune, to be a royalist again, should be entrusted + with an important share in the administration. (See the "Publiciste" of + the 14th July, 1793. Marat was stabbed on the evening of the 13th.) But + the chiefs of the Mountain judged more correctly. They knew, indeed, as + well as Marat, that Barere was a man utterly without faith or steadiness; + that, if he could be said to have any political leaning, his leaning was + not towards them; that he felt for the Girondist party that faint and + wavering sort of preference of which alone his nature was susceptible; and + that, if he had been at liberty to make his choice, he would rather have + murdered Robespierre and Danton than Vergniaud and Gensonne. But they + justly appreciated that levity which made him incapable alike of earnest + love and of earnest hatred, and that meanness which made it necessary to + him to have a master. In truth, what the planters of Carolina and + Louisiana say of black men with flat noses and woolly hair was strictly + true of Barere. The curse of Canaan was upon him. He was born a slave. + Baseness was an instinct in him. The impulse which drove him from a party + in adversity to a party in prosperity was as irresistible as that which + drives the cuckoo and the swallow towards the sun when the dark and cold + months are approaching. The law which doomed him to be the humble + attendant of stronger spirits resembled the law which binds the pilot fish + to the shark. "Ken ye," said a shrewd Scotch lord, who was asked his + opinion of James the First—"Ken ye a John Ape? If I have Jacko by + the collar, I can make him bite you; but, if you have Jacko, you can make + him bite me." Just such a creature was Barere. In the hands of the + Girondists he would have been eager to proscribe the Jacobins; he was just + as ready, in the gripe of the Jacobins, to proscribe the Girondists. On + the fidelity of such a man the heads of the Mountain could not, of course, + reckon; but they valued their conquest as the very easy and not very + delicate lover in Congreve's lively song valued the conquest of a + prostitute of a different kind. Barere was, like Chloe, false and common; + but he was, like Chloe, constant while possessed; and they asked no more. + They needed a service which he was perfectly competent to perform. + Destitute as he was of all the talents both of an active and of a + speculative statesman, he could with great facility draw up a report, or + make a speech on any subject and on any side. If other people would + furnish facts and thoughts, he could always furnish phrases; and this + talent was absolutely at the command of his owners for the time being. Nor + had he excited any angry passion among those to whom he had hitherto been + opposed. They felt no more hatred to him than they felt to the horses + which dragged the cannon of the Duke of Brunswick and of the Prince of + Saxe-Coburg. The horses had only done according to their kind, and would, + if they fell into the hands of the French, drag with equal vigour and + equal docility the guns of the republic, and therefore ought not merely to + be spared, but to be well fed and curried. So was it with Barere. He was + of a nature so low, that it might be doubted whether he could properly be + an object of the hostility of reasonable beings. He had not been an enemy; + he was not now a friend. But he had been an annoyance; and he would now be + a help. + </p> + <p> + But, though the heads of the Mountain pardoned this man, and admitted him + into partnership with themselves, it was not without exacting pledges such + as made it impossible for him, false and fickle as he was, ever again to + find admission into the ranks which he had deserted. That was truly a + terrible sacrament by which they admitted the apostate into their + communion. They demanded of him that he should himself take the most + prominent part in murdering his old friends. To refuse was as much as his + life was worth. But what is life worth when it is only one long agony of + remorse and shame? These, however, are feelings of which it is idle to + talk, when we are considering the conduct of such a man as Barere. He + undertook the task, mounted the tribune, and told the Convention that the + time was come for taking the stern attitude of justice, and for striking + at all conspirators without distinction. He then moved that Buzot, + Barbaroux, Petion, and thirteen other deputies, should be placed out of + the pale of the law, or, in other words, beheaded without a trial; and + that Vergniaud, Guadet, Gensonne, and six others, should be impeached. The + motion was carried without debate. + </p> + <p> + We have already seen with what effrontery Barere has denied, in these + Memoirs, that he took any part against the Girondists. This denial, we + think, was the only thing wanting to make his infamy complete. The most + impudent of all lies was a fit companion for the foulest of all murders. + </p> + <p> + Barere, however, had not yet earned his pardon. The Jacobin party + contained one gang which, even in that party, was pre-eminent in every + mean and every savage vice; a gang so low-minded and so inhuman that, + compared with them, Robespierre might be called magnanimous and merciful. + Of these wretches Hebert was perhaps the best representative. His + favourite amusement was to torment and insult the miserable remains of + that great family which, having ruled France during eight hundred years, + had now become an object of pity to the humblest artisan or peasant. The + influence of this man, and of men like him, induced the Committee of + Public Safety to determine that Marie Antoinette should be sent to the + scaffold. Barere was again summoned to his duty. Only four days after he + had proposed the decrees against the Girondist deputies he again mounted + the tribune, in order to move that the Queen should be brought before the + Revolutionary Tribunal. He was improving fast in the society of his new + allies. When he asked for the heads of Vergniaud and Petion he had spoken + like a man who had some slight sense of his own guilt and degradation: he + had said little; and that little had not been violent. The office of + expatiating on the guilt of his old friends he had left to Saint Just. + Very different was Barere's second appearance in the character of an + accuser. He now cried out for blood in the eager tones of the true and + burning thirst, and raved against the Austrian woman with the virulence + natural to a coward who finds himself at liberty to outrage that which he + has feared and envied. We have already exposed the shameless mendacity + with which, in these Memoirs, he attempts to throw the blame of his own + guilt on the guiltless. + </p> + <p> + On the day on which the fallen Queen was dragged, already more than half + dead, to her doom, Barere regaled Robespierre and some other Jacobins at a + tavern. Robespierre's acceptance of the invitation caused some surprise to + those who knew how long and how bitterly it was his nature to hate. + "Robespierre of the party!" muttered Saint Just. "Barere is the only man + whom Robespierre has forgiven." We have an account of this singular repast + from one of the guests. Robespierre condemned the senseless brutality with + which Hebert had conducted the proceedings against the Austrian woman, + and, in talking on that subject, became so much excited that he broke his + plate in the violence of his gesticulation. Barere exclaimed that the + guillotine had cut a diplomatic knot which it might have been difficult to + untie. In the intervals between the Beaune and the Champagne, between the + ragout of thrushes and the partridge with truffles, he fervently preached + his new political creed. "The vessel of the revolution," he said, "can + float into port only on waves of blood. We must begin with the members of + the National Assembly and of the Legislative Assembly. That rubbish must + be swept away." + </p> + <p> + As he talked at table he talked in the Convention. His peculiar style of + oratory was now formed. It was not altogether without ingenuity and + liveliness. But in any other age or country it would have been thought + unfit for the deliberations of a grave assembly, and still more unfit for + state papers. It might, perhaps, succeed at a meeting of a Protestant + Association in Exeter Hall, at a Repeal dinner in Ireland, after men had + well drunk, or in an American oration on the fourth of July. No + legislative body would now endure it. But in France, during the reign of + the Convention, the old laws of composition were held in as much contempt + as the old government or the old creed. Correct and noble diction + belonged, like the etiquette of Versailles and the solemnities of Notre + Dame, to an age which had passed away. Just as a swarm of ephemeral + constitutions, democratic, directorial, and consular, sprang from the + decay of the ancient monarchy; just as a swarm of new superstitions, the + worship of the Goddess of Reason, and the fooleries of the + Theo-philanthropists, sprang from the decay of the ancient Church; even + so, out of the decay of the ancient French eloquence sprang new fashions + of eloquence, for the understanding of which new grammars and dictionaries + were necessary. The same innovating spirit which altered the common + phrases of salutation, which turned hundreds of Johns and Peters into + Scaevolas and Aristogitons, and which expelled Sunday and Monday, January + and February, Lady-day and Christmas, from the calendar, in order to + substitute Decadi and Primidi, Nivose and Pluviose, Feasts of Opinion and + Feasts of the Supreme Being, changed all the forms of official + correspondence. For the calm, guarded, and sternly courteous language + which governments had long been accustomed to employ, were substituted + puns, interjections, Ossianic rants, rhetoric worthy only of a schoolboy, + scurrility worthy only of a fishwife. Of the phraseology which was now + thought to be peculiarly well suited to a report or a manifesto Barere had + a greater command than any man of his time, and, during the short and + sharp paroxysm of the revolutionary delirium, passed for a great orator. + When the fit was over, he was considered as what he really was, a man of + quick apprehension and fluent elocution, with no originality, with little + information, and with a taste as bad as his heart. His Reports were + popularly called Carmagnoles. A few months ago we should have had some + difficulty in conveying to an English reader an exact notion of the state + papers to which this appellation was given. Fortunately a noble and + distinguished person, whom her Majesty's Ministers have thought qualified + to fill the most important post in the empire, has made our task easy. + Whoever has read Lord Ellenborough's proclamations is able to form a + complete idea of a Carmagnole. + </p> + <p> + The effect which Barere's discourses at one time produced is not to be + wholly attributed to the perversion of the national taste. The occasions + on which he rose were frequently such as would have secured to the worst + speaker a favourable hearing. When any military advantage had been gained, + he was generally deputed by the Committee of Public Safety to announce the + good news. The hall resounded with applause as he mounted the tribune, + holding the despatches in his hand. Deputies and strangers listened with + delight while he told them that victory was the order of the day; that the + guineas of Pitt had been vainly lavished to hire machines six feet high, + carrying guns; that the flight of the English leopard deserved to be + celebrated by Tyrtaeus; and that the saltpetre dug out of the cellars of + Paris had been turned into thunder, which would crush the Titan brethren, + George and Francis. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile the trial of the accused Girondists, who were under arrest in + Paris, came on. They flattered themselves with a vain hope of escape. They + placed some reliance on their innocence, and some reliance on their + eloquence. They thought that shame would suffice to restrain any man, + however violent and cruel, from publicly committing the flagrant iniquity + of condemning them to death. The Revolutionary Tribunal was new to its + functions. No member of the Convention had yet been executed; and it was + probable that the boldest Jacobin would shrink from being the first to + violate the sanctity which was supposed to belong to the representatives + of the people. + </p> + <p> + The proceedings lasted some days. Gensonne and Brissot defended themselves + with great ability and presence of mind against the vile Hebert and + Chaumette, who appeared as accusers. The eloquent voice of Vergniaud was + heard for the last time. He pleaded his own cause and that of his friends, + with such force of reason and elevation of sentiment that a murmur of pity + and admiration rose from the audience. Nay, the court itself, not yet + accustomed to riot in daily carnage, showed signs of emotion. The sitting + was adjourned; and a rumour went forth that there would be an acquittal. + The Jacobins met, breathing vengeance. Robespierre undertook to be their + organ. He rose on the following day in the Convention, and proposed a + decree of such atrocity that even among the acts of that year it can + hardly be paralleled. By this decree the tribunal was empowered to cut + short the defence of the prisoners, to pronounce the case clear, and to + pass immediate judgment. One deputy made a faint opposition. Barere + instantly sprang up to support Robespierre—Barere, the federalist; + Barere, the author of that Commission of Twelve which was among the chief + causes of the hatred borne by Paris to the Girondists; Barere, who in + these Memoirs denies that he ever took any part against the Girondists; + Barere, who has the effrontery to declare that he greatly loved and + esteemed Vergniaud. The decree was passed; and the tribunal, without + suffering the prisoners to conclude what they had to say, pronounced them + guilty. + </p> + <p> + The following day was the saddest in the sad history of the Revolution. + The sufferers were so innocent, so brave, so eloquent, so accomplished, so + young. Some of them were graceful and handsome youths of six or seven and + twenty. Vergniaud and Gensonne were little more than thirty. They had been + only a few months engaged in public affairs. In a few months the fame of + their genius had filled Europe; and they were to die for no crime but + this, that they had wished to combine order, justice, and mercy with + freedom. Their great fault was want of courage. We mean want of political + courage—of that courage which is proof to clamour and obloquy, and + which meets great emergencies by daring and decisive measures. Alas! they + had but too good an opportunity of proving that they did not want courage + to endure with manly cheerfulness the worst that could be inflicted by + such tyrants as Saint Just, and such slaves as Barere. + </p> + <p> + They were not the only victims of the noble cause. Madame Roland followed + them to the scaffold with a spirit as heroic as their own. Her husband was + in a safe hiding-place, but could not bear to survive her. His body was + found on the high road near Rouen. He had fallen on his sword. Condorcet + swallowed opium. At Bordeaux the steel fell on the necks of the bold and + quick-witted Guadet and of Barbaroux, the chief of those enthusiasts from + the Rhone whose valour, in the great crisis of the tenth of August, had + turned back the tide of battle from the Louvre to the Tuileries. In a + field near the Garonne was found all that the wolves had left of Petion, + once honoured, greatly indeed beyond his deserts, as the model of + republican virtue. We are far from regarding even the best of the + Girondists with unmixed admiration; but history owes to them this + honourable testimony, that, being free to choose whether they would be + oppressors or victims, they deliberately and firmly resolved rather to + suffer injustice than to inflict it. + </p> + <p> + And now began that strange period known by the name of the Reign of + Terror. The Jacobins had prevailed. This was their hour, and the power of + darkness. The Convention was subjugated and reduced to profound silence on + the highest questions of state. The sovereignty passed to the Committee of + Public Safety. To the edicts framed by that Committee the representative + assembly did not venture to offer even the species of opposition which the + ancient parliament had frequently offered to the mandates of the ancient + kings. Six persons held the chief power in the small cabinet which now + domineered over France—Robespierre, Saint Just, Couthon, Collot, + Billaud, and Barere. + </p> + <p> + To some of these men, and of those who adhered to them, it is due to say + that the fanaticism which had emancipated them from the restraints of + justice and compassion had emancipated them also from the dominion of + vulgar cupidity and of vulgar fear; that, while hardly knowing where to + find an assignat of a few francs to pay for a dinner, they expended with + strict integrity the immense revenue which they collected by every art of + rapine; and that they were ready, in support of their cause, to mount the + scaffold with as much indifference as they showed when they signed the + death-warrants of aristocrats and priests. But no great party can be + composed of such materials as these. It is the inevitable law that such + zealots as we have described shall collect around them a multitude of + slaves, of cowards, and of libertines, whose savage tempers and licentious + appetites, withheld only by the dread of law and magistracy from the worst + excesses, are called into full activity by the hope of immunity. A faction + which, from whatever motive, relaxes the great laws of morality is certain + to be joined by the most immoral part of the community. This has been + repeatedly proved in religious wars. The war of the Holy Sepulchre, the + Albigensian war, the Huguenot war, the Thirty Years' war, all originated + in pious zeal. That zeal inflamed the champions of the Church to such a + point that they regarded all generosity to the vanquished as a sinful + weakness. The infidel, the heretic, was to be run down like a mad dog. No + outrage committed by the Catholic warrior on the miscreant enemy could + deserve punishment. As soon as it was known that boundless license was + thus given to barbarity and dissoluteness, thousands of wretches who cared + nothing for the sacred cause, but who were eager to be exempted from the + police of peaceful cities, and the discipline of well-governed camps, + flocked to the standard of the faith. The men who had set up that statute + were sincere, chaste, regardless of lucre, and perhaps, where only + themselves were concerned, not unforgiving; but round that standard were + assembled such gangs of rogues, ravishers, plunderers, and ferocious + bravoes, as were scarcely ever found under the flag of any state engaged + in a mere temporal quarrel. In a very similar way was the Jacobin party + composed. There was a small nucleus of enthusiasts; round that nucleus was + gathered a vast mass of ignoble depravity; and in all that mass there was + nothing so depraved and so ignoble as Barere. + </p> + <p> + Then came those days when the most barbarous of all codes was administered + by the most barbarous of all tribunals; when no man could greet his + neighbours, or say his prayers, or dress his hair, without danger of + committing a capital crime; when spies lurked in every corner; when the + guillotine was long and hard at work every morning; when the jails were + filled as close as the hold of a slave-ship; when the gutters ran foaming + with blood into the Seine; when it was death to be great-niece of a + captain of the royal guards, or half-brother of a doctor of the Sorbonne, + to express a doubt whether assignats would not fall, to hint that the + English had been victorious in the action of the first of June, to have a + copy of one of Burke's pamphlets locked up in a desk, to laugh at a + Jacobin for taking the name of Cassius or Timoleon, or to call the Fifth + Sansculottide by its old superstitious name of St Matthew's Day. While the + daily waggon-loads of victims were carried to their doom through the + streets of Paris, the Proconsuls whom the sovereign Committee had sent + forth to the departments revelled in an extravagance of cruelty unknown + even in the capital. The knife of the deadly machine rose and fell too + slow for their work of slaughter. Long rows of captives were mowed down + with grapeshot. Holes were made in the bottom of crowded barges. Lyons was + turned into a desert. At Arras even the cruel mercy of a speedy death was + denied to the prisoners. All down the Loire, from Saumur to the sea, great + flocks of crows and kites feasted on naked corpses, twined together in + hideous embraces. No mercy was shown to sex or age. The number of young + lads and of girls of seventeen who were murdered by that execrable + government is to be reckoned by hundreds. Babies torn from the breast were + tossed from pike to pike along the Jacobin ranks. One champion of liberty + had his pockets well stuffed with ears. Another swaggered about with the + finger of a little child in his hat. A few months had sufficed to degrade + France below the level of New Zealand. + </p> + <p> + It is absurd to say that any amount of public danger can justify a system + like this, we do not say on Christian principles, we do not say on the + principles of a high morality, but even on principles of Machiavellian + policy. It is true that great emergencies call for activity and vigilance; + it is true that they justify severity which, in ordinary times, would + deserve the name of cruelty. But indiscriminate severity can never, under + any circumstances, be useful. It is plain that the whole efficacy of + punishment depends on the care with which the guilty are distinguished. + Punishment which strikes the guilty and the innocent promiscuously, + operates merely like a pestilence or a great convulsion of nature, and has + no more tendency to prevent offences than the cholera, or an earthquake + like that of Lisbon, would have. The energy for which the Jacobin + administration is praised was merely the energy of the Malay who maddens + himself with opium, draws his knife, and runs amuck through the streets, + slashing right and left at friends and foes. Such has never been the + energy of truly great rulers; of Elizabeth, for example, of Oliver, or of + Frederick. They were not, indeed, scrupulous. But, had they been less + scrupulous than they were, the strength and amplitude of their minds would + have preserved them from crimes such as those which the small men of the + Committee of Public Safety took for daring strokes of policy. The great + Queen who so long held her own against foreign and domestic enemies, + against temporal and spiritual arms; the great Protector who governed with + more than regal power, in despite both of royalists and republicans; the + great King who, with a beaten army and an exhausted treasury, defended his + little dominions to the last against the united efforts of Russia, + Austria, and France; with what scorn would they have heard that it was + impossible for them to strike a salutary terror into the disaffected + without sending school-boys and school-girls to death by cart-loads and + boat-loads! + </p> + <p> + The popular notion is, we believe, that the leading Terrorists were wicked + men, but, at the same time, great men. We can see nothing great about them + but their wickedness. That their policy was daringly original is a vulgar + error. Their policy is as old as the oldest accounts which we have of + human misgovernment. It seemed new in France and in the eighteenth century + only because it had been long disused, for excellent reasons, by the + enlightened part of mankind. But it has always prevailed, and still + prevails, in savage and half-savage nations, and is the chief cause which + prevents such nations from making advances towards civilisation. Thousands + of deys, of beys, of pachas, of rajahs, of nabobs, have shown themselves + as great masters of statecraft as the members of the Committee of Public + Safety. Djezzar, we imagine, was superior to any of them in their new + line. In fact, there is not a petty tyrant in Asia or Africa so dull or so + unlearned as not to be fully qualified for the business of Jacobin police + and Jacobin finance. To behead people by scores without caring whether + they are guilty or innocent; to wring money out of the rich by the help of + jailers and executioners; to rob the public creditor, and to put him to + death if he remonstrates; to take loaves by force out of the bakers' + shops; to clothe and mount soldiers by seizing on one man's wool and + linen, and on another man's horses and saddles, without compensation; is + of all modes of governing the simplest and most obvious. Of its morality + we at present say nothing. But surely it requires no capacity beyond that + of a barbarian or a child. By means like those which we have described, + the Committee of Public Safety undoubtedly succeeded, for a short time, in + enforcing profound submission, and in raising immense funds. But to en + force submission by butchery, and to raise funds by spoliation, is not + statesmanship. The real statesman is he who, in troubled times, keeps down + the turbulent without unnecessarily harrassing the well-affected; and who, + when great pecuniary resources are needed, provides for the public + exigencies without violating the security of property and drying up the + sources of future prosperity. Such a statesman, we are confident, might, + in 1793, have preserved the independence of France without shedding a drop + of innocent blood, without plundering a single warehouse. Unhappily, the + Republic was subject to men who were mere demagogues and in no sense + statesmen. They could declaim at a club. They could lead a rabble to + mischief. But they had no skill to conduct the affairs of an empire. The + want of skill they supplied for a time by atrocity and blind violence. For + legislative ability, fiscal ability, military ability, diplomatic ability, + they had one substitute, the guillotine. Indeed their exceeding ignorance, + and the barrenness of their invention, are the best excuse for their + murders and robberies. We really believe that they would not have cut so + many throats, and picked so many pockets, if they had known how to govern + in any other way. + </p> + <p> + That under their administration the war against the European Coalition was + successfully conducted is true. But that war had been successfully + conducted before their elevation, and continued to be successfully + conducted after their fall. Terror was not the order of the day when + Brussels opened its gates to Dumourier. Terror had ceased to be the order + of the day when Piedmont and Lombardy were conquered by Bonaparte. The + truth is, that France was saved, not by the Committee of Public Safety, + but by the energy, patriotism, and valour of the French people. Those high + qualities were victorious in spite of the incapacity of rulers whose + administration was a tissue, not merely of crimes, but of blunders. + </p> + <p> + We have not time to tell how the leaders of the savage faction at length + began to avenge mankind on each other: how the craven Hebert was dragged + wailing and trembling to his doom; how the nobler Danton, moved by a late + repentance, strove in vain to repair the evil which he had wrought, and + half redeemed the great crime of September by man fully encountering death + in the cause of mercy. + </p> + <p> + Our business is with Barere. In all those things he was not only + consenting, but eagerly and joyously forward. Not merely was he one of the + guilty administration. He was the man to whom was especially assigned the + office of proposing and defending outrages on justice and humanity, and of + furnishing to atrocious schemes an appropriate garb of atrocious + rodomontade. Barere first proclaimed from the tribune of the Convention + that terror must be the order of the day. It was by Barere that the + Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris was provided with the aid of a public + accuser worthy of such a court, the infamous Fouquier Tinville. It was + Barere who, when one of the old members of the National Assembly had been + absolved by the Revolutionary Tribunal, gave orders that a fresh jury + should be summoned. "Acquit one of the National Assembly!" he cried. "The + Tribunal is turning against the Revolution." It is unnecessary to say that + the prisoner's head was soon in the basket. It was Barere who moved that + the city of Lyons should be destroyed. "Let the plough," he cried from the + tribune, "pass over her. Let her name cease to exist. The rebels are + conquered; but are they all exterminated? No weakness. No mercy. Let every + one be smitten. Two words will suffice to tell the whole. Lyons made war + on liberty; Lyons is no more." When Toulon was taken Barere came forward + to announce the event. "The conquest," said the apostate Brissotine, "won + by the Mountain over the Brissotines must be commemorated by a mark set on + the place where Toulon once stood." The national thunder must crush the + house of every trader in the town. When Camille Desmoulins, long + distinguished among the republicans by zeal and ability, dared to raise + his eloquent voice against the Reign of Terror, and to point out the close + analogy between the government which then oppressed France and the + government of the worst of the Caesars, Barere rose to complain of the + weak compassion which tried to revive the hopes of the aristocracy. + "Whoever," he said, "is nobly born is a man to be suspected. Every priest, + every frequenter of the old court, every lawyer, every banker, is a man to + be suspected. Every person who grumbles at the course which the Revolution + takes is a man to be suspected. There are whole castes already tried and + condemned. There are callings which carry their doom with them. There are + relations of blood which the law regards with an evil eye. Republicans of + France!" yelled the renegade Girondist, the old enemy of the Mountain—"Republicans + of France! the Brissotines led you by gentle means to slavery. The + Mountain leads you by strong measures to freedom. Oh! who can count the + evils which a false compassion may produce?" When the friends of Danton + mustered courage to express a wish that the Convention would at least hear + him in his own defence before it sent him to certain death, the voice of + Barere was the loudest in opposition to their prayer. When the crimes of + Lebon, one of the worst, if not the very worst, of the viceregents of the + Committee of Public Safety, had so maddened the people of the Department + of the North that they resorted to the desperate expedient of imploring + the protection of the Convention, Barere pleaded the cause of the accused + tyrant, and threatened the petitioners with the utmost vengeance of the + government. "These charges," he said, "have been suggested by wily + aristocrats. The man who crushes the enemies of the people, though he may + be hurried by his zeal into some excesses, can never be a proper object of + censure. The proceedings of Lebon may have been a little harsh as to + form." One of the small irregularities thus gently censured was this: + Lebon kept a wretched man a quarter of an hour under the knife of the + guillotine, in order to torment him, by reading to him, before he was + despatched, a letter, the contents of which were supposed to be such as + would aggravate even the bitterness of death. "But what," proceeded + Barere, "is not permitted to the hatred of a republican against + aristocracy? How many generous sentiments atone for what may perhaps seem + acrimonious in the prosecution of public enemies? Revolutionary measures + are always to be spoken of with respect. Liberty is a virgin whose veil it + is not lawful to lift." + </p> + <p> + After this, it would be idle to dwell on facts which would indeed, of + themselves, suffice to render a name infamous, but which make no + perceptible addition to the great infamy of Barere. It would be idle, for + example, to relate how he, a man of letters, a member of an Academy of + Inscriptions, was foremost in that war against learning, art, and history + which disgraced the Jacobin government; how he recommended a general + conflagration of libraries; how he proclaimed that all records of events + anterior to the Revolution ought to be destroyed; how he laid waste the + Abbey of St Denis, pulled down monuments consecrated by the veneration of + ages, and scattered on the wind the dust of ancient kings. He was, in + truth, seldom so well employed as when he turned for a moment from making + war on the living to make war on the dead. + </p> + <p> + Equally idle would it be to dilate on his sensual excesses. That in Barere + as in the whole breed of Neros, Caligulas, and Domitians whom he + resembled, voluptuousness was mingled with cruelty; that he withdrew, + twice in every decade, from the work of blood, to the smiling gardens of + Clichy, and there forgot public cares in the madness of wine and in the + arms of courtesans, has often been repeated. M. Hippolyte Carnot does not + altogether deny the truth of these stories, but justly observes that + Barere's dissipation was not carried to such a point as to interfere with + his industry. Nothing can be more true. Barere was by no means so much + addicted to debauchery as to neglect the work of murder. It was his boast + that, even during his hours of recreation, he cut out work for the + Revolutionary Tribunal. To those who expressed a fear that his exertions + would hurt his health, he gaily answered that he was less busy than they + thought. "The guillotine," he said, "does all; the guillotine governs." + For ourselves, we are much more disposed to look indulgently on the + pleasures which he allowed to himself than on the pain which he inflicted + on his neighbours. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Atque utinam his potius nugis tota illa dedisset + Tempora saevitiae, claras quibus abstulit urbi + Illustresque animas, impune ac vindice nullo." +</pre> + <p> + An immoderate appetite for sensual gratifications is undoubtedly a blemish + on the fame of Henry the Fourth, of Lord Somers, of Mr Fox. But the vices + of honest men are the virtues of Barere. + </p> + <p> + And now Barere had become a really cruel man. It was from mere + pusillanimity that he had perpetrated his first great crimes. But the + whole history of our race proves that the taste for the misery of others + is a taste which minds not naturally ferocious may too easily acquire, and + which, when once acquired, is as strong as any of the propensities with + which we are born. A very few months had sufficed to bring this man into a + state of mind in which images of despair, wailing, and death had an + exhilarating effect on him, and inspired him as wine and love inspire men + of free and joyous natures. The cart creaking under its daily freight of + victims, ancient men and lads, and fair young girls, the binding of the + hands, the thrusting of the head out of the little national sash-window, + the crash of the axe, the pool of blood beneath the scaffold, the heads + rolling by scores in the panier—these things were to him what Lalage + and a cask of Falernian were to Horace, what Rosette and a bottle of iced + champagne are to De Beranger. As soon as he began to speak of slaughter + his heart seemed to be enlarged, and his fancy to become unusually fertile + of conceits and gasconades. Robespierre, Saint Just, and Billaud, whose + barbarity was the effect of earnest and gloomy hatred, were, in his view, + men who made a toil of a pleasure. Cruelty was no such melancholy + business, to be gone about with an austere brow and a whining tone; it was + a recreation, fitly accompanied by singing and laughing. In truth, + Robespierre and Barere might be well compared to the two renowned hangmen + of Louis the Eleventh. They were alike insensible of pity, alike bent on + havoc. But, while they murdered, one of them frowned and canted, the other + grinned and joked. For our own part, we prefer Jean qui pleure to Jean qui + rit. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of the funeral gloom which overhung Paris, a gaiety stranger + and more ghastly than the horrors of the prison and the scaffold + distinguished the dwelling of Barere. Every morning a crowd of suitors + assembled to implore his protection. He came forth in his rich + dressing-gown, went round the antechamber, dispensed smiles and promises + among the obsequious crowd, addressed himself with peculiar animation to + every handsome woman who appeared in the circle, and complimented her in + the florid style of Gascony on the bloom of her cheeks and the lustre of + her eyes. When he had enjoyed the fear and anxiety of his suppliants he + dismissed them, and flung all their memorials unread into the fire. This + was the best way, he conceived, to prevent arrears of business from + accumulating. Here he was only an imitator. Cardinal Dubois had been in + the habit of clearing his table of papers in the same way. Nor was this + the only point in which we could point out a resemblance between the worst + statesman of the monarchy and the worst statesman of the republic. + </p> + <p> + Of Barere's peculiar vein of pleasantry a notion may be formed from an + anecdote which one of his intimate associates, a juror of the + revolutionary tribunal, has related. A courtesan who bore a conspicuous + part in the orgies of Clichy implored Barere to use his power against a + head-dress which did not suit her style of face, and which a rival beauty + was trying to bring into fashion. One of the magistrates of the capital + was summoned and received the necessary orders. Aristocracy, Barere said, + was again rearing its front. These new wigs were counter-revolutionary. He + had reason to know that they were made out of the long fair hair of + handsome aristocrats who had died by the national chopper. Every lady who + adorned herself with the relics of criminals might justly be suspected of + incivism. This ridiculous lie imposed on the authorities of Paris. Female + citizens were solemnly warned against the obnoxious ringlets, and were + left to choose between their head-dresses and their heads. Barere's + delight at the success of this facetious fiction was quite extravagant: he + could not tell the story without going into such convulsions of laughter + as made his hearers hope that he was about to choke. There was something + peculiarly tickling and exhilarating to his mind in this grotesque + combination of the frivolous with the horrible, of false locks and + curling-irons with spouting arteries and reeking hatchets. + </p> + <p> + But, though Barere succeeded in earning the honourable nicknames of the + Witling of Terror, and the Anacreon of the Guillotine, there was one place + where it was long remembered to his disadvantage that he had, for a time, + talked the language of humanity and moderation. That place was the Jacobin + club. Even after he had borne the chief part in the massacre of the + Girondists, in the murder of the Queen, in the destruction of Lyons, he + durst not show himself within that sacred precinct. At one meeting of the + society, a member complained that the committee to which the supreme + direction of affairs was entrusted, after all the changes which had been + made, still contained one man who was not trustworthy. Robespierre, whose + influence over the Jacobins was boundless, undertook the defence of his + colleague, owned there was some ground for what had been said, but spoke + highly of Barere's industry and aptitude for business. This seasonable + interposition silenced the accuser; but it was long before the neophyte + could venture to appear at the club. + </p> + <p> + At length a masterpiece of wickedness, unique, we think, even among + Barere's great achievements, obtained his full pardon even from that rigid + conclave. The insupportable tyranny of the Committee of Public Safety had + at length brought the minds of men, and even of women, into a fierce and + hard temper, which defied or welcomed death. The life which might be any + morning taken away, in consequence of the whisper of a private enemy, + seemed of little value. It was something to die after smiting one of the + oppressors; it was something to bequeath to the surviving tyrants a terror + not inferior to that which they had themselves inspired. Human nature, + hunted and worried to the utmost, now turned furiously to bay. Fouquier + Tinville was afraid to walk the streets; a pistol was snapped at Collot + D'Herbois; a young girl, animated apparently by the spirit of Charlotte + Corday, attempted to obtain an interview with Robespierre. Suspicions + arose; she was searched; and two knives were found about her. She was + questioned, and spoke of the Jacobin domination with resolute scorn and + aversion. It is unnecessary to say that she was sent to the guillotine. + Barere declared from the tribune that the cause of these attempts was + evident. Pitt and his guineas had done the whole. The English Government + had organised a vast system of murder, had armed the hand of Charlotte + Corday, and had now, by similar means, attacked two of the most eminent + friends of liberty in France. It is needless to say that these imputations + were, not only false, but destitute of all show of truth. Nay, they were + demonstrably absurd: for the assassins to whom Barere referred rushed on + certain death, a sure proof that they were not hirelings. The whole wealth + of England would not have bribed any sane person to do what Charlotte + Corday did. But, when we consider her as an enthusiast, her conduct is + perfectly natural. Even those French writers who are childish enough to + believe that the English Government contrived the infernal machine and + strangled the Emperor Paul have fully acquitted Mr Pitt of all share in + the death of Marat and in the attempt on Robespierre. Yet on calumnies so + futile as those which we have mentioned did Barere ground a motion at + which all Christendom stood aghast. He proposed a decree that no quarter + should be given to any English or Hanoverian soldier. (M. Hippolyte Carnot + does his best to excuse this decree. His abuse of England is merely + laughable. England has managed to deal with enemies of a very different + sort from either himself or his hero. One disgraceful blunder, however, we + think it right to notice. M. Hippolyte Carnot asserts that a motion + similar to that of Barere was made in the English Parliament by the late + Lord Fitzwilliam. This assertion is false. We defy M. Hippolyte Carnot to + state the date and terms of the motion of which he speaks. We do not + accuse him of intentional misrepresentation; but we confidently accuse him + of extreme ignorance and temerity. Our readers will be amused to learn on + what authority he has ventured to publish such a fable. He quotes, not the + journals of the Lords, not the Parliamentary Debates, but a ranting + message of the Executive Directory to the Five Hundred, a message, too, + the whole meaning of which he has utterly misunderstood.) His Carmagnole + was worthy of the proposition with which it concluded. "That one + Englishman should be spared, that for the slaves of George, for the human + machines of York, the vocabulary of our armies should contain such a word + as generosity, this is what the National Convention cannot endure. War to + the death against every English soldier. If last year, at Dunkirk, quarter + had been refused to them when they asked it on their knees, if our troops + had exterminated them all, instead of suffering them to infest our + fortresses by their presence, the English government would not have + renewed its attack on our frontiers this year. It is only the dead man who + never comes back. What is this moral pestilence which has introduced into + our armies false ideas of humanity? That the English were to be treated + with indulgence was the philanthropic notion of the Brissotines; it was + the patriotic practice of Dumourier. But humanity consists in + exterminating our enemies. No mercy to the execrable Englishman. Such are + the sentiments of the true Frenchman; for he knows that he belongs to a + nation revolutionary as nature, powerful as freedom, ardent as the + saltpetre which she has just torn from the entrails of the earth. Soldiers + of liberty, when victory places Englishmen at your mercy, strike! None of + them must return to the servile soil of Great Britain; none must pollute + the free soil of France." + </p> + <p> + The Convention, thoroughly tamed and silenced, acquiesced in Barere's + motion without debate. And now at last the doors of the Jacobin Club were + thrown open to the disciple who had surpassed his masters. He was admitted + a member by acclamation, and was soon selected to preside. + </p> + <p> + For a time he was not without hope that his decree would be carried into + full effect. Intelligence arrived from the seat of war of a sharp contest + between some French and English troops, in which the Republicans had the + advantage, and in which no prisoners had been made. Such things happen + occasionally in all wars. Barere, however, attributed the ferocity of this + combat to his darling decree, and entertained the Convention with another + Carmagnole. + </p> + <p> + "The Republicans," he said, "saw a division in red uniform at a distance. + The red-coats are attacked with the bayonet. Not one of them escapes the + blows of the Republicans. All the red-coats have been killed. No mercy, no + indulgence, has been shown towards the villains. Not an Englishman whom + the Republicans could reach is now living. How many prisoners should you + guess that we have made? One single prisoner is the result of this great + day." + </p> + <p> + And now this bad man's craving for blood had become insatiable. The more + he quaffed, the more he thirsted. He had begun with the English; but soon + he came down with a proposition for new massacres. "All the troops," he + said, "of the coalesced tyrants in garrison at Conde, Valenciennes, Le + Quesnoy, and Landrecies, ought to be put to the sword unless they + surrender at discretion in twenty-four hours. The English, of course, will + be admitted to no capitulation whatever. With the English we have no + treaty but death. As to the rest, surrender at discretion in twenty-four + hours, or death, these are our conditions. If the slaves resist, let them + feel the edge of the sword." And then he waxed facetious. "On these terms + the Republic is willing to give them a lesson in the art of war." At that + jest, some hearers, worthy of such a speaker, set up a laugh. Then he + became serious again. "Let the enemy perish," he cried, "I have already + said it from this tribune. It is only the dead man who never comes back. + Kings will not conspire against us in the grave. Armies will not fight + against us when they are annihilated. Let our war with them be a war of + extermination. What pity is due to slaves whom the Emperor leads to war + under the cane; whom the King of Prussia beats to the shambles with the + flat of the sword; and whom the Duke of York makes drunk with rum and + gin?" And at the rum and gin the Mountain and the galleries laughed again. + </p> + <p> + If Barere had been able to effect his purpose, it is difficult to estimate + the extent of the calamity which he would have brought on the human race. + No government, however averse to cruelty, could, in justice to its own + subjects, have given quarter to enemies who gave none. Retaliation would + have been, not merely justifiable, but a sacred duty. It would have been + necessary for Howe and Nelson to make every French sailor whom they took + walk the plank. England has no peculiar reason to dread the introduction + of such a system. On the contrary, the operation of Barere's new law of + war would have been more unfavourable to his countrymen than to ours; for + we believe that, from the beginning to the end of the war, there never was + a time at which the number of French prisoners in England was not greater + than the number of English prisoners in France; and so, we apprehend, it + will be in all wars while England retains her maritime superiority. Had + the murderous decree of the Convention been in force from 1794 to 1815, we + are satisfied that, for every Englishman slain by the French, at least + three Frenchmen would have been put to the sword by the English. It is, + therefore, not as Englishmen, but as members of the great society of + mankind, that we speak with indignation and horror of the change which + Barere attempted to introduce. The mere slaughter would have been the + smallest part of the evil. The butchering of a single unarmed man in cold + blood, under an act of the legislature, would have produced more evil than + the carnage of ten such fields as Albuera. Public law would have been + subverted from the foundations; national enmities would have been inflamed + to a degree of rage which happily it is not easy for us to conceive; + cordial peace would have been impossible. The moral character of the + European nations would have been rapidly and deeply corrupted; for in all + countries those men whose calling is to put their lives in jeopardy for + the defence of the public weal enjoy high consideration, and are + considered as the best arbitrators on points of honour and manly bearing. + With the standard of morality established in the military profession the + general standard of morality must to a great extent sink or rise. It is, + therefore, a fortunate circumstance that, during a long course of years, + respect for the weak and clemency towards the vanquished have been + considered as qualities not less essential to the accomplished soldier + than personal courage. How long would this continue to be the case, if the + slaying of prisoners were a part of the daily duty of the warrior? What + man of kind and generous nature would, under such a system, willingly bear + arms? Who, that was compelled to bear arms, would long continue kind and + generous? And is it not certain that, if barbarity towards the helpless + became the characteristic of military men, the taint must rapidly spread + to civil and to domestic life, and must show itself in all the dealings of + the strong with the weak, of husbands with wives, of employers with work + men, of creditors with debtors? + </p> + <p> + But, thank God, Barere's decree was a mere dead letter. It was to be + executed by men very different from those who, in the interior of France, + were the instruments of the Committee of Public Safety, who prated at + Jacobin Clubs, and ran to Fouquier Tinville with charges of incivism + against women whom they could not seduce, and bankers from whom they could + not extort money. The warriors who, under Hoche, had guarded the walls of + Dunkirk, and who, under Kleber, had made good the defence of the wood of + Monceaux, shrank with horror from an office more degrading than that of + the hangman. "The Convention," said an officer to his men, "has sent + orders that all the English prisoners shall be shot." "We will not shoot + them" answered a stout-hearted sergeant. "Send them to the Convention. If + the deputies take pleasure in killing a prisoner, they may kill him + themselves, and eat him too, like savages as they are." This was the + sentiment of the whole army. Bonaparte, who thoroughly understood war, who + at Jaffa and elsewhere gave ample proof that he was not unwilling to + strain the laws of war to their utmost rigour, and whose hatred of England + amounted to a folly, always spoke of Barere's decree with loathing, and + boasted that the army had refused to obey the Convention. + </p> + <p> + Such disobedience on the part of any other class of citizens would have + been instantly punished by wholesale massacre; but the Committee of Public + Safety was aware that the discipline which had tamed the unwarlike + population of the fields and cities might not answer in camps. To fling + people by scores out of a boat, and, when they catch hold of it, to chop + off their fingers with a hatchet, is undoubtedly a very agreeable pastime + for a thoroughbred Jacobin, when the sufferers are, as at Nantes, old + confessors, young girls, or women with child. But such sport might prove a + little dangerous if tried upon grim ranks of grenadiers, marked with the + scars of Hondschoote, and singed by the smoke of Fleurus. + </p> + <p> + Barere, however, found some consolation. If he could not succeed in + murdering the English and the Hanoverians, he was amply indemnified by a + new and vast slaughter of his own countrymen and countrywomen. If the + defence which has been set up for the members of the Committee of Public + Safety had been well founded, if it had been true that they governed with + extreme severity only because the republic was in extreme peril, it is + clear that the severity would have diminished as the peril diminished. But + the fact is, that those cruelties for which the public danger is made a + plea became more and more enormous as the danger became less and less, and + reached the full height when there was no longer any danger at all. In the + autumn of 1793, there was undoubtedly reason to apprehend that France + might be unable to maintain the struggle against the European coalition. + The enemy was triumphant on the frontiers. More than half the departments + disowned the authority of the Convention. But at that time eight or ten + necks a day were thought an ample allowance for the guillotine of the + capital. In the summer of 1794, Bordeaux, Toulon, Caen, Lyons, Marseilles, + had submitted to the ascendency of Paris. The French arms were victorious + under the Pyrenees and on the Sambre. Brussels had fallen. Prussia + announced her intention of withdrawing from the contest. The Republic, no + longer content with defending her own independence, was beginning to + meditate conquest beyond the Alps and the Rhine. She was now more + formidable to her neighbours than ever Louis the Fourteenth had been. And + now the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris was not content with forty, fifty, + sixty heads in a morning. It was just after a series of victories, which + destroyed the whole force of the single argument which has been urged in + defence of the system of terror, that the Committee of Public Safety + resolved to infuse into that system an energy hitherto unknown. It was + proposed to reconstruct the Revolutionary Tribunal, and to collect in the + space of two pages the whole revolutionary jurisprudence. Lists of twelve + judges and fifty jurors were made out from among the fiercest Jacobins. + The substantive law was simply this, that whatever the tribunal should + think pernicious to the republic was a capital crime. The law of evidence + was simply this, that whatever satisfied the jurors was sufficient proof. + The law of procedure was of a piece with everything else. There was to be + an advocate against the prisoner, and no advocate for him. It was + expressly declared that, if the jurors were in any manner convinced of the + guilt of the prisoner, they might convict him without hearing a single + witness. The only punishment which the court could inflict was death. + </p> + <p> + Robespierre proposed this decree. When he had read it, a murmur rose from + the Convention. The fear which had long restrained the deputies from + opposing the Committee was overcome by a stronger fear. Every man felt the + knife at his throat. "The decree," said one, "is of grave importance. I + move that it be printed and the debate be adjourned. If such a measure + were adopted without time for consideration, I would blow my brains out at + once." The motion for adjournment was seconded. Then Barere sprang up. "It + is impossible," he said, "that there can be any difference of opinion + among us as to a law like this, a law so favourable in all respects to + patriots; a law which insures the speedy punishment of conspirators. If + there is to be an adjournment, I must insist that it shall not be for more + than three days." The opposition was overawed; the decree was passed; and, + during the six weeks which followed, the havoc was such as has never been + known before. + </p> + <p> + And now the evil was beyond endurance. That timid majority which had for a + time supported the Girondists, and which had, after their fall, contented + itself with registering in silence the decrees of the Committee of Public + Safety, at length drew courage from despair. Leaders of bold and firm + character were not wanting, men such as Fouche and Tallien, who, having + been long conspicuous among the chiefs of the Mountain, now found that + their own lives, or lives still dearer to them than their own, were in + extreme peril. Nor could it be longer kept secret that there was a schism + in the despotic committee. On one side were Robespierre, Saint Just, and + Couthon; on the other, Collot and Billaud. Barere leaned towards these + last, but only leaned towards them. As was ever his fashion when a great + crisis was at hand, he fawned alternately on both parties, struck + alternately at both, and held himself in readiness to chant the praises or + to sign the death-warrant of either. In any event his Carmagnole was + ready. The tree of liberty, the blood of traitors, the dagger of Brutus, + the guineas of perfidious Albion, would do equally well for Billaud and + for Robespierre. + </p> + <p> + The first attack which was made on Robespierre was indirect. An old woman + named Catherine Theot, half maniac, half impostor, was protected by him, + and exercised a strange influence over his mind; for he was naturally + prone to superstition, and, having abjured the faith in which he had been + brought up, was looking about for something to believe. Barere drew up a + report against Catherine, which contained many facetious conceits, and + ended, as might be expected, with a motion for sending her and some other + wretched creatures of both sexes to the Revolutionary Tribunal, or, in + other words, to death. This report, however, he did not dare to read to + the Convention himself. Another member, less timid, was induced to farther + the cruel buffoonery; and the real author enjoyed in security the dismay + and vexation of Robespierre. + </p> + <p> + Barere now thought that he had done enough on one side, and that it was + time to make his peace with the other. On the seventh of Thermidor, he + pronounced in the Convention a panegyric on Robespierre. "That + representative of the people," he said, "enjoys a reputation for + patriotism, earned by five years of exertion, and by unalterable fidelity + to the principles of independence and liberty." On the eighth of + Thermidor, it became clear that a decisive struggle was at hand. + Robespierre struck the first blow. He mounted the tribune, and uttered a + long invective on his opponents. It was moved that his discourse should be + printed; and Barere spoke for the printing. The sense of the Convention + soon appeared to be the other way; and Barere apologised for his former + speech, and implored his colleagues to abstain from disputes which could + be agreeable only to Pitt and York. On the next day, the ever-memorable + ninth of Thermidor, came the real tug of war. Tallien, bravely taking his + life in his hand, led the onset. Billaud followed; and then all that + infinite hatred which had long been kept down by terror burst forth, and + swept every barrier before it. When at length the voice of Robespierre, + drowned by the President's bell, and by shouts of "Down with the tyrant!" + had died away in hoarse gasping, Barere rose. He began with timid and + doubtful phrases, watched the effect of every word he uttered, and, when + the feeling of the Assembly had been unequivocally manifested, declared + against Robespierre. But it was not till the people out of doors, and + especially the gunners of Paris, had espoused the cause of the Convention, + that Barere felt quite at ease. Then he sprang to the tribune, poured + forth a Carmagnole about Pisistratus and Catiline, and concluded by moving + that the heads of Robespierre and Robespierre's accomplices should be cut + off without a trial. The motion was carried. On the following morning the + vanquished members of the Committee of Public Safety and their principal + adherents suffered death. It was exactly one year since Barere had + commenced his career of slaughter by moving the proscription of his old + allies the Girondists. We greatly doubt whether any human being has ever + succeeded in packing more wickedness into the space of three hundred and + sixty-five days. + </p> + <p> + The ninth of Thermidor is one of the great epochs in the history of + Europe. It is true that the three members of the Committee of Public + Safety who triumphed were by no means better men than the three who fell. + Indeed, we are inclined to think that of these six statesmen the least bad + were Robespierre and Saint Just, whose cruelty was the effect of sincere + fanaticism operating on narrow understandings and acrimonious tempers. The + worst of the six was, beyond all doubt, Barere, who had no faith in any + part of the system which he upheld by persecution; who, while he sent his + fellow-creatures to death for being the third cousins of royalists, had + not in the least made up his mind that a republic was better than a + monarchy; who, while he slew his old friends for federalism, was himself + far more a federalist than any of them; who had become a murderer merely + for his safety, and who continued to be a murderer merely for his + pleasure. + </p> + <p> + The tendency of the vulgar is to embody everything. Some individual is + selected, and often selected very injudicially, as the representative of + every great movement of the public mind, of every great revolution in + human affairs; and on this individual are concentrated all the love and + all the hatred, all the admiration and all the contempt, which he ought + rightfully to share with a whole party, a whole sect, a whole nation, a + whole generation. Perhaps no human being has suffered so much from this + propensity of the multitude as Robespierre. He is regarded, not merely as + what he was, an envious, malevolent zealot, but as the incarnation of + Terror, as Jacobinism personified. The truth is, that it was not by him + that the system of terror was carried to the last extreme. The most + horrible days in the history of the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris were + those which immediately preceded the ninth of Thermidor. Robespierre had + then ceased to attend the meetings of the sovereign Committee; and the + direction of affairs was really in the hands of Billaud, of Collot, and of + Barere. + </p> + <p> + It had never occurred to those three tyrants that, in overthrowing + Robespierre, they were overthrowing that system of terror to which they + were more attached than he had ever been. Their object was to go on + slaying even more mercilessly than before. But they had misunderstood the + nature of the great crisis which had at last arrived. The yoke of the + Committee was broken for ever. The Convention had regained its liberty, + had tried its strength, had vanquished and punished its enemies. A great + reaction had commenced. Twenty-four hours after Robespierre had ceased to + live, it was moved and carried, amidst loud bursts of applause, that the + sittings of the Revolutionary Tribunal should be suspended. Billaud was + not at that moment present. He entered the hall soon after, learned with + indignation what had passed, and moved that the vote should be rescinded. + But loud cries of "No, no!" rose from those benches which had lately paid + mute obedience to his commands. Barere came forward on the same day, and + abjured the Convention not to relax the system of terror. "Beware, above + all things," he cried, "of that fatal moderation which talks of peace and + of clemency. Let aristocracy know that here she will find only enemies + sternly bent on vengeance, and judges who have no pity." But the day of + the Carmagnoles was over: the restraint of fear had been relaxed; and the + hatred with which the nation regarded the Jacobin dominion broke forth + with ungovernable violence. Not more strongly did the tide of public + opinion run against the old monarchy and aristocracy, at the time of the + taking of the Bastile, than it now ran against the tyranny of the + Mountain. From every dungeon the prisoners came forth as they had gone in, + by hundreds. The decree which forbade the soldiers of the republic to give + quarter to the English was repealed by an unanimous vote, amidst loud + acclamations; nor, passed as it was, disobeyed as it was, and rescinded as + it was, can it be with justice considered as a blemish on the fame of the + French nation. The Jacobin Club was refractory. It was suppressed without + resistance. The surviving Girondist deputies, who had concealed themselves + from the vengeance of their enemies in caverns and garrets, were + readmitted to their seats in the Convention. No day passed without some + signal reparation of injustice; no street in Paris was without some trace + of the recent change. In the theatre, the bust of Marat was pulled down + from its pedestal and broken in pieces, amidst the applause of the + audience. His carcass was ejected from the Pantheon. The celebrated + picture of his death, which had hung in the hall of the Convention, was + removed. The savage inscriptions with which the walls of the city had been + covered disappeared; and, in place of death and terror, humanity, the + watchword of the new rulers, was everywhere to be seen. In the meantime, + the gay spirit of France, recently subdued by oppression, and now elated + by the joy of a great deliverance, wantoned in a thousand forms. Art, + taste, luxury, revived. Female beauty regained its empire—an empire + strengthened by the remembrance of all the tender and all the sublime + virtues which women, delicately bred and reputed frivolous, had displayed + during the evil days. Refined manners, chivalrous sentiments, followed in + the train of love. The dawn of the Arctic summer day after the Arctic + winter night, the great unsealing of the waters, the awakening of animal + and vegetable life, the sudden softening of the air, the sudden blooming + of the flowers, the sudden bursting of old forests into verdure, is but a + feeble type of that happiest and most genial of revolutions, the + revolution of the ninth of Thermidor. + </p> + <p> + But, in the midst of the revival of all kind and generous sentiments, + there was one portion of the community against which mercy itself seemed + to cry out for vengeance. The chiefs of the late government and their + tools were now never named but as the men of blood, the drinkers of blood, + the cannibals. In some parts of France, where the creatures of the + Mountain had acted with peculiar barbarity, the populace took the law into + its own hands and meted out justice to the Jacobins with the true Jacobin + measure, but at Paris the punishments were inflicted with order and + decency, and were few when compared with the number, and lenient when + compared with the enormity, of the crimes. Soon after the ninth of + Thermidor, two of the vilest of mankind, Fouquier Tinville, whom Barere + had placed at the Revolutionary Tribunal, and Lebon, whom Barere had + defended in the Convention, were placed under arrest. A third miscreant + soon shared their fate, Carrier, the tyrant of Nantes. The trials of these + men brought to light horrors surpassing anything that Suetonius and + Lampridius have related of the worst Caesars. But it was impossible to + punish subordinate agents, who, bad as they were, had only acted in + accordance with the spirit of the government which they served, and, at + the same time, to grant impunity to the heads of the wicked + administration. A cry was raised, both within and without the Convention + for justice on Collot, Billaud, and Barere. + </p> + <p> + Collot and Billaud, with all their vices, appear to have been men of + resolute natures. They made no submission; but opposed to the hatred of + mankind, at first a fierce resistance, and afterwards a dogged and sullen + endurance. Barere, on the other hand, as soon as he began to understand + the real nature of the revolution of Thermidor, attempted to abandon the + Mountain, and to obtain admission among his old friends of the moderate + party. He declared everywhere that he had never been in favour of severe + measures; that he was a Girondist; that he had always condemned and + lamented the manner in which the Brissotine deputies had been treated. He + now preached mercy from that tribune from which he had recently preached + extermination. "The time," he said, "has come at which our clemency may be + indulged without danger. We may now safely consider temporary imprisonment + as an adequate punishment for political misdemeanours." It was only a + fortnight since, from the same place, he had declaimed against the + moderation which dared even to talk of clemency; it was only a fortnight + since he had ceased to send men and women to the guillotine of Paris, at + the rate of three hundred a week. He now wished to make his peace with the + moderate party at the expense of the Terrorists, as he had, a year before, + made his peace with the Terrorists at the expense of the moderate party. + But he was disappointed. He had left himself no retreat. His face, his + voice, his rants, his jokes, had become hateful to the Convention. When he + spoke he was interrupted by murmurs. Bitter reflections were daily cast on + his cowardice and perfidy. On one occasion Carnot rose to give an account + of a victory, and so far forgot the gravity of his own character as to + indulge in the sort of oratory which Barere had affected on similar + occasions. He was interrupted by cries of "No more Carmagnoles!" "No more + of Barere's puns!" + </p> + <p> + At length, five months after the revolution of Thermidor, the Convention + resolved that a committee of twenty-one members should be appointed to + examine into the conduct of Billaud, Collot, and Barere. In some weeks the + report was made. From that report we learn that a paper had been + discovered, signed by Barere, and containing a proposition for adding the + last improvement to the system of terror. France was to be divided into + circuits; itinerant revolutionary tribunals, composed of trusty Jacobins, + were to move from department to department; and the guillotine was to + travel in their train. + </p> + <p> + Barere, in his defence, insisted that no speech or motion which he had + made in the Convention could, without a violation of the freedom of + debate, be treated as a crime. He was asked how he could resort to such a + mode of defence, after putting to death so many deputies on account of + opinions expressed in the Convention. He had nothing to say, but that it + was much to be regretted that the sound principle had ever been violated. + </p> + <p> + He arrogated to himself a large share of the merit of the revolution in + Thermidor. The men who had risked their lives to effect that revolution, + and who knew that, if they had failed, Barere would, in all probability, + have moved the decree for beheading them without a trial, and have drawn + up a proclamation announcing their guilt and their punishment to all + France, were by no means disposed to acquiesce in his claims. He was + reminded that, only forty-eight hours before the decisive conflict, he + had, in the tribune, been profuse of adulation to Robespierre. His answer + to this reproach is worthy of himself. "It was necessary," he said, "to + dissemble. It was necessary to flatter Robespierre's vanity, and, by + panegyric, to impel him to the attack. This was the motive which induced + me to load him with those praises of which you complain. Who ever blamed + Brutus for dissembling with Tarquin?" + </p> + <p> + The accused triumvirs had only one chance of escaping punishment. There + was severe distress at that moment among the working people of the + capital. This distress the Jacobins attributed to the reaction of + Thermidor, to the lenity with which the aristocrats were now treated, and + to the measures which had been adopted against the chiefs of the late + administration. Nothing is too absurd to be believed by a populace which + has not breakfasted, and which does not know how it is to dine. The rabble + of the Faubourg St Antoine rose, menaced the deputies, and demanded with + loud cries the liberation of the persecuted patriots. But the Convention + was no longer such as it had been, when similar means were employed too + successfully against the Girondists. Its spirit was roused. Its strength + had been proved. Military means were at its command. The tumult was + suppressed: and it was decreed that same evening that Collot, Billaud, and + Barere should instantly be removed to a distant place of confinement. + </p> + <p> + The next day the order of the Convention was executed. The account which + Barere has given of his journey is the most interesting and the most + trustworthy part of these Memoirs. There is no witness so infamous that a + court of justice will not take his word against himself; and even Barere + may be believed when he tells us how much he was hated and despised. + </p> + <p> + The carriage in which he was to travel passed, surrounded by armed men, + along the street of St Honore. A crowd soon gathered round it and + increased every moment. On the long flight of steps before the church of + St Roch stood rows of eager spectators. It was with difficulty that the + coach could make its way through those who hung upon it, hooting, cursing, + and striving to burst the doors. Barere thought his life in danger, and + was conducted at his own request to a public office, where he hoped that + he might find shelter till the crowd should disperse. In the meantime, + another discussion on his fate took place in the Convention. It was + proposed to deal with him as he had dealt with better men, to put him out + of the pale of the law, and to deliver him at once without any trial to + the headsman. But the humanity which, since the ninth of Thermidor, had + generally directed the public councils restrained the deputies from taking + this course. + </p> + <p> + It was now night; and the streets gradually became quiet. The clock struck + twelve; and Barere, under a strong guard, again set forth on his journey. + He was conducted over the river to the place where the Orleans road + branches off from the southern boulevard. Two travelling carriages stood + there. In one of them was Billaud, attended by two officers; in the other + two more officers were waiting to receive Barere. Collot was already on + the road. + </p> + <p> + At Orleans, a city which had suffered cruelly from the Jacobin tyranny, + the three deputies were surrounded by a mob bent on tearing them to + pieces. All the national guards of the neighbourhood were assembled; and + this force was not greater than the emergency required; for the multitude + pursued the carriages far on the road to Blois. + </p> + <p> + At Amboise the prisoners learned that Tours was ready to receive them. The + stately bridge was occupied by a throng of people, who swore that the men + under whose rule the Loire had been choked with corpses should have full + personal experience of the nature of a noyade. In consequence of this + news, the officers who had charge of the criminals made such arrangements + that the carriages reached Tours at two in the morning, and drove straight + to the post-house. Fresh horses were instantly ordered; and the travellers + started again at full gallop. They had, in truth, not a moment to lose; + for the alarm had been given; lights were seen in motion; and the yells of + a great multitude, disappointed of its revenge, mingled with the sound of + the departing wheels. + </p> + <p> + At Poitiers there was another narrow escape. As the prisoners quitted the + post-house, they saw the whole population pouring in fury down the steep + declivity on which the city is built. They passed near Niort, but could + not venture to enter it. The inhabitants came forth with threatening + aspect, and vehemently cried to the postillions to stop; but the + postillions urged the horses to full speed, and soon left the town behind. + Through such dangers the men of blood were brought in safety to Rochelle. + </p> + <p> + Oleron was the place of their destination, a dreary island beaten by the + raging waves of the Bay of Biscay. The prisoners were confined in the + castle; each had a single chamber, at the door of which a guard was + placed; and each was allowed the ration of a single soldier. They were not + allowed to communicate either with the garrison or with the population of + the island; and soon after their arrival they were denied the indulgence + of walking on the ramparts. The only place where they were suffered to + take exercise was the esplanade where the troops were drilled. + </p> + <p> + They had not been long in this situation when news came that the Jacobins + of Paris had made a last attempt to regain ascendency in the state, that + the hall of the Convention had been forced by a furious crowd, that one of + the deputies had been murdered and his head fixed on a pike, that the life + of the President had been for a time in imminent danger, and that some + members of the legislature had not been ashamed to join the rioters. But + troops had arrived in time to prevent a massacre. The insurgents had been + put to flight; the inhabitants of the disaffected quarters of the capital + had been disarmed; the guilty deputies had suffered the just punishment of + their treason; and the power of the Mountain was broken for ever. These + events strengthened the aversion with which the system of terror and the + authors of that system were regarded. One member of the Convention had + moved that the three prisoners of Oleron should be put to death; another, + that they should be brought back to Paris, and tried by a council of war. + These propositions were rejected. But something was conceded to the party + which called for severity. A vessel which had been fitted out with great + expedition at Rochefort touched at Oleron; and it was announced to Collot + and Billaud that they must instantly go on board. They were forthwith + conveyed to Guiana, where Collot soon drank himself to death with brandy. + Billaud lived many years, shunning his fellow-creatures and shunned by + them; and diverted his lonely hours by teaching parrots to talk. Why a + distinction was made between Barere and his companions in guilt, neither + he nor any other writer, as far as we know, has explained. It does not + appear that the distinction was meant to be at all in his favour; for + orders soon arrived from Paris, that he should be brought to trial for his + crimes before the criminal court of the department of the Upper Charente. + He was accordingly brought back to the continent, and confined during some + months at Saintes, in an old convent which had lately been turned into a + jail. + </p> + <p> + While he lingered here, the reaction which had followed the great crisis + of Thermidor met with a temporary check. The friends of the House of + Bourbon, presuming on the indulgence with which they had been treated + after the fall of Robespierre, not only ventured to avow their opinions + with little disguise, but at length took arms against the Convention, and + were not put down till much blood had been shed in the streets of Paris. + The vigilance of the public authorities was therefore now directed chiefly + against the Royalists; and the rigour with which the Jacobins had lately + been treated was somewhat relaxed. The Convention, indeed, again resolved + that Barere should be sent to Guiana. But this decree was not carried into + effect. The prisoner, probably with the connivance of some powerful + persons, made his escape from Saintes and fled to Bordeaux, where he + remained in concealment during some years. There seems to have been a kind + of understanding between him and the government, that, as long as he hid + himself, he should not be found, but that, if he obtruded himself on the + public eye, he must take the consequences of his rashness. + </p> + <p> + While the constitution of 1795, with its Executive Directory, its Council + of Elders, and its Council of Five Hundred, was in operation, he continued + to live under the ban of the law. It was in vain that he solicited, even + at moments when the politics of the Mountain seemed to be again in the + ascendant, a remission of the sentence pronounced by the Convention. Even + his fellow-regicides, even the authors of the slaughter of Vendemiaire and + of the arrests of Fructidor, were ashamed of him. + </p> + <p> + About eighteen months after his escape from prison, his name was again + brought before the world. In his own province he still retained some of + his early popularity. He had, indeed, never been in that province since + the downfall of the monarchy. The mountaineers of Gascony were far removed + from the seat of government, and were but imperfectly informed of what + passed there. They knew that their countryman had played an important + part, and that he had on some occasions promoted their local interests; + and they stood by him in his adversity and in his disgrace with a + constancy which presents a singular contrast to his own abject fickleness. + All France was amazed to learn that the department of the Upper Pyrenees + had chosen the proscribed tyrant a member of the Council of Five Hundred. + The council which, like our House of Commons, was the judge of the + election of its own members, refused to admit him. When his name was read + from the roll, a cry of indignation rose from the benches. "Which of you," + exclaimed one of the members, "would sit by the side of such a monster?" + "Not I, not I!" answered a crowd of voices. One deputy declared that he + would vacate his seat if the hall were polluted by the presence of such a + wretch. The election was declared null on the ground that the person + elected was a criminal skulking from justice; and many severe reflections + were thrown on the lenity which suffered him to be still at large. + </p> + <p> + He tried to make his peace with the Directory, by writing a bulky libel on + England, entitled, the Liberty of the Seas. He seems to have confidently + expected that this work would produce a great effect. He printed three + thousand copies, and in order to defray the expense of publication, sold + one of his farms for the sum of ten thousand francs. The book came out; + but nobody bought it, in consequence, if Barere is to be believed, of the + villainy of Mr Pitt, who bribed the Directory to order the Reviewers not + to notice so formidable an attack on the maritime greatness of perfidious + Albion. + </p> + <p> + Barere had been about three years at Bordeaux when he received + intelligence that the mob of the town designed him the honour of a visit + on the ninth of Thermidor, and would probably administer to him what he + had, in his defence of his friend Lebon, described as substantial justice + under forms a little harsh. It was necessary for him to disguise himself + in clothes such as were worn by the carpenters of the dock. In this garb, + with a bundle of wood shavings under his arm, he made his escape into the + vineyards which surrounded the city, lurked during some days in a + peasant's hut, and, when the dreaded anniversary was over, stole back into + the city. A few months later he was again in danger. He now thought that + he should be nowhere so safe as in the neighbourhood of Paris. He quitted + Bordeaux, hastened undetected through those towns where four years before + his life had been in extreme danger, passed through the capital in the + morning twilight, when none were in the streets except shop-boys taking + down the shutters, and arrived safe at the pleasant village of St Ouen on + the Seine. Here he remained in seclusion during some months. In the + meantime Bonaparte returned from Egypt, placed himself at the head of a + coalition of discontented parties, covered his designs with the authority + of the Elders, drove the Five Hundred out of their hall at the point of + the bayonet, and became absolute monarch of France under the name of First + Consul. + </p> + <p> + Barere assures us that these events almost broke his heart; that he could + not bear to see France again subject to a master; and that if the + representatives had been worthy of that honourable name, they would have + arrested the ambitious general who insulted them. These feelings, however, + did not prevent him from soliciting the protection of the new government, + and from sending to the First Consul a handsome copy of the essay on the + Liberty of the Seas. + </p> + <p> + The policy of Bonaparte was to cover all the past with a general oblivion. + He belonged half to the Revolution and half to the reaction. He was an + upstart and a sovereign; and had therefore something in common with the + Jacobin, and something in common with the Royalist. All, whether Jacobins + or Royalists, who were disposed to support his government, were readily + received—all, whether Jacobins or Royalists, who showed hostility to + his government, were put down and punished. Men who had borne a part in + the worst crimes of the Reign of Terror, and men who had fought in the + army of Conde, were to be found close together, both in his antechambers + and in his dungeons. He decorated Fouche and Maury with the same cross. He + sent Arena and Georges Cadoudal to the same scaffold. From a government + acting on such principles Barere easily obtained the indulgence which the + Directory had constantly refused to grant. The sentence passed by the + Convention was remitted; and he was allowed to reside at Paris. His + pardon, it is true, was not granted in the most honourable form; and he + remained, during some time, under the special supervision of the police. + He hastened, however, to pay his court at the Luxembourg palace, where + Bonaparte then resided, and was honoured with a few dry and careless words + by the master of France. + </p> + <p> + Here begins a new chapter of Barere's history. What passed between him and + the Consular government cannot, of course, be so accurately known to us as + the speeches and reports which he made in the Convention. It is, however, + not difficult, from notorious facts, and from the admissions scattered + over these lying Memoirs, to form a tolerably accurate notion of what took + place. Bonaparte wanted to buy Barere: Barere wanted to sell himself to + Bonaparte. The only question was one of price; and there was an immense + interval between what was offered and what was demanded. + </p> + <p> + Bonaparte, whose vehemence of will, fixedness of purpose, and reliance on + his own genius were not only great but extravagant, looked with scorn on + the most effeminate and dependent of human minds. He was quite capable of + perpetrating crimes under the influence either of ambition or of revenge: + but he had no touch of that accursed monomania, that craving for blood and + tears, which raged in some of the Jacobin chiefs. To proscribe the + Terrorists would have been wholly inconsistent with his policy; but, of + all the classes of men whom his comprehensive system included, he liked + them the least; and Barere was the worst of them. This wretch had been + branded with infamy, first by the Convention, and then by the Council of + Five Hundred. The inhabitants of four or five great cities had attempted + to tear him limb from limb. Nor were his vices redeemed by eminent talents + for administration or legislation. It would be unwise to place in any + honourable or important post a man so wicked, so odious, and so little + qualified to discharge high political duties. At the same time there was a + way in which it seemed likely that he might be of use to the government. + The First Consul, as he afterwards acknowledged, greatly overrated + Barere's powers as a writer. The effect which the Reports of the Committee + of Public Safety had produced by the camp fires of the Republican armies + had been great. Napoleon himself, when a young soldier, had been delighted + by those compositions, which had much in common with the rhapsodies of his + favourite poet, Macpherson. The taste, indeed, of the great warrior and + statesman was never very pure. His bulletins, his general orders, and his + proclamations, are sometimes, it is true, masterpieces in their kind; but + we too often detect, even in his best writing, traces of Fingal, and of + the Carmagnoles. It is not strange, therefore, that he should have been + desirous to secure the aid of Barere's pen. Nor was this the only kind of + assistance which the old member of the Committee of Public Safety might + render to the Consular government. He was likely to find admission into + the gloomy dens in which those Jacobins whose constancy was to be overcome + by no reverse, or whose crimes admitted of no expiation, hid themselves + from the curses of mankind. No enterprise was too bold or too atrocious + for minds crazed by fanatacism, and familiar with misery and death. The + government was anxious to have information of what passed in their secret + councils; and no man was better qualified to furnish such information than + Barere. + </p> + <p> + For these reasons the First Consul was disposed to employ Barere as a + writer and as a spy. But Barere—was it possible that he would submit + to such a degradation? Bad as he was, he had played a great part. He had + belonged to that class of criminals who filled the world with the renown + of their crimes; he had been one of a cabinet which had ruled France with + absolute power, and made war on all Europe with signal success. Nay, he + had been, though not the most powerful, yet, with the single exception of + Robespierre, the most conspicuous member of that cabinet. His name had + been a household word at Moscow and at Philadelphia, at Edinburgh and at + Cadiz. The blood of the Queen of France, the blood of the greatest orators + and philosophers of France, was on his hands. He had spoken; and it had + been decreed that the plough should pass over the great city of Lyons. He + had spoken again; and it had been decreed that the streets of Toulon + should be razed to the ground. When depravity is placed so high as his, + the hatred which it inspires is mingled with awe. His place was with great + tyrants, with Critias and Sylla, with Eccelino and Borgia; not with + hireling scribblers and police runners. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast; + But shall the dignity of vice be lost?" +</pre> + <p> + So sang Pope; and so felt Barere. When it was proposed to him to publish a + journal in defence of the Consular government, rage and shame inspired him + for the first and last time with something like courage. He had filled as + large a space in the eyes of mankind as Mr Pitt or General Washington; and + he was coolly invited to descend at once to the level of Mr Lewis + Goldsmith. He saw, too, with agonies of envy, that a wide distinction was + made between himself and the other statesmen of the Revolution who were + summoned to the aid of the government. Those statesmen were required, + indeed, to make large sacrifices of principle; but they were not called on + to sacrifice what, in the opinion of the vulgar, constitutes personal + dignity. They were made tribunes and legislators, ambassadors and + counsellors of state, ministers, senators, and consuls. They might + reasonably expect to rise with the rising fortunes of their master; and, + in truth, many of them were destined to wear the badge of his Legion of + Honour and of his order of the Iron Crown; to be arch-chancellors and + arch-treasurers, counts, dukes, and princes. Barere, only six years + before, had been far more powerful, far more widely renowned, than any of + them; and now, while they were thought worthy to represent the majesty of + France at foreign courts, while they received crowds of suitors in gilded + antechambers, he was to pass his life in measuring paragraphs, and + scolding correctors of the press. It was too much. Those lips which had + never before been able to fashion themselves to a No, now murmured + expostulation and refusal. "I could not"—these are his own words—"abase + myself to such a point as to serve the First Consul merely in the capacity + of a journalist, while so many insignificant, low, and servile people, + such as the Treilhards, the Roederers, the Lebruns, the Marets, and others + whom it is superfluous to name, held the first place in this government of + upstarts." + </p> + <p> + This outbreak of spirit was of short duration. Napoleon was inexorable. It + is said indeed that he was, for a moment, half inclined to admit Barere + into the Council of State; but the members of that body remonstrated in + the strongest terms, and declared that such a nomination would be a + disgrace to them all. This plan was therefore relinquished. Thenceforth + Barere's only chance of obtaining the patronage of the government was to + subdue his pride, to forget that there had been a time when, with three + words, he might have had the heads of the three consuls, and to betake + himself, humbly and industriously, to the task of composing lampoons on + England and panegyrics on Bonaparte. + </p> + <p> + It has been often asserted, we know not on what grounds, that Barere was + employed by the government not only as a writer, but as a censor of the + writings of other men. This imputation he vehemently denies in his + Memoirs; but our readers will probably agree with us in thinking that his + denial leaves the question exactly where it was. + </p> + <p> + Thus much is certain, that he was not restrained from exercising the + office of censor by any scruple of conscience or honour; for he did accept + an office, compared with which that of censor, odious as it is, may be + called an august and beneficent magistracy. He began to have what are + delicately called relations with the police. We are not sure that we have + formed, or that we can convey, an exact notion of the nature of Barere's + new calling. It is a calling unknown in our country. It has indeed often + happened in England that a plot has been revealed to the government by one + of the conspirators. The informer has sometimes been directed to carry it + fair towards his accomplices, and to let the evil design come to full + maturity. As soon as his work is done, he is generally snatched from the + public gaze, and sent to some obscure village or to some remote colony. + The use of spies, even to this extent, is in the highest degree unpopular + in England; but a political spy by profession is a creature from which our + island is as free as it is from wolves. In France the race is well-known, + and was never more numerous, more greedy, more cunning, or more savage, + than under the government of Bonaparte. + </p> + <p> + Our idea of a gentleman in relations with the Consular and Imperial police + may perhaps be incorrect. Such as it is, we will try to convey it to our + readers. We image to ourselves a well-dressed person, with a soft voice + and affable manners. His opinions are those of the society in which he + finds himself, but a little stronger. He often complains, in the language + of honest indignation, that what passes in private conversation finds its + way strangely to the government, and cautions his associates to take care + what they say when they are not sure of their company. As for himself, he + owns that he is indiscreet. He can never refrain from speaking his mind; + and that is the reason that he is not prefect of a department. + </p> + <p> + In a gallery of the Palais Royal he overhears two friends talking + earnestly about the King and the Count of Artois. He follows them into a + coffee-house, sits at the table next to them, calls for his half-dish and + his small glass of cognac, takes up a journal, and seems occupied with the + news. His neighbours go on talking without restraint, and in the style of + persons warmly attached to the exiled family. They depart; and he follows + them half round the boulevards till he fairly tracks them to their + apartments, and learns their names from the porters. From that day every + letter addressed to either of them is sent from the post-office to the + police, and opened. Their correspondents become known to the government, + and are carefully watched. Six or eight honest families, in different + parts of France, find themselves at once under the frown of power without + being able to guess what offence they have given. One person is dismissed + from a public office; another learns with dismay that his promising son + has been turned out of the Polytechnic school. + </p> + <p> + Next, the indefatigable servant of the state falls in with an old + republican, who has not changed with the times, who regrets the red cap + and the tree of liberty, who has not unlearned the Thee and Thou, and who + still subscribes his letters with "Health and Fraternity." Into the ears + of this sturdy politician our friend pours forth a long series of + complaints. What evil times! What a change since the days when the + Mountain governed France! What is the First Consul but a king under a new + name? What is this Legion of Honour but a new aristocracy? The old + superstition is reviving with the old tyranny. There is a treaty with the + Pope, and a provision for the clergy. Emigrant nobles are returning in + crowds, and are better received at the Tuileries than the men of the 10th + of August. This cannot last. What is life without liberty? What terrors + has death to the true patriot? The old Jacobin catches fire, bestows and + receives the fraternal hug, and hints that there will soon be great news, + and that the breed of Harmodius and Brutus is not quite extinct. The next + day he is close prisoner, and all his papers are in the hands of the + government. + </p> + <p> + To this vocation, a vocation compared with which the life of a beggar, of + a pickpocket, of a pimp, is honourable, did Barere now descend. It was his + constant practice, as often as he enrolled himself in a new party, to pay + his footing with the heads of old friends. He was at first a Royalist; and + he made atonement by watering the tree of liberty with the blood of Louis. + He was then a Girondist; and he made atonement by murdering Vergniaud and + Gensonne. He fawned on Robespierre up to the eighth of Thermidor; and he + made atonement by moving, on the ninth, that Robespierre should be + beheaded without a trial. He was now enlisted in the service of the new + monarchy; and he proceeded to atone for his republican heresies by sending + republican throats to the guillotine. + </p> + <p> + Among his most intimate associates was a Gascon named Demerville, who had + been employed in an office of high trust under the Committee of Public + Safety. This man was fanatically attached to the Jacobin system of + politics, and, in conjunction with other enthusiasts of the same class, + formed a design against the First Consul. A hint of this design escaped + him in conversation with Barere. Barere carried the intelligence to + Lannes, who commanded the Consular Guards. Demerville was arrested, tried, + and beheaded; and among the witnesses who appeared against him was his + friend Barere. + </p> + <p> + The account which Barere has given of these transactions is studiously + confused and grossly dishonest. We think, however, that we can discern, + through much falsehood and much artful obscurity, some truths which he + labours to conceal. It is clear to us that the government suspected him of + what the Italians call a double treason. It was natural that such a + suspicion should attach to him. He had, in times not very remote, + zealously preached the Jacobin doctrine, that he who smites a tyrant + deserves higher praise than he who saves a citizen. Was it possible that + the member of the Committee of Public Safety, the king-killer, the + queen-killer, could in earnest mean to deliver his old confederates, his + bosom friends, to the executioner, solely because they had planned an act + which, if there were any truth in his own Carmagnoles, was in the highest + degree virtuous and glorious? Was it not more probable that he was really + concerned in the plot, and that the information which he gave was merely + intended to lull or to mislead the police? Accordingly, spies were set on + the spy. He was ordered to quit Paris, and not to come within twenty + leagues till he received further orders. Nay, he ran no small risk of + being sent, with some of his old friends, to Madagascar. + </p> + <p> + He made his peace, however, with the government so far, that he was not + only permitted, during some years, to live unmolested, but was employed in + the lowest sort of political drudgery. In the summer of 1803, while he was + preparing to visit the south of France, he received a letter which + deserves to be inserted. It was from Duroc, who is well known to have + enjoyed a large share of Napoleon's confidence and favour. + </p> + <p> + "The First Consul, having been informed that Citizen Barere is about to + set out for the country, desires that he will stay at Paris. + </p> + <p> + "Citizen Barere will every week draw up a report on the state of public + opinion on the proceedings of the government, and generally on everything + which, in his judgment, it will be interesting to the First Consul to + learn. + </p> + <p> + "He may write with perfect freedom. + </p> + <p> + "He will deliver his reports under seal into General Duroc's own hand, and + General Duroc will deliver them to the First Consul. But it is absolutely + necessary that nobody should suspect that this species of communication + takes place; and, should any such suspicion get abroad, the First Consul + will cease to receive the reports of Citizen Barere. + </p> + <p> + "It will also be proper that Citizen Barere should frequently insert in + the journals articles tending to animate the public mind, particularly + against the English." + </p> + <p> + During some years Barere continued to discharge the functions assigned to + him by his master. Secret reports, filled with the talk of coffee-houses, + were carried by him every week to the Tuileries. His friends assure us + that he took especial pains to do all the harm in his power to the + returned emigrants. It was not his fault if Napoleon was not apprised of + every murmur and every sarcasm which old marquesses who had lost their + estates, and old clergymen who had lost their benefices, uttered against + the imperial system. M. Hippolyte Carnot, we grieve to say, is so much + blinded by party spirit that he seems to reckon this dirty wickedness + among his hero's titles to public esteem. + </p> + <p> + Barere was, at the same time, an indefatigable journalist and pamphleteer. + He set up a paper directed against England, and called the "Memorial + Antibritannique". He planned a work entitled, "France made great and + illustrious by Napoleon." When the Imperial government was established, + the old regicide made himself conspicuous even among the crowd of + flatterers by the peculiar fulsomeness of his adulation. He translated + into French a contemptible volume of Italian verses, entitled, "The Poetic + Crown, composed on the glorious accession of Napoleon the First, by the + Shepherds of Arcadia." He commenced a new series of Carmagnoles very + different from those which had charmed the Mountain. The title of Emperor + of the French, he said, was mean; Napoleon ought to be Emperor of Europe. + King of Italy was too humble an appellation; Napoleon's style ought to be + King of Kings. + </p> + <p> + But Barere laboured to small purpose in both his vocations. Neither as a + writer nor as a spy was he of much use. He complains bitterly that his + paper did not sell. While the "Journal des Debats", then flourishing under + the able management of Geoffroy, had a circulation of at least twenty + thousand copies, the "Memorial Antibritannique" never, in its most + prosperous times, had more than fifteen hundred subscribers; and these + subscribers were, with scarcely an exception, persons residing far from + Paris, probably Gascons, among whom the name of Barere had not yet lost + its influence. + </p> + <p> + A writer who cannot find readers generally attributes the public neglect + to any cause rather than to the true one; and Barere was no exception to + the general rule. His old hatred to Paris revived in all its fury. That + city, he says, has no sympathy with France. No Parisian cares to subscribe + to a journal which dwells on the real wants and interests of the country. + To a Parisian nothing is so ridiculous as patriotism. The higher classes + of the capital have always been devoted to England. A corporal from London + is better received among them than a French general. A journal, therefore, + which attacks England has no chance of their support. + </p> + <p> + A much better explanation of the failure of the "Memorial" was given by + Bonaparte at St Helena. "Barere," said he to Barry O'Meara, "had the + reputation of being a man of talent: but I did not find him so. I employed + him to write; but he did not display ability. He used many flowers of + rhetoric, but no solid argument; nothing but coglionerie wrapped up in + high-sounding language." + </p> + <p> + The truth is that, though Barere was a man of quick parts, and could do + with ease what he could do at all, he had never been a good writer. In the + day of his power he had been in the habit of haranguing an excitable + audience on exciting topics. The faults of his style passed uncensured; + for it was a time of literary as well as of civil lawlessness, and a + patriot was licensed to violate the ordinary rules of composition as well + as the ordinary rules of jurisprudence and of social morality. But there + had now been a literary as well as a civil reaction. As there was again a + throne and a court, a magistracy, a chivalry, and a hierarchy, so was + there a revival of classical taste. Honour was again paid to the prose of + Pascal and Massillon, and to the verse of Racine and La Fontaine. The + oratory which had delighted the galleries of the Convention was not only + as much out of date as the language of Villehardouin and Joinville, but + was associated in the public mind with images of horror. All the + peculiarities of the Anacreon of the guillotine, his words unknown to the + Dictionary of the Academy, his conceits and his jokes, his Gascon idioms + and his Gascon hyperboles, had become as odious as the cant of the + Puritans was in England after the Restoration. + </p> + <p> + Bonaparte, who had never loved the men of the Reign of Terror, had now + ceased to fear them. He was all-powerful and at the height of glory; they + were weak and universally abhorred. He was a sovereign; and it is probable + that he already meditated a matrimonial alliance with sovereigns. He was + naturally unwilling, in his new position, to hold any intercourse with the + worst class of Jacobins. Had Barere's literary assistance been important + to the government, personal aversion might have yielded to considerations + of policy; but there was no motive for keeping terms with a worthless man + who had also proved a worthless writer. Bonaparte, therefore, gave loose + to his feelings. Barere was not gently dropped, not sent into an + honourable retirement, but spurned and scourged away like a troublesome + dog. He had been in the habit of sending six copies of his journal on fine + paper daily to the Tuileries. Instead of receiving the thanks and praises + which he expected, he was drily told that the great man had ordered five + copies to be sent back. Still he toiled on; still he cherished a hope that + at last Napoleon would relent, and that at last some share in the honours + of the state would reward so much assiduity and so much obsequiousness. He + was bitterly undeceived. Under the Imperial constitution the electoral + colleges of the departments did not possess the right of choosing senators + or deputies, but merely that of presenting candidates. From among these + candidates the emperor named members of the senate, and the senate named + members of the legislative body. The inhabitants of the Upper Pyrenees + were still strangely partial to Barere. In the year 1805, they were + disposed to present him as a candidate for the senate. On this Napoleon + expressed the highest displeasure; and the president of the electoral + college was directed to tell the voters, in plain terms, that such a + choice would be disgraceful to the department. All thought of naming + Barere a candidate for the senate was consequently dropped. But the people + of Argeles ventured to name him a candidate for the legislative body. That + body was altogether destitute of weight and dignity; it was not permitted + to debate; its only function was to vote in silence for whatever the + government proposed. It is not easy to understand how any man who had sat + in free and powerful deliberative assemblies could condescend to bear a + part in such a mummery. Barere, however, was desirous of a place even in + this mock legislature; and a place even in this mock legislature was + refused to him. In the whole senate he had not a single vote. + </p> + <p> + Such treatment was sufficient, it might have been thought, to move the + most abject of mankind to resentment. Still, however, Barere cringed and + fawned on. His letters came weekly to the Tuileries till the year 1807. At + length, while he was actually writing the two hundred and twenty-third of + the series, a note was put into his hands. It was from Duroc, and was much + more perspicuous than polite. Barere was requested to send no more of his + Reports to the palace, as the Emperor was too busy to read them. + </p> + <p> + Contempt, says the Indian proverb, pierces even the shell of the tortoise; + and the contempt of the Court was felt to the quick even by the callous + heart of Barere. He had humbled himself to the dust; and he had humbled + himself in vain. Having been eminent among the rulers of a great and + victorious state, he had stooped to serve a master in the vilest + capacities; and he had been told that, even in those capacities, he was + not worthy of the pittance which had been disdainfully flung to him. He + was now degraded below the level even of the hirelings whom the government + employed in the most infamous offices. He stood idle in the market-place, + not because he thought any office too infamous, but because none would + hire him. + </p> + <p> + Yet he had reason to think himself fortunate; for, had all that is avowed + in these Memoirs been known, he would have received very different tokens + of the Imperial displeasure. We learn from himself that, while publishing + daily columns of flattery on Bonaparte, and while carrying weekly budgets + of calumny to the Tuileries, he was in close connection with the agents + whom the Emperor Alexander, then by no means favourably disposed towards + France, employed to watch all that passed at Paris; was permitted to read + their secret despatches; was consulted by them as to the temper of the + public mind and the character of Napoleon; and did his best to persuade + them that the government was in a tottering condition, and that the new + sovereign was not, as the world supposed, a great statesman and soldier. + Next, Barere, still the flatterer and talebearer of the Imperial Court, + connected himself in the same manner with the Spanish envoy. He owns that + with that envoy he had relations which he took the greatest pains to + conceal from his own government; that they met twice a day; and that their + conversation chiefly turned on the vices of Napoleon; on his designs + against Spain, and on the best mode of rendering those designs abortive. + In truth, Barere's baseness was unfathomable. In the lowest deeps of shame + he found out lower deeps. It is bad to be a sycophant; it is bad to be a + spy. But even among sycophants and spies there are degrees of meanness. + The vilest sycophant is he who privily slanders the master on whom he + fawns; and the vilest spy is he who serves foreigners against the + government of his native land. + </p> + <p> + From 1807 to 1814 Barere lived in obscurity, railing as bitterly as his + craven cowardice would permit against the Imperial administration, and + coming sometimes unpleasantly across the police. When the Bourbons + returned, he, as might have been expected, became a royalist, and wrote a + pamphlet setting forth the horrors of the system from which the + Restoration had delivered France, and magnifying the wisdom and goodness + which had dictated the charter. He who had voted for the death of Louis, + he who had moved the decree for the trial of Marie Antoinette, he whose + hatred of monarchy had led him to make war even upon the sepulchres of + ancient monarchs, assures us, with great complacency, that "in this work + monarchical principles and attachment to the House of Bourbon are nobly + expressed." By this apostasy he got nothing, not even any additional + infamy; for his character was already too black to be blackened. + </p> + <p> + During the hundred days he again emerged for a very short time into public + life; he was chosen by his native district a member of the Chamber of + Representatives. But, though that assembly was composed in a great measure + of men who regarded the excesses of the Jacobins with indulgence, he found + himself an object of general aversion. When the President first informed + the Chamber that M. Barere requested a hearing, a deep and indignant + murmur ran round the benches. After the battle of Waterloo, Barere + proposed that the Chamber should save France from the victorious enemy, by + putting forth a proclamation about the pass of Thermopylae and the + Lacedaemonian custom of wearing flowers in times of extreme danger. + Whether this composition, if it had then appeared, would have stopped the + English and Prussian armies, is a question respecting which we are left to + conjecture. The Chamber refused to adopt this last of the Carmagnoles. + </p> + <p> + The Emperor had abdicated. The Bourbons returned. The Chamber of + Representatives, after burlesquing during a few weeks the proceedings of + the National Convention, retired with the well-earned character of having + been the silliest political assembly that had met in France. Those + dreaming pedants and praters never for a moment comprehended their + position. They could never understand that Europe must be either + conciliated or vanquished; that Europe could be conciliated only by the + restoration of Louis, and vanquished only by means of a dictatorial power + entrusted to Napoleon. They would not hear of Louis; yet they would not + hear of the only measures which could keep him out. They incurred the + enmity of all foreign powers by putting Napoleon at their head; yet they + shackled him, thwarted him, quarrelled with him about every trifle, + abandoned him on the first reverse. They then opposed declamations and + disquisitions to eight hundred thousand bayonets; played at making a + constitution for their country, when it depended on the indulgence of the + victor whether they should have a country; and were at last interrupted, + in the midst of their babble about the rights of man and the sovereignty + of the people, by the soldiers of Wellington and Blucher. + </p> + <p> + A new Chamber of Deputies was elected, so bitterly hostile to the + Revolution that there was no small risk of a new Reign of Terror. It is + just, however, to say that the king, his ministers, and his allies exerted + themselves to restrain the violence of the fanatical royalists, and that + the punishments inflicted, though in our opinion unjustifiable, were few + and lenient when compared with those which were demanded by M. de + Labourdonnaye and M. Hyde de Neuville. We have always heard, and are + inclined to believe, that the government was not disposed to treat even + the regicides with severity. But on this point the feeling of the Chamber + of Deputies was so strong that it was thought necessary to make some + concession. It was enacted, therefore, that whoever, having voted in + January 1793 for the death of Louis the Sixteenth, had in any manner given + in an adhesion to the government of Bonaparte during the hundred days + should be banished for life from France. Barere fell within this + description. He had voted for the death of Louis; and he had sat in the + Chamber of Representatives during the hundred days. + </p> + <p> + He accordingly retired to Belgium, and resided there, forgotten by all + mankind, till the year 1830. After the revolution of July he was at + liberty to return to France; and he fixed his residence in his native + province. But he was soon involved in a succession of lawsuits with his + nearest relations—"three fatal sisters and an ungrateful brother," + to use his own words. Who was in the right is a question about which we + have no means of judging, and certainly shall not take Barere's word. The + Courts appear to have decided some points in his favour and some against + him. The natural inference is, that there were faults on all sides. The + result of this litigation was that the old man was reduced to extreme + poverty, and was forced to sell his paternal house. + </p> + <p> + As far as we can judge from the few facts which remain to be mentioned, + Barere continued Barere to the last. After his exile he turned Jacobin + again, and, when he came back to France, joined the party of the extreme + left in railing at Louis Philippe, and at all Louis Philippe's ministers. + M. Casimir Perier, M. De Broglie, M. Guizot, and M. Thiers, in particular, + are honoured with his abuse; and the King himself is held up to execration + as a hypocritical tyrant. Nevertheless, Barere had no scruple about + accepting a charitable donation of a thousand francs a year from the privy + purse of the sovereign whom he hated and reviled. This pension, together + with some small sums occasionally doled out to him by the department of + the Interior, on the ground that he was a distressed man of letters, and + by the department of Justice, on the ground that he had formerly held a + high judicial office, saved him from the necessity of begging his bread. + Having survived all his colleagues of the renowned Committee of Public + Safety, and almost all his colleagues of the Convention, he died in + January 1841. He had attained his eighty-sixth year. + </p> + <p> + We have now laid before our readers what we believe to be a just account + of this man's life. Can it be necessary for us to add anything for the + purpose of assisting their judgment of his character? If we were writing + about any of his colleagues in the Committee of Public Safety, about + Carnot, about Robespierre, or Saint Just, nay, even about Couthon, Collot, + or Billaud, we might feel it necessary to go into a full examination of + the arguments which have been employed to vindicate or to excuse the + system of Terror. We could, we think, show that France was saved from her + foreign enemies, not by the system of Terror, but in spite of it; and that + the perils which were made the plea of the violent policy of the Mountain + were to a great extent created by that very policy. We could, we think, + also show that the evils produced by the Jacobin administration did not + terminate when it fell; that it bequeathed a long series of calamities to + France and to Europe; that public opinion, which had during two + generations been constantly becoming more and more favourable to civil and + religious freedom, underwent, during the days of Terror, a change of which + the traces are still to be distinctly perceived. It was natural that there + should be such a change, when men saw that those who called themselves the + champions of popular rights had compressed into the space of twelve months + more crimes than the Kings of France, Merovingian, Carlovingian, and + Capetian, had perpetrated in twelve centuries. Freedom was regarded as a + great delusion. Men were willing to submit to the government of hereditary + princes, of fortunate soldiers, of nobles, of priests; to any government + but that of philosophers and philanthropists. Hence the imperial + despotism, with its enslaved press and its silent tribune, its dungeons + stronger than the old Bastile, and its tribunals more obsequious than the + old parliaments. Hence the restoration of the Bourbons and of the Jesuits, + the Chamber of 1815 with its categories of proscription, the revival of + the feudal spirit, the encroachments of the clergy, the persecution of the + Protestants, the appearance of a new breed of De Montforts and Dominics in + the full light of the nineteenth century. Hence the admission of France + into the Holy Alliance, and the war waged by the old soldiers of the + tricolor against the liberties of Spain. Hence, too, the apprehensions + with which, even at the present day, the most temperate plans for widening + the narrow basis of the French representation are regarded by those who + are especially interested in the security of property and maintenance of + order. Half a century has not sufficed to obliterate the stain which one + year of depravity and madness has left on the noblest of causes. + </p> + <p> + Nothing is more ridiculous than the manner in which writers like M. + Hippolyte Carnot defend or excuse the Jacobin administration, while they + declaim against the reaction which followed. That the reaction has + produced and is still producing much evil, is perfectly true. But what + produced the reaction? The spring flies up with a force proportioned to + that with which it has been pressed down. The pendulum which is drawn far + in one direction swings as far in the other. The joyous madness of + intoxication in the evening is followed by languor and nausea on the + morrow. And so, in politics, it is the sure law that every excess shall + generate its opposite; nor does he deserve the name of a statesman who + strikes a great blow without fully calculating the effect of the rebound. + But such calculation was infinitely beyond the reach of the authors of the + Reign of Terror. Violence, and more violence, blood, and more blood, made + up their whole policy. In a few months these poor creatures succeeded in + bringing about a reaction, of which none of them saw, and of which none of + us may see the close; and, having brought it about, they marvelled at it; + they bewailed it; they execrated it; they ascribed it to everything but + the real cause—their own immortality and their own profound + incapacity for the conduct of great affairs. + </p> + <p> + These, however, are considerations to which, on the present occasion, it + is hardly necessary for us to advert; for, be the defence which has been + set up for the Jacobin policy good or bad, it is a defence which cannot + avail Barere. From his own life, from his own pen, from his own mouth, we + can prove that the part which he took in the work of blood is to be + attributed, not even to sincere fanaticism, not even to misdirected and + ill-regulated patriotism, but either to cowardice, or to delight in human + misery. Will it be pretended that it was from public spirit that he + murdered the Girondists? In these very Memoirs he tells us that he always + regarded their death as the greatest calamity that could befall France. + Will it be pretended that it was from public spirit that he raved for the + head of the Austrian woman? In these very Memoirs he tells us that the + time spent in attacking her was ill spent, and ought to have been employed + in concerting measures of national defence. Will it be pretended that he + was induced by sincere and earnest abhorrence of kingly government to + butcher the living and to outrage the dead; he who invited Napoleon to + take the title of King of Kings, he who assures us that after the + Restoration he expressed in noble language his attachment to monarchy, and + to the house of Bourbon? Had he been less mean, something might have been + said in extenuation of his cruelty. Had he been less cruel, something + might have been said in extenuation of his meanness. But for him, regicide + and court-spy, for him who patronised Lebon and betrayed Demerville, for + him who wantoned alternately in gasconades of Jacobinism and gasconades of + servility, what excuse has the largest charity to offer? + </p> + <p> + We cannot conclude without saying something about two parts of his + character, which his biographer appears to consider as deserving of high + admiration. Barere, it is admitted, was somewhat fickle; but in two things + he was consistent, in his love of Christianity, and in his hatred to + England. If this were so, we must say that England is much more beholden + to him than Christianity. + </p> + <p> + It is possible that our inclinations may bias our judgment; but we think + that we do not flatter ourselves when we say that Barere's aversion to our + country was a sentiment as deep and constant as his mind was capable of + entertaining. The value of this compliment is indeed somewhat diminished + by the circumstance that he knew very little about us. His ignorance of + our institutions, manners, and history is the less excusable, because, + according to his own account, he consorted much, during the peace of + Amiens, with Englishmen of note, such as that eminent nobleman Lord + Greaten, and that not less eminent philosopher Mr Mackensie Coefhis. In + spite, however, of his connection with these well-known ornaments of our + country, he was so ill-informed about us as to fancy that our government + was always laying plans to torment him. If he was hooted at Saintes, + probably by people whose relations he had murdered, it was because the + cabinet of St James's had hired the mob. If nobody would read his bad + books it was because the cabinet of St James's had secured the Reviewers. + His accounts of Mr Fox, of Mr Pitt, of the Duke of Wellington, of Mr + Canning, swarm with blunders surpassing even the ordinary blunders + committed by Frenchmen who write about England. Mr Fox and Mr Pitt, he + tells us, were ministers in two different reigns. Mr Pitt's sinking fund + was instituted in order to enable England to pay subsidies to the powers + allied against the French republic. The Duke of Wellington's house in Hyde + Park was built by the nation, which twice voted the sum of 200,000 pounds + for the purpose. This, however, is exclusive of the cost of the frescoes, + which were also paid for out of the public purse. Mr Canning was the first + Englishman whose death Europe had reason to lament; for the death of Lord + Ward, a relation, we presume, of Lord Greaten and Mr Coefhis, had been an + immense benefit to mankind. + </p> + <p> + Ignorant, however, as Barere was, he knew enough of us to hate us; and we + persuade ourselves that, had he known us better, he would have hated us + more. The nation which has combined, beyond all example and all hope, the + blessings of liberty with those of order, might well be an object of + aversion to one who had been false alike to the cause of order and to the + cause of liberty. We have had amongst us intemperate zeal for popular + rights; we have had amongst us also the intemperance of loyalty. But we + have never been shocked by such a spectacle as the Barere of 1794, or as + the Barere of 1804. Compared with him, our fiercest demagogues have been + gentle; compared with him, our meanest courtiers have been manly. Mix + together Thistlewood and Bubb Doddington; and you are still far from + having Barere. The antipathy between him and us is such, that neither for + the crimes of his earlier nor for those of his later life does our + language, rich as it is, furnish us with adequate names. We have found it + difficult to relate his history without having perpetual recourse to the + French vocabulary of horror, and to the French vocabulary of baseness. It + is not easy to give a notion of his conduct in the Convention, without + using those emphatic terms, guillotinade, noyade, fusillade, mitraillade. + It is not easy to give a notion of his conduct under the Consulate and the + Empire without borrowing such words as mouchard and mouton. + </p> + <p> + We therefore like his invectives against us much better than anything else + that he has written; and dwell on them, not merely with complacency, but + with a feeling akin to gratitude. It was but little that he could do to + promote the honour of our country; but that little he did strenuously and + constantly. Renegade, traitor, slave, coward, liar, slanderer, murderer, + hack writer, police-spy—the one small service which he could render + to England was to hate her: and such as he was may all who hate her be! + </p> + <p> + We cannot say that we contemplate with equal satisfaction that fervent and + constant zeal for religion which, according to M. Hippolyte Carnot, + distinguished Barere; for, as we think that whatever brings dishonour on + religion is a serious evil, we had, we own, indulged a hope that Barere + was an atheist. We now learn, however, that he was at no time even a + sceptic, that he adhered to his faith through the whole Revolution, and + that he has left several manuscript works on divinity. One of these is a + pious treatise, entitled "Of Christianity, and of its Influence." Another + consists of meditations on the Psalms, which will doubtless greatly + console and edify the Church. + </p> + <p> + This makes the character complete. Whatsoever things are false, whatsoever + things are dishonest, whatsoever things are unjust, whatsoever things are + impure, whatsoever things are hateful, whatsoever things are of evil + report, if there be any vice, and if there be any infamy, all these + things, we knew, were blended in Barere. But one thing was still wanting; + and that M. Hippolyte Carnot has supplied. When to such an assemblage of + qualities a high profession of piety is added, the effect becomes + overpowering. We sink under the contemplation of such exquisite and + manifold perfection; and feel, with deep humility, how presumptuous it was + in us to think of composing the legend of this beatified athlete of the + faith, St Bertrand of the Carmagnoles. + </p> + <p> + Something more we had to say about him. But let him go. We did not seek + him out, and will not keep him longer. If those who call themselves his + friends had not forced him on our notice we should never have vouchsafed + to him more than a passing word of scorn and abhorrence, such as we might + fling at his brethren, Hebert and Fouquier Tinville, and Carrier and + Lebon. We have no pleasure in seeing human nature thus degraded. We turn + with disgust from the filthy and spiteful Yahoos of the fiction; and the + filthiest and most spiteful Yahoo of the fiction was a noble creature when + compared with the Barere of history. But what is no pleasure M. Hippolyte + Carnot has made a duty. It is no light thing that a man in high and + honourable public trust, a man who, from his connections and position, may + not unnaturally be supposed to speak the sentiments of a large class of + his countrymen, should come forward to demand approbation for a life black + with every sort of wickedness, and unredeemed by a single virtue. This M. + Hippolyte Carnot has done. By attempting to enshrine this Jacobin carrion, + he has forced us to gibbet it; and we venture to say that, from the + eminence of infamy on which we have placed it, he will not easily take it + down. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Miscellaneous Writings and +Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 2 (of 4), by Thomas Babington Macaulay + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WRITINGS OF LORD MACAULAY *** + +***** This file should be named 2168-h.htm or 2168-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/6/2168/ + +Produced by Mike Alder, Sue Asscher and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 2 (of 4) + Contributions To The Edinburgh Review + +Author: Thomas Babington Macaulay + +Posting Date: June 14, 2008 [EBook #2168] +Release Date: May, 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WRITINGS OF LORD MACAULAY *** + + + + +Produced by Mike Alder and Sue Asscher + + + + + +THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY. + +Contributions To The Edinburgh Review + +By Thomas Babington Macaulay + + +VOLUME II. + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. + +John Dryden. (January 1828.) + +History. (May 1828.) + +Mill on Government. (March 1829.) + +Westminster Reviewer's Defence of Mill. (June 1829.) + +Utilitarian Theory of Government. (October 1829.) + +Sadler's Law of Population. (July 1830.) + +Sadler's Refutation Refuted. (January 1831.) + +Mirabeau. (July 1832.) + +Barere. (April 1844.) + + + + +MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS OF LORD MACAULAY. + + + + +CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. + + + + +JOHN DRYDEN. (January 1828.) + + + "The Poetical Works of John Dryden". In 2 volumes. + University Edition. London, 1826. + + +The public voice has assigned to Dryden the first place in the +second rank of our poets,--no mean station in a table of intellectual +precedency so rich in illustrious names. It is allowed that, even of +the few who were his superiors in genius, none has exercised a more +extensive or permanent influence on the national habits of thought and +expression. His life was commensurate with the period during which +a great revolution in the public taste was effected; and in that +revolution he played the part of Cromwell. By unscrupulously taking the +lead in its wildest excesses, he obtained the absolute guidance of it. +By trampling on laws, he acquired the authority of a legislator. By +signalising himself as the most daring and irreverent of rebels, he +raised himself to the dignity of a recognised prince. He commenced his +career by the most frantic outrages. He terminated it in the repose of +established sovereignty,--the author of a new code, the root of a new +dynasty. + +Of Dryden, however, as of almost every man who has been distinguished +either in the literary or in the political world, it may be said that +the course which he pursued, and the effect which he produced, depended +less on his personal qualities than on the circumstances in which he was +placed. Those who have read history with discrimination know the fallacy +of those panegyrics and invectives which represent individuals +as effecting great moral and intellectual revolutions, subverting +established systems, and imprinting a new character on their age. The +difference between one man and another is by no means so great as the +superstitious crowd supposes. But the same feelings which in ancient +Rome produced the apotheosis of a popular emperor, and in modern Rome +the canonisation of a devout prelate, lead men to cherish an illusion +which furnishes them with something to adore. By a law of association, +from the operation of which even minds the most strictly regulated +by reason are not wholly exempt, misery disposes us to hatred, and +happiness to love, although there may be no person to whom our misery +or our happiness can be ascribed. The peevishness of an invalid vents +itself even on those who alleviate his pain. The good humour of a man +elated by success often displays itself towards enemies. In the +same manner, the feelings of pleasure and admiration, to which the +contemplation of great events gives birth, make an object where they +do not find it. Thus, nations descend to the absurdities of Egyptian +idolatry, and worship stocks and reptiles--Sacheverells and Wilkeses. +They even fall prostrate before a deity to which they have themselves +given the form which commands their veneration, and which, unless +fashioned by them, would have remained a shapeless block. They persuade +themselves that they are the creatures of what they have themselves +created. For, in fact, it is the age that forms the man, not the man +that forms the age. Great minds do indeed re-act on the society which +has made them what they are; but they only pay with interest what they +have received. We extol Bacon, and sneer at Aquinas. But, if their +situations had been changed, Bacon might have been the Angelical Doctor, +the most subtle Aristotelian of the schools; the Dominican might have +led forth the sciences from their house of bondage. If Luther had been +born in the tenth century, he would have effected no reformation. If +he had never been born at all, it is evident that the sixteenth century +could not have elapsed without a great schism in the church. Voltaire, +in the days of Louis the Fourteenth, would probably have been, like most +of the literary men of that time, a zealous Jansenist, eminent among the +defenders of efficacious grace, a bitter assailant of the lax morality +of the Jesuits and the unreasonable decisions of the Sorbonne. If Pascal +had entered on his literary career when intelligence was more general, +and abuses at the same time more flagrant, when the church was polluted +by the Iscariot Dubois, the court disgraced by the orgies of Canillac, +and the nation sacrificed to the juggles of Law, if he had lived to see +a dynasty of harlots, an empty treasury and a crowded harem, an army +formidable only to those whom it should have protected, a priesthood +just religious enough to be intolerant, he might possibly, like every +man of genius in France, have imbibed extravagant prejudices against +monarchy and Christianity. The wit which blasted the sophisms of +Escobar--the impassioned eloquence which defended the sisters of Port +Royal--the intellectual hardihood which was not beaten down even by +Papal authority--might have raised him to the Patriarchate of the +Philosophical Church. It was long disputed whether the honour of +inventing the method of Fluxions belonged to Newton or to Leibnitz. It +is now generally allowed that these great men made the same discovery +at the same time. Mathematical science, indeed, had then reached such +a point that, if neither of them had ever existed, the principle must +inevitably have occurred to some person within a few years. So in our +own time the doctrine of rent, now universally received by political +economists, was propounded, almost at the same moment, by two writers +unconnected with each other. Preceding speculators had long been +blundering round about it; and it could not possibly have been missed +much longer by the most heedless inquirer. We are inclined to think +that, with respect to every great addition which has been made to +the stock of human knowledge, the case has been similar; that without +Copernicus we should have been Copernicans,--that without Columbus +America would have been discovered,--that without Locke we should have +possessed a just theory of the origin of human ideas. Society indeed has +its great men and its little men, as the earth has its mountains and its +valleys. But the inequalities of intellect, like the inequalities of the +surface of our globe, bear so small a proportion to the mass, that, in +calculating its great revolutions, they may safely be neglected. The sun +illuminates the hills, while it is still below the horizon, and truth is +discovered by the highest minds a little before it becomes manifest to +the multitude. This is the extent of their superiority. They are the +first to catch and reflect a light, which, without their assistance, +must, in a short time, be visible to those who lie far beneath them. + +The same remark will apply equally to the fine arts. The laws on which +depend the progress and decline of poetry, painting, and sculpture, +operate with little less certainty than those which regulate the +periodical returns of heat and cold, of fertility and barrenness. Those +who seem to lead the public taste are, in general, merely outrunning +it in the direction which it is spontaneously pursuing. Without a just +apprehension of the laws to which we have alluded the merits and defects +of Dryden can be but imperfectly understood. We will, therefore, state +what we conceive them to be. + +The ages in which the master-pieces of imagination have been produced +have by no means been those in which taste has been most correct. It +seems that the creative faculty, and the critical faculty, cannot exist +together in their highest perfection. The causes of this phenomenon it +is not difficult to assign. + +It is true that the man who is best able to take a machine to pieces, +and who most clearly comprehends the manner in which all its wheels and +springs conduce to its general effect, will be the man most competent to +form another machine of similar power. In all the branches of physical +and moral science which admit of perfect analysis, he who can resolve +will be able to combine. But the analysis which criticism can effect +of poetry is necessarily imperfect. One element must for ever elude its +researches; and that is the very element by which poetry is poetry. In +the description of nature, for example, a judicious reader will easily +detect an incongruous image. But he will find it impossible to explain +in what consists the art of a writer who, in a few words, brings some +spot before him so vividly that he shall know it as if he had lived +there from childhood; while another, employing the same materials, +the same verdure, the same water, and the same flowers, committing +no inaccuracy, introducing nothing which can be positively pronounced +superfluous, omitting nothing which can be positively pronounced +necessary, shall produce no more effect than an advertisement of a +capital residence and a desirable pleasure-ground. To take another +example: the great features of the character of Hotspur are obvious to +the most superficial reader. We at once perceive that his courage is +splendid, his thirst of glory intense, his animal spirits high, his +temper careless, arbitrary, and petulant; that he indulges his own +humour without caring whose feelings he may wound, or whose enmity he +may provoke, by his levity. Thus far criticism will go. But something +is still wanting. A man might have all those qualities, and every other +quality which the most minute examiner can introduce into his catalogue +of the virtues and faults of Hotspur, and yet he would not be +Hotspur. Almost everything that we have said of him applies equally +to Falconbridge. Yet in the mouth of Falconbridge most of his speeches +would seem out of place. In real life this perpetually occurs. We are +sensible of wide differences between men whom, if we were required to +describe them, we should describe in almost the same terms. If we were +attempting to draw elaborate characters of them, we should scarcely +be able to point out any strong distinction; yet we approach them with +feelings altogether dissimilar. We cannot conceive of them as using +the expressions or the gestures of each other. Let us suppose that a +zoologist should attempt to give an account of some animal, a porcupine +for instance, to people who had never seen it. The porcupine, he might +say, is of the class mammalia, and the order glires. There are whiskers +on its face; it is two feet long; it has four toes before, five behind, +two fore teeth, and eight grinders. Its body is covered with hair and +quills. And, when all this has been said, would any one of the auditors +have formed a just idea of a porcupine? Would any two of them have +formed the same idea? There might exist innumerable races of animals, +possessing all the characteristics which have been mentioned yet +altogether unlike to each other. What the description of our naturalist +is to a real porcupine, the remarks of criticism are to the images +of poetry. What it so imperfectly decomposes it cannot perfectly +reconstruct. It is evidently as impossible to produce an Othello or a +Macbeth by reversing an analytical process so defective, as it would +be for an anatomist to form a living man out of the fragments of his +dissecting-room. In both cases the vital principle eludes the finest +instruments, and vanishes in the very instant in which its seat is +touched. Hence those who, trusting to their critical skill, attempt to +write poems give us, not images of things, but catalogues of qualities. +Their characters are allegories--not good men and bad men, but cardinal +virtues and deadly sins. We seem to have fallen among the acquaintances +of our old friend Christian: sometimes we meet Mistrust and Timorous; +sometimes Mr Hate-good and Mr Love-lust; and then again Prudence, Piety +and Charity. + +That critical discernment is not sufficient to make men poets, is +generally allowed. Why it should keep them from becoming poets, is not +perhaps equally evident; but the fact is, that poetry requires not an +examining but a believing frame of mind. Those feel it most, and write +it best, who forget that it is a work of art; to whom its imitations, +like the realities from which they are taken, are subjects, not for +connoisseurship, but for tears and laughter, resentment and affection; +who are too much under the influence of the illusion to admire the +genius which has produced it; who are too much frightened for Ulysses +in the cave of Polyphemus to care whether the pun about Outis be good +or bad; who forget that such a person as Shakspeare ever existed, while +they weep and curse with Lear. It is by giving faith to the creations +of the imagination that a man becomes a poet. It is by treating those +creations as deceptions, and by resolving them, as nearly as possible, +into their elements, that he becomes a critic. In the moment in which +the skill of the artist is perceived, the spell of the art is broken. + +These considerations account for the absurdities into which the greatest +writers have fallen, when they have attempted to give general rules for +composition, or to pronounce judgment on the works of others. They are +unaccustomed to analyse what they feel; they, therefore, perpetually +refer their emotions to causes which have not in the slightest degree +tended to produce them. They feel pleasure in reading a book. They +never consider that this pleasure may be the effect of ideas which +some unmeaning expression, striking on the first link of a chain of +associations, may have called up in their own minds--that they have +themselves furnished to the author the beauties which they admire. + +Cervantes is the delight of all classes of readers. Every school-boy +thumbs to pieces the most wretched translations of his romance, and +knows the lantern jaws of the Knight Errant, and the broad cheeks of +the Squire, as well as the faces of his own playfellows. The most +experienced and fastidious judges are amazed at the perfection of that +art which extracts inextinguishable laughter from the greatest of human +calamities without once violating the reverence due to it; at that +discriminating delicacy of touch which makes a character exquisitely +ridiculous, without impairing its worth, its grace, or its dignity. In +Don Quixote are several dissertations on the principles of poetic and +dramatic writing. No passages in the whole work exhibit stronger marks +of labour and attention; and no passages in any work with which we +are acquainted are more worthless and puerile. In our time they would +scarcely obtain admittance into the literary department of the Morning +Post. Every reader of the Divine Comedy must be struck by the veneration +which Dante expresses for writers far inferior to himself. He will not +lift up his eyes from the ground in the presence of Brunetto, all whose +works are not worth the worst of his own hundred cantos. He does +not venture to walk in the same line with the bombastic Statius. His +admiration of Virgil is absolute idolatry. If, indeed, it had been +excited by the elegant, splendid, and harmonious diction of the Roman +poet, it would not have been altogether unreasonable; but it is +rather as an authority on all points of philosophy, than as a work of +imagination, that he values the Aeneid. The most trivial passages he +regards as oracles of the highest authority, and of the most recondite +meaning. He describes his conductor as the sea of all wisdom--the sun +which heals every disordered sight. As he judged of Virgil, the Italians +of the fourteenth century judged of him; they were proud of him; they +praised him; they struck medals bearing his head; they quarrelled for +the honour of possessing his remains; they maintained professors +to expound his writings. But what they admired was not that mighty +imagination which called a new world into existence, and made all its +sights and sounds familiar to the eye and ear of the mind. They said +little of those awful and lovely creations on which later critics +delight to dwell--Farinata lifting his haughty and tranquil brow from +his couch of everlasting fire--the lion-like repose of Sordello--or the +light which shone from the celestial smile of Beatrice. They extolled +their great poet for his smattering of ancient literature and history; +for his logic and his divinity; for his absurd physics, and his most +absurd metaphysics; for everything but that in which he pre-eminently +excelled. Like the fool in the story, who ruined his dwelling by digging +for gold, which, as he had dreamed, was concealed under its foundations, +they laid waste one of the noblest works of human genius, by seeking in +it for buried treasures of wisdom which existed only in their own wild +reveries. The finest passages were little valued till they had been +debased into some monstrous allegory. Louder applause was given to +the lecture on fate and free-will, or to the ridiculous astronomical +theories, than to those tremendous lines which disclose the secrets +of the tower of hunger, or to that half-told tale of guilty love, so +passionate and so full of tears. + +We do not mean to say that the contemporaries of Dante read with less +emotion than their descendants of Ugolino groping among the wasted +corpses of his children, or of Francesca starting at the tremulous kiss +and dropping the fatal volume. Far from it. We believe that they admired +these things less than ourselves, but that they felt them more. We +should perhaps say that they felt them too much to admire them. The +progress of a nation from barbarism to civilisation produces a change +similar to that which takes place during the progress of an individual +from infancy to mature age. What man does not remember with regret the +first time that he read Robinson Crusoe? Then, indeed, he was unable +to appreciate the powers of the writer; or, rather, he neither knew nor +cared whether the book had a writer at all. He probably thought it not +half so fine as some rant of Macpherson about dark-browed Foldath, +and white-bosomed Strinadona. He now values Fingal and Temora only as +showing with how little evidence a story may be believed, and with +how little merit a book may be popular. Of the romance of Defoe he +entertains the highest opinion. He perceives the hand of a master in ten +thousand touches which formerly he passed by without notice. But, though +he understands the merits of the narrative better than formerly, he is +far less interested by it. Xury, and Friday, and pretty Poll, the boat +with the shoulder-of-mutton sail, and the canoe which could not be +brought down to the water edge, the tent with its hedge and ladders, the +preserve of kids, and the den where the old goat died, can never again +be to him the realities which they were. The days when his favourite +volume set him upon making wheel-barrows and chairs, upon digging caves +and fencing huts in the garden, can never return. Such is the law of our +nature. Our judgment ripens; our imagination decays. We cannot at once +enjoy the flowers of the spring of life and the fruits of its autumn, +the pleasures of close investigation and those of agreeable error. We +cannot sit at once in the front of the stage and behind the scenes. We +cannot be under the illusion of the spectacle, while we are watching the +movements of the ropes and pulleys which dispose it. + +The chapter in which Fielding describes the behaviour of Partridge at +the theatre affords so complete an illustration of our proposition, that +we cannot refrain from quoting some parts of it. + +"Partridge gave that credit to Mr Garrick which he had denied to Jones, +and fell into so violent a trembling that his knees knocked against each +other. Jones asked him what was the matter, and whether he was afraid of +the warrior upon the stage?--'O, la, sir,' said he, 'I perceive now it +is what you told me. I am not afraid of anything, for I know it is but +a play; and if it was really a ghost, it could do one no harm at such a +distance and in so much company; and yet, if I was frightened, I am not +the only person.'--'Why, who,' cries Jones, 'dost thou take to be such +a coward here besides thyself?'--'Nay, you may call me a coward if you +will; but if that little man there upon the stage is not frightened, I +never saw any man frightened in my life'...He sat with his eyes fixed +partly on the ghost and partly on Hamlet, and with his mouth open; the +same passions which succeeded each other in Hamlet, succeeding likewise +in him... + +"Little more worth remembering occurred during the play, at the end of +which Jones asked him which of the players he liked best? To this he +answered, with some appearance of indignation at the question, 'The +King, without doubt.'--'Indeed, Mr Partridge,' says Mrs Miller, 'you +are not of the same opinion with the town; for they are all agreed that +Hamlet is acted by the best player who was ever on the stage.'--'He the +best player!' cries Partridge, with a contemptuous sneer; 'why I could +act as well as he myself. I am sure if I had seen a ghost, I should have +looked in the very same manner, and done just as he did. And then to be +sure, in that scene, as you called it, between him and his mother, where +you told me he acted so fine, why any man, that is, any good man, that +had such a mother, would have done exactly the same. I know you are +only joking with me; but indeed, madam, though I never was at a play in +London, yet I have seen acting before in the country, and the King for +my money; he speaks all his words distinctly, and half as loud again as +the other. Anybody may see he is an actor.'" + +In this excellent passage Partridge is represented as a very bad +theatrical critic. But none of those who laugh at him possess the tithe +of his sensibility to theatrical excellence. He admires in the wrong +place; but he trembles in the right place. It is indeed because he is +so much excited by the acting of Garrick, that he ranks him below the +strutting, mouthing performer, who personates the King. So, we have +heard it said that, in some parts of Spain and Portugal, an actor who +should represent a depraved character finely, instead of calling down +the applauses of the audience, is hissed and pelted without mercy. +It would be the same in England, if we, for one moment, thought that +Shylock or Iago was standing before us. While the dramatic art was in +its infancy at Athens, it produced similar effects on the ardent and +imaginative spectators. It is said that they blamed Aeschylus for +frightening them into fits with his Furies. Herodotus tells us that, +when Phyrnichus produced his tragedy on the fall of Miletus, they fined +him in a penalty of a thousand drachmas for torturing their feelings by +so pathetic an exhibition. They did not regard him as a great artist, +but merely as a man who had given them pain. When they woke from the +distressing illusion, they treated the author of it as they would have +treated a messenger who should have brought them fatal and alarming +tidings which turned out to be false. In the same manner, a child +screams with terror at the sight of a person in an ugly mask. He has +perhaps seen the mask put on. But his imagination is too strong for his +reason; and he entreats that it may be taken off. + +We should act in the same manner if the grief and horror produced in us +by works of the imagination amounted to real torture. But in us these +emotions are comparatively languid. They rarely affect our appetite or +our sleep. They leave us sufficiently at ease to trace them to their +causes, and to estimate the powers which produce them. Our attention is +speedily diverted from the images which call forth our tears to the art +by which those images have been selected and combined. We applaud the +genius of the writer. We applaud our own sagacity and sensibility; and +we are comforted. + +Yet, though we think that in the progress of nations towards refinement +the reasoning powers are improved at the expense of the imagination, we +acknowledge that to this rule there are many apparent exceptions. We +are not, however, quite satisfied that they are more than apparent. Men +reasoned better, for example, in the time of Elizabeth than in the time +of Egbert; and they also wrote better poetry. But we must distinguish +between poetry as a mental act, and poetry as a species of composition. +If we take it in the latter sense, its excellence depends not solely on +the vigour of the imagination, but partly also on the instruments which +the imagination employs. Within certain limits, therefore, poetry may be +improving while the poetical faculty is decaying. The vividness of the +picture presented to the reader is not necessarily proportioned to the +vividness of the prototype which exists in the mind of the writer. In +the other arts we see this clearly. Should a man, gifted by nature with +all the genius of Canova, attempt to carve a statue without instruction +as to the management of his chisel, or attention to the anatomy of +the human body, he would produce something compared with which the +Highlander at the door of a snuff shop would deserve admiration. If an +uninitiated Raphael were to attempt a painting, it would be a mere daub; +indeed, the connoisseurs say that the early works of Raphael are little +better. Yet, who can attribute this to want of imagination? Who can +doubt that the youth of that great artist was passed amidst an ideal +world of beautiful and majestic forms? Or, who will attribute the +difference which appears between his first rude essays and his +magnificent Transfiguration to a change in the constitution of his +mind? In poetry, as in painting and sculpture, it is necessary that +the imitator should be well acquainted with that which he undertakes to +imitate, and expert in the mechanical part of his art. Genius will not +furnish him with a vocabulary: it will not teach him what word most +exactly corresponds to his idea, and will most fully convey it to +others: it will not make him a great descriptive poet, till he has +looked with attention on the face of nature; or a great dramatist, +till he has felt and witnessed much of the influence of the passions. +Information and experience are, therefore, necessary; not for the +purpose of strengthening the imagination, which is never so strong as in +people incapable of reasoning--savages, children, madmen, and +dreamers; but for the purpose of enabling the artist to communicate his +conceptions to others. + +In a barbarous age the imagination exercises a despotic power. So strong +is the perception of what is unreal that it often overpowers all the +passions of the mind and all the sensations of the body. At first, +indeed, the phantasm remains undivulged, a hidden treasure, a wordless +poetry, an invisible painting, a silent music, a dream of which the +pains and pleasures exist to the dreamer alone, a bitterness which the +heart only knoweth, a joy with which a stranger intermeddleth not. The +machinery, by which ideas are to be conveyed from one person to another, +is as yet rude and defective. Between mind and mind there is a great +gulf. The imitative arts do not exist, or are in their lowest state. +But the actions of men amply prove that the faculty which gives birth +to those arts is morbidly active. It is not yet the inspiration of poets +and sculptors; but it is the amusement of the day, the terror of the +night, the fertile source of wild superstitions. It turns the clouds +into gigantic shapes, and the winds into doleful voices. The belief +which springs from it is more absolute and undoubting than any which can +be derived from evidence. It resembles the faith which we repose in our +own sensations. Thus, the Arab, when covered with wounds, saw nothing +but the dark eyes and the green kerchief of a beckoning Houri. The +Northern warrior laughed in the pangs of death when he thought of the +mead of Valhalla. + +The first works of the imagination are, as we have said, poor and rude, +not from the want of genius, but from the want of materials. Phidias +could have done nothing with an old tree and a fish-bone, or Homer with +the language of New Holland. + +Yet the effect of these early performances, imperfect as they must +necessarily be, is immense. All deficiencies are supplied by the +susceptibility of those to whom they are addressed. We all know what +pleasure a wooden doll, which may be bought for sixpence, will afford +to a little girl. She will require no other company. She will nurse it, +dress it, and talk to it all day. No grown-up man takes half so much +delight in one of the incomparable babies of Chantrey. In the same +manner, savages are more affected by the rude compositions of their +bards than nations more advanced in civilisation by the greatest +master-pieces of poetry. + +In process of time, the instruments by which the imagination works are +brought to perfection. Men have not more imagination than their rude +ancestors. We strongly suspect that they have much less. But they +produce better works of imagination. Thus, up to a certain period, the +diminution of the poetical powers is far more than compensated by the +improvement of all the appliances and means of which those powers +stand in need. Then comes the short period of splendid and consummate +excellence. And then, from causes against which it is vain to struggle, +poetry begins to decline. The progress of language, which was at first +favourable, becomes fatal to it, and, instead of compensating for the +decay of the imagination, accelerates that decay, and renders it more +obvious. When the adventurer in the Arabian tale anointed one of his +eyes with the contents of the magical box, all the riches of the earth, +however widely dispersed, however sacredly concealed, became visible to +him. But, when he tried the experiment on both eyes, he was struck +with blindness. What the enchanted elixir was to the sight of the body, +language is to the sight of the imagination. At first it calls up +a world of glorious allusions; but, when it becomes too copious, it +altogether destroys the visual power. + +As the development of the mind proceeds, symbols, instead of being +employed to convey images, are substituted for them. Civilised men think +as they trade, not in kind, but by means of a circulating medium. In +these circumstances, the sciences improve rapidly, and criticism among +the rest; but poetry, in the highest sense of the word, disappears. Then +comes the dotage of the fine arts, a second childhood, as feeble as the +former, and far more hopeless. This is the age of critical poetry, of +poetry by courtesy, of poetry to which the memory, the judgment, and the +wit contribute far more than the imagination. We readily allow that many +works of this description are excellent: we will not contend with those +who think them more valuable than the great poems of an earlier period. +We only maintain that they belong to a different species of composition, +and are produced by a different faculty. + +It is some consolation to reflect that this critical school of poetry +improves as the science of criticism improves; and that the science +of criticism, like every other science, is constantly tending towards +perfection. As experiments are multiplied, principles are better +understood. + +In some countries, in our own for example, there has been an interval +between the downfall of the creative school and the rise of the +critical, a period during which imagination has been in its decrepitude, +and taste in its infancy. Such a revolutionary interregnum as this will +be deformed by every species of extravagance. + +The first victory of good taste is over the bombast and conceits which +deform such times as these. But criticism is still in a very imperfect +state. What is accidental is for a long time confounded with what is +essential. General theories are drawn from detached facts. How many +hours the action of a play may be allowed to occupy,--how many similes +an Epic Poet may introduce into his first book,--whether a piece, which +is acknowledged to have a beginning and an end, may not be without a +middle, and other questions as puerile as these, formerly occupied the +attention of men of letters in France, and even in this country. +Poets, in such circumstances as these, exhibit all the narrowness and +feebleness of the criticism by which their manner has been fashioned. +From outrageous absurdity they are preserved indeed by their timidity. +But they perpetually sacrifice nature and reason to arbitrary canons of +taste. In their eagerness to avoid the mala prohibita of a foolish +code, they are perpetually rushing on the mala in se. Their great +predecessors, it is true, were as bad critics as themselves, or perhaps +worse, but those predecessors, as we have attempted to show, were +inspired by a faculty independent of criticism, and, therefore, wrote +well while they judged ill. + +In time men begin to take more rational and comprehensive views of +literature. The analysis of poetry, which, as we have remarked, must at +best be imperfect, approaches nearer and nearer to exactness. The merits +of the wonderful models of former times are justly appreciated. The +frigid productions of a later age are rated at no more than their proper +value. Pleasing and ingenious imitations of the manner of the great +masters appear. Poetry has a partial revival, a Saint Martin's Summer, +which, after a period of dreariness and decay, agreeably reminds us +of the splendour of its June. A second harvest is gathered in; though, +growing on a spent soil, it has not the heart of the former. Thus, in +the present age, Monti has successfully imitated the style of Dante; +and something of the Elizabethan inspiration has been caught by several +eminent countrymen of our own. But never will Italy produce another +Inferno, or England another Hamlet. We look on the beauties of the +modern imaginations with feelings similar to those with which we see +flowers disposed in vases, to ornament the drawing-rooms of a capital. +We doubtless regard them with pleasure, with greater pleasure, perhaps, +because, in the midst of a place ungenial to them, they remind us of the +distant spots on which they flourish in spontaneous exuberance. But we +miss the sap, the freshness, and the bloom. Or, if we may borrow another +illustration from Queen Scheherezade, we would compare the writers +of this school to the jewellers who were employed to complete the +unfinished window of the palace of Aladdin. Whatever skill or cost could +do was done. Palace and bazaar were ransacked for precious stones. Yet +the artists, with all their dexterity, with all their assiduity, and +with all their vast means, were unable to produce anything comparable +to the wonders which a spirit of a higher order had wrought in a single +night. + +The history of every literature with which we are acquainted confirms, +we think, the principles which we have laid down. In Greece we see +the imaginative school of poetry gradually fading into the critical. +Aeschylus and Pindar were succeeded by Sophocles, Sophocles by +Euripides, Euripides by the Alexandrian versifiers. Of these last, +Theocritus alone has left compositions which deserve to be read. The +splendour and grotesque fairyland of the Old Comedy, rich with such +gorgeous hues, peopled with such fantastic shapes, and vocal alternately +with the sweetest peals of music and the loudest bursts of elvish +laughter, disappeared forever. The master-pieces of the New Comedy are +known to us by Latin translations of extraordinary merit. From these +translations, and from the expressions of the ancient critics, it is +clear that the original compositions were distinguished by grace and +sweetness, that they sparkled with wit, and abounded with pleasing +sentiment; but that the creative power was gone. Julius Caesar called +Terence a half Menander,--a sure proof that Menander was not a quarter +Aristophanes. + +The literature of the Romans was merely a continuation of the literature +of the Greeks. The pupils started from the point at which their masters +had, in the course of many generations arrived. They thus almost wholly +missed the period of original invention. The only Latin poets whose +writings exhibit much vigour of imagination are Lucretius and Catullus. +The Augustan age produced nothing equal to their finer passages. + +In France that licensed jester, whose jingling cap and motley coat +concealed more genius than ever mustered in the saloon of Ninon or of +Madame Geoffrin, was succeeded by writers as decorous and as tiresome as +gentlemen ushers. + +The poetry of Italy and of Spain has undergone the same change. But +nowhere has the revolution been more complete and violent than in +England. The same person who, when a boy, had clapped his thrilling +hands at the first representation of the Tempest might, without +attaining to a marvellous longevity, have lived to read the earlier +works of Prior and Addison. The change, we believe, must, sooner or +later, have taken place. But its progress was accelerated, and its +character modified, by the political occurrences of the times, and +particularly by two events, the closing of the theatres under the +Commonwealth, and the restoration of the House of Stuart. + +We have said that the critical and poetical faculties are not only +distinct, but almost incompatible. The state of our literature during +the reigns of Elizabeth and James the First is a strong confirmation of +this remark. The greatest works of imagination that the world has ever +seen were produced at that period. The national taste, in the meantime, +was to the last degree detestable. Alliterations, puns, antithetical +forms of expression lavishly employed where no corresponding opposition +existed between the thoughts expressed, strained allegories, pedantic +allusions, everything, in short, quaint and affected, in matter and +manner, made up what was then considered as fine writing. The eloquence +of the bar, the pulpit, and the council-board, was deformed by conceits +which would have disgraced the rhyming shepherds of an Italian academy. +The king quibbled on the throne. We might, indeed, console ourselves by +reflecting that his majesty was a fool. But the chancellor quibbled in +concert from the wool-sack: and the chancellor was Francis Bacon. It +is needless to mention Sidney and the whole tribe of Euphuists; for +Shakspeare himself, the greatest poet that ever lived, falls into the +same fault whenever he means to be particularly fine. While he abandons +himself to the impulse of his imagination, his compositions are not only +the sweetest and the most sublime, but also the most faultless, that the +world has ever seen. But, as soon as his critical powers come into play, +he sinks to the level of Cowley; or rather he does ill what Cowley did +well. All that is bad in his works is bad elaborately, and of malice +aforethought. The only thing wanting to make them perfect was, that he +should never have troubled himself with thinking whether they were +good or not. Like the angels in Milton, he sinks "with compulsion and +laborious flight." His natural tendency is upwards. That he may soar, it +is only necessary that he should not struggle to fall. He resembles an +American Cacique, who, possessing in unmeasured abundance the metals +which in polished societies are esteemed the most precious, was utterly +unconscious of their value, and gave up treasures more valuable than the +imperial crowns of other countries, to secure some gaudy and far-fetched +but worthless bauble, a plated button, or a necklace of coloured glass. + +We have attempted to show that, as knowledge is extended and as the +reason develops itself, the imitative arts decay. We should, therefore, +expect that the corruption of poetry would commence in the educated +classes of society. And this, in fact, is almost constantly the case. +The few great works of imagination which appear in a critical age are, +almost without exception, the works of uneducated men. Thus, at a +time when persons of quality translated French romances, and when the +universities celebrated royal deaths in verses about tritons and fauns, +a preaching tinker produced the Pilgrim's Progress. And thus a ploughman +startled a generation which had thought Hayley and Beattie great poets, +with the adventures of Tam O'Shanter. Even in the latter part of the +reign of Elizabeth the fashionable poetry had degenerated. It retained +few vestiges of the imagination of earlier times. It had not yet been +subjected to the rules of good taste. Affectation had completely tainted +madrigals and sonnets. The grotesque conceits and the tuneless numbers +of Donne were, in the time of James, the favourite models of composition +at Whitehall and at the Temple. But, though the literature of the Court +was in its decay, the literature of the people was in its perfection. +The Muses had taken sanctuary in the theatres, the haunts of a class +whose taste was not better than that of the Right Honourables and +singular good Lords who admired metaphysical love-verses, but whose +imagination retained all its freshness and vigour; whose censure and +approbation might be erroneously bestowed, but whose tears and laughter +was never in the wrong. The infection which had tainted lyric and +didactic poetry had but slightly and partially touched the drama. While +the noble and the learned were comparing eyes to burning-glasses, and +tears to terrestrial globes, coyness to an enthymeme, absence to a pair +of compasses, and an unrequited passion to the fortieth remainder-man in +an entail, Juliet leaning from the balcony, and Miranda smiling over the +chess-board, sent home many spectators, as kind and simple-hearted +as the master and mistress of Fletcher's Ralpho, to cry themselves to +sleep. + +No species of fiction is so delightful to us as the old English drama. +Even its inferior productions possess a charm not to be found in any +other kind of poetry. It is the most lucid mirror that ever was held up +to nature. The creations of the great dramatists of Athens produce the +effect of magnificent sculptures, conceived by a mighty imagination, +polished with the utmost delicacy, embodying ideas of ineffable majesty +and beauty, but cold, pale, and rigid, with no bloom on the cheek, and +no speculation in the eye. In all the draperies, the figures, and the +faces, in the lovers and the tyrants, the Bacchanals and the Furies, +there is the same marble chillness and deadness. Most of the characters +of the French stage resemble the waxen gentlemen and ladies in the +window of a perfumer, rouged, curled, and bedizened, but fixed in +such stiff attitudes, and staring with eyes expressive of such utter +unmeaningness, that they cannot produce an illusion for a single moment. +In the English plays alone is to be found the warmth, the mellowness, +and the reality of painting. We know the minds of men and women, as we +know the faces of the men and women of Vandyke. + +The excellence of these works is in a great measure the result of +two peculiarities, which the critics of the French school consider as +defects,--from the mixture of tragedy and comedy, and from the length +and extent of the action. The former is necessary to render the drama +a just representation of a world in which the laughers and weepers are +perpetually jostling each other,--in which every event has its +serious and ludicrous side. The latter enables us to form an intimate +acquaintance with characters with which we could not possibly become +familiar during the few hours to which the unities restrict the poet. +In this respect, the works of Shakspeare, in particular, are miracles +of art. In a piece, which may be read aloud in three hours, we see a +character gradually unfold all its recesses to us. We see it change with +the change of circumstances. The petulant youth rises into the politic +and warlike sovereign. The profuse and courteous philanthropist sours +into a hater and scorner of his kind. The tyrant is altered, by the +chastening of affliction, into a pensive moralist. The veteran general, +distinguished by coolness, sagacity, and self-command, sinks under a +conflict between love strong as death, and jealousy cruel as the grave. +The brave and loyal subject passes, step by step, to the extremities +of human depravity. We trace his progress, from the first dawnings of +unlawful ambition to the cynical melancholy of his impenitent remorse. +Yet, in these pieces, there are no unnatural transitions. Nothing is +omitted: nothing is crowded. Great as are the changes, narrow as is the +compass within which they are exhibited, they shock us as little as the +gradual alterations of those familiar faces which we see every evening +and every morning. The magical skill of the poet resembles that of the +Dervise in the Spectator, who condensed all the events of seven years +into the single moment during which the king held his head under the +water. + +It is deserving of remark, that, at the time of which we speak, the +plays even of men not eminently distinguished by genius,--such, for +example, as Jonson,--were far superior to the best works of imagination +in other departments. Therefore, though we conceive that, from causes +which we have already investigated, our poetry must necessarily have +declined, we think that, unless its fate had been accelerated by +external attacks, it might have enjoyed an euthanasia, that genius might +have been kept alive by the drama till its place could, in some degree, +be supplied by taste,--that there would have been scarcely any interval +between the age of sublime invention and that of agreeable imitation. +The works of Shakspeare, which were not appreciated with any degree of +justice before the middle of the eighteenth century, might then have +been the recognised standards of excellence during the latter part of +the seventeenth; and he and the great Elizabethan writers might have +been almost immediately succeeded by a generation of poets similar to +those who adorn our own times. + +But the Puritans drove imagination from its last asylum. They prohibited +theatrical representations, and stigmatised the whole race of dramatists +as enemies of morality and religion. Much that is objectionable may be +found in the writers whom they reprobated; but whether they took the +best measures for stopping the evil appears to us very doubtful, and +must, we think, have appeared doubtful to themselves, when, after the +lapse of a few years, they saw the unclean spirit whom they had cast out +return to his old haunts, with seven others fouler than himself. + +By the extinction of the drama, the fashionable school of poetry,--a +school without truth of sentiment or harmony of versification,--without +the powers of an earlier, or the correctness of a later age,--was left +to enjoy undisputed ascendency. A vicious ingenuity, a morbid quickness +to perceive resemblances and analogies between things apparently +heterogeneous, constituted almost its only claim to admiration. Suckling +was dead. Milton was absorbed in political and theological controversy. +If Waller differed from the Cowleian sect of writers, he differed for +the worse. He had as little poetry as they, and much less wit; nor is +the languor of his verses less offensive than the ruggedness of theirs. +In Denham alone the faint dawn of a better manner was discernible. + +But, low as was the state of our poetry during the civil war and the +Protectorate, a still deeper fall was at hand. Hitherto our literature +had been idiomatic. In mind as in situation we had been islanders. The +revolutions in our taste, like the revolutions in our government, had +been settled without the interference of strangers. Had this state of +things continued, the same just principles of reasoning which, about +this time, were applied with unprecedented success to every part of +philosophy would soon have conducted our ancestors to a sounder code of +criticism. There were already strong signs of improvement. Our prose +had at length worked itself clear from those quaint conceits which still +deformed almost every metrical composition. The parliamentary debates, +and the diplomatic correspondence of that eventful period, had +contributed much to this reform. In such bustling times, it was +absolutely necessary to speak and write to the purpose. The absurdities +of Puritanism had, perhaps, done more. At the time when that odious +style, which deforms the writings of Hall and of Lord Bacon, was almost +universal, had appeared that stupendous work, the English Bible,--a book +which, if everything else in our language should perish, would alone +suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power. The respect +which the translators felt for the original prevented them from adding +any of the hideous decorations then in fashion. The groundwork of the +version, indeed, was of an earlier age. The familiarity with which the +Puritans, on almost every occasion, used the Scriptural phrases was no +doubt very ridiculous; but it produced good effects. It was a cant; but +it drove out a cant far more offensive. + +The highest kind of poetry is, in a great measure, independent of those +circumstances which regulate the style of composition in prose. But with +that inferior species of poetry which succeeds to it the case is widely +different. In a few years, the good sense and good taste which had +weeded out affectation from moral and political treatises would, in the +natural course of things, have effected a similar reform in the sonnet +and the ode. The rigour of the victorious sectaries had relaxed. +A dominant religion is never ascetic. The Government connived at +theatrical representations. The influence of Shakspeare was once more +felt. But darker days were approaching. A foreign yoke was to be imposed +on our literature. Charles, surrounded by the companions of his long +exile, returned to govern a nation which ought never to have cast him +out or never to have received him back. Every year which he had passed +among strangers had rendered him more unfit to rule his countrymen. +In France he had seen the refractory magistracy humbled, and royal +prerogative, though exercised by a foreign priest in the name of +a child, victorious over all opposition. This spectacle naturally +gratified a prince to whose family the opposition of Parliaments had +been so fatal. Politeness was his solitary good quality. The insults +which he had suffered in Scotland had taught him to prize it. The +effeminacy and apathy of his disposition fitted him to excel in it. The +elegance and vivacity of the French manners fascinated him. With the +political maxims and the social habits of his favourite people, he +adopted their taste in composition, and, when seated on the throne, soon +rendered it fashionable, partly by direct patronage, but still more by +that contemptible policy, which, for a time, made England the last of +the nations, and raised Louis the Fourteenth to a height of power and +fame, such as no French sovereign had ever before attained. + +It was to please Charles that rhyme was first introduced into our plays. +Thus, a rising blow, which would at any time have been mortal, was +dealt to the English Drama, then just recovering from its languishing +condition. Two detestable manners, the indigenous and the imported, were +now in a state of alternate conflict and amalgamation. The bombastic +meanness of the new style was blended with the ingenious absurdity of +the old; and the mixture produced something which the world had never +before seen, and which, we hope, it will never see again,--something, +by the side of which the worst nonsense of all other ages appears to +advantage--something, which those who have attempted to caricature it +have, against their will, been forced to flatter--of which the tragedy +of Bayes is a very favourable specimen. What Lord Dorset observed +to Edward Howard might have been addressed to almost all his +contemporaries-- + + "As skilful divers to the bottom fall + Swifter than those who cannot swim at all; + So, in this way of writing without thinking, + Thou hast a strange alacrity in sinking." + +From this reproach some clever men of the world must be excepted, and +among them Dorset himself. Though by no means great poets, or even good +versifiers, they always wrote with meaning, and sometimes with wit. +Nothing indeed more strongly shows to what a miserable state literature +had fallen, than the immense superiority which the occasional rhymes, +carelessly thrown on paper by men of this class, possess over the +elaborate productions of almost all the professed authors. The reigning +taste was so bad, that the success of a writer was in inverse proportion +to his labour, and to his desire of excellence. An exception must be +made for Butler, who had as much wit and learning as Cowley, and who +knew, what Cowley never knew, how to use them. A great command of good +homely English distinguishes him still more from the other writers of +the time. As for Gondibert, those may criticise it who can read it. +Imagination was extinct. Taste was depraved. Poetry, driven from +palaces, colleges, and theatres, had found an asylum in the obscure +dwelling where a Great Man, born out of due season, in disgrace, penury, +pain and blindness, still kept uncontaminated a character and a genius +worthy of a better age. + +Everything about Milton is wonderful; but nothing is so wonderful as +that, in an age so unfavourable to poetry, he should have produced the +greatest of modern epic poems. We are not sure that this is not in +some degree to be attributed to his want of sight. The imagination is +notoriously most active when the external world is shut out. In sleep +its illusions are perfect. They produce all the effect of realities. In +darkness its visions are always more distinct than in the light. Every +person who amuses himself with what is called building castles in the +air must have experienced this. We know artists who, before they attempt +to draw a face from memory, close their eyes, that they may recall a +more perfect image of the features and the expression. We are therefore +inclined to believe that the genius of Milton may have been preserved +from the influence of times so unfavourable to it by his infirmity. +Be this as it may, his works at first enjoyed a very small share of +popularity. To be neglected by his contemporaries was the penalty which +he paid for surpassing them. His great poem was not generally studied or +admired till writers far inferior to him had, by obsequiously cringing +to the public taste, acquired sufficient favour to reform it. + +Of these, Dryden was the most eminent. Amidst the crowd of authors who, +during the earlier years of Charles the Second, courted notoriety +by every species of absurdity and affectation, he speedily became +conspicuous. No man exercised so much influence on the age. The reason +is obvious. On no man did the age exercise so much influence. He was +perhaps the greatest of those whom we have designated as the critical +poets; and his literary career exhibited, on a reduced scale, the +whole history of the school to which he belonged,--the rudeness and +extravagance of its infancy,--the propriety, the grace, the dignified +good sense, the temperate splendour of its maturity. His imagination +was torpid, till it was awakened by his judgment. He began with quaint +parallels and empty mouthing. He gradually acquired the energy of the +satirist, the gravity of the moralist, the rapture of the lyric poet. +The revolution through which English literature has been passing, from +the time of Cowley to that of Scott, may be seen in miniature within the +compass of his volumes. + +His life divides itself into two parts. There is some debatable ground +on the common frontier; but the line may be drawn with tolerable +accuracy. The year 1678 is that on which we should be inclined to fix +as the date of a great change in his manner. During the preceding period +appeared some of his courtly panegyrics--his Annus Mirabilis, and most +of his plays; indeed, all his rhyming tragedies. To the subsequent +period belong his best dramas,--All for Love, the Spanish Friar, and +Sebastian,--his satires, his translations, his didactic poems, his +fables, and his odes. + +Of the small pieces which were presented to chancellors and princes it +would scarcely be fair to speak. The greatest advantage which the Fine +Arts derive from the extension of knowledge is, that the patronage of +individuals becomes unnecessary. Some writers still affect to regret the +age of patronage. None but bad writers have reason to regret it. It is +always an age of general ignorance. Where ten thousand readers are eager +for the appearance of a book, a small contribution from each makes up +a splendid remuneration for the author. Where literature is a luxury, +confined to few, each of them must pay high. If the Empress Catherine, +for example, wanted an epic poem, she must have wholly supported +the poet;--just as, in a remote country village, a man who wants a +muttonchop is sometimes forced to take the whole sheep;--a thing which +never happens where the demand is large. But men who pay largely for the +gratification of their taste, will expect to have it united with some +gratification to their vanity. Flattery is carried to a shameless +extent; and the habit of flattery almost inevitably introduces a +false taste into composition. Its language is made up of hyperbolical +commonplaces,--offensive from their triteness,--still more offensive +from their extravagance. In no school is the trick of overstepping the +modesty of nature so speedily acquired. The writer, accustomed to find +exaggeration acceptable and necessary on one subject, uses it on all. It +is not strange, therefore, that the early panegyrical verses of Dryden +should be made up of meanness and bombast. They abound with the conceits +which his immediate predecessors had brought into fashion. But his +language and his versification were already far superior to theirs. + +The Annus Mirabilis shows great command of expression, and a fine ear +for heroic rhyme. Here its merits end. Not only has it no claim to be +called poetry, but it seems to be the work of a man who could never, by +any possibility, write poetry. Its affected similes are the best part +of it. Gaudy weeds present a more encouraging spectacle than utter +barrenness. There is scarcely a single stanza in this long work to which +the imagination seems to have contributed anything. It is produced, not +by creation, but by construction. It is made up, not of pictures, but of +inferences. We will give a single instance, and certainly a favourable +instance,--a quatrain which Johnson has praised. Dryden is describing +the sea-fight with the Dutch-- + + "Amidst whole heaps of spices lights a ball; + And now their odours armed against them fly. + Some preciously by shattered porcelain fall, + And some by aromatic splinters die." + +The poet should place his readers, as nearly as possible, in the +situation of the sufferers or the spectators. His narration ought to +produce feelings similar to those which would be excited by the event +itself. Is this the case here? Who, in a sea-fight, ever thought of the +price of the china which beats out the brains of a sailor; or of the +odour of the splinter which shatters his leg? It is not by an act of the +imagination, at once calling up the scene before the interior eye, but +by painful meditation,--by turning the subject round and round,--by +tracing out facts into remote consequences,--that these incongruous +topics are introduced into the description. Homer, it is true, +perpetually uses epithets which are not peculiarly appropriate. +Achilles is the swift-footed, when he is sitting still. Ulysses is the +much-enduring, when he has nothing to endure. Every spear casts a long +shadow, every ox has crooked horns, and every woman a high bosom, though +these particulars may be quite beside the purpose. In our old ballads a +similar practice prevails. The gold is always red, and the ladies always +gay, though nothing whatever may depend on the hue of the gold, or the +temper of the ladies. But these adjectives are mere customary additions. +They merge in the substantives to which they are attached. If they at +all colour the idea, it is with a tinge so slight as in no respect +to alter the general effect. In the passage which we have quoted from +Dryden the case is very different. "Preciously" and "aromatic" divert +our whole attention to themselves, and dissolve the image of the battle +in a moment. The whole poem reminds us of Lucan, and of the worst parts +of Lucan,--the sea-fight in the Bay of Marseilles, for example. The +description of the two fleets during the night is perhaps the only +passage which ought to be exempted from this censure. If it was from +the Annus Mirabilis that Milton formed his opinion, when he pronounced +Dryden a good rhymer but no poet, he certainly judged correctly. But +Dryden was, as we have said, one of those writers in whom the period of +imagination does not precede, but follow, the period of observation and +reflection. + +His plays, his rhyming plays in particular, are admirable subjects for +those who wish to study the morbid anatomy of the drama. He was utterly +destitute of the power of exhibiting real human beings. Even in the far +inferior talent of composing characters out of those elements into +which the imperfect process of our reason can resolve them, he was very +deficient. His men are not even good personifications; they are not +well-assorted assemblages of qualities. Now and then, indeed, he seizes +a very coarse and marked distinction, and gives us, not a likeness, but +a strong caricature, in which a single peculiarity is protruded, and +everything else neglected; like the Marquis of Granby at an inn-door, +whom we know by nothing but his baldness; or Wilkes, who is Wilkes only +in his squint. These are the best specimens of his skill. For most of +his pictures seem, like Turkey carpets, to have been expressly designed +not to resemble anything in the heavens above, in the earth beneath, or +in the waters under the earth. + +The latter manner he practises most frequently in his tragedies, the +former in his comedies. The comic characters are, without mixture, +loathsome and despicable. The men of Etherege and Vanbrugh are bad +enough. Those of Smollett are perhaps worse. But they do not approach +to the Celadons, the Wildbloods, the Woodalls, and the Rhodophils of +Dryden. The vices of these last are set off by a certain fierce hard +impudence, to which we know nothing comparable. Their love is the +appetite of beasts; their friendship the confederacy of knaves. The +ladies seem to have been expressly created to form helps meet for such +gentlemen. In deceiving and insulting their old fathers they do not +perhaps exceed the license which, by immemorial prescription, has been +allowed to heroines. But they also cheat at cards, rob strong boxes, put +up their favours to auction, betray their friends, abuse their rivals +in the style of Billingsgate, and invite their lovers in the language +of the Piazza. These, it must be remembered, are not the valets and +waiting-women, the Mascarilles and Nerines, but the recognised heroes +and heroines who appear as the representatives of good society, and who, +at the end of the fifth act, marry and live very happily ever after. The +sensuality, baseness, and malice of their natures is unredeemed by any +quality of a different description,--by any touch of kindness,--or even +by any honest burst of hearty hatred and revenge. We are in a world +where there is no humanity, no veracity, no sense of shame,--a world for +which any good-natured man would gladly take in exchange the society of +Milton's devils. But as soon as we enter the regions of Tragedy, we find +a great change. There is no lack of fine sentiment there. Metastasio +is surpassed in his own department. Scuderi is out-scuderied. We are +introduced to people whose proceedings we can trace to no motive,--of +whose feelings we can form no more idea than of a sixth sense. We have +left a race of creatures, whose love is as delicate and affectionate +as the passion which an alderman feels for a turtle. We find ourselves +among beings, whose love is a purely disinterested emotion,--a loyalty +extending to passive obedience,--a religion, like that of the Quietists, +unsupported by any sanction of hope or fear. We see nothing but +despotism without power, and sacrifices without compensation. + +We will give a few instances. In Aurengzebe, Arimant, governor of Agra, +falls in love with his prisoner Indamora. She rejects his suit with +scorn; but assures him that she shall make great use of her power over +him. He threatens to be angry. She answers, very coolly: + + "Do not: your anger, like your love, is vain: + Whene'er I please, you must be pleased again. + Knowing what power I have your will to bend, + I'll use it; for I need just such a friend." + +This is no idle menace. She soon brings a letter addressed to +his rival,--orders him to read it,--asks him whether he thinks it +sufficiently tender,--and finally commands him to carry it himself. Such +tyranny as this, it may be thought, would justify resistance. Arimant +does indeed venture to remonstrate:-- + + "This fatal paper rather let me tear, + Than, like Bellerophon, my sentence bear." + +The answer of the lady is incomparable:-- + + "You may; but 'twill not be your best advice; + 'Twill only give me pains of writing twice. + You know you must obey me, soon or late. + Why should you vainly struggle with your fate?" + +Poor Arimant seems to be of the same opinion. He mutters something about +fate and free-will, and walks off with the billet-doux. + +In the Indian Emperor, Montezuma presents Almeria with a garland as a +token of his love, and offers to make her his queen. She replies:-- + + "I take this garland, not as given by you; + But as my merit's and my beauty's due; + As for the crown which you, my slave, possess, + To share it with you would but make me less." + +In return for such proofs of tenderness as these, her admirer consents +to murder his two sons and a benefactor to whom he feels the warmest +gratitude. Lyndaraxa, in the Conquest of Granada, assumes the same lofty +tone with Abdelmelech. He complains that she smiles upon his rival. + + "Lynd. And when did I my power so far resign, + That you should regulate each look of mine? + + Abdel. Then, when you gave your love, you gave that power. + + Lynd. 'Twas during pleasure--'tis revoked this hour. + + Abdel. I'll hate you, and this visit is my last. + + Lynd. Do, if you can: you know I hold you fast." + +That these passages violate all historical propriety, that sentiments to +which nothing similar was ever even affected except by the cavaliers of +Europe, are transferred to Mexico and Agra, is a light accusation. We +have no objection to a conventional world, an Illyrian puritan, or a +Bohemian seaport. While the faces are good, we care little about the +back-ground. Sir Joshua Reynolds says that the curtains and hangings +in an historical painting ought to be, not velvet or cotton, but merely +drapery. The same principle should be applied to poetry and romance. The +truth of character is the first object; the truth of place and time is +to be considered only in the second place. Puff himself could tell the +actor to turn out his toes, and remind him that Keeper Hatton was +a great dancer. We wish that, in our own time, a writer of a very +different order from Puff had not too often forgotten human nature in +the niceties of upholstery, millinery, and cookery. + +We blame Dryden, not because the persons of his dramas are not Moors or +Americans, but because they are not men and women;--not because love, +such as he represents it, could not exist in a harem or in a wigwam, but +because it could not exist anywhere. As is the love of his heroes, such +are all their other emotions. All their qualities, their courage, their +generosity, their pride, are on the same colossal scale. Justice and +prudence are virtues which can exist only in a moderate degree, and +which change their nature and their name if pushed to excess. Of justice +and prudence, therefore, Dryden leaves his favourites destitute. He +did not care to give them what he could not give without measure. The +tyrants and ruffians are merely the heroes altered by a few touches, +similar to those which transformed the honest face of Sir Roger de +Coverley into the Saracen's head. Through the grin and frown the +original features are still perceptible. + +It is in the tragi-comedies that these absurdities strike us most. +The two races of men, or rather the angels and the baboons, are there +presented to us together. We meet in one scene with nothing but +gross, selfish, unblushing, lying libertines of both sexes, who, as +a punishment, we suppose, for their depravity, are condemned to talk +nothing but prose. But, as soon as we meet with people who speak in +verse, we know that we are in society which would have enraptured the +Cathos and Madelon of Moliere, in society for which Oroondates would +have too little of the lover, and Clelia too much of the coquette. + +As Dryden was unable to render his plays interesting by means of that +which is the peculiar and appropriate excellence of the drama, it was +necessary that he should find some substitute for it. In his comedies he +supplied its place, sometimes by wit, but more frequently by intrigue, +by disguises, mistakes of persons, dialogues at cross purposes, +hair-breadth escapes, perplexing concealments, and surprising +disclosures. He thus succeeded at least in making these pieces very +amusing. + +In his tragedies he trusted, and not altogether without reason, to +his diction and his versification. It was on this account, in all +probability, that he so eagerly adopted, and so reluctantly abandoned, +the practice of rhyming in his plays. What is unnatural appears less +unnatural in that species of verse than in lines which approach more +nearly to common conversation; and in the management of the heroic +couplet Dryden has never been equalled. It is unnecessary to urge any +arguments against a fashion now universally condemned. But it is worthy +of observation, that, though Dryden was deficient in that talent which +blank verse exhibits to the greatest advantage, and was certainly the +best writer of heroic rhyme in our language, yet the plays which have, +from the time of their first appearance, been considered as his best, +are in blank verse. No experiment can be more decisive. + +It must be allowed that the worst even of the rhyming tragedies contains +good description and magnificent rhetoric. But, even when we forget that +they are plays, and, passing by their dramatic improprieties, consider +them with reference to the language, we are perpetually disgusted by +passages which it is difficult to conceive how any author could have +written, or any audience have tolerated, rants in which the raving +violence of the manner forms a strange contrast with the abject tameness +of the thought. The author laid the whole fault on the audience, and +declared that, when he wrote them, he considered them bad enough to +please. This defence is unworthy of a man of genius, and after all, is +no defence. Otway pleased without rant; and so might Dryden have done, +if he had possessed the powers of Otway. The fact is, that he had a +tendency to bombast, which, though subsequently corrected by time +and thought, was never wholly removed, and which showed itself in +performances not designed to please the rude mob of the theatre. + +Some indulgent critics have represented this failing as an indication +of genius, as the profusion of unlimited wealth, the wantonness of +exuberant vigour. To us it seems to bear a nearer affinity to the +tawdriness of poverty, or the spasms and convulsions of weakness. Dryden +surely had not more imagination than Homer, Dante, or Milton, who +never fall into this vice. The swelling diction of Aeschylus and Isaiah +resembles that of Almanzor and Maximin no more than the tumidity of a +muscle resembles the tumidity of a boil. The former is symptomatic +of health and strength, the latter of debility and disease. If ever +Shakspeare rants, it is not when his imagination is hurrying him along, +but when he is hurrying his imagination along,--when his mind is for a +moment jaded,--when, as was said of Euripides, he resembles a lion, who +excites his own fury by lashing himself with his tail. What happened +to Shakspeare from the occasional suspension of his powers happened +to Dryden from constant impotence. He, like his confederate Lee, had +judgment enough to appreciate the great poets of the preceding age, but +not judgment enough to shun competition with them. He felt and admired +their wild and daring sublimity. That it belonged to another age than +that in which he lived and required other talents than those which +he possessed, that, in aspiring to emulate it, he was wasting, in +a hopeless attempt, powers which might render him pre-eminent in a +different career, was a lesson which he did not learn till late. As +those knavish enthusiasts, the French prophets, courted inspiration by +mimicking the writhings, swoonings, and gaspings which they considered +as its symptoms, he attempted, by affected fits of poetical fury, +to bring on a real paroxysm; and, like them, he got nothing but his +distortions for his pains. + +Horace very happily compares those who, in his time, imitated Pindar +to the youth who attempted to fly to heaven on waxen wings, and who +experienced so fatal and ignominious a fall. His own admirable good +sense preserved him from this error, and taught him to cultivate a +style in which excellence was within his reach. Dryden had not the same +self-knowledge. He saw that the greatest poets were never so successful +as when they rushed beyond the ordinary bounds, and that some +inexplicable good fortune preserved them from tripping even when they +staggered on the brink of nonsense. He did not perceive that they were +guided and sustained by a power denied to himself. They wrote from +the dictation of the imagination; and they found a response in the +imaginations of others. He, on the contrary, sat down to work himself, +by reflection and argument, into a deliberate wildness, a rational +frenzy. + +In looking over the admirable designs which accompany the Faust, we +have always been much struck by one which represents the wizard and the +tempter riding at full speed. The demon sits on his furious horse as +heedlessly as if he were reposing on a chair. That he should keep his +saddle in such a posture, would seem impossible to any who did not +know that he was secure in the privileges of a superhuman nature. The +attitude of Faust, on the contrary, is the perfection of horsemanship. +Poets of the first order might safely write as desperately as +Mephistopheles rode. But Dryden, though admitted to communion with +higher spirits, though armed with a portion of their power, and +intrusted with some of their secrets, was of another race. What they +might securely venture to do, it was madness in him to attempt. It +was necessary that taste and critical science should supply his +deficiencies. + +We will give a few examples. Nothing can be finer than the description +of Hector at the Grecian wall:-- + + o d ar esthore phaidimos Ektor, + Nukti thoe atalantos upopia lampe de chalko + Smerdaleo, ton eesto peri chroi doia de chersi + Dour echen ouk an tis min erukakoi antibolesas, + Nosphi theun, ot esalto pulas puri d osse dedeei. + --Autika d oi men teichos uperbasan, oi de kat autas + Poietas esechunto pulas Danaioi d ephobethen + Neas ana glaphuras omados d aliastos etuchthe. + +What daring expressions! Yet how significant! How picturesque! Hector +seems to rise up in his strength and fury. The gloom of night in his +frown,--the fire burning in his eyes,--the javelins and the +blazing armour,--the mighty rush through the gates and down +the battlements,--the trampling and the infinite roar of the +multitude,--everything is with us; everything is real. + +Dryden has described a very similar event in Maximin, and has done his +best to be sublime, as follows:-- + + "There with a forest of their darts he strove, + And stood like Capaneus defying Jove; + With his broad sword the boldest beating down, + Till Fate grew pale, lest he should win the town, + And turn'd the iron leaves of its dark book + To make new dooms, or mend what it mistook." + +How exquisite is the imagery of the fairy-songs in the Tempest and the +Midsummer Night's Dream; Ariel riding through the twilight on the +bat, or sucking in the bells of flowers with the bee; or the little +bower-women of Titania, driving the spiders from the couch of the Queen! +Dryden truly said, that + + "Shakspeare's magic could not copied be; + Within that circle none durst walk but he." + +It would have been well if he had not himself dared to step within +the enchanted line, and drawn on himself a fate similar to that +which, according to the old superstition, punished such presumptuous +interference. The following lines are parts of the song of his +fairies:-- + + "Merry, merry, merry, we sail from the East, + Half-tippled at a rainbow feast. + In the bright moonshine, while winds whistle loud, + Tivy, tivy, tivy, we mount and we fly, + All racking along in a downy white cloud; + And lest our leap from the sky prove too far, + We slide on the back of a new falling star, + And drop from above + In a jelly of love." + +These are very favourable instances. Those who wish for a bad one may +read the dying speeches of Maximin, and may compare them with the last +scenes of Othello and Lear. + +If Dryden had died before the expiration of the first of the periods +into which we have divided his literary life, he would have left a +reputation, at best, little higher than that of Lee or Davenant. He +would have been known only to men of letters; and by them he would have +been mentioned as a writer who threw away, on subjects which he was +incompetent to treat, powers which, judiciously employed, might have +raised him to eminence; whose diction and whose numbers had sometimes +very high merit, but all whose works were blemished by a false taste, +and by errors of gross negligence. A few of his prologues and epilogues +might perhaps still have been remembered and quoted. In these little +pieces he early showed all the powers which afterwards rendered him the +greatest of modern satirists. But, during the latter part of his +life, he gradually abandoned the drama. His plays appeared at longer +intervals. He renounced rhyme in tragedy. His language became less +turgid--his characters less exaggerated. He did not indeed produce +correct representations of human nature; but he ceased to daub such +monstrous chimeras as those which abound in his earlier pieces. Here and +there passages occur worthy of the best ages of the British stage. The +style which the drama requires changes with every change of character +and situation. He who can vary his manner to suit the variation is the +great dramatist; but he who excels in one manner only will, when that +manner happens to be appropriate, appear to be a great dramatist; as the +hands of a watch which does not go point right once in the twelve hours. +Sometimes there is a scene of solemn debate. This a mere rhetorician may +write as well as the greatest tragedian that ever lived. We confess +that to us the speech of Sempronius in Cato seems very nearly as good +as Shakspeare could have made it. But when the senate breaks up, and we +find that the lovers and their mistresses, the hero, the villain, and +the deputy-villain, all continue to harangue in the same style, we +perceive the difference between a man who can write a play and a man who +can write a speech. In the same manner, wit, a talent for description, +or a talent for narration, may, for a time, pass for dramatic genius. +Dryden was an incomparable reasoner in verse. He was conscious of his +power; he was proud of it; and the authors of the Rehearsal justly +charged him with abusing it. His warriors and princesses are fond of +discussing points of amorous casuistry, such as would have delighted a +Parliament of Love. They frequently go still deeper, and speculate on +philosophical necessity and the origin of evil. + +There were, however, some occasions which absolutely required this +peculiar talent. Then Dryden was indeed at home. All his best scenes are +of this description. They are all between men; for the heroes of Dryden, +like many other gentlemen, can never talk sense when ladies are in +company. They are all intended to exhibit the empire of reason +over violent passion. We have two interlocutors, the one eager and +impassioned, the other high, cool, and judicious. The composed and +rational character gradually acquires the ascendency. His fierce +companion is first inflamed to rage by his reproaches, then overawed +by his equanimity, convinced by his arguments, and soothed by his +persuasions. This is the case in the scene between Hector and Troilus, +in that between Antony and Ventidius, and in that between Sebastian and +Dorax. Nothing of the same kind in Shakspeare is equal to them, except +the quarrel between Brutus and Cassius, which is worth them all three. + +Some years before his death, Dryden altogether ceased to write for the +stage. He had turned his powers in a new direction, with success +the most splendid and decisive. His taste had gradually awakened his +creative faculties. The first rank in poetry was beyond his reach; but +he challenged and secured the most honourable place in the second. His +imagination resembled the wings of an ostrich; it enabled him to run, +though not to soar. When he attempted the highest flights, he became +ridiculous; but, while he remained in a lower region, he out-stripped +all competitors. + +All his natural and all his acquired powers fitted him to found a good +critical school of poetry. Indeed he carried his reforms too far for +his age. After his death our literature retrograded; and a century was +necessary to bring it back to the point at which he left it. The general +soundness and healthfulness of his mental constitution, his information, +of vast superficies, though of small volume, his wit scarcely inferior +to that of the most distinguished followers of Donne, his eloquence, +grave, deliberate, and commanding, could not save him from disgraceful +failure as a rival of Shakspeare, but raised him far above the level of +Boileau. His command of language was immense. With him died the secret +of the old poetical diction of England,--the art of producing rich +effects by familiar words. In the following century it was as completely +lost as the Gothic method of painting glass, and was but poorly supplied +by the laborious and tesselated imitations of Mason and Gray. On the +other hand, he was the first writer under whose skilful management the +scientific vocabulary fell into natural and pleasing verse. In this +department, he succeeded as completely as his contemporary Gibbons +succeeded in the similar enterprise of carving the most delicate flowers +from heart of oak. The toughest and most knotty parts of language became +ductile at his touch. His versification, in the same manner, while it +gave the first model of that neatness and precision which the following +generation esteemed so highly, exhibited at the same time, the last +examples of nobleness, freedom, variety of pause, and cadence. His +tragedies in rhyme, however worthless in themselves, had at least served +the purpose of nonsense-verses; they had taught him all the arts of +melody which the heroic couplet admits. For bombast, his prevailing +vice, his new subjects gave little opportunity; his better taste +gradually discarded it. + +He possessed, as we have said, in a pre-eminent degree the power of +reasoning in verse; and this power was now peculiarly useful to him. His +logic is by no means uniformly sound. On points of criticism, he always +reasons ingeniously; and when he is disposed to be honest, correctly. +But the theological and political questions which he undertook to treat +in verse were precisely those which he understood least. His arguments, +therefore, are often worthless. But the manner in which they are stated +is beyond all praise. The style is transparent. The topics follow each +other in the happiest order. The objections are drawn up in such a +manner that the whole fire of the reply may be brought to bear on them. +The circumlocutions which are substituted for technical phrases are +clear, neat, and exact. The illustrations at once adorn and elucidate +the reasoning. The sparkling epigrams of Cowley, and the simple +garrulity of the burlesque poets of Italy, are alternately employed, in +the happiest manner, to give effect to what is obvious or clearness to +what is obscure. + +His literary creed was catholic, even to latitudinarianism; not from any +want of acuteness, but from a disposition to be easily satisfied. He was +quick to discern the smallest glimpse of merit; he was indulgent even to +gross improprieties, when accompanied by any redeeming talent. When he +said a severe thing, it was to serve a temporary purpose,--to support an +argument, or to tease a rival. Never was so able a critic so free +from fastidiousness. He loved the old poets, especially Shakspeare. He +admired the ingenuity which Donne and Cowley had so wildly abused. He +did justice, amidst the general silence, to the memory of Milton. He +praised to the skies the school-boy lines of Addison. Always looking on +the fair side of every object, he admired extravagance on account of the +invention which he supposed it to indicate; he excused affectation +in favour of wit; he tolerated even tameness for the sake of the +correctness which was its concomitant. + +It was probably to this turn of mind, rather than to the more +disgraceful causes which Johnson has assigned, that we are to attribute +the exaggeration which disfigures the panegyrics of Dryden. No writer, +it must be owned, has carried the flattery of dedication to a greater +length. But this was not, we suspect, merely interested servility: it +was the overflowing of a mind singularly disposed to admiration,--of a +mind which diminished vices, and magnified virtues and obligations. The +most adulatory of his addresses is that in which he dedicates the State +of Innocence to Mary of Modena. Johnson thinks it strange that any +man should use such language without self-detestation. But he has not +remarked that to the very same work is prefixed an eulogium on Milton, +which certainly could not have been acceptable at the Court of Charles +the Second. Many years later, when Whig principles were in a great +measure triumphant, Sprat refused to admit a monument of John Phillips +into Westminster Abbey--because, in the epitaph, the name of Milton +incidentally occurred. The walls of his church, he declared, should not +be polluted by the name of a republican! Dryden was attached, both +by principle and interest, to the Court. But nothing could deaden his +sensibility to excellence. We are unwilling to accuse him severely, +because the same disposition, which prompted him to pay so generous a +tribute to the memory of a poet whom his patrons detested, hurried him +into extravagance when he described a princess distinguished by the +splendour of her beauty and the graciousness of her manners. + +This is an amiable temper; but it is not the temper of great men. Where +there is elevation of character, there will be fastidiousness. It +is only in novels and on tombstones that we meet with people who are +indulgent to the faults of others, and unmerciful to their own; and +Dryden, at all events, was not one of these paragons. His charity was +extended most liberally to others; but it certainly began at home. In +taste he was by no means deficient. His critical works are, beyond all +comparison, superior to any which had, till then, appeared in England. +They were generally intended as apologies for his own poems, rather than +as expositions of general principles; he, therefore, often attempts +to deceive the reader by sophistry which could scarcely have +deceived himself. His dicta are the dicta, not of a judge, but of an +advocate:--often of an advocate in an unsound cause. Yet, in the very +act of misrepresenting the laws of composition, he shows how well he +understands them. But he was perpetually acting against his better +knowledge. His sins were sins against light. He trusted that what was +bad would be pardoned for the sake of what was good. What was good, he +took no pains to make better. He was not, like most persons who rise to +eminence, dissatisfied even with his best productions. He had set up no +unattainable standard of perfection, the contemplation of which might +at once improve and mortify him. His path was not attended by an +unapproachable mirage of excellence, for ever receding, and for ever +pursued. He was not disgusted by the negligence of others; and he +extended the same toleration to himself. His mind was of a slovenly +character,--fond of splendour, but indifferent to neatness. Hence most +of his writings exhibit the sluttish magnificence of a Russian noble, +all vermin and diamonds, dirty linen and inestimable sables. Those +faults which spring from affectation, time and thought in a great +measure removed from his poems. But his carelessness he retained to the +last. If towards the close of his life he less frequently went wrong +from negligence, it was only because long habits of composition +rendered it more easy to go right. In his best pieces we find false +rhymes,--triplets, in which the third line appears to be a mere +intruder, and, while it breaks the music, adds nothing to the +meaning,--gigantic Alexandrines of fourteen and sixteen syllables, +and truncated verses for which he never troubled himself to find a +termination or a partner. + +Such are the beauties and the faults which may be found in profusion +throughout the later works of Dryden. A more just and complete estimate +of his natural and acquired powers,--of the merits of his style and of +its blemishes,--may be formed from the Hind and Panther, than from any +of his other writings. As a didactic poem, it is far superior to the +Religio Laici. The satirical parts, particularly the character of +Burnet, are scarcely inferior to the best passages in Absalom and +Achitophel. There are, moreover, occasional touches of a tenderness +which affects us more, because it is decent, rational, and manly, and +reminds us of the best scenes in his tragedies. His versification sinks +and swells in happy unison with the subject; and his wealth of +language seems to be unlimited. Yet, the carelessness with which he has +constructed his plot, and the innumerable inconsistencies into which +he is every moment falling, detract much from the pleasure which such +various excellence affords. + +In Absalom and Achitophel he hit upon a new and rich vein, which he +worked with signal success. They ancient satirists were the subjects +of a despotic government. They were compelled to abstain from political +topics, and to confine their attention to the frailties of private life. +They might, indeed, sometimes venture to take liberties with public men, + + "Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis atque Latina." + +Thus Juvenal immortalised the obsequious senators who met to decide the +fate of the memorable turbot. His fourth satire frequently reminds us of +the great political poem of Dryden; but it was not written till Domitian +had fallen: and it wants something of the peculiar flavour which belongs +to contemporary invective alone. His anger has stood so long that, +though the body is not impaired, the effervescence, the first cream, +is gone. Boileau lay under similar restraints; and, if he had been free +from all restraints, would have been no match for our countryman. + +The advantages which Dryden derived from the nature of his subject he +improved to the very utmost. His manner is almost perfect. The style +of Horace and Boileau is fit only for light subjects. The Frenchman +did indeed attempt to turn the theological reasonings of the Provincial +Letters into verse, but with very indifferent success. The glitter of +Pope is gold. The ardour of Persius is without brilliancy. Magnificent +versification and ingenious combinations rarely harmonise with the +expression of deep feeling. In Juvenal and Dryden alone we have the +sparkle and the heat together. Those great satirists succeeded in +communicating the fervour of their feelings to materials the most +incombustible, and kindled the whole mass into a blaze, at once dazzling +and destructive. We cannot, indeed, think, without regret, of the part +which so eminent a writer as Dryden took in the disputes of that period. +There was, no doubt, madness and wickedness on both sides. But there was +liberty on the one, and despotism on the other. On this point, however, +we will not dwell. At Talavera the English and French troops for a +moment suspended their conflict, to drink of a stream which flowed +between them. The shells were passed across from enemy to enemy without +apprehension or molestation. We, in the same manner, would rather +assist our political adversaries to drink with us of that fountain of +intellectual pleasure, which should be the common refreshment of both +parties, than disturb and pollute it with the havoc of unseasonable +hostilities. + +Macflecnoe is inferior to Absalom and Achitophel only in the subject. In +the execution it is even superior. But the greatest work of Dryden was +the last, the Ode on Saint Cecilia's Day. It is the masterpiece of the +second class of poetry, and ranks but just below the great models of the +first. It reminds us of the Pedasus of Achilles-- + + os, kai thnetos eon, epeth ippois athanatoisi. + +By comparing it with the impotent ravings of the heroic tragedies we may +measure the progress which the mind of Dryden had made. He had learned +to avoid a too audacious competition with higher natures, to keep at +a distance from the verge of bombast or nonsense, to venture on no +expression which did not convey a distinct idea to his own mind. There +is none of that "darkness visible" of style which he had formerly +affected, and in which the greatest poets only can succeed. Everything +is definite, significant, and picturesque. His early writings resembled +the gigantic works of those Chinese gardeners who attempt to rival +nature herself, to form cataracts of terrific height and sound, to +raise precipitous ridges of mountains, and to imitate in artificial +plantations the vastness and the gloom of some primeval forest. This +manner he abandoned; nor did he ever adopt the Dutch taste which Pope +affected, the trim parterres, and the rectangular walks. He rather +resembled our Kents and Browns, who imitating the great features of +landscape without emulating them, consulting the genius of the place, +assisting nature and carefully disguising their art, produced, not a +Chamouni or a Niagara, but a Stowe or a Hagley. + +We are, on the whole, inclined to regret that Dryden did not accomplish +his purpose of writing an epic poem. It certainly would not have been +a work of the highest rank. It would not have rivalled the Iliad, the +Odyssey, or the Paradise Lost; but it would have been superior to the +productions of Apollonius, Lucan, or Statius, and not inferior to the +Jerusalem Delivered. It would probably have been a vigorous narrative, +animated with something of the spirit of the old romances, enriched with +much splendid description, and interspersed with fine declamations and +disquisitions. The danger of Dryden would have been from aiming too +high; from dwelling too much, for example, on his angels of kingdoms, +and attempting a competition with that great writer who in his own +time had so incomparably succeeded in representing to us the sights and +sounds of another world. To Milton, and to Milton alone, belonged the +secrets of the great deep, the beach of sulphur, the ocean of fire, the +palaces of the fallen dominations, glimmering through the everlasting +shade, the silent wilderness of verdure and fragrance where armed angels +kept watch over the sleep of the first lovers, the portico of diamond, +the sea of jasper, the sapphire pavement empurpled with celestial roses, +and the infinite ranks of the Cherubim, blazing with adamant and gold. +The council, the tournament, the procession, the crowded cathedral, the +camp, the guard-room, the chase, were the proper scenes for Dryden. + +But we have not space to pass in review all the works which Dryden +wrote. We, therefore, will not speculate longer on those which he might +possibly have written. He may, on the whole, be pronounced to have been +a man possessed of splendid talents, which he often abused, and of a +sound judgment, the admonitions of which he often neglected; a man who +succeeded only in an inferior department of his art, but who, in that +department, succeeded pre-eminently; and who with a more independent +spirit, a more anxious desire of excellence, and more respect for +himself, would, in his own walk, have attained to absolute perfection. + + + + +HISTORY. (May 1828.) + + "The Romance of History. England." By Henry Neele. + London, 1828. + +To write history respectably--that is, to abbreviate despatches, and +make extracts from speeches, to intersperse in due proportion epithets +of praise and abhorrence, to draw up antithetical characters of great +men, setting forth how many contradictory virtues and vices they united, +and abounding in "withs" and "withouts"--all this is very easy. But +to be a really great historian is perhaps the rarest of intellectual +distinctions. Many scientific works are, in their kind, absolutely +perfect. There are poems which we should be inclined to designate as +faultless, or as disfigured only by blemishes which pass unnoticed in +the general blaze of excellence. There are speeches, some speeches of +Demosthenes particularly, in which it would be impossible to alter a +word without altering it for the worse. But we are acquainted with +no history which approaches to our notion of what a history ought to +be--with no history which does not widely depart, either on the right +hand or on the left, from the exact line. + +The cause may easily be assigned. This province of literature is a +debatable land. It lies on the confines of two distinct territories. +It is under the jurisdiction of two hostile powers; and, like other +districts similarly situated, it is ill defined, ill cultivated, and ill +regulated. Instead of being equally shared between its two rulers, the +Reason and the Imagination, it falls alternately under the sole and +absolute dominion of each. It is sometimes fiction. It is sometimes +theory. + +History, it has been said, is philosophy teaching by examples. +Unhappily, what the philosophy gains in soundness and depth the examples +generally lose in vividness. A perfect historian must possess an +imagination sufficiently powerful to make his narrative affecting and +picturesque. Yet he must control it so absolutely as to content himself +with the materials which he finds, and to refrain from supplying +deficiencies by additions of his own. He must be a profound and +ingenious reasoner. Yet he must possess sufficient self-command to +abstain from casting his facts in the mould of his hypothesis. Those who +can justly estimate these almost insuperable difficulties will not think +it strange that every writer should have failed, either in the narrative +or in the speculative department of history. + +It may be laid down as a general rule, though subject to considerable +qualifications and exceptions, that history begins in novel and ends +in essay. Of the romantic historians Herodotus is the earliest and the +best. His animation, his simple-hearted tenderness, his wonderful talent +for description and dialogue, and the pure sweet flow of his language, +place him at the head of narrators. He reminds us of a delightful child. +There is a grace beyond the reach of affectation in his awkwardness, a +malice in his innocence, an intelligence in his nonsense, an insinuating +eloquence in his lisp. We know of no writer who makes such interest +for himself and his book in the heart of the reader. At the distance +of three-and-twenty centuries, we feel for him the same sort of pitying +fondness which Fontaine and Gay are said to have inspired in society. +He has written an incomparable book. He has written something better +perhaps than the best history; but he has not written a good history; +he is, from the first to the last chapter, an inventor. We do not here +refer merely to those gross fictions with which he has been reproached +by the critics of later times. We speak of that colouring which is +equally diffused over his whole narrative, and which perpetually leaves +the most sagacious reader in doubt what to reject and what to receive. +The most authentic parts of his work bear the same relation to his +wildest legends which Henry the Fifth bears to the Tempest. There was +an expedition undertaken by Xerxes against Greece; and there was an +invasion of France. There was a battle at Plataea; and there was +a battle at Agincourt. Cambridge and Exeter, the Constable and the +Dauphin, were persons as real as Demaratus and Pausanias. The harangue +of the Archbishop on the Salic Law and the Book of Numbers differs much +less from the orations which have in all ages proceeded from the right +reverend bench than the speeches of Mardonius and Artabanus from those +which were delivered at the council-board of Susa. Shakspeare gives us +enumerations of armies, and returns of killed and wounded, which are +not, we suspect, much less accurate than those of Herodotus. There are +passages in Herodotus nearly as long as acts of Shakspeare, in which +everything is told dramatically, and in which the narrative serves only +the purpose of stage-directions. It is possible, no doubt, that the +substance of some real conversations may have been reported to the +historian. But events which, if they ever happened, happened in ages and +nations so remote that the particulars could never have been known to +him, are related with the greatest minuteness of detail. We have all +that Candaules said to Gyges, and all that passed between Astyages and +Harpagus. We are, therefore, unable to judge whether, in the account +which he gives of transactions respecting which he might possibly have +been well informed, we can trust to anything beyond the naked outline; +whether, for example, the answer of Gelon to the ambassadors of the +Grecian confederacy, or the expressions which passed between Aristides +and Themistocles at their famous interview, have been correctly +transmitted to us. The great events are, no doubt, faithfully related. +So, probably, are many of the slighter circumstances; but which of them +it is impossible to ascertain. The fictions are so much like the facts, +and the facts so much like the fictions, that, with respect to many most +interesting particulars, our belief is neither given nor withheld, but +remains in an uneasy and interminable state of abeyance. We know that +there is truth; but we cannot exactly decide where it lies. + +The faults of Herodotus are the faults of a simple and imaginative +mind. Children and servants are remarkably Herodotean in their style of +narration. They tell everything dramatically. Their "says hes" and "says +shes" are proverbial. Every person who has had to settle their disputes +knows that, even when they have no intention to deceive, their reports +of conversation always require to be carefully sifted. If an educated +man were giving an account of the late change of administration, he +would say--"Lord Goderich resigned; and the King, in consequence, sent +for the Duke of Wellington." A porter tells the story as if he had been +hid behind the curtains of the royal bed at Windsor: "So Lord Goderich +says, 'I cannot manage this business; I must go out.' So the +King says,--says he, 'Well, then, I must send for the Duke of +Wellington--that's all.'" This is in the very manner of the father of +history. + +Herodotus wrote as it was natural that he should write. He wrote for a +nation susceptible, curious, lively, insatiably desirous of novelty +and excitement; for a nation in which the fine arts had attained their +highest excellence, but in which philosophy was still in its infancy. +His countrymen had but recently begun to cultivate prose composition. +Public transactions had generally been recorded in verse. The first +historians might, therefore, indulge without fear of censure in the +license allowed to their predecessors the bards. Books were few. The +events of former times were learned from tradition and from popular +ballads; the manners of foreign countries from the reports of +travellers. It is well known that the mystery which overhangs what is +distant, either in space or time, frequently prevents us from censuring +as unnatural what we perceive to be impossible. We stare at a dragoon +who has killed three French cuirassiers, as a prodigy; yet we read, +without the least disgust, how Godfrey slew his thousands, and Rinaldo +his ten thousands. Within the last hundred years, stories about China +and Bantam, which ought not to have imposed on an old nurse, were +gravely laid down as foundations of political theories by eminent +philosophers. What the time of the Crusades is to us, the generation of +Croesus and Solon was to the Greeks of the time of Herodotus. Babylon +was to them what Pekin was to the French academicians of the last +century. + +For such a people was the book of Herodotus composed; and, if we may +trust to a report, not sanctioned indeed by writers of high authority, +but in itself not improbable, it was composed, not to be read, but to +be heard. It was not to the slow circulation of a few copies, which the +rich only could possess, that the aspiring author looked for his reward. +The great Olympian festival,--the solemnity which collected multitudes, +proud of the Grecian name, from the wildest mountains of Doris, and the +remotest colonies of Italy and Libya,--was to witness his triumph. The +interest of the narrative, and the beauty of the style, were aided +by the imposing effect of recitation,--by the splendour of the +spectacle,--by the powerful influence of sympathy. A critic who could +have asked for authorities in the midst of such a scene must have been +of a cold and sceptical nature; and few such critics were there. As was +the historian, such were the auditors,--inquisitive, credulous, easily +moved by religious awe or patriotic enthusiasm. They were the very +men to hear with delight of strange beasts, and birds, and trees,--of +dwarfs, and giants, and cannibals--of gods, whose very names it was +impiety to utter,--of ancient dynasties, which had left behind them +monuments surpassing all the works of later times,--of towns like +provinces,--of rivers like seas,--of stupendous walls, and temples, and +pyramids,--of the rites which the Magi performed at daybreak on the tops +of the mountains,--of the secrets inscribed on the eternal obelisks of +Memphis. With equal delight they would have listened to the +graceful romances of their own country. They now heard of the exact +accomplishment of obscure predictions, of the punishment of crimes over +which the justice of heaven had seemed to slumber,--of dreams, omens, +warnings from the dead,--of princesses, for whom noble suitors contended +in every generous exercise of strength and skill,--of infants, strangely +preserved from the dagger of the assassin, to fulfil high destinies. + +As the narrative approached their own times, the interest became still +more absorbing. The chronicler had now to tell the story of that +great conflict from which Europe dates its intellectual and political +supremacy,--a story which, even at this distance of time, is the most +marvellous and the most touching in the annals of the human race,--a +story abounding with all that is wild and wonderful, with all that is +pathetic and animating; with the gigantic caprices of infinite wealth +and despotic power--with the mightier miracles of wisdom, of virtue, +and of courage. He told them of rivers dried up in a day,--of +provinces famished for a meal,--of a passage for ships hewn through the +mountains,--of a road for armies spread upon the waves,--of monarchies +and commonwealths swept away,--of anxiety, of terror, of confusion, of +despair!--and then of proud and stubborn hearts tried in that extremity +of evil, and not found wanting,--of resistance long maintained against +desperate odds,--of lives dearly sold, when resistance could be +maintained no more,--of signal deliverance, and of unsparing revenge. +Whatever gave a stronger air of reality to a narrative so well +calculated to inflame the passions, and to flatter national pride, was +certain to be favourably received. + +Between the time at which Herodotus is said to have composed his +history, and the close of the Peloponnesian war, about forty years +elapsed,--forty years, crowded with great military and political events. +The circumstances of that period produced a great effect on the +Grecian character; and nowhere was this effect so remarkable as in the +illustrious democracy of Athens. An Athenian, indeed, even in the +time of Herodotus, would scarcely have written a book so romantic and +garrulous as that of Herodotus. As civilisation advanced, the citizens +of that famous republic became still less visionary, and still less +simple-hearted. They aspired to know where their ancestors had been +content to doubt; they began to doubt where their ancestors had thought +it their duty to believe. Aristophanes is fond of alluding to this +change in the temper of his countrymen. The father and son, in the +Clouds, are evidently representatives of the generations to which they +respectively belonged. Nothing more clearly illustrates the nature of +this moral revolution than the change which passed upon tragedy. The +wild sublimity of Aeschylus became the scoff of every young Phidippides. +Lectures on abstruse points of philosophy, the fine distinctions of +casuistry, and the dazzling fence of rhetoric, were substituted for +poetry. The language lost something of that infantine sweetness which +had characterised it. It became less like the ancient Tuscan, and more +like the modern French. + +The fashionable logic of the Greeks was, indeed, far from strict. Logic +never can be strict where books are scarce, and where information is +conveyed orally. We are all aware how frequently fallacies, which, when +set down on paper, are at once detected, pass for unanswerable arguments +when dexterously and volubly urged in Parliament, at the bar, or in +private conversation. The reason is evident. We cannot inspect them +closely enough to perceive their inaccuracy. We cannot readily compare +them with each other. We lose sight of one part of the subject before +another, which ought to be received in connection with it, comes before +us; and as there is no immutable record of what has been admitted and +of what has been denied, direct contradictions pass muster with little +difficulty. Almost all the education of a Greek consisted in talking and +listening. His opinions on government were picked up in the debates of +the assembly. If he wished to study metaphysics, instead of shutting +himself up with a book, he walked down to the market-place to look for +a sophist. So completely were men formed to these habits, that even +writing acquired a conversational air. The philosophers adopted the form +of dialogue, as the most natural mode of communicating knowledge. Their +reasonings have the merits and the defects which belong to that species +of composition, and are characterised rather by quickness and subtilty +than by depth and precision. Truth is exhibited in parts, and by +glimpses. Innumerable clever hints are given; but no sound and durable +system is erected. The argumentum ad hominem, a kind of argument most +efficacious in debate, but utterly useless for the investigation of +general principles, is among their favourite resources. Hence, though +nothing can be more admirable than the skill which Socrates displays in +the conversations which Plato has reported or invented, his victories, +for the most part, seem to us unprofitable. A trophy is set up; but no +new province is added to the dominions of the human mind. + +Still, where thousands of keen and ready intellects were constantly +employed in speculating on the qualiies of actions and on the principles +of government, it was impossible that history should retain its whole +character. It became less gossiping and less picturesque; but much more +accurate, and somewhat more scientific. + +The history of Thucydides differs from that of Herodotus as a portrait +differs from the representation of an imaginary scene; as the Burke or +Fox of Reynolds differs from his Ugolino or his Beaufort. In the former +case, the archetype is given: in the latter it is created. The faculties +which are required for the latter purpose are of a higher and rarer +order than those which suffice for the former, and indeed necessarily +comprise them. He who is able to paint what he sees with the eye of the +mind will surely be able to paint what he sees with the eye of the body. +He who can invent a story, and tell it well, will also be able to tell, +in an interesting manner, a story which he has not invented. If, in +practice, some of the best writers of fiction have been among the worst +writers of history, it has been because one of their talents had merged +in another so completely that it could not be severed; because, having +long been habituated to invent and narrate at the same time, they found +it impossible to narrate without inventing. + +Some capricious and discontented artists have affected to consider +portrait-painting as unworthy of a man of genius. Some critics have +spoken in the same contemptuous manner of history. Johnson puts the case +thus: The historian tells either what is false or what is true: in the +former case he is no historian: in the latter he has no opportunity for +displaying his abilities: for truth is one: and all who tell the truth +must tell it alike. + +It is not difficult to elude both the horns of this dilemma. We will +recur to the analogous art of portrait-painting. Any man with eyes and +hands may be taught to take a likeness. The process, up to a certain +point, is merely mechanical. If this were all, a man of talents might +justly despise the occupation. But we could mention portraits which are +resemblances,--but not mere resemblances; faithful,--but much more than +faithful; portraits which condense into one point of time, and exhibit, +at a single glance, the whole history of turbid and eventful lives--in +which the eye seems to scrutinise us, and the mouth to command us--in +which the brow menaces, and the lip almost quivers with scorn--in which +every wrinkle is a comment on some important transaction. The account +which Thucydides has given of the retreat from Syracuse is, among +narratives, what Vandyke's Lord Strafford is among paintings. + +Diversity, it is said, implies error: truth is one, and admits of no +degrees. We answer, that this principle holds good only in abstract +reasonings. When we talk of the truth of imitation in the fine arts, we +mean an imperfect and a graduated truth. No picture is exactly like +the original; nor is a picture good in proportion as it is like the +original. When Sir Thomas Lawrence paints a handsome peeress, he does +not contemplate her through a powerful microscope, and transfer to the +canvas the pores of the skin, the blood-vessels of the eye, and all the +other beauties which Gulliver discovered in the Brobdingnagian maids +of honour. If he were to do this, the effect would not merely be +unpleasant, but, unless the scale of the picture were proportionably +enlarged, would be absolutely FALSE. And, after all, a microscope of +greater power than that which he had employed would convict him of +innumerable omissions. The same may be said of history. Perfectly and +absolutely true it cannot be: for, to be perfectly and absolutely +true, it ought to record ALL the slightest particulars of the slightest +transactions--all the things done and all the words uttered during +the time of which it treats. The omission of any circumstance, however +insignificant, would be a defect. If history were written thus, the +Bodleian Library would not contain the occurrences of a week. What is +told in the fullest and most accurate annals bears an infinitely small +proportion to what is suppressed. The difference between the copious +work of Clarendon and the account of the civil wars in the abridgment +of Goldsmith vanishes when compared with the immense mass of facts +respecting which both are equally silent. + +No picture, then, and no history, can present us with the whole truth: +but those are the best pictures and the best histories which exhibit +such parts of the truth as most nearly produce the effect of the whole. +He who is deficient in the art of selection may, by showing nothing +but the truth, produce all the effect of the grossest falsehood. It +perpetually happens that one writer tells less truth than another, +merely because he tells more truths. In the imitative arts we constantly +see this. There are lines in the human face, and objects in landscape, +which stand in such relations to each other, that they ought either to +be all introduced into a painting together or all omitted together. A +sketch into which none of them enters may be excellent; but, if some +are given and others left out, though there are more points of likeness, +there is less likeness. An outline scrawled with a pen, which seizes the +marked features of a countenance, will give a much stronger idea of it +than a bad painting in oils. Yet the worst painting in oils that ever +hung at Somerset House resembles the original in many more particulars. +A bust of white marble may give an excellent idea of a blooming face. +Colour the lips and cheeks of the bust, leaving the hair and eyes +unaltered, and the similarity, instead of being more striking, will be +less so. + +History has its foreground and its background: and it is principally in +the management of its perspective that one artist differs from another. +Some events must be represented on a large scale, others diminished; the +great majority will be lost in the dimness of the horizon; and a general +idea of their joint effect will be given by a few slight touches. + +In this respect no writer has ever equalled Thucydides. He was a perfect +master of the art of gradual diminution. His history is sometimes as +concise as a chronological chart; yet it is always perspicuous. It +is sometimes as minute as one of Lovelace's letters; yet it is never +prolix. He never fails to contract and to expand it in the right place. + +Thucydides borrowed from Herodotus the practice of putting speeches of +his own into the mouths of his characters. In Herodotus this usage is +scarcely censurable. It is of a piece with his whole manner. But it is +altogether incongruous in the work of his successor, and violates, not +only the accuracy of history, but the decencies of fiction. When once +we enter into the spirit of Herodotus, we find no inconsistency. The +conventional probability of his drama is preserved from the beginning +to the end. The deliberate orations, and the familiar dialogues, are +in strict keeping with each other. But the speeches of Thucydides are +neither preceded nor followed by anything with which they harmonise. +They give to the whole book something of the grotesque character of +those Chinese pleasure-grounds in which perpendicular rocks of granite +start up in the midst of a soft green plain. Invention is shocking where +truth is in such close juxtaposition with it. + +Thucydides honestly tells us that some of these discourses are purely +fictitious. He may have reported the substance of others correctly, but +it is clear from the internal evidence that he has preserved no more +than the substance. His own peculiar habits of thought and expression +are everywhere discernible. Individual and national peculiarities are +seldom to be traced in the sentiments, and never in the diction. The +oratory of the Corinthians and Thebans is not less Attic, either in +matter or in manner, than that of the Athenians. The style of Cleon is +as pure, as austere, as terse, and as significant, as that of Pericles. + +In spite of this great fault, it must be allowed that Thucydides has +surpassed all his rivals in the art of historical narration, in the +art of producing an effect on the imagination, by skilful selection +and disposition, without indulging in the license of invention. But +narration, though an important part of the business of a historian, is +not the whole. To append a moral to a work of fiction is either useless +or superfluous. A fiction may give a more impressive effect to what +is already known; but it can teach nothing new. If it presents to us +characters and trains of events to which our experience furnishes +us with nothing similar, instead of deriving instruction from it, we +pronounce it unnatural. We do not form our opinions from it; but we +try it by our preconceived opinions. Fiction, therefore, is essentially +imitative. Its merit consists in its resemblance to a model with which +we are already familiar, or to which at least we can instantly refer. +Hence it is that the anecdotes which interest us most strongly in +authentic narrative are offensive when introduced into novels; that what +is called the romantic part of history is in fact the least romantic. It +is delightful as history, because it contradicts our previous notions +of human nature, and of the connection of causes and effects. It is, on +that very account, shocking and incongruous in fiction. In fiction, +the principles are given, to find the facts: in history, the facts are +given, to find the principles; and the writer who does not explain the +phenomena as well as state them, performs only one half of his office. +Facts are the mere dross of history. It is from the abstract truth which +interpenetrates them, and lies latent among them like gold in the ore, +that the mass derives its whole value: and the precious particles are +generally combined with the baser in such a manner that the separation +is a task of the utmost difficulty. + +Here Thucydides is deficient: the deficiency, indeed, is not +discreditable to him. It was the inevitable effect of circumstances. It +was in the nature of things necessary that, in some part of its progress +through political science, the human mind should reach that point which +it attained in his time. Knowledge advances by steps, and not by leaps. +The axioms of an English debating club would have been startling and +mysterious paradoxes to the most enlightened statesmen of Athens. But +it would be as absurd to speak contemptuously of the Athenian on this +account as to ridicule Strabo for not having given us an account of +Chili, or to talk of Ptolemy as we talk of Sir Richard Phillips. Still, +when we wish for solid geographical information, we must prefer the +solemn coxcombry of Pinkerton to the noble work of Strabo. If we wanted +instruction respecting the solar system, we should consult the silliest +girl from a boarding-school, rather than Ptolemy. + +Thucydides was undoubtedly a sagacious and reflecting man. This clearly +appears from the ability with which he discusses practical questions. +But the talent of deciding on the circumstances of a particular case is +often possessed in the highest perfection by persons destitute of +the power of generalisation. Men skilled in the military tactics +of civilised nations have been amazed at the far-sightedness and +penetration which a Mohawk displays in concerting his stratagems, or in +discerning those of his enemies. In England, no class possesses so much +of that peculiar ability which is required for constructing ingenious +schemes, and for obviating remote difficulties, as the thieves and the +thief-takers. Women have more of this dexterity than men. Lawyers have +more of it than statesmen: statesmen have more of it than philosophers. +Monk had more of it than Harrington and all his club. Walpole had more +of it than Adam Smith or Beccaria. Indeed, the species of discipline +by which this dexterity is acquired tends to contract the mind, and to +render it incapable of abstract reasoning. + +The Grecian statesmen of the age of Thucydides were distinguished by +their practical sagacity, their insight into motives, their skill in +devising means for the attainment of their ends. A state of society in +which the rich were constantly planning the oppression of the poor, +and the poor the spoliation of the rich, in which the ties of party +had superseded those of country, in which revolutions and +counter-revolutions were events of daily occurrence, was naturally +prolific in desperate and crafty political adventurers. This was the +very school in which men were likely to acquire the dissimulation of +Mazarin, the judicious temerity of Richelieu, the penetration, the +exquisite tact, the almost instinctive presentiment of approaching +events which gave so much authority to the counsel of Shaftesbury, that +"it was as if a man had inquired of the oracle of God." In this school +Thucydides studied; and his wisdom is that which such a school would +naturally afford. He judges better of circumstances than of principles. +The more a question is narrowed, the better he reasons upon it. His +work suggests many most important considerations respecting the first +principles of government and morals, the growth of factions, the +organisation of armies, and the mutual relations of communities. Yet +all his general observations on these subjects are very superficial. His +most judicious remarks differ from the remarks of a really philosophical +historian, as a sum correctly cast up by a bookkeeper from a general +expression discovered by an algebraist. The former is useful only in a +single transaction; the latter may be applied to an infinite number of +cases. + +This opinion will, we fear, be considered as heterodox. For, not to +speak of the illusion which the sight of a Greek type, or the sound of +a Greek diphthong, often produces, there are some peculiarities in the +manner of Thucydides which in no small degree have tended to secure to +him the reputation of profundity. His book is evidently the book of a +man and a statesman; and in this respect presents a remarkable contrast +to the delightful childishness of Herodotus. Throughout it there is +an air of matured power, of grave and melancholy reflection, of +impartiality and habitual self-command. His feelings are rarely +indulged, and speedily repressed. Vulgar prejudices of every kind, +and particularly vulgar superstitions, he treats with a cold and +sober disdain peculiar to himself. His style is weighty, condensed, +antithetical, and not unfrequently obscure. But, when we look at his +political philosophy, without regard to these circumstances, we find +him to have been, what indeed it would have been a miracle if he had not +been, simply an Athenian of the fifth century before Christ. + +Xenophon is commonly placed, but we think without much reason, in the +same rank with Herodotus and Thucydides. He resembles them, indeed, +in the purity and sweetness of his style; but in spirit, he rather +resembles that later school of historians whose works seem to be fables +composed for a moral, and who, in their eagerness to give us warnings +and examples, forget to give us men and women. The Life of Cyrus, +whether we look upon it as a history or as a romance, seems to us a +very wretched performance. The Expedition of the Ten Thousand, and the +History of Grecian Affairs, are certainly pleasant reading; but they +indicate no great power of mind. In truth, Xenophon, though his taste +was elegant, his disposition amiable, and his intercourse with the world +extensive, had, we suspect, rather a weak head. Such was evidently the +opinion of that extraordinary man to whom he early attached himself, +and for whose memory he entertained an idolatrous veneration. He came in +only for the milk with which Socrates nourished his babes in philosophy. +A few saws of morality, and a few of the simplest doctrines of natural +religion, were enough for the good young man. The strong meat, the bold +speculations on physical and metaphysical science, were reserved for +auditors of a different description. Even the lawless habits of a +captain of mercenary troops could not change the tendency which the +character of Xenophon early acquired. To the last, he seems to have +retained a sort of heathen Puritanism. The sentiments of piety and +virtue which abound in his works are those of a well-meaning man, +somewhat timid and narrow-minded, devout from constitution rather than +from rational conviction. He was as superstitious as Herodotus, but in +a way far more offensive. The very peculiarities which charm us in +an infant, the toothless mumbling, the stammering, the tottering, the +helplessness, the causeless tears and laughter, are disgusting in +old age. In the same manner, the absurdity which precedes a period +of general intelligence is often pleasing; that which follows it is +contemptible. The nonsense of Herodotus is that of a baby. The nonsense +of Xenophon is that of a dotard. His stories about dreams, omens, and +prophecies, present a strange contrast to the passages in which the +shrewd and incredulous Thucydides mentions the popular superstitions. +It is not quite clear that Xenophon was honest in his credulity; his +fanaticism was in some degree politic. He would have made an excellent +member of the Apostolic Camarilla. An alarmist by nature, an aristocrat +by party, he carried to an unreasonable excess his horror of popular +turbulence. The quiet atrocity of Sparta did not shock him in the same +manner; for he hated tumult more than crimes. He was desirous to find +restraints which might curb the passions of the multitude; and he +absurdly fancied that he had found them in a religion without +evidences or sanction, precepts or example, in a frigid system of +Theophilanthropy, supported by nursery tales. + +Polybius and Arrian have given us authentic accounts of facts; and here +their merit ends. They were not men of comprehensive minds; they had +not the art of telling a story in an interesting manner. They have +in consequence been thrown into the shade by writers who, though less +studious of truth than themselves, understood far better the art of +producing effect,--by Livy and Quintus Curtius. + +Yet Polybius and Arrian deserve high praise when compared with the +writers of that school of which Plutarch may be considered as the head. +For the historians of this class we must confess that we entertain a +peculiar aversion. They seem to have been pedants, who, though destitute +of those valuable qualities which are frequently found in conjunction +with pedantry, thought themselves great philosophers and great +politicians. They not only mislead their readers in every page, as to +particular facts, but they appear to have altogether misconceived the +whole character of the times of which they write. They were inhabitants +of an empire bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Euphrates, by the +ice of Scythia and the sands of Mauritania; composed of nations whose +manners, whose languages, whose religion, whose countenances and +complexions, were widely different; governed by one mighty despotism, +which had risen on the ruins of a thousand commonwealths and kingdoms. +Of liberty, such as it is in small democracies, of patriotism, such as +it is in small independent communities of any kind, they had, and they +could have, no experimental knowledge. But they had read of men who +exerted themselves in the cause of their country with an energy unknown +in later times, who had violated the dearest of domestic charities, or +voluntarily devoted themselves to death for the public good; and they +wondered at the degeneracy of their contemporaries. It never occurred to +them that the feelings which they so greatly admired sprung from local +and occasional causes; that they will always grow up spontaneously in +small societies; and that, in large empires, though they may be forced +into existence for a short time by peculiar circumstances, they cannot +be general or permanent. It is impossible that any man should feel for +a fortress on a remote frontier as he feels for his own house; that he +should grieve for a defeat in which ten thousand people whom he never +saw have fallen as he grieves for a defeat which has half unpeopled the +street in which he lives; that he should leave his home for a military +expedition in order to preserve the balance of power, as cheerfully as +he would leave it to repel invaders who had begun to burn all the corn +fields in his neighbourhood. + +The writers of whom we speak should have considered this. They should +have considered that in patriotism, such as it existed amongst the +Greeks, there was nothing essentially and eternally good; that an +exclusive attachment to a particular society, though a natural, +and, under certain restrictions, a most useful sentiment, implies +no extraordinary attainments in wisdom or virtue; that, where it has +existed in an intense degree, it has turned states into gangs of robbers +whom their mutual fidelity has rendered more dangerous, has given a +character of peculiar atrocity to war, and has generated that worst of +all political evils, the tyranny of nations over nations. + +Enthusiastically attached to the name of liberty, these historians +troubled themselves little about its definition. The Spartans, tormented +by ten thousand absurd restraints, unable to please themselves in the +choice of their wives, their suppers, or their company, compelled to +assume a peculiar manner, and to talk in a peculiar style, gloried in +their liberty. The aristocracy of Rome repeatedly made liberty a plea +for cutting off the favourites of the people. In almost all the little +commonwealths of antiquity, liberty was used as a pretext for measures +directed against everything which makes liberty valuable, for measures +which stifled discussion, corrupted the administration of justice, and +discouraged the accumulation of property. The writers, whose works we +are considering, confounded the sound with the substance, and the +means with the end. Their imaginations were inflamed by mystery. They +conceived of liberty as monks conceive of love, as cockneys conceive of +the happiness and innocence of rural life, as novel-reading sempstresses +conceive of Almack's and Grosvenor Square, accomplished Marquesses and +handsome Colonels of the Guards. In the relation of events, and the +delineation of characters, they have paid little attention to facts, +to the costume of the times of which they pretend to treat, or to the +general principles of human nature. They have been faithful only to +their own puerile and extravagant doctrines. Generals and statesmen are +metamorphosed into magnanimous coxcombs, from whose fulsome virtues we +turn away with disgust. The fine sayings and exploits of their heroes +remind us of the insufferable perfections of Sir Charles Grandison, and +affect us with a nausea similar to that which we feel when an actor, +in one of Morton's or Kotzebue's plays, lays his hand on his heart, +advances to the ground-lights, and mouths a moral sentence for the +edification of the gods. + +These writers, men who knew not what it was to have a country, men who +had never enjoyed political rights, brought into fashion an offensive +cant about patriotism and zeal for freedom. What the English Puritans +did for the language of Christianity, what Scuderi did for the language +of love, they did for the language of public spirit. By habitual +exaggeration they made it mean. By monotonous emphasis they made it +feeble. They abused it till it became scarcely possible to use it with +effect. + +Their ordinary rules of morality are deduced from extreme cases. The +common regimen which they prescribe for society is made up of those +desperate remedies which only its most desperate distempers require. +They look with peculiar complacency on actions which even those +who approve them consider as exceptions to laws of almost universal +application--which bear so close an affinity to the most atrocious +crimes that, even where it may be unjust to censure them, it is unsafe +to praise them. It is not strange, therefore, that some flagitious +instances of perfidy and cruelty should have been passed unchallenged in +such company, that grave moralists, with no personal interest at stake, +should have extolled, in the highest terms, deeds of which the +atrocity appalled even the infuriated factions in whose cause they were +perpetrated. The part which Timoleon took in the assassination of his +brother shocked many of his own partisans. The recollection of it preyed +long on his own mind. But it was reserved for historians who lived some +centuries later to discover that his conduct was a glorious display of +virtue, and to lament that, from the frailty of human nature, a man who +could perform so great an exploit could repent of it. + +The writings of these men, and of their modern imitators, have produced +effects which deserve some notice. The English have been so long +accustomed to political speculation, and have enjoyed so large a measure +of practical liberty, that such works have produced little effect on +their minds. We have classical associations and great names of our own +which we can confidently oppose to the most splendid of ancient times. +Senate has not to our ears a sound so venerable as Parliament. We +respect to the Great Charter more than the laws of Solon. The Capitol +and the Forum impress us with less awe than our own Westminster Hall and +Westminster Abbey, the place where the great men of twenty generations +have contended, the place where they sleep together! The list of +warriors and statesmen by whom our constitution was founded or +preserved, from De Montfort down to Fox, may well stand a comparison +with the Fasti of Rome. The dying thanksgiving of Sidney is as noble as +the libation which Thrasea poured to Liberating Jove: and we think +with far less pleasure of Cato tearing out his entrails than of Russell +saying, as he turned away from his wife, that the bitterness of death +was past. Even those parts of our history over which, on some accounts, +we would gladly throw a veil may be proudly opposed to those on which +the moralists of antiquity loved most to dwell. The enemy of English +liberty was not murdered by men whom he had pardoned and loaded with +benefits. He was not stabbed in the back by those who smiled and cringed +before his face. He was vanquished on fields of stricken battle; he was +arraigned, sentenced, and executed in the face of heaven and earth. Our +liberty is neither Greek nor Roman; but essentially English. It has +a character of its own,--a character which has taken a tinge from +the sentiments of the chivalrous ages, and which accords with the +peculiarities of our manners and of our insular situation. It has a +language, too, of its own, and a language singularly idiomatic, full of +meaning to ourselves, scarcely intelligible to strangers. + +Here, therefore, the effect of books such as those which we have been +considering has been harmless. They have, indeed, given currency to +many very erroneous opinions with respect to ancient history. They +have heated the imaginations of boys. They have misled the judgment and +corrupted the taste of some men of letters, such as Akenside and Sir +William Jones. But on persons engaged in public affairs they have had +very little influence. The foundations of our constitution were laid +by men who knew nothing of the Greeks but that they denied the orthodox +procession and cheated the Crusaders; and nothing of Rome, but that +the Pope lived there. Those who followed, contented themselves with +improving on the original plan. They found models at home and therefore +they did not look for them abroad. But, when enlightened men on the +Continent began to think about political reformation, having no patterns +before their eyes in their domestic history, they naturally had +recourse to those remains of antiquity, the study of which is considered +throughout Europe as an important part of education. The historians of +whom we have been speaking had been members of large communities, and +subjects of absolute sovereigns. Hence it is, as we have already said, +that they commit such gross errors in speaking of the little republics +of antiquity. Their works were now read in the spirit in which they +had been written. They were read by men placed in circumstances closely +resembling their own, unacquainted with the real nature of liberty, but +inclined to believe everything good which could be told respecting it. +How powerfully these books impressed these speculative reformers, is +well known to all who have paid any attention to the French literature +of the last century. But, perhaps, the writer on whom they produced the +greatest effect was Vittorio Alfieri. In some of his plays, particularly +in Virginia, Timoleon, and Brutus the Younger, he has even caricatured +the extravagance of his masters. + +It was not strange that the blind, thus led by the blind, should +stumble. The transactions of the French Revolution, in some measure, +took their character from these works. Without the assistance of these +works, indeed, a revolution would have taken place,--a revolution +productive of much good and much evil, tremendous but shortlived, evil +dearly purchased, but durable good. But it would not have been exactly +such a revolution. The style, the accessories, would have been in many +respects different. There would have been less of bombast in language, +less of affectation in manner, less of solemn trifling and ostentatious +simplicity. The acts of legislative assemblies, and the correspondence +of diplomatists, would not have been disgraced by rants worthy only of a +college declamation. The government of a great and polished nation would +not have rendered itself ridiculous by attempting to revive the usages +of a world which had long passed away, or rather of a world which +had never existed except in the description of a fantastic school of +writers. These second-hand imitations resembled the originals about as +much as the classical feast with which the Doctor in Peregrine Pickle +turned the stomachs of all his guests resembled one of the suppers of +Lucullus in the Hall of Apollo. + +These were mere follies. But the spirit excited by these writers +produced more serious effects. The greater part of the crimes which +disgraced the revolution sprung indeed from the relaxation of law, from +popular ignorance, from the remembrance of past oppression, from +the fear of foreign conquest, from rapacity, from ambition, from +party-spirit. But many atrocious proceedings must, doubtless, be +ascribed to heated imagination, to perverted principle, to a distaste +for what was vulgar in morals, and a passion for what was startling and +dubious. Mr Burke has touched on this subject with great felicity of +expression: "The gradation of their republic," says he, "is laid in +moral paradoxes. All those instances to be found in history, whether +real or fabulous, of a doubtful public spirit, at which morality +is perplexed, reason is staggered, and from which affrighted nature +recoils, are their chosen and almost sole examples for the instruction +of their youth." This evil, we believe, is to be directly ascribed to +the influence of the historians whom we have mentioned, and their modern +imitators. + +Livy had some faults in common with these writers. But on the whole he +must be considered as forming a class by himself: no historian with whom +we are acquainted has shown so complete an indifference to truth. He +seems to have cared only about the picturesque effect of his book, and +the honour of his country. On the other hand, we do not know, in the +whole range of literature, an instance of a bad thing so well done. The +painting of the narrative is beyond description vivid and graceful. The +abundance of interesting sentiments and splendid imagery in the speeches +is almost miraculous. His mind is a soil which is never over-teemed, a +fountain which never seems to trickle. It pours forth profusely; yet +it gives no sign of exhaustion. It was probably to this exuberance of +thought and language, always fresh, always sweet, always pure, no sooner +yielded than repaired, that the critics applied that expression which +has been so much discussed lactea ubertas. + +All the merits and all the defects of Livy take a colouring from the +character of his nation. He was a writer peculiarly Roman; the proud +citizen of a commonwealth which had indeed lost the reality of liberty, +but which still sacredly preserved its forms--in fact, the subject of +an arbitrary prince, but in his own estimation one of the masters of the +world, with a hundred kings below him, and only the gods above him. He, +therefore, looked back on former times with feelings far different from +those which were naturally entertained by his Greek contemporaries, and +which at a later period became general among men of letters throughout +the Roman Empire. He contemplated the past with interest and delight, +not because it furnished a contrast to the present, but because it +had led to the present. He recurred to it, not to lose in proud +recollections the sense of national degradation, but to trace the +progress of national glory. It is true that his veneration for antiquity +produced on him some of the effects which it produced on those who +arrived at it by a very different road. He has something of their +exaggeration, something of their cant, something of their fondness for +anomalies and lusus naturae in morality. Yet even here we perceive +a difference. They talk rapturously of patriotism and liberty in the +abstract. He does not seem to think any country but Rome deserving of +love; nor is it for liberty as liberty, but for liberty as a part of the +Roman institutions, that he is zealous. + +Of the concise and elegant accounts of the campaigns of Caesar little +can be said. They are incomparable models for military despatches. But +histories they are not, and do not pretend to be. + +The ancient critics placed Sallust in the same rank with Livy; and +unquestionably the small portion of his works which has come down to us +is calculated to give a high opinion of his talents. But his style +is not very pleasant: and his most powerful work, the account of the +Conspiracy of Catiline, has rather the air of a clever party pamphlet +than that of a history. It abounds with strange inconsistencies, which, +unexplained as they are, necessarily excite doubts as to the fairness +of the narrative. It is true, that many circumstances now forgotten may +have been familiar to his contemporaries, and may have rendered passages +clear to them which to us appear dubious and perplexing. But a great +historian should remember that he writes for distant generations, for +men who will perceive the apparent contradictions, and will possess no +means of reconciling them. We can only vindicate the fidelity of Sallust +at the expense of his skill. But in fact all the information which we +have from contemporaries respecting this famous plot is liable to the +same objection, and is read by discerning men with the same incredulity. +It is all on one side. No answer has reached our times. Yet on the +showing of the accusers the accused seem entitled to acquittal. +Catiline, we are told, intrigued with a Vestal virgin, and murdered his +own son. His house was a den of gamblers and debauchees. No young man +could cross his threshold without danger to his fortune and reputation. +Yet this is the man with whom Cicero was willing to coalesce in a +contest for the first magistracy of the republic; and whom he described, +long after the fatal termination of the conspiracy, as an accomplished +hypocrite, by whom he had himself been deceived, and who had acted with +consummate skill the character of a good citizen and a good friend. We +are told that the plot was the most wicked and desperate ever known, +and, almost in the same breath, that the great body of the people, and +many of the nobles, favoured it; that the richest citizens of Rome were +eager for the spoliation of all property, and its highest functionaries +for the destruction of all order; that Crassus, Caesar, the Praetor +Lentulus, one of the consuls of the year, one of the consuls elect, +were proved or suspected to be engaged in a scheme for subverting +institutions to which they owed the highest honours, and introducing +universal anarchy. We are told that a government, which knew all this, +suffered the conspirator, whose rank, talents, and courage rendered +him most dangerous, to quit Rome without molestation. We are told that +bondmen and gladiators were to be armed against the citizens. Yet we +find that Catiline rejected the slaves who crowded to enlist in his +army, lest, as Sallust himself expresses it, "he should seem to identify +their cause with that of the citizens." Finally, we are told that the +magistrate, who was universally allowed to have saved all classes of +his countrymen from conflagration and massacre, rendered himself so +unpopular by his conduct that a marked insult was offered to him at +the expiration of his office, and a severe punishment inflicted on him +shortly after. + +Sallust tells us, what, indeed, the letters and speeches of Cicero +sufficiently prove, that some persons consider the shocking, and +atrocious parts of the plot as mere inventions of the government, +designed to excuse its unconstitutional measures. We must confess +ourselves to be of that opinion. There was, undoubtedly, a strong party +desirous to change the administration. While Pompey held the command of +an army, they could not effect their purpose without preparing means for +repelling force, if necessary, by force. In all this there is nothing +different from the ordinary practice of Roman factions. The other +charges brought against the conspirators are so inconsistent and +improbable, that we give no credit whatever to them. If our readers +think this scepticism unreasonable, let them turn to the contemporary +accounts of the Popish plot. Let them look over the votes of Parliament, +and the speeches of the king; the charges of Scroggs, and the harangues +of the managers employed against Strafford. A person who should form his +judgment from these pieces alone would believe that London was set on +fire by the Papists, and that Sir Edmondbury Godfrey was murdered for +his religion. Yet these stories are now altogether exploded. They have +been abandoned by statesmen to aldermen, by aldermen to clergymen, by +clergymen to old women, and by old women to Sir Harcourt Lees. + +Of the Latin historians, Tacitus was certainly the greatest. His +style, indeed, is not only faulty in itself, but is, in some respects, +peculiarly unfit for historical composition. He carries his love of +effect far beyond the limits of moderation. He tells a fine story +finely, but he cannot tell a plain story plainly. He stimulates till +stimulants lose their power. Thucydides, as we have already observed, +relates ordinary transactions with the unpretending clearness and +succinctness of a gazette. His great powers of painting he reserves for +events of which the slightest details are interesting. The simplicity +of the setting gives additional lustre to the brilliants. There are +passages in the narrative of Tacitus superior to the best which can be +quoted from Thucydides. But they are not enchased and relieved with the +same skill. They are far more striking when extracted from the body of +the work to which they belong than when they occur in their place, and +are read in connection with what precedes and follows. + +In the delineation of character, Tacitus is unrivalled among historians, +and has very few superiors among dramatists and novelists. By the +delineation of character, we do not mean the practice of drawing up +epigrammatic catalogues of good and bad qualities, and appending them +to the names of eminent men. No writer, indeed, has done this more +skilfully than Tacitus; but this is not his peculiar glory. All the +persons who occupy a large space in his works have an individuality of +character which seems to pervade all their words and actions. We know +them as if we had lived with them. Claudius, Nero, Otho, both the +Agrippinas, are masterpieces. But Tiberius is a still higher miracle of +art. The historian undertook to make us intimately acquainted with a man +singularly dark and inscrutable,--with a man whose real disposition long +remained swathed up in intricate folds of factitious virtues, and over +whose actions the hypocrisy of his youth, and the seclusion of his old +age, threw a singular mystery. He was to exhibit the specious qualities +of the tyrant in a light which might render them transparent, and enable +us at once to perceive the covering and the vices which it concealed. He +was to trace the gradations by which the first magistrate of a republic, +a senator mingling freely in debate, a noble associating with his +brother nobles, was transformed into an Asiatic sultan; he was to +exhibit a character, distinguished by courage, self-command, and +profound policy, yet defiled by all + + "th' extravagancy + And crazy ribaldry of fancy." + +He was to mark the gradual effect of advancing age and approaching death +on this strange compound of strength and weakness; to exhibit the old +sovereign of the world sinking into a dotage which, though it rendered +his appetites eccentric, and his temper savage, never impaired the +powers of his stern and penetrating mind--conscious of failing strength, +raging with capricious sensuality, yet to the last the keenest of +observers, the most artful of dissemblers, and the most terrible of +masters. The task was one of extreme difficulty. The execution is almost +perfect. + +The talent which is required to write history thus bears a considerable +affinity to the talent of a great dramatist. There is one obvious +distinction. The dramatist creates; the historian only disposes. +The difference is not in the mode of execution, but in the mode +of conception. Shakspeare is guided by a model which exists in his +imagination; Tacitus, by a model furnished from without. Hamlet is to +Tiberius what the Laocoon is to the Newton of Roubilliac. + +In this part of his art Tacitus certainly had neither equal nor second +among the ancient historians. Herodotus, though he wrote in a dramatic +form, had little of dramatic genius. The frequent dialogues which he +introduces give vivacity and movement to the narrative, but are not +strikingly characteristic. Xenophon is fond of telling his readers, at +considerable length, what he thought of the persons whose adventures he +relates. But he does not show them the men, and enable them to judge for +themselves. The heroes of Livy are the most insipid of all beings, real +or imaginary, the heroes of Plutarch always excepted. Indeed, the +manner of Plutarch in this respect reminds us of the cookery of those +continental inns, the horror of English travellers, in which a certain +nondescript broth is kept constantly boiling, and copiously poured, +without distinction, over every dish as it comes up to table. +Thucydides, though at a wide interval, comes next to Tacitus. +His Pericles, his Nicias, his Cleon, his Brasidas, are happily +discriminated. The lines are few, the colouring faint: but the general +air and expression is caught. + +We begin, like the priest in Don Quixote's library, to be tired with +taking down books one after another for separate judgment, and feel +inclined to pass sentence on them in masses. We shall therefore, +instead of pointing out the defects and merits of the different modern +historians, state generally in what particulars they have surpassed +their predecessors, and in what we conceive them to have failed. + +They have certainly been, in one sense, far more strict in their +adherence to truth than most of the Greek and Roman writers. They do +not think themselves entitled to render their narrative interesting by +introducing descriptions, conversations, and harangues which have no +existence but in their own imagination. This improvement was gradually +introduced. History commenced among the modern nations of Europe, as it +had commenced among the Greeks, in romance. Froissart was our Herodotus. +Italy was to Europe what Athens was to Greece. In Italy, therefore, +a more accurate and manly mode of narration was early introduced. +Machiavelli and Guicciardini, in imitation of Livy and Thucydides, +composed speeches for their historical personages. But, as the classical +enthusiasm which distinguished the age of Lorenzo and Leo gradually +subsided, this absurd practice was abandoned. In France, we fear, it +still, in some degree, keeps its ground. In our own country, a writer +who should venture on it would be laughed to scorn. Whether the +historians of the last two centuries tell more truth than those of +antiquity, may perhaps be doubted. But it is quite certain that they +tell fewer falsehoods. + +In the philosophy of history, the moderns have very far surpassed the +ancients. It is not, indeed, strange that the Greeks and Romans should +not have carried the science of government, or any other experimental +science, so far as it has been carried in our time; for the experimental +sciences are generally in a state of progression. They were better +understood in the seventeenth century than in the sixteenth, and in +the eighteenth century than in the seventeenth. But this constant +improvement, this natural growth of knowledge, will not altogether +account for the immense superiority of the modern writers. The +difference is a difference not in degree, but of kind. It is not merely +that new principles have been discovered, but that new faculties seem to +be exerted. It is not that at one time the human intellect should have +made but small progress, and at another time have advanced far: but +that at one time it should have been stationary, and at another time +constantly proceeding. In taste and imagination, in the graces of style, +in the arts of persuasion, in the magnificence of public works, the +ancients were at least our equals. They reasoned as justly as ourselves +on subjects which required pure demonstration. But in the moral sciences +they made scarcely any advance. During the long period which elapsed +between the fifth century before the Christian era and the fifth century +after it little perceptible progress was made. All the metaphysical +discoveries of all the philosophers, from the time of Socrates to the +northern invasion, are not to be compared in importance with those which +have been made in England every fifty years since the time of Elizabeth. +There is not the least reason to believe that the principles of +government, legislation, and political economy, were better understood +in the time of Augustus Caesar than in the time of Pericles. In our +own country, the sound doctrines of trade and jurisprudence have +been, within the lifetime of a single generation, dimly hinted, boldly +propounded, defended, systematised, adopted by all reflecting men of all +parties, quoted in legislative assemblies, incorporated into laws and +treaties. + +To what is this change to be attributed? Partly, no doubt, to the +discovery of printing, a discovery which has not only diffused knowledge +widely, but, as we have already observed, has also introduced into +reasoning a precision unknown in those ancient communities, in which +information, was, for the most part, conveyed orally. There was, we +suspect, another cause, less obvious, but still more powerful. + +The spirit of the two most famous nations of antiquity was remarkably +exclusive. In the time of Homer the Greeks had not begun to consider +themselves as a distinct race. They still looked with something of +childish wonder and awe on the riches and wisdom of Sidon and Egypt. +From what causes, and by what gradations, their feelings underwent a +change, it is not easy to determine. Their history, from the Trojan to +the Persian war, is covered with an obscurity broken only by dim and +scattered gleams of truth. But it is certain that a great alteration +took place. They regarded themselves as a separate people. They had +common religious rites, and common principles of public law, in which +foreigners had no part. In all their political systems, monarchical, +aristocratical, and democratical, there was a strong family likeness. +After the retreat of Xerxes and the fall of Mardonius, national pride +rendered the separation between the Greeks and the barbarians complete. +The conquerors considered themselves men of a superior breed, men who, +in their intercourse with neighbouring nations, were to teach, and +not to learn. They looked for nothing out of themselves. They borrowed +nothing. They translated nothing. We cannot call to mind a single +expression of any Greek writer earlier than the age of Augustus, +indicating an opinion that anything worth reading could be written in +any language except his own. The feelings which sprung from national +glory were not altogether extinguished by national degradation. They +were fondly cherished through ages of slavery and shame. The literature +of Rome herself was regarded with contempt by those who had fled before +her arms, and who bowed beneath her fasces. Voltaire says, in one of his +six thousand pamphlets, that he was the first person who told the French +that England had produced eminent men besides the Duke of Marlborough. +Down to a very late period, the Greeks seem to have stood in need of +similar information with respect to their masters. With Paulus Aemilius, +Sylla, and Caesar, they were well acquainted. But the notions which +they entertained respecting Cicero and Virgil were, probably, not unlike +those which Boileau may have formed about Shakspeare. Dionysius lived +in the most splendid age of Latin poetry and eloquence. He was a +critic, and, after the manner of his age, an able critic. He studied +the language of Rome, associated with its learned men, and compiled its +history. Yet he seems to have thought its literature valuable only for +the purpose of illustrating its antiquities. His reading appears to have +been confined to its public records, and to a few old annalists. Once, +and but once, if we remember rightly, he quotes Ennius, to solve a +question of etymology. He has written much on the art of oratory: yet he +has not mentioned the name of Cicero. + +The Romans submitted to the pretensions of a race which they despised. +Their epic poet, while he claimed for them pre-eminence in the arts of +government and war, acknowledged their inferiority in taste, eloquence, +and science. Men of letters affected to understand the Greek language +better than their own. Pomponius preferred the honour of becoming an +Athenian, by intellectual naturalisation, to all the distinctions which +were to be acquired in the political contests of Rome. His great +friend composed Greek poems and memoirs. It is well-known that Petrarch +considered that beautiful language in which his sonnets are written, +as a barbarous jargon, and intrusted his fame to those wretched Latin +hexameters which, during the last four centuries, have scarcely found +four readers. Many eminent Romans appear to have felt the same contempt +for their native tongue as compared with the Greek. The prejudice +continued to a very late period. Julian was as partial to the Greek +language as Frederic the Great to the French: and it seems that he could +not express himself with elegance in the dialect of the state which he +ruled. + +Even those Latin writers who did not carry this affectation so far +looked on Greece as the only fount of knowledge. From Greece they +derived the measures of their poetry, and, indeed, all of poetry that +can be imported. From Greece they borrowed the principles and the +vocabulary of their philosophy. To the literature of other nations they +do not seem to have paid the slightest attention. The sacred books +of the Hebrews, for example, books which, considered merely as human +compositions, are invaluable to the critic, the antiquarian, and +the philosopher, seem to have been utterly unnoticed by them. The +peculiarities of Judaism, and the rapid growth of Christianity, +attracted their notice. They made war against the Jews. They made +laws against the Christians. But they never opened the books of Moses. +Juvenal quotes the Pentateuch with censure. The author of the treatise +on "the Sublime" quotes it with praise: but both of them quote it +erroneously. When we consider what sublime poetry, what curious history, +what striking and peculiar views of the Divine nature and of the +social duties of men, are to be found in the Jewish scriptures, when +we consider that two sects on which the attention of the government was +constantly fixed appealed to those scriptures as the rule of their faith +and practice, this indifference is astonishing. The fact seems to be, +that the Greeks admired only themselves, and that the Romans admired +only themselves and the Greeks. Literary men turned away with disgust +from modes of thought and expression so widely different from all +that they had been accustomed to admire. The effect was narrowness and +sameness of thought. Their minds, if we may so express ourselves, bred +in and in, and were accordingly cursed with barrenness and degeneracy. +No extraneous beauty or vigour was engrafted on the decaying stock. By +an exclusive attention to one class of phenomena, by an exclusive +taste for one species of excellence, the human intellect was stunted. +Occasional coincidences were turned into general rules. Prejudices were +confounded with instincts. On man, as he was found in a particular state +of society--on government, as it had existed in a particular corner +of the world, many just observations were made; but of man as man, +or government as government, little was known. Philosophy remained +stationary. Slight changes, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for +the better, were made in the superstructure. But nobody thought of +examining the foundations. + +The vast despotism of the Caesars, gradually effacing all national +peculiarities, and assimilating the remotest provinces of the empire to +each other, augmented the evil. At the close of the third century after +Christ, the prospects of mankind were fearfully dreary. A system of +etiquette, as pompously frivolous as that of the Escurial, had been +established. A sovereign almost invisible; a crowd of dignitaries +minutely distinguished by badges and titles; rhetoricians who said +nothing but what had been said ten thousand times; schools in which +nothing was taught but what had been known for ages: such was the +machinery provided for the government and instruction of the most +enlightened part of the human race. That great community was then in +danger of experiencing a calamity far more terrible than any of +the quick, inflammatory, destroying maladies, to which nations are +liable,--a tottering, drivelling, paralytic longevity, the immortality +of the Struldbrugs, a Chinese civilisation. It would be easy to indicate +many points of resemblance between the subjects of Diocletian and the +people of that Celestial Empire, where, during many centuries, nothing +has been learned or unlearned; where government, where education, where +the whole system of life, is a ceremony; where knowledge forgets to +increase and multiply, and, like the talent buried in the earth, or +the pound wrapped up in the napkin, experiences neither waste no +augmentation. + +The torpor was broken by two great revolutions, the one moral, the other +political, the one from within, the other from without. The victory of +Christianity over Paganism, considered with relation to this subject +only, was of great importance. It overthrew the old system of morals; +and with it much of the old system of metaphysics. It furnished the +orator with new topics of declamation, and the logician with new points +of controversy. Above all, it introduced a new principle, of which the +operation was constantly felt in every part of society. It stirred the +stagnant mass from the inmost depths. It excited all the passions of a +stormy democracy in the quiet and listless population of an overgrown +empire. The fear of heresy did what the sense of oppression could not +do; it changed men, accustomed to be turned over like sheep from tyrant +to tyrant, into devoted partisans and obstinate rebels. The tones of an +eloquence which had been silent for ages resounded from the pulpit of +Gregory. A spirit which had been extinguished on the plains of Philippi +revived in Athanasius and Ambrose. + +Yet even this remedy was not sufficiently violent for the disease. It +did not prevent the empire of Constantinople from relapsing, after a +short paroxysm of excitement, into a state of stupefaction, to which +history furnishes scarcely any parallel. We there find that a polished +society, a society in which a most intricate and elaborate system of +jurisprudence was established, in which the arts of luxury were well +understood, in which the works of the great ancient writers were +preserved and studied, existed for nearly a thousand years without +making one great discovery in science, or producing one book which +is read by any but curious inquirers. There were tumults, too, and +controversies, and wars in abundance: and these things, bad as they are +in themselves, have generally been favourable to the progress of the +intellect. But here they tormented without stimulating. The waters were +troubled; but no healing influence descended. The agitations resembled +the grinnings and writhings of a galvanised corpse, not the struggles of +an athletic man. + +From this miserable state the Western Empire was saved by the fiercest +and most destroying visitation with which God has ever chastened +his creatures--the invasion of the Northern nations. Such a cure was +required for such a distemper. The fire of London, it has been observed +was a blessing. It burned down the city; but it burned out the plague. +The same may be said of the tremendous devastation of the Roman +dominions. It annihilated the noisome recesses in which lurked the seeds +of great moral maladies; it cleared an atmosphere fatal to the health +and vigour of the human mind. It cost Europe a thousand years of +barbarism to escape the fate of China. + +At length the terrible purification was accomplished; and the second +civilisation of mankind commenced, under circumstances which afforded a +strong security that it would never retrograde and never pause. Europe +was now a great federal community. Her numerous states were united +by the easy ties of international law and a common religion. Their +institutions, their languages, their manners, their tastes in +literature, their modes of education, were widely different. Their +connection was close enough to allow of mutual observation and +improvement, yet not so close as to destroy the idioms of national +opinion and feeling. + +The balance of moral and intellectual influence thus established +between the nations of Europe is far more important than the balance +of political power. Indeed, we are inclined to think that the latter +is valuable principally because it tends to maintain the former. The +civilised world has thus been preserved from a uniformity of character +fatal to all improvement. Every part of it has been illuminated with +light reflected from every other. Competition has produced activity +where monopoly would have produced sluggishness. The number of +experiments in moral science which the speculator has an opportunity of +witnessing has been increased beyond all calculation. Society and human +nature, instead of being seen in a single point of view, are presented +to him under ten thousand different aspects. By observing the manners of +surrounding nations, by studying their literature, by comparing it with +that of his own country and of the ancient republics, he is enabled to +correct those errors into which the most acute men must fall when they +reason from a single species to a genus. He learns to distinguish +what is local from what is universal: what is transitory from what is +eternal; to discriminate between exceptions and rules; to trace the +operation of disturbing causes; to separate those general principles +which are always true and everywhere applicable from the accidental +circumstances with which, in every community, they are blended, and +with which, in an isolated community, they are confounded by the most +philosophical mind. + +Hence it is that, in generalisation, the writers of modern times have +far surpassed those of antiquity. The historians of our own country are +unequalled in depth and precision of reason; and, even in the works of +our mere compilers, we often meet with speculations beyond the reach of +Thucydides or Tacitus. + +But it must, at the same time, be admitted that they have characteristic +faults, so closely connected with their characteristic merits, and of +such magnitude, that it may well be doubted whether, on the whole, +this department of literature has gained or lost during the last +two-and-twenty centuries. + +The best historians of later times have been seduced from truth, not +by their imagination, but by their reason. They far excel their +predecessors in the art of deducing general principles from facts. But +unhappily they have fallen into the error of distorting facts to suit +general principles. They arrive at a theory from looking at some of the +phenomena; and the remaining phenomena they strain or curtail to suit +the theory. For this purpose it is not necessary that they should assert +what is absolutely false; for all questions in morals and politics +are questions of comparison and degree. Any proposition which does not +involve a contradiction in terms may by possibility be true; and, if all +the circumstances which raise a probability in its favour, be stated and +enforced, and those which lead to an opposite conclusion be omitted or +lightly passed over, it may appear to be demonstrated. In every human +character and transaction there is a mixture of good and evil: a little +exaggeration, a little suppression, a judicious use of epithets, a +watchful and searching scepticism with respect to the evidence on one +side, a convenient credulity with respect to every report or tradition +on the other, may easily make a saint of Laud, or a tyrant of Henry the +Fourth. + +This species of misrepresentation abounds in the most valuable works of +modern historians. Herodotus tells his story like a slovenly witness, +who, heated by partialities and prejudices, unacquainted with the +established rules of evidence, and uninstructed as to the obligations +of his oath, confounds what he imagines with what he has seen and heard, +and brings out facts, reports, conjectures, and fancies, in one mass. +Hume is an accomplished advocate. Without positively asserting much more +than he can prove, he gives prominence to all the circumstances which +support his case; he glides lightly over those which are unfavourable to +it; his own witnesses are applauded and encouraged; the statements which +seem to throw discredit on them are controverted; the contradictions +into which they fall are explained away; a clear and connected abstract +of their evidence is given. Everything that is offered on the other side +is scrutinised with the utmost severity; every suspicious circumstance +is a ground for comment and invective; what cannot be denied is +extenuated, or passed by without notice; concessions even are sometimes +made: but this insidious candour only increases the effect of the vast +mass of sophistry. + +We have mentioned Hume as the ablest and most popular writer of his +class; but the charge which we have brought against him is one to which +all our most distinguished historians are in some degree obnoxious. +Gibbon, in particular, deserves very severe censure. Of all the numerous +culprits, however, none is more deeply guilty than Mr Mitford. We +willingly acknowledge the obligations which are due to his talents +and industry. The modern historians of Greece had been in the habit of +writing as if the world had learned nothing new during the last sixteen +hundred years. Instead of illustrating the events which they narrated +by the philosophy of a more enlightened age, they judged of antiquity by +itself alone. They seemed to think that notions, long driven from every +other corner of literature, had a prescriptive right to occupy this +last fastness. They considered all the ancient historians as equally +authentic. They scarcely made any distinction between him who related +events at which he had himself been present and him who five hundred +years after composed a philosophic romance for a society which had in +the interval undergone a complete change. It was all Greek, and all +true! The centuries which separated Plutarch from Thucydides seemed +as nothing to men who lived in an age so remote. The distance of +time produced an error similar to that which is sometimes produced by +distance of place. There are many good ladies who think that all the +people in India live together, and who charge a friend setting out for +Calcutta with kind messages to Bombay. To Rollin and Barthelemi, in the +same manner, all the classics were contemporaries. + +Mr Mitford certainly introduced great improvements; he showed us that +men who wrote in Greek and Latin sometimes told lies; he showed us that +ancient history might be related in such a manner as to furnish not only +allusions to schoolboys, but important lessons to statesmen. From that +love of theatrical effect and high-flown sentiment which had poisoned +almost every other work on the same subject his book is perfectly free. +But his passion for a theory as false, and far more ungenerous, led him +substantially to violate truth in every page. Statements unfavourable +to democracy are made with unhesitating confidence, and with the utmost +bitterness of language. Every charge brought against a monarch or an +aristocracy is sifted with the utmost care. If it cannot be denied, some +palliating supposition is suggested; or we are at least reminded that +some circumstances now unknown MAY have justified what at present +appears unjustifiable. Two events are reported by the same author in +the same sentence; their truth rests on the same testimony; but the one +supports the darling hypothesis, and the other seems inconsistent with +it. The one is taken and the other is left. + +The practice of distorting narrative into a conformity with theory is +a vice not so unfavourable as at first sight it may appear to the +interests of political science. We have compared the writers who indulge +in it to advocates; and we may add, that their conflicting fallacies, +like those of advocates, correct each other. It has always been held, +in the most enlightened nations, that a tribunal will decide a judicial +question most fairly when it has heard two able men argue, as unfairly +as possible, on the two opposite sides of it; and we are inclined +to think that this opinion is just. Sometimes, it is true, superior +eloquence and dexterity will make the worse appear the better reason; +but it is at least certain that the judge will be compelled to +contemplate the case under two different aspects. It is certain that no +important consideration will altogether escape notice. + +This is at present the state of history. The poet laureate appears for +the Church of England, Lingard for the Church of Rome. Brodie has moved +to set aside the verdicts obtained by Hume; and the cause in which +Mitford succeeded is, we understand, about to be reheard. In the midst +of these disputes, however, history proper, if we may use the term, is +disappearing. The high, grave, impartial summing up of Thucydides is +nowhere to be found. + +While our historians are practising all the arts of controversy, they +miserably neglect the art of narration, the art of interesting the +affections and presenting pictures to the imagination. That a writer may +produce these effects without violating truth is sufficiently proved +by many excellent biographical works. The immense popularity which +well-written books of this kind have acquired deserves the serious +consideration of historians. Voltaire's Charles the Twelfth, Marmontel's +Memoirs, Boswell's Life of Johnson, Southey's account of Nelson, are +perused with delight by the most frivolous and indolent. Whenever +any tolerable book of the same description makes its appearance, the +circulating libraries are mobbed; the book societies are in commotion; +the new novel lies uncut; the magazines and newspapers fill their +columns with extracts. In the meantime histories of great empires, +written by men of eminent ability, lie unread on the shelves of +ostentatious libraries. + +The writers of history seem to entertain an aristocratical contempt for +the writers of memoirs. They think it beneath the dignity of men who +describe the revolutions of nations to dwell on the details which +constitute the charm of biography. They have imposed on themselves a +code of conventional decencies as absurd as that which has been the +bane of the French drama. The most characteristic and interesting +circumstances are omitted or softened down, because, as we are told, +they are too trivial for the majesty of history. The majesty of history +seems to resemble the majesty of the poor King of Spain, who died a +martyr to ceremony because the proper dignitaries were not at hand to +render him assistance. + +That history would be more amusing if this etiquette were relaxed will, +we suppose, be acknowledged. But would it be less dignified or less +useful? What do we mean when we say that one past event is important and +another insignificant? No past event has any intrinsic importance. +The knowledge of it is valuable only as it leads us to form just +calculations with respect to the future. A history which does not +serve this purpose, though it may be filled with battles, treaties, and +commotions, is as useless as the series of turnpike tickets collected by +Sir Matthew Mite. + +Let us suppose that Lord Clarendon, instead of filling hundreds of folio +pages with copies of state papers, in which the same assertions +and contradictions are repeated till the reader is overpowered with +weariness, had condescended to be the Boswell of the Long Parliament. +Let us suppose that he had exhibited to us the wise and lofty +self-government of Hampden, leading while he seemed to follow, and +propounding unanswerable arguments in the strongest forms with the +modest air of an inquirer anxious for information; the delusions which +misled the noble spirit of Vane; the coarse fanaticism which concealed +the yet loftier genius of Cromwell, destined to control a motionless +army and a factious people, to abase the flag of Holland, to arrest +the victorious arms of Sweden, and to hold the balance firm between the +rival monarchies of France and Spain. Let us suppose that he had made +his Cavaliers and Roundheads talk in their own style; that he had +reported some of the ribaldry of Rupert's pages, and some of the cant of +Harrison and Fleetwood. Would not his work in that case have been more +interesting? Would it not have been more accurate? + +A history in which every particular incident may be true may on the +whole be false. The circumstances which have most influence on the +happiness of mankind, the changes of manners and morals, the transition +of communities from poverty to wealth, from knowledge to ignorance, +from ferocity to humanity--these are, for the most part, noiseless +revolutions. Their progress is rarely indicated by what historians are +pleased to call important events. They are not achieved by armies, or +enacted by senates. They are sanctioned by no treaties, and recorded +in no archives. They are carried on in every school, in every church, +behind ten thousand counters, at ten thousand firesides. The upper +current of society presents no certain criterion by which we can judge +of the direction in which the under current flows. We read of defeats +and victories. But we know that nations may be miserable amidst +victories and prosperous amidst defeats. We read of the fall of wise +ministers and of the rise of profligate favourites. But we must remember +how small a proportion the good or evil effected by a single statesman +can bear to the good or evil of a great social system. + +Bishop Watson compares a geologist to a gnat mounted on an elephant, +and laying down theories as to the whole internal structure of the vast +animal, from the phenomena of the hide. The comparison is unjust to the +geologists; but is very applicable to those historians who write as +if the body politic were homogeneous, who look only on the surface of +affairs, and never think of the mighty and various organisation which +lies deep below. + +In the works of such writers as these, England, at the close of the +Seven Years' War, is in the highest state of prosperity: at the close of +the American war she is in a miserable and degraded condition; as if +the people were not on the whole as rich, as well governed, and as +well educated at the latter period as at the former. We have read books +called Histories of England, under the reign of George the Second, in +which the rise of Methodism is not even mentioned. A hundred years hence +this breed of authors will, we hope, be extinct. If it should still +exist, the late ministerial interregnum will be described in terms which +will seem to imply that all government was at an end; that the social +contract was annulled; and that the hand of every man was against his +neighbour, until the wisdom and virtue of the new cabinet educed order +out of the chaos of anarchy. We are quite certain that misconceptions +as gross prevail at this moment respecting many important parts of our +annals. + +The effect of historical reading is analogous, in many respects, to +that produced by foreign travel. The student, like the tourist, is +transported into a new state of society. He sees new fashions. He hears +new modes of expression. His mind is enlarged by contemplating the wide +diversities of laws, of morals, and of manners. But men may travel far, +and return with minds as contracted as if they had never stirred from +their own market-town. In the same manner, men may know the dates of +many battles and the genealogies of many royal houses, and yet be +no wiser. Most people look at past times as princes look at foreign +countries. More than one illustrious stranger has landed on our island +amidst the shouts of a mob, has dined with the king, has hunted with the +master of the stag-hounds, has seen the guards reviewed, and a knight +of the garter installed, has cantered along Regent Street, has visited +Saint Paul's, and noted down its dimensions; and has then departed, +thinking that he has seen England. He has, in fact, seen a few public +buildings, public men, and public ceremonies. But of the vast and +complex system of society, of the fine shades of national character, of +the practical operation of government and laws, he knows nothing. He who +would understand these things rightly must not confine his observations +to palaces and solemn days. He must see ordinary men as they appear in +their ordinary business and in their ordinary pleasures. He must mingle +in the crowds of the exchange and the coffee-house. He must obtain +admittance to the convivial table and the domestic hearth. He must bear +with vulgar expressions. He must not shrink from exploring even the +retreats of misery. He who wishes to understand the condition of mankind +in former ages must proceed on the same principle. If he attends only to +public transactions, to wars, congresses, and debates, his studies will +be as unprofitable as the travels of those imperial, royal, and serene +sovereigns who form their judgment of our island from having gone in +state to a few fine sights, and from having held formal conferences with +a few great officers. + +The perfect historian is he in whose work the character and spirit of +an age is exhibited in miniature. He relates no fact, he attributes no +expression to his characters, which is not authenticated by sufficient +testimony. But, by judicious selection, rejection, and arrangement, he +gives to truth those attractions which have been usurped by fiction. +In his narrative a due subordination is observed: some transactions are +prominent; others retire. But the scale on which he represents them is +increased or diminished, not according to the dignity of the persons +concerned in them, but according to the degree in which they elucidate +the condition of society and the nature of man. He shows us the court, +the camp, and the senate. But he shows us also the nation. He considers +no anecdote, no peculiarity of manner, no familiar saying, as too +insignificant for his notice which is not too insignificant to +illustrate the operation of laws, of religion, and of education, and to +mark the progress of the human mind. Men will not merely be described, +but will be made intimately known to us. The changes of manners will be +indicated, not merely by a few general phrases or a few extracts from +statistical documents, but by appropriate images presented in every +line. + +If a man, such as we are supposing, should write the history of England, +he would assuredly not omit the battles, the sieges, the negotiations, +the seditions, the ministerial changes. But with these he would +intersperse the details which are the charm of historical romances. At +Lincoln Cathedral there is a beautiful painted window, which was made by +an apprentice out of the pieces of glass which had been rejected by +his master. It is so far superior to every other in the church, that, +according to the tradition, the vanquished artist killed himself from +mortification. Sir Walter Scott, in the same manner, has used those +fragments of truth which historians have scornfully thrown behind them +in a manner which may well excite their envy. He has constructed out of +their gleanings works which, even considered as histories, are scarcely +less valuable than theirs. But a truly great historian would reclaim +those materials which the novelist has appropriated. The history of the +government, and the history of the people, would be exhibited in +that mode in which alone they can be exhibited justly, in inseparable +conjunction and intermixture. We should not then have to look for the +wars and votes of the Puritans in Clarendon, and for their phraseology +in Old Mortality; for one half of King James in Hume, and for the other +half in the Fortunes of Nigel. + +The early part of our imaginary history would be rich with colouring +from romance, ballad, and chronicle. We should find ourselves in the +company of knights such as those of Froissart, and of pilgrims such as +those who rode with Chaucer from the Tabard. Society would be shown from +the highest to the lowest,--from the royal cloth of state to the den of +the outlaw; from the throne of the legate to the chimney-corner where +the begging friar regaled himself. Palmers, minstrels, crusaders,--the +stately monastery, with the good cheer in its refectory and the +high-mass in its chapel,--the manor-house, with its hunting and +hawking,--the tournament, with the heralds and ladies, the trumpets and +the cloth of gold,--would give truth and life to the representation. +We should perceive, in a thousand slight touches, the importance of +the privileged burgher, and the fierce and haughty spirit which swelled +under the collar of the degraded villain. The revival of letters would +not merely be described in a few magnificent periods. We should discern, +in innumerable particulars, the fermentation of mind, the eager appetite +for knowledge, which distinguished the sixteenth from the fifteenth +century. In the Reformation we should see, not merely a schism which +changed the ecclesiastical constitution of England and the mutual +relations of the European powers, but a moral war which raged in every +family, which set the father against the son, and the son against the +father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the +mother. Henry would be painted with the skill of Tacitus. We should have +the change of his character from his profuse and joyous youth to his +savage and imperious old age. We should perceive the gradual progress +of selfish and tyrannical passions in a mind not naturally insensible or +ungenerous; and to the last we should detect some remains of that open +and noble temper which endeared him to a people whom he oppressed, +struggling with the hardness of despotism and the irritability of +disease. We should see Elizabeth in all her weakness and in all her +strength, surrounded by the handsome favourites whom she never trusted, +and the wise old statesmen whom she never dismissed, uniting in herself +the most contradictory qualities of both her parents,--the coquetry, the +caprice, the petty malice of Anne,--the haughty and resolute spirit of +Henry. We have no hesitation in saying that a great artist might produce +a portrait of this remarkable woman at least as striking as that in the +novel of Kenilworth, without employing a single trait not authenticated +by ample testimony. In the meantime, we should see arts cultivated, +wealth accumulated, the conveniences of life improved. We should see the +keeps, where nobles, insecure themselves, spread insecurity around them, +gradually giving place to the halls of peaceful opulence, to the oriels +of Longleat, and the stately pinnacles of Burleigh. We should see towns +extended, deserts cultivated, the hamlets of fishermen turned into +wealthy havens, the meal of the peasant improved, and his hut more +commodiously furnished. We should see those opinions and feelings which +produced the great struggle against the House of Stuart slowly growing +up in the bosom of private families, before they manifested themselves +in parliamentary debates. Then would come the civil war. Those +skirmishes on which Clarendon dwells so minutely would be told, as +Thucydides would have told them, with perspicuous conciseness. They are +merely connecting links. But the great characteristics of the age, the +loyal enthusiasm of the brave English gentry, the fierce licentiousness +of the swearing, dicing, drunken reprobates, whose excesses disgraced +the royal cause,--the austerity of the Presbyterian Sabbaths in the +city, the extravagance of the independent preachers in the camp, the +precise garb, the severe countenance, the petty scruples, the affected +accent, the absurd names and phrases which marked the Puritans,--the +valour, the policy, the public spirit, which lurked beneath these +ungraceful disguises,--the dreams of the raving Fifth-monarchy-man, the +dreams, scarcely less wild, of the philosophic republican, all these +would enter into the representation, and render it at once more exact +and more striking. + +The instruction derived from history thus written would be of a vivid +and practical character. It would be received by the imagination as well +as by the reason. It would be not merely traced on the mind, but branded +into it. Many truths, too, would be learned, which can be learned in +no other manner. As the history of states is generally written, the +greatest and most momentous revolutions seem to come upon them like +supernatural inflictions, without warning or cause. But the fact is, +that such revolutions are almost always the consequences of moral +changes, which have gradually passed on the mass of the community, and +which originally proceed far before their progress is indicated by any +public measure. An intimate knowledge of the domestic history of nations +is therefore absolutely necessary to the prognosis of political events. +A narrative, defective in this respect, is as useless as a medical +treatise which should pass by all the symptoms attendant on the early +stage of a disease and mention only what occurs when the patient is +beyond the reach of remedies. + +A historian, such as we have been attempting to describe, would indeed +be an intellectual prodigy. In his mind, powers scarcely compatible with +each other must be tempered into an exquisite harmony. We shall sooner +see another Shakspeare or another Homer. The highest excellence to which +any single faculty can be brought would be less surprising than such a +happy and delicate combination of qualities. Yet the contemplation of +imaginary models is not an unpleasant or useless employment of the mind. +It cannot indeed produce perfection; but it produces improvement +and nourishes that generous and liberal fastidiousness which is not +inconsistent with the strongest sensibility to merit, and which, while +it exalts our conceptions of the art, does not render us unjust to the +artist. + +***** + + + + +MILL ON GOVERNMENT. (March 1829.) + + "Essays on Government, Jurisprudence, the Liberty of the + Press, Prisons, and Prison Discipline, Colonies, the Law of + Nations, and Education." By James Mill, Esq., author of the + History of British India. Reprinted by permission from the + Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. (Not for sale.) + London, 1828. + +Of those philosophers who call themselves Utilitarians, and whom others +generally call Benthamites, Mr Mill is, with the exception of the +illustrious founder of the sect, by far the most distinguished. The +little work now before us contains a summary of the opinions held by +this gentleman and his brethren on several subjects most important to +society. All the seven essays of which it consists abound in curious +matter. But at present we intend to confine our remarks to the Treatise +on Government, which stands first in the volume. On some future +occasion, we may perhaps attempt to do justice to the rest. + +It must be owned that to do justice to any composition of Mr Mill is +not, in the opinion of his admirers, a very easy task. They do not, +indeed, place him in the same rank with Mr Bentham; but the terms in +which they extol the disciple, though feeble when compared with the +hyperboles of adoration employed by them in speaking of the master, are +as strong as any sober man would allow himself to use concerning Locke +or Bacon. The essay before us is perhaps the most remarkable of the +works to which Mr Mill owes his fame. By the members of his sect, it is +considered as perfect and unanswerable. Every part of it is an article +of their faith; and the damnatory clauses, in which their creed abounds +far beyond any theological symbol with which we are acquainted, are +strong and full against all who reject any portion of what is so +irrefragably established. No man, they maintain, who has understanding +sufficient to carry him through the first proposition of Euclid, can +read this masterpiece of demonstration and honestly declare that he +remains unconvinced. + +We have formed a very different opinion of this work. We think that the +theory of Mr Mill rests altogether on false principles, and that even on +those false principles he does not reason logically. Nevertheless, we +do not think it strange that his speculations should have filled the +Utilitarians with admiration. We have been for some time past inclined +to suspect that these people, whom some regard as the lights of the +world and others as incarnate demons, are in general ordinary men, with +narrow understandings and little information. The contempt which they +express for elegant literature is evidently the contempt of ignorance. +We apprehend that many of them are persons who, having read little +or nothing, are delighted to be rescued from the sense of their own +inferiority by some teacher who assures them that the studies which +they have neglected are of no value, puts five or six phrases into their +mouths, lends them an old number of the Westminster Review, and in a +month transforms them into philosophers. Mingled with these smatterers, +whose attainments just suffice to elevate them from the insignificance +of dunces to the dignity of bores, and to spread dismay among their +pious aunts and grandmothers, there are, we well know, many well-meaning +men who have really read and thought much; but whose reading and +meditation have been almost exclusively confined to one class of +subjects; and who, consequently, though they possess much valuable +knowledge respecting those subjects, are by no means so well qualified +to judge of a great system as if they had taken a more enlarged view of +literature and society. + +Nothing is more amusing or instructive than to observe the manner in +which people who think themselves wiser than all the rest of the world +fall into snares which the simple good sense of their neighbours detects +and avoids. It is one of the principle tenets of the Utilitarians that +sentiment and eloquence serve only to impede the pursuit of truth. They +therefore affect a quakerly plainness, or rather a cynical negligence +and impurity, of style. The strongest arguments, when clothed in +brilliant language, seem to them so much wordy nonsense. In the meantime +they surrender their understandings, with a facility found in no other +party, to the meanest and most abject sophisms, provided those sophisms +come before them disguised with the externals of demonstration. They do +not seem to know that logic has its illusions as well as rhetoric,--that +a fallacy may lurk in a syllogism as well as in a metaphor. + +Mr Mill is exactly the writer to please people of this description. +His arguments are stated with the utmost affectation of precision; his +divisions are awfully formal; and his style is generally as dry as that +of Euclid's Elements. Whether this be a merit, we must be permitted to +doubt. Thus much is certain: that the ages in which the true principles +of philosophy were least understood were those in which the ceremonial +of logic was most strictly observed, and that the time from which we +date the rapid progress of the experimental sciences was also the time +at which a less exact and formal way of writing came into use. + +The style which the Utilitarians admire suits only those subjects on +which it is possible to reason a priori. It grew up with the verbal +sophistry which flourished during the dark ages. With that sophistry it +fell before the Baconian philosopher in the day of the great deliverance +of the human mind. The inductive method not only endured but required +greater freedom of diction. It was impossible to reason from phenomena +up to principles, to mark slight shades of difference in quality, or to +estimate the comparative effect of two opposite considerations between +which there was no common measure, by means of the naked and meagre +jargon of the schoolmen. Of those schoolmen Mr Mill has inherited +both the spirit and the style. He is an Aristotelian of the fifteenth +century, born out of due season. We have here an elaborate treatise on +Government, from which, but for two or three passing allusions, it +would not appear that the author was aware that any governments actually +existed among men. Certain propensities of human nature are assumed; +and from these premises the whole science of politics is synthetically +deduced! We can scarcely persuade ourselves that we are not reading a +book written before the time of Bacon and Galileo,--a book written in +those days in which physicians reasoned from the nature of heat to the +treatment of fever, and astronomers proved syllogistically that the +planets could have no independent motion,--because the heavens were +incorruptible, and nature abhorred a vacuum! + +The reason, too, which Mr Mill has assigned for taking this course +strikes us as most extraordinary. + +"Experience," says he, "if we look only at the outside of the facts, +appears to be DIVIDED on this subject. Absolute monarchy, under Neros +and Caligulas, under such men as the Emperors of Morocco and Sultans of +Turkey, is the scourge of human nature. On the other side, the people of +Denmark, tired out with the oppression of an aristocracy, resolved that +their king should be absolute; and, under their absolute monarch, are as +well governed as any people in Europe." + +This Mr Mill actually gives as a reason for pursuing the a priori +method. But, in our judgment, the very circumstances which he mentions +irresistibly prove that the a priori method is altogether unfit for +investigations of this kind, and that the only way to arrive at the +truth is by induction. EXPERIENCE can never be divided, or even appear +to be divided, except with reference to some hypothesis. When we say +that one fact is inconsistent with another fact, we mean only that it is +inconsistent with THE THEORY which we have founded on that other fact. +But, if the fact be certain, the unavoidable conclusion is that our +theory is false; and, in order to correct it, we must reason back from +an enlarged collection of facts to principles. + +Now here we have two governments which, by Mr Mill's own account, come +under the same head in his THEORETICAL classification. It is evident, +therefore, that, by reasoning on that theoretical classification, we +shall be brought to the conclusion that these two forms of government +must produce the same effects. But Mr Mill himself tells us that they do +not produce the same effects. Hence he infers that the only way to get +at truth is to place implicit confidence in that chain of proof a +priori from which it appears that they must produce the same effects! +To believe at once in a theory and in a fact which contradicts it is an +exercise of faith sufficiently hard: but to believe in a theory BECAUSE +a fact contradicts it is what neither philosopher nor pope ever before +required. This, however, is what Mr Mill demands of us. He seems to +think that, if all despots, without exception, governed ill, it would +be unnecessary to prove, by a synthetical argument, what would then +be sufficiently clear from experience. But, as some despots will be +so perverse as to govern well, he finds himself compelled to prove the +impossibility of their governing well by that synthetical argument +which would have been superfluous had not the facts contradicted it. +He reasons a priori, because the phenomena are not what, by reasoning a +priori, he will prove them to be. In other words, he reasons a priori, +because, by so reasoning, he is certain to arrive at a false conclusion! + +In the course of the examination to which we propose to subject the +speculations of Mr Mill we shall have to notice many other curious +instances of that turn of mind which the passage above quoted indicates. + +The first chapter of his Essay relates to the ends of government. The +conception on this subject, he tells us, which exists in the minds of +most men is vague and undistinguishing. He first assumes, justly enough, +that the end of government is "to increase to the utmost the pleasures, +and diminish to the utmost the pains, which men derive from each other." +He then proceeds to show, with great form, that "the greatest possible +happiness of society is attained by insuring to every man the greatest +possible quantity of the produce of his labour." To effect this is, in +his opinion, the end of government. It is remarkable that Mr Mill, with +all his affected display of precision, has here given a description of +the ends of government far less precise than that which is in the mouths +of the vulgar. The first man with whom Mr Mill may travel in a stage +coach will tell him that government exists for the protection of +the PERSONS and property of men. But Mr Mill seems to think that the +preservation of property is the first and only object. It is true, +doubtless, that many of the injuries which are offered to the persons of +men proceed from a desire to possess their property. But the practice of +vindictive assassination as it has existed in some parts of Europe--the +practice of fighting wanton and sanguinary duels, like those of the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in which bands of seconds risked +their lives as well as the principals;--these practices, and many others +which might be named, are evidently injurious to society; and we do not +see how a government which tolerated them could be said "to diminish +to the utmost the pains which men derive from each other." Therefore, +according to Mr Mill's very correct assumption, such a government +would not perfectly accomplish the end of its institution. Yet such a +government might, as far as we can perceive, "insure to every man the +greatest possible quantity of the produce of his labour." Therefore +such a government might, according to Mr Mill's subsequent doctrine, +perfectly accomplish the end of its institution. The matter is not of +much consequence, except as an instance of that slovenliness of thinking +which is often concealed beneath a peculiar ostentation of logical +neatness. + +Having determined the ends, Mr Mill proceeds to consider the means. +For the preservation of property some portion of the community must be +intrusted with power. This is government; and the question is, how are +those to whom the necessary power is intrusted to be prevented from +abusing it? + +Mr Mill first passes in review the simple forms of government. He allows +that it would be inconvenient, if not physically impossible, that the +whole community should meet in a mass; it follows, therefore, that the +powers of government cannot be directly exercised by the people. But he +sees no objection to pure and direct Democracy, except the difficulty +which we have mentioned. + +"The community," says he, "cannot have an interest opposite to its +interests. To affirm this would be a contradiction in terms. The +community within itself, and with respect to itself, can have no +sinister interest. One community may intend the evil of another; +never its own. This is an indubitable proposition, and one of great +importance." + +Mr Mill then proceeds to demonstrate that a purely aristocratical form +of government is necessarily bad. + +"The reason for which government exists is, that one man, if stronger +than another, will take from him whatever that other possesses and he +desires. But if one man will do this, so will several. And if powers +are put into the hands of a comparatively small number, called an +aristocracy,--powers which make them stronger than the rest of the +community, they will take from the rest of the community as much as they +please of the objects of desire. They will thus defeat the very end +for which government was instituted. The unfitness, therefore, of an +aristocracy to be intrusted with the powers of government, rests on +demonstration." + +In exactly the same manner Mr Mill proves absolute monarchy to be a bad +form of government. + +"If government is founded upon this as a law of human nature, that a +man, if able, will take from others anything which they have and he +desires, it is sufficiently evident, that when a man is called a king he +does not change his nature; so that when he has got power to enable +him to take from every man what he pleases, he will take whatever he +pleases. To suppose that he will not, is to affirm that government +is unnecessary, and that human beings will abstain from injuring one +another of their own accord." + +"It is very evident that this reasoning extends to every modification of +the smaller number. Whenever the powers of government are placed in any +hands other than those of the community, whether those of one man, of +a few, or of several, those principles of human nature which imply that +government is at all necessary, imply that those persons will make use +of them to defeat the very end for which government exists." + +But is it not possible that a king or an aristocracy may soon be +saturated with the objects of their desires, and may then protect the +community in the enjoyment of the rest? Mr Mill answers in the negative. +He proves, with great pomp, that every man desires to have the actions +of every other correspondent to his will. Others can be induced to +conform to our will only by motives derived from pleasure or from pain. +The infliction of pain is of course direct injury; and, even if it take +the milder course, in order to produce obedience by motives derived from +pleasure, the government must confer favours. But, as there is no limit +to its desire of obedience, there will be no limit to its disposition +to confer favours; and, as it can confer favours only by plundering the +people, there will be no limit to its disposition to plunder the people. +It is therefore not true that there is in the mind of a king, or in the +minds of an aristocracy, any point of saturation with the objects of +desire. + +Mr Mill then proceeds to show that, as monarchical and oligarchical +governments can influence men by motives drawn from pain, as well as by +motives drawn from pleasure, they will carry their cruelty, as well as +their rapacity, to a frightful extent. As he seems greatly to admire his +own reasonings on this subject, we think it but fair to let him speak +for himself. + +"The chain of inference in this case is close and strong to a most +unusual degree. A man desires that the actions of other men shall be +instantly and accurately correspondent to his will. He desires that the +actions of the greatest possible number shall be so. Terror is the grand +instrument. Terror can work only through assurance that evil will follow +any failure of conformity between the will and the actions willed. Every +failure must therefore be punished. As there are no bounds to the mind's +desire of its pleasure, there are, of course, no bounds to its desire of +perfection in the instruments of that pleasure. There are, therefore, no +bounds to its desire of exactness in the conformity between its will and +the actions willed; and by consequence to the strength of that terror +which is its procuring cause. Even the most minute failure must +be visited with the heaviest infliction; and as failure in extreme +exactness must frequently happen, the occasions of cruelty must be +incessant. + +"We have thus arrived at several conclusions of the highest possible +importance. We have seen that the principle of human nature, upon which +the necessity of government is founded, the propensity of one man to +possess himself of the objects of desire at the cost of another, leads +on, by infallible sequence, where power over a community is attained, +and nothing checks, not only to that degree of plunder which leaves the +members (excepting always the recipients and instruments of the plunder) +the bare means of subsistence, but to that degree of cruelty which is +necessary to keep in existence the most intense terrors." + +Now, no man who has the least knowledge of the real state of the +world, either in former ages or at the present moment, can possibly be +convinced, though he may perhaps be bewildered, by arguments like these. +During the last two centuries, some hundreds of absolute princes have +reigned in Europe. Is it true, that their cruelty has kept in existence +the most intense degree of terror; that their rapacity has left no +more than the bare means of subsistence to any of their subjects, their +ministers and soldiers excepted? Is this true of all of them? Of one +half of them? Of one tenth part of them? Of a single one? Is it true, in +the full extent, even of Philip the Second, of Louis the Fifteenth, or +of the Emperor Paul? But it is scarcely necessary to quote history. No +man of common sense, however ignorant he may be of books, can be imposed +on by Mr Mill's argument; because no man of common sense can live among +his fellow-creatures for a day without seeing innumerable facts which +contradict it. It is our business, however, to point out its fallacy; +and happily the fallacy is not very recondite. + +We grant that rulers will take as much as they can of the objects of +their desires; and that, when the agency of other men is necessary to +that end, they will attempt by all means in their power to enforce the +prompt obedience of such men. But what are the objects of human desire? +Physical pleasure, no doubt, in part. But the mere appetites which we +have in common with the animals would be gratified almost as cheaply and +easily as those of the animals are gratified, if nothing were given to +taste, to ostentation, or to the affections. How small a portion of the +income of a gentleman in easy circumstances is laid out merely in giving +pleasurable sensations to the body of the possessor! The greater +part even of what is spent on his kitchen and his cellar goes, not to +titillate his palate, but to keep up his character for hospitality, to +save him from the reproach of meanness in housekeeping, and to +cement the ties of good neighbourhood. It is clear that a king or an +aristocracy may be supplied to satiety with mere corporal pleasures, at +an expense which the rudest and poorest community would scarcely feel. + +Those tastes and propensities which belong to us as reasoning and +imaginative beings are not indeed so easily gratified. There is, we +admit, no point of saturation with objects of desire which come under +this head. And therefore the argument of Mr Mill will be just, unless +there be something in the nature of the objects of desire themselves +which is inconsistent with it. Now, of these objects there is none which +men in general seem to desire more than the good opinion of others. The +hatred and contempt of the public are generally felt to be +intolerable. It is probable that our regard for the sentiments of our +fellow-creatures springs, by association, from a sense of their ability +to hurt or to serve us. But, be this as it may, it is notorious that, +when the habit of mind of which we speak has once been formed, men feel +extremely solicitous about the opinions of those by whom it is most +improbable, nay, absolutely impossible, that they should ever be in the +slightest degree injured or benefited. The desire of posthumous fame and +the dread of posthumous reproach and execration are feelings from the +influence of which scarcely any man is perfectly free, and which in many +men are powerful and constant motives of action. As we are afraid that, +if we handle this part of the argument after our own manner, we shall +incur the reproach of sentimentality, a word which, in the sacred +language of the Benthamites, is synonymous with idiocy, we will +quote what Mr Mill himself says on the subject, in his Treatise on +Jurisprudence. + +"Pains from the moral source are the pains derived from the unfavourable +sentiments of mankind...These pains are capable of rising to a height +with which hardly any other pains incident to our nature can be +compared. There is a certain degree of unfavourableness in the +sentiments of his fellow-creatures, under which hardly any man, not +below the standard of humanity, can endure to live. + +"The importance of this powerful agency, for the prevention of injurious +acts, is too obvious to need to be illustrated. If sufficiently at +command, it would almost supersede the use of other means... + +"To know how to direct the unfavourable sentiments of mankind, it is +necessary to know in as complete, that is, in as comprehensive, a way as +possible, what it is which gives them birth. Without entering into the +metaphysics of the question, it is a sufficient practical answer, for +the present purpose, to say that the unfavourable sentiments of man are +excited by everything which hurts them." + +It is strange that a writer who considers the pain derived from the +unfavourable sentiments of others as so acute that, if sufficiently at +command, it would supersede the use of the gallows and the tread-mill, +should take no notice of this most important restraint when discussing +the question of government. We will attempt to deduce a theory of +politics in the mathematical form, in which Mr Mill delights, from the +premises with which he has himself furnished us. + + +PROPOSITION I. THEOREM. + +No rulers will do anything which may hurt the people. + +This is the thesis to be maintained; and the following we humbly offer +to Mr Mill, as its syllogistic demonstration. + +No rulers will do that which produces pain to themselves. + +But the unfavourable sentiments of the people will give pain to them. + +Therefore no rulers will do anything which may excite the unfavourable +sentiments of the people. + +But the unfavourable sentiments of the people are excited by everything +which hurts them. + +Therefore no rulers will do anything which may hurt the people. Which +was the thing to be proved. + +Having thus, as we think, not unsuccessfully imitated Mr Mill's logic, +we do not see why we should not imitate, what is at least equally +perfect in its kind, its self-complacency, and proclaim our Eureka +in his own words: "The chain of inference, in this case, is close and +strong to a most unusual degree." + +The fact is, that, when men, in treating of things which cannot be +circumscribed by precise definitions, adopt this mode of reasoning, when +once they begin to talk of power, happiness, misery, pain, pleasure, +motives, objects of desire, as they talk of lines and numbers, there is +no end to the contradictions and absurdities into which they fall. There +is no proposition so monstrously untrue in morals or politics that we +will not undertake to prove it, by something which shall sound like a +logical demonstration from admitted principles. + +Mr Mill argues that, if men are not inclined to plunder each other, +government is unnecessary; and that, if they are so inclined, the +powers of government, when entrusted to a small number of them, will +necessarily be abused. Surely it is not by propounding dilemmas of this +sort that we are likely to arrive at sound conclusions in any moral +science. The whole question is a question of degree. If all men +preferred the moderate approbation of their neighbours to any degree +of wealth or grandeur, or sensual pleasure, government would be +unnecessary. If all men desired wealth so intensely as to be willing +to brave the hatred of their fellow-creatures for sixpence, Mr Mill's +argument against monarchies and aristocracies would be true to the full +extent. But the fact is, that all men have some desires which impel them +to injure their neighbours, and some desires which impel them to benefit +their neighbours. Now, if there were a community consisting of two +classes of men, one of which should be principally influenced by the one +set of motives and the other by the other, government would clearly be +necessary to restrain the class which was eager for plunder and +careless of reputation: and yet the powers of government might be +safely intrusted to the class which was chiefly actuated by the love +of approbation. Now, it might with no small plausibility be maintained +that, in many countries, THERE ARE two classes which, in some degree, +answer to this description; that the poor compose the class which +government is established to restrain, and the people of some property +the class to which the powers of government may without danger be +confided. It might be said that a man who can barely earn a livelihood +by severe labour is under stronger temptations to pillage others than a +man who enjoys many luxuries. It might be said that a man who is lost in +the crowd is less likely to have the fear of public opinion before his +eyes than a man whose station and mode of living render him conspicuous. +We do not assert all this. We only say that it was Mr Mill's business to +prove the contrary; and that, not having proved the contrary, he is not +entitled to say, "that those principles which imply that government is +at all necessary, imply that an aristocracy will make use of its power +to defeat the end for which governments exist." This is not true, +unless it be true that a rich man is as likely to covet the goods of +his neighbours as a poor man, and that a poor man is as likely to be +solicitous about the opinions of his neighbours as a rich man. + +But we do not see that, by reasoning a priori on such subjects as these, +it is possible to advance one single step. We know that every man has +some desires which he can gratify only by hurting his neighbours, and +some which he can gratify only by pleasing them. Mr Mill has chosen +to look only at one-half of human nature, and to reason on the motives +which impel men to oppress and despoil others, as if they were the only +motives by which men could possibly be influenced. We have already shown +that, by taking the other half of the human character, and reasoning +on it as if it were the whole, we can bring out a result diametrically +opposite to that at which Mr Mill has arrived. We can, by such a +process, easily prove that any form of government is good, or that all +government is superfluous. + +We must now accompany Mr Mill on the next stage of his argument. + +Does any combination of the three simple forms of government afford the +requisite securities against the abuse of power? Mr Mill complains +that those who maintain the affirmative generally beg the question; +and proceeds to settle the point by proving, after his fashion, that +no combination of the three simple forms, or of any two of them, can +possibly exist. + +"From the principles which we have already laid down it follows that, of +the objects of human desire, and, speaking more definitely, of the means +to the ends of human desire, namely, wealth and power, each party will +endeavour to obtain as much as possible. + +"If any expedient presents itself to any of the supposed parties +effectual to this end, and not opposed to any preferred object of +pursuit, we may infer with certainty that it will be adopted. One +effectual expedient is not more effectual than obvious. Any two of the +parties, by combining, may swallow up the third. That such combination +will take place appears to be as certain as anything which depends upon +human will; because there are strong motives in favour of it, and none +that can be conceived in opposition to it...The mixture of three of the +kinds of government, it is thus evident, cannot possibly exist...It +may be proper to enquire whether an union may not be possible of two of +them... + +"Let us first suppose, that monarchy is united with aristocracy. Their +power is equal or not equal. If it is not equal, it follows, as a +necessary consequence, from the principles which we have already +established, that the stronger will take from the weaker till it +engrosses the whole. The only question therefore is, What will happen +when the power is equal? + +"In the first place, it seems impossible that such equality should ever +exist. How is it to be established? or, by what criterion is it to be +ascertained? If there is no such criterion, it must, in all cases, be +the result of chance. If so, the chances against it are as infinity to +one. The idea, therefore, is wholly chimerical and absurd... + +"In this doctrine of the mixture of the simple forms of government is +included the celebrated theory of the balance among the component parts +of a government. By this it is supposed that, when a government is +composed of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, they balance one +another, and by mutual checks produce good government. A few words will +suffice to show that, if any theory deserves the epithets of 'wild, +visionary, and chimerical,' it is that of the balance. If there are +three powers, how is it possible to prevent two of them from combining +to swallow up the third? + +"The analysis which we have already performed will enable us to trace +rapidly the concatenation of causes and effects in this imagined case. + +"We have already seen that the interests of the community, considered +in the aggregate, or in the democratical point of view, is, that each +individual should receive protection; and that the powers which are +constituted for that purpose should be employed exclusively for that +purpose...We have also seen that the interest of the king and of the +governing aristocracy is directly the reverse. It is to have unlimited +power over the rest of the community, and to use it for their own +advantage. In the supposed case of the balance of the monarchical, +aristocratical, and democratical powers, it cannot be for the interest +of either the monarchy or the aristocracy to combine with the democracy; +because it is the interest of the democracy, or community at large, that +neither the king nor the aristocracy should have one particle of power, +or one particle of the wealth of the community, for their own advantage. + +"The democracy or community have all possible motives to endeavour to +prevent the monarchy and aristocracy from exercising power, or obtaining +the wealth of the community for their own advantage. The monarchy +and aristocracy have all possible motives for endeavouring to obtain +unlimited power over the persons and property of the community. The +consequence is inevitable: they have all possible motives for combining +to obtain that power." + +If any part of this passage be more eminently absurd than another, it +is, we think, the argument by which Mr Mill proves that there cannot +be an union of monarchy and aristocracy. Their power, he says, must be +equal or not equal. But of equality there is no criterion. Therefore the +chances against its existence are as infinity to one. If the power be +not equal, then it follows, from the principles of human nature, that +the stronger will take from the weaker, till it has engrossed the whole. + +Now, if there be no criterion of equality between two portions of power +there can be no common measure of portions of power. Therefore it is +utterly impossible to compare them together. But where two portions +of power are of the same kind, there is no difficulty in ascertaining, +sufficiently for all practical purposes, whether they are equal or +unequal. It is easy to judge whether two men run equally fast, or can +lift equal weights. Two arbitrators, whose joint decision is to be +final, and neither of whom can do anything without the assent of the +other, possess equal power. Two electors, each of whom has a vote for +a borough, possess, in that respect, equal power. If not, all Mr Mill's +political theories fall to the ground at once. For, if it be impossible +to ascertain whether two portions of power are equal, he never can show +that even under a system of universal suffrage, a minority might not +carry every thing their own way, against the wishes and interests of the +majority. + +Where there are two portions of power differing in kind, there is, we +admit, no criterion of equality. But then, in such a case, it is absurd +to talk, as Mr Mill does, about the stronger and the weaker. Popularly, +indeed, and with reference to some particular objects, these words +may very fairly be used. But to use them mathematically is altogether +improper. If we are speaking of a boxing-match, we may say that some +famous bruiser has greater bodily power than any man in England. If +we are speaking of a pantomime, we may say the same of some very agile +harlequin. But it would be talking nonsense to say, in general, that the +power of Harlequin either exceeded that of the pugilist or fell short of +it. + +If Mr Mill's argument be good as between different branches of a +legislature, it is equally good as between sovereign powers. Every +government, it may be said, will, if it can, take the objects of its +desires from every other. If the French government can subdue England it +will do so. If the English government can subdue France it will do so. +But the power of England and France is either equal or not equal. The +chance that it is not exactly equal is as infinity to one, and may +safely be left out of the account; and then the stronger will infallibly +take from the weaker till the weaker is altogether enslaved. + +Surely the answer to all this hubbub of unmeaning words is the plainest +possible. For some purposes France is stronger than England. For some +purposes England is stronger than France. For some, neither has any +power at all. France has the greater population, England the greater +capital; France has the greater army, England the greater fleet. For an +expedition to Rio Janeiro or the Philippines, England has the greater +power. For a war on the Po or the Danube, France has the greater power. +But neither has power sufficient to keep the other in quiet subjection +for a month. Invasion would be very perilous; the idea of complete +conquest on either side utterly ridiculous. This is the manly and +sensible way of discussing such questions. The ergo, or rather the +argal, of Mr Mill cannot impose on a child. Yet we ought scarcely to say +this; for we remember to have heard A CHILD ask whether Bonaparte was +stronger than an elephant! + +Mr Mill reminds us of those philosophers of the sixteenth century who, +having satisfied themselves a priori that the rapidity with which bodies +descended to the earth varied exactly as their weights, refused to +believe the contrary on the evidence of their own eyes and ears. The +British constitution, according to Mr Mill's classification, is a +mixture of monarchy and aristocracy; one House of Parliament being +composed of hereditary nobles, and the other almost entirely chosen by a +privileged class who possess the elective franchise on account of their +property, or their connection with certain corporations. Mr Mill's +argument proves that, from the time that these two powers were mingled +in our government, that is, from the very first dawn of our history, one +or the other must have been constantly encroaching. According to him, +moreover, all the encroachments must have been on one side. For the +first encroachment could only have been made by the stronger; and that +first encroachment would have made the stronger stronger still. It is, +therefore, matter of absolute demonstration, that either the Parliament +was stronger than the Crown in the reign of Henry VIII., or that the +Crown was stronger than the Parliament in 1641. "Hippocrate dira ce que +lui plaira," says the girl in Moliere; "mais le cocher est mort." Mr +Mill may say what he pleases; but the English constitution is still +alive. That since the Revolution the Parliament has possessed great +power in the State, is what nobody will dispute. The King, on the +other hand, can create new peers, and can dissolve Parliaments. William +sustained severe mortifications from the House of Commons, and was, +indeed, unjustifiably oppressed. Anne was desirous to change a ministry +which had a majority in both Houses. She watched her moment for a +dissolution, created twelve Tory peers, and succeeded. Thirty years +later, the House of Commons drove Walpole from his seat. In 1784, George +III. was able to keep Mr Pitt in office in the face of a majority of the +House of Commons. In 1804, the apprehension of a defeat in Parliament +compelled the same King to part from his most favoured minister. But, +in 1807, he was able to do exactly what Anne had done nearly a hundred +years before. Now, had the power of the King increased during the +intervening century, or had it remained stationary? Is it possible that +the one lot among the infinite number should have fallen to us? If not, +Mr Mill has proved that one of the two parties must have been constantly +taking from the other. Many of the ablest men in England think that the +influence of the Crown has, on the whole, increased since the reign of +Anne. Others think that the Parliament has been growing in strength. But +of this there is no doubt, that both sides possessed great power then, +and possess great power now. Surely, if there were the least truth in +the argument of Mr Mill, it could not possibly be a matter of doubt, at +the end of a hundred and twenty years, whether the one side or the other +had been the gainer. + +But we ask pardon. We forgot that a fact, irreconcilable with Mr Mill's +theory, furnishes, in his opinion, the strongest reason for adhering to +the theory. To take up the question in another manner, is it not plain +that there may be two bodies, each possessing a perfect and entire +power, which cannot be taken from it without its own concurrence? What +is the meaning of the words stronger and weaker, when applied to such +bodies as these? The one may, indeed, by physical force, altogether +destroy the other. But this is not the question. A third party, a +general of their own, for example, may, by physical force, subjugate +them both. Nor is there any form of government, Mr Mill's utopian +democracy not excepted, secure from such an occurrence. We are speaking +of the powers with which the constitution invests the two branches of +the legislature; and we ask Mr Mill how, on his own principles, he can +maintain that one of them will be able to encroach on the other, if the +consent of the other be necessary to such encroachment? + +Mr Mill tells us that, if a government be composed of the three simple +forms, which he will not admit the British constitution to be, two of +the component parts will inevitably join against the third. Now, if two +of them combine and act as one, this case evidently resolves itself into +the last: and all the observations which we have just made will fully +apply to it. Mr Mill says, that "any two of the parties, by combining, +may swallow up the third;" and afterwards asks, "How is it possible to +prevent two of them from combining to swallow up the third?" Surely Mr +Mill must be aware that in politics two is not always the double of +one. If the concurrence of all the three branches of the legislature be +necessary to every law, each branch will possess constitutional power +sufficient to protect it against anything but that physical force +from which no form of government is secure. Mr Mill reminds us of the +Irishman, who could not be brought to understand how one juryman could +possibly starve out eleven others. + +But is it certain that two of the branches of the legislature will +combine against the third? "It appears to be as certain," says Mr Mill, +"as anything which depends upon human will; because there are strong +motives in favour of it, and none that can be conceived in opposition to +it." He subsequently sets forth what these motives are. The interest +of the democracy is that each individual should receive protection. The +interest of the King and the aristocracy is to have all the power that +they can obtain, and to use it for their own ends. Therefore the King +and the aristocracy have all possible motives for combining against the +people. If our readers will look back to the passage quoted above, they +will see that we represent Mr Mill's argument quite fairly. + +Now we should have thought that, without the help of either history +or experience, Mr Mill would have discovered, by the light of his own +logic, the fallacy which lurks, and indeed scarcely lurks, under this +pretended demonstration. The interest of the King may be opposed to that +of the people. But is it identical with that of the aristocracy? In the +very page which contains this argument, intended to prove that the King +and the aristocracy will coalesce against the people, Mr Mill attempts +to show that there is so strong an opposition of interest between the +King and the aristocracy that if the powers of government are divided +between them the one will inevitably usurp the power of the other. If +so, he is not entitled to conclude that they will combine to destroy the +power of the people merely because their interests may be at variance +with those of the people. He is bound to show, not merely that in +all communities the interest of a king must be opposed to that of the +people, but also that, in all communities, it must be more directly +opposed to the interest of the people than to the interest of the +aristocracy. But he has not shown this. Therefore he has not proved +his proposition on his own principles. To quote history would be a mere +waste of time. Every schoolboy, whose studies have gone so far as the +Abridgments of Goldsmith, can mention instances in which sovereigns have +allied themselves with the people against the aristocracy, and in which +the nobles have allied themselves with the people against the sovereign. +In general, when there are three parties, every one of which has much +to fear from the others, it is not found that two of them combine to +plunder the third. If such a combination be formed, it scarcely ever +effects its purpose. It soon becomes evident which member of the +coalition is likely to be the greater gainer by the transaction. He +becomes an object of jealousy to his ally, who, in all probability, +changes sides, and compels him to restore what he has taken. Everybody +knows how Henry VIII. trimmed between Francis and the Emperor Charles. +But it is idle to cite examples of the operation of a principle which is +illustrated in almost every page of history, ancient or modern, and to +which almost every state in Europe has, at one time or another, been +indebted for its independence. + +Mr Mill has now, as he conceives, demonstrated that the simple forms +of government are bad, and that the mixed forms cannot possibly exist. +There is still, however, it seems, a hope for mankind. + +"In the grand discovery of modern times, the system of representation, +the solution of all the difficulties, both speculative and practical, +will perhaps be found. If it cannot, we seem to be forced upon the +extraordinary conclusion, that good government is impossible. For, +as there is no individual or combination of individuals, except the +community itself, who would not have an interest in bad government if +intrusted with its powers, and as the community itself is incapable of +exercising those powers, and must intrust them to certain individuals, +the conclusion is obvious: the community itself must check those +individuals; else they will follow their interest, and produce bad +government. But how is it the community can check? The community can act +only when assembled; and when assembled, it is incapable of acting. The +community, however, can choose representatives." + +The next question is--How must the representative body be constituted? +Mr Mill lays down two principles, about which, he says, "it is unlikely +that there will be any dispute." + +"First, The checking body must have a degree of power sufficient for the +business of checking." + +"Secondly, It must have an identity of interest with the community. +Otherwise, it will make a mischievous use of its power." + +The first of these propositions certainly admits of no dispute. As to +the second, we shall hereafter take occasion to make some remarks on +the sense in which Mr Mill understands the words "interest of the +community." + +It does not appear very easy, on Mr Mill's principles, to find out any +mode of making the interest of the representative body identical with +that of the constituent body. The plan proposed by Mr Mill is simply +that of very frequent election. "As it appears," says he, "that limiting +the duration of their power is a security against the sinister interest +of the people's representatives, so it appears that it is the only +security of which the nature of the case admits." But all the arguments +by which Mr Mill has proved monarchy and aristocracy to be pernicious +will, as it appears to us, equally prove this security to be no security +at all. Is it not clear that the representatives, as soon as they are +elected, are an aristocracy, with an interest opposed to the interest of +the community? Why should they not pass a law for extending the term of +their power from one year to ten years, or declare themselves senators +for life? If the whole legislative power is given to them, they will be +constitutionally competent to do this. If part of the legislative power +is withheld from them, to whom is that part given? Is the people to +retain it, and to express its assent or dissent in primary assemblies? +Mr Mill himself tells us that the community can only act when assembled, +and that, when assembled, it is incapable of acting. Or is it to be +provided, as in some of the American republics, that no change in the +fundamental laws shall be made without the consent of a convention, +specially elected for the purpose? Still the difficulty recurs: Why may +not the members of the convention betray their trust, as well as the +members of the ordinary legislature? When private men, they may have +been zealous for the interests of the community. When candidates, they +may have pledged themselves to the cause of the constitution. But, as +soon as they are a convention, as soon as they are separated from the +people, as soon as the supreme power is put into their hands, commences +that interest opposite to the interest of the community which must, +according to Mr Mill, produce measures opposite to the interests of the +community. We must find some other means, therefore, of checking this +check upon a check; some other prop to carry the tortoise, that carries +the elephant, that carries the world. + +We know well that there is no real danger in such a case. But there is +no danger only because there is no truth in Mr Mill's principles. If men +were what he represents them to be, the letter of the very constitution +which he recommends would afford no safeguard against bad government. +The real security is this, that legislators will be deterred by the +fear of resistance and of infamy from acting in the manner which we have +described. But restraints, exactly the same in kind, and differing +only in degree, exist in all forms of government. That broad line of +distinction which Mr Mill tries to point out between monarchies and +aristocracies on the one side, and democracies on the other, has in fact +no existence. In no form of government is there an absolute identity +of interest between the people and their rulers. In every form of +government, the rulers stand in some awe of the people. The fear of +resistance and the sense of shame operate in a certain degree, on the +most absolute kings and the most illiberal oligarchies. And nothing but +the fear of resistance and the sense of shame preserves the freedom of +the most democratic communities from the encroachments of their annual +and biennial delegates. + +We have seen how Mr Mill proposes to render the interest of the +representative body identical with that of the constituent body. The +next question is, in what manner the interest of the constituent body is +to be rendered identical with that of the community. Mr Mill shows that +a minority of the community, consisting even of many thousands, would be +a bad constituent body, and, indeed, merely a numerous aristocracy. + +"The benefits of the representative system," says he, "are lost in all +cases in which the interests of the choosing body are not the same with +those of the community. It is very evident, that if the community itself +were the choosing body, the interests of the community and that of the +choosing body would be the same." + +On these grounds Mr Mill recommends that all males of mature age, rich +and poor, educated and ignorant, shall have votes. But why not the women +too? This question has often been asked in parliamentary debate, and has +never, to our knowledge, received a plausible answer. Mr Mill escapes +from it as fast as he can. But we shall take the liberty to dwell a +little on the words of the oracle. "One thing," says he, "is pretty +clear, that all those individuals whose interests are involved in those +of other individuals, may be struck off without inconvenience...In +this light women may be regarded, the interest of almost all of whom is +involved either in that of their fathers, or in that of their husbands." + +If we were to content ourselves with saying, in answer to all the +arguments in Mr Mill's essay, that the interest of a king is involved +in that of the community, we should be accused, and justly, of talking +nonsense. Yet such an assertion would not, as far as we can perceive, +be more unreasonable than that which Mr Mill has here ventured to make. +Without adducing one fact, without taking the trouble to perplex the +question by one sophism, he placidly dogmatises away the interest of one +half of the human race. If there be a word of truth in history, women +have always been, and still are, over the greater part of the globe, +humble companions, play things, captives, menials, beasts of burden. +Except in a few happy and highly civilised communities, they are +strictly in a state of personal slavery. Even in those countries where +they are best treated, the laws are generally unfavourable to them, +with respect to almost all the points in which they are most deeply +interested. + +Mr Mill is not legislating for England or the United States, but for +mankind. Is then the interest of a Turk the same with that of the girls +who compose his harem? Is the interest of a Chinese the same with that +of the woman whom he harnesses to his plough? Is the interest of an +Italian the same with that of the daughter whom he devotes to God? +The interest of a respectable Englishman may be said, without any +impropriety, to be identical with that of his wife. But why is it so? +Because human nature is NOT what Mr Mill conceives it to be; because +civilised men, pursuing their own happiness in a social state, are not +Yahoos fighting for carrion; because there is a pleasure in being loved +and esteemed, as well as in being feared and servilely obeyed. Why does +not a gentleman restrict his wife to the bare maintenance which the law +would compel him to allow her, that he may have more to spend on his +personal pleasures? Because, if he loves her, he has pleasure in seeing +her pleased; and because, even if he dislikes her, he is unwilling that +the whole neighbourhood should cry shame on his meanness and ill-nature. +Why does not the legislature, altogether composed of males, pass a law +to deprive women of all civil privileges whatever, and reduce them to +the state of slaves? By passing such a law, they would gratify what +Mr Mill tells us is an inseparable part of human nature, the desire to +possess unlimited power of inflicting pain upon others. That they do not +pass such a law, though they have the power to pass it, and that no man +in England wishes to see such a law passed, proves that the desire to +possess unlimited power of inflicting pain is not inseparable from human +nature. + +If there be in this country an identity of interest between the two +sexes, it cannot possibly arise from anything but the pleasure of being +loved, and of communicating happiness. For, that it does not spring from +the mere instinct of sex, the treatment which women experience over the +greater part of the world abundantly proves. And, if it be said that our +laws of marriage have produced it, this only removes the argument a +step further; for those laws have been made by males. Now, if the kind +feelings of one half of the species be a sufficient security for the +happiness of the other, why may not the kind feelings of a monarch or +an aristocracy be sufficient at least to prevent them from grinding the +people to the very utmost of their power? + +If Mr Mill will examine why it is that women are better treated in +England than in Persia, he may perhaps find out, in the course of +his inquiries, why it is that the Danes are better governed than the +subjects of Caligula. + +We now come to the most important practical question in the whole essay. +Is it desirable that all males arrived at years of discretion should +vote for representatives, or should a pecuniary qualification be +required? Mr Mill's opinion is, that the lower the qualification the +better; and that the best system is that in which there is none at all. + +"The qualification," says he, "must either be such as to embrace +the majority of the population, or something less than the majority. +Suppose, in the first place, that it embraces the majority, the question +is, whether the majority would have an interest in oppressing those +who, upon this supposition, would be deprived of political power? If we +reduce the calculation to its elements, we shall see that the interest +which they would have of this deplorable kind, though it would be +something, would not be very great. Each man of the majority, if the +majority were constituted the governing body, would have something less +than the benefit of oppressing a single man. If the majority were twice +as great as the minority, each man of the majority would only have one +half the benefit of oppressing a single man...Suppose in the second +place, that the qualification did not admit a body of electors so large +as the majority, in that case, taking again the calculation in its +elements, we shall see that each man would have a benefit equal to +that derived from the oppression of more than one man; and that, in +proportion as the elective body constituted a smaller and smaller +minority, the benefit of misrule to the elective body would be +increased, and bad government would be insured." + +The first remark which we have to make on this argument is, that, by Mr +Mill's own account, even a government in which every human being +should vote would still be defective. For, under a system of universal +suffrage, the majority of the electors return the representative, and +the majority of the representatives make the law. The whole people may +vote, therefore; but only the majority govern. So that, by Mr Mill's own +confession, the most perfect system of government conceivable is one in +which the interest of the ruling body to oppress, though not great, is +something. + +But is Mr Mill in the right when he says that such an interest could +not be very great? We think not. If, indeed, every man in the community +possessed an equal share of what Mr Mill calls the objects of desire, +the majority would probably abstain from plundering the minority. A +large minority would offer a vigorous resistance; and the property of +a small minority would not repay the other members of the community +for the trouble of dividing it. But it happens that in all civilised +communities there is a small minority of rich men, and a great majority +of poor men. If there were a thousand men with ten pounds apiece, it +would not be worth while for nine hundred and ninety of them to rob +ten, and it would be a bold attempt for six hundred of them to rob four +hundred. But, if ten of them had a hundred thousand pounds apiece, the +case would be very different. There would then be much to be got, and +nothing to be feared. + +"That one human being will desire to render the person and property of +another subservient to his pleasures, notwithstanding the pain or +loss of pleasure which it may occasion to that other individual, is," +according to Mr Mill, "the foundation of government." That the property +of the rich minority can be made subservient to the pleasures of the +poor majority will scarcely be denied. But Mr Mill proposes to give the +poor majority power over the rich minority. Is it possible to doubt to +what, on his own principles, such an arrangement must lead? + +It may perhaps be said that, in the long run, it is for the interest of +the people that property should be secure, and that therefore they will +respect it. We answer thus:--It cannot be pretended that it is not for +the immediate interest of the people to plunder the rich. Therefore, +even if it were quite certain that, in the long run, the people would, +as a body, lose by doing so, it would not necessarily follow that the +fear of remote ill consequences would overcome the desire of immediate +acquisitions. Every individual might flatter himself that the punishment +would not fall on him. Mr Mill himself tells us, in his Essay on +Jurisprudence, that no quantity of evil which is remote and uncertain +will suffice to prevent crime. + +But we are rather inclined to think that it would, on the whole, be +for the interest of the majority to plunder the rich. If so, the +Utilitarians will say, that the rich OUGHT to be plundered. We deny the +inference. For, in the first place, if the object of government be +the greatest happiness of the greatest number, the intensity of the +suffering which a measure inflicts must be taken into consideration, +as well as the number of the sufferers. In the next place, we have +to notice one most important distinction which Mr Mill has altogether +overlooked. Throughout his essay, he confounds the community with the +species. He talks of the greatest happiness of the greatest number: +but, when we examine his reasonings, we find that he thinks only of the +greatest number of a single generation. + +Therefore, even if we were to concede that all those arguments of which +we have exposed the fallacy are unanswerable, we might still deny the +conclusion at which the essayist arrives. Even if we were to grant that +he had found out the form of government which is best for the majority +of the people now living on the face of the earth, we might still +without inconsistency maintain that form of government to be pernicious +to mankind. It would still be incumbent on Mr Mill to prove that the +interest of every generation is identical with the interest of all +succeeding generations. And how on his own principles he could do this +we are at a loss to conceive. + +The case, indeed, is strictly analogous to that of an aristocratic +government. In an aristocracy, says Mr Mill, the few being invested with +the powers of government, can take the objects of their desires from the +people. In the same manner, every generation in turn can gratify itself +at the expense of posterity,--priority of time, in the latter case, +giving an advantage exactly corresponding to that which superiority +of station gives in the former. That an aristocracy will abuse its +advantage, is, according to Mr Mill, matter of demonstration. Is it not +equally certain that the whole people will do the same: that, if they +have the power, they will commit waste of every sort on the estate of +mankind, and transmit it to posterity impoverished and desolated? + +How is it possible for any person who holds the doctrines of Mr Mill to +doubt that the rich, in a democracy such as that which he recommends, +would be pillaged as unmercifully as under a Turkish Pacha? It is no +doubt for the interest of the next generation, and it may be for the +remote interest of the present generation, that property should be held +sacred. And so no doubt it will be for the interest of the next Pacha, +and even for that of the present Pacha, if he should hold office long, +that the inhabitants of his Pachalik should be encouraged to accumulate +wealth. Scarcely any despotic sovereign has plundered his subjects to a +large extent without having reason before the end of his reign to regret +it. Everybody knows how bitterly Louis the Fourteenth, towards the +close of his life, lamented his former extravagance. If that magnificent +prince had not expended millions on Marli and Versailles, and tens of +millions on the aggrandisement of his grandson, he would not have been +compelled at last to pay servile court to low-born money-lenders, to +humble himself before men on whom, in the days of his pride, he would +not have vouchsafed to look, for the means of supporting even his own +household. Examples to the same effect might easily be multiplied. +But despots, we see, do plunder their subjects, though history and +experience tell them that, by prematurely exacting the means of +profusion, they are in fact devouring the seed-corn from which the +future harvest of revenue is to spring. Why then should we suppose +that the people will be deterred from procuring immediate relief and +enjoyment by the fear of distant calamities, of calamities which perhaps +may not be fully felt till the times of their grandchildren? + +These conclusions are strictly drawn from Mr Mill's own principles: and, +unlike most of the conclusions which he has himself drawn from those +principles, they are not as far as we know contradicted by facts. +The case of the United States is not in point. In a country where the +necessaries of life are cheap and the wages of labour high, where a man +who has no capital but his legs and arms may expect to become rich by +industry and frugality, it is not very decidedly even for the immediate +advantage of the poor to plunder the rich; and the punishment of doing +so would very speedily follow the offence. But in countries in which +the great majority live from hand to mouth, and in which vast masses of +wealth have been accumulated by a comparatively small number, the case +is widely different. The immediate want is, at particular seasons, +craving, imperious, irresistible. In our own time it has steeled men +to the fear of the gallows, and urged them on the point of the bayonet. +And, if these men had at their command that gallows and those bayonets +which now scarcely restrain them, what is to be expected? Nor is this +state of things one which can exist only under a bad government. If +there be the least truth in the doctrines of the school to which Mr +Mill belongs, the increase of population will necessarily produce it +everywhere. The increase of population is accelerated by good and cheap +government. Therefore, the better the government, the greater is the +inequality of conditions: and the greater the inequality of conditions, +the stronger are the motives which impel the populace to spoliation. As +for America, we appeal to the twentieth century. + +It is scarcely necessary to discuss the effects which a general +spoliation of the rich would produce. It may indeed happen that, where +a legal and political system full of abuses is inseparably bound up with +the institution of property, a nation may gain by a single convulsion, +in which both perish together. The price is fearful. But if, when the +shock is over, a new order of things should arise under which property +may enjoy security, the industry of individuals will soon repair the +devastation. Thus we entertain no doubt that the Revolution was, on the +whole, a most salutary event for France. But would France have gained +if, ever since the year 1793, she had been governed by a democratic +convention? If Mr Mill's principles be sound, we say that almost her +whole capital would by this time have been annihilated. As soon as the +first explosion was beginning to be forgotten, as soon as wealth again +began to germinate, as soon as the poor again began to compare their +cottages and salads with the hotels and banquets of the rich, there +would have been another scramble for property, another maximum, another +general confiscation, another reign of terror. Four or five such +convulsions following each other, at intervals of ten or twelve years, +would reduce the most flourishing countries of Europe to the state of +Barbary or the Morea. + +The civilised part of the world has now nothing to fear from the +hostility of savage nations. Once the deluge of barbarism has passed +over it, to destroy and to fertilise; and in the present state of +mankind we enjoy a full security against that calamity. That flood will +no more return to cover the earth. But is it possible that in the bosom +of civilisation itself may be engendered the malady which shall destroy +it? Is it possible that institutions may be established which, without +the help of earthquake, of famine, of pestilence, or of the foreign +sword, may undo the work of so many ages of wisdom and glory, and +gradually sweep away taste, literature, science, commerce, manufactures, +everything but the rude arts necessary to the support of animal life? +Is it possible that, in two or three hundred years, a few lean and +half-naked fishermen may divide with owls and foxes the ruins of the +greatest European cities--may wash their nets amidst the relics of her +gigantic docks, and build their huts out of the capitals of her stately +cathedrals? If the principles of Mr Mill be sound, we say, without +hesitation, that the form of government which he recommends will +assuredly produce all this. But, if these principles be unsound, if +the reasonings by which we have opposed them be just, the higher and +middling orders are the natural representatives of the human race. +Their interest may be opposed in some things to that of their poorer +contemporaries; but it is identical with that of the innumerable +generations which are to follow. + +Mr Mill concludes his essay, by answering an objection often made to the +project of universal suffrage--that the people do not understand their +own interests. We shall not go through his arguments on this subject, +because, till he has proved that it is for the interest of the people +to respect property, he only makes matters worse by proving that they +understand their interests. But we cannot refrain from treating our +readers with a delicious bonne bouche of wisdom, which he has kept for +the last moment. + +"The opinions of that class of the people who are below the middle rank +are formed, and their minds are directed, by that intelligent, that +virtuous rank, who come the most immediately in contact with them, who +are in the constant habit of intimate communication with them, to whom +they fly for advice and assistance in all their numerous difficulties, +upon whom they feel an immediate and daily dependence in health and in +sickness, in infancy and in old age, to whom their children look up as +models for their imitation, whose opinions they hear daily repeated, and +account it their honour to adopt. There can be no doubt that the middle +rank, which gives to science, to art, and to legislation itself their +most distinguished ornaments, and is the chief source of all that has +exalted and refined human nature, is that portion of the community, of +which, if the basis of representation were ever so far extended, the +opinion would ultimately decide. Of the people beneath them, a vast +majority would be sure to be guided by their advice and example." + +This single paragraph is sufficient to upset Mr Mill's theory. Will +the people act against their own interest? Or will the middle rank +act against its own interest? Or is the interest of the middle rank +identical with the interest of the people? If the people act according +to the directions of the middle rank, as Mr Mill says that they +assuredly will, one of these three questions must be answered in +the affirmative. But, if any one of the three be answered in the +affirmative, his whole system falls to the ground. If the interest of +the middle rank be identical with that of the people, why should not +the powers of government be intrusted to that rank? If the powers of +government were intrusted to that rank, there would evidently be an +aristocracy of wealth; and "to constitute an aristocracy of wealth, +though it were a very numerous one, would," according to Mr Mill, +"leave the community without protection, and exposed to all the evils +of unbridled power." Will not the same motives which induce the middle +classes to abuse one kind of power induce them to abuse another? If +their interest be the same with that of the people they will govern the +people well. If it be opposite to that of the people they will advise +the people ill. The system of universal suffrage, therefore, according +to Mr Mill's own account, is only a device for doing circuitously what +a representative system, with a pretty high qualification, would do +directly. + +So ends this celebrated Essay. And such is this philosophy for which the +experience of three thousand years is to be discarded; this philosophy, +the professors of which speak as if it had guided the world to the +knowledge of navigation and alphabetical writing; as if, before its +dawn, the inhabitants of Europe had lived in caverns and eaten each +other! We are sick, it seems, like the children of Israel, of the +objects of our old and legitimate worship. We pine for a new idolatry. +All that is costly and all that is ornamental in our intellectual +treasures must be delivered up, and cast into the furnace--and there +comes out this Calf! + +Our readers can scarcely mistake our object in writing this article. +They will not suspect us of any disposition to advocate the cause of +absolute monarchy, or of any narrow form of oligarchy, or to exaggerate +the evils of popular government. Our object at present is, not so much +to attack or defend any particular system of polity, as to expose the +vices of a kind of reasoning utterly unfit for moral and political +discussions; of a kind of reasoning which may so readily be turned to +purposes of falsehood that it ought to receive no quarter, even when by +accident it may be employed on the side of truth. + +Our objection to the essay of Mr Mill is fundamental. We believe that +it is utterly impossible to deduce the science of government from the +principles of human nature. + +What proposition is there respecting human nature which is absolutely +and universally true? We know of only one: and that is not only true, +but identical; that men always act from self-interest. This truism the +Utilitarians proclaim with as much pride as if it were new, and as much +zeal as if it were important. But in fact, when explained, it means only +that men, if they can, will do as they choose. When we see the actions +of a man we know with certainty what he thinks his interest to be. But +it is impossible to reason with certainty from what WE take to be his +interest to his actions. One man goes without a dinner that he may add +a shilling to a hundred thousand pounds: another runs in debt to +give balls and masquerades. One man cuts his father's throat to get +possession of his old clothes: another hazards his own life to save that +of an enemy. One man volunteers on a forlorn hope: another is drummed +out of a regiment for cowardice. Each of these men has, no doubt, acted +from self-interest. But we gain nothing by knowing this, except the +pleasure, if it be one, of multiplying useless words. In fact, this +principle is just as recondite and just as important as the great truth +that whatever is, is. If a philosopher were always to state facts in +the following form--"There is a shower: but whatever is, is; therefore, +there is a shower,"--his reasoning would be perfectly sound; but we +do not apprehend that it would materially enlarge the circle of human +knowledge. And it is equally idle to attribute any importance to a +proposition, which, when interpreted means only that a man had rather do +what he had rather do. + +If the doctrine, that men always act from self-interest, be laid down in +any other sense than this--if the meaning of the word self-interest +be narrowed so as to exclude any one of the motives which may by +possibility act on any human being, the proposition ceases to be +identical: but at the same time it ceases to be true. + +What we have said of the word "self-interest" applies to all the +synonymes and circumlocutions which are employed to convey the same +meaning; pain and pleasure, happiness and misery, objects of desire, and +so forth. + +The whole art of Mr Mill's essay consists in one simple trick of +legerdemain. It consists in using words of the sort which we have been +describing first in one sense and then in another. Men will take the +objects of their desire if they can. Unquestionably:--but this is an +identical proposition: for an object of desire means merely a thing +which a man will procure if he can. Nothing can possibly be inferred +from a maxim of this kind. When we see a man take something we shall +know that it was an object of his desire. But till then we have no means +of judging with certainty what he desires or what he will take. The +general proposition, however, having been admitted, Mr Mill proceeds to +reason as if men had no desires but those which can be gratified only by +spoliation and oppression. It then becomes easy to deduce doctrines of +vast importance from the original axiom. The only misfortune is, that by +thus narrowing the meaning of the word desire the axiom becomes false, +and all the doctrines consequent upon it are false likewise. + +When we pass beyond those maxims which it is impossible to deny without +a contradiction in terms, and which, therefore, do not enable us to +advance a single step in practical knowledge, we do not believe that +it is possible to lay down a single general rule respecting the motives +which influence human actions. There is nothing which may not, by +association or by comparison, become an object either of desire or +of aversion. The fear of death is generally considered as one of the +strongest of our feelings. It is the most formidable sanction which +legislators have been able to devise. Yet it is notorious that, as Lord +Bacon has observed, there is no passion by which that fear has not been +often overcome. Physical pain is indisputably an evil; yet it has been +often endured and even welcomed. Innumerable martyrs have exulted in +torments which made the spectators shudder: and to use a more homely +illustration, there are few wives who do not long to be mothers. + +Is the love of approbation a stronger motive than the love of wealth? It +is impossible to answer this question generally even in the case of an +individual with whom we are very intimate. We often say, indeed, that +a man loves fame more than money, or money more than fame. But this is +said in a loose and popular sense; for there is scarcely a man who +would not endure a few sneers for a great sum of money, if he were in +pecuniary distress; and scarcely a man, on the other hand, who, if he +were in flourishing circumstances, would expose himself to the hatred +and contempt of the public for a trifle. In order, therefore, to return +a precise answer even about a single human being, we must know what is +the amount of the sacrifice of reputation demanded and of the pecuniary +advantage offered, and in what situation the person to whom the +temptation is proposed stands at the time. But, when the question is +propounded generally about the whole species, the impossibility of +answering is still more evident. Man differs from man; generation from +generation; nation from nation. Education, station, sex, age, accidental +associations, produce infinite shades of variety. + +Now, the only mode in which we can conceive it possible to deduce a +theory of government from the principles of human nature is this. +We must find out what are the motives which, in a particular form of +government, impel rulers to bad measures, and what are those which +impel them to good measures. We must then compare the effect of the two +classes of motives; and according as we find the one or the other to +prevail, we must pronounce the form of government in question good or +bad. + +Now let it be supposed that, in aristocratical and monarchical states, +the desire of wealth and other desires of the same class always tend +to produce misgovernment, and that the love of approbation and other +kindred feelings always tend to produce good government. Then, if it be +impossible, as we have shown that it is, to pronounce generally which of +the two classes of motives is the more influential, it is impossible +to find out, a priori, whether a monarchical or aristocratical form of +government be good or bad. + +Mr Mill has avoided the difficulty of making the comparison, by very +coolly putting all the weights into one of the scales,--by reasoning as +if no human being had ever sympathised with the feelings, been gratified +by the thanks, or been galled by the execrations, of another. + +The case, as we have put it, is decisive against Mr Mill, and yet we +have put it in a manner far too favourable to him. For, in fact, it is +impossible to lay it down as a general rule that the love of wealth in a +sovereign always produces misgovernment, or the love of approbation good +government. A patient and far-sighted ruler, for example, who is +less desirous of raising a great sum immediately than of securing an +unencumbered and progressive revenue, will, by taking off restraints +from trade and giving perfect security to property, encourage +accumulation and entice capital from foreign countries. The commercial +policy of Prussia, which is perhaps superior to that of any country in +the world, and which puts to shame the absurdities of our republican +brethren on the other side of the Atlantic, has probably sprung from the +desire of an absolute ruler to enrich himself. On the other hand, when +the popular estimate of virtues and vices is erroneous, which is too +often the case, the love of approbation leads sovereigns to spend +the wealth of the nation on useless shows, or to engage in wanton and +destructive wars. If then we can neither compare the strength of two +motives, nor determine with certainty to what description of actions +either motive will lead, how can we possibly deduce a theory of +government from the nature of man? + +How, then, are we to arrive at just conclusions on a subject so +important to the happiness of mankind? Surely by that method which, in +every experimental science to which it has been applied, has signally +increased the power and knowledge of our species,--by that method for +which our new philosophers would substitute quibbles scarcely worthy +of the barbarous respondents and opponents of the middle ages,--by the +method of Induction;--by observing the present state of the world,--by +assiduously studying the history of past ages,--by sifting the evidence +of facts,--by carefully combining and contrasting those which +are authentic,--by generalising with judgment and diffidence,--by +perpetually bringing the theory which we have constructed to the test +of new facts,--by correcting, or altogether abandoning it, according +as those new facts prove it to be partially or fundamentally unsound. +Proceeding thus,--patiently,--diligently,--candidly,--we may hope to +form a system as far inferior in pretension to that which we have been +examining and as far superior to it in real utility as the prescriptions +of a great physician, varying with every stage of every malady and with +the constitution of every patient, to the pill of the advertising quack +which is to cure all human beings, in all climates, of all diseases. + +This is that noble Science of Politics, which is equally removed from +the barren theories of the Utilitarian sophists, and from the petty +craft, so often mistaken for statesmanship by minds grown narrow in +habits of intrigue, jobbing, and official etiquette;--which of all +sciences is the most important to the welfare of nations,--which of +all sciences most tends to expand and invigorate the mind,--which draws +nutriment and ornament from every part of philosophy and literature, +and dispenses in return nutriment and ornament to all. We are sorry and +surprised when we see men of good intentions and good natural abilities +abandon this healthful and generous study to pore over speculations like +those which we have been examining. And we should heartily rejoice to +find that our remarks had induced any person of this description to +employ, in researches of real utility, the talents and industry which +are now wasted on verbal sophisms, wretched of their wretched kind. + +As to the greater part of the sect, it is, we apprehend, of little +consequence what they study or under whom. It would be more amusing, to +be sure, and more reputable, if they would take up the old republican +cant and declaim about Brutus and Timoleon, the duty of killing tyrants +and the blessedness of dying for liberty. But, on the whole, they +might have chosen worse. They may as well be Utilitarians as jockeys +or dandies. And, though quibbling about self-interest and motives, and +objects of desire, and the greatest happiness of the greatest number, +is but a poor employment for a grown man, it certainly hurts the health +less than hard drinking, and the fortune less than high play; it is not +much more laughable than phrenology, and is immeasurably more humane +than cock-fighting. + +***** + + + + +WESTMINSTER REVIEWER'S DEFENCE OF MILL. (June 1829.) + + "Westminster Review" Number XXI., Article XVI. "Edinburgh + Review" Number XCVII., Article on Mill's Essays on + Government, etc. + +We have had great reason, we think, to be gratified by the success of +our late attack on the Utilitarians. We could publish a long list of the +cures which it has wrought in cases previously considered as hopeless. +Delicacy forbids us to divulge names; but we cannot refrain from +alluding to two remarkable instances. A respectable lady writes to +inform us that her son, who was plucked at Cambridge last January, has +not been heard to call Sir James Mackintosh a poor ignorant fool +more than twice since the appearance of our article. A distinguished +political writer in the Westminster and Parliamentary Reviews has +borrowed Hume's History, and has actually got as far as the battle of +Agincourt. He assures us that he takes great pleasure in his new study, +and that he is very impatient to learn how Scotland and England became +one kingdom. But the greatest compliment that we have received is that +Mr Bentham himself should have condescended to take the field in defence +of Mr Mill. We have not been in the habit of reviewing reviews: but, as +Mr Bentham is a truly great man, and as his party have thought fit to +announce in puffs and placards that this article is written by him, and +contains not only an answer to our attacks, but a development of the +"greatest happiness principle," with the latest improvements of the +author, we shall for once depart from our general rule. However the +conflict may terminate, we shall at least not have been vanquished by an +ignoble hand. + +Of Mr Bentham himself we shall endeavour, even while defending ourselves +against his reproaches, to speak with the respect to which his venerable +age, his genius, and his public services entitle him. If any harsh +expression should escape us, we trust that he will attribute it to +inadvertence, to the momentary warmth of controversy,--to anything, in +short, rather than to a design of affronting him. Though we have +nothing in common with the crew of Hurds and Boswells, who, either from +interested motives, or from the habit of intellectual servility and +dependence, pamper and vitiate his appetite with the noxious sweetness +of their undiscerning praise, we are not perhaps less competent than +they to appreciate his merit, or less sincerely disposed to acknowledge +it. Though we may sometimes think his reasonings on moral and political +questions feeble and sophistical--though we may sometimes smile at his +extraordinary language--we can never be weary of admiring the amplitude +of his comprehension, the keenness of his penetration, the exuberant +fertility with which his mind pours forth arguments and illustrations. +However sharply he may speak of us, we can never cease to revere in him +the father of the philosophy of Jurisprudence. He has a full right to +all the privileges of a great inventor: and, in our court of criticism, +those privileges will never be pleaded in vain. But they are limited +in the same manner in which, fortunately for the ends of justice, the +privileges of the peerage are now limited. The advantage is personal and +incommunicable. A nobleman can now no longer cover with his protection +every lackey who follows his heels, or every bully who draws in his +quarrel: and, highly as we respect the exalted rank which Mr Bentham +holds among the writers of our time, yet when, for the due maintenance +of literary police, we shall think it necessary to confute sophists, +or to bring pretenders to shame, we shall not depart from the ordinary +course of our proceedings because the offenders call themselves +Benthamites. + +Whether Mr Mill has much reason to thank Mr Bentham for undertaking his +defence, our readers, when they have finished this article, will perhaps +be inclined to doubt. Great as Mr Bentham's talents are, he has, we +think, shown an undue confidence in them. He should have considered how +dangerous it is for any man, however eloquent and ingenious he may +be, to attack or defend a book without reading it: and we feel quite +convinced that Mr Bentham would never have written the article before +us if he had, before he began, perused our review with attention, and +compared it with Mr Mill's Essay. + +He has utterly mistaken our object and meaning. He seems to think that +we have undertaken to set up some theory of government in opposition to +that of Mr Mill. But we distinctly disclaimed any such design. From +the beginning to the end of our article, there is not, as far as +we remember, a single sentence which, when fairly construed, can be +considered as indicating any such design. If such an expression can be +found, it has been dropped by inadvertence. Our object was to prove, not +that monarchy and aristocracy are good, but that Mr Mill had not proved +them to be bad; not that democracy is bad, but that Mr Mill had not +proved it to be good. The points in issue are these: whether the famous +Essay on Government be, as it has been called, a perfect solution of +the great political problem, or a series of sophisms and blunders; and +whether the sect which, while it glories in the precision of its logic, +extols this Essay as a masterpiece of demonstration be a sect deserving +of the respect or of the derision of mankind. These, we say, are the +issues; and on these we with full confidence put ourselves on the +country. + +It is not necessary, for the purposes of this investigation, that +we should state what our political creed is, or whether we have any +political creed at all. A man who cannot act the most trivial part in a +farce has a right to hiss Romeo Coates: a man who does not know a vein +from an artery may caution a simple neighbour against the advertisements +of Dr Eady. A complete theory of government would indeed be a noble +present to mankind; but it is a present which we do not hope and do not +pretend that we can offer. If, however, we cannot lay the foundation, it +is something to clear away the rubbish; if we cannot set up truth, it +is something to pull down error. Even if the subjects of which the +Utilitarians treat were subjects of less fearful importance, we should +think it no small service to the cause of good sense and good taste to +point out the contrast between their magnificent pretensions and their +miserable performances. Some of them have, however, thought fit to +display their ingenuity on questions of the most momentous kind, and on +questions concerning which men cannot reason ill with impunity. We think +it, under these circumstances, an absolute duty to expose the fallacy of +their arguments. It is no matter of pride or of pleasure. To read their +works is the most soporific employment that we know; and a man ought no +more to be proud of refuting them than of having two legs. We must now +come to close quarters with Mr Bentham, whom, we need not say, we do not +mean to include in this observation. He charges us with maintaining,-- + +"First, 'That it is not true that all despots govern ill;'--whereon the +world is in a mistake, and the Whigs have the true light. And for proof, +principally,--that the King of Denmark is not Caligula. To which the +answer is, that the King of Denmark is not a despot. He was put in his +present situation by the people turning the scale in his favour in a +balanced contest between himself and the nobility. And it is quite clear +that the same power would turn the scale the other way the moment a King +of Denmark should take into his head to be Caligula. It is of little +consequence by what congeries of letters the Majesty of Denmark is +typified in the royal press of Copenhagen, while the real fact is +that the sword of the people is suspended over his head, in case of +ill-behaviour, as effectually as in other countries where more noise is +made upon the subject. Everybody believes the sovereign of Denmark to be +a good and virtuous gentleman; but there is no more superhuman merit in +his being so than in the case of a rural squire who does not shoot his +land-steward or quarter his wife with his yeomanry sabre. + +"It is true that there are partial exceptions to the rule, that all +men use power as badly as they dare. There may have been such things as +amiable negro-drivers and sentimental masters of press-gangs; and here +and there, among the odd freaks of human nature, there may have been +specimens of men who were 'No tyrants, though bred up to tyranny.' But +it would be as wise to recommend wolves for nurses at the Foundling on +the credit of Romulus and Remus as to substitute the exception for the +general fact, and advise mankind to take to trusting to arbitrary power +on the credit of these specimens." + +Now, in the first place, we never cited the case of Denmark to prove +that all despots do not govern ill. We cited it to prove that Mr Mill +did not know how to reason. Mr Mill gave it as a reason for deducing the +theory of government from the general laws of human nature that the King +of Denmark was not Caligula. This we said, and we still say, was absurd. + +In the second place, it was not we, but Mr Mill, who said that the King +of Denmark was a despot. His words are these:--"The people of Denmark, +tired out with the oppression of an aristocracy, resolved that their +king should be absolute; and under their absolute monarch are as well +governed as any people in Europe." We leave Mr Bentham to settle with Mr +Mill the distinction between a despot and an absolute king. + +In the third place, Mr Bentham says that there was in Denmark a balanced +contest between the king and the nobility. We find some difficulty in +believing that Mr Bentham seriously means to say this, when we consider +that Mr Mill has demonstrated the chance to be as infinity to one +against the existence of such a balanced contest. + +Fourthly, Mr Bentham says that in this balanced contest the people +turned the scale in favour of the king against the aristocracy. But Mr +Mill has demonstrated that it cannot possibly be for the interest of +the monarchy and democracy to join against the aristocracy; and that +wherever the three parties exist, the king and the aristocracy will +combine against the people. This, Mr Mill assures us, is as certain as +anything which depends upon human will. + +Fifthly, Mr Bentham says that, if the King of Denmark were to oppress +his people, the people and nobles would combine against the king. But Mr +Mill has proved that it can never be for the interest of the aristocracy +to combine with the democracy against the king. It is evidently Mr +Bentham's opinion, that "monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy may +balance each other, and by mutual checks produce good government." But +this is the very theory which Mr Mill pronounces to be the wildest, +the most visionary, the most chimerical ever broached on the subject of +government. + +We have no dispute on these heads with Mr Bentham. On the contrary, we +think his explanation true--or at least, true in part; and we heartily +thank him for lending us his assistance to demolish the essay of his +follower. His wit and his sarcasm are sport to us; but they are death to +his unhappy disciple. + +Mr Bentham seems to imagine that we have said something implying an +opinion favourable to despotism. We can scarcely suppose that, as he has +not condescended to read that portion of our work which he undertook to +answer, he can have bestowed much attention on its general character. +Had he done so he would, we think, scarcely have entertained such +a suspicion. Mr Mill asserts, and pretends to prove, that under no +despotic government does any human being, except the tools of the +sovereign, possess more than the necessaries of life, and that the most +intense degree of terror is kept up by constant cruelty. This, we say, +is untrue. It is not merely a rule to which there are exceptions: but it +is not the rule. Despotism is bad; but it is scarcely anywhere so bad +as Mr Mill says that it is everywhere. This we are sure Mr Bentham will +allow. If a man were to say that five hundred thousand people die every +year in London of dram-drinking, he would not assert a proposition more +monstrously false than Mr Mill's. Would it be just to charge us with +defending intoxication because we might say that such a man was grossly +in the wrong? + +We say with Mr Bentham that despotism is a bad thing. We say with Mr +Bentham that the exceptions do not destroy the authority of the rule. +But this we say--that a single exception overthrows an argument which +either does not prove the rule at all, or else proves the rule to be +TRUE WITHOUT EXCEPTIONS; and such an argument is Mr Mill's argument +against despotism. In this respect there is a great difference between +rules drawn from experience and rules deduced a priori. We might believe +that there had been a fall of snow last August, and yet not think it +likely that there would be snow next August. A single occurrence opposed +to our general experience would tell for very little in our calculation +of the chances. But, if we could once satisfy ourselves that in ANY +single right-angled triangle the square of the hypothenuse might be +less than the squares of the sides, we must reject the forty-seventh +proposition of Euclid altogether. We willingly adopt Mr Bentham's lively +illustration about the wolf; and we will say in passing that it gives +us real pleasure to see how little old age has diminished the gaiety of +this eminent man. We can assure him that his merriment gives us far more +pleasure on his account than pain on our own. We say with him, Keep the +wolf out of the nursery, in spite of the story of Romulus and Remus. +But, if the shepherd who saw the wolf licking and suckling those famous +twins were, after telling this story to his companions, to assert that +it was an infallible rule that no wolf ever had spared, or ever would +spare, any living thing which might fall in its way--that its nature was +carnivorous--and that it could not possibly disobey its nature, we think +that the hearers might have been excused for staring. It may be strange, +but is not inconsistent, that a wolf which has eaten ninety-nine +children should spare the hundredth. But the fact that a wolf has once +spared a child is sufficient to show that there must be some flaw in the +chain of reasoning purporting to prove that wolves cannot possibly spare +children. + +Mr Bentham proceeds to attack another position which he conceives us to +maintain:-- + +"Secondly, That a government not under the control of the community (for +there is no question upon any other) 'MAY SOON BE SATURATED.' Tell it +not in Bow Street, whisper it not in Hatton Garden,--that there is +a plan for preventing injustice by 'saturation.' With what peals of +unearthly merriment would Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus be aroused +upon their benches, if the 'light wings of saffron and of blue' should +bear this theory into their grim domains! Why do not the owners of +pocket-handkerchiefs try to 'saturate?' Why does not the cheated +publican beg leave to check the gulosity of his defrauder with a +repetatur haustus, and the pummelled plaintiff neutralise the malice of +his adversary, by requesting to have the rest of the beating in presence +of the court,--if it is not that such conduct would run counter to all +the conclusions of experience, and be the procreation of the mischief it +affected to destroy? Woful is the man whose wealth depends on his having +more than somebody else can be persuaded to take from him; and woful +also is the people that is in such a case!" + +Now this is certainly very pleasant writing: but there is no great +difficulty in answering the argument. The real reason which makes it +absurd to think of preventing theft by pensioning off thieves is this, +that there is no limit to the number of thieves. If there were only a +hundred thieves in a place, and we were quite sure that no person not +already addicted to theft would take to it, it might become a question +whether to keep the thieves from dishonesty by raising them above +distress would not be a better course than to employ officers against +them. But the actual cases are not parallel. Every man who chooses +can become a thief; but a man cannot become a king or a member of +the aristocracy whenever he chooses. The number of the depredators is +limited; and therefore the amount of depredation, so far as physical +pleasures are concerned, must be limited also. Now, we made the remark +which Mr Bentham censures with reference to physical pleasures only. The +pleasures of ostentation, of taste, of revenge, and other pleasures of +the same description, have, we distinctly allowed, no limit. Our words +are these:--"a king or an aristocracy may be supplied to satiety with +CORPORAL PLEASURES, at an expense which the rudest and poorest community +would scarcely feel." Does Mr Bentham deny this? If he does, we +leave him to Mr Mill. "What," says that philosopher, in his Essay on +Education, "what are the ordinary pursuits of wealth and power, which +kindle to such a height the ardour of mankind? Not the mere love of +eating and of drinking, or all the physical objects together which +wealth can purchase or power command. With these every man is in the +long run speedily satisfied." What the difference is between being +speedily satisfied and being soon saturated, we leave Mr Bentham and Mr +Mill to settle together. + +The word "saturation," however, seems to provoke Mr Bentham's mirth. It +certainly did not strike us as very pure English; but, as Mr Mill used +it, we supposed it to be good Benthamese. With the latter language we +are not critically acquainted, though, as it has many roots in common +with our mother tongue, we can contrive, by the help of a converted +Utilitarian, who attends us in the capacity of Moonshee, to make out a +little. But Mr Bentham's authority is of course decisive; and we bow to +it. + +Mr Bentham next represents us as maintaining:-- + +"Thirdly, That 'though there may be some tastes and propensities that +have no point of saturation, there exists a sufficient check in the +desire of the good opinion of others.' The misfortune of this argument +is, that no man cares for the good opinion of those he has been +accustomed to wrong, If oysters have opinions, it is probable they think +very ill of those who eat them in August; but small is the effect upon +the autumnal glutton that engulfs their gentle substances within his +own. The planter and the slave-driver care just as much about negro +opinion, as the epicure about the sentiments of oysters. M. Ude throwing +live eels into the fire as a kindly method of divesting them of the +unsavoury oil that lodges beneath their skins, is not more convinced of +the immense aggregate of good which arises to the lordlier parts of the +creation, than is the gentle peer who strips his fellow man of country +and of family for a wild-fowl slain. The goodly landowner, who lives by +morsels squeezed indiscriminately from the waxy hands of the cobbler and +the polluted ones of the nightman, is in no small degree the object of +both hatred and contempt; but it is to be feared that he is a long way +from feeling them to be intolerable. The principle of 'At mihi plaudo +ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca,' is sufficient to make +a wide interval between the opinions of the plaintiff and defendant in +such cases. In short, to banish law and leave all plaintiffs to trust +to the desire of reputation on the opposite side, would only be +transporting the theory of the Whigs from the House of Commons to +Westminster Hall." + +Now, in the first place, we never maintained the proposition which Mr +Bentham puts into our mouths. We said, and say, that there is a CERTAIN +check to the rapacity and cruelty of men, in their desire of the good +opinion of others. We never said that it was sufficient. Let Mr Mill +show it to be insufficient. It is enough for us to prove that there is +a set-off against the principle from which Mr Mill deduces the whole +theory of government. The balance may be, and, we believe, will be, +against despotism and the narrower forms of aristocracy. But what is +this to the correctness or incorrectness of Mr Mill's accounts? The +question is not, whether the motives which lead rulers to behave ill +are stronger than those which lead them to behave well;--but, whether +we ought to form a theory of government by looking ONLY at the motives +which lead rulers to behave ill and never noticing those which lead them +to behave well. + +Absolute rulers, says Mr Bentham, do not care for the good opinion of +their subjects; for no man cares for the good opinion of those whom he +has been accustomed to wrong. By Mr Bentham's leave, this is a plain +begging of the question. The point at issue is this:--Will kings and +nobles wrong the people? The argument in favour of kings and nobles is +this:--they will not wrong the people, because they care for the good +opinion of the people. But this argument Mr Bentham meets thus:--they +will not care for the good opinion of the people, because they are +accustomed to wrong the people. + +Here Mr Mill differs, as usual, from Mr Bentham. "The greatest princes," +says he, in his Essay on Education, "the most despotical masters of +human destiny, when asked what they aim at by their wars and conquests, +would answer, if sincere, as Frederick of Prussia answered, pour faire +parler de soi;--to occupy a large space in the admiration of mankind." +Putting Mr Mill's and Mr Bentham's principles together, we might make +out very easily that "the greatest princes, the most despotical masters +of human destiny," would never abuse their power. + +A man who has been long accustomed to injure people must also have been +long accustomed to do without their love, and to endure their aversion. +Such a man may not miss the pleasure of popularity; for men seldom miss +a pleasure which they have long denied themselves. An old tyrant does +without popularity just as an old water-drinker does without wine. But, +though it is perfectly true that men who for the good of their health +have long abstained from wine feel the want of it very little, it would +be absurd to infer that men will always abstain from wine when their +health requires that they should do so. And it would be equally absurd +to say, because men who have been accustomed to oppress care little for +popularity, that men will therefore necessarily prefer the pleasure of +oppression to those of popularity. + +Then, again, a man may be accustomed to wrong people in one point and +not in another. He may care for their good opinion with regard to one +point and not with regard to another. The Regent Orleans laughed at +charges of impiety, libertinism, extravagance, idleness, disgraceful +promotions. But the slightest allusion to the charge of poisoning threw +him into convulsions. Louis the Fifteenth braved the hatred and contempt +of his subjects during many years of the most odious and imbecile +misgovernment. But, when a report was spread that he used human blood +for his baths, he was almost driven mad by it. Surely Mr Bentham's +position "that no man cares for the good opinion of those whom he has +been accustomed to wrong" would be objectionable, as far too sweeping +and indiscriminate, even if it did not involve, as in the present case +we have shown that it does, a direct begging of the question at issue. + +Mr Bentham proceeds:-- + +"Fourthly, The Edinburgh Reviewers are of opinion, that 'it might, with +no small plausibility, be maintained, that in many countries, there are +two classes which, in some degree, answer to this description;' [viz.] +'that the poor compose the class which government is established to +restrain; and the people of some property the class to which the powers +of government may without danger be confided.' + +"They take great pains, it is true, to say this and not to say it. They +shuffle and creep about, to secure a hole to escape at, if 'what they +do not assert' should be found in any degree inconvenient. A man +might waste his life in trying to find out whether the Misses of the +'Edinburgh' mean to say Yes or No in their political coquetry. But +whichever way the lovely spinsters may decide, it is diametrically +opposed to history and the evidence of facts, that the poor ARE the +class whom there is any difficulty in restraining. It is not the poor +but the rich that have a propensity to take the property of other +people. There is no instance upon earth of the poor having combined to +take away the property of the rich; and all the instances habitually +brought forward in support of it are gross misrepresentations, founded +upon the most necessary acts of self-defence on the part of the most +numerous classes. Such a misrepresentation is the common one of the +Agrarian law; which was nothing but an attempt on the part of the +Roman people to get back some part of what had been taken from them by +undisguised robbery. Such another is the stock example of the French +Revolution, appealed to by the 'Edinburgh Review' in the actual case. +It is utterly untrue that the French Revolution took place because 'the +poor began to compare their cottages and salads with the hotels and +banquets of the rich;' it took place because they were robbed of +their cottages and salads to support the hotels and banquets of their +oppressors. It is utterly untrue that there was either a scramble for +property or a general confiscation; the classes who took part with the +foreign invaders lost their property, as they would have done here, and +ought to do everywhere. All these are the vulgar errors of the man on +the lion's back,--which the lion will set to rights when he can tell his +own story. History is nothing but the relation of the sufferings of the +poor from the rich; except precisely so far as the numerous classes of +the community have contrived to keep the virtual power in their hands, +or, in other words, to establish free governments. If a poor man injures +the rich, the law is instantly at his heels; the injuries of the rich +towards the poor are always inflicted BY the law. And to enable the rich +to do this to any extent that may be practicable or prudent, there is +clearly one postulate required, which is, that the rich shall make the +law." + +This passage is alone sufficient to prove that Mr Bentham has not taken +the trouble to read our article from beginning to end. We are quite sure +that he would not stoop to misrepresent it. And, if he had read it with +any attention, he would have perceived that all this coquetry, this +hesitation, this Yes and No, this saying and not saying, is simply an +exercise of the undeniable right which in controversy belongs to the +defensive side--to the side which proposes to establish nothing. The +affirmative of the issue and the burden of the proof are with Mr Mill, +not with us. We are not bound, perhaps we are not able, to show that the +form of government which he recommends is bad. It is quite enough if we +can show that he does not prove it to be good. In his proof, among many +other flaws, is this--He says, that if men are not inclined to plunder +each other, government is unnecessary, and that, if men are so inclined, +kings and aristocracies will plunder the people. Now, this we say, is a +fallacy. That SOME men will plunder their neighbours if they can, is +a sufficient reason for the existence of governments. But it is not +demonstrated that kings and aristocracies will plunder the people, +unless it be true that ALL men will plunder their neighbours, if they +can. Men are placed in very different situations. Some have all the +bodily pleasures that they desire, and many other pleasures besides, +without plundering anybody. Others can scarcely obtain their daily bread +without plundering. It may be true, but surely it is not self-evident, +that the former class is under as strong temptations to plunder as the +latter. Mr Mill was therefore bound to prove it. That he has not proved +it is one of thirty or forty fatal errors in his argument. It is not +necessary that we should express an opinion or even have an opinion on +the subject. Perhaps we are in a state of perfect scepticism: but what +then? Are we the theorymakers? When we bring before the world a theory +of government, it will be time to call upon us to offer proof at every +step. At present we stand on our undoubted logical right. We concede +nothing; and we deny nothing. We say to the Utilitarian theorists:--When +you prove your doctrine, we will believe it; and, till you prove it, we +will not believe it. + +Mr Bentham has quite misunderstood what we said about the French +Revolution. We never alluded to that event for the purpose of proving +that the poor were inclined to rob the rich. Mr Mill's principles of +human nature furnished us with that part of our argument ready-made. +We alluded to the French Revolution for the purpose of illustrating +the effects which general spoliation produces on society, not for the +purpose of showing that general spoliation will take place under a +democracy. We allowed distinctly that, in the peculiar circumstances of +the French monarchy, the Revolution, though accompanied by a great shock +to the institution of property, was a blessing. Surely Mr Bentham will +not maintain that the injury produced by the deluge of assignats and +by the maximum fell only on the emigrants,--or that there were not many +emigrants who would have stayed and lived peaceably under any government +if their persons and property had been secure. + +We never said that the French Revolution took place because the poor +began to compare their cottages and salads with the hotels and banquets +of the rich. We were not speaking about THE CAUSES of the Revolution, +or thinking about them. This we said, and say, that, if a democratic +government had been established in France, the poor, when they began to +compare their cottages and salads with the hotels and banquets of the +rich, would, on the supposition that Mr Mill's principles are sound, +have plundered the rich, and repeated without provocation all the +severities and confiscations which at the time of the Revolution, were +committed with provocation. We say that Mr Mill's favourite form of +government would, if his own views of human nature be just, make those +violent convulsions and transfers of property which now rarely happen, +except, as in the case of the French Revolution, when the people are +maddened by oppression, events of annual or biennial occurrence. We gave +no opinion of our own. We give none now. We say that this proposition +may be proved from Mr Mill's own premises, by steps strictly analogous +to those by which he proves monarchy and aristocracy to be bad forms of +government. To say this, is not to say that the proposition is true. +For we hold both Mr Mill's premises and his deduction to be unsound +throughout. + +Mr Bentham challenges us to prove from history that the people will +plunder the rich. What does history say to Mr Mill's doctrine, that +absolute kings will always plunder their subjects so unmercifully as to +leave nothing but a bare subsistence to any except their own creatures? +If experience is to be the test, Mr Mill's theory is unsound. If Mr +Mill's reasoning a priori be sound, the people in a democracy will +plunder the rich. Let us use one weight and one measure. Let us not +throw history aside when we are proving a theory, and take it up again +when we have to refute an objection founded on the principles of that +theory. + +We have not done, however, with Mr Bentham's charges against us. + +"Among other specimens of their ingenuity, they think they embarrass the +subject by asking why, on the principles in question, women should not +have votes as well as men. AND WHY NOT? + + 'Gentle shepherd, tell me why?'-- + +If the mode of election was what it ought to be, there would be no more +difficulty in women voting for a representative in Parliament than for +a director at the India House. The world will find out at some time +that the readiest way to secure justice on some points is to be just on +all:--that the whole is easier to accomplish than the part; and that, +whenever the camel is driven through the eye of the needle, it would be +simple folly and debility that would leave a hoof behind." + +Why, says or sings Mr Bentham, should not women vote? It may seem +uncivil in us to turn a deaf ear to his Arcadian warblings. But we +submit, with great deference, that it is not OUR business to tell him +why. We fully agree with him that the principle of female suffrage is +not so palpably absurd that a chain of reasoning ought to be pronounced +unsound merely because it leads to female suffrage. We say that every +argument which tells in favour of the universal suffrage of the males +tells equally in favour of female suffrage. Mr Mill, however, wishes +to see all men vote, but says that it is unnecessary that women should +vote; and for making this distinction HE gives as a reason an assertion +which, in the first place, is not true, and which, in the next place, +would, if true, overset his whole theory of human nature; namely, that +the interest of the women is identical with that of the men. We side +with Mr Bentham, so far, at least, as this: that, when we join to drive +the camel through the needle, he shall go through hoof and all. We at +present desire to be excused from driving the camel. It is Mr Mill who +leaves the hoof behind. But we should think it uncourteous to reproach +him in the language which Mr Bentham, in the exercise of his paternal +authority over the sect, thinks himself entitled to employ. + +"Another of their perverted ingenuities is, that 'they are rather +inclined to think,' that it would, on the whole, be for the interest of +the majority to plunder the rich; and if so, the Utilitarians will say +that the rich OUGHT to be plundered. On which it is sufficient to reply, +that for the majority to plunder the rich would amount to a declaration +that nobody should be rich; which, as all men wish to be rich, would +involve a suicide of hope. And as nobody has shown a fragment of reason +why such a proceeding should be for the general happiness, it does +not follow that the 'Utilitarians' would recommend it. The Edinburgh +Reviewers have a waiting gentlewoman's ideas of 'Utilitarianism.' It +is unsupported by anything but the pitiable 'We are rather inclined to +think'--and is utterly contradicted by the whole course of history and +human experience besides,--that there is either danger or possibility of +such a consummation as the majority agreeing on the plunder of the rich. +There have been instances in human memory, of their agreeing to plunder +rich oppressors, rich traitors, rich enemies,--but the rich simpliciter +never. It is as true now as in the days of Harrington that 'a people +never will, nor ever can, never did, nor ever shall, take up arms for +levelling.' All the commotions in the world have been for something +else; and 'levelling' is brought forward as the blind to conceal what +the other was." + +We say, again and again, that we are on the defensive. We do not think +it necessary to prove that a quack medicine is poison. Let the vendor +prove it to be sanative. We do not pretend to show that universal +suffrage is an evil. Let its advocates show it to be a good. Mr Mill +tells us that, if power be given for short terms to representatives +elected by all the males of mature age, it will then be for the interest +of those representatives to promote the greatest happiness of the +greatest number. To prove this, it is necessary that he should prove +three propositions: first, that the interest of such a representative +body will be identical with the interest of the constituent body; +secondly, that the interest of the constituent body will be identical +with that of the community; thirdly, that the interest of one generation +of a community is identical with that of all succeeding generations. The +two first propositions Mr Mill attempts to prove and fails. The last he +does not even attempt to prove. We therefore refuse our assent to his +conclusions. Is this unreasonable? + +We never even dreamed, what Mr Bentham conceives us to have maintained, +that it could be for the greatest happiness of MANKIND to plunder the +rich. But we are "rather inclined to think," though doubtingly and with +a disposition to yield to conviction, that it may be for the pecuniary +interest of the majority of a single generation in a thickly-peopled +country to plunder the rich. Why we are inclined to think so we will +explain, whenever we send a theory of government to an Encyclopaedia. +At present we are bound to say only that we think so, and shall think so +till somebody shows us a reason for thinking otherwise. + +Mr Bentham's answer to us is simple assertion. He must not think that +we mean any discourtesy by meeting it with a simple denial. The fact is, +that almost all the governments that have ever existed in the civilised +world have been, in part at least, monarchical and aristocratical. The +first government constituted on principles approaching to those which +the Utilitarians hold was, we think, that of the United States. That the +poor have never combined to plunder the rich in the governments of the +old world, no more proves that they might not combine to plunder the +rich under a system of universal suffrage, than the fact that the +English kings of the House of Brunswick have not been Neros and +Domitians proves that sovereigns may safely be intrusted with absolute +power. Of what the people would do in a state of perfect sovereignty we +can judge only by indications, which, though rarely of much moment in +themselves, and though always suppressed with little difficulty, are yet +of great significance, and resemble those by which our domestic animals +sometimes remind us that they are of kin with the fiercest monsters of +the forest. It would not be wise to reason from the behaviour of a dog +crouching under the lash, which is the case of the Italian people, +or from the behaviour of a dog pampered with the best morsels of a +plentiful kitchen, which is the case of the purpose of America, to the +behaviour of a wolf, which is nothing but a dog run wild, after a week's +fast among the snows of the Pyrenees. No commotion, says Mr Bentham, +was ever really produced by the wish of levelling; the wish has been put +forward as a blind; but something else has been the real object. Grant +all this. But why has levelling been put forward as a blind in times +of commotion to conceal the real objects of the agitators? Is it with +declarations which involve "a suicide of hope" that man attempt to +allure others? Was famine, pestilence, slavery, ever held out to attract +the people? If levelling has been made a pretence for disturbances, the +argument against Mr Bentham's doctrine is as strong as if it had been +the real object of disturbances. + +But the great objection which Mr Bentham makes to our review, still +remains to be noticed:-- + +"The pith of the charge against the author of the Essays is, that he has +written 'an elaborate Treatise on Government,' and 'deduced the whole +science from the assumption of certain propensities of human nature.' +Now, in the name of Sir Richard Birnie and all saints, from what else +SHOULD it be deduced? What did ever anybody imagine to be the end, +object, and design of government AS IT OUGHT TO BE but the same +operation, on an extended scale, which that meritorious chief magistrate +conducts on a limited one at Bow Street; to wit, the preventing one man +from injuring another? Imagine, then, that the Whiggery of Bow Street +were to rise up against the proposition that their science was to be +deduced from 'certain propensities of human nature,' and thereon were to +ratiocinate as follows:-- + +"'How then are we to arrive at just conclusions on a subject so +important to the happiness of mankind? Surely by that method, which, in +every experimental science to which it has been applied, has signally +increased the power and knowledge of our species,--by that method for +which our new philosophers would substitute quibbles scarcely worthy +of the barbarous respondents and opponents of the middle ages,--by the +method of induction,--by observing the present state of the world,--by +assiduously studying the history of past ages,--by sifting the evidence +of facts,--by carefully combining and contrasting those which +are authentic,--by generalising with judgment and diffidence,--by +perpetually bringing the theory which we have constructed to the test +of new facts,--by correcting, or altogether abandoning it, according +as those new facts prove it to be partially or fundamentally unsound. +Proceeding thus,--patiently, diligently, candidly, we may hope to form +a system as far inferior in pretension to that which we have +been examining, and as far superior to it in real utility, as the +prescriptions of a great physician, varying with every stage of every +malady, and with the constitution of every patient, to the pill of the +advertising quack, which is to cure all human beings, in all climates, +of all diseases.' + +"Fancy now,--only fancy,--the delivery of these wise words at Bow +Street; and think how speedily the practical catchpolls would reply, +that all this might be very fine, but, as far as they had studied +history, the naked story was, after all, that numbers of men had a +propensity to thieving, and their business was to catch them; that they, +too, had been sifters of facts; and, to say the truth, their simple +opinion was, that their brethren of the red waistcoat--though they +should be sorry to think ill of any man--had somehow contracted a +leaning to the other side, and were more bent on puzzling the case for +the benefit of the defendants, than on doing the duty of good officers +and true. Such would, beyond all doubt, be the sentence passed on such +trimmers in the microcosm of Bow Street. It might not absolutely follow +that they were in a plot to rob the goldsmiths' shops, or to set fire +to the House of Commons; but it would be quite clear that they had got +A FEELING,--that they were in process of siding with the thieves,--and +that it was not to them that any man must look who was anxious that +pantries should be safe." + +This is all very witty; but it does not touch us. On the present +occasion, we cannot but flatter ourselves that we bear a much greater +resemblance to a practical catchpoll than either Mr Mill or Mr Bentham. +It would, to be sure, be very absurd in a magistrate discussing the +arrangements of a police-office, to spout in the style either of our +article or Mr Bentham's; but, in substance, he would proceed, if he were +a man of sense, exactly as WE recommend. He would, on being appointed +to provide for the security of property in a town, study attentively +the state of the town. He would learn at what places, at what times, and +under what circumstances, theft and outrage were most frequent. Are +the streets, he would ask, most infested with thieves at sunset or at +midnight? Are there any public places of resort which give peculiar +facilities to pickpockets? Are there any districts completely inhabited +by a lawless population? Which are the flash houses, and which the shops +of receivers? Having made himself master of the facts, he would act +accordingly. A strong detachment of officers might be necessary for +Petticoat Lane; another for the pit entrance of Covent Garden Theatre. +Grosvenor Square and Hamilton Place would require little or no +protection. Exactly thus should we reason about government. Lombardy +is oppressed by tyrants; and constitutional checks, such as may produce +security to the people, are required. It is, so to speak, one of the +resorts of thieves; and there is great need of police-officers. Denmark +resembles one of those respectable streets in which it is scarcely +necessary to station a catchpoll, because the inhabitants would at once +join to seize a thief. Yet, even in such a street, we should wish to +see an officer appear now and then, as his occasional superintence would +render the security more complete. And even Denmark, we think, would be +better off under a constitutional form of government. + +Mr Mill proceeds like a director of police, who, without asking a +single question about the state of his district, should give his orders +thus:--"My maxim is, that every man will take what he can. Every man in +London would be a thief, but for the thieftakers. This is an undeniable +principle of human nature. Some of my predecessors have wasted +their time in enquiring about particular pawnbrokers, and particular +alehouses. Experience is altogether divided. Of people placed in exactly +the same situation, I see that one steals, and that another would sooner +burn his hand off. THEREFORE I trust to the laws of human nature alone, +and pronounce all men thieves alike. Let everybody, high and low, be +watched. Let Townsend take particular care that the Duke of Wellington +does not steal the silk handkerchief of the lord in waiting at the +levee. A person has lost a watch. Go to Lord Fitzwilliam and search +him for it; he is as great a receiver of stolen goods as Ikey Solomons +himself. Don't tell me about his rank, and character, and fortune. He +is a man; and a man does not change his nature when he is called a lord. +("If Government is founded upon this, as a law of human nature, that +a man, if able, will take from others anything which they have and he +desires, it is sufficiently evident that when a man is called a king, he +does not change his nature, so that, when he has power to take what he +pleases, he will take what he pleases. To suppose that he will not, +is to affirm that government is unnecessary and that human beings +will abstain from injuring one another of their own accord."--"Mill on +Government".) Either men will steal or they will not steal. If they will +not, why do I sit here? If they will, his lordship must be a thief." The +Whiggery of Bow Street would perhaps rise up against this wisdom. Would +Mr Bentham think that the Whiggery of Bow Street was in the wrong? + +We blamed Mr Mill for deducing his theory of government from the +principles of human nature. "In the name of Sir Richard Birnie and all +saints," cries Mr Bentham, "from what else should it be deduced?" +In spite of this solemn adjuration, with shall venture to answer Mr +Bentham's question by another. How does he arrive at those principles of +human nature from which he proposes to deduce the science of government? +We think that we may venture to put an answer into his mouth; for in +truth there is but one possible answer. He will say--By experience. +But what is the extent of this experience? Is it an experience which +includes experience of the conduct of men intrusted with the powers +of government; or is it exclusive of that experience? If it includes +experience of the manner in which men act when intrusted with the powers +of government, then those principles of human nature from which the +science of government is to be deduced can only be known after going +through that inductive process by which we propose to arrive at the +science of government. Our knowledge of human nature, instead of being +prior in order to our knowledge of the science of government, will be +posterior to it. And it would be correct to say, that by means of the +science of government, and of other kindred sciences--the science of +education, for example, which falls under exactly the same principle--we +arrive at the science of human nature. + +If, on the other hand, we are to deduce the theory of government from +principles of human nature, in arriving at which principles we have not +taken into the account the manner in which men act when invested with +the powers of government, then those principles must be defective. +They have not been formed by a sufficiently copious induction. We are +reasoning, from what a man does in one situation, to what he will do in +another. Sometimes we may be quite justified in reasoning thus. When we +have no means of acquiring information about the particular case before +us, we are compelled to resort to cases which bear some resemblance to +it. But the more satisfactory course is to obtain information about +the particular case; and, whenever this can be obtained, it ought to be +obtained. When first the yellow fever broke out, a physician might +be justified in treating it as he had been accustomed to treat those +complaints which, on the whole, had the most symptoms in common with it. +But what should we think of a physician who should now tell us that +he deduced his treatment of yellow fever from the general theory of +pathology? Surely we should ask him, Whether, in constructing his theory +of pathology, he had or had not taken into the account the facts which +had been ascertained respecting the yellow fever? If he had, then it +would be more correct to say that he had arrived at the principles of +pathology partly by his experience of cases of yellow fever than that +he had deduced his treatment of yellow fever from the principles of +pathology. If he had not, he should not prescribe for us. If we had the +yellow fever, we should prefer a man who had never treated any cases but +cases of yellow fever to a man who had walked the hospitals of London +and Paris for years, but who knew nothing of our particular disease. + +Let Lord Bacon speak for us: "Inductionem censemus eam esse demonstrandi +formam, quae sensum tuetur, et naturam premit, et operibus imminet, ac +fere immiscetur. Itaque ordo quoque demonstrandi plane invertitur. Adhuc +enim res ita geri consuevit, ut a sensu et particularibus primo loco +ad maxime generalia advoletur, tanquam ad polos fixos, circa quos +disputationes vertantur; ab illis caetera, per media, deriventur; +via certe compendiaria, sed praecipiti, et ad naturam impervia, ad +disputationes proclivi et accommodata. At, secundum nos, axiomata +continenter et gradatim excitantur, ut non, nisi postremo loco, ad +maxime generalia veniatur." Can any words more exactly describe the +political reasonings of Mr Mill than those in which Lord Bacon thus +describes the logomachies of the schoolmen? Mr Mill springs at once to a +general principle of the widest extent, and from that general principle +deduces syllogistically every thing which is included in it. We say with +Bacon--"non, nisi postremo loco, ad maxime generalia veniatur." In the +present inquiry, the science of human nature is the "maxime generale." +To this the Utilitarian rushes at once, and from this he deduces a +hundred sciences. But the true philosopher, the inductive reasoner, +travels up to it slowly, through those hundred sciences, of which the +science of government is one. + +As we have lying before us that incomparable volume, the noblest and +most useful of all the works of the human reason, the Novum Organum, +we will transcribe a few lines, in which the Utilitarian philosophy is +portrayed to the life. + +"Syllogismus ad 'Principia' scientiarum non adhibetur, ad media axiomata +frustra adhibetur, cum sit subtilitati naturae longe impar. Assensum +itaque constringit, non res. Syllogismus ex propositionibus constat, +propositiones ex verbis, verba notionum tesserae sunt. Itaque si +notiones ipsae, id quod basis rei est, confusae sint, et tenere a rebus +abstractae, nihil in iis quae superstruuntur est firmitudinis. Itaque +spes est una in Inductione vera. In notionibus nil sani est, nec in +Logicis nec in physicis. Non substantia, non qualitas, agere, pati, +ipsum esse, bonae notiones sunt; multo minus grave, leve, densum, tenue, +humidum, siccum, generatio, corruptio, attrahere, fugare, elementum, +materia, forma, et id genus, sed omnes phantasticae et male terminatae." + +Substitute for the "substantia," the "generatio," the "corruptio," +the "elementum," the "materia," of the old schoolmen, Mr Mill's pain, +pleasure, interest, power, objects of desire,--and the words of Bacon +will seem to suit the current year as well as the beginning of the +seventeenth century. + +We have now gone through the objections that Mr Bentham makes to our +article: and we submit ourselves on all the charges to the judgment of +the public. + +The rest of Mr Bentham's article consists of an exposition of the +Utilitarian principle, or, as he decrees that it shall be called, the +"greatest happiness principle." He seems to think that we have been +assailing it. We never said a syllable against it. We spoke slightingly +of the Utilitarian sect, as we thought of them, and think of them; but +it was not for holding this doctrine that we blamed them. In attacking +them we no more meant to attack the "greatest happiness principle" than +when we say that Mahometanism is a false religion we mean to deny the +unity of God, which is the first article of the Mahometan creed;--no +more than Mr Bentham, when he sneers at the Whigs means to blame them +for denying the divine right of kings. We reasoned throughout our +article on the supposition that the end of government was to produce the +greatest happiness to mankind. + +Mr Bentham gives an account of the manner in which he arrived at the +discovery of the "greatest happiness principle." He then proceeds to +describe the effects which, as he conceives, that discovery is producing +in language so rhetorical and ardent that, if it had been written by any +other person, a genuine Utilitarian would certainly have thrown down the +book in disgust. + +"The only rivals of any note to the new principle which were brought +forward, were those known by the names of the 'moral sense,' and the +'original contract.' The new principle superseded the first of these, by +presenting it with a guide for its decisions; and the other, by making +it unnecessary to resort to a remote and imaginary contract for what was +clearly the business of every man and every hour. Throughout the whole +horizon of morals and of politics, the consequences were glorious and +vast. It might be said without danger of exaggeration, that they who +sat in darkness had seen a great light. The mists in which mankind +had jousted against each other were swept away, as when the sun of +astronomical science arose in the full development of the principle of +gravitation. If the object of legislation was the greatest happiness, +MORALITY was the promotion of the same end by the conduct of the +individual; and by analogy, the happiness of the world was the morality +of nations. + +"...All the sublime obscurities, which had haunted the mind of man from +the first formation of society,--the phantoms whose steps had been on +earth, and their heads among the clouds--marshalled themselves at the +sound of this new principle of connection and of union, and stood a +regulated band, where all was order, symmetry, and force. What men had +struggled for and bled, while they saw it but as through a glass darkly, +was made the object of substantial knowledge and lively apprehension. +The bones of sages and of patriots stirred within their tombs, that what +they dimly saw and followed had become the world's common heritage. And +the great result was wrought by no supernatural means, nor produced +by any unparallelable concatenation of events. It was foretold by no +oracles, and ushered by no portents; but was brought about by the quiet +and reiterated exercise of God's first gift of common sense." + +Mr Bentham's discovery does not, as we think we shall be able to show, +approach in importance to that of gravitation, to which he compares it. +At all events, Mr Bentham seems to us to act much as Sir Isaac Newton +would have done if he had gone about boasting that he was the first +person who taught bricklayers not to jump off scaffolds and break their +legs. + +Does Mr Bentham profess to hold out any new motive which may induce men +to promote the happiness of the species to which they belong? Not at +all. He distinctly admits that, if he is asked why government should +attempt to produce the greatest possible happiness, he can give no +answer. + +"The real answer," says he, "appeared to be, that men at large OUGHT not +to allow a government to afflict them with more evil or less good +than they can help. What A GOVERNMENT ought to do is a mysterious and +searching question, which those may answer who know what it means; but +what other men ought to do is a question of no mystery at all. The +word OUGHT, if it means anything, must have reference to some kind of +interest or motives; and what interest a government has in doing right, +when it happens to be interested in doing wrong, is a question for +the schoolmen. The fact appears to be, that OUGHT is not predicable of +governments. The question is not why governments are bound not to do +this or that, but why OTHER MEN should let them if they can help it. The +point is not to determine why the lion should not eat sheep, but why men +should not eat their own mutton if they can." + +The principle of Mr Bentham, if we understand it, is this, that mankind +ought to act so as to produce their greatest happiness. The word OUGHT, +he tells us, has no meaning, unless it be used with reference to some +interest. But the interest of a man is synonymous with his greatest +happiness:--and therefore to say that a man ought to do a thing, is +to say that it is for his greatest happiness to do it. And to say that +mankind OUGHT to act so as to produce their greatest happiness, is to +say that the greatest happiness is the greatest happiness--and this is +all! + +Does Mr Bentham's principle tend to make any man wish for anything for +which he would not have wished, or do anything which he would not have +done, if the principle had never been heard of? If not, it is an +utterly useless principle. Now, every man pursues his own happiness or +interest--call it which you will. If his happiness coincides with the +happiness of the species, then, whether he ever heard of the "greatest +happiness principle" or not, he will, to the best of his knowledge and +ability, attempt to produce the greatest happiness of the species. +But, if what he thinks his happiness be inconsistent with the greatest +happiness of mankind, will this new principle convert him to another +frame of mind? Mr Bentham himself allows, as we have seen, that he can +give no reason why a man should promote the greatest happiness of others +if their greatest happiness be inconsistent with what he thinks his own. +We should very much like to know how the Utilitarian principle would +run when reduced to one plain imperative proposition? Will it run +thus--pursue your own happiness? This is superfluous. Every man pursues +it, according to his light, and always has pursued it, and always +must pursue it. To say that a man has done anything, is to say that +he thought it for his happiness to do it. Will the principle run +thus--pursue the greatest happiness of mankind, whether it be your own +greatest happiness or not? This is absurd and impossible; and Bentham +himself allows it to be so. But, if the principle be not stated in one +of these two ways, we cannot imagine how it is to be stated at all. +Stated in one of these ways, it is an identical proposition,--true, +but utterly barren of consequences. Stated in the other way, it is +a contradiction in terms. Mr Bentham has distinctly declined the +absurdity. Are we then to suppose that he adopts the truism? + +There are thus, it seems, two great truths which the Utilitarian +philosophy is to communicate to mankind--two truths which are to produce +a revolution in morals, in laws, in governments, in literature, in the +whole system of life. The first of these is speculative; the second is +practical. The speculative truth is, that the greatest happiness is the +greatest happiness. The practical rule is very simple; for it imports +merely that men should never omit, when they wish for anything, to wish +for it, or when they do anything, to do it! It is a great comfort to us +to think that we readily assented to the former of these great doctrines +as soon as it was stated to us; and that we have long endeavoured, +as far as human frailty would permit, to conform to the latter in our +practice. We are, however, inclined to suspect that the calamities of +the human race have been owing, less to their not knowing that happiness +was happiness, than to their not knowing how to obtain it--less to their +neglecting to do what they did, than to their not being able to do what +they wished, or not wishing to do what they ought. + +Thus frivolous, thus useless is this philosophy,--"controversiarum +ferax, operum effoeta, ad garriendum prompta, ad generandum invalida." +(Bacon, "Novum Organum".) The humble mechanic who discovers some slight +improvement in the construction of safety lamps or steam-vessels does +more for the happiness of mankind than the "magnificent principle," as +Mr Bentham calls it, will do in ten thousand years. The mechanic +teaches us how we may in a small degree be better off than we were. The +Utilitarian advises us with great pomp to be as well off as we can. + +The doctrine of a moral sense may be very unphilosophical; but we do +not think that it can be proved to be pernicious. Men did not entertain +certain desires and aversions because they believed in a moral sense, +but they gave the name of moral sense to a feeling which they found in +their minds, however it came there. If they had given it no name at all +it would still have influenced their actions; and it will not be very +easy to demonstrate that it has influenced their actions the more +because they have called it the moral sense. The theory of the original +contract is a fiction, and a very absurd fiction; but in practice it +meant, what the "greatest happiness principle," if ever it becomes a +watchword of political warfare, will mean--that is to say, whatever +served the turn of those who used it. Both the one expression and the +other sound very well in debating clubs; but in the real conflicts of +life our passions and interests bid them stand aside and know their +place. The "greatest happiness principle" has always been latent under +the words, social contract, justice, benevolence, patriotism, liberty, +and so forth, just as far as it was for the happiness, real or imagined, +of those who used these words to promote the greatest happiness of +mankind. And of this we may be sure, that the words "greatest happiness" +will never, in any man's mouth, mean more than the greatest happiness of +others which is consistent with what he thinks his own. The project of +mending a bad world by teaching people to give new names to old things +reminds us of Walter Shandy's scheme for compensating the loss of his +son's nose by christening him Trismegistus. What society wants is a +new motive--not a new cant. If Mr Bentham can find out any argument yet +undiscovered which may induce men to pursue the general happiness, +he will indeed be a great benefactor to our species. But those whose +happiness is identical with the general happiness are even now promoting +the general happiness to the very best of their power and knowledge; and +Mr Bentham himself confesses that he has no means of persuading those +whose happiness is not identical with the general happiness to act upon +his principle. Is not this, then, darkening counsel by words without +knowledge? If the only fruit of the "magnificent principle" is to be, +that the oppressors and pilferers of the next generation are to talk of +seeking the greatest happiness of the greatest number, just as the same +class of men have talked in our time of seeking to uphold the Protestant +constitution--just as they talked under Anne of seeking the good of the +Church, and under Cromwell of seeking the Lord--where is the gain? Is +not every great question already enveloped in a sufficiently dark cloud +of unmeaning words? Is it so difficult for a man to cant some one or +more of the good old English cants which his father and grandfather +canted before him, that he must learn, in the schools of the +Utilitarians, a new sleight of tongue, to make fools clap and wise men +sneer? Let our countrymen keep their eyes on the neophytes of this sect, +and see whether we turn out to be mistaken in the prediction which we +now hazard. It will before long be found, we prophesy, that, as the +corruption of a dunce is the generation of an Utilitarian, so is the +corruption of an Utilitarian the generation of a jobber. + +The most elevated station that the "greatest happiness principle" is +ever likely to attain is this, that it may be a fashionable phrase among +newspaper writers and members of parliament--that it may succeed to +the dignity which has been enjoyed by the "original contract," by the +"constitution of 1688," and other expressions of the same kind. We do +not apprehend that it is a less flexible cant than those which have +preceded it, or that it will less easily furnish a pretext for any +design for which a pretext may be required. The "original contract" +meant in the Convention Parliament the co-ordinate authority of the +Three Estates. If there were to be a radical insurrection tomorrow, the +"original contract" would stand just as well for annual parliaments +and universal suffrage. The "Glorious Constitution," again, has meant +everything in turn: the Habeas Corpus Act, the Suspension of the Habeas +Corpus Act, the Test Act, the Repeal of the Test Act. There has not +been for many years a single important measure which has not been +unconstitutional with its opponents, and which its supporters have not +maintained to be agreeable to the true spirit of the constitution. Is it +easier to ascertain what is for the greatest happiness of the human +race than what is the constitution of England? If not, the "greatest +happiness principle" will be what the "principles of the constitution" +are, a thing to be appealed to by everybody, and understood by everybody +in the sense which suits him best. It will mean cheap bread, dear +bread, free trade, protecting duties, annual parliaments, septennial +parliaments, universal suffrage, Old Sarum, trial by jury, martial +law--everything, in short, good, bad, or indifferent, of which any +person, from rapacity or from benevolence, chooses to undertake the +defence. It will mean six-and-eightpence with the attorney, tithes at +the rectory, and game-laws at the manor-house. The Statute of Uses, in +appearance the most sweeping legislative reform in our history, was said +to have produced no other effect than that of adding three words to +a conveyance. The universal admission of Mr Bentham's great principle +would, as far as we can see, produce no other effect than that those +orators who, while waiting for a meaning, gain time (like bankers paying +in sixpences during a run) by uttering words that mean nothing would +substitute "the greatest happiness," or rather, as the longer phrase, +"the greatest happiness of the greatest number," for "under existing +circumstances,"--"now that I am on my legs,"--and "Mr Speaker, I, for +one, am free to say." In fact, principles of this sort resemble those +forms which are sold by law-stationers, with blanks for the names of +parties, and for the special circumstances of every case--mere customary +headings and conclusions, which are equally at the command of the most +honest and of the most unrighteous claimant. It is on the filling up +that everything depends. + +The "greatest happiness principle" of Mr Bentham is included in the +Christian morality; and, to our thinking, it is there exhibited in an +infinitely more sound and philosophical form than in the Utilitarian +speculations. For in the New Testament it is neither an identical +proposition, nor a contradiction in terms; and, as laid down by Mr +Bentham, it must be either the one or the other. "Do as you would be +done by: Love your neighbour as yourself:" these are the precepts of +Jesus Christ. Understood in an enlarged sense, these precepts are, in +fact, a direction to every man to promote the greatest happiness of the +greatest number. But this direction would be utterly unmeaning, as it +actually is in Mr Bentham's philosophy, unless it were accompanied by a +sanction. In the Christian scheme, accordingly, it is accompanied by +a sanction of immense force. To a man whose greatest happiness in this +world is inconsistent with the greatest happiness of the greatest number +is held out the prospect of an infinite happiness hereafter, from which +he excludes himself by wronging his fellow-creatures here. + +This is practical philosophy, as practical as that on which penal +legislation is founded. A man is told to do something which otherwise +he would not do, and is furnished with a new motive for doing it. Mr +Bentham has no new motive to furnish his disciples with. He has talents +sufficient to effect anything that can be effected. But to induce men to +act without an inducement is too much, even for him. He should reflect +that the whole vast world of morals cannot be moved unless the mover can +obtain some stand for his engines beyond it. He acts as Archimedes would +have done, if he had attempted to move the earth by a lever fixed on +the earth. The action and reaction neutralise each other. The artist +labours, and the world remains at rest. Mr Bentham can only tell us +to do something which we have always been doing, and should still +have continued to do, if we had never heard of the "greatest happiness +principle"--or else to do something which we have no conceivable motive +for doing, and therefore shall not do. Mr Bentham's principle is at +best no more than the golden rule of the Gospel without its sanction. +Whatever evils, therefore, have existed in societies in which the +authority of the Gospel is recognised may, a fortiori, as it appears to +us, exist in societies in which the Utilitarian principle is recognised. +We do not apprehend that it is more difficult for a tyrant or a +persecutor to persuade himself and others that in putting to death those +who oppose his power or differ from his opinions he is pursuing "the +greatest happiness," than that he is doing as he would be done by. But +religion gives him a motive for doing as he would be done by: and Mr +Bentham furnishes him no motive to induce him to promote the general +happiness. If, on the other hand, Mr Bentham's principle mean only that +every man should pursue his own greatest happiness, he merely asserts +what everybody knows, and recommends what everybody does. + +It is not upon this "greatest happiness principle" that the fame of +Mr Bentham will rest. He has not taught people to pursue their own +happiness; for that they always did. He has not taught them to promote +the happiness of others, at the expense of their own; for that they will +not and cannot do. But he has taught them HOW, in some most important +points, to promote their own happiness; and, if his school had emulated +him as successfully in this respect as in the trick of passing off +truisms for discoveries, the name of Benthamite would have been no word +for the scoffer. But few of those who consider themselves as in a more +especial manner his followers have anything in common with him but his +faults. The whole science of Jurisprudence is his. He has done much for +political economy; but we are not aware that in either department any +improvement has been made by members of his sect. He discovered truths; +all that THEY have done has been to make those truths unpopular. He +investigated the philosophy of law; he could teach them only to snarl at +lawyers. + +We entertain no apprehensions of danger to the institutions of this +country from the Utilitarians. Our fears are of a different kind. We +dread the odium and discredit of their alliance. We wish to see a broad +and clear line drawn between the judicious friends of practical reform +and a sect which, having derived all its influence from the countenance +which they have imprudently bestowed upon it, hates them with the deadly +hatred of ingratitude. There is not, and we firmly believe that there +never was, in this country a party so unpopular. They have already made +the science of political economy--a science of vast importance to +the welfare of nations--an object of disgust to the majority of the +community. The question of parliamentary reform will share the same fate +if once an association be formed in the public mind between Reform and +Utilitarianism. + +We bear no enmity to any member of the sect; and for Mr Bentham we +entertain very high admiration. We know that among his followers there +are some well-intentioned men, and some men of talents; but we cannot +say that we think the logic on which they pride themselves likely to +improve their heads, or the scheme of morality which they have adopted +likely to improve their hearts. Their theory of morals, however, well +deserves an article to itself; and perhaps, on some future occasion, we +may discuss it more fully than time and space at present allow. + +The preceding article was written, and was actually in types, when +a letter from Mr Bentham appeared in the newspapers, importing that, +"though he had furnished the Westminster Review with some memoranda +respecting 'the greatest happiness principle,' he had nothing to do with +the remarks on our former article." We are truly happy to find that this +illustrious man had so small a share in a performance which, for his +sake, we have treated with far greater lenity than it deserved. +The mistake, however, does not in the least affect any part of our +arguments; and we have therefore thought it unnecessary to cancel or +cast anew any of the foregoing pages. Indeed, we are not sorry that the +world should see how respectfully we were disposed to treat a great man, +even when we considered him as the author of a very weak and very unfair +attack on ourselves. We wish, however, to intimate to the actual writer +of that attack that our civilities were intended for the author of the +"Preuves Judiciaires," and the "Defence of Usury"--and not for him. We +cannot conclude, indeed, without expressing a wish--though we fear it +has but little chance of reaching Mr Bentham--that he would endeavour +to find better editors for his compositions. If M. Dumont had not been +a redacteur of a different description from some of his successors, Mr +Bentham would never have attained the distinction of even giving his +name to a sect. + +***** + + + + +UTILITARIAN THEORY OF GOVERNMENT. (October 1829.) + + Westminster Review (XXII., Article 16), on the Strictures + of the Edinburgh Review (XCVIII., Article 1), on the + Utilitarian Theory of Government, and the "Greatest + Happiness Principle." + +We have long been of opinion that the Utilitarians have owed all their +influence to a mere delusion--that, while professing to have submitted +their minds to an intellectual discipline of peculiar severity, to have +discarded all sentimentality, and to have acquired consummate skill +in the art of reasoning, they are decidedly inferior to the mass of +educated men in the very qualities in which they conceive themselves to +excel. They have undoubtedly freed themselves from the dominion of some +absurd notions. But their struggle for intellectual emancipation has +ended, as injudicious and violent struggles for political emancipation +too often end, in a mere change of tyrants. Indeed, we are not sure that +we do not prefer the venerable nonsense which holds prescriptive sway +over the ultra-Tory to the upstart dynasty of prejudices and sophisms by +which the revolutionists of the moral world have suffered themselves to +be enslaved. + +The Utilitarians have sometimes been abused as intolerant, arrogant, +irreligious,--as enemies of literature, of the fine arts, and of the +domestic charities. They have been reviled for some things of which +they were guilty, and for some of which they were innocent. But scarcely +anybody seems to have perceived that almost all their peculiar faults +arise from the utter want both of comprehensiveness and of precision +in their mode of reasoning. We have, for some time past, been convinced +that this was really the case; and that, whenever their philosophy +should be boldly and unsparingly scrutinised, the world would see that +it had been under a mistake respecting them. + +We have made the experiment; and it has succeeded far beyond our most +sanguine expectations. A chosen champion of the School has come forth +against us. A specimen of his logical abilities now lies before us; +and we pledge ourselves to show that no prebendary at an anti-Catholic +meeting, no true-blue baronet after the third bottle at a Pitt Club, +ever displayed such utter incapacity of comprehending or answering an +argument as appears in the speculations of this Utilitarian apostle; +that he does not understand our meaning, or Mr Mill's meaning, or Mr +Bentham's meaning, or his own meaning; and that the various parts of his +system--if the name of system can be so misapplied--directly contradict +each other. + +Having shown this, we intend to leave him in undisputed possession of +whatever advantage he may derive from the last word. We propose only to +convince the public that there is nothing in the far-framed logic of the +Utilitarians of which any plain man has reason to be afraid; that this +logic will impose on no man who dares to look it in the face. + +The Westminster Reviewer begins by charging us with having +misrepresented an important part of Mr Mill's argument. + +"The first extract given by the Edinburgh Reviewers from the Essay was +an insulated passage, purposely despoiled of what had preceded and +what followed. The author had been observing, that 'some profound and +benevolent investigators of human affairs had adopted the conclusion +that, of all the possible forms of government, absolute monarchy is the +best.' This is what the reviewers have omitted at the beginning. He +then adds, as in the extract, that 'Experience, IF WE LOOK ONLY AT THE +OUTSIDE OF THE FACTS, appears to be divided on this subject;' there are +Caligulas in one place, and kings of Denmark in another. 'As the surface +of history affords, therefore, no certain principle of decision, WE MUST +GO BEYOND THE SURFACE, and penetrate to the springs within.' This is +what the reviewers have omitted at the end." + +It is perfectly true that our quotation from Mr Mill's essay was, like +most other quotations, preceded and followed by something which we did +not quote. But, if the Westminster Reviewer means to say that either +what preceded or what followed would, if quoted, have shown that we put +a wrong interpretation on the passage which was extracted, he does not +understand Mr Mill rightly. + +Mr Mill undoubtedly says that, "as the surface of history affords +no certain principle of decision, we must go beyond the surface, and +penetrate to the springs within." But these expressions will admit of +several interpretations. In what sense, then, does Mr Mill use them? +If he means that we ought to inspect the facts with close attention, +he means what is rational. But, if he means that we ought to leave the +facts, with all their apparent inconsistencies, unexplained--to lay down +a general principle of the widest extent, and to deduce doctrines from +that principle by syllogistic argument, without pausing to consider +whether those doctrines be or be not consistent with the facts,--then he +means what is irrational; and this is clearly what he does mean: for +he immediately begins, without offering the least explanation of the +contradictory appearances which he has himself described, to go beyond +the surface in the following manner:--"That one human being will +desire to render the person and property of another subservient to his +pleasures, notwithstanding the pain or loss of pleasure which it may +occasion to that other individual, is the foundation of government. +The desire of the object implies the desire of the power necessary to +accomplish the object." And thus he proceeds to deduce consequences +directly inconsistent with what he has himself stated respecting the +situation of the Danish people. + +If we assume that the object of government is the preservation of the +persons and property of men, then we must hold that, wherever that +object is attained, there the principle of good government exists. If +that object be attained both in Denmark and in the United States +of America, then that which makes government good must exist, under +whatever disguise of title or name, both in Denmark and in the United +States. If men lived in fear for their lives and their possessions under +Nero and under the National Convention, it follows that the causes from +which misgovernment proceeds existed both in the despotism of Rome and +in the democracy of France. What, then, is that which, being found +in Denmark and in the United States, and not being found in the Roman +Empire or under the administration of Robespierre, renders governments, +widely differing in their external form, practically good? Be it what it +may, it certainly is not that which Mr Mill proves a priori that it must +be,--a democratic representative assembly. For the Danes have no such +assembly. + +The latent principle of good government ought to be tracked, as it +appears to us, in the same manner in which Lord Bacon proposed to track +the principle of Heat. Make as large a list as possible, said that great +man, of those bodies in which, however widely they differ from each +other in appearance, we perceive heat; and as large a list as possible +of those which, while they bear a general resemblance to hot bodies, are +nevertheless not hot. Observe the different degrees of heat in different +hot bodies; and then, if there be something which is found in all hot +bodies, and of which the increase or diminution is always accompanied +by an increase or diminution of heat, we may hope that we have really +discovered the object of our search. In the same manner we ought to +examine the constitution of all those communities in which, under +whatever form, the blessings of good government are enjoyed; and to +discover, if possible, in what they resemble each other, and in what +they all differ from those societies in which the object of government +is not attained. By proceeding thus we shall arrive, not indeed at a +perfect theory of government, but at a theory which will be of great +practical use, and which the experience of every successive generation +will probably bring nearer and nearer to perfection. + +The inconsistencies into which Mr Mill has been betrayed by taking a +different course ought to serve as a warning to all speculators. Because +Denmark is well governed by a monarch who, in appearance at least, is +absolute, Mr Mill thinks that the only mode of arriving at the true +principles of government is to deduce them a priori from the laws of +human nature. And what conclusion does he bring out by this deduction? +We will give it in his own words:--"In the grand discovery of +modern times, the system of representation, the solution of all the +difficulties, both speculative and practical, will perhaps be found. If +it cannot, we seem to be forced upon the extraordinary conclusion that +good government is impossible." That the Danes are well governed without +a representation is a reason for deducing the theory of government +from a general principle from which it necessarily follows that good +government is impossible without a representation! We have done our +best to put this question plainly; and we think that, if the Westminster +Reviewer will read over what we have written twice or thrice with +patience and attention, some glimpse of our meaning will break in even +on his mind. + +Some objections follow, so frivolous and unfair, that we are almost +ashamed to notice them. + +"When it was said that there was in Denmark a balanced contest between +the king and the nobility, what was said was, that there was a balanced +contest, but it did not last. It was balanced till something put an end +to the balance; and so is everything else. That such a balance will not +last, is precisely what Mr Mill had demonstrated." + +Mr Mill, we positively affirm, pretends to demonstrate, not merely that +a balanced contest between the king and the aristocracy will not last, +but that the chances are as infinity to one against the existence of +such a balanced contest. This is a mere question of fact. We quote the +words of the essay, and defy the Westminster Reviewer to impeach our +accuracy:-- + +"It seems impossible that such equality should ever exist. How is it to +be established? Or by what criterion is it to be ascertained? If there +is no such criterion, it must, in all cases, be the result of chance. If +so, the chances against it are as infinity to one." + +The Reviewer has confounded the division of power with the balance or +equal division of power. Mr Mill says that the division of power can +never exist long, because it is next to impossible that the equal +division of power should ever exist at all. + +"When Mr Mill asserted that it cannot be for the interest of either the +monarchy or the aristocracy to combine with the democracy, it is plain +he did not assert that if the monarchy and aristocracy were in doubtful +contest with each other, they would not, either of them, accept of the +assistance of the democracy. He spoke of their taking the side of +the democracy; not of their allowing the democracy to take side with +themselves." + +If Mr Mill meant anything, he must have meant this--that the monarchy +and the aristocracy will never forget their enmity to the democracy in +their enmity to each other. + +"The monarchy and aristocracy," says he, "have all possible motives for +endeavouring to obtain unlimited power over the persons and property +of the community. The consequence is inevitable. They have all possible +motives for combining to obtain that power, and unless the people +have power enough to be a match for both they have no protection. The +balance, therefore, is a thing the existence of which upon the best +possible evidence is to be regarded as impossible." + +If Mr Mill meant only what the Westminster Reviewer conceives him to +have meant, his argument would leave the popular theory of the balance +quite untouched. For it is the very theory of the balance that the help +of the people will be solicited by the nobles when hard pressed by the +king, and by the king when hard pressed by the nobles; and that, as the +price of giving alternate support to the crown and the aristocracy, they +will obtain something for themselves, as the Reviewer admits that they +have done in Denmark. If Mr Mill admits this, he admits the only theory +of the balance of which we ever heard--that very theory which he has +declared to be wild and chimerical. If he denies it, he is at issue with +the Westminster Reviewer as to the phenomena of the Danish government. + +We now come to a more important passage. Our opponent has discovered, as +he conceives, a radical error which runs through our whole argument, and +vitiates every part of it. We suspect that we shall spoil his triumph. + +"Mr Mill never asserted 'THAT UNDER NO DESPOTIC GOVERNMENT DOES ANY +HUMAN BEING, EXCEPT THE TOOLS OF THE SOVEREIGN, POSSESS MORE THAN THE +NECESSARIES OF LIFE, AND THAT THE MOST INTENSE DEGREE OF TERROR IS +KEPT UP BY CONSTANT CRUELTY.' He said that absolute power leads to +such results 'by infallible sequence, where power over a community is +attained, AND NOTHING CHECKS.' The critic on the Mount never made a more +palpable misquotation. + +"The spirit of this misquotation runs through every part of the reply +of the Edinburgh Review that relates to the Essay on Government; and is +repeated in as many shapes as the Roman pork. The whole description of +'Mr Mill's argument against despotism,'--including the illustration from +right-angled triangles and the square of the hypothenuse,--is founded on +this invention of saying what an author has not said, and leaving unsaid +what he has." + +We thought, and still think, for reasons which our readers will soon +understand, that we represented Mr Mill's principle quite fairly, and +according to the rule of law and common sense, ut res magis valeat quam +pereat. Let us, however, give him all the advantage of the explanation +tendered by his advocate, and see what he will gain by it. + +The Utilitarian doctrine then is, not that despots and aristocracies +will always plunder and oppress the people to the last point, but that +they will do so if nothing checks them. + +In the first place, it is quite clear that the doctrine thus stated is +of no use at all, unless the force of the checks be estimated. The first +law of motion is, that a ball once projected will fly on to all eternity +with undiminished velocity, unless something checks. The fact is, that +a ball stops in a few seconds after proceeding a few yards with very +variable motion. Every man would wring his child's neck and pick his +friend's pocket if nothing checked him. In fact, the principle thus +stated means only that governments will oppress unless they abstain +from oppressing. This is quite true, we own. But we might with equal +propriety turn the maxim round, and lay it down, as the fundamental +principle of government, that all rulers will govern well, unless some +motive interferes to keep them from doing so. + +If there be, as the Westminster Reviewer acknowledges, certain checks +which, under political institutions the most arbitrary in seeming, +sometimes produce good government, and almost always place some +restraint on the rapacity and cruelty of the powerful, surely the +knowledge of those checks, of their nature, and of their effect, must +be a most important part of the science of government. Does Mr Mill say +anything upon this part of the subject? Not one word. + +The line of defence now taken by the Utilitarians evidently degrades Mr +Mill's theory of government from the rank which, till within the last +few months, was claimed for it by the whole sect. It is no longer a +practical system, fit to guide statesmen, but merely a barren exercise +of the intellect, like those propositions in mechanics in which the +effect of friction and of the resistance of the air is left out of +the question; and which, therefore, though correctly deduced from the +premises, are in practice utterly false. For, if Mr Mill professes to +prove only that absolute monarchy and aristocracy are pernicious +without checks,--if he allows that there are checks which produce good +government even under absolute monarchs and aristocracies,--and if he +omits to tell us what those checks are, and what effects they produce +under different circumstances,--he surely gives us no information which +can be of real utility. + +But the fact is,--and it is most extraordinary that the Westminster +Reviewer should not have perceived it--that if once the existence +of checks on the abuse of power in monarchies and aristocracies be +admitted, the whole of Mr Mill's theory falls to the ground at once. +This is so palpable, that in spite of the opinion of the Westminster +Reviewer, we must acquit Mr Mill of having intended to make such an +admission. We still think that the words, "where power over a community +is attained, and nothing checks," must not be understood to mean that +under a monarchical or aristocratical form of government there can +really be any check which can in any degree mitigate the wretchedness of +the people. + +For all possible checks may be classed under two general heads,--want +of will, and want of power. Now, if a king or an aristocracy, having +the power to plunder and oppress the people, can want the will, all Mr +Mill's principles of human nature must be pronounced unsound. He tells +us, "that the desire to possess unlimited power of inflicting pain upon +others, is an inseparable part of human nature;" and that "a chain of +inference, close and strong to a most unusual degree," leads to the +conclusion that those who possess this power will always desire to use +it. It is plain, therefore, that, if Mr Mill's principles be sound, the +check on a monarchical or an aristocratical government will not be the +want of will to oppress. + +If a king or an aristocracy, having, as Mr Mill tells us that they +always must have, the will to oppress the people with the utmost +severity, want the power, then the government, by whatever name it may +be called, must be virtually a mixed government or a pure democracy: for +it is quite clear that the people possess some power in the state--some +means of influencing the nominal rulers. But Mr Mill has demonstrated +that no mixed government can possibly exist, or at least that such a +government must come to a very speedy end: therefore, every country in +which people not in the service of the government have, for any length +of time, been permitted to accumulate more than the bare means of +subsistence must be a pure democracy. That is to say, France before the +revolution, and Ireland during the last century, were pure democracies. +Prussia, Austria, Russia, all the governments of the civilised world, +are pure democracies. If this be not a reductio ad absurdum, we do not +know what is. + +The errors of Mr Mill proceed principally from that radical vice in his +reasoning which, in our last number we described in the words of Lord +Bacon. The Westminster Reviewer is unable to discover the meaning of our +extracts from the "Novum Organum", and expresses himself as follows: + +"The quotations from Lord Bacon are misapplications, such as anybody may +make to anything he dislikes. There is no more resemblance between +pain, pleasure, motives, etc., and substantia, generatio, corruptio, +elementum, materia,--than between lines angles, magnitudes, etc., and +the same." + +It would perhaps be unreasonable to expect that a writer who cannot +understand his own English should understand Lord Bacon's Latin. We will +therefore attempt to make our meaning clearer. + +What Lord Bacon blames in the schoolmen of his time is this,--that +they reasoned syllogistically on words which had not been defined with +precision; such as moist, dry, generation, corruption, and so forth. +Mr Mill's error is exactly of the same kind. He reasons syllogistically +about power, pleasure, and pain, without attaching any definite notion +to any one of those words. There is no more resemblance, says the +Westminster Reviewer, between pain and substantia than between pain and +a line or an angle. By his permission, in the very point to which +Lord Bacon's observation applies, Mr Mill's subjects do resemble the +substantia and elementum of the schoolmen and differ from the lines and +magnitudes of Euclid. We can reason a priori on mathematics, because +we can define with an exactitude which precludes all possibility of +confusion. If a mathematician were to admit the least laxity into his +notions, if he were to allow himself to be deluded by the vague sense +which words bear in popular use, or by the aspect of an ill-drawn +diagram, if he were to forget in his reasonings that a point was +indivisible, or that the definition of a line excluded breadth, +there would be no end to his blunders. The schoolmen tried to reason +mathematically about things which had not been, and perhaps could not +be, defined with mathematical accuracy. We know the result. Mr Mill has +in our time attempted to do the same. He talks of power, for example, as +if the meaning of the word power were as determinate as the meaning of +the word circle. But, when we analyse his speculations, we find that +his notion of power is, in the words of Bacon, "phantiastica et male +terminata." + +There are two senses in which we may use the word "power," and those +words which denote the various distributions of power, as, for example, +"monarchy":--the one sense popular and superficial, the other more +scientific and accurate. Mr Mill, since he chose to reason a priori, +ought to have clearly pointed out in which sense he intended to use +words of this kind, and to have adhered inflexibly to the sense on which +he fixed. Instead of doing this, he flies backwards and forwards from +the one sense to the other, and brings out conclusions at last which +suit neither. + +The state of those two communities to which he has himself referred--the +kingdom of Denmark and the empire of Rome--may serve to illustrate our +meaning. Looking merely at the surface of things, we should call Denmark +a despotic monarchy, and the Roman world, in the first century after +Christ, an aristocratical republic. Caligula was, in theory, nothing +more than a magistrate elected by the senate, and subject to the senate. +That irresponsible dignity which, in the most limited monarchies of our +time, is ascribed to the person of the sovereign never belonged to the +earlier Caesars. The sentence of death which the great council of the +commonwealth passed on Nero was strictly according to the theory of the +constitution. Yet, in fact, the power of the Roman emperors approached +nearer to absolute dominion than that of any prince in modern Europe. +On the other hand, the King of Denmark, in theory the most despotic of +princes, would in practice find it most perilous to indulge in cruelty +and licentiousness. Nor is there, we believe, at the present moment a +single sovereign in our part of the world who has so much real power +over the lives of his subjects as Robespierre, while he lodged at a +chandler's and dined at a restaurateur's, exercised over the lives of +those whom he called his fellow citizens. + +Mr Mill and the Westminster Reviewer seem to agree that there cannot +long exist in any society a division of power between a monarch, an +aristocracy, and the people, or between any two of them. However the +power be distributed, one of the three parties will, according to them, +inevitably monopolise the whole. Now, what is here meant by power? If Mr +Mill speaks of the external semblance of power,--of power recognised by +the theory of the constitution,--he is palpably wrong. In England, for +example, we have had for ages the name and form of a mixed government, +if nothing more. Indeed, Mr Mill himself owns that there are appearances +which have given colour to the theory of the balance, though he +maintains that these appearances are delusive. But, if he uses the word +power in a deeper and philosophical sense, he is, if possible, still +more in the wrong than on the former supposition. For, if he had +considered in what the power of one human being over other human beings +must ultimately consist, he would have perceived, not only that there +are mixed governments in the world, but that all the governments in the +world, and all the governments which can even be conceived as existing +in the world, are virtually mixed. + +If a king possessed the lamp of Aladdin,--if he governed by the help +of a genius who carried away the daughters and wives of his subjects +through the air to the royal Parc-aux-cerfs, and turned into stone every +man who wagged a finger against his majesty's government, there would +indeed be an unmixed despotism. But, fortunately, a ruler can be +gratified only by means of his subjects. His power depends on their +obedience; and, as any three or four of them are more than a match for +him by himself, he can only enforce the unwilling obedience of some by +means of the willing obedience of others. + +Take any of those who are popularly called absolute princes--Napoleon +for example. Could Napoleon have walked through Paris, cutting off the +head of one person in every house which he passed? Certainly not without +the assistance of an army. If not, why not? Because the people had +sufficient physical power to resist him, and would have put forth that +power in defence of their lives and of the lives of their children. +In other words, there was a portion of power in the democracy under +Napoleon. Napoleon might probably have indulged himself in such an +atrocious freak of power if his army would have seconded him. But, if +his army had taken part with the people, he would have found himself +utterly helpless; and, even if they had obeyed his orders against the +people, they would not have suffered him to decimate their own body. In +other words, there was a portion of power in the hands of a minority of +the people, that is to say, in the hands of an aristocracy, under the +reign of Napoleon. + +To come nearer home,--Mr Mill tells us that it is a mistake to imagine +that the English government is mixed. He holds, we suppose, with all the +politicians of the Utilitarian school, that it is purely aristocratical. +There certainly is an aristocracy in England; and we are afraid that +their power is greater than it ought to be. They have power enough to +keep up the game-laws and corn-laws; but they have not power enough to +subject the bodies of men of the lowest class to wanton outrage at their +pleasure. Suppose that they were to make a law that any gentleman of +two thousand a-year might have a day-labourer or a pauper flogged with +a cat-of-nine-tails whenever the whim might take him. It is quite clear +that the first day on which such flagellation should be administered +would be the last day of the English aristocracy. In this point, and +in many other points which might be named, the commonalty in our island +enjoy a security quite as complete as if they exercised the right of +universal suffrage. We say, therefore, that the English people have +in their own hands a sufficient guarantee that in some points the +aristocracy will conform to their wishes;--in other words, they have +a certain portion of power over the aristocracy. Therefore the English +government is mixed. + +Wherever a king or an oligarchy refrains from the last extremity of +rapacity and tyranny through fear of the resistance of the people, +there the constitution, whatever it may be called, is in some measure +democratical. The admixture of democratic power may be slight. It may be +much slighter than it ought to be; but some admixture there is. Wherever +a numerical minority, by means of superior wealth or intelligence, +of political concert, or of military discipline, exercises a greater +influence on the society than any other equal number of persons,--there, +whatever the form of government may be called, a mixture of aristocracy +does in fact exist. And, wherever a single man, from whatever cause, +is so necessary to the community, or to any portion of it, that he +possesses more power than any other man, there is a mixture of monarchy. +This is the philosophical classification of governments: and if we +use this classification we shall find, not only that there are mixed +governments, but that all governments are, and must always be, mixed. +But we may safely challenge Mr Mill to give any definition of power, or +to make any classification of governments, which shall bear him out in +his assertion that a lasting division of authority is impracticable. + +It is evidently on the real distribution of power, and not on names and +badges, that the happiness of nations must depend. The representative +system, though doubtless a great and precious discovery in politics, is +only one of the many modes in which the democratic part of the community +can efficiently check the governing few. That certain men have been +chosen as deputies of the people,--that there is a piece of paper +stating such deputies to possess certain powers,--these circumstances +in themselves constitute no security for good government. Such a +constitution nominally existed in France; while, in fact, an oligarchy +of committees and clubs trampled at once on the electors and the +elected. Representation is a very happy contrivance for enabling large +bodies of men to exert their power with less risk of disorder than there +would otherwise be. But, assuredly, it does not of itself give power. +Unless a representative assembly is sure of being supported in the +last resort by the physical strength of large masses who have spirit to +defend the constitution and sense to defend it in concert, the mob of +the town in which it meets may overawe it;--the howls of the listeners +in its glory may silence its deliberations;--an able and daring +individual may dissolve it. And, if that sense and that spirit of +which we speak be diffused through a society, then, even without a +representative assembly, that society will enjoy many of the blessings +of good government. + +Which is the better able to defend himself;--a strong man with nothing +but his fists, or a paralytic cripple encumbered with a sword which he +cannot lift? Such, we believe, is the difference between Denmark and +some new republics in which the constitutional forms of the United +States have been most sedulously imitated. + +Look at the Long Parliament on the day on which Charles came to seize +the five members: and look at it again on the day when Cromwell stamped +with his foot on its floor. On which day was its apparent power the +greater? On which day was its real power the less? Nominally subject, it +was able to defy the sovereign. Nominally sovereign, it was turned out +of doors by its servant. + +Constitutions are in politics what paper money is in commerce. They +afford great facilities and conveniences. But we must not attribute to +them that value which really belongs to what they represent. They +are not power, but symbols of power, and will, in an emergency, prove +altogether useless unless the power for which they stand be forthcoming. +The real power by which the community is governed is made up of all the +means which all its members possess of giving pleasure or pain to each +other. + +Great light may be thrown on the nature of a circulating medium by the +phenomena of a state of barter. And in the same manner it may be useful +to those who wish to comprehend the nature and operation of the outward +signs of power to look at communities in which no such signs exist; +for example, at the great community of nations. There we find nothing +analogous to a constitution; but do we not find a government? We do in +fact find government in its purest, and simplest, and most intelligible +form. We see one portion of power acting directly on another portion +of power. We see a certain police kept up; the weak to a certain +degree protected; the strong to a certain degree restrained. We see the +principle of the balance in constant operation. We see the whole system +sometimes undisturbed by any attempt at encroachment for twenty or +thirty years at a time; and all this is produced without a legislative +assembly, or an executive magistracy--without tribunals--without any +code which deserves the name; solely by the mutual hopes and fears of +the various members of the federation. In the community of nations, +the first appeal is to physical force. In communities of men, forms +of government serve to put off that appeal, and often render it +unnecessary. But it is still open to the oppressed or the ambitious. + +Of course, we do not mean to deny that a form of government will, after +it has existed for a long time, materially affect the real distribution +of power throughout the community. This is because those who administer +a government, with their dependants, form a compact and disciplined +body, which, acting methodically and in concert, is more powerful than +any other equally numerous body which is inferior in organisation. +The power of rulers is not, as superficial observers sometimes seem +to think, a thing sui generis. It is exactly similar in kind, though +generally superior in amount, to that of any set of conspirators who +plot to overthrow it. We have seen in our time the most extensive and +the best organised conspiracy that ever existed--a conspiracy which +possessed all the elements of real power in so great a degree that it +was able to cope with a strong government, and to triumph over it--the +Catholic Association. An Utilitarian would tell us, we suppose, that the +Irish Catholics had no portion of political power whatever on the first +day of the late Session of Parliament. + +Let us really go beyond the surface of facts: let us, in the sound sense +of the words, penetrate to the springs within; and the deeper we go the +more reason shall we find to smile at those theorists who hold that the +sole hope of the human race is in a rule-of-three sum and a ballot-box. + +We must now return to the Westminster Reviewer. The following paragraph +is an excellent specimen of his peculiar mode of understanding and +answering arguments. + +"The reply to the argument against 'saturation,' supplies its own +answer. The reason why it is of no use to try to 'saturate' is precisely +what the Edinburgh Reviewers have suggested,--'THAT THERE IS NO LIMIT +TO THE NUMBER OF THIEVES.' There are the thieves, and the thieves' +cousins,--with their men-servants, their maid-servants, and their little +ones, to the fortieth generation. It is true, that 'a man cannot become +a king or a member of the aristocracy whenever he chooses;' but if there +is to be no limit to the depredators except their own inclination to +increase and multiply, the situation of those who are to suffer is as +wretched as it needs be. It is impossible to define what ARE 'corporal +pleasures.' A Duchess of Cleveland was 'a corporal pleasure.' The +most disgraceful period in the history of any nation--that of the +Restoration--presents an instance of the length to which it is possible +to go in an attempt to 'saturate' with pleasures of this kind." + +To reason with such a writer is like talking to a deaf man who catches +at a stray word, makes answer beside the mark, and is led further and +further into error by every attempt to explain. Yet, that our readers +may fully appreciate the abilities of the new philosophers, we shall +take the trouble to go over some of our ground again. + +Mr Mill attempts to prove that there is no point of saturation with the +objects of human desire. He then takes it for granted that men have no +objects of desire but those which can be obtained only at the expense +of the happiness of others. Hence he infers that absolute monarchs +and aristocracies will necessarily oppress and pillage the people to a +frightful extent. + +We answered in substance thus. There are two kinds of objects of desire; +those which give mere bodily pleasure, and those which please through +the medium of associations. Objects of the former class, it is true, a +man cannot obtain without depriving somebody else of a share. But then +with these every man is soon satisfied. A king or an aristocracy +cannot spend any very large portion of the national wealth on the mere +pleasures of sense. With the pleasures which belong to us as reasoning +and imaginative beings we are never satiated, it is true; but then, on +the other hand, many of those pleasures can be obtained without injury +to any person, and some of them can be obtained only by doing good to +others. + +The Westminster Reviewer, in his former attack on us, laughed at us for +saying that a king or an aristocracy could not be easily satiated with +the pleasures of sense, and asked why the same course was not tried with +thieves. We were not a little surprised at so silly an objection from +the pen, as we imagined, of Mr Bentham. We returned, however, a very +simple answer. There is no limit to the number of thieves. Any man who +chooses can steal: but a man cannot become a member of the aristocracy +or a king whenever he chooses. To satiate one thief, is to tempt twenty +other people to steal. But by satiating one king or five hundred nobles +with bodily pleasures we do not produce more kings or more nobles. The +answer of the Westminster Reviewer we have quoted above; and it will +amply repay our readers for the trouble of examining it. We never read +any passage which indicated notions so vague and confused. The number +of the thieves, says our Utilitarian, is not limited. For there are the +dependants and friends of the king and of the nobles. Is it possible +that he should not perceive that this comes under a different head? The +bodily pleasures which a man in power dispenses among his creatures are +bodily pleasures as respects his creatures, no doubt. But the pleasure +which he derives from bestowing them is not a bodily pleasure. It is one +of those pleasures which belong to him as a reasoning and imaginative +being. No man of common understanding can have failed to perceive that, +when we said that a king or an aristocracy might easily be supplied to +satiety with sensual pleasures, we were speaking of sensual pleasures +directly enjoyed by themselves. But "it is impossible," says the +Reviewer, "to define what are corporal pleasures." Our brother would +indeed, we suspect, find it a difficult task; nor, if we are to judge +of his genius for classification from the specimen which immediately +follows, would we advise him to make the attempt. "A Duchess of +Cleveland was a corporal pleasure." And to this wise remark is appended +a note, setting forth that Charles the Second gave to the Duchess +of Cleveland the money which he ought to have spent on the war with +Holland. We scarcely know how to answer a man who unites so much +pretension to so much ignorance. There are, among the many Utilitarians +who talk about Hume, Condillac, and Hartley, a few who have read +those writers. Let the Reviewer ask one of these what he thinks on the +subject. We shall not undertake to whip a pupil of so little promise +through his first course of metaphysics. We shall, therefore, only +say--leaving him to guess and wonder what we can mean--that, in +our opinion, the Duchess of Cleveland was not a merely corporal +pleasure,--that the feeling which leads a prince to prefer one woman to +all others, and to lavish the wealth of kingdoms on her, is a feeling +which can only be explained by the law of association. + +But we are tired, and even more ashamed than tired, of exposing these +blunders. The whole article is of a piece. One passage, however, we must +select, because it contains a very gross misrepresentation. + +"'THEY NEVER ALLUDED TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVING +THAT THE POOR WERE INCLINED TO ROB THE RICH.' They only said, 'as soon +as the poor AGAIN began to compare their cottages and salads with the +hotels and banquets of the rich, there would have been another scramble +for property, another general confiscation,' etc." + +We said that, IF MR MILL'S PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN NATURE WERE CORRECT, +there would have been another scramble for property, and another +confiscation. We particularly pointed this out in our last article. We +showed the Westminster Reviewer that he had misunderstood us. We dwelt +particularly on the condition which was introduced into our statement. +We said that we had not given, and did not mean to give, any opinion +of our own. And, after this, the Westminster Reviewer thinks proper to +repeat his former misrepresentation, without taking the least notice of +that qualification to which we, in the most marked manner, called his +attention. + +We hasten on to the most curious part of the article under our +consideration--the defence of the "greatest happiness principle." The +Reviewer charges us with having quite mistaken its nature. + +"All that they have established is, that they do not understand it. +Instead of the truism of the Whigs, 'that the greatest happiness is the +greatest happiness,' what Mr Bentham had demonstrated, or at all events +had laid such foundations that there was no trouble in demonstrating, +was, that the greatest happiness of the individual was in the long run +to be obtained by pursuing the greatest happiness of the aggregate." + +It was distinctly admitted by the Westminster Reviewer, as we remarked +in our last article, that he could give no answer to the question,--why +governments should attempt to produce the greatest possible happiness? +The Reviewer replies thus:-- + +"Nothing of the kind will be admitted at all. In the passage thus +selected to be tacked to the other, the question started was, concerning +'the object of government;' in which government was spoken of as an +operation, not as anything that is capable of feeling pleasure or +pain. In this sense it is true enough, that OUGHT is not predicable of +governments." + +We will quote, once again, the passage which we quoted in our last +Number; and we really hope that our brother critic will feel something +like shame while he peruses it. + +"The real answer appeared to be, that men at large OUGHT not to allow +a government to afflict them with more evil or less good, than they +can help. What a GOVERNMENT ought to do is a mysterious and searching +question which those may answer who know what it means; but what other +men ought to do is a question of no mystery at all. The word OUGHT, +if it means anything, must have reference to some kind of interest or +motives; and what interest a government has in doing right, when +it happens to be interested in doing wrong, is a question for the +schoolmen. The fact appears to be that OUGHT is not predicable of +governments. The question is not, why governments are bound not to do +this or that, but why other men should let them if they can help it. The +point is not to determine why the lion should not eat sheep, but why men +should not eat their own mutton if they can." + +We defy the Westminster Reviewer to reconcile this passage with the +"general happiness principle" as he now states it. He tells us that +he meant by government, not the people invested with the powers of +government, but a mere OPERATION incapable of feeling pleasure or pain. +We say, that he meant the people invested with the powers of government, +and nothing else. It is true that OUGHT is not predicable of an +operation. But who would ever dream of raising any question about the +DUTIES of an operation? What did the Reviewer mean by saying, that +a government could not be interested in doing right because it was +interested in doing wrong? Can an operation be interested in either? +And what did he mean by his comparison about the lion? Is a lion an +operation incapable of pain or pleasure? And what did he mean by the +expression, "other men," so obviously opposed to the word "government?" +But let the public judge between us. It is superfluous to argue a point +so clear. + +The Reviewer does indeed seem to feel that his expressions cannot be +explained away, and attempts to shuffle out of the difficulty by owning, +that "the double meaning of the word government was not got clear of +without confusion." He has now, at all events, he assures us, made +himself master of Mr Bentham's philosophy. The real and genuine +"greatest happiness principle" is, that the greatest happiness of every +individual is identical with the greatest happiness of society; and all +other "greatest happiness principles" whatever are counterfeits. "This," +says he, "is the spirit of Mr Bentham's principle; and if there is +anything opposed to it in any former statement it may be corrected by +the present." + +Assuredly, if a fair and honourable opponent had, in discussing a +question so abstruse as that concerning the origin of moral obligation, +made some unguarded admission inconsistent with the spirit of his +doctrines, we should not be inclined to triumph over him. But no +tenderness is due to a writer who, in the very act of confessing his +blunders, insults those by whom his blunders have been detected, +and accuses them of misunderstanding what, in fact, he has himself +mis-stated. + +The whole of this transaction illustrates excellently the real character +of this sect. A paper comes forth, professing to contain a full +development of the "greatest happiness principle," with the latest +improvements of Mr Bentham. The writer boasts that his article has +the honour of being the announcement and the organ of this wonderful +discovery, which is to make "the bones of sages and patriots stir within +their tombs." + +This "magnificent principle" is then stated thus: Mankind ought to +pursue their greatest happiness. But there are persons whose interest is +opposed to the greatest happiness of mankind. OUGHT is not predicable of +such persons. For the word OUGHT has no meaning unless it be used with +reference to some interest. + +We answered, with much more lenity than we should have shown to such +nonsense, had it not proceeded, as we supposed, from Mr Bentham, that +interest was synonymous with greatest happiness; and that, therefore, if +the word OUGHT has no meaning, unless used with reference to interest, +then, to say that mankind ought to pursue their greatest happiness, is +simply to say, that the greatest happiness is the greatest happiness; +that every individual pursues his own happiness; that either what +he thinks his happiness must coincide with the greatest happiness of +society or not; that, if what he thinks his happiness coincides with the +greatest happiness of society, he will attempt to promote the greatest +happiness of society whether he ever heard of the "greatest happiness +principle" or not; and that, by the admission of the Westminster +Reviewer, if his happiness is inconsistent with the greatest happiness +of society, there is no reason why he should promote the greatest +happiness of society. Now, that there are individuals who think that for +their happiness which is not for the greatest happiness of society is +evident. The Westminster Reviewer allowed that some of these individuals +were in the right; and did not pretend to give any reason which could +induce any one of them to think himself in the wrong. So that the +"magnificent principle" turned out to be, either a truism or a +contradiction in terms; either this maxim--"Do what you do;" or this +maxim, "Do what you cannot do." + +The Westminster Reviewer had the wit to see that he could not defend +this palpable nonsense; but, instead of manfully owning that he had +misunderstood the whole nature of the "greatest happiness principle" in +the summer, and had obtained new light during the autumn, he attempts +to withdraw the former principle unobserved, and to substitute another, +directly opposed to it, in its place; clamouring all the time against +our unfairness, like one who, while changing the cards, diverts the +attention of the table from his sleight of hand by vociferating charges +of foul play against other people. + +The "greatest happiness principle" for the present quarter is then +this,--that every individual will best promote his own happiness in +this world, religious considerations being left out of the question, +by promoting the greatest happiness of the whole species. And +this principle, we are told, holds good with respect to kings and +aristocracies as well as with other people. + +"It is certain that the individual operators in any government, if they +were thoroughly intelligent and entered into a perfect calculation +of all existing chances, would seek for their own happiness in the +promotion of the general; which brings them, if they knew it, under +Mr Bentham's rule. The mistake of supposing the contrary, lies in +confounding criminals who have had the luck to escape punishment with +those who have the risk still before them. Suppose, for instance, a +member of the House of Commons were at this moment to debate within +himself, whether it would be for his ultimate happiness to begin, +according to his ability, to misgovern. If he could be sure of being +as lucky as some that are dead and gone, there might be difficulty in +finding him an answer. But he is NOT sure; and never can be, till he +is dead. He does not know that he is not close upon the moment when +misgovernment such as he is tempted to contemplate, will be made a +terrible example of. It is not fair to pick out the instance of the +thief that has died unhanged. The question is, whether thieving is at +this moment an advisable trade to begin with all the possibilities of +hanging not got over? This is the spirit of Mr Bentham's principle; and +if there is anything opposed to it in any former statement, it may be +corrected by the present." + +We hope that we have now at last got to the real "magnificent +principle,"--to the principle which is really to make "the bones of the +sages and patriots stir." What effect it may produce on the bones of +the dead we shall not pretend to decide; but we are sure that it will do +very little for the happiness of the living. + +In the first place, nothing is more certain than this, that the +Utilitarian theory of government, as developed in Mr Mill's Essay and +in all the other works on the subject which have been put forth by the +sect, rests on those two principles,--that men follow their interest, +and that the interest of individuals may be, and in fact perpetually +is, opposed to the interest of society. Unless these two principles be +granted, Mr Mill's Essay does not contain one sound sentence. All his +arguments against monarchy and aristocracy, all his arguments in favour +of democracy, nay, the very argument by which he shows that there is +any necessity for having government at all, must be rejected as utterly +worthless. + +This is so palpable that even the Westminster Reviewer, though not the +most clear-sighted of men, could not help seeing it. Accordingly, he +attempts to guard himself against the objection, after the manner of +such reasoners, by committing two blunders instead of one. "All this," +says he, "only shows that the members of a government would do well if +they were all-wise," and he proceeds to tell us that, as rulers are not +all-wise, they will invariably act against this principle wherever they +can, so that the democratical checks will still be necessary to produce +good government. + +No form which human folly takes is so richly and exquisitely laughable +as the spectacle of an Utilitarian in a dilemma. What earthly good can +there be in a principle upon which no man will act until he is all-wise? +A certain most important doctrine, we are told, has been demonstrated so +clearly that it ought to be the foundation of the science of government. +And yet the whole frame of government is to be constituted exactly as +if this fundamental doctrine were false, and on the supposition that no +human being will ever act as if he believed it to be true! + +The whole argument of the Utilitarians in favour of universal suffrage +proceeds on the supposition that even the rudest and most uneducated men +cannot, for any length of time, be deluded into acting against their +own true interest. Yet now they tell us that, in all aristocratical +communities, the higher and more educated class will, not occasionally, +but invariably, act against its own interest. Now, the only use of +proving anything, as far as we can see, is that people may believe it. +To say that a man does what he believes to be against his happiness is +a contradiction in terms. If, therefore, government and laws are to be +constituted on the supposition on which Mr Mill's Essay is founded, +that all individuals will, whenever they have power over others put into +their hands, act in opposition to the general happiness, then government +and laws must be constituted on the supposition that no individual +believes, or ever will believe, his own happiness to be identical with +the happiness of society. That is to say, government and laws are to +be constituted on the supposition that no human being will ever +be satisfied by Mr Bentham's proof of his "greatest happiness +principle,"--a supposition which may be true enough, but which says +little, we think, for the principle in question. + +But where has this principle been demonstrated? We are curious, we +confess, to see this demonstration which is to change the face of the +world and yet is to convince nobody. The most amusing circumstance is +that the Westminster Reviewer himself does not seem to know whether +the principle has been demonstrated or not. "Mr Bentham," he says, "has +demonstrated it, or at all events has laid such foundations that there +is no trouble in demonstrating it." Surely it is rather strange that +such a matter should be left in doubt. The Reviewer proposed, in his +former article, a slight verbal emendation in the statement of the +principle; he then announced that the principle had received its last +improvement; and gloried in the circumstance that the Westminster Review +had been selected as the organ of that improvement. Did it never occur +to him that one slight improvement to a doctrine is to prove it? + +Mr Bentham has not demonstrated the "greatest happiness principle," as +now stated. He is far too wise a man to think of demonstrating any +such thing. In those sections of his "Introduction to the Principles of +Morals and Legislation", to which the Reviewer refers us in his note, +there is not a word of the kind. Mr Bentham says, most truly, that there +are no occasions in which a man has not SOME motives for consulting the +happiness of other men; and he proceeds to set forth what those motives +are--sympathy on all occasions, and the love of reputation on most +occasions. This is the very doctrine which we have been maintaining +against Mr Mill and the Westminster Reviewer. The principal charge which +we brought against Mr Mill was, that those motives to which Mr Bentham +ascribes so much influence were quite left out of consideration in his +theory. The Westminster Reviewer, in the very article now before us, +abuses us for saying, in the spirit, and almost in the words of Mr +Bentham, that "there is a certain check to the rapacity and cruelty +of men in their desire of the good opinion of others." But does this +principle, in which we fully agree with Mr Bentham, go the length of +the new "greatest happiness principle?" The question is, not whether men +have SOME motives for promoting the greatest happiness, but whether +the STRONGER motives be those which impel them to promote the greatest +happiness. That this would always be the case if men knew their own +worldly interests is the assertion of the Reviewer. As he expresses some +doubt whether Mr Bentham has demonstrated this or not, we would advise +him to set the point at rest by giving his own demonstration. + +The Reviewer has not attempted to give a general confirmation of the +"greatest happiness principle;" but he has tried to prove that it holds +good in one or two particular cases. And even in those particular cases +he has utterly failed. A man, says he, who calculated the chances fairly +would perceive that it would be for his greatest happiness to abstain +from stealing; for a thief runs a greater risk of being hanged than an +honest man. + +It would have been wise, we think, in the Westminster Reviewer, before +he entered on a discussion of this sort, to settle in what human +happiness consists. Each of the ancient sects of philosophy held some +tenet on this subject which served for a distinguishing badge. The +summum bonum of the Utilitarians, as far as we can judge from the +passage which we are now considering, is the not being hanged. + +That it is an unpleasant thing to be hanged, we most willingly concede +to our brother. But that the whole question of happiness or misery +resolves itself into this single point, we cannot so easily admit. We +must look at the thing purchased as well as the price paid for it. A +thief, assuredly, runs a greater risk of being hanged than a labourer; +and so an officer in the army runs a greater risk of being shot than a +banker's clerk; and a governor of India runs a greater risk of dying of +cholera than a lord of the bedchamber. But does it therefore follow that +every man, whatever his habits or feelings may be, would, if he knew +his own happiness, become a clerk rather than a cornet, or goldstick in +waiting rather than governor of India? + +Nothing can be more absurd than to suppose, like the Westminster +Reviewer, that thieves steal only because they do not calculate the +chances of being hanged as correctly as honest men. It never seems to +have occurred to him as possible that a man may so greatly prefer the +life of a thief to the life of a labourer that he may determine to brave +the risk of detection and punishment, though he may even think that risk +greater than it really is. And how, on Utilitarian principles, is such +a man to be convinced that he is in the wrong? "You will be found +out."--"Undoubtedly."--"You will be hanged within two years."--"I expect +to be hanged within one year."--"Then why do you pursue this lawless +mode of life?"--"Because I would rather live for one year with plenty +of money, dressed like a gentleman, eating and drinking of the best, +frequenting public places, and visiting a dashing mistress, than break +stones on the road, or sit down to the loom, with the certainty of +attaining a good old age. It is my humour. Are you answered?" + +A king, says the Reviewer again, would govern well, if he were wise, +for fear of provoking his subjects to insurrection. Therefore the true +happiness of a king is identical with the greatest happiness of society. +Tell Charles II. that, if he will be constant to his queen, sober +at table, regular at prayers, frugal in his expenses, active in the +transaction of business, if he will drive the herd of slaves, buffoons, +and procurers from Whitehall, and make the happiness of his people the +rule of his conduct, he will have a much greater chance of reigning +in comfort to an advanced age; that his profusion and tyranny have +exasperated his subjects, and may, perhaps, bring him to an end as +terrible as his father's. He might answer, that he saw the danger, but +that life was not worth having without ease and vicious pleasures. And +what has our philosopher to say? Does he not see that it is no more +possible to reason a man out of liking a short life and a merry one more +than a long life and a dull one than to reason a Greenlander out of his +train oil? We may say that the tastes of the thief and the tyrant differ +from ours; but what right have we to say, looking at this world alone, +that they do not pursue their greatest happiness very judiciously? + +It is the grossest ignorance of human nature to suppose that another man +calculates the chances differently from us, merely because he does what, +in his place, we should not do. Every man has tastes and propensities, +which he is disposed to gratify at a risk and expense which people of +different temperaments and habits think extravagant. "Why," says Horace, +"does one brother like to lounge in the forum, to play in the Campus, +and to anoint himself in the baths, so well, that he would not put +himself out of his way for all the wealth of the richest plantations of +the East; while the other toils from sunrise to sunset for the purpose +of increasing his fortune?" Horace attributes the diversity to the +influence of the Genius and the natal star: and eighteen hundred +years have taught us only to disguise our ignorance beneath a more +philosophical language. + +We think, therefore, that the Westminster Reviewer, even if we admit his +calculation of the chances to be right, does not make out his case. But +he appears to us to miscalculate chances more grossly than any person +who ever acted or speculated in this world. "It is for the happiness," +says he, "of a member of the House of Commons to govern well; for he +never can tell that he is not close on the moment when misgovernment +will be terribly punished: if he was sure that he should be as lucky as +his predecessors, it might be for his happiness to misgovern; but he is +not sure." Certainly a member of Parliament is not sure that he shall +not be torn in pieces by a mob, or guillotined by a revolutionary +tribunal for his opposition to reform. Nor is the Westminster Reviewer +sure that he shall not be hanged for writing in favour of universal +suffrage. We may have democratical massacres. We may also have +aristocratical proscriptions. It is not very likely, thank God, that we +should see either. But the radical, we think, runs as much danger as the +aristocrat. As to our friend the Westminster Reviewer, he, it must +be owned, has as good a right as any man on his side, "Antoni gladios +contemnere." But take the man whose votes, ever since he has sate in +Parliament, have been the most uniformly bad, and oppose him to the man +whose votes have been the most uniformly good. The Westminster Reviewer +would probably select Mr Sadler and Mr Hume. Now, does any rational man +think,--will the Westminster Reviewer himself say,--that Mr Sadler runs +more risk of coming to a miserable end on account of his public conduct +than Mr Hume? Mr Sadler does not know that he is not close on the moment +when he will be made an example of; for Mr Sadler knows, if possible, +less about the future than about the past. But he has no more reason to +expect that he shall be made an example of than to expect that London +will be swallowed up by an earthquake next spring; and it would be as +foolish in him to act on the former supposition as on the latter. There +is a risk; for there is a risk of everything which does not involve a +contradiction; but it is a risk from which no man in his wits would give +a shilling to be insured. Yet our Westminster Reviewer tells us that +this risk alone, apart from all considerations of religion, honour +or benevolence, would, as a matter of mere calculation, induce a wise +member of the House of Commons to refuse any emoluments which might be +offered him as the price of his support to pernicious measures. + +We have hitherto been examining cases proposed by our opponent. It is +now our turn to propose one; and we beg that he will spare no wisdom in +solving it. + +A thief is condemned to be hanged. On the eve of the day fixed for the +execution a turnkey enters his cell and tells him that all is safe, +that he has only to slip out, that his friends are waiting in the +neighbourhood with disguises, and that a passage is taken for him in +an American packet. Now, it is clearly for the greatest happiness of +society that the thief should be hanged and the corrupt turnkey exposed +and punished. Will the Westminster Reviewer tell us that it is for the +greatest happiness of the thief to summon the head jailer and tell the +whole story? Now, either it is for the greatest happiness of a thief +to be hanged or it is not. If it is, then the argument, by which the +Westminster Reviewer attempts to prove that men do not promote their own +happiness by thieving, falls to the ground. If it is not, then there are +men whose greatest happiness is at variance with the greatest happiness +of the community. + +To sum up our arguments shortly, we say that the "greatest happiness +principle," as now stated, is diametrically opposed to the principle +stated in the Westminster Review three months ago. + +We say that, if the "greatest happiness principle," as now stated, be +sound, Mr Mill's Essay, and all other works concerning Government which, +like that Essay, proceed on the supposition that individuals may have an +interest opposed to the greatest happiness of society, are fundamentally +erroneous. + +We say that those who hold this principle to be sound must be prepared +to maintain, either that monarchs and aristocracies may be trusted to +govern the community, or else that men cannot be trusted to follow their +own interest when that interest is demonstrated to them. + +We say that, if men cannot be trusted to follow their own interest +when that interest has been demonstrated to them, then the Utilitarian +arguments in favour of universal suffrage are good for nothing. + +We say that the "greatest happiness principle" has not been proved; +that it cannot be generally proved; that even in the particular cases +selected by the Reviewer it is not clear that the principle is true; +and that many cases might be stated in which the common sense of mankind +would at once pronounce it to be false. + +We now leave the Westminster Reviewer to alter and amend his +"magnificent principle" as he thinks best. Unlimited, it is false. +Properly limited, it will be barren. The "greatest happiness principle" +of the 1st of July, as far as we could discern its meaning through +a cloud of rodomontade, was an idle truism. The "greatest happiness +principle" of the 1st of October is, in the phrase of the American +newspapers, "important if true." But unhappily it is not true. It is not +our business to conjecture what new maxim is to make the bones of sages +and patriots stir on the 1st of December. We can only say that, unless +it be something infinitely more ingenious than its two predecessors, we +shall leave it unmolested. The Westminster Reviewer may, if he pleases, +indulge himself like Sultan Schahriar with espousing a rapid succession +of virgin theories. But we must beg to be excused from playing the part +of the vizier who regularly attended on the day after the wedding to +strangle the new Sultana. + +The Westminster Reviewer charges us with urging it as an objection to +the "greatest happiness principle" that "it is included in the Christian +morality." This is a mere fiction of his own. We never attacked the +morality of the Gospel. We blamed the Utilitarians for claiming the +credit of a discovery, when they had merely stolen that morality, and +spoiled it in the stealing. They have taken the precept of Christ and +left the motive; and they demand the praise of a most wonderful and +beneficial invention, when all that they have done has been to make +a most useful maxim useless by separating it from its sanction. On +religious principles it is true that every individual will best promote +his own happiness by promoting the happiness of others. But if religious +considerations be left out of the question it is not true. If we do not +reason on the supposition of a future state, where is the motive? If we +do reason on that supposition, where is the discovery? + +The Westminster Reviewer tells us that "we wish to see the science of +Government unsettled because we see no prospect of a settlement which +accords with our interests." His angry eagerness to have questions +settled resembles that of a judge in one of Dryden's plays--the +Amphitryon, we think--who wishes to decide a cause after hearing only +one party, and, when he has been at last compelled to listen to the +statement of the defendant, flies into a passion, and exclaims, "There +now, sir! See what you have done. The case was quite clear a minute ago; +and you must come and puzzle it!" He is the zealot of a sect. We are +searchers after truth. He wishes to have the question settled. We wish +to have it sifted first. The querulous manner in which we have been +blamed for attacking Mr Mill's system, and propounding no system of +our own, reminds us of the horror with which that shallow dogmatist, +Epicurus, the worst parts of whose nonsense the Utilitarians have +attempted to revive, shrank from the keen and searching scepticism of +the second Academy. + +It is not our fault that an experimental science of vast extent does not +admit of being settled by a short demonstration; that the subtilty +of nature, in the moral as in the physical world, triumphs over the +subtilty of syllogism. The quack, who declares on affidavit that, by +using his pills and attending to his printed directions, hundreds who +had been dismissed incurable from the hospitals have renewed their youth +like the eagles, may, perhaps, think that Sir Henry Halford, when +he feels the pulses of patients, inquires about their symptoms, and +prescribes a different remedy to each, is unsettling the science of +medicine for the sake of a fee. + +If, in the course of this controversy, we have refrained from expressing +any opinion respecting the political institutions of England, it is not +because we have not an opinion, or because we shrink from avowing +it. The Utilitarians, indeed, conscious that their boasted theory of +government would not bear investigation, were desirous to turn the +dispute about Mr Mill's Essay into a dispute about the Whig party, +rotten boroughs, unpaid magistrates, and ex-officio informations. When +we blamed them for talking nonsense, they cried out that they were +insulted for being reformers,--just as poor Ancient Pistol swore that +the scars which he had received from the cudgel of Fluellen were got +in the Gallia wars. We, however, did not think it desirable to mix up +political questions, about which the public mind is violently agitated, +with a great problem in moral philosophy. + +Our notions about Government are not, however, altogether unsettled. We +have an opinion about parliamentary reform, though we have not arrived +at that opinion by the royal road which Mr Mill has opened for the +explorers of political science. As we are taking leave, probably for the +last time, of this controversy, we will state very concisely what our +doctrines are. On some future occasion we may, perhaps, explain and +defend them at length. + +Our fervent wish, and we will add our sanguine hope, is that we may +see such a reform of the House of Commons as may render its votes +the express image of the opinion of the middle orders of Britain. A +pecuniary qualification we think absolutely necessary; and in settling +its amount, our object would be to draw the line in such a manner that +every decent farmer and shopkeeper might possess the elective franchise. +We should wish to see an end put to all the advantages which particular +forms of property possess over other forms, and particular portions of +property over other equal portions. And this would content us. Such a +reform would, according to Mr Mill, establish an aristocracy of wealth, +and leave the community without protection and exposed to all the evils +of unbridled power. Most willingly would we stake the whole controversy +between us on the success of the experiment which we propose. + +***** + + + + +SADLER'S LAW OF POPULATION. (July 1830.) + + "The Law of Population; a Treatise in Six Books, in Disproof + of the Superfecundity of Human Beings, and developing the + real Principle of their Increase". By Michael Thomas + Sadler, M.P. 2 volumes 8vo. London: 1830. + +We did not expect a good book from Mr Sadler: and it is well that we did +not; for he has given us a very bad one. The matter of his treatise is +extraordinary; the manner more extraordinary still. His arrangement is +confused, his repetitions endless, his style everything which it ought +not to be. Instead of saying what he has to say with the perspicuity, +the precision, and the simplicity in which consists the eloquence proper +to scientific writing, he indulges without measure in vague, bombastic +declamation, made up of those fine things which boys of fifteen admire, +and which everybody, who is not destined to be a boy all his life, weeds +vigorously out of his compositions after five-and-twenty. That portion +of his two thick volumes which is not made up of statistical tables, +consists principally of ejaculations, apostrophes, metaphors, +similes,--all the worst of their respective kinds. His thoughts are +dressed up in this shabby finery with so much profusion and so little +discrimination, that they remind us of a company of wretched strolling +players, who have huddled on suits of ragged and faded tinsel, taken +from a common wardrobe, and fitting neither their persons nor their +parts; and who then exhibit themselves to the laughing and pitying +spectators, in a state of strutting, ranting, painted, gilded beggary. +"Oh, rare Daniels!" "Political economist, go and do thou likewise!" +"Hear, ye political economists and anti-populationists!" "Population, if +not proscribed and worried down by the Cerberean dogs of this wretched +and cruel system, really does press against the level of the means of +subsistence, and still elevating that level, it continues thus to +urge society through advancing stages, till at length the strong +and resistless hand of necessity presses the secret spring of human +prosperity, and the portals of Providence fly open, and disclose to the +enraptured gaze the promised land of contented and rewarded labour." +These are specimens, taken at random, of Mr Sadler's eloquence. We could +easily multiply them; but our readers, we fear, are already inclined to +cry for mercy. + +Much blank verse and much rhyme is also scattered through these volumes, +sometimes rightly quoted, sometimes wrongly,--sometimes good, sometimes +insufferable,--sometimes taken from Shakspeare, and sometimes, for aught +we know, Mr Sadler's own. "Let man," cries the philosopher, "take heed +how he rashly violates his trust;" and thereupon he breaks forth into +singing as follows: + + "What myriads wait in destiny's dark womb, + Doubtful of life or an eternal tomb! + 'Tis his to blot them from the book of fate, + Or, like a second Deity, create; + To dry the stream of being in its source, + Or bid it, widening, win its restless course; + While, earth and heaven replenishing, the flood + Rolls to its Ocean fount, and rests in God." + +If these lines are not Mr Sadler's, we heartily beg his pardon for our +suspicion--a suspicion which, we acknowledge, ought not to be lightly +entertained of any human being. We can only say that we never met with +them before, and that we do not much care how long it may be before we +meet with them, or with any others like them, again. + +The spirit of this work is as bad as its style. We never met with a book +which so strongly indicated that the writer was in a good humour with +himself, and in a bad humour with everybody else; which contained so +much of that kind of reproach which is vulgarly said to be no slander, +and of that kind of praise which is vulgarly said to be no commendation. +Mr Malthus is attacked in language which it would be scarcely decent to +employ respecting Titus Oates. "Atrocious," "execrable," "blasphemous," +and other epithets of the same kind, are poured forth against that able, +excellent, and honourable man, with a profusion which in the early part +of the work excites indignation, but after the first hundred pages, +produces mere weariness and nausea. In the preface, Mr Sadler excuses +himself on the plea of haste. Two-thirds of his book, he tells us, were +written in a few months. If any terms have escaped him which can be +construed into personal disrespect, he shall deeply regret that he had +not more time to revise them. We must inform him that the tone of his +book required a very different apology; and that a quarter of a year, +though it is a short time for a man to be engaged in writing a book, is +a very long time for a man to be in a passion. + +The imputation of being in a passion Mr Sadler will not disclaim. His +is a theme, he tells us, on which "it were impious to be calm;" and he +boasts that, "instead of conforming to the candour of the present age, +he has imitated the honesty of preceding ones, in expressing himself +with the utmost plainness and freedom throughout." If Mr Sadler really +wishes that the controversy about his new principle of population should +be carried on with all the license of the seventeenth century, we can +have no personal objections. We are quite as little afraid of a contest +in which quarter shall be neither given nor taken as he can be. But we +would advise him seriously to consider, before he publishes the promised +continuation of his work, whether he be not one of that class of writers +who stand peculiarly in need of the candour which he insults, and who +would have most to fear from that unsparing severity which he practises +and recommends. + +There is only one excuse for the extreme acrimony with which this book +is written; and that excuse is but a bad one. Mr Sadler imagines that +the theory of Mr Malthus is inconsistent with Christianity, and even +with the purer forms of Deism. Now, even had this been the case, a +greater degree of mildness and self-command than Mr Sadler has shown +would have been becoming in a writer who had undertaken to defend the +religion of charity. But, in fact, the imputation which has been thrown +on Mr Malthus and his followers is so absurd as scarcely to deserve +an answer. As it appears, however, in almost every page of Mr Sadler's +book, we will say a few words respecting it. + +Mr Sadler describes Mr Malthus's principle in the following words:-- + +"It pronounces that there exists an evil in the principle of population; +an evil, not accidental, but inherent; not of occasional occurrence, +but in perpetual operation; not light, transient, or mitigated, but +productive of miseries, compared with which all those inflicted by human +institutions, that is to say, by the weakness and wickedness of man, +however instigated, are 'light;' an evil, finally, for which there is +no remedy save one, which had been long overlooked, and which is now +enunciated in terms which evince anything rather than confidence. It is +a principle, moreover, pre-eminently bold, as well as 'clear.' With a +presumption, to call it by no fitter name, of which it may be doubted +whether literature, heathen or Christian, furnishes a parallel, it +professes to trace this supposed evil to its source, 'the laws of +nature, which are those of God;' thereby implying, and indeed asserting, +that the law by which the Deity multiplies his offspring, and that by +which he makes provision for their sustentation, are different, and, +indeed, irreconcilable." + +"This theory," he adds, "in the plain apprehension of the many, lowers +the character of the Deity in that attribute, which, as Rousseau has +well observed, is the most essential to him, his goodness; or otherwise, +impugns his wisdom." + +Now nothing is more certain than that there is physical and moral +evil in the world. Whoever, therefore, believes, as we do most +firmly believe, in the goodness of God, must believe that there is +no incompatibility between the goodness of God and the existence +of physical and moral evil. If, then, the goodness of God be not +incompatible with the existence of physical and moral evil, on what +grounds does Mr Sadler maintain that the goodness of God is incompatible +with the law of population laid down by Mr Malthus? + +Is there any difference between the particular form of evil which would +be produced by over-population, and other forms of evil which we know +to exist in the world? It is, says Mr Sadler, not a light or transient +evil, but a great and permanent evil. What then? The question of the +origin of evil is a question of ay or no,--not a question of more +or less. If any explanation can be found by which the slightest +inconvenience ever sustained by any sentient being can be reconciled +with the divine attribute of benevolence, that explanation will equally +apply to the most dreadful and extensive calamities that can ever +afflict the human race. The difficulty arises from an apparent +contradiction in terms; and that difficulty is as complete in the case +of a headache which lasts for an hour as in the case of a pestilence +which unpeoples an empire,--in the case of the gust which makes us +shiver for a moment as in the case of the hurricane in which an Armada +is cast away. + +It is, according to Mr Sadler, an instance of presumption unparalleled +in literature, heathen or Christian, to trace an evil to "the laws of +nature, which are those of God," as its source. Is not hydrophobia +an evil? And is it not a law of nature that hydrophobia should be +communicated by the bite of a mad dog? Is not malaria an evil? And is it +not a law of nature that in particular situations the human frame should +be liable to malaria? We know that there is evil in the world. If it is +not to be traced to the laws of nature, how did it come into the world? +Is it supernatural? And, if we suppose it to be supernatural, is not the +difficulty of reconciling it with the divine attributes as great as if +we suppose it to be natural? Or, rather, what do the words natural and +supernatural mean when applied to the operations of the Supreme Mind? + +Mr Sadler has attempted, in another part of his work, to meet these +obvious arguments, by a distinction without a difference. + +"The scourges of human existence, as necessary regulators of the numbers +of mankind, it is also agreed by some, are not inconsistent with the +wisdom or benevolence of the Governor of the universe; though such think +that it is a mere after-concern to 'reconcile the undeniable state of +the fact to the attributes we assign to the Deity.' 'The purpose of the +earthquake,' say they, 'the hurricane, the drought, or the famine, by +which thousands, and sometimes almost millions, of the human race, are +at once overwhelmed, or left the victims of lingering want, is certainly +inscrutable.' How singular is it that a sophism like this, so false, as +a mere illustration, should pass for an argument, as it has long done! +The principle of population is declared to be naturally productive of +evils to mankind, and as having that constant and manifest tendency to +increase their numbers beyond the means of their subsistence, which has +produced the unhappy and disgusting consequences so often enumerated. +This is, then, its universal tendency or rule. But is there in Nature +the same constant tendency to these earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts, +and famines by which so many myriads, if not millions, are overwhelmed +or reduced at once to ruin? No; these awful events are strange +exceptions to the ordinary course of things; their visitations are +partial, and they occur at distant intervals of time. While Religion has +assigned to them a very solemn office, Philosophy readily refers them to +those great and benevolent principles of Nature by which the universe +is regulated. But were there a constantly operating tendency to these +calamitous occurrences; did we feel the earth beneath us tremulous, and +giving ceaseless and certain tokens of the coming catastrophe of +Nature; were the hurricane heard mustering its devastating powers, and +perpetually muttering around us; were the skies 'like brass,' without +a cloud to produce one genial drop to refresh the thirsty earth, and +famine, consequently, visibly on the approach; I say, would such a +state of things, as resulting from the constant laws of Nature, be +'reconcilable with the attributes we assign to the Deity,' or with any +attributes which in these inventive days could be assigned to him, so +as to represent him as anything but the tormenter, rather than the kind +benefactor, of his creatures? Life, in such a condition, would be like +the unceasingly threatened and miserable existence of Damocles at the +table of Dionysius, and the tyrant himself the worthy image of the Deity +of the anti-populationists." + +Surely this is wretched trifling. Is it on the number of bad harvests, +or of volcanic eruptions, that this great question depends? Mr Sadler's +piety, it seems, would be proof against one rainy summer, but would +be overcome by three or four in succession. On the coasts of the +Mediterranean, where earthquakes are rare, he would be an optimist. +South America would make him a sceptic, and Java a decided Manichean. +To say that religion assigns a solemn office to these visitations is +nothing to the purpose. Why was man so constituted as to need such +warnings? It is equally unmeaning to say that philosophy refers these +events to benevolent general laws of nature. In so far as the laws of +nature produce evil, they are clearly not benevolent. They may produce +much good. But why is this good mixed with evil? The most subtle and +powerful intellects have been labouring for centuries to solve these +difficulties. The true solution, we are inclined to think, is that which +has been rather suggested, than developed, by Paley and Butler. But +there is not one solution which will not apply quite as well to the +evils of over-population as to any other evil. Many excellent people +think that it is presumptuous to meddle with such high questions at all, +and that, though there doubtless is an explanation, our faculties are +not sufficiently enlarged to comprehend that explanation. This mode of +getting rid of the difficulty, again, will apply quite as well to the +evils of over-population as to any other evils. We are sure that those +who humbly confess their inability to expound the great enigma act more +rationally and more decorously than Mr Sadler, who tells us, with the +utmost confidence, which are the means and which the ends,--which the +exceptions and which the rules, in the government of the universe;--who +consents to bear a little evil without denying the divine benevolence, +but distinctly announces that a certain quantity of dry weather or +stormy weather would force him to regard the Deity as the tyrant of his +creatures. + +The great discovery by which Mr Sadler has, as he conceives, vindicated +the ways of Providence is enounced with all the pomp of capital letters. +We must particularly beg that our readers will peruse it with attention. + +"No one fact relative to the human species is more clearly ascertained, +whether by general observation or actual proof, than that their +fecundity varies in different communities and countries. The principle +which effects this variation, without the necessity of those cruel +and unnatural expedients so frequently adverted to, constitutes what I +presume to call THE LAW OF POPULATION; and that law may be thus briefly +enunciated:-- + + +"THE PROLIFICNESS OF HUMAN BEINGS, OTHERWISE SIMILARLY CIRCUMSTANCED, +VARIES INVERSELY AS THEIR NUMBERS. + +"The preceding definition may be thus amplified and explained. +Premising, as a mere truism, that marriages under precisely similar +circumstances will, on the average, be equally fruitful everywhere, +I proceed to state, first, that the prolificness of a given number +of marriages will, all other circumstances being the same, vary +in proportion to the condensation of the population, so that that +prolificness shall be greatest where the numbers on an equal space are +the fewest, and, on the contrary, the smallest where those numbers are +the largest." + +Mr Sadler, at setting out, abuses Mr Malthus for enouncing his theory +in terms taken from the exact sciences. "Applied to the mensuration of +human fecundity," he tells us, "the most fallacious of all things is +geometrical demonstration;" and he again informs us that those "act an +irrational and irrelevant part who affect to measure the mighty depth +of God's mercies by their arithmetic, and to demonstrate, by their +geometrical ratios, that it is inadequate to receive and contain the +efflux of that fountain of life which is in Him." + +It appears, however, that it is not to the use of mathematical words, +but only to the use of those words in their right senses that Mr Sadler +objects. The law of inverse variation, or inverse proportion, is as much +a part of mathematical science as the law of geometric progression. The +only difference in this respect between Mr Malthus and Mr Sadler is, +that Mr Malthus knows what is meant by geometric progression, and +that Mr Sadler has not the faintest notion of what is meant by inverse +variation. Had he understood the proposition which he has enounced with +so much pomp, its ludicrous absurdity must at once have flashed on his +mind. + +Let it be supposed that there is a tract in the back settlements of +America, or in New South Wales, equal in size to London, with only a +single couple, a man and his wife, living upon it. The population of +London, with its immediate suburbs, is now probably about a million and +a half. The average fecundity of a marriage in London is, as Mr Sadler +tells us 2.35. How many children will the woman in the back settlements +bear according to Mr Sadler's theory? The solution of the problem is +easy. As the population in this tract in the back settlements is to +the population of London, so will be the number of children born from a +marriage in London to the number of children born from the marriage of +this couple in the back settlements. That is to say-- + + 2 : 1,500,000 :: 2.35 : 1,762,500. + +The lady will have 1,762,500 children: a large "efflux of the fountain +of life," to borrow Mr Sadler's sonorous rhetoric, as the most +philoprogenitive parent could possibly desire. + +But let us, instead of putting cases of our own, look at some of those +which Mr Sadler has brought forward in support of his theory. The +following table, he tells us, exhibits a striking proof of the truth of +his main position. It seems to us to prove only that Mr Sadler does not +know what inverse proportion means. + + Countries Inhabitants on a Children to a + Square Mile, about Marriage + + Cape of Good Hope 1 5.48 + North America 4 5.22 + Russia in Europe 23 4.94 + Denmark 73 4.89 + Prussia 100 4.70 + France 140 4.22 + England 160 3.66 + +Is 1 to 160 as 3.66 to 5.48? If Mr Sadler's principle were just, the +number of children produced by a marriage at the Cape would be, not +5.48, but very near 600. Or take America and France. Is 4 to 140 as +4.22 to 5.22? The number of births to a marriage in North America ought, +according to this proportion, to be about 150. + +Mr Sadler states the law of population in England thus:-- + +"Where the inhabitants are found to be on the square mile, + + From To Counties Number of births to 100 marriages + + 50 100 2 420 + 100 150 9 396 + 150 200 16 390 + 200 250 4 388 + 250 300 5 378 + 300 350 3 353 + 500 600 2 331 + 4000 and upwards 1 246 + +"Now, I think it quite reasonable to conclude, that, were there not +another document in existence relative to this subject, the facts thus +deduced from the census of England are fully sufficient to demonstrate +the position, that the fecundity of human beings varies inversely as +their numbers. How, I ask, can it be evaded?" + +What, we ask, is there to evade? Is 246 to 420 as 50 to 4000? Is 331 to +396 as 100 to 500? If the law propounded by Mr Sadler were correct, the +births to a hundred marriages in the least populous part of England, +would be 246 x 4000 / 50, that is 19,680,--nearly two hundred children +to every mother. But we will not carry on these calculations. The +absurdity of Mr Sadler's proposition is so palpable that it is +unnecessary to select particular instances. Let us see what are the +extremes of population and fecundity in well-known countries. The space +which Mr Sadler generally takes is a square mile. The population at the +Cape of Good Hope is, according to him, one to the square mile. That +of London is two hundred thousand to the square mile. The number of +children at the Cape, Mr Sadler informs us, is 5.48 to a marriage. In +London, he states it at 2.35 to a marriage. Now how can that of which +all the variations lie between 2.35 and 5.48 vary, either directly or +inversely, as that which admits of all the variations between one and +two hundred thousand? Mr Sadler evidently does not know the meaning of +the word proportion. A million is a larger quantity than ten. A hundred +is a larger quantity than five. Mr Sadler thinks, therefore, that there +is no impropriety in saying that a hundred is to five as a million is to +ten, or in the inverse ratio of ten to a million. He proposes to prove +that the fecundity of marriages varies in inverse proportion to the +density of the population. But all that he attempts to prove is that, +while the population increases from one to a hundred and sixty on the +square mile, the fecundity will diminish from 5.48 to 3.66; and that +again, while the population increases from one hundred and sixty to two +hundred thousand on the square mile, the fecundity will diminish from +3.66 to 2.35. + +The proposition which Mr Sadler enounces, without understanding the +words which he uses, would indeed, if it could be proved, set us at ease +as to the dangers of over-population. But it is, as we have shown, a +proposition so grossly absurd that it is difficult for any man to keep +his countenance while he repeats it. The utmost that Mr Sadler has +ever attempted to prove is this,--that the fecundity of the human +race diminishes as population becomes more condensed,--but that the +diminution of fecundity bears a very small ratio to the increase +of population,--so that, while the population on a square mile is +multiplied two hundred-thousand-fold, the fecundity decreases by little +more than one half. + +Does this principle vindicate the honour of God? Does it hold out any +new hope or comfort to man? Not at all. We pledge ourselves to +show, with the utmost strictness of reasoning, from Mr Sadler's own +principles, and from facts of the most notorious description, that every +consequence which follows from the law of geometrical progression, laid +down by Mr Malthus, will follow from the law, miscalled a law of inverse +variation, which has been laid down by Mr Sadler. + +London is the most thickly peopled spot of its size in the known world. +Therefore the fecundity of the population of London must, according +to Mr Sadler, be less than the fecundity of human beings living on +any other spot of equal size. Mr Sadler tells us, that "the ratios +of mortality are influenced by the different degrees in which the +population is condensated; and that, other circumstances being similar, +the relative number of deaths in a thinly-populated, or country +district, is less than that which takes place in towns, and in towns of +a moderate size less again than that which exists in large and populous +cities." Therefore the mortality in London must, according to him, be +greater than in other places. But, though, according to Mr Sadler, the +fecundity is less in London than elsewhere, and though the mortality is +greater there than elsewhere, we find that even in London the number of +births greatly exceeds the number of deaths. During the ten years which +ended with 1820, there were fifty thousand more baptisms than burials +within the bills of mortality. It follows, therefore, that, even within +London itself, an increase of the population is taking place by internal +propagation. + +Now, if the population of a place in which the fecundity is less and +the mortality greater than in other places still goes on increasing +by propagation, it follows that in other places the population will +increase, and increase still faster. There is clearly nothing in Mr +Sadler's boasted law of fecundity which will keep the population from +multiplying till the whole earth is as thick with human beings as St +Giles's parish. If Mr Sadler denies this, he must hold that, in places +less thickly peopled than London, marriages may be less fruitful than +in London, which is directly contrary to his own principles; or that in +places less thickly peopled than London, and similarly situated, people +will die faster than in London, which is again directly contrary to his +own principles. Now, if it follows, as it clearly does follow, from Mr +Sadler's own doctrines, that the human race might be stowed together +by three or four hundred to the acre, and might still, as far as the +principle of propagation is concerned, go on increasing, what advantage, +in a religious or moral point of view, has his theory over that of +Mr Malthus? The principle of Mr Malthus, says Mr Sadler, leads to +consequences of the most frightful description. Be it so. But do not +all these consequences spring equally from his own principle? Revealed +religion condemns Mr Malthus. Be it so. But Mr Sadler must share in the +reproach of heresy. The theory of Mr Malthus represents the Deity as a +Dionysius hanging the sword over the heads of his trembling slaves. Be +it so. But under what rhetorical figure are we to represent the Deity of +Mr Sadler? + +A man who wishes to serve the cause of religion ought to hesitate long +before he stakes the truth of religion on the event of a controversy +respecting facts in the physical world. For a time he may succeed in +making a theory which he dislikes unpopular by persuading the public +that it contradicts the Scriptures and is inconsistent with the +attributes of the Deity. But, if at last an overwhelming force of +evidence proves this maligned theory to be true, what is the effect of +the arguments by which the objector has attempted to prove that it is +irreconcilable with natural and revealed religion? Merely this, to make +men infidels. Like the Israelites, in their battle with the Philistines, +he has presumptuously and without warrant brought down the ark of God +into the camp as a means of ensuring victory:--and the consequence of +this profanation is that, when the battle is lost, the ark is taken. + +In every age the Church has been cautioned against this fatal and +impious rashness by its most illustrious members,--by the fervid +Augustin, by the subtle Aquinas, by the all-accomplished Pascal. The +warning has been given in vain. That close alliance which, under +the disguise of the most deadly enmity, has always subsisted between +fanaticism and atheism is still unbroken. At one time, the cry was,--"If +you hold that the earth moves round the sun, you deny the truth of the +Bible." Popes, conclaves, and religious orders, rose up against the +Copernican heresy. But, as Pascal said, they could not prevent the +earth from moving, or themselves from moving along with it. One thing, +however, they could do, and they did. They could teach numbers to +consider the Bible as a collection of old women's stories which the +progress of civilisation and knowledge was refuting one by one. They +had attempted to show that the Ptolemaic system was as much a part of +Christianity as the resurrection of the dead. Was it strange, then, that +when the Ptolemaic system became an object of ridicule to every man of +education in Catholic countries, the doctrine of the resurrection should +be in peril? In the present generation, and in our own country, the +prevailing system of geology has been, with equal folly, attacked on the +ground that it is inconsistent with the Mosaic dates. And here we have +Mr Sadler, out of his especial zeal for religion, first proving that the +doctrine of superfecundity is irreconcilable with the goodness of God, +and then laying down principles, and stating facts, from which the +doctrine of superfecundity necessarily follows. This blundering piety +reminds us of the adventures of a certain missionary who went to convert +the inhabitants of Madagascar. The good father had an audience of the +king, and began to instruct his majesty in the history of the human race +as given in the Scriptures. "Thus, sir," said he, "was woman made out +of the rib of man, and ever since that time a woman has had one rib +more than a man." "Surely, father, you must be mistaken there," said the +king. "Mistaken!" said the missionary. "It is an indisputable fact. +My faith upon it! My life upon it!" The good man had heard the fact +asserted by his nurse when he was a child,--had always considered it as +a strong confirmation of the Scriptures, and fully believed it without +having ever thought of verifying it. The king ordered a man and woman, +the leanest that could be found, to be brought before him, and desired +his spiritual instructor to count their ribs. The father counted over +and over, upward and downward, and still found the same number in both. +He then cleared his throat, stammered, stuttered, and began to assure +the king that though he had committed a little error in saying that a +woman had more ribs than a man, he was quite right in saying that the +first woman was made out of the rib of the first man. "How can I tell +that?" said the king. "You come to me with a strange story which you say +is revealed to you from heaven. I have already made you confess that +one half of it is a lie: and how can you have the face to expect that I +shall believe the other half?" + +We have shown that Mr Sadler's theory, if it be true, is as much a +theory of superfecundity as that of Mr Malthus. But it is not true. And +from Mr Sadler's own tables we will prove that it is not true. + +The fecundity of the human race in England Mr Sadler rates as follows:-- + +"Where the inhabitants are found to be on the square mile-- + + From To Counties Number of births per 100 marriages + + 50 100 2 420 + 100 150 9 396 + 150 200 16 390 + 200 250 4 388 + 250 300 5 378 + 300 350 3 353 + 500 600 2 331 + 4000 and upwards 1 246 + +Having given this table, he begins, as usual, to boast and triumph. +"Were there not another document on the subject in existence," says he, +"the facts thus deduced from the census of England are sufficient to +demonstrate the position, that the fecundity of human beings varies +inversely as their numbers." In no case would these facts demonstrate +that the fecundity of human beings varies inversely as their numbers +in the right sense of the words inverse variation. But certainly +they would, "if there were no other document in existence," appear +to indicate something like what Mr Sadler means by inverse variation. +Unhappily for him, however, there are other documents in existence; and +he has himself furnished us with them. We will extract another of his +tables:-- + + +TABLE LXIV. + +Showing the Operation of the Law of Population in the different Hundreds +of the County of Lancaster. + +(In the following table the name of the Hundred is followed in order by: + + Population on each Square Mile. + Square Miles. + Population in 1821, exclusive of Towns of separate Jurisdiction. + Marriages from 1811 to 1821. + Baptisms from 1811 to 1821. + Baptisms to 100 Marriages.) + + Lonsdale : 96 : 441 : 42,486 : 3,651 : 16,129 : 442 + Almondness : 267 : 228 : 60,930 : 3,670 : 15,228 : 415 + Leyland : 354 : 126 : 44,583 : 2,858 : 11,182 : 391 + West Derby : 409 : 377 : 154,040 : 24,182 : 86,407 : 357 + Blackburn : 513 : 286 : 146,608 : 10,814 : 31,463 : 291 + Salford : 869 : 373 : 322,592 : 40,143 : 114,941 : 286 + +Mr Sadler rejoices much over this table. The results, he says, have +surprised himself; and, indeed, as we shall show, they might well have +done so. + +The result of his inquiries with respect to France he presents in the +following table: + +"In those departments where there are to each inhabitant-- + + Hectares Departments Legitimate births to + every 1000 marriages + + 4 to 5 2 5130 + 3 to 4 3 4372 + 2 to 3 30 4250 + 1 to 2 44 4234 + .06 to 1 5 4146 + .06 1 2557 + +Then comes the shout of exaltation as regularly as the Gloria Patri +at the end of a Psalm. "Is there any possibility of gainsaying the +conclusions these facts force upon us; namely that the fecundity of +marriages is regulated by the density of the population, and inversely +to it?" + +Certainly these tables, taken separately, look well for Mr Sadler's +theory. He must be a bungling gamester who cannot win when he is +suffered to pack the cards his own way. We must beg leave to shuffle +them a little; and we will venture to promise our readers that some +curious results will follow from the operation. In nine counties of +England, says Mr Sadler, in which the population is from 100 to 150 +on the square mile, the births to 100 marriages are 396. He afterwards +expresses some doubt as to the accuracy of the documents from which this +estimate has been formed, and rates the number of births as high as 414. +Let him take his choice. We will allow him every advantage. + +In the table which we have quoted, numbered lxiv., he tells us that in +Almondness, where the population is 267 to the square mile, there are +415 births to 100 marriages. The population of Almondness is twice as +thick as the population of the nine counties referred to in the other +table. Yet the number of births to a marriage is greater in Almondness +than in those counties. + +Once more, he tells us that in three counties, in which the population +was from 300 to 350 on the square mile, the births to 100 marriages were +353. He afterwards rates them at 375. Again we say, let him take his +choice. But from his table of the population of Lancashire it appears +that, in the hundred of Leyland, where the population is 354 to the +square mile, the number of births to 100 marriages is 391. Here again +we have the marriages becoming more fruitful as the population becomes +denser. + +Let us now shuffle the censuses of England and France together. In two +English counties which contain from 50 to 100 inhabitants on the square +mile, the births to 100 marriages are, according to Mr Sadler, 420. But +in forty-four departments of France, in which there are from one to two +hecatares to each inhabitant, that is to say, in which the population is +from 125 to 250 or rather more, to the square mile, the number of births +to 100 marriages is 423 and a fraction. + +Again, in five departments of France in which there is less than one +hecatare to each inhabitant, that is to say, in which the population is +more than 250 to the square mile, the number of births to 100 marriages +is 414 and a fraction. But in the four counties of England in which the +population is from 200 to 250 on the square mile, the number of births +to 100 marriages is, according to one of Mr Sadler's tables, only 388, +and by his very highest estimate no more than 402. + +Mr Sadler gives us a long table of all the towns of England and Ireland, +which, he tells us, irrefragably demonstrates his principle. We assert, +and will prove, that these tables are alone sufficient to upset his +whole theory. + +It is very true that, in the great towns the number of births to a +marriage appears to be smaller than in the less populous towns. But we +learn some other facts from these tables which we should be glad to know +how Mr Sadler will explain. We find that the fecundity in towns of +fewer than 3000 inhabitants is actually much greater than the average +fecundity of the kingdom, and that the fecundity in towns of between +3000 and 4000 inhabitants is at least as great as the average fecundity +of the kingdom. The average fecundity of a marriage in towns of fewer +than 3000 inhabitants is about four; in towns of between 3000 and 4000 +inhabitants it is 3.60. Now, the average fecundity of England, when it +contained only 160 inhabitants to a square mile, and when, therefore, +according to the new law of population, the fecundity must have been +greater than it now is, was only, according to Mr Sadler, 3.66 to a +marriage. To proceed,--the fecundity of a marriage in the English towns +of between 4000 and 5000 inhabitants is stated at 3.56. But, when +we turn to Mr Sadler's table of counties, we find the fecundity of a +marriage in Warwickshire and Staffordshire rated at only 3.48, and in +Lancashire and Surrey at only 3.41. + +These facts disprove Mr Sadler's principle; and the fact on which he +lays so much stress--that the fecundity is less in the great towns than +in the small towns--does not tend in any degree to prove his principle. +There is not the least reason to believe that the population is more +dense, ON A GIVEN SPACE, in London or Manchester than in a town of 4000 +inhabitants. But it is quite certain that the population is more dense +in a town of 4000 inhabitants than in Warwickshire or Lancashire. That +the fecundity of Manchester is less than the fecundity of Sandwich or +Guildford is a circumstance which has nothing whatever to do with Mr +Sadler's theory. But that the fecundity of Sandwich is greater than the +average fecundity of Kent,--that the fecundity of Guildford is greater +than the average fecundity of Surrey,--as from his own tables appears to +be the case,--these are facts utterly inconsistent with his theory. + +We need not here examine why it is that the human race is less fruitful +in great cities than in small towns or in the open country. The fact has +long been notorious. We are inclined to attribute it to the same causes +which tend to abridge human life in great cities,--to general sickliness +and want of tone, produced by close air and sedentary employments. Thus +far, and thus far only, we agree with Mr Sadler, that, when population +is crowded together in such masses that the general health and energy of +the frame are impaired by the condensation, and by the habits attending +on the condensation, then the fecundity of the race diminishes. But this +is evidently a check of the same class with war, pestilence, and famine. +It is a check for the operation of which Mr Malthus has allowed. + +That any condensation which does not affect the general health will +affect fecundity, is not only not proved--it is disproved--by Mr +Sadler's own tables. + +Mr Sadler passes on to Prussia, and sums up his information respecting +that country as follows:-- + +(In the following table numbers appear in the order: Inhabitants on a +Square Mile, German. + + Number of Provinces. + Births to 100 Marriages, 1754. + Births to 100 Marriages, 1784. + Births to 100 Marriages, Busching.) + + Under 1000 : 2 : 434 : 472 : 503 + 1000 to 2000 : 4 : 414 : 455 : 454 + 2000 to 3000 : 6 : 384 : 424 : 426 + 3000 to 4000 : 2 : 365 : 408 : 394 + +After the table comes the boast as usual: + +"Thus is the law of population deduced from the registers of Prussia +also: and were the argument to pause here, it is conclusive. The +results obtained from the registers of this and the preceding countries, +exhibiting, as they do most clearly, the principle of human increase, +it is utterly impossible should have been the work of chance; on the +contrary, the regularity with which the facts class themselves in +conformity with that principle, and the striking analogy which the whole +of them bear to each other, demonstrate equally the design of Nature, +and the certainty of its accomplishment." + +We are sorry to disturb Mr Sadler's complacency. But, in our opinion, +this table completely disproves his whole principle. If we read the +columns perpendicularly, indeed, they seem to be in his favour. But how +stands the case if we read horizontally? Does Mr Sadler believe that, +during the thirty years which elapsed between 1754 and 1784, the +population of Prussia had been diminishing? No fact in history is better +ascertained than that, during the long peace which followed the seven +years' war, it increased with great rapidity. Indeed, if the fecundity +were what Mr Sadler states it to have been, it must have increased with +great rapidity. Yet, the ratio of births to marriages is greater in 1784 +than in 1754, and that in every province. It is, therefore, perfectly +clear that the fecundity does not diminish whenever the density of the +population increases. + +We will try another of Mr Sadler's tables: + + +TABLE LXXXI. + +Showing the Estimated Prolificness of Marriages in England at the close +of the Seventeenth Century. + +(In the following table the name of the Place is followed in order by: + + Number of Inhabitants. + One Annual Marriage, to. + Number of Marriages. + Children to one Marriage. + Total Number of Births. + + London : 530,000 : 106 : 5,000 : 4. : 20,000 + Large Towns : 870,000 : 128 : 6,800 : 4.5 : 30,000 + Small Towns and + Country Places : 4,100,000 : 141 : 29,200 : 4.8 : 140,160 + ------------------------------------------- + : 5,500,000 : 134 : 41,000 : 4.65 : 190,760 + +Standing by itself, this table, like most of the others, seems to +support Mr Sadler's theory. But surely London, at the close of the +seventeenth century, was far more thickly peopled than the kingdom +of England now is. Yet the fecundity in London at the close of the +seventeenth century was 4; and the average fecundity of the whole +kingdom now is not more, according to Mr Sadler, than 3 1/2. Then again, +the large towns in 1700 were far more thickly peopled than Westmoreland +and the North Riding of Yorkshire now are. Yet the fecundity in those +large towns was then 4.5. And Mr Sadler tells us that it is now only 4.2 +in Westmoreland and the North Riding. + +It is scarcely necessary to say anything about the censuses of +the Netherlands, as Mr Sadler himself confesses that there is some +difficulty in reconciling them with his theory, and helps out his +awkward explanation by supposing, quite gratuitously, as it seems to us, +that the official documents are inaccurate. The argument which he has +drawn from the United States will detain us but for a very short time. +He has not told us,--perhaps he had not the means of telling us,--what +proportion the number of births in the different parts of that country +bears to the number of marriages. He shows that in the thinly peopled +states the number of children bears a greater proportion to the number +of grown-up people than in the old states; and this, he conceives, is a +sufficient proof that the condensation of the population is unfavourable +to fecundity. We deny the inference altogether. Nothing can be more +obvious than the explanation of the phenomenon. The back settlements +are for the most part peopled by emigration from the old states; and +emigrants are almost always breeders. They are almost always vigorous +people in the prime of life. Mr Sadler himself, in another part of +his book, in which he tries very unsuccessfully to show that the +rapid multiplication of the people of America is principally owing to +emigration from Europe, states this fact in the plainest manner: + +"Nothing is more certain, than that emigration is almost universally +supplied by 'single persons in the beginning of mature life;' nor, +secondly, that such persons, as Dr Franklin long ago asserted, 'marry +and raise families.' + +"Nor is this all. It is not more true, that emigrants, generally +speaking, consist of individuals in the prime of life, than that 'they +are the most active and vigorous' of that age, as Dr Seybert describes +them to be. They are, as it respects the principle at issue, a select +class, even compared with that of their own age, generally considered. +Their very object in leaving their native countries is to settle in +life, a phrase that needs no explanation; and they do so. No equal +number of human beings, therefore, have ever given so large or rapid an +increase to a community as 'settlers' have invariably done." + +It is perfectly clear that children are more numerous in the back +settlements of America than in the maritime states, not because +unoccupied land makes people prolific, but because the most prolific +people go to the unoccupied land. + +Mr Sadler having, as he conceives, fully established his theory of +population by statistical evidence, proceeds to prove, "that it is +in unison, or rather required by the principles of physiology." The +difference between himself and his opponents he states as follows:-- + +"In pursuing this part of my subject, I must begin by reminding the +reader of the difference between those who hold the superfecundity of +mankind and myself, in regard to those principles which will form the +basis of the present argument. They contend, that production precedes +population; I, on the contrary, maintain that population precedes, and +is indeed the cause of, production. They teach that man breeds up to the +capital, or in proportion to the abundance of the food, he possesses: I +assert, that he is comparatively sterile when he is wealthy, and that +he breeds in proportion to his poverty; not meaning, however, by that +poverty, a state of privation approaching to actual starvation, any more +than, I suppose, they would contend, that extreme and culpable excess +is the grand patron of population. In a word, they hold that a state +of ease and affluence is the great promoter of prolificness. I maintain +that a considerable degree of labour, and even privation, is a more +efficient cause of an increased degree of human fecundity." + +To prove this point, he quotes Aristotle, Hippocrates, Dr Short, Dr +Gregory, Dr Perceval, M. Villermi, Lord Bacon, and Rousseau. We will not +dispute about it; for it seems quite clear to us that if he succeeds in +establishing it he overturns his own theory. If men breed in proportion +to their poverty, as he tells us here,--and at the same time breed +in inverse proportion to their numbers, as he told us before,--it +necessarily follows that the poverty of men must be in inverse +proportion to their numbers. Inverse proportion, indeed, as we have +shown, is not the phrase which expresses Mr Sadler's meaning. To +speak more correctly, it follows, from his own positions, that, if one +population be thinner than another, it will also be poorer. Is this the +fact? Mr Sadler tells us, in one of those tables which we have already +quoted, that in the United States the population is four to a square +mile, and the fecundity 5.22 to a marriage, and that in Russia the +population is twenty-three to a square mile, and the fecundity 4.94 to +a marriage. Is the North American labourer poorer than the Russian boor? +If not, what becomes of Mr Sadler's argument? + +The most decisive proof of Mr Sadler's theory, according to him, is that +which he has kept for the last. It is derived from the registers of the +English Peerage. The peers, he says, and says truly, are the class with +respect to whom we possess the most accurate statistical information. + +"Touching their NUMBER, this has been accurately known and recorded ever +since the order has existed in the country. For several centuries past, +the addition to it of a single individual has been a matter of public +interest and notoriety: this hereditary honour conferring not personal +dignity merely, but important privileges, and being almost always +identified with great wealth and influence. The records relating to +it are kept with the most scrupulous attention, not only by heirs and +expectants, but they are appealed to by more distant connections, as +conferring distinction on all who can claim such affinity. Hence there +are few disputes concerning successions to this rank, but such as go +back to very remote periods. In later times, the marriages, births, and +deaths, of the nobility, have not only been registered by and known to +those personally interested, but have been published periodically, and, +consequently, subject to perpetual correction and revision; while many +of the most powerful motives which can influence the human mind conspire +to preserve these records from the slightest falsification. Compared +with these, therefore, all other registers, or reports, whether of sworn +searchers or others, are incorrectness itself." + +Mr Sadler goes on to tell us that the peers are a marrying class, and +that their general longevity proves them to be a healthy class. Still +peerages often become extinct;--and from this fact he infers that they +are a sterile class. So far, says he, from increasing in geometrical +progression, they do not even keep up their numbers. "Nature interdicts +their increase." + +"Thus," says he, "in all ages of the world, and in every nation of it, +have the highest ranks of the community been the most sterile, and +the lowest the most prolific. As it respects our own country, from the +lowest grade of society, the Irish peasant, to the highest, the British +peer, this remains a conspicuous truth; and the regulation of the degree +of fecundity conformably to this principle, through the intermediate +gradations of society, constitutes one of the features of the system +developed in these pages." + +We take the issue which Mr Sadler has himself offered. We agree with +him, that the registers of the English Peerage are of far higher +authority than any other statistical documents. We are content that +by those registers his principle should be judged. And we meet him by +positively denying his facts. We assert that the English nobles are not +only not a sterile, but an eminently prolific, part of the community. +Mr Sadler concludes that they are sterile, merely because peerages often +become extinct. Is this the proper way of ascertaining the point? Is +it thus that he avails himself of those registers on the accuracy and +fulness of which he descants so largely? Surely his right course would +have been to count the marriages, and the number of births in the +Peerage. This he has not done;--but we have done it. And what is the +result? + +It appears from the last edition of Debrett's "Peerage", published in +1828, that there were at that time 287 peers of the United Kingdom, +who had been married once or oftener. The whole number of marriages +contracted by these 287 peers was 333. The number of children by these +marriages was 1437,--more than five to a peer,--more than 4.3 to a +marriage,--more, that is to say, than the average number in those +counties of England in which, according to Mr Sadler's own statement, +the fecundity is the greatest. + +But this is not all. These marriages had not, in 1828, produced their +full effect. Some of them had been very lately contracted. In a very +large proportion of them there was every probability of additional +issue. To allow for this probability, we may safely add one to the +average which we have already obtained, and rate the fecundity of a +noble marriage in England at 5.3;--higher than the fecundity which Mr +Sadler assigns to the people of the United States. Even if we do not +make this allowance, the average fecundity of marriages of peers is +higher by one-fifth than the average fecundity of marriages throughout +the kingdom. And this is the sterile class! This is the class which +"Nature has interdicted from increasing!" The evidence to which Mr +Sadler has himself appealed proves that his principle is false,--utterly +false,--wildly and extravagantly false. It proves that a class, living +during half of every year in the most crowded population in the world, +breeds faster than those who live in the country;--that the class which +enjoys the greatest degree of luxury and ease breeds faster than the +class which undergoes labour and privation. To talk a little in Mr +Sadler's style, we must own that we are ourselves surprised at the +results which our examination of the peerage has brought out. We +certainly should have thought that the habits of fashionable life, and +long residence even in the most airy parts of so great a city as London, +would have been more unfavourable to the fecundity of the higher orders +than they appear to be. + +Peerages, it is true, often become extinct. But it is quite clear, from +what we have stated, that this is not because peeresses are barren. +There is no difficulty in discovering what the causes really are. In the +first place, most of the titles of our nobles are limited to heirs male; +so that, though the average fecundity of a noble marriage is upwards +of five, yet, for the purpose of keeping up a peerage, it cannot be +reckoned at much more than two and a half. Secondly, though the peers +are, as Mr Sadler says, a marrying class, the younger sons of peers are +decidedly not a marrying class; so that a peer, though he has at least +as great a chance of having a son as his neighbours, has less chance +than they of having a collateral heir. + +We have now disposed, we think, of Mr Sadler's principle of population. +Our readers must, by this time, be pretty well satisfied as to his +qualifications for setting up theories of his own. We will, therefore, +present them with a few instances of the skill and fairness which he +shows when he undertakes to pull down the theories of other men. The +doctrine of Mr Malthus, that population, if not checked by want, +by vice, by excessive mortality, or by the prudent self-denial of +individuals, would increase in a geometric progression, is, in Mr +Sadler's opinion, at once false and atrocious. + +"It may at once be denied," says he, "that human increase proceeds +geometrically; and for this simple but decisive reason, that the +existence of a geometrical ratio of increase in the works of nature +is neither true nor possible. It would fling into utter confusion all +order, time, magnitude, and space." + +This is as curious a specimen of reasoning as any that has been offered +to the world since the days when theories were founded on the principle +that nature abhors a vacuum. We proceed a few pages further, however; +and we then find that geometric progression is unnatural only in those +cases in which Mr Malthus conceives that it exists; and that, in all +cases in which Mr Malthus denies the existence of a geometric ratio, +nature changes sides, and adopts that ratio as the rule of increase. + +Mr Malthus holds that subsistence will increase only in an arithmetical +ratio. "As far as nature has to do with the question," says Mr Sadler, +"men might, for instance, plant twice the number of peas, and breed +from a double number of the same animals, with equal prospect of their +multiplication." Now, if Mr Sadler thinks that, as far as nature is +concerned, four sheep will double as fast as two, and eight as fast as +four, how can he deny that the geometrical ratio of increase does +exist in the works of nature? Or has he a definition of his own for +geometrical progression, as well as for inverse proportion? + +Mr Malthus, and those who agree with him, have generally referred to +the United States, as a country in which the human race increases in a +geometrical ratio, and have fixed on thirty-five years as the term in +which the population of that country doubles itself. Mr Sadler contends +that it is physically impossible for a people to double in twenty-five +years; nay, that thirty-five years is far too short a period,--that +the Americans do not double by procreation in less than forty-seven +years,--and that the rapid increase of their numbers is produced by +emigration from Europe. + +Emigration has certainly had some effect in increasing the population of +the United States. But so great has the rate of that increase been that, +after making full allowance for the effect of emigration, there will be +a residue, attributable to procreation alone, amply sufficient to double +the population in twenty-five years. + +Mr Sadler states the results of the four censuses as follows:-- + +"There were, of white inhabitants, in the whole of the United States in +1790, 3,093,111; in 1800, 4,309,656; in 1810, 5,862,093; and in 1820, +7,861,710. The increase, in the first term, being 39 per cent.; that in +the second, 36 per cent.; and that in the third and last, 33 per cent. +It is superfluous to say, that it is utterly impossible to deduce +the geometric theory of human increase, whatever be the period of +duplication, from such terms as these." + +Mr Sadler is a bad arithmetician. The increase in the last term is +not as he states it, 33 per cent., but more than 34 per cent. Now, an +increase of 32 per cent. in ten years, is more than sufficient to double +the population in twenty-five years. And there is, we think, very strong +reason to believe that the white population of the United States does +increase by 32 per cent. every ten years. + +Our reason is this. There is in the United States a class of persons +whose numbers are not increased by emigration,--the negro slaves. During +the interval which elapsed between the census of 1810 and the census +of 1820, the change in their numbers must have been produced by +procreation, and by procreation alone. Their situation, though much +happier than that of the wretched beings who cultivate the sugar +plantations of Trinidad and Demerara, cannot be supposed to be more +favourable to health and fecundity than that of free labourers. In +1810, the slave-trade had been but recently abolished; and there were +in consequence many more male than female slaves,--a circumstance, of +course, very unfavourable to procreation. Slaves are perpetually passing +into the class of freemen; but no freeman ever descends into servitude; +so that the census will not exhibit the whole effect of the procreation +which really takes place. + +We find, by the census of 1810, that the number of slaves in the Union +was then 1,191,000. In 1820, they had increased to 1,538,000. That is +to say, in ten years, they had increased 29 per cent.--within three +per cent. of that rate of increase which would double their numbers +in twenty-five years. We may, we think, fairly calculate that, if the +female slaves had been as numerous as the males, and if no manumissions +had taken place, the census of the slave population would have exhibited +an increase of 32 per cent. in ten years. + +If we are right in fixing on 32 per cent. as the rate at which the white +population of America increases by procreation in ten years, it will +follow that, during the last ten years of the eighteenth century, nearly +one-sixth of the increase was the effect of emigration; from 1800 to +1810, about one-ninth; and from 1810 to 1820, about one-seventeenth. +This is what we should have expected; for it is clear that, unless the +number of emigrants be constantly increasing, it must, as compared with +the resident population, be relatively decreasing. The number of persons +added to the population of the United States by emigration, between 1810 +and 1820, would be nearly 120,000. From the data furnished by Mr Sadler +himself, we should be inclined to think that this would be a fair +estimate. + +"Dr Seybert says, that the passengers to ten of the principal ports of +the United States, in the year 1817, amounted to 22,235; of whom 11,977 +were from Great Britain and Ireland; 4164 from Germany and Holland; 1245 +from France; 58 from Italy, 2901 from the British possessions in North +America; 1569 from the West Indies; and from all other countries, 321. +These, however, we may conclude, with the editor of Styles's Register, +were far short of the number that arrived." + +We have not the honour of knowing either Dr Seybert or the editor of +Styles's Register. We cannot, therefore, decide on their respective +claims to our confidence so peremptorily as Mr Sadler thinks fit to do. +Nor can we agree to what Mr Sadler very gravely assigns as a reason for +disbelieving Dr Seyberts's testimony. "Such accounts," he says, "if not +wilfully exaggerated, must always fall short of the truth." It would be +a curious question of casuistry to determine what a man ought to do in a +case in which he cannot tell the truth except by being guilty of +wilful exaggeration. We will, however, suppose, with Mr Sadler, that Dr +Seybert, finding himself compelled to choose between two sins, preferred +telling a falsehood to exaggerating; and that he has consequently +underrated the number of emigrants. We will take it at double of the +Doctor's estimate, and suppose that, in 1817, 45,000 Europeans crossed +to the United States. Now, it must be remembered that the year 1817 was +a year of the severest and most general distress all over Europe,--a +year of scarcity everywhere, and of cruel famine in some places. There +can, therefore, be no doubt that the emigration of 1817 was very far +above the average, probably more than three times that of an ordinary +year. Till the year 1815, the war rendered it almost impossible to +emigrate to the United States either from England or from the Continent. +If we suppose the average emigration of the remaining years to have been +16,000, we shall probably not be much mistaken. In 1818 and 1819, +the number was certainly much beyond that average; in 1815 and 1816, +probably much below it. But, even if we were to suppose that, in every +year from the peace to 1820, the number of emigrants had been as high as +we have supposed it to be in 1817, the increase by procreation among the +white inhabitants of the United States would still appear to be about 30 +per cent. in ten years. + +Mr Sadler acknowledges that Cobbett exaggerates the number of emigrants +when he states it at 150,000 a year. Yet even this estimate, absurdly +great as it is, would not be sufficient to explain the increase of the +population of the United States on Mr Sadler's principles. He is, he +tells us, "convinced that doubling in 35 years is a far more rapid +duplication than ever has taken place in that country from procreation +only." An increase of 20 per cent. in ten years, by procreation, would +therefore be the very utmost that he would allow to be possible. We have +already shown, by reference to the census of the slave population, that +this doctrine is quite absurd. And, if we suppose it to be sound, we +shall be driven to the conclusion that above eight hundred thousand +people emigrated from Europe to the United States in a space of little +more than five years. The whole increase of the white population from +1810 to 1820 was within a few hundreds of 2,000,000. If we are to +attribute to procreation only 20 per cent. on the number returned by the +census of 1810, we shall have about 830,000 persons to account for in +some other way;--and to suppose that the emigrants who went to America +between the peace of 1815 and the census of 1820, with the children who +were born to them there, would make up that number, would be the height +of absurdity. + +We could say much more; but we think it quite unnecessary at present. We +have shown that Mr Sadler is careless in the collection of facts,--that +he is incapable of reasoning on facts when he has collected them,--that +he does not understand the simplest terms of science,--that he has +enounced a proposition of which he does not know the meaning,--that +the proposition which he means to enounce, and which he tries to prove, +leads directly to all those consequences which he represents as impious +and immoral,--and that, from the very documents to which he has himself +appealed, it may be demonstrated that his theory is false. We may, +perhaps, resume the subject when his next volume appears. Meanwhile, we +hope that he will delay its publication until he has learned a little +arithmetic, and unlearned a great deal of eloquence. + +***** + + + + +SADLER'S REFUTATION REFUTED. (January 1831.) + + "A Refutation of an Article in the Edinburgh Review (No. + CII.) entitled, 'Sadler's Law of Population, and disproof of + Human Superfecundity;' containing also Additional Proofs of + the Principle enunciated in that Treatise, founded on the + Censuses of different Countries recently published." By + Michael Thomas Sadler, M.P. 8vo. London: 1830. + +"Before anything came out against my Essay, I was told I must prepare +myself for a storm coming against it, it being resolved by some men +that it was necessary that book of mine should, as it is phrased, be run +down."--John Locke. + +We have, in violation of our usual practice, transcribed Mr Sadler's +title-page from top to bottom, motto and all. The parallel implied +between the Essay on the Human Understanding and the Essay on +Superfecundity is exquisitely laughable. We can match it, however, with +mottoes as ludicrous. We remember to have heard of a dramatic piece, +entitled "News from Camperdown," written soon after Lord Duncan's +victory, by a man once as much in his own good graces as Mr Sadler is, +and now as much forgotten as Mr Sadler will soon be, Robert Heron. His +piece was brought upon the stage, and damned, "as it is phrased," in +the second act; but the author, thinking that it had been unfairly and +unjustly "run down," published it, in order to put his critics to shame, +with this motto from Swift: "When a true genius appears in the world, +you may know him by this mark--that the dunces are all in confederacy +against him." We remember another anecdote, which may perhaps be +acceptable to so zealous a churchman as Mr Sadler. A certain Antinomian +preacher, the oracle of a barn, in a county of which we do not think it +proper to mention the name, finding that divinity was not by itself a +sufficiently lucrative profession, resolved to combine with it that of +dog-stealing. He was, by ill-fortune, detected in several offences of +this description, and was in consequence brought before two justices, +who, in virtue of the powers given them by an act of parliament, +sentenced him to a whipping for each theft. The degrading punishment +inflicted on the pastor naturally thinned the flock; and the poor man +was in danger of wanting bread. He accordingly put forth a handbill +solemnly protesting his innocence, describing his sufferings, and +appealing to the Christian charity of the public; and to his pathetic +address he prefixed this most appropriate text: "Thrice was I beaten +with rods.--St Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians." He did not perceive +that, though St Paul had been scourged, no number of whippings, however +severe, will of themselves entitle a man to be considered as an apostle. +Mr Sadler seems to us to have fallen into a somewhat similar error. He +should remember that, though Locke may have been laughed at, so has Sir +Claudius Hunter; and that it takes something more than the laughter of +all the world to make a Locke. + +The body of this pamphlet by no means justifies the parallel so modestly +insinuated on the title-page. Yet we must own that, though Mr Sadler +has not risen to the level of Locke, he has done what was almost as +difficult, if not as honourable--he has fallen below his own. He is at +best a bad writer. His arrangement is an elaborate confusion. His style +has been constructed, with great care, in such a manner as to produce +the least possible effect by means of the greatest possible number of +words. Aspiring to the exalted character of a Christian philosopher, he +can never preserve through a single paragraph either the calmness of a +philosopher or the meekness of a Christian. His ill-nature would make a +very little wit formidable. But, happily, his efforts to wound resemble +those of a juggler's snake. The bags of poison are full, but the fang is +wanting. In this foolish pamphlet, all the unpleasant peculiarities of +his style and temper are brought out in the strongest manner. He is from +the beginning to the end in a paroxysm of rage, and would certainly do +us some mischief if he knew how. We will give a single instance for the +present. Others will present themselves as we proceed. We laughed at +some doggerel verses which he cited, and which we, never having seen +them before, suspected to be his own. We are now sure that if the +principle on which Solomon decided a famous case of filiation were +correct, there can be no doubt as to the justice of our suspicion. Mr +Sadler, who, whatever elements of the poetical character he may lack, +possesses the poetical irritability in an abundance which might have +sufficed for Homer himself, resolved to retaliate on the person, who, +as he supposed, had reviewed him. He has, accordingly, ransacked +some collection of college verses, in the hope of finding, among the +performances of his supposed antagonist, something as bad as his own. +And we must in fairness admit that he has succeeded pretty well. We must +admit that the gentleman in question sometimes put into his exercises, +at seventeen, almost as great nonsense as Mr Sadler is in the habit of +putting into his books at sixty. + +Mr Sadler complains that we have devoted whole pages to mere abuse of +him. We deny the charge. We have, indeed, characterised, in terms of +just reprehension, that spirit which shows itself in every part of his +prolix work. Those terms of reprehension we are by no means inclined +to retract; and we conceive that we might have used much stronger +expressions, without the least offence either to truth or to decorum. +There is a limit prescribed to us by our sense of what is due to +ourselves. But we think that no indulgence is due to Mr Sadler. A writer +who distinctly announces that he has not conformed to the candour of the +age--who makes it his boast that he expresses himself throughout with +the greatest plainness and freedom--and whose constant practice proves +that by plainness and freedom he means coarseness and rancour--has +no right to expect that others shall remember courtesies which he has +forgotten, or shall respect one who has ceased to respect himself. + +Mr Sadler declares that he has never vilified Mr Malthus personally, +and has confined himself to attacking the doctrines which that gentleman +maintains. We should wish to leave that point to the decision of all +who have read Mr Sadler's book, or any twenty pages of it. To quote +particular instances of a temper which penetrates and inspires the whole +work, is to weaken our charge. Yet, that we may not be suspected of +flinching, we will give two specimens,--the two first which occur to our +recollection. "Whose minister is it that speaks thus?" says Mr Sadler, +after misrepresenting in a most extraordinary manner, though, we are +willing to believe, unintentionally, one of the positions of Mr Malthus. +"Whose minister is it that speaks thus? That of the lover and avenger of +little children?" Again, Mr Malthus recommends, erroneously perhaps, but +assuredly from humane motives, that alms, when given, should be given +very sparingly. Mr Sadler quotes the recommendation, and adds the +following courteous comment:--"The tender mercies of the wicked are +cruel." We cannot think that a writer who indulges in these indecent and +unjust attacks on professional and personal character has any right to +complain of our sarcasms on his metaphors and rhymes. + +We will now proceed to examine the reply which Mr Sadler has thought +fit to make to our arguments. He begins by attacking our remarks on the +origin of evil. They are, says he, too profound for common apprehension; +and he hopes that they are too profound for our own. That they seem +profound to him we can well believe. Profundity, in its secondary as in +its primary sense, is a relative term. When Grildrig was nearly drowned +in the Brobdingnagian cream-jug he doubtless thought it very deep. But +to common apprehension our reasoning would, we are persuaded, appear +perfectly simple. + +The theory of Mr Malthus, says Mr Sadler, cannot be true, because it +asserts the existence of a great and terrible evil, and is therefore +inconsistent with the goodness of God. We answer thus. We know that +there are in the world great and terrible evils. In spite of these +evils, we believe in the goodness of God. Why may we not then continue +to believe in his goodness, though another evil should be added to the +list? + +How does Mr Sadler answer this? Merely by telling us, that we are too +wicked to be reasoned with. He completely shrinks from the question; a +question, be it remembered, not raised by us--a question which we should +have felt strong objections to raising unnecessarily--a question put +forward by himself, as intimately connected with the subject of his +two ponderous volumes. He attempts to carp at detached parts of our +reasoning on the subject. With what success he carries on this guerilla +war after declining a general action with the main body of our argument +our readers shall see. + +"The Reviewer sends me to Paley, who is, I confess, rather more +intelligible on the subject, and who, fortunately, has decided the very +point in dispute. I will first give the words of the Reviewer, who, when +speaking of my general argument regarding the magnitude of the evils, +moral and physical, implied in the theory I oppose, sums up his ideas +thus:--'Mr Sadler says, that it is not a light or transient evil, but a +great and permanent evil. What then? The question of the origin of evil +is a question of aye or no,--not a question of MORE or LESS.' But what +says Paley? His express rule is this, that 'when we cannot resolve all +appearances into benevolence of design, we make the FEW give place to +the MANY, the LITTLE to the GREAT; that we take our judgment from a +large and decided preponderancy.' Now in weighing these two authorities, +directly at issue on this point, I think there will be little trouble +in determining which we shall make 'to give place;' or, if we 'look to +a large and decided preponderancy' of either talent, learning, or +benevolence, from whom we shall 'take our judgment.' The effrontery, or, +to speak more charitably, the ignorance of a reference to Paley on this +subject, and in this instance, is really marvellous." + +Now, does not Mr Sadler see that the very words which he quotes from +Paley contain in themselves a refutation of his whole argument? Paley +says, indeed, as every man in his senses would say, that in a certain +case, which he has specified, the more and the less come into question. +But in what case? "When we CANNOT resolve all appearances into the +benevolence of design." It is better that there should be a little +evil than a great deal of evil. This is self-evident. But it is also +self-evident, that no evil is better than a little evil. Why, then, is +there any evil? It is a mystery which we cannot solve. It is a mystery +which Paley, by the very words which Mr Sadler has quoted, acknowledges +himself unable to solve; and it is because he cannot solve that mystery +that he proceeds to take into consideration the more and the less. +Believing in the divine goodness, we must necessarily believe that the +evils which exist are necessary to avert greater evils. But what those +greater evils are, we do not know. How the happiness of any part of the +sentient creation would be in any respect diminished if, for example, +children cut their teeth without pain, we cannot understand. The case +is exactly the same with the principle of Mr Malthus. If superfecundity +exists, it exists, no doubt, because it is a less evil than some other +evil which otherwise would exist. Can Mr Sadler prove that this is an +impossibility? + +One single expression which Mr Sadler employs on this subject is +sufficient to show how utterly incompetent he is to discuss it. "On the +Christian hypothesis," says he, "no doubt exists as to the origin of +evil." He does not, we think, understand what is meant by the origin +of evil. The Christian Scriptures profess to give no solution of that +mystery. They relate facts: but they leave the metaphysical question +undetermined. They tell us that man fell; but why he was not so +constituted as to be incapable of falling, or why the Supreme Being has +not mitigated the consequences of the Fall more than they actually have +been mitigated, the Scriptures did not tell us, and, it may without +presumption be said, could not tell us, unless we had been creatures +different from what we are. There is something, either in the nature of +our faculties or in the nature of the machinery employed by us for the +purpose of reasoning, which condemns us, on this and similar subjects, +to hopeless ignorance. Man can understand these high matters only by +ceasing to be man, just as a fly can understand a lemma of Newton only +by ceasing to be a fly. To make it an objection to the Christian system +that it gives us no solution of these difficulties, is to make it an +objection to the Christian system that it is a system formed for human +beings. Of the puzzles of the Academy, there is not one which does not +apply as strongly to Deism as to Christianity, and to Atheism as to +Deism. There are difficulties in everything. Yet we are sure that +something must be true. + +If revelation speaks on the subject of the origin of evil it speaks +only to discourage dogmatism and temerity. In the most ancient, the most +beautiful, and the most profound of all works on the subject, the Book +of Job, both the sufferer who complains of the divine government, and +the injudicious advisers who attempt to defend it on wrong principles, +are silenced by the voice of supreme wisdom, and reminded that the +question is beyond the reach of the human intellect. St Paul silences +the supposed objector, who strives to force him into controversy, in +the same manner. The church has been, ever since the apostolic times, +agitated by this question, and by a question which is inseparable from +it, the question of fate and free-will. The greatest theologians and +philosophers have acknowledged that these things were too high for them, +and have contended themselves with hinting at what seemed to be the most +probable solution. What says Johnson? "All our effort ends in belief +that for the evils of life there is some good reason, and in confession +that the reason cannot be found." What says Paley? "Of the origin of +evil no universal solution has been discovered. I mean no solution which +reaches to all cases of complaint.--The consideration of general laws, +although it may concern the question of the origin of evil very nearly, +which I think it does, rests in views disproportionate to our faculties, +and in a knowledge which we do not possess. It serves rather to account +for the obscurity of the subject, than to supply us with distinct +answers to our difficulties." What says presumptuous ignorance? "No +doubt whatever exists as to the origin of evil." It is remarkable that +Mr Sadler does not tell us what his solution is. The world, we suspect, +will lose little by his silence. + +He falls on the reviewer again. + +"Though I have shown," says he, "and on authorities from which none can +lightly differ, not only the cruelty and immorality which this system +necessarily involves, but its most revolting feature, its gross +partiality, he has wholly suppressed this, the most important part of my +argument; as even the bare notice of it would have instantly exposed +the sophistry to which he has had recourse. If, however, he would fairly +meet the whole question, let him show me that 'hydrophobia,' which he +gives as an example of the laws of God and nature, is a calamity to +which the poor alone are liable; or that 'malaria,' which, with singular +infelicity, he has chosen as an illustration of the fancied evils of +population, is a respecter of persons." + +We said nothing about this argument, as Mr Sadler calls it, merely +because we did not think it worth while: and we are half ashamed to say +anything about it now. But, since Mr Sadler is so urgent for an answer, +he shall have one. If there is evil, it must be either partial or +universal. Which is the better of the two? Hydrophobia, says this great +philosopher, is no argument against the divine goodness, because mad +dogs bite rich and poor alike; but if the rich were exempted, and +only nine people suffered for ten who suffer now, hydrophobia would +forthwith, simply because it would produce less evil than at present, +become an argument against the divine goodness! To state such a +proposition, is to refute it. And is not the malaria a respecter of +persons? It infests Rome. Does it infest London? There are complaints +peculiar to the tropical countries. There are others which are found +only in mountainous districts; others which are confined to marshy +regions; others again which run in particular families. Is not this +partiality? Why is it more inconsistent with the divine goodness that +poor men should suffer an evil from which rich men are exempt, than that +a particular portion of the community should inherit gout, scrofula, +insanity, and other maladies? And are there no miseries under which, in +fact, the poor alone are suffering? Mr Sadler himself acknowledges, in +this very paragraph, that there are such; but he tells us that these +calamities are the effects of misgovernment, and that this misgovernment +is the effect of political economy. Be it so. But does he not see that +he is only removing the difficulty one step further? Why does Providence +suffer men, whose minds are filled with false and pernicious notions, to +have power in the state? For good ends, we doubt not, if the fact be so; +but for ends inscrutable to us, who see only a small part of the vast +scheme, and who see that small part only for a short period. Does Mr +Sadler doubt that the Supreme Being has power as absolute over the +revolutions of political as over the organisation of natural bodies? +Surely not: and, if not, we do not see that he vindicates the ways +of Providence by attributing the distresses, which the poor, as he +confesses, endure, to an error in legislation rather than to a law of +physiology. Turn the question as we may, disguise it as we may, we shall +find that it at last resolves itself into the same great enigma,--the +origin of physical and moral evil: an enigma which the highest human +intellects have given up in despair, but which Mr Sadler thinks himself +perfectly able to solve. + +He next accuses us of having paused long on verbal criticism. We +certainly did object to his improper use of the words "inverse +variation." Mr Sadler complains of this with his usual bitterness. + +"Now what is the Reviewer's quarrel with me on this occasion? That he +does not understand the meaning of my terms? No. He acknowledges the +contrary. That I have not fully explained the sense in which I have used +them? No. An explanation, he knows, is immediately subjoined, though +he has carefully suppressed it. That I have varied the sense in which I +have applied them? No. I challenge him to show it. But he nevertheless +goes on for many pages together in arguing against what he knows, and, +in fact, acknowledges, I did not mean; and then turns round and argues +again, though much more feebly, indeed, against what he says I did mean! +Now, even had I been in error as to the use of a word, I appeal to the +reader whether such an unworthy and disingenuous course would not, if +generally pursued, make controversy on all subjects, however important, +that into which, in such hands, it always degenerates--a dispute about +words." + +The best way to avoid controversies about words is to use words in their +proper senses. Mr Sadler may think our objection captious; but how +he can think it disingenuous we do not well understand. If we had +represented him as meaning what we knew that he did not mean, we should +have acted in a disgraceful manner. But we did not represent him, and he +allows that we did not represent him, as meaning what he did not mean. +We blamed him, and with perfect justice and propriety, for saying what +he did not mean. Every man has in one sense a right to define his own +terms; that is to say, if he chooses to call one two, and two seven, +it would be absurd to charge him with false arithmetic for saying that +seven is the double of one. But it would be perfectly fair to blame +him for changing the established sense of words. The words, "inverse +variation," in matters not purely scientific, have often been used +in the loose way in which Mr Sadler has used them. But we shall be +surprised if he can find a single instance of their having been so used +in a matter of pure arithmetic. + +We will illustrate our meaning thus. Lord Thurlow, in one of his +speeches about Indian affairs, said that one Hastings was worth twenty +Macartneys. He might, with equal propriety, have said ten Macartneys, or +a hundred Macartneys. Nor would there have been the least inconsistency +in his using all the three expressions in one speech. But would this be +an excuse for a financier who, in a matter of account, should reason as +if ten, twenty, and a hundred were the same number? + +Mr Sadler tells us that he purposely avoided the use of the word +proportion in stating his principle. He seems, therefore, to allow that +the word proportion would have been improper. Yet he did in fact employ +it in explaining his principle, accompanied with an awkward explanation +intended to signify that, though he said proportion, he meant something +quite different from proportion. We should not have said so much on this +subject either in our former article, or at present, but that there is +in all Mr Sadler's writings an air of scientific pedantry, which renders +his errors fair game. We will now let the matter rest; and, instead +of assailing Mr Sadler with our verbal criticism, proceed to defend +ourselves against his literal criticism. + +"The Reviewer promised his readers that some curious results should +follow from his shuffling. We will enable him to keep his word. + +"'In two English counties,' says he, 'which contain from 50 to 100 +inhabitants on the square mile, the births to 100 marriages are, +according to Mr Sadler, 420; but in 44 departments of France, in which +there are from one to two hecatares [hectares] to each inhabitant, that +is to say, in which the population is from 125 to 250, or rather more, +to the square mile, the number of births to one hundred marriages is 423 +and a fraction.' + +"The first curious result is, that our Reviewer is ignorant, not only of +the name, but of the extent, of a French hectare; otherwise he is guilty +of a practice which, even if transferred to the gambling-table, would, +I presume, prevent him from being allowed ever to shuffle, even there, +again. He was most ready to pronounce upon a mistake of one per cent. in +a calculation of mine, the difference in no wise affecting the argument +in hand; but here I must inform him, that his error, whether wilfully or +ignorantly put forth, involves his entire argument. + +"The French hectare I had calculated to contain 107,708 67/100 English +square feet, or 2 47265/100000 acres; Dr Kelly takes it, on authority +which he gives, at 107,644 143923/1000000 English square feet, or 2 +471169/1000000 acres. The last French "Annuaires", however, state it, +I perceive, as being equal to 2 473614/1000000 acres. The difference is +very trifling, and will not in the slightest degree cover our critic's +error. The first calculation gives about 258 83/100 hectares to an +English square mile; the second, 258 73/100; the last, or French +calculation 258 98/100. When, therefore, the Reviewer calculates the +population of the departments of France thus: 'from one to two hectares +to each inhabitant, that is to say, in which the population is from 125 +to 250, or rather more, to the square mile; his 'that is to say,' is +that which he ought not to have said--no rare case with him, as we shall +show throughout." + +We must inform Mr Sadler, in the first place, that we inserted the vowel +which amuses him so much, not from ignorance or from carelessness, but +advisedly, and in conformity with the practice of several respectable +writers. He will find the word hecatare in Ree's Cyclopaedia. He will +find it also in Dr Young. We prefer the form which we have employed, +because it is etymologically correct. Mr Sadler seems not to know that a +hecatare is so-called, because it contains a hundred ares. + +We were perfectly acquainted with the extent as well as with the name of +a hecatare. Is it at all strange that we should use the words "250, +or rather more," in speaking of 258 and a fraction? Do not people +constantly employ round numbers with still greater looseness, in +translating foreign distances and foreign money? If indeed, as Mr Sadler +says, the difference which he chooses to call an error involved the +entire argument, or any part of the argument, we should have been guilty +of gross unfairness. But it is not so. The difference between 258 and +250, as even Mr Sadler would see if he were not blind with fury, was +a difference to his advantage. Our point was this. The fecundity of a +dense population in certain departments of France is greater than that +of a thinly scattered population in certain counties of England. The +more dense, therefore, the population in those departments of +France, the stronger was our case. By putting 250, instead of 258, we +understated our case. Mr Sadler's correction of our orthography leads us +to suspect that he knows very little of Greek; and his correction of our +calculation quite satisfies us that he knows very little of logic. + +But, to come to the gist of the controversy. Our argument, drawn from +Mr Sadler's own tables, remains absolutely untouched. He makes excuses +indeed; for an excuse is the last thing that Mr Sadler will ever want. +There is something half laughable and half provoking in the facility +with which he asserts and retracts, says and unsays, exactly as suits +his argument. Sometimes the register of baptisms is imperfect, and +sometimes the register of burials. Then again these registers become all +at once exact almost to an unit. He brings forward a census of Prussia +in proof of his theory. We show that it directly confutes his theory; +and it forthwith becomes "notoriously and grossly defective." The census +of the Netherlands is not to be easily dealt with; and the census of the +Netherlands is therefore pronounced inaccurate. In his book on the Law +of Population, he tells us that "in the slave-holding States of America, +the male slaves constitute a decided majority of that unfortunate +class." This fact we turned against him; and, forgetting that he had +himself stated it, he tells us that "it is as erroneous as many other +ideas which we entertain," and that "he will venture to assert that the +female slaves were, at the nubile age, as numerous as the males." The +increase of the negroes in the United States puzzles him; and he creates +a vast slave-trade to solve it. He confounds together things perfectly +different; the slave-trade carried on under the American flag, and +the slave-trade carried on for the supply of the American soil,--the +slave-trade with Africa, and the internal slave-trade between the +different States. He exaggerates a few occasional acts of smuggling into +an immense and regular importation, and makes his escape as well as he +can under cover of this hubbub of words. Documents are authentic and +facts true precisely in proportion to the support which they afford +to his theory. This is one way, undoubtedly, of making books; but we +question much whether it be the way to make discoveries. + +As to the inconsistencies which we pointed out between his theory and +his own tables, he finds no difficulty in explaining them away or facing +them out. In one case there would have been no contradiction if, instead +of taking one of his tables, we had multiplied the number of three +tables together, and taken the average. Another would never have existed +if there had not been a great migration of people into Lancashire. +Another is not to be got over by any device. But then it is very small, +and of no consequence to the argument. + +Here, indeed, he is perhaps right. The inconsistencies which we noticed, +were, in themselves, of little moment. We give them as samples,--as +mere hints, to caution those of our readers who might also happen to be +readers of Mr Sadler against being deceived by his packing. He complains +of the word packing. We repeat it; and, since he has defied us to the +proof, we will go fully into the question which, in our last article, we +only glanced at, and prove, in such a manner as shall not leave even to +Mr Sadler any shadow of excuse, that his theory owes its speciousness to +packing, and to packing alone. + +That our readers may fully understand our reasoning, we will again state +what Mr Sadler's proposition is. He asserts that, on a given space, the +number of children to a marriage becomes less and less as the population +becomes more and more numerous. + +We will begin with the census of France given by Mr Sadler. By joining +the departments together in combinations which suit his purpose, he has +contrived to produce three tables, which he presents as decisive proofs +of his theory. + +The first is as follows:-- + +"The legitimate births are, in those departments where there are to each +inhabitant-- + + Hectares Departments To every 1000 marriages + + 4 to 5 2 130 + 3 to 4 3 4372 + 2 to 3 30 4250 + 1 to 2 44 4234 + .06 to 1 5 4146 + .06 1 2657 + +The two other computations he has given in one table. We subjoin it. + + Hect. to each Number of Legit. Births to Legit. Births to + Inhabitant Departments 100 Marriages 100 Mar. (1826) + + 4 to 5 2 497 397 + 3 to 4 3 439 389 + 2 to 3 30 424 379 + 1 to 2 44 420 375 + under 1 5 415 372 + and .06 1 263 253 + +These tables, as we said in our former article, certainly look well +for Mr Sadler's theory. "Do they?" says he. "Assuredly they do; and in +admitting this, the Reviewer has admitted the theory to be proved." We +cannot absolutely agree to this. A theory is not proved, we must tell +Mr Sadler, merely because the evidence in its favour looks well at first +sight. There is an old proverb, very homely in expression, but well +deserving to be had in constant remembrance by all men, engaged either +in action or in speculation--"One story is good till another is told!" + +We affirm, then, that the results which these tables present, and which +seem so favourable to Mr Sadler's theory, are produced by packing, and +by packing alone. + +In the first place, if we look at the departments singly, the whole is +in disorder. About the department in which Paris is situated there is +no dispute: Mr Malthus distinctly admits that great cities prevent +propagation. There remain eighty-four departments; and of these there +is not, we believe, a single one in the place which, according to Mr +Sadler's principle, it ought to occupy. + +That which ought to be highest in fecundity is tenth in one table, +fourteenth in another, and only thirty-first according to the third. +That which ought to be third is twenty-second by the table, which places +it highest. That which ought to be fourth is fortieth by the table, +which places it highest. That which ought to be eighth is fiftieth or +sixtieth. That which ought to be tenth from the top is at about the same +distance from the bottom. On the other hand, that which, according to Mr +Sadler's principle, ought to be last but two of all the eighty-four is +third in two of the tables, and seventh in that which places it lowest; +and that which ought to be last is, in one of Mr Sadler's tables, above +that which ought to be first, in two of them, above that which ought to +be third, and, in all of them, above that which ought to be fourth. + +By dividing the departments in a particular manner, Mr Sadler has +produced results which he contemplates with great satisfaction. But, if +we draw the lines a little higher up or a little lower down, we shall +find that all his calculations are thrown into utter confusion; and +that the phenomena, if they indicate anything, indicate a law the very +reverse of that which he has propounded. + +Let us take, for example, the thirty-two departments, as they stand in +Mr Sadler's table, from Lozere to Meuse inclusive, and divide them into +two sets of sixteen departments each. The set from Lozere and Loiret +inclusive consists of those departments in which the space to each +inhabitant is from 3.8 hecatares to 2.42. The set from Cantal to Meuse +inclusive consists of those departments in which the space to each +inhabitant is from 2.42 hecatares to 2.07. That is to say, in the +former set the inhabitants are from 68 to 107 on the square mile, or +thereabouts. In the latter they are from 107 to 125. Therefore, on Mr +Sadler's principle, the fecundity ought to be smaller in the latter set +than in the former. It is, however, greater, and that in every one of Mr +Sadler's three tables. + +Let us now go a little lower down, and take another set of sixteen +departments--those which lie together in Mr Sadler's tables, from +Herault to Jura inclusive. Here the population is still thicker than +in the second of those sets which we before compared. The fecundity, +therefore, ought, on Mr Sadler's principle, to be less than in that set. +But it is again greater, and that in all Mr Sadler's three tables. We +have a regularly ascending series, where, if his theory had any truth +in it, we ought to have a regularly descending series. We will give the +results of our calculation. + +The number of children to 1000 marriages is-- + + 1st Table 2nd Table 3rd Table + + In the sixteen departments where + there are from 68 to 107 people + on a square mile................ 4188 4226 3780 + + In the sixteen departments where + there are from 107 to 125 people + on a square mile................ 4374 4332 3855 + + In the sixteen departments where + there are from 134 to 155 people + on a square mile................ 4484 4416 3914 + +We will give another instance, if possible still more decisive. We +will take the three departments of France which ought, on Mr Sadler's +principle, to be the lowest in fecundity of all the eighty-five, saving +only that in which Paris stands; and we will compare them with the +three departments in which the fecundity ought, according to him, to be +greater than in any other department of France, two only excepted. We +will compare Bas Rhin, Rhone, and Nord, with Lozere, Landes, and Indre. +In Lozere, Landes, and Indre, the population is from 68 to 84 on the +square mile or nearly so. In Bas Rhin, Rhone, and Nord, it is from 300 +to 417 on the square mile. There cannot be a more overwhelming answer to +Mr Sadler's theory than the table which we subjoin: + +The number of births to 1000 marriages is-- + + 1st Table 2nd Table 3rd Table + + In the three departments in which + there are from 68 to 84 people + on the square mile............... 4372 4390 3890 + + In the three departments in which + there are from 300 to 417 people + on the square mile............... 4457 4510 4060 + +These are strong cases. But we have a still stronger case. Take the +whole of the third, fourth, and fifth divisions into which Mr Sadler +has portioned out the French departments. These three divisions make up +almost the whole kingdom of France. They contain seventy-nine out of the +eighty-five departments. Mr Sadler has contrived to divide them in +such a manner that, to a person who looks merely at his averages, the +fecundity seems to diminish as the population thickens. We will separate +them into two parts instead of three. We will draw the line between +the department of Gironde and that of Herault. On the one side are the +thirty-two departments from Cher to Gironde inclusive. On the other side +are the forty-six departments from Herault to Nord inclusive. In all the +departments of the former set, the population is under 132 on the square +mile. In all the departments of the latter set, it is above 132 on +the square mile. It is clear that, if there be one word of truth in Mr +Sadler's theory, the fecundity in the latter of these divisions must +be very decidedly smaller than in the former. Is it so? It is, on the +contrary, greater in all the three tables. We give the result. + +The number of births to 1000 marriages is-- + + 1st Table 2nd Table 3rd Table + + In the thirty-two departments in + which there are from 86 to 132 + people on the square mile....... 4210 4199 3760 + + In the forty-seven departments in + which there are from 132 to 417 + people on the square mile........ 4250 4224 3766 + +This fact is alone enough to decide the question. Yet it is only one +of a crowd of similar facts. If the line between Mr Sadler's second and +third division be drawn six departments lower down, the third and fourth +divisions will, in all the tables, be above the second. If the line +between the third and fourth divisions be drawn two departments lower +down, the fourth division will be above the third in all the tables. If +the line between the fourth and fifth division be drawn two departments +lower down, the fifth will, in all the tables, be above the fourth, +above the third, and even above the second. How, then, has Mr Sadler +obtained his results? By packing solely. By placing in one compartment +a district no larger than the Isle of Wight; in another, a district +somewhat less than Yorkshire; in the third, a territory much larger than +the island of Great Britain. + +By the same artifice it is that he has obtained from the census of +England those delusive averages which he brings forward with the +utmost ostentation in proof of his principle. We will examine the facts +relating to England, as we have examined those relating to France. + +If we look at the counties one by one, Mr Sadler's principle utterly +fails. Hertfordshire with 251 on the square mile; Worcester with 258; +and Kent with 282, exhibit a far greater fecundity than the East Riding +of York, which has 151 on the square mile; Monmouthshire, which has 145; +or Northumberland, which has 108. The fecundity of Staffordshire, +which has more than 300 on the square mile, is as high as the average +fecundity of the counties which have from 150 to 200 on the square mile. +But, instead of confining ourselves to particular instances, we will try +masses. + +Take the eight counties of England which stand together in Mr Sadler's +list, from Cumberland to Dorset inclusive. In these the population +is from 107 to 150 on the square mile. Compare with these the eight +counties from Berks to Durham inclusive, in which the population is from +175 to 200 on the square mile. Is the fecundity in the latter counties +smaller than in the former? On the contrary, the result stands thus: + +The number of children to 100 marriages is-- + + In the eight counties of England, in which there are + from 107 to 146 people on the square mile............. 388 + + In the eight counties of England, in which there are + from 175 to 200 people on the square mile..............402 + +Take the six districts from the East Riding of York to the County of +Norfolk inclusive. Here the population is from 150 to 170 on the +square mile. To these oppose the six counties from Derby to Worcester +inclusive. The population is from 200 to 260. Here again we find that a +law, directly the reverse of that which Mr Sadler has laid down, appears +to regulate the fecundity of the inhabitants. + +The number of children to 100 marriages is-- + + In the six counties in which there are from 150 to 170 + people on the square mile................................392 + + In the six counties in which there are from 200 to 260 + people on the square mile................................399 + +But we will make another experiment on Mr Sadler's tables, if possible +more decisive than any of those which we have hitherto made. We will +take the four largest divisions into which he has distributed the +English counties, and which follow each other in regular order. That +our readers may fully comprehend the nature of that packing by which his +theory is supported, we will set before them this part of his table. + +(Here follows a table showing for population on a square mile the +proportion of births to 100 marriages, based on figures for the years +1810 to 1821. + + 100 to 150...396 + 150 to 200...390 + 200 to 250...388 + 250 to 300...378) + +These averages look well, undoubtedly, for Mr Sadler's theory. The +numbers 396, 390, 388, 378, follow each other very speciously in a +descending order. But let our readers divide these thirty-four counties +into two equal sets of seventeen counties each, and try whether the +principle will then hold good. We have made this calculation, and we +present them with the following result. + +The number of children to 100 marriages is-- + + In the seventeen counties of England in which there + are from 100 to 177 people on the square mile..........387 + + In the seventeen counties in which there + are from 177 to 282 people on the square mile..........389 + +The difference is small, but not smaller than differences which Mr +Sadler has brought forward as proofs of his theory. We say that +these English tables no more prove that fecundity increases with the +population than that it diminishes with the population. The thirty-four +counties which we have taken make up, at least four-fifths of the +kingdom: and we see that, through those thirty-four counties, the +phenomena are directly opposed to Mr Sadler's principle. That in the +capital, and in great manufacturing towns, marriages are less prolific +than in the open country, we admit, and Mr Malthus admits. But that any +condensation of the population, short of that which injures all physical +energies, will diminish the prolific powers of man, is, from these very +tables of Mr Sadler, completely disproved. + +It is scarcely worth while to proceed with instances, after proofs so +overwhelming as those which we have given. Yet we will show that Mr +Sadler has formed his averages on the census of Prussia by an artifice +exactly similar to that which we have already exposed. + +Demonstrating the Law of Population from the Censuses of Prussia at two +several Periods. + +(Here follows a table showing for inhabitants on a square league the +average number of births to each marriage from two different censuses.) + + 1756 1784 + + 832 to 928...4.34 and 4.72 + 1175 to 1909...4.14 and 4.45 (including East Prussia at 1175) + 2083 to 2700...3.84 and 4.24 + 3142 to 3461...3.65 and 4.08 + +Of the census of 1756 we will say nothing, as Mr Sadler, finding himself +hard pressed by the argument which we drew from it, now declares it to +be grossly defective. We confine ourselves to the census of 1784: and we +will draw our lines at points somewhat different from those at which Mr +Sadler has drawn his. Let the first compartment remain as it stands. +Let East Prussia, which contains a much larger population than his last +compartment, stand alone in the second division. Let the third +consist of the New Mark, the Mark of Brandenburg, East Friesland and +Guelderland, and the fourth of the remaining provinces. Our readers +will find that, on this arrangement, the division which, on Mr Sadler's +principle, ought to be second in fecundity stands higher than that which +ought to be first; and that the division which ought to be fourth stands +higher than that which ought to be third. We will give the result in one +view. + +The number of births to a marriage is-- + + In those provinces of Prussia where there are fewer than + 1000 people on the square league.......................4.72 + + In the province in which there are 1175 people on the + square league..........................................5.10 + + In the provinces in which there are from 1190 to 2083 + people on the square league............................4.10 + + In the provinces in which there are from 2314 to 3461 + people on the square league............................4.27 + +We will go no further with this examination. In fact, we have nothing +more to examine. The tables which we have scrutinised constitute the +whole strength of Mr Sadler's case; and we confidently leave it to our +readers to say, whether we have not shown that the strength of his case +is weakness. + +Be it remembered too that we are reasoning on data furnished by Mr +Sadler himself. We have not made collections of facts to set against +his, as we easily might have done. It is on his own showing, it is out +of his own mouth, that his theory stands condemned. + +That packing which we have exposed is not the only sort of packing which +Mr Sadler has practised. We mentioned in our review some facts relating +to the towns of England, which appear from Mr Sadler's tables, and which +it seems impossible to explain if his principles be sound. The average +fecundity of a marriage in towns of fewer than 3000 inhabitants is +greater than the average fecundity of the kingdom. The average fecundity +in towns of from 4000 to 5000 inhabitants is greater than the average +fecundity of Warwickshire, Lancashire, or Surrey. How is it, we asked, +if Mr Sadler's principle be correct, that the fecundity of Guildford +should be greater than the average fecundity of the county in which it +stands? + +Mr Sadler, in reply, talks about "the absurdity of comparing the +fecundity in the small towns alluded to with that in the counties of +Warwick and Stafford, or in those of Lancaster and Surrey." He proceeds +thus-- + +"In Warwickshire, far above half the population is comprised in large +towns, including, of course, the immense metropolis of one great branch +of our manufactures, Birmingham. In the county of Stafford, besides +the large and populous towns in its iron districts, situated so close +together as almost to form, for considerable distances, a continuous +street; there is, in its potteries, a great population, recently +accumulated, not included, indeed, in the towns distinctly enumerated in +the censuses, but vastly exceeding in its condensation that found in the +places to which the Reviewer alludes. In Lancashire, again, to which +he also appeals, one-fourth of the entire population is made up of the +inhabitants of two only of the towns of that county; far above half of +it is contained in towns, compared with which those he refers to are +villages: even the hamlets of the manufacturing parts of Lancashire are +often far more populous than the places he mentions. But he presents +us with a climax of absurdity in appealing lastly to the population of +Surrey as quite rural compared with that of the twelve towns having +less than 5000 inhabitants in their respective jurisdictions, such as +Saffron-Walden, Monmouth, etc. Now, in the last census, Surrey numbered +398,658 inhabitants, and to say not a word about the other towns of the +county, much above two hundred thousands of these are WITHIN THE BILLS +OF MORTALITY! 'We should, therefore, be glad to know' how it is utterly +inconsistent with my principle that the fecundity of Guildford, which +numbers about 3000 inhabitants, should be greater than the average +fecundity of Surrey, made up, as the bulk of the population of Surrey +is, of the inhabitants of some of the worst parts of the metropolis? Or +why the fecundity of a given number of marriages in the eleven little +rural towns he alludes to, being somewhat higher than that of an equal +number, half taken, for instance, from the heart of Birmingham or +Manchester, and half from the populous districts by which they are +surrounded, is inconsistent with my theory? + +"Had the Reviewer's object, in this instance, been to discover the +truth, or had he known how to pursue it, it is perfectly clear, at +first sight, that he would not have instituted a comparison between the +prolificness which exists in the small towns he has alluded to, and +that in certain districts, the population of which is made up, partly +of rural inhabitants and partly of accumulations of people in immense +masses, the prolificness of which, if he will allow me still the use of +the phrase, is inversely as their magnitude; but he would have compared +these small towns with the country places properly so called, and then +again the different classes of towns with each other; this method would +have led him to certain conclusions on the subject." + +Now, this reply shows that Mr Sadler does not in the least understand +the principle which he has himself laid down. What is that principle? +It is this, that the fecundity of human beings ON GIVEN SPACES, varies +inversely as their numbers. We know what he means by inverse variation. +But we must suppose that he uses the words, "given spaces," in the +proper sense. Given spaces are equal spaces. Is there any reason to +believe, that in those parts of Surrey which lie within the bills +of mortality, there is any space equal in area to the space on which +Guildford stands, which is more thickly peopled than the space on which +Guildford stands? We do not know that there is any such. We are sure +that there are not many. Why, therefore, on Mr Sadler's principle, +should the people of Guildford be more prolific than the people who live +within the bills of mortality? And, if the people of Guildford ought, as +on Mr Sadler's principle they unquestionably ought, to stand as low in +the scale of fecundity as the people of Southwark itself, it follows, +most clearly, that they ought to stand far lower than the average +obtained by taking all the people of Surrey together. + +The same remark applies to the case of Birmingham, and to all the other +cases which Mr Sadler mentions. Towns of 5000 inhabitants may be, and +often are, as thickly peopled "on a given space," as Birmingham. They +are, in other words, as thickly peopled as a portion of Birmingham, +equal to them in area. If so, on Mr Sadler's principle, they ought to be +as low in the scale of fecundity as Birmingham. But they are not so. On +the contrary, they stand higher than the average obtained by taking the +fecundity of Birmingham in combination with the fecundity of the rural +districts of Warwickshire. + +The plain fact is, that Mr Sadler has confounded the population of a +city with its population "on a given space,"--a mistake which, in a +gentleman who assures us that mathematical science was one of his early +and favourite studies, is somewhat curious. It is as absurd, on his +principle, to say that the fecundity of London ought to be less than +the fecundity of Edinburgh, because London has a greater population than +Edinburgh, as to say that the fecundity of Russia ought to be greater +than that of England, because Russia has a greater population than +England. He cannot say that the spaces on which towns stand are too +small to exemplify the truth of his principle. For he has himself +brought forward the scale of fecundity in towns, as a proof of his +principle. And, in the very passage which we quoted above, he tells us +that, if we knew how to pursue truth or wished to find it, we "should +have compared these small towns with country places, and the different +classes of towns with each other." That is to say, we ought to compare +together such unequal spaces as give results favourable to his theory, +and never to compare such equal spaces as give results opposed to it. +Does he mean anything by "a given space?" Or does he mean merely such +a space as suits his argument? It is perfectly clear that, if he is +allowed to take this course, he may prove anything. No fact can come +amiss to him. Suppose, for example, that the fecundity of New York +should prove to be smaller than the fecundity of Liverpool. "That," says +Mr Sadler, "makes for my theory. For there are more people within two +miles of the Broadway of New York, than within two miles of the Exchange +of Liverpool." Suppose, on the other hand, that the fecundity of New +York should be greater than the fecundity of Liverpool. "This," says Mr +Sadler again, "is an unanswerable proof of my theory. For there are many +more people within forty miles of Liverpool than within forty miles +of New York." In order to obtain his numbers, he takes spaces in any +combinations which may suit him. In order to obtain his averages, he +takes numbers in any combinations which may suit him. And then he tells +us that, because his tables, at the first glance, look well for his +theory, his theory is irrefragably proved. + +We will add a few words respecting the argument which we drew from the +peerage. Mr Sadler asserted that the peers were a class condemned by +nature to sterility. We denied this, and showed from the last edition +of Debrett, that the peers of the United Kingdom have considerably more +than the average number of children to a marriage. Mr Sadler's answer +has amused us much. He denies the accuracy of our counting, and, by +reckoning all the Scotch and Irish peers as peers of the United Kingdom, +certainly makes very different numbers from those which we gave. A +member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom might have been expected, +we think, to know better what a peer of the United Kingdom is. + +By taking the Scotch and Irish peers, Mr Sadler has altered the average. +But it is considerably higher than the average fecundity of England, +and still, therefore, constitutes an unanswerable argument against his +theory. + +The shifts to which, in this difficulty, he has recourse, are +exceedingly diverting. "The average fecundity of the marriages of +peers," said we, "is higher by one-fifth than the average fecundity of +marriages throughout the kingdom." + +"Where, or by whom did the Reviewer find it supposed," answers Mr +Sadler, "that the registered baptisms expressed the full fecundity of +the marriages of England?" + +Assuredly, if the registers of England are so defective as to explain +the difference which, on our calculation, exists between the fecundity +of the peers and the fecundity of the people, no argument against Mr +Sadler's theory can be drawn from that difference. But what becomes +of all the other arguments which Mr Sadler has founded on these very +registers? Above all, what becomes of his comparison between the +censuses of England and France? In the pamphlet before us, he dwells +with great complacency on a coincidence which seems to him to support +his theory, and which to us seems, of itself, sufficient to overthrow +it. + +"In my table of the population of France in the forty-four departments +in which there are from one to two hectares to each inhabitant, the +fecundity of 100 marriages, calculated on the average of the results of +the three computations relating to different periods given in my table, +is 406 7/10. In the twenty-two counties of England in which there is +from one to two hectares to each inhabitant, or from 129 to 259 on the +square mile,--beginning, therefore, with Huntingdonshire, and ending +with Worcestershire,--the whole number of marriages during ten years +will be found to amount to 379,624, and the whole number of the births +during the same term to 1,545,549--or 407 1/10 births to 100 marriages! +A difference of one in one thousand only, compared with the French +proportion!" + +Does not Mr Sadler see that, if the registers of England, which are +notoriously very defective, give a result exactly corresponding almost +to an unit with that obtained from the registers of France, which are +notoriously very full and accurate, this proves the very reverse of what +he employs it to prove? The correspondence of the registers proves that +there is no correspondence in the facts. In order to raise the average +fecundity of England even to the level of the average fecundity of +the peers of the three kingdoms, which is 3.81 to a marriage, it is +necessary to add nearly six per cent. to the number of births given in +the English registers. But, if this addition be made, we shall have, +in the counties of England, from Huntingdonshire to Worcestershire +inclusive, 4.30 births to a marriage or thereabouts: and the boasted +coincidence between the phenomena of propagation in France and +England disappears at once. This is a curious specimen of Mr Sadler's +proficiency in the art of making excuses. In the same pamphlet he +reasons as if the same registers were accurate to one in a thousand, and +as if they were wrong at the very least by one in eighteen. + +He tries to show that we have not taken a fair criterion of the +fecundity of the peers. We are not quite sure that we understand his +reasoning on this subject. The order of his observations is more than +usually confused, and the cloud of words more than usually thick. We +will give the argument on which he seems to lay most stress in his own +words:-- + +"But I shall first notice a far more obvious and important blunder +into which the Reviewer has fallen; or into which, I rather fear, he +knowingly wishes to precipitate his readers, since I have distinctly +pointed out what ought to have preserved him from it in the very chapter +he is criticising and contradicting. It is this:--he has entirely +omitted 'counting' the sterile marriages of all those peerages which +have become extinct during the very period his counting embraces. He +counts, for instance, Earl Fitzwilliam, his marriages, and heir; but has +he not omitted to enumerate the marriages of those branches of the same +noble house, which have become extinct since that venerable individual +possessed his title? He talks of my having appealed merely to the +extinction of peerages in my argument; but, on his plan of computation, +extinctions are perpetually and wholly lost sight of. In computing +the average prolificness of the marriages of the nobles, he positively +counts from a select class of them only, one from which the unprolific +are constantly weeded, and regularly disappear; and he thus comes to the +conclusion, that the peers are 'an eminently prolific class!' Just +as though a farmer should compute the rate of increase; not from the +quantity of seed sown, but from that part of it only which comes to +perfection, entirely omitting all which had failed to spring up or come +to maturity. Upon this principle the most scanty crop ever obtained, in +which the husbandman should fail to receive 'seed again,' as the phrase +is, might be so 'counted' as to appear 'eminently prolific' indeed." + +If we understand this passage rightly, it decisively proves that Mr +Sadler is incompetent to perform even the lowest offices of statistical +research. What shadow of reason is there to believe that the peers who +were alive in the year 1828 differed as to their prolificness from any +other equally numerous set of peers taken at random? In what sense were +the peers who were alive in 1828 analogous to that part of the seed +which comes to perfection? Did we entirely omit all that failed? On the +contrary, we counted the sterile as well as the fruitful marriages of +all the peers of the United Kingdom living at one time. In what way were +the peers who were alive in 1828 a select class? In what way were the +sterile weeded from among them? Did every peer who had been married +without having issue die in 1827? What shadow of reason is there to +suppose that there was not the ordinary proportion of barren marriages +among the marriages contracted by the noblemen whose names are in +Debrett's last edition? But we ought, says Mr Sadler, to have counted +all the sterile marriages of all the peers "whose titles had become +extinct during the period which our counting embraced;" that is to say, +since the earliest marriage contracted by any peer living in 1828. Was +such a proposition ever heard of before? Surely we were bound to do no +such thing, unless at the same time we had counted also the children +born from all the fruitful marriages contracted by peers during the same +period. Mr Sadler would have us divide the number of children born to +peers living in 1828, not by the number of marriages which those peers +contracted, but by the number of marriages which those peers contracted +added to a crowd of marriages selected, on account of their sterility, +from among the noble marriages which have taken place during the last +fifty years. Is this the way to obtain fair averages? We might as well +require that all the noble marriages which during the last fifty years +have produced ten children apiece should be added to those of the peers +living in 1828. The proper way to ascertain whether a set of people be +prolific or sterile is, not to take marriages selected from the +mass either on account of their fruitfulness or on account of their +sterility, but to take a collection of marriages which there is no +reason to think either more or less fruitful than others. What reason is +there to think that the marriages contracted by the peers who were alive +in 1828 were more fruitful than those contracted by the peers who were +alive in 1800 or in 1750? + +We will add another passage from Mr Sadler's pamphlet on this subject. +We attributed the extinction of peerages partly to the fact that those +honours are for the most part limited to heirs male. + +"This is a discovery indeed! Peeresses 'eminently prolific,' do not, +as Macbeth conjured his spouse, 'bring forth men-children only;' they +actually produce daughters as well as sons!! Why, does not the Reviewer +see, that so long as the rule of nature, which proportions the sexes so +accurately to each other, continues to exist, a tendency to a diminution +in one sex proves, as certainly as the demonstration of any mathematical +problem, a tendency to a diminution in both; but to talk of 'eminently +prolific' peeresses, and still maintain that the rapid extinction in +peerages is owing to their not bearing male children exclusively, is +arrant nonsense." + +Now, if there be any proposition on the face of the earth which we +should not have expected to hear characterised as arrant nonsense, it +is this,--that an honour limited to males alone is more likely to +become extinct than an honour which, like the crown of England, descends +indifferently to sons and daughters. We have heard, nay, we actually +know families, in which, much as Mr Sadler may marvel at it, there are +daughters and no sons. Nay, we know many such families. We are as much +inclined as Mr Sadler to trace the benevolent and wise arrangements of +Providence in the physical world, when once we are satisfied as to +the facts on which we proceed. And we have always considered it as +an arrangement deserving of the highest admiration, that, though in +families the number of males and females differs widely, yet in great +collections of human beings the disparity almost disappears. The chance +undoubtedly is, that in a thousand marriages the number of daughters +will not very much exceed the number of sons. But the chance also is, +that several of those marriages will produce daughters, and daughters +only. In every generation of the peerage there are several such cases. +When a peer whose title is limited to male heirs dies, leaving +only daughters, his peerage must expire, unless he have, not only +a collateral heir, but a collateral heir descended through an +uninterrupted line of males from the first possessor of the honour. If +the deceased peer was the first nobleman of his family, then, by the +supposition, his peerage will become extinct. If he was the second, it +will become extinct, unless he leaves a brother or a brother's son. If +the second peer had a brother, the first peer must have had at least two +sons; and this is more than the average number of sons to a marriage in +England. When, therefore, it is considered how many peerages are in the +first and second generation, it will not appear strange that extinctions +should frequently take place. There are peerages which descend to +females as well as males. But, in such cases, if a peer dies, leaving +only daughters, the very fecundity of the marriage is a cause of the +extinction of the peerage. If there were only one daughter, the honour +would descend. If there are several, it falls into abeyance. + +But it is needless to multiply words in a case so clear; and, indeed it +is needless to say anything more about Mr Sadler's book. We have, if we +do not deceive ourselves, completely exposed the calculations on which +his theory rests; and we do not think that we should either amuse our +readers or serve the cause of science if we were to rebut in succession +a series of futile charges brought in the most angry spirit against +ourselves; ignorant imputations of ignorance, and unfair complaints of +unfairness,--conveyed in long, dreary, declamations, so prolix that we +cannot find space to quote them, and so confused that we cannot venture +to abridge them. + +There is much indeed in this foolish pamphlet to laugh at, from the +motto in the first page down to some wisdom about cows in the last. One +part of it indeed is solemn enough, we mean a certain jeu d'esprit of +Mr Sadler's touching a tract of Dr Arbuthnot's. This is indeed "very +tragical mirth," as Peter Quince's playbill has it; and we would not +advise any person who reads for amusement to venture on it as long as he +can procure a volume of the Statutes at Large. This, however, to do +Mr Sadler justice, is an exception. His witticisms, and his tables of +figures, constitute the only parts of his work which can be perused with +perfect gravity. His blunders are diverting, his excuses exquisitely +comic. But his anger is the most grotesque exhibition that we ever saw. +He foams at the mouth with the love of truth, and vindicates the Divine +benevolence with a most edifying heartiness of hatred. On this subject +we will give him one word of parting advice. If he raves in this way to +ease his mind, or because he thinks that he does himself credit by it, +or from a sense of religious duty, far be it from us to interfere. His +peace, his reputation, and his religion are his own concern; and he, +like the nobleman to whom his treatise is dedicated, has a right to do +what he will with his own. But, if he has adopted his abusive style from +a notion that it would hurt our feelings, we must inform him that he is +altogether mistaken; and that he would do well in future to give us his +arguments, if he has any, and to keep his anger for those who fear it. + +***** + + + + +MIRABEAU. (July 1832.) + + "Souvenirs sur Mirabeau, et sur les deux Premieres + Assemblees Legislatives". Par Etienne Dumont, de Geneve: + ouvrage posthume publie par M.J.L. Duval, Membre du Conseil + Representatif du Canton du Geneve. 8vo. Paris: 1832. + +This is a very amusing and a very instructive book: but even if it were +less amusing and less instructive, it would still be interesting as a +relic of a wise and virtuous man. M. Dumont was one of those persons, +the care of whose fame belongs in an especial manner to mankind. For he +was one of those persons who have, for the sake of mankind, neglected +the care of their own fame. In his walk through life there was no +obtrusiveness, no pushing, no elbowing, none of the little arts which +bring forward little men. With every right to the head of the board, he +took the lowest room, and well deserved to be greeted with--Friend, go +up higher. Though no man was more capable of achieving for himself +a separate and independent renown, he attached himself to others; he +laboured to raise their fame; he was content to receive as his share of +the reward the mere overflowings which redounded from the full measure +of their glory. Not that he was of a servile and idolatrous habit of +mind:--not that he was one of the tribe of Boswells,--those literary +Gibeonites, born to be hewers of wood and drawers of water to the higher +intellectual castes. Possessed of talents and acquirements which made +him great, he wished only to be useful. In the prime of manhood, at the +very time of life at which ambitious men are most ambitious, he was not +solicitous to proclaim that he furnished information, arguments, and +eloquence to Mirabeau. In his later years he was perfectly willing that +his renown should merge in that of Mr Bentham. + +The services which M. Dumont has rendered to society can be fully +appreciated only by those who have studied Mr Bentham's works, both in +their rude and in their finished state. The difference both for show and +for use is as great as the difference between a lump of golden ore and a +rouleau of sovereigns fresh from the mint. Of Mr Bentham we would at all +times speak with the reverence which is due to a great original +thinker, and to a sincere and ardent friend of the human race. If a +few weaknesses were mingled with his eminent virtues,--if a few +errors insinuated themselves among the many valuable truths which he +taught,--this is assuredly no time for noticing those weaknesses or +those errors in an unkind or sarcastic spirit. A great man has gone from +among us, full of years, of good works, and of deserved honours. In some +of the highest departments in which the human intellect can exert +itself he has not left his equal or his second behind him. From his +contemporaries he has had, according to the usual lot, more or less than +justice. He has had blind flatterers and blind detractors--flatterers +who could see nothing but perfection in his style, detractors who +could see nothing but nonsense in his matter. He will now have judges. +Posterity will pronounce its calm and impartial decision; and that +decision will, we firmly believe, place in the same rank with Galileo, +and with Locke, the man who found jurisprudence a gibberish and left it +a science. Never was there a literary partnership so fortunate as that +of Mr Bentham and M. Dumont. The raw material which Mr Bentham furnished +was most precious; but it was unmarketable. He was, assuredly, at once a +great logician and a great rhetorician. But the effect of his logic was +injured by a vicious arrangement, and the effect of his rhetoric by a +vicious style. His mind was vigorous, comprehensive, subtile, fertile of +arguments, fertile of illustrations. But he spoke in an unknown tongue; +and, that the congregation might be edified, it was necessary that some +brother having the gift of interpretation should expound the invaluable +jargon. His oracles were of high import; but they were traced on +leaves and flung loose to the wind. So negligent was he of the arts of +selection, distribution, and compression, that to persons who formed +their judgment of him from his works in their undigested state he seemed +to be the least systematic of all philosophers. The truth is, that +his opinions formed a system, which, whether sound or unsound, is more +exact, more entire, and more consistent with itself than any other. Yet +to superficial readers of his works in their original form, and indeed +to all readers of those works who did not bring great industry and great +acuteness to the study, he seemed to be a man of a quick and ingenious +but ill-regulated mind,--who saw truth only by glimpses,--who threw +out many striking hints, but who had never thought of combining his +doctrines in one harmonious whole. + +M. Dumont was admirably qualified to supply what was wanting in Mr +Bentham. In the qualities in which the French writers surpass those +of all other nations--neatness, clearness, precision, condensation--he +surpassed all French writers. If M. Dumont had never been born, Mr +Bentham would still have been a very great man. But he would have been +great to himself alone. The fertility of his mind would have resembled +the fertility of those vast American wildernesses in which blossoms and +decays a rich but unprofitable vegetation, "wherewith the reaper filleth +not his hand, neither he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosom." It +would have been with his discoveries as it has been with the "Century +of Inventions." His speculations on laws would have been of no more +practical use than Lord Worcester's speculations on steam-engines. Some +generations hence, perhaps, when legislation had found its Watt, an +antiquarian might have published to the world the curious fact that, in +the reign of George the Third, there had been a man called Bentham, who +had given hints of many discoveries made since his time, and who had +really, for his age, taken a most philosophical view of the principles +of jurisprudence. + +Many persons have attempted to interpret between this powerful mind and +the public. But, in our opinion, M. Dumont alone has succeeded. It is +remarkable that, in foreign countries, where Mr Bentham's works are +known solely through the medium of the French version, his merit is +almost universally acknowledged. Even those who are most decidedly +opposed to his political opinions--the very chiefs of the Holy +Alliance--have publicly testified their respect for him. In England, +on the contrary, many persons who certainly entertained no prejudice +against him on political grounds were long in the habit of mentioning +him contemptuously. Indeed, what was said of Bacon's philosophy may be +said of Bentham's. It was in little repute among us, till judgments in +its favour came from beyond sea, and convinced us, to our shame, that we +had been abusing and laughing at one of the greatest men of the age. + +M. Dumont might easily have found employments more gratifying to +personal vanity than that of arranging works not his own. But he could +have found no employment more useful or more truly honourable. The book +before us, hastily written as it is, contains abundant proof, if proof +were needed, that he did not become an editor because he wanted the +talents which would have made him eminent as a writer. + +Persons who hold democratical opinions, and who have been accustomed +to consider M. Dumont as one of their party, have been surprised and +mortified to learn that he speaks with very little respect of the +French Revolution and of its authors. Some zealous Tories have naturally +expressed great satisfaction at finding their doctrines, in some +respects, confirmed by the testimony of an unwilling witness. The date +of the work, we think, explains everything. If it had been written ten +years earlier, or twenty years later, it would have been very different +from what it is. It was written, neither during the first excitement +of the Revolution, nor at that later period when the practical good +produced by the Revolution had become manifest to the most prejudiced +observers; but in those wretched times when the enthusiasm had abated, +and the solid advantages were not yet fully seen. It was written in the +year 1799,--a year in which the most sanguine friend of liberty might +well feel some misgivings as to the effects of what the National +Assembly had done. The evils which attend every great change had +been severely felt. The benefit was still to come. The price--a heavy +price--had been paid. The thing purchased had not yet been delivered. +Europe was swarming with French exiles. The fleets and armies of the +second coalition were victorious. Within France, the reign of terror was +over; but the reign of law had not commenced. There had been, indeed, +during three or four years, a written Constitution, by which rights +were defined and checks provided. But these rights had been repeatedly +violated; and those checks had proved utterly inefficient. The laws +which had been framed to secure the distinct authority of the +executive magistrates and of the legislative assemblies--the freedom of +election--the freedom of debate--the freedom of the press--the personal +freedom of citizens--were a dead letter. The ordinary mode in which +the Republic was governed was by coups d'etat. On one occasion, the +legislative councils were placed under military restraint by the +directors. Then, again, directors were deposed by the legislative +councils. Elections were set aside by the executive authority. +Ship-loads of writers and speakers were sent, without a legal trial, +to die of fever in Guiana. France, in short, was in that state in which +revolutions, effected by violence, almost always leave a nation. The +habit of obedience had been lost. The spell of prescription had been +broken. Those associations on which, far more than on any arguments +about property and order, the authority of magistrates rests, had +completely passed away. The power of the government consisted merely in +the physical force which it could bring to its support. Moral force it +had none. It was itself a government sprung from a recent convulsion. +Its own fundamental maxim was, that rebellion might be justifiable. Its +own existence proved that rebellion might be successful. The people +had been accustomed, during several years, to offer resistance to the +constituted authorities on the slightest provocation, and to see the +constituted authorities yield to that resistance. The whole political +world was "without form and void"--an incessant whirl of hostile atoms, +which, every moment, formed some new combination. The only man who could +fix the agitated elements of society in a stable form was following a +wild vision of glory and empire through the Syrian deserts. The time was +not yet come, when + + "Confusion heard his voice; and wild uproar + Stood ruled:" + +when, out of the chaos into which the old society had been resolved, +were to rise a new dynasty, a new peerage, a new church, and a new code. + +The dying words of Madame Roland, "Oh, Liberty! how many crimes are +committed in thy name!" were at that time echoed by many of the +most upright and benevolent of mankind. M. Guizot has, in one of his +admirable pamphlets, happily and justly described M. Laine as "an honest +and liberal man, discouraged by the Revolution." This description, at +the time when M. Dumont's Memoirs were written, would have applied to +almost every honest and liberal man in Europe; and would, beyond all +doubt, have applied to M. Dumont himself. To that fanatical worship +of the all-wise and all-good people, which had been common a few years +before, had succeeded an uneasy suspicion that the follies and vices +of the people would frustrate all attempts to serve them. The wild and +joyous exaltation, with which the meeting of the States-General and the +fall of the Bastile had been hailed, had passed away. In its place +was dejection, and a gloomy distrust of suspicious appearances. The +philosophers and philanthropists had reigned. And what had their reign +produced? Philosophy had brought with it mummeries as absurd as any +which had been practised by the most superstitious zealot of the darkest +age. Philanthropy had brought with it crimes as horrible as the massacre +of Saint Bartholomew. This was the emancipation of the human mind. These +were the fruits of the great victory of reason over prejudice. France +had rejected the faith of Pascal and Descartes as a nursery fable, that +a courtezan might be her idol, and a madman her priest. She had asserted +her freedom against Louis, that she might bow down before Robespierre. +For a time men thought that all the boasted wisdom of the eighteenth +century was folly; and that those hopes of great political and social +ameliorations which had been cherished by Voltaire and Condorcet were +utterly delusive. + +Under the influence of these feelings, M. Dumont has gone so far as +to say that the writings of Mr Burke on the French Revolution, though +disfigured by exaggeration, and though containing doctrines subversive +of all public liberty, had been, on the whole, justified by events, and +had probably saved Europe from great disasters. That such a man as the +friend and fellow-labourer of Mr Bentham should have expressed such +an opinion is a circumstance which well deserves the consideration of +uncharitable politicians. These Memoirs have not convinced us that the +French Revolution was not a great blessing to mankind. But they have +convinced us that very great indulgence is due to those who, while the +Revolution was actually taking place, regarded it with unmixed aversion +and horror. We can perceive where their error lay. We can perceive that +the evil was temporary, and the good durable. But we cannot be sure +that, if our lot had been cast in their times, we should not, like them, +have been discouraged and disgusted--that we should not, like them, +have seen, in that great victory of the French people, only insanity and +crime. + +It is curious to observe how some men are applauded, and others reviled, +for merely being what all their neighbours are,--for merely going +passively down the stream of events,--for merely representing the +opinions and passions of a whole generation. The friends of popular +government ordinarily speak with extreme severity of Mr Pitt, and with +respect and tenderness of Mr Canning. Yet the whole difference, we +suspect, consisted merely in this,--that Mr Pitt died in 1806, and Mr +Canning in 1827. During the years which were common to the public life +of both, Mr Canning was assuredly not a more liberal statesman than his +patron. The truth is that Mr Pitt began his political life at the end +of the American War, when the nation was suffering from the effects of +corruption. He closed it in the midst of the calamities produced by the +French Revolution, when the nation was still strongly impressed with the +horrors of anarchy. He changed, undoubtedly. In his youth he had brought +in reform bills. In his manhood he brought in gagging bills. But the +change, though lamentable, was, in our opinion, perfectly natural, and +might have been perfectly honest. He changed with the great body of his +countrymen. Mr Canning on the other hand, entered into public life when +Europe was in dread of the Jacobins. He closed his public life when +Europe was suffering under the tyranny of the Holy Alliance. He, too, +changed with the nation. As the crimes of the Jacobins had turned the +master into something very like a Tory, the events which followed the +Congress of Vienna turned the pupil into something very like a Whig. + +So much are men the creatures of circumstances. We see that, if M. +Dumont had died in 1799, he would have died, to use the new cant word, +a decided "Conservative." If Mr Pitt had lived in 1832, it is our firm +belief that he would have been a decided Reformer. + +The judgment passed by M. Dumont in this work on the French Revolution +must be taken with considerable allowances. It resembles a criticism on +a play of which only the first act has been performed, or on a building +from which the scaffolding has not yet been taken down. We have no doubt +that, if the excellent author had revised these Memoirs thirty years +after the time at which they were written, he would have seen reason to +omit a few passages, and to add many qualifications and explanations. + +He would not probably have been inclined to retract the censures, just, +though severe, which he has passed on the ignorance, the presumption, +and the pedantry, of the National Assembly. But he would have admitted +that, in spite of those faults, perhaps even by reason of those faults, +that Assembly had conferred inestimable benefits on mankind. It is clear +that, among the French of that day, political knowledge was absolutely +in its infancy. It would indeed have been strange if it had attained +maturity in the time of censors, of lettres-de-cachet, and of beds of +justice. The electors did not know how to elect. The representatives +did not know how to deliberate. M. Dumont taught the constituent body of +Montreuil how to perform their functions, and found them apt to learn. +He afterwards tried, in concert with Mirabeau, to instruct the National +Assembly in that admirable system of Parliamentary tactics which has +been long established in the English House of Commons, and which +has made the House of Commons, in spite of all the defects in its +composition, the best and fairest debating society in the world. But +these accomplished legislators, though quite as ignorant as the mob of +Montreuil, proved much less docile, and cried out that they did not +want to go to school to the English. Their debates consisted of endless +successions of trashy pamphlets, all beginning with something about the +original compact of society, man in the hunting state, and other such +foolery. They sometimes diversified and enlivened these long readings by +a little rioting. They bawled; they hooted; they shook their fists. They +kept no order among themselves. They were insulted with impunity by +the crowd which filled their galleries. They gave long and solemn +consideration to trifles. They hurried through the most important +resolutions with fearful expedition. They wasted months in quibbling +about the words of that false and childish Declaration of Rights on +which they professed to found their new constitution, and which was at +irreconcilable variance with every clause of that constitution. They +annihilated in a single night privileges, many of which partook of the +nature of property, and ought therefore to have been most delicately +handled. + +They are called the Constituent Assembly. Never was a name less +appropriate. They were not constituent, but the very reverse of +constituent. They constituted nothing that stood or that deserved to +last. They had not, and they could not possibly have, the information +or the habits of mind which are necessary for the framing of that most +exquisite of all machines--a government. The metaphysical cant with +which they prefaced their constitution has long been the scoff of +all parties. Their constitution itself,--that constitution which +they described as absolutely perfect, and to which they predicted +immortality,--disappeared in a few months, and left no trace behind it. +They were great only in the work of destruction. + +The glory of the National Assembly is this, that they were in truth, +what Mr Burke called them in austere irony, the ablest architects of +ruin that ever the world saw. They were utterly incompetent to perform +any work which required a discriminating eye and a skilful hand. But the +work which was then to be done was a work of devastation. They had +to deal with abuses so horrible and so deeply rooted that the highest +political wisdom could scarcely have produced greater good to mankind +than was produced by their fierce and senseless temerity. Demolition +is undoubtedly a vulgar task; the highest glory of the statesman is to +construct. But there is a time for everything,--a time to set up, and a +time to pull down. The talents of revolutionary leaders and those of the +legislator have equally their use and their season. It is the +natural, the almost universal, law, that the age of insurrections and +proscriptions shall precede the age of good government, of temperate +liberty, and liberal order. + +And how should it be otherwise? It is not in swaddling-bands that +we learn to walk. It is not in the dark that we learn to distinguish +colours. It is not under oppression that we learn how to use freedom. +The ordinary sophism by which misrule is defended is, when truly +stated, this:--The people must continue in slavery, because slavery has +generated in them all the vices of slaves. Because they are ignorant, +they must remain under a power which has made and which keeps them +ignorant. Because they have been made ferocious by misgovernment, they +must be misgoverned for ever. If the system under which they live were +so mild and liberal that under its operation they had become humane +and enlightened, it would be safe to venture on a change. But, as this +system has destroyed morality, and prevented the development of the +intellect,--as it has turned men, who might under different training +have formed a virtuous and happy community, into savage and stupid wild +beasts,--therefore it ought to last for ever. The English Revolution, +it is said, was truly a glorious Revolution. Practical evils were +redressed; no excesses were committed; no sweeping confiscations took +place; the authority of the laws was scarcely for a moment suspended; +the fullest and freest discussion was tolerated in Parliament; the +nation showed, by the calm and temperate manner in which it asserted its +liberty, that it was fit to enjoy liberty. The French Revolution was, +on the other hand, the most horrible event recorded in history,--all +madness and wickedness,--absurdity in theory, and atrocity in practice. +What folly and injustice in the revolutionary laws! What grotesque +affectation in the revolutionary ceremonies! What fanaticism! What +licentiousness! What cruelty! Anacharsis Clootz and Marat,--feasts of +the Supreme Being, and marriages of the Loire--trees of liberty, and +heads dancing on pikes--the whole forms a kind of infernal farce, made +up of everything ridiculous, and everything frightful. This it is to +give freedom to those who have neither wisdom nor virtue. + +It is not only by bad men interested in the defence of abuses that +arguments like these have been urged against all schemes of political +improvement. Some of the highest and purest of human beings conceived +such scorn and aversion for the follies and crimes of the French +Revolution that they recanted, in the moment of triumph, those liberal +opinions to which they had clung in defiance of persecution. And, if +we inquire why it was that they began to doubt whether liberty were a +blessing, we shall find that it was only because events had proved, in +the clearest manner, that liberty is the parent of virtue and of order. +They ceased to abhor tyranny merely because it had been signally shown +that the effect of tyranny on the hearts and understandings of men is +more demoralising and more stupifying than had ever been imagined by +the most zealous friend of popular rights. The truth is, that a stronger +argument against the old monarchy of France may be drawn from the +noyades and the fusillades than from the Bastile and the Parc-aux-cerfs. +We believe it to be a rule without an exception, that the violence of a +revolution corresponds to the degree of misgovernment which has +produced that revolution. Why was the French Revolution so bloody and +destructive? Why was our revolution of 1641 comparatively mild? Why was +our revolution of 1688 milder still? Why was the American Revolution, +considered as an internal movement, the mildest of all? There is an +obvious and complete solution of the problem. The English under James +the First and Charles the First were less oppressed than the French +under Louis the Fifteenth and Louis the Sixteenth. The English were less +oppressed after the Restoration than before the great Rebellion. And +America under George the Third was less oppressed than England under +the Stuarts. The reaction was exactly proportioned to the pressure,--the +vengeance to the provocation. + +When Mr Burke was reminded in his later years of the zeal which he had +displayed in the cause of the Americans, he vindicated himself from the +charge of inconsistency, by contrasting the wisdom and moderation of the +Colonial insurgents of 1776 with the fanaticism and wickedness of the +Jacobins of 1792. He was in fact bringing an argument a fortiori against +himself. The circumstances on which he rested his vindication fully +proved that the old government of France stood in far more need of +a complete change than the old government of America. The difference +between Washington and Robespierre,--the difference between Franklin and +Barere,--the difference between the destruction of a few barrels of +tea and the confiscation of thousands of square miles,--the difference +between the tarring and feathering of a tax-gatherer and the massacres +of September,--measure the difference between the government of America +under the rule of England and the government of France under the rule of +the Bourbons. + +Louis the Sixteenth made great voluntary concessions to his people; +and they sent him to the scaffold. Charles the Tenth violated the +fundamental laws of the state, established a despotism, and butchered +his subjects for not submitting quietly to that despotism. He failed in +his wicked attempt. He was at the mercy of those whom he had injured. +The pavements of Paris were still heaped up in barricades;--the +hospitals were still full of the wounded;--the dead were still +unburied;--a thousand families were in mourning;--a hundred thousand +citizens were in arms. The crime was recent;--the life of the criminal +was in the hands of the sufferers;--and they touched not one hair of his +head. In the first revolution, victims were sent to death by scores for +the most trifling acts proved by the lowest testimony, before the most +partial tribunals. After the second revolution, those ministers who had +signed the ordinances, those ministers, whose guilt, as it was of the +foulest kind, was proved by the clearest evidence,--were punished only +with imprisonment. In the first revolution, property was attacked. In +the second, it was held sacred. Both revolutions, it is true, left +the public mind of France in an unsettled state. Both revolutions were +followed by insurrectionary movements. But, after the first revolution, +the insurgents were almost always stronger than the law; and, since the +second revolution, the law has invariably been found stronger than the +insurgents. There is, indeed, much in the present state of France which +may well excite the uneasiness of those who desire to see her free, +happy, powerful, and secure. Yet, if we compare the present state of +France with the state in which she was forty years ago, how vast a +change for the better has taken place! How little effect, for example, +during the first revolution, would the sentence of a judicial body +have produced on an armed and victorious partty! If, after the 10th of +August, or after the proscription of the Gironde, or after the 9th of +Thermidor, or after the carnage of Vendemiaire, or after the arrests of +Fructidor, any tribunal had decided against the conquerors in favour of +the conquered, with what contempt, with what derision, would its award +have been received! The judges would have lost their heads, or would +have been sent to die in some unwholesome colony. The fate of the victim +whom they had endeavoured to save would only have been made darker and +more hopeless by their interference. We have lately seen a signal proof +that, in France, the law is now stronger than the sword. We have seen a +government, in the very moment of triumph and revenge, submitting itself +to the authority of a court of law. A just and independent sentence +has been pronounced--a sentence worthy of the ancient renown of +that magistracy to which belong the noblest recollections of French +history--which, in an age of persecutors, produced L'Hopital,--which, +in an age of courtiers, produced D'Aguesseau,--which, in an age of +wickedness and madness, exhibited to mankind a pattern of every virtue +in the life and in the death of Malesherbes. The respectful manner in +which that sentence has been received is alone sufficient to show how +widely the French of this generation differ from their fathers. And how +is the difference to be explained? The race, the soil, the climate, are +the same. If those dull, honest Englishmen, who explain the events of +1793 and 1794 by saying that the French are naturally frivolous and +cruel, were in the right, why is the guillotine now standing idle? +Not surely for want of Carlists, of aristocrats, of people guilty of +incivism, of people suspected of being suspicious characters. Is not the +true explanation this, that the Frenchman of 1832 has been far better +governed than the Frenchman of 1789,--that his soul has never been +galled by the oppressive privileges of a separate caste,--that he has +been in some degree accustomed to discuss political questions, and +to perform political functions,--that he has lived for seventeen or +eighteen years under institutions which, however defective, have yet +been far superior to any institutions that had before existed in France? + +As the second French Revolution has been far milder than the first, +so that great change which has just been effected in England has +been milder even than the second French Revolution,--milder than any +revolution recorded in history. Some orators have described the +reform of the House of Commons as a revolution. Others have denied the +propriety of the term. The question, though in seeming merely a +question of definition, suggests much curious and interesting matter for +reflection. If we look at the magnitude of the reform, it may well +be called a revolution. If we look at the means by which it has been +effected, it is merely an Act of Parliament, regularly brought in, read, +committed, and passed. In the whole history of England, there is no +prouder circumstance than this,--that a change, which could not, in any +other age, or in any other country, have been effected without physical +violence, should here have been effected by the force of reason, +and under the forms of law. The work of three civil wars has been +accomplished by three sessions of Parliament. An ancient and deeply +rooted system of abuses has been fiercely attacked and stubbornly +defended. It has fallen; and not one sword has been drawn; not one +estate has been confiscated; not one family has been forced to emigrate. +The bank has kept its credit. The funds have kept their price. Every man +has gone forth to his work and to his labour till the evening. During +the fiercest excitement of the contest,--during the first fortnight of +that immortal May,--there was not one moment at which any sanguinary +act committed on the person of any of the most unpopular men in England +would not have filled the country with horror and indignation. + +And now that the victory is won, has it been abused? An immense mass +of power has been transferred from an oligarchy to the nation. Are +the members of the vanquished oligarchy insecure? Does the nation seem +disposed to play the tyrant? Are not those who, in any other state of +society, would have been visited with the severest vengeance of the +triumphant party,--would have been pining in dungeons, or flying to +foreign countries,--still enjoying their possessions and their honours, +still taking part as freely as ever in public affairs? Two years ago +they were dominant. They are now vanquished. Yet the whole people would +regard with horror any man who should dare to propose any vindictive +measure. So common is this feeling,--so much is it a matter of course +among us,--that many of our readers will scarcely understand what we see +to admire in it. + +To what are we to attribute the unparalleled moderation and humanity +which the English people had displayed at this great conjuncture? The +answer is plain. This moderation, this humanity, are the fruits of a +hundred and fifty years of liberty. During many generations we have had +legislative assemblies which, however defective their constitution might +be, have always contained many members chosen by the people, and many +others eager to obtain the approbation of the people:--assemblies in +which perfect freedom of debate was allowed;--assemblies in which the +smallest minority had a fair hearing; assemblies in which abuses, +even when they were not redressed, were at least exposed. For many +generations we have had the trial by jury, the Habeas Corpus Act, the +freedom of the press, the right of meeting to discuss public affairs, +the right of petitioning the legislature. A vast portion of the +population has long been accustomed to the exercise of political +functions, and has been thoroughly seasoned to political excitement. +In most other countries there is no middle course between absolute +submission and open rebellion. In England there has always been for +centuries a constitutional opposition. Thus our institutions had been so +good that they had educated us into a capacity for better institutions. +There is not a large town in the kingdom which does not contain better +materials for a legislature than all France could furnish in 1789. There +is not a spouting-club at any pot-house in London in which the rules of +debate are not better understood, and more strictly observed, than in +the Constituent Assembly. There is scarcely a Political Union which +could not frame in half an hour a declaration of rights superior to that +which occupied the collective wisdom of France for several months. + +It would be impossible even to glance at all the causes of the French +Revolution within the limits to which we must confine ourselves. One +thing is clear. The government, the aristocracy, and the church were +rewarded after their works. They reaped that which they had sown. They +found the nation such as they had made it. That the people had become +possessed of irresistible power before they had attained the slightest +knowledge of the art of government--that practical questions of vast +moment were left to be solved by men to whom politics had been only +matter of theory--that a legislature was composed of persons who were +scarcely fit to compose a debating society--that the whole nation was +ready to lend an ear to any flatterer who appealed to its cupidity, to +its fears, or to its thirst for vengeance--all this was the effect of +misrule, obstinately continued in defiance of solemn warnings, and of +the visible signs of an approaching retribution. + +Even while the monarchy seemed to be in its highest and most palmy +state, the causes of that great destruction had already begun to +operate. They may be distinctly traced even under the reign of Louis the +Fourteenth. That reign is the time to which the Ultra-Royalists refer +as the Golden Age of France. It was in truth one of those periods which +shine with an unnatural and delusive splendour, and which are rapidly +followed by gloom and decay. + +Concerning Louis the Fourteenth himself, the world seems at last to +have formed a correct judgment. He was not a great general; he was not +a great statesman; but he was, in one sense of the words, a great king. +Never was there so consummate a master of what our James the First would +have called kingcraft,--of all those arts which most advantageously +display the merits of a prince, and most completely hide his defects. +Though his internal administration was bad,--though the military +triumphs which gave splendour to the early part of his reign were not +achieved by himself,--though his later years were crowded with defeats +and humiliations,--though he was so ignorant that he scarcely understood +the Latin of his mass-book,--though he fell under the control of a +cunning Jesuit and of a more cunning old woman,--he succeeded in passing +himself off on his people as a being above humanity. And this is the +more extraordinary because he did not seclude himself from the public +gaze like those Oriental despots whose faces are never seen, and whose +very names it is a crime to pronounce lightly. It has been said that no +man is a hero to his valet;--and all the world saw as much of Louis the +Fourteenth as his valet could see. Five hundred people assembled to see +him shave and put on his breeches in the morning. He then kneeled down +at the side of his bed, and said his prayer while the whole assembly +awaited the end in solemn silence--the ecclesiastics on their knees, +and the laymen with their hats before their faces. He walked about +his gardens with a train of two hundred courtiers at his heels. All +Versailles came to see him dine and sup. He was put to bed at night in +the midst of a crowd as great as that which had met to see him rise in +the morning. He took his very emetics in state, and vomited majestically +in the presence of all the grandes and petites entrees. Yet, though he +constantly exposed himself to the public gaze in situations in which it +is scarcely possible for any man to preserve much personal dignity, he +to the last impressed those who surrounded him with the deepest awe +and reverence. The illusion which he produced on his worshippers can +be compared only to those illusions to which lovers are proverbially +subject during the season of courtship. It was an illusion which +affected even the senses. The contemporaries of Louis thought him tall. +Voltaire, who might have seen him, and who had lived with some of +the most distinguished members of his court, speaks repeatedly of his +majestic stature. Yet it is as certain as any fact can be, that he was +rather below than above the middle size. He had, it seems, a way of +holding himself, a way of walking, a way of swelling his chest and +rearing his head, which deceived the eyes of the multitude. Eighty years +after his death, the royal cemetery was violated by the revolutionists, +his coffin was opened; his body was dragged out; and it appeared that +the prince, whose majestic figure had been so long and loudly extolled, +was in truth a little man. (Even M. de Chateaubriand, to whom we should +have thought all the Bourbons would have seemed at least six feet high, +admits this fact. "C'est une erreur," says he in his strange memoirs of +the Duke of Berri, "de croire que Louis XIV. etait d'une haute stature. +Une cuirasse qui nous reste de lui, et les exhumations de St Denys, +n'ont laisse sur certain point aucun doute.") That fine expression +of Juvenal is singularly applicable, both in its literal and in its +metaphorical sense, to Louis the Fourteenth: + + "Mors sola fatetur + Quantula sint hominum corpuscula." + +His person and his government have had the same fate. He had the art of +making both appear grand and august, in spite of the clearest evidence +that both were below the ordinary standard. Death and time have exposed +both the deceptions. The body of the great king has been measured more +justly than it was measured by the courtiers who were afraid to look +above his shoe-tie. His public character has been scrutinized by men +free from the hopes and fears of Boileau and Moliere. In the grave, the +most majestic of princes is only five feet eight. In history, the hero +and the politician dwindles into a vain and feeble tyrant,--the slave +of priests and women--little in war,--little in government,--little in +everything but the art of simulating greatness. + +He left to his infant successor a famished and miserable people, a +beaten and humbled army, provinces turned into deserts by misgovernment +and persecution, factions dividing the court, a schism raging in the +church, an immense debt, an empty treasury, immeasurable palaces, an +innumerable household, inestimable jewels and furniture. All the sap and +nutriment of the state seemed to have been drawn to feed one bloated and +unwholesome excrescence. The nation was withered. The court was morbidly +flourishing. Yet it does not appear that the associations which attached +the people to the monarchy had lost strength during his reign. He had +neglected or sacrificed their dearest interests; but he had struck +their imaginations. The very things which ought to have made him most +unpopular,--the prodigies of luxury and magnificence with which his +person was surrounded, while, beyond the inclosure of his parks, nothing +was to be seen but starvation and despair,--seemed to increase the +respectful attachment which his subjects felt for him. That governments +exist only for the good of the people, appears to be the most obvious +and simple of all truths. Yet history proves that it is one of the most +recondite. We can scarcely wonder that it should be so seldom present +to the minds of rulers, when we see how slowly, and through how much +suffering, nations arrive at the knowledge of it. + +There was indeed one Frenchman who had discovered those principles which +it now seems impossible to miss,--that the many are not made for the use +of one,--that the truly good government is not that which concentrates +magnificence in a court, but that which diffuses happiness among a +people,--that a king who gains victory after victory, and adds province +to province, may deserve, not the admiration, but the abhorrence and +contempt of mankind. These were the doctrines which Fenelon taught. +Considered as an epic poem, Telemachus can scarcely be placed above +Glover's Leonidas or Wilkie's Epigoniad. Considered as a treatise on +politics and morals, it abounds with errors of detail; and the truths +which it inculcates seem trite to a modern reader. But, if we compare +the spirit in which it is written with the spirit which pervades the +rest of the French literature of that age, we shall perceive that, +though in appearance trite, it was in truth one of the most original +works that have ever appeared. The fundamental principles of Fenelon's +political morality, the test by which he judged of institutions and of +men, were absolutely new to his countrymen. He had taught them indeed, +with the happiest effect, to his royal pupil. But how incomprehensible +they were to most people, we learn from Saint Simon. That amusing +writer tells us, as a thing almost incredible, that the Duke of Burgundy +declared it to be his opinion that kings existed for the good of +the people, and not the people for the good of kings. Saint Simon is +delighted with the benevolence of this saying; but startled by its +novelty and terrified by its boldness. Indeed he distinctly says that it +was not safe to repeat the sentiment in the court of Louis. Saint Simon +was, of all the members of that court, the least courtly. He was as +nearly an oppositionist as any man of his time. His disposition was +proud, bitter, and cynical. In religion he was a Jansenist; in politics, +a less hearty royalist than most of his neighbours. His opinions and his +temper had preserved him from the illusions which the demeanour of Louis +produced on others. He neither loved nor respected the king. Yet even +this man,--one of the most liberal men in France,--was struck dumb +with astonishment at hearing the fundamental axiom of all government +propounded,--an axiom which, in our time, nobody in England or France +would dispute,--which the stoutest Tory takes for granted as much as the +fiercest Radical, and concerning which the Carlist would agree with the +most republican deputy of the "extreme left." No person will do justice +to Fenelon, who does not constantly keep in mind that Telemachus was +written in an age and nation in which bold and independent thinkers +stared to hear that twenty millions of human beings did not exist +for the gratification of one. That work is commonly considered as a +schoolbook, very fit for children, because its style is easy and its +morality blameless, but unworthy of the attention of statesmen and +philosophers. We can distinguish in it, if we are not greatly mistaken, +the first faint dawn of a long and splendid day of intellectual +light,--the dim promise of a great deliverance,--the undeveloped germ of +the charter and of the code. + +What mighty interests were staked on the life of the Duke of Burgundy! +and how different an aspect might the history of France have borne if he +had attained the age of his grandfather or of his son;--if he had been +permitted to show how much could be done for humanity by the highest +virtue in the highest fortune! There is scarcely anything in history +more remarkable than the descriptions which remain to us of that +extraordinary man. The fierce and impetuous temper which he showed in +early youth,--the complete change which a judicious education produced +in his character,--his fervid piety,--his large benevolence,--the +strictness with which he judged himself,--the liberality with which he +judged others,--the fortitude with which alone, in the whole court, he +stood up against the commands of Louis, when a religious scruple +was concerned,--the charity with which alone, in the whole court, +he defended the profligate Orleans against calumniators,--his great +projects for the good of the people,--his activity in business,--his +taste for letters,--his strong domestic attachments,--even the +ungraceful person and the shy and awkward manner which concealed from +the eyes of the sneering courtiers of his grandfather so many rare +endowments,--make his character the most interesting that is to be found +in the annals of his house. He had resolved, if he came to the throne, +to disperse that ostentatious court, which was supported at an expense +ruinous to the nation,--to preserve peace,--to correct the abuses which +were found in every part of the system of revenue,--to abolish or modify +oppressive privileges,--to reform the administration of justice,--to +revive the institution of the States-General. If he had ruled over +France during forty or fifty years, that great movement of the human +mind, which no government could have arrested, which bad government +only rendered more violent, would, we are inclined to think, have been +conducted, by peaceable means to a happy termination. + +Disease and sorrow removed from the world that wisdom and virtue of +which it was not worthy. During two generations France was ruled by men +who, with all the vices of Louis the Fourteenth, had none of the art +by which that magnificent prince passed off his vices for virtues. The +people had now to see tyranny naked. That foul Duessa was stripped +of her gorgeous ornaments. She had always been hideous; but a strange +enchantment had made her seem fair and glorious in the eyes of her +willing slaves. The spell was now broken; the deformity was made +manifest; and the lovers, lately so happy and so proud, turned away +loathing and horror-struck. + +First came the Regency. The strictness with which Louis had, towards the +close of his life, exacted from those around him an outward attention to +religious duties, produced an effect similar to that which the rigour +of the Puritans had produced in England. It was the boast of Madame de +Maintenon, in the time of her greatness, that devotion had become the +fashion. A fashion indeed it was; and, like a fashion, it passed away. +The austerity of the tyrant's old age had injured the morality of the +higher orders more than even the licentiousness of his youth. Not only +had he not reformed their vices, but, by forcing them to be hypocrites, +he had shaken their belief in virtue. They had found it so easy to +perform the grimace of piety, that it was natural for them to consider +all piety as grimace. The times were changed. Pensions, regiments, and +abbeys, were no longer to be obtained by regular confession and severe +penance: and the obsequious courtiers, who had kept Lent like monks +of La Trappe, and who had turned up the whites of their eyes at the +edifying parts of sermons preached before the king, aspired to the title +of roue as ardently as they had aspired to that of devot; and went, +during Passion Week, to the revels of the Palais Royal as readily as +they had formerly repaired to the sermons of Massillon. + +The Regent was in many respects the fac-simile of our Charles the +Second. Like Charles, he was a good-natured man, uttl destitute +of sensibility. Like Charles, he had good natural talents, which a +deplorable indolence rendered useless to the state. Like Charles, he +thought all men corrupted and interested, and yet did not dislike them +for being so. His opinion of human nature was Gulliver's; but he did not +regard human nature with Gulliver's horror. He thought that he and his +fellow-creatures were Yahoos; and he thought a Yahoo a very agreeable +kind of animal. No princes were ever more social than Charles and Philip +of Orleans: yet no princes ever had less capacity for friendship. The +tempers of these clever cynics were so easy, and their minds so languid, +that habit supplied in them the place of affection, and made them the +tools of people for whom they cared not one straw. In love, both were +mere sensualists without delicacy or tenderness. In politics, both were +utterly careless of faith and of national honour. Charles shut up the +Exchequer. Philip patronised the System. The councils of Charles were +swayed by the gold of Barillon; the councils of Philip by the gold of +Walpole. Charles for private objects made war on Holland, the natural +ally of England. Philip for private objects made war on the Spanish +branch of the house of Bourbon, the natural ally, indeed the creature of +France. Even in trifling circumstances the parallel might be carried on. +Both these princes were fond of experimental philosophy, and passed +in the laboratory much time which would have been more advantageously +passed at the council-table. Both were more strongly attached to their +female relatives than to any other human being; and in both cases it was +suspected that this attachment was not perfectly innocent. In personal +courage, and in all the virtues which are connected with personal +courage, the Regent was indisputably superior to Charles. Indeed Charles +but narrowly escaped the stain of cowardice. Philip was eminently brave, +and, like most brave men, was generally open and sincere. Charles added +dissimulation to his other vices. + +The administration of the Regent was scarcely less pernicious, and +infinitely more scandalous, than that of the deceased monarch. It was +by magnificent public works, and by wars conducted on a gigantic scale, +that Louis had brought distress on his people. The Regent aggravated +that distress by frauds of which a lame duck on the stock-exchange would +have been ashamed. France, even while suffering under the most severe +calamities, had reverenced the conqueror. She despised the swindler. + +When Orleans and the wretched Dubois had disappeared, the power passed +to the Duke of Bourbon; a prince degraded in the public eye by the +infamously lucrative part which he had taken in the juggles of the +System, and by the humility with which he bore the caprices of a loose +and imperious woman. It seemed to be decreed that every branch of the +royal family should successively incur the abhorrence and contempt of +the nation. + +Between the fall of the Duke of Bourbon and the death of Fleury, a few +years of frugal and moderate government intervened. Then recommenced the +downward progress of the monarchy. Profligacy in the court, extravagance +in the finances, schism in the church, faction in the Parliaments, +unjust war terminated by ignominious peace,--all that indicates and all +that produces the ruin of great empires, make up the history of that +miserable period. Abroad, the French were beaten and humbled everywhere, +by land and by sea, on the Elbe and on the Rhine, in Asia and in +America. At home, they were turned over from vizier to vizier, and from +sultana to sultana, till they had reached that point beneath which there +was no lower abyss of infamy,--till the yoke of Maupeou had made them +pine for Choiseul,--till Madame du Barri had taught them to regret +Madame de Pompadour. + +But unpopular as the monarchy had become, the aristocracy was more +unpopular still; and not without reason. The tyranny of an individual +is far more supportable than the tyranny of a caste. The old privileges +were galling and hateful to the new wealth and the new knowledge. +Everything indicated the approach of no common revolution,--of a +revolution destined to change, not merely the form of government, +but the distribution of property and the whole social system,--of a +revolution the effects of which were to be felt at every fireside in +France,--of a new Jaquerie, in which the victory was to remain with +Jaques bonhomme. In the van of the movement were the moneyed men and the +men of letters,--the wounded pride of wealth, and the wounded pride of +intellect. An immense multitude, made ignorant and cruel by oppression, +was raging in the rear. + +We greatly doubt whether any course which could have been pursued by +Louis the Sixteenth could have averted a great convulsion. But we are +sure that, if there was such a course, it was the course recommended +by M. Turgot. The church and the aristocracy, with that blindness to +danger, that incapacity of believing that anything can be except what +has been, which the long possession of power seldom fails to generate, +mocked at the counsel which might have saved them. They would not have +reform; and they had revolution. They would not pay a small contribution +in place of the odious corvees; and they lived to see their castles +demolished, and their lands sold to strangers. They would not endure +Turgot; and they were forced to endure Robespierre. + +Then the rulers of France, as if smitten with judicial blindness, +plunged headlong into the American war. They thus committed at once two +great errors. They encouraged the spirit of revolution. They augmented +at the same time those public burdens, the pressure of which is +generally the immediate cause of revolutions. The event of the war +carried to the height the enthusiasm of speculative democrats. The +financial difficulties produced by the war carried to the height +the discontent of that larger body of people who cared little about +theories, and much about taxes. + +The meeting of the States-General was the signal for the explosion of +all the hoarded passions of a century. In that assembly, there were +undoubtedly very able men. But they had no practical knowledge of the +art of government. All the great English revolutions have been conducted +by practical statesmen. The French Revolution was conducted by mere +speculators. Our constitution has never been so far behind the age as to +have become an object of aversion to the people. The English revolutions +have therefore been undertaken for the purpose of defending, correcting, +and restoring,--never for the mere purpose of destroying. Our countrymen +have always, even in times of the greatest excitement, spoken reverently +of the form of government under which they lived, and attacked only what +they regarded as its corruptions. In the very act of innovating they +have constantly appealed to ancient prescription; they have seldom +looked abroad for models; they have seldom troubled themselves with +Utopian theories; they have not been anxious to prove that liberty is a +natural right of men; they have been content to regard it as the lawful +birthright of Englishmen. Their social contract is no fiction. It +is still extant on the original parchment, sealed with wax which was +affixed at Runnymede, and attested by the lordly names of the Marischals +and Fitzherberts. No general arguments about the original equality of +men, no fine stories out of Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos, have +ever affected them so much as their own familiar words,--Magna +Charta,--Habeas Corpus,--Trial by Jury,--Bill of Rights. This part of +our national character has undoubtedly its disadvantages. An Englishman +too often reasons on politics in the spirit rather of a lawyer than of +a philosopher. There is too often something narrow, something exclusive, +something Jewish, if we may use the word, in his love of freedom. He +is disposed to consider popular rights as the special heritage of the +chosen race to which he belongs. He is inclined rather to repel than to +encourage the alien proselyte who aspires to a share of his privileges. +Very different was the spirit of the Constituent Assembly. They had +none of our narrowness; but they had none of our practical skill in the +management of affairs. They did not understand how to regulate the order +of their own debates; and they thought themselves able to legislate for +the whole world. All the past was loathsome to them. All their agreeable +associations were connected with the future. Hopes were to them all that +recollections are to us. In the institutions of their country they found +nothing to love or to admire. As far back as they could look, they saw +only the tyranny of one class and the degradation of another,--Frank +and Gaul, knight and villein, gentleman and roturier. They hated the +monarchy, the church, the nobility. They cared nothing for the States or +the Parliament. It was long the fashion to ascribe all the follies which +they committed to the writings of the philosophers. We believe that +it was misrule, and nothing but misrule, that put the sting into those +writings. It is not true that the French abandoned experience for +theories. They took up with theories because they had no experience of +good government. It was because they had no charter that they ranted +about the original contract. As soon as tolerable institutions were +given to them, they began to look to those institutions. In 1830 their +rallying cry was "Vive la Charte". In 1789 they had nothing but theories +round which to rally. They had seen social distinctions only in a +bad form; and it was therefore natural that they should be deluded by +sophisms about the equality of men. They had experienced so much evil +from the sovereignty of kings that they might be excused for lending a +ready ear to those who preached, in an exaggerated form, the doctrine of +the sovereignty of the people. + +The English, content with their own national recollections and names, +have never sought for models in the institutions of Greece or Rome. The +French, having nothing in their own history to which they could look +back with pleasure, had recourse to the history of the great ancient +commonwealths: they drew their notions of those commonwealths, not from +contemporary writers, but from romances written by pedantic moralists +long after the extinction of public liberty. They neglected Thucydides +for Plutarch. Blind themselves, they took blind guides. They had no +experience of freedom; and they took their opinions concerning it +from men who had no more experience of it than themselves, and whose +imaginations, inflamed by mystery and privation, exaggerated the unknown +enjoyment;--from men who raved about patriotism without having ever had +a country, and eulogised tyrannicide while crouching before tyrants. +The maxim which the French legislators learned in this school was, that +political liberty is an end, and not a means; that it is not merely +valuable as the great safeguard of order, of property, and of morality, +but that it is in itself a high and exquisite happiness to which order, +property, and morality ought without one scruple to be sacrificed. The +lessons which may be learned from ancient history are indeed most useful +and important; but they were not likely to be learned by men who, in all +their rhapsodies about the Athenian democracy, seemed utterly to forget +that in that democracy there were ten slaves to one citizen; and who +constantly decorated their invectives against the aristocrats with +panegyrics on Brutus and Cato,--two aristocrats, fiercer, prouder, and +more exclusive, than any that emigrated with the Count of Artois. + +We have never met with so vivid and interesting a picture of the +National Assembly as that which M. Dumont has set before us. His +Mirabeau, in particular, is incomparable. All the former Mirabeaus +were daubs in comparison. Some were merely painted from the +imagination--others were gross caricatures: this is the very individual, +neither god nor demon, but a man--a Frenchman--a Frenchman of the +eighteenth century, with great talents, with strong passions, depraved +by bad education, surrounded by temptations of every kind,--made +desperate at one time by disgrace, and then again intoxicated by fame. +All his opposite and seemingly inconsistent qualities are in this +representation so blended together as to make up a harmonious and +natural whole. Till now, Mirabeau was to us, and, we believe, to most +readers of history, not a man, but a string of antitheses. Henceforth he +will be a real human being, a remarkable and eccentric being indeed, but +perfectly conceivable. + +He was fond, M. Dumont tells us, of giving odd compound nicknames. +Thus, M. de Lafayette was Grandison-Cromwell; the King of Prussia was +Alaric-Cottin; D'Espremenil was Crispin-Catiline. We think that Mirabeau +himself might be described, after his own fashion, as a Wilkes-Chatham. +He had Wilkes's sensuality, Wilkes's levity, Wilkes's insensibility to +shame. Like Wilkes, he had brought on himself the censure even of men +of pleasure by the peculiar grossness of his immorality, and by the +obscenity of his writings. Like Wilkes, he was heedless, not only of +the laws of morality, but of the laws of honour. Yet he affected, like +Wilkes, to unite the character of the demagogue to that of the fine +gentleman. Like Wilkes, he conciliated, by his good-humour and his high +spirits, the regard of many who despised his character. Like Wilkes, +he was hideously ugly; like Wilkes, he made a jest of his own ugliness; +and, like Wilkes, he was, in spite of his ugliness, very attentive to +his dress, and very successful in affairs of gallantry. + +Resembling Wilkes in the lower and grosser parts of his character, he +had, in his higher qualities, some affinity to Chatham. His eloquence, +as far as we can judge of it, bore no inconsiderable resemblance to that +of the great English minister. He was not eminently successful in long +set speeches. He was not, on the other hand, a close and ready debater. +Sudden bursts, which seemed to be the effect of inspiration--short +sentences which came like lightning, dazzling, burning, striking down +everything before them--sentences which, spoken at critical moments, +decided the fate of great questions--sentences which at once became +proverbs--sentences which everybody still knows by heart--in these +chiefly lay the oratorical power both of Chatham and of Mirabeau. There +have been far greater speakers, and far greater statesmen, than either +of them; but we doubt whether any men have, in modern times, exercised +such vast personal influence over stormy and divided assemblies. The +power of both was as much moral as intellectual. In true dignity of +character, in private and public virtue, it may seem absurd to institute +any comparison between them; but they had the same haughtiness and +vehemence of temper. In their language and manner there was a disdainful +self-confidence, an imperiousness, a fierceness of passion, before which +all common minds quailed. Even Murray and Charles Townshend, though +intellectually not inferior to Chatham, were always cowed by him. +Barnave, in the same manner, though the best debater in the National +Assembly, flinched before the energy of Mirabeau. Men, except in bad +novels, are not all good or all evil. It can scarcely be denied that the +virtue of Lord Chatham was a little theatrical. On the other hand there +was in Mirabeau, not indeed anything deserving the name of virtue, +but that imperfect substitute for virtue which is found in almost all +superior minds,--a sensibility to the beautiful and the good, which +sometimes amounted to sincere enthusiasm; and which, mingled with +the desire of admiration, sometimes gave to his character a lustre +resembling the lustre of true goodness,--as the "faded splendour wan" +which lingered round the fallen archangel resembled the exceeding +brightness of those spirits who had kept their first estate. + +There are several other admirable portraits of eminent men in these +Memoirs. That of Sieyes in particular, and that of Talleyrand, are +master-pieces, full of life and expression. But nothing in the book has +interested us more than the view which M. Dumont has presented to us, +unostentatiously, and, we may say, unconsciously, of his own character. +The sturdy rectitude, the large charity, the good-nature, the modesty, +the independent spirit, the ardent philanthropy, the unaffected +indifference to money and to fame, make up a character which, while it +has nothing unnatural, seems to us to approach nearer to perfection than +any of the Grandisons and Allworthys of fiction. The work is not indeed +precisely such a work as we had anticipated--it is more lively, more +picturesque, more amusing than we had promised ourselves; and it is, on +the other hand, less profound and philosophic. But, if it is not, in +all respects, such as might have been expected from the intellect of M. +Dumont, it is assuredly such as might have been expected from his heart. + +***** + + + + +BARERE. (April 1844.) + + "Memoires de Bertrand Barere": publies par MM. Hippolyte + Carnot, Membre de la Chambre des Deputes, et David d'Angers, + Membre de l'Institut: precedes d'une Notice Historique par + H. Carnot. 4 tomes. Paris: 1843. + +This book has more than one title to our serious attention. It is an +appeal, solemnly made to posterity by a man who played a conspicuous +part in great events, and who represents himself as deeply aggrieved by +the rash and malevolent censure of his contemporaries. To such an appeal +we shall always give ready audience. We can perform no duty more useful +to society, or more agreeable to our own feelings, than that of making, +as far as our power extends, reparation to the slandered and +persecuted benefactors of mankind. We therefore promptly took into our +consideration this copious apology for the life of Bertrand Barere. We +have made up our minds; and we now purpose to do him, by the blessing of +God, full and signal justice. It is to be observed that the appellant in +this case does not come into court alone. He is attended to the bar +of public opinion by two compurgators who occupy highly honourable +stations. One of these is M. David of Angers, member of the institute, +an eminent sculptor, and, if we have been rightly informed, a favourite +pupil, though not a kinsman, of the painter who bore the same name. The +other, to whom we owe the biographical preface, is M. Hippolyte Carnot, +member of the Chamber of Deputies, and son of the celebrated Director. +In the judgment of M. David and of M. Hippolyte Carnot, Barere was a +deserving and an ill-used man--a man who, though by no means faultless, +must yet, when due allowance is made for the force of circumstances and +the infirmity of human nature, be considered as on the whole entitled +to our esteem. It will be for the public to determine, after a full +hearing, whether the editors have, by thus connecting their names with +that of Barere, raised his character or lowered their own. + +We are not conscious that, when we opened this book, we were under the +influence of any feeling likely to pervert our judgment. Undoubtedly we +had long entertained a most unfavourable opinion of Barere: but to this +opinion we were not tied by any passion or by any interest. Our dislike +was a reasonable dislike, and might have been removed by reason. Indeed +our expectation was, that these Memoirs would in some measure clear +Barere's fame. That he could vindicate himself from all the charges +which had been brought against him, we knew to be impossible; and his +editors admit that he has not done so. But we thought it highly probable +that some grave accusations would be refuted, and that many offences +to which he would have been forced to plead guilty would be greatly +extenuated. We were not disposed to be severe. We were fully aware that +temptations such as those to which the members of the Convention and +of the Committee of Public Safety were exposed must try severely the +strength of the firmest virtue. Indeed our inclination has always been +to regard with an indulgence, which to some rigid moralists appears +excessive, those faults into which gentle and noble spirits are +sometimes hurried by the excitement of conflict, by the maddening +influence of sympathy, and by ill-regulated zeal for a public cause. + +With such feelings we read this book, and compared it with other +accounts of the events in which Barere bore a part. It is now our duty +to express the opinion to which this investigation has led us. + +Our opinion then is this: that Barere approached nearer than any person +mentioned in history or fiction, whether man or devil, to the idea of +consummate and universal depravity. In him the qualities which are the +proper objects of hatred, and the qualities which are the proper objects +of contempt, preserve an exquisite and absolute harmony. In almost every +particular sort of wickedness he has had rivals. His sensuality was +immoderate; but this was a failing common to him with many great and +amiable men. There have been many men as cowardly as he, some as cruel, +a few as mean, a few as impudent. There may also have been as great +liars, though we never met with them or read of them. But when we put +everything together, sensuality, poltroonery, baseness, effrontery, +mendacity, barbarity, the result is something which in a novel we should +condemn as caricature, and to which, we venture to say, no parallel can +be found in history. + +It would be grossly unjust, we acknowledge, to try a man situated as +Barere was by a severe standard. Nor have we done so. We have formed +our opinion of him, by comparing him, not with politicians of stainless +character, not with Chancellor D'Aguesseau, or General Washington, or Mr +Wilberforce, or Earl Grey, but with his own colleagues of the Mountain. +That party included a considerable number of the worst men that ever +lived; but we see in it nothing like Barere. Compared with him, Fouche +seems honest; Billaud seems humane; Hebert seems to rise into dignity. +Every other chief of a party, says M. Hippolyte Carnot, has found +apologists: one set of men exalts the Girondists; another set justifies +Danton; a third deifies Robespierre: but Barere has remained without +a defender. We venture to suggest a very simple solution of this +phenomenon. All the other chiefs of parties had some good qualities; and +Barere had none. The genius, courage, patriotism, and humanity of the +Girondist statesmen more than atoned for what was culpable in their +conduct, and should have protected them from the insult of being +compared with such a thing as Barere. Danton and Robespierre were indeed +bad men; but in both of them some important parts of the mind remained +sound. Danton was brave and resolute, fond of pleasure, of power, and of +distinction, with vehement passions, with lax principles, but with some +kind and manly feelings, capable of great crimes, but capable also of +friendship and of compassion. He, therefore, naturally finds admirers +among persons of bold and sanguine dispositions. Robespierre was a +vain, envious, and suspicious man, with a hard heart, weak nerves, and a +gloomy temper. But we cannot with truth deny that he was, in the vulgar +sense of the word, disinterested, that his private life was correct, or +that he was sincerely zealous for his own system of politics and morals. +He, therefore, naturally finds admirers among honest but moody and +bitter democrats. If no class has taken the reputation of Barere under +its patronage, the reason is plain: Barere had not a single virtue, nor +even the semblance of one. + +It is true that he was not, as far as we are able to judge, originally +of a savage disposition; but this circumstance seems to us only to +aggravate his guilt. There are some unhappy men constitutionally prone +to the darker passions, men all whose blood is gall, and to whom bitter +words and harsh actions are as natural as snarling and biting to a +ferocious dog. To come into the world with this wretched mental disease +is a greater calamity than to be born blind or deaf. A man who, having +such a temper, keeps it in subjection, and constrains himself to behave +habitually with justice and humanity towards those who are in his power, +seems to us worthy of the highest admiration. There have been instances +of this self-command; and they are among the most signal triumphs of +philosophy and religion. On the other hand, a man who, having been +blessed by nature with a bland disposition, gradually brings himself +to inflict misery on his fellow-creatures with indifference, with +satisfaction, and at length with a hideous rapture, deserves to be +regarded as a portent of wickedness; and such a man was Barere. The +history of his downward progress is full of instruction. Weakness, +cowardice, and fickleness were born with him; the best quality which he +received from nature was a good temper. These, it is true, are not +very promising materials; yet, out of materials as unpromising, high +sentiments of piety and of honour have sometimes made martyrs and +heroes. Rigid principles often do for feeble minds what stays do for +feeble bodies. But Barere had no principles at all. His character was +equally destitute of natural and of acquired strength. Neither in the +commerce of life, nor in books, did we ever become acquainted with +any mind so unstable, so utterly destitute of tone, so incapable of +independent thought and earnest preference, so ready to take impressions +and so ready to lose them. He resembled those creepers which must lean +on something, and which, as soon as their prop is removed, fall down in +utter helplessness. He could no more stand up, erect and self-supported, +in any cause, than the ivy can rear itself like the oak, or the wild +vine shoot to heaven like the cedar of Lebanon. It is barely possible +that, under good guidance and in favourable circumstances, such a man +might have slipped through life without discredit. But the unseaworthy +craft, which even in still water would have been in danger of going down +from its own rottenness, was launched on a raging ocean, amidst a storm +in which a whole armada of gallant ships was cast away. The weakest and +most servile of human beings found himself on a sudden an actor in a +Revolution which convulsed the whole civilised world. At first he fell +under the influence of humane and moderate men, and talked the language +of humanity and moderation. But he soon found himself surrounded by +fierce and resolute spirits, scared by no danger and restrained by no +scruple. He had to choose whether he would be their victim or their +accomplice. His choice was soon made. He tasted blood, and felt no +loathing; he tasted it again, and liked it well. Cruelty became with +him, first a habit, then a passion, at last a madness. So complete and +rapid was the degeneracy of his nature, that within a very few months +after the time when he had passed for a good-natured man, he had brought +himself to look on the despair and misery of his fellow-creatures with +a glee resembling that of the fiends whom Dante saw watching the pool +of seething pitch in Malebolge. He had many associates in guilt; but he +distinguished himself from them all by the Bacchanalian exaltation which +he seemed to feel in the work of death. He was drunk with innocent and +noble blood, laughed and shouted as he butchered, and howled strange +songs and reeled in strange dances amidst the carnage. Then came a +sudden and violent turn of fortune. The miserable man was hurled down +from the height of power to hopeless ruin and infamy. The shock sobered +him at once. The fumes of his horrible intoxication passed away. But he +was now so irrecoverably depraved that the discipline of adversity only +drove him further into wickedness. Ferocious vices, of which he had +never been suspected, had been developed in him by power. Another class +of vices, less hateful perhaps, but more despicable, was now developed +in him by poverty and disgrace. Having appalled the whole world by great +crimes perpetrated under the pretence of zeal for liberty, he became +the meanest of all the tools of despotism. It is not easy to settle the +order of precedence among his vices, but we are inclined to think that +his baseness was, on the whole, a rarer and more marvellous thing than +his cruelty. + +This is the view which we have long taken of Barere's character; but, +till we read these Memoirs, we held our opinion with the diffidence +which becomes a judge who has only heard one side. The case seemed +strong, and in parts unanswerable; yet we did not know what the accused +party might have to say for himself; and, not being much inclined to +take our fellow-creatures either for angels of light or for angels of +darkness, we could not but feel some suspicion that his offences had +been exaggerated. That suspicion is now at an end. The vindication is +before us. It occupies four volumes. It was the work of forty years. It +would be absurd to suppose that it does not refute every serious charge +which admitted of refutation. How many serious charges, then, are here +refuted? Not a single one. Most of the imputations which have been +thrown on Barere he does not even notice. In such cases, of course, +judgment must go against him by default. The fact is, that nothing can +be more meagre and uninteresting than his account of the great public +transactions in which he was engaged. He gives us hardly a word of +new information respecting the proceedings of the Committee of Public +Safety; and, by way of compensation, tells us long stories about things +which happened before he emerged from obscurity, and after he had again +sunk into it. Nor is this the worst. As soon as he ceases to write +trifles, he begins to write lies; and such lies! A man who has never +been within the tropics does not know what a thunderstorm means; a man +who has never looked on Niagara has but a faint idea of a cataract; and +he who has not read Barere's Memoirs may be said not to know what it +is to lie. Among the numerous classes which make up the great genus +Mendacium, the Mendacium Vasconicum, or Gascon lie, has, during some +centuries, been highly esteemed as peculiarly circumstantial and +peculiarly impudent; and, among the Mendacia Vasconica, the Mendacium +Barerianum is, without doubt, the finest species. It is indeed a superb +variety, and quite throws into the shade some Mendacia which we were +used to regard with admiration. The Mendacium Wraxallianum, for example, +though by no means to be despised, will not sustain the comparison for a +moment. Seriously, we think that M. Hippolyte Carnot is much to blame in +this matter. We can hardly suppose him to be worse read than ourselves +in the history of the Convention, a history which must interest him +deeply, not only as a Frenchman, but also as a son. He must, therefore, +be perfectly aware that many of the most important statements which +these volumes contain are falsehoods, such as Corneille's Dorante, or +Moliere's Scapin, or Colin d'Harleville's Monsieur de Crac would have +been ashamed to utter. We are far, indeed, from holding M. Hippolyte +Carnot answerable for Barere's want of veracity; but M. Hippolyte +Carnot has arranged these Memoirs, has introduced them to the world by +a laudatory preface, has described them as documents of great historical +value, and has illustrated them by notes. We cannot but think that, by +acting thus, he contracted some obligations of which he does not seem +to have been at all aware; and that he ought not to have suffered any +monstrous fiction to go forth under the sanction of his name, without +adding a line at the foot of the page for the purpose of cautioning the +reader. + +We will content ourselves at present with pointing out two instances +of Barere's wilful and deliberate mendacity; namely, his account of +the death of Marie Antoinette, and his account of the death of +the Girondists. His account of the death of Marie Antoinette is as +follows:--"Robespierre in his turn proposed that the members of the +Capet family should be banished, and that Marie Antoinette should be +brought to trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal. He would have +been better employed in concerting military measures which might have +repaired our disasters in Belgium, and might have arrested the progress +of the enemies of the Revolution in the west."--(Volume ii. page 312.) + +Now, it is notorious that Marie Antoinette was sent before the +Revolutionary Tribunal, not at Robespierre's instance, but in direct +opposition to Robespierre's wishes. We will cite a single authority, +which is quite decisive. Bonaparte, who had no conceivable motive to +disguise the truth, who had the best opportunities of knowing the truth, +and who, after his marriage with the Archduchess, naturally felt an +interest in the fate of his wife's kinswomen, distinctly affirmed that +Robespierre opposed the trying of the Queen. (O'Meara's "Voice from St +Helena", ii. 170.) Who, then, was the person who really did propose that +the Capet family should be banished, and that Marie Antoinette should +be tried? Full information will be found in the "Moniteur". ("Moniteur", +2d, 7th and 9th of August, 1793.) From that valuable record it appears +that, on the first of August 1793, an orator, deputed by the Committee +of Public Safety, addressed the Convention in a long and elaborate +discourse. He asked, in passionate language, how it happened that the +enemies of the Republic still continued to hope for success. "Is it," +he cried, "because we have too long forgotten the crimes of the Austrian +woman? Is it because we have shown so strange an indulgence to the race +of our ancient tyrants? It is time that this unwise apathy should cease; +it is time to extirpate from the soil of the Republic the last roots of +royalty. As for the children of Louis the conspirator, they are hostages +for the Republic. The charge of their maintenance shall be reduced to +what is necessary for the food and keep of two individuals. The public +treasure shall no longer be lavished on creatures who have too long been +considered as privileged. But behind them lurks a woman who has been the +cause of all the disasters of France, and whose share in every project +adverse to the revolution has long been known. National justice claims +its rights over her. It is to the tribunal appointed for the trial +of conspirators that she ought to be sent. It is only by striking +the Austrian woman that you can make Francis and George, Charles and +William, sensible of the crimes which their ministers and their armies +have committed." The speaker concluded by moving that Marie Antoinette +should be brought to judgment, and should, for that end, be forthwith +transferred to the Conciergerie; and that all the members of the house +of Capet, with the exception of those who were under the sword of the +law, and of the two children of Louis, should be banished from the +French territory. The motion was carried without debate. + +Now, who was the person who made this speech and this motion? It was +Barere himself. It is clear, then, that Barere attributed his own mean +insolence and barbarity to one who, whatever his crimes may have been, +was in this matter innocent. The only question remaining is, whether +Barere was misled by his memory, or wrote a deliberate falsehood. + +We are convinced that he wrote a deliberate falsehood. His memory is +described by his editors as remarkably good, and must have been bad +indeed if he could not remember such a fact as this. It is true that the +number of murders in which he subsequently bore a part was so great that +he might well confound one with another, that he might well forget what +part of the daily hecatomb was consigned to death by himself, and what +part by his colleagues. But two circumstances make it quite incredible +that the share which he took in the death of Marie Antoinette should +have escaped his recollection. She was one of his earliest victims. +She was one of his most illustrious victims. The most hardened assassin +remembers the first time that he shed blood; and the widow of Louis +was no ordinary sufferer. If the question had been about some milliner, +butchered for hiding in her garret her brother who had let drop a word +against the Jacobin Club--if the question had been about some old nun, +dragged to death for having mumbled what were called fanatical words +over her beads--Barere's memory might well have deceived him. It would +be as unreasonable to expect him to remember all the wretches whom +he slew as all the pinches of snuff that he took. But, though Barere +murdered many hundreds of human beings, he murdered only one Queen. That +he, a small country lawyer, who, a few years before, would have thought +himself honoured by a glance or a word from the daughter of so many +Caesars, should call her the Austrian woman, should send her from jail +to jail, should deliver her over to the executioner, was surely a great +event in his life. Whether he had reason to be proud of it or ashamed of +it, is a question on which we may perhaps differ from his editors; but +they will admit, we think, that he could not have forgotten it. + +We, therefore, confidently charge Barere with having written a +deliberate falsehood; and we have no hesitation in saying that we never, +in the course of any historical researches that we have happened to +make, fell in with a falsehood so audacious, except only the falsehood +which we are about to expose. + +Of the proceeding against the Girondists, Barere speaks with just +severity. He calls it an atrocious injustice perpetrated against the +legislators of the republic. He complains that distinguished deputies, +who ought to have been readmitted to their seats in the Convention, were +sent to the scaffold as conspirators. The day, he exclaims, was a day +of mourning for France. It mutilated the national representation; it +weakened the sacred principle, that the delegates of the people were +inviolable. He protests that he had no share in the guilt. "I have had," +he says, "the patience to go through the 'Moniteur', extracting all the +charges brought against deputies, and all the decrees for arresting and +impeaching deputies. Nowhere will you find my name. I never brought a +charge against any of my colleagues, or made a report against any, or +drew up an impeachment against any." (Volume ii. 407.) + +Now, we affirm that this is a lie. We affirm that Barere himself took +the lead in the proceedings of the Convention against the Girondists. We +affirm that he, on the twenty-eighth of July 1793, proposed a decree +for bringing nine Girondist deputies to trial, and for putting to death +sixteen other Girondist deputies without any trial at all. We affirm +that, when the accused deputies had been brought to trial, and when some +apprehension arose that their eloquence might produce an effect even on +the Revolutionary Tribunal, Barere did, on the 8th of Brumaire, second +a motion for a decree authorising the tribunal to decide without hearing +out the defence; and, for the truth of every one of these things so +affirmed by us, we appeal to the very "Moniteur" to which Barere has +dared to appeal. ("Moniteur", 31st of July 1793, and Nonidi, first +Decade of Brumaire, in the year 2(?).) + +What M. Hippolyte Carnot, knowing, as he must know, that this book +contains such falsehoods as those which we have exposed, can have meant, +when he described it as a valuable addition to our stock of historical +information, passes our comprehension. When a man is not ashamed to tell +lies about events which took place before hundreds of witnesses, and +which are recorded in well-known and accessible books, what credit can +we give to his account of things done in corners? No historian who does +not wish to be laughed at will ever cite the unsupported authority of +Barere as sufficient to prove any fact whatever. The only thing, as far +as we can see, on which these volumes throw any light, is the exceeding +baseness of the author. + +So much for the veracity of the Memoirs. In a literary point of view, +they are beneath criticism. They are as shallow, flippant, and affected, +as Barere's oratory in the Convention. They are also, what his oratory +in the Convention was not, utterly insipid. In fact, they are the mere +dregs and rinsings of a bottle of which even the first froth was but of +very questionable flavour. + +We will now try to present our readers with a sketch of this man's life. +We shall, of course, make very sparing use indeed of his own Memoirs; +and never without distrust, except where they are confirmed by other +evidence. + +Bertrand Barere was born in the year 1755, at Tarbes in Gascony. His +father was the proprietor of a small estate at Vieuzac, in the beautiful +vale of Argeles. Bertrand always loved to be called Barere de Vieuzac, +and flattered himself with the hope that, by the help of this feudal +addition to his name, he might pass for a gentleman. He was educated for +the bar at Toulouse, the seat of one of the most celebrated parliaments +of the kingdom, practised as an advocate with considerable success, +and wrote some small pieces, which he sent to the principal literary +societies in the south of France. Among provincial towns, Toulouse seems +to have been remarkably rich in indifferent versifiers and critics. It +gloried especially in one venerable institution, called the Academy of +the Floral Games. This body held every year a grand meeting which was a +subject of intense interest to the whole city, and at which flowers +of gold and silver were given as prizes for odes, for idyls, and for +something that was called eloquence. These bounties produced of course +the ordinary effect of bounties, and turned people who might have been +thriving attorneys and useful apothecaries into small wits and bad +poets. Barere does not appear to have been so lucky as to obtain any of +these precious flowers; but one of his performances was mentioned with +honour. At Montauban he was more fortunate. The academy of that town +bestowed on him several prizes, one for a panegyric on Louis the +Twelfth, in which the blessings of monarchy and the loyalty of the +French nation were set forth; and another for a panegyric on poor Franc +de Pompignan, in which, as may easily be supposed, the philosophy of the +eighteenth century was sharply assailed. Then Barere found an old stone +inscribed with three Latin words, and wrote a dissertation upon it, +which procured him a seat in a learned Assembly, called the Toulouse +Academy of Sciences, Inscriptions, and Polite Literature. At length the +doors of the Academy of the Floral Games were opened to so much +merit. Barere, in his thirty-third year, took his seat as one of that +illustrious brotherhood, and made an inaugural oration which was greatly +admired. He apologises for recounting these triumphs of his youthful +genius. We own that we cannot blame him for dwelling long on the least +disgraceful portion of his existence. To send in declamations for prizes +offered by provincial academies is indeed no very useful or dignified +employment for a bearded man; but it would have been well if Barere had +always been so employed. + +In 1785 he married a young lady of considerable fortune. Whether she was +in other respects qualified to make a home happy, is a point respecting +which we are imperfectly informed. In a little work, entitled +"Melancholy Pages", which was written in 1797, Barere avers that his +marriage was one of mere convenience, that at the altar his heart was +heavy with sorrowful forebodings, that he turned pale as he pronounced +the solemn "Yes," that unbidden tears rolled down his cheeks, that his +mother shared his presentiment, and that the evil omen was accomplished. +"My marriage," he says, "was one of the most unhappy of marriages." So +romantic a tale, told by so noted a liar, did not command our belief. We +were, therefore, not much surprised to discover that, in his Memoirs, +he calls his wife a most amiable woman, and declares that, after he +had been united to her six years, he found her as amiable as ever. He +complains, indeed, that she was too much attached to royalty and to the +old superstition; but he assures us that his respect for her virtues +induced him to tolerate her prejudices. Now Barere, at the time of his +marriage, was himself a Royalist and a Catholic. He had gained one prize +by flattering the Throne, and another by defending the Church. It is +hardly possible, therefore, that disputes about politics or religion +should have embittered his domestic life till some time after he became +a husband. Our own guess is, that his wife was, as he says, a virtuous +and amiable woman, and that she did her best to make him happy during +some years. It seems clear that, when circumstances developed the latent +atrocity of his character, she could no longer endure him, refused to +see him, and sent back his letters unopened. Then it was, we imagine, +that he invented the fable about his distress on his wedding day. + +In 1788 Barere paid his first visit to Paris, attended reviews, heard +Laharpe at the Lycaeum, and Condorcet at the Academy of Sciences, stared +at the envoys of Tippoo Sahib, saw the Royal Family dine at Versailles, +and kept a journal in which he noted down adventures and speculations. +Some parts of this journal are printed in the first volume of the work +before us, and are certainly most characteristic. The worst vices of +the writer had not yet shown themselves; but the weakness which was +the parent of those vices appears in every line. His levity, his +inconsistency, his servility, were already what they were to the +last. All his opinions, all his feelings, spin round and round like a +weathercock in a whirlwind. Nay, the very impressions which he receives +through his senses are not the same two days together. He sees Louis +the Sixteenth, and is so much blinded by loyalty as to find his Majesty +handsome. "I fixed my eyes," he says, "with a lively curiosity on his +fine countenance, which I thought open and noble." The next time that +the king appears all is altered. His Majesty's eyes are without the +smallest expression; he has a vulgar laugh which seems like idiocy, an +ignoble figure, an awkward gait, and the look of a big boy ill brought +up. It is the same with more important questions. Barere is for the +parliaments on the Monday and against the parliaments on the Tuesday, +for feudality in the morning and against feudality in the afternoon. One +day he admires the English constitution; then he shudders to think +that, in the struggles by which that constitution had been obtained, the +barbarous islanders had murdered a king, and gives the preference to +the constitution of Bearn. Bearn, he says, has a sublime constitution, a +beautiful constitution. There the nobility and clergy meet in one house, +and the Commons in another. If the houses differ, the King has +the casting vote. A few weeks later we find him raving against the +principles of this sublime and beautiful constitution. To admit deputies +of the nobility and clergy into the legislature is, he says, neither +more nor less than to admit enemies of the nation into the legislature. + +In this state of mind, without one settled purpose or opinion, the +slave of the last word, royalist, aristocrat, democrat, according to the +prevailing sentiment of the coffee-house or drawing-room into which he +had just looked, did Barere enter into public life. The States-General +had been summoned. Barere went down to his own province, was there +elected one of the representatives of the Third Estate, and returned to +Paris in May 1789. + +A great crisis, often predicted, had at last arrived. In no country, +we conceive, have intellectual freedom and political servitude existed +together so long as in France, during the seventy or eighty years which +preceded the last convocation of the Orders. Ancient abuses and new +theories flourished in equal vigour side by side. The people, having no +constitutional means of checking even the most flagitious misgovernment, +were indemnified for oppression by being suffered to luxuriate in +anarchical speculation, and to deny or ridicule every principle on which +the institutions of the State reposed. Neither those who attribute the +downfall of the old French institutions to the public grievances, nor +those who attribute it to the doctrines of the philosophers, appear +to us to have taken into their view more than one half of the subject. +Grievances as heavy have often been endured without producing a +revolution; doctrines as bold have often been propounded without +producing a revolution. The question, whether the French nation was +alienated from its old polity by the follies and vices of the Viziers +and Sultanas who pillaged and disgraced it, or by the writings of +Voltaire and Rousseau, seems to us as idle as the question whether it +was fire or gunpowder that blew up the mills at Hounslow. Neither +cause would have sufficed alone. Tyranny may last through ages where +discussion is suppressed. Discussion may safely be left free by rulers +who act on popular principles. But combine a press like that of London +with a government like that of St Petersburg; and the inevitable effect +will be an explosion that will shake the world. So it was in France. +Despotism and License, mingling in unblessed union, engendered that +mighty Revolution in which the lineaments of both parents were strangely +blended. The long gestation was accomplished; and Europe saw, with mixed +hope and terror, that agonising travail and that portentous birth. + +Among the crowd of legislators which at this conjuncture poured from all +the provinces of France into Paris, Barere made no contemptible figure. +The opinions which he for the moment professed were popular, yet not +extreme. His character was fair; his personal advantages are said to +have been considerable; and, from the portrait which is prefixed +to these Memoirs, and which represents him as he appeared in the +Convention, we would judge that his features must have been strikingly +handsome, though we think that we can read in them cowardice and +meanness very legibly written by the hand of God. His conversation was +lively and easy; his manners remarkably good for a country lawyer. Women +of rank and wit said that he was the only man who, on his first arrival +from a remote province, had that indescribable air which it was supposed +that Paris alone could give. His eloquence, indeed, was by no means so +much admired in the capital as it had been by the ingenious academicians +of Montauban and Toulouse. His style was thought very bad; and very bad, +if a foreigner may venture to judge, it continued to the last. It would, +however, be unjust to deny that he had some talents for speaking and +writing. His rhetoric, though deformed by every imaginable fault of +taste, from bombast down to buffoonery, was not wholly without force +and vivacity. He had also one quality which, in active life, often gives +fourth-rate men an advantage over first-rate men. Whatever he could do, +he could do without effort, at any moment, in any abundance, and on any +side of any question. There was, indeed, a perfect harmony between his +moral character and his intellectual character. His temper was that of +a slave; his abilities were exactly those which qualified him to be a +useful slave. Of thinking to purpose, he was utterly incapable; but he +had wonderful readiness in arranging and expressing thoughts furnished +by others. + +In the National Assembly he had no opportunity of displaying the full +extent either of his talents or of his vices. He was indeed eclipsed +by much abler men. He went, as was his habit, with the stream, spoke +occasionally with some success, and edited a journal called the "Point +du Jour", in which the debates of the Assembly were reported. + +He at first ranked by no means among the violent reformers. He was not +friendly to that new division of the French territory which was among +the most important changes introduced by the Revolution, and was +especially unwilling to see his native province dismembered. He was +entrusted with the task of framing Reports on the Woods and Forests. +Louis was exceedingly anxious about this matter; for his majesty was a +keen sportsman, and would much rather have gone without the Veto, or +the prerogative of making peace and war, than without his hunting and +shooting. Gentlemen of the royal household were sent to Barere, in +order to intercede for the deer and pheasants. Nor was this intercession +unsuccessful. The reports were so drawn that Barere was afterwards +accused of having dishonestly sacrificed the interests of the public +to the tastes of the court. To one of these reports he had the +inconceivable folly and bad taste to prefix a punning motto from Virgil, +fit only for such essays as he had been in the habit of composing for +the Floral Games-- + +"Si canimus sylvas, sylvae sint Consule dignae." + +This literary foppery was one of the few things in which he was +consistent. Royalist or Girondist, Jacobin or Imperialist, he was always +a Trissotin. + +As the monarchical party became weaker and weaker, Barere gradually +estranged himself more and more from it, and drew closer and closer to +the republicans. It would seem that, during this transition, he was for +a time closely connected with the family of Orleans. It is certain +that he was entrusted with the guardianship of the celebrated Pamela, +afterwards Lady Edward Fitzgerald; and it was asserted that he received +during some years a pension of twelve thousand francs from the Palais +Royal. + +At the end of September 1791, the labours of the National Assembly +terminated, and those of the first and last Legislative Assembly +commenced. + +It had been enacted that no member of the National Assembly should sit +in the Legislative Assembly; a preposterous and mischievous regulation, +to which the disasters which followed must in part be ascribed. In +England, what would be thought of a Parliament which did not contain one +single person who had ever sat in parliament before? Yet it may safely +be affirmed that the number of Englishmen who, never having taken +any share in public affairs, are yet well qualified, by knowledge and +observation, to be members of the legislature is at least a hundred +times as great as the number of Frenchmen who were so qualified in 1791. +How, indeed, should it have been otherwise? In England, centuries of +representative government have made all educated people in some measure +statesmen. In France the National Assembly had probably been composed of +as good materials as were then to be found. It had undoubtedly removed a +vast mass of abuses; some of its members had read and thought much about +theories of government; and others had shown great oratorical talents. +But that kind of skill which is required for the constructing, +launching, and steering of a polity was lamentably wanting; for it is a +kind of skill to which practice contributes more than books. Books are +indeed useful to the politician, as they are useful to the navigator and +to the surgeon. But the real navigator is formed on the waves; the real +surgeon is formed at bedsides; and the conflicts of free states are +the real school of constitutional statesmen. The National Assembly had, +however, now served an apprenticeship of two laborious and eventful +years. It had, indeed, by no means finished its education; but it was +no longer, as on the day when it met, altogether rude to political +functions. Its later proceedings contain abundant proof that the members +had profited by their experience. Beyond all doubt there was not in +France any equal number of persons possessing in an equal degree the +qualities necessary for the judicious direction of public affairs; and, +just at this moment, these legislators, misled by a childish wish to +display their own disinterestedness, deserted the duties which they had +half learned, and which nobody else had learned at all, and left their +hall to a second crowd of novices, who had still to master the first +rudiments of political business. When Barere wrote his Memoirs, the +absurdity of this self-denying ordinance had been proved by events, and +was, we believe, acknowledged by all parties. He accordingly, with his +usual mendacity, speaks of it in terms implying that he had opposed it. +There was, he tells us, no good citizen who did not regret this fatal +vote. Nay, all wise men, he says, wished the National Assembly to +continue its sittings as the first Legislative Assembly. But no +attention was paid to the wishes of the enlightened friends of liberty; +and the generous but fatal suicide was perpetrated. Now the fact is, +that Barere, far from opposing this ill-advised measure, was one of +those who most eagerly supported it; that he described it from the +tribune as wise and magnanimous; that he assigned, as his reasons for +taking this view, some of those phrases in which orators of his class +delight, and which, on all men who have the smallest insight into +politics, produce an effect very similar to that of ipecacuanha. +"Those," he said, "who have framed a constitution for their country are, +so to speak, out of the pale of that social state of which they are the +authors; for creative power is not in the same sphere with that which it +has created." + +M. Hippolyte Carnot has noticed this untruth, and attributes it to +mere forgetfulness. We leave it to him to reconcile his very charitable +supposition with what he elsewhere says of the remarkable excellence of +Barere's memory. + +Many members of the National Assembly were indemnified for the sacrifice +of legislative power by appointments in various departments of the +public service. Of these fortunate persons Barere was one. A high Court +of Appeal had just been instituted. This court was to sit at Paris: but +its jurisdiction was to extend over the whole realm; and the departments +were to choose the judges. Barere was nominated by the department of the +Upper Pyrenees, and took his seat in the Palace of Justice. He asserts, +and our readers may, if they choose, believe, that it was about this +time in contemplation to make him Minister of the Interior, and that in +order to avoid so grave a responsibility, he obtained permission to pay +a visit to his native place. It is certain that he left Paris early in +the year 1792, and passed some months in the south of France. + +In the mean time, it became clear that the constitution of 1791 would +not work. It was, indeed, not to be expected that a constitution new +both in its principles and its details would at first work easily. Had +the chief magistrate enjoyed the entire confidence of the people, had he +performed his part with the utmost zeal, fidelity, and ability--had the +representative body included all the wisest statesmen of France, the +difficulties might still have been found insuperable. But, in fact, the +experiment was made under every disadvantage. The King, very naturally, +hated the constitution. In the Legislative Assembly were men of +genius and men of good intentions, but not a single man of experience. +Nevertheless, if France had been suffered to settle her own affairs +without foreign interference, it is possible that the calamities +which followed might have been averted. The King, who, with many good +qualities, was sluggish and sensual, might have found compensation for +his lost prerogatives in his immense civil list, in his palaces and +hunting grounds, in soups, Perigord pies, and champagne. The people, +finding themselves secure in the enjoyment of the valuable reforms which +the National Assembly had, in the midst of all its errors, effected, +would not have been easily excited by demagogues to acts of atrocity; +or, if acts of atrocity had been committed, those acts would probably +have produced a speedy and violent reaction. Had tolerable quiet been +preserved during a few years, the constitution of 1791 might perhaps +have taken root, might have gradually acquired the strength which +time alone can give, and might, with some modifications which were +undoubtedly needed, have lasted down to the present time. The European +coalition against the Revolution extinguished all hope of such a result. +The deposition of Louis was, in our opinion, the necessary consequence +of that coalition. The question was now no longer, whether the King +should have an absolute Veto or a suspensive Veto, whether there +should be one chamber or two chambers, whether the members of the +representative body should be re-eligible or not; but whether France +should belong to the French. The independence of the nation, the +integrity of the territory, were at stake; and we must say plainly that +we cordially approve of the conduct of those Frenchmen who, at that +conjuncture, resolved, like our own Blake, to play the men for their +country, under whatever form of government their country might fall. + +It seems to us clear that the war with the Continental coalition was, on +the side of France, at first a defensive war, and therefore a just war. +It was not a war for small objects, or against despicable enemies. On +the event were staked all the dearest interests of the French people. +Foremost among the threatening powers appeared two great and martial +monarchies, either of which, situated as France then was, might be +regarded as a formidable assailant. It is evident that, under such +circumstances, the French could not, without extreme imprudence, +entrust the supreme administration of their affairs to any person +whose attachment to the national cause admitted of doubt. Now, it is no +reproach to the memory of Louis to say that he was not attached to the +national cause. Had he been so, he would have been something more than +man. He had held absolute power, not by usurpation, but by the accident +of birth, and by the ancient polity of the kingdom. That power he had, +on the whole, used with lenity. He had meant well by his people. He had +been willing to make to them, of his own mere motion, concessions such +as scarcely any other sovereign has ever made except under duress. +He had paid the penalty of faults not his own, of the haughtiness and +ambition of some of his predecessors, of the dissoluteness and baseness +of others. He had been vanquished, taken captive, led in triumph, put in +ward. He had escaped; he had been caught; he had been dragged back like +a runaway galley-slave to the oar. He was still a state prisoner. His +quiet was broken by daily affronts and lampoons. Accustomed from the +cradle to be treated with profound reverence, he was now forced to +command his feelings, while men who, a few months before, had been +hackney writers or country attorneys, sat in his presence with covered +heads, and addressed him in the easy tone of equality. Conscious of +fair intentions, sensible of hard usage, he doubtless detested the +Revolution; and, while charged with the conduct of the war against the +confederates, pined in secret for the sight of the German eagles and +the sound of the German drums. We do not blame him for this. But can +we blame those who, being resolved to defend the work of the National +Assembly against the interference of strangers, were not disposed to +have him at their head in the fearful struggle which was approaching? +We have nothing to say in defence or extenuation of the insolence, +injustice, and cruelty with which, after the victory of the republicans, +he and his family were treated. But this we say, that the French had +only one alternative, to deprive him of the powers of first magistrate, +or to ground their arms and submit patiently to foreign dictation. +The events of the tenth of August sprang inevitably from the league of +Pilnitz. The King's palace was stormed; his guards were slaughtered. +He was suspended from his regal functions; and the Legislative Assembly +invited the nation to elect an extraordinary Convention, with the full +powers which the conjuncture required. To this Convention the members +of the National Assembly were eligible; and Barere was chosen by his own +department. + +The Convention met on the 21st of September 1792. The first proceedings +were unanimous. Royalty was abolished by acclamation. No objections +were made to this great change; and no reasons were assigned for it. For +certainly we cannot honour with the name of reasons such apophthegms, +as that kings are in the moral world what monsters are in the physical +world; and that the history of kings is the martyrology of nations. But, +though the discussion was worthy only of a debating club of schoolboys, +the resolution to which the Convention came seems to have been that +which sound policy dictated. In saying this, we do not mean to express +an opinion that a republic is, either in the abstract the best form of +government, or is, under ordinary circumstances, the form of government +best suited to the French people. Our own opinion is, that the best +governments which have ever existed in the world have been limited +monarchies; and that France, in particular, has never enjoyed so much +prosperity and freedom as under a limited monarchy. Nevertheless, we +approve of the vote of the Convention which abolished kingly government. +The interference of foreign powers had brought on a crisis which made +extraordinary measures necessary. Hereditary monarchy may be, and we +believe that it is, a very useful institution in a country like France. +And masts are very useful parts of a ship. But, if the ship is on her +beam-ends, it may be necessary to cut the masts away. When once she has +righted, she may come safe into port under jury rigging, and there +be completely repaired. But, in the meantime, she must be hacked with +unsparing hand, lest that which, under ordinary circumstances, is an +essential part of her fabric should, in her extreme distress, sink her +to the bottom. Even so there are political emergencies in which it is +necessary that governments should be mutilated of their fair proportions +for a time, lest they be cast away forever; and with such an emergency +the Convention had to deal. The first object of a good Frenchman should +have been to save France from the fate of Poland. The first requisite of +a government was entire devotion to the national cause. That requisite +was wanting in Louis; and such a want, at such a moment, could not be +supplied by any public or private virtues. If the king were set aside, +the abolition of kingship necessarily followed. In the state in which +the public mind then was, it would have been idle to think of doing what +our ancestors did in 1688, and what the French Chamber of Deputies did +in 1830. Such an attempt would have failed amidst universal derision and +execration. It would have disgusted all zealous men of all opinions; and +there were then few men who were not zealous. Parties fatigued by long +conflict, and instructed by the severe discipline of that school in +which alone mankind will learn, are disposed to listen to the voice of +a mediator. But when they are in their first heady youth, devoid +of experience, fresh for exertion, flushed with hope, burning with +animosity, they agree only in spurning out of their way the daysman who +strives to take his stand between them and to lay his hand upon them +both. Such was in 1792 the state of France. On one side was the great +name of the heir of Hugh Capet, the thirty-third king of the third +race; on the other side was the great name of the republic. There was +no rallying point save these two. It was necessary to make a choice; +and those, in our opinion, judged well who, waving for the moment all +subordinate questions, preferred independence to subjugation, and the +natal soil to the emigrant camp. + +As to the abolition of royalty, and as to the vigorous prosecution of +the war, the whole Convention seemed to be united as one man. But a deep +and broad gulf separated the representative body into two great parties. + +On one side were those statesmen who are called, from the name of the +department which some of them represented, the Girondists, and, from +the name of one of their most conspicuous leaders, the Brissotines. +In activity and practical ability, Brissot and Gensonne were the most +conspicuous among them. In parliamentary eloquence, no Frenchman of that +time can be considered as equal to Vergniaud. In a foreign country, and +after the lapse of half a century, some parts of his speeches are still +read with mournful admiration. No man, we are inclined to believe, ever +rose so rapidly to such a height of oratorical excellence. His whole +public life lasted barely two years. This is a circumstance which +distinguishes him from our own greatest speakers, Fox, Burke, Pitt, +Sheridan, Windham, Canning. Which of these celebrated men would now be +remembered as an orator, if he had died two years after he first took +his seat in the House of Commons? Condorcet brought to the Girondist +party a different kind of strength. The public regarded him with justice +as an eminent mathematician, and, with less reason, as a great master of +ethical and political science; the philosophers considered him as their +chief, as the rightful heir, by intellectual descent and by solemn +adoption, of their deceased sovereign D'Alembert. In the same ranks were +found Guadet, Isnard, Barbaroux, Buzot, Louvet, too well known as +the author of a very ingenious and very licentious romance, and more +honourably distinguished by the generosity with which he pleaded for the +unfortunate, and by the intrepidity with which he defied the wicked and +powerful. Two persons whose talents were not brilliant, but who enjoyed +a high reputation for probity and public spirit, Petion and Roland, lent +the whole weight of their names to the Girondist connection. The wife of +Roland brought to the deliberations of her husband's friends masculine +courage and force of thought, tempered by womanly grace and vivacity. +Nor was the splendour of a great military reputation wanting to this +celebrated party. Dumourier, then victorious over the foreign invaders, +and at the height of popular favour, must be reckoned among the allies +of the Gironde. + +The errors of the Brissotines were undoubtedly neither few nor small; +but, when we fairly compare their conduct with the conduct of any other +party which acted or suffered during the French Revolution, we are +forced to admit their superiority in every quality except that single +quality which in such times prevails over every other, decision. They +were zealous for the great social reform which had been effected by the +National Assembly; and they were right. For, though that reform was, in +some respects, carried too far, it was a blessing well worth even the +fearful price which has been paid for it. They were resolved to maintain +the independence of their country against foreign invaders; and they +were right. For the heaviest of all yokes is the yoke of the stranger. +They thought that, if Louis remained at their head, they could not +carry on with the requisite energy the conflict against the European +coalition. They therefore concurred in establishing a republican +government; and here, again, they were right. For, in that struggle for +life and death, it would have been madness to trust a hostile or even a +half hearted leader. + +Thus far they went along with the revolutionary movement. At this point +they stopped; and, in our judgment, they were right in stopping, as +they had been right in moving. For great ends, and under extraordinary +circumstances, they had concurred in measures which, together with much +good, had necessarily produced much evil; which had unsettled the public +mind; which had taken away from government the sanction of prescription; +which had loosened the very foundations of property and law. They +thought that it was now their duty to prop what it had recently been +their duty to batter. They loved liberty, but liberty associated with +order, with justice, with mercy, and with civilisation. They were +republicans; but they were desirous to adorn their republic with all +that had given grace and dignity to the fallen monarchy. They hoped that +the humanity, the courtesy, the taste, which had done much in old times +to mitigate the slavery of France, would now lend additional charms to +her freedom. They saw with horror crimes exceeding in atrocity those +which had disgraced the infuriated religious factions of the sixteenth +century, perpetrated in the name of reason and philanthropy. They +demanded, with eloquent vehemence, that the authors of the lawless +massacre, which, just before the meeting of the Convention, had +been committed in the prisons of Paris, should be brought to condign +punishment. They treated with just contempt the pleas which have been +set up for that great crime. They admitted that the public danger +was pressing; but they denied that it justified a violation of those +principles of morality on which all society rests. The independence and +honour of France were indeed to be vindicated, but to be vindicated by +triumphs and not by murders. + +Opposed to the Girondists was a party which, having been long execrated +throughout the civilised world, has of late--such is the ebb and flow +of opinion--found not only apologists, but even eulogists. We are not +disposed to deny that some members of the Mountain were sincere and +public spirited men. But even the best of them, Carnot, for example, and +Cambon, were far too unscrupulous as to the means which they employed +for the purpose of attaining great ends. In the train of these +enthusiasts followed a crowd, composed of all who, from sensual, sordid, +or malignant motives, wished for a period of boundless license. + +When the Convention met, the majority were with the Girondists, and +Barere was with the majority. On the King's trial, indeed, he quitted +the party with which he ordinarily acted, voted with the Mountain, and +spoke against the prisoner with a violence such as few members even of +the Mountain showed. + +The conduct of the leading Girondists on that occasion was little +to their honour. Of cruelty, indeed, we fully acquit them; but it is +impossible to acquit them of criminal irresolution and disingenuousness. +They were far, indeed, from thirsting for the blood of Louis: on the +contrary, they were most desirous to protect him. But they were afraid +that, if they went straight forward to their object, the sincerity of +their attachment to republican institutions would be suspected. They +wished to save the King's life, and yet to obtain all the credit of +having been regicides. Accordingly, they traced out for themselves a +crooked course, by which they hoped to attain both their objects. They +first voted the King guilty. They then voted for referring the question +respecting his fate to the whole body of the people. Defeated in this +attempt to rescue him, they reluctantly, and with ill-suppressed shame +and concern, voted for the capital sentence. Then they made a last +attempt in his favour, and voted for respiting the execution. These +zigzag politics produced the effect which any man conversant with public +affairs might have foreseen. The Girondists, instead of attaining both +their ends, failed of both. The Mountain justly charged them with having +attempted to save the King by underhand means. Their own consciences +told them, with equal justice, that their hands had been dipped in the +blood of the most inoffensive and most unfortunate of men. The direct +path was here, as usual, the path not only of honour, but of safety. The +principle on which the Girondists stood as a party was, that the season +for revolutionary violence was over, and that the reign of law and order +ought now to commence. But the proceeding against the King was clearly +revolutionary in its nature. It was not in conformity with the laws. +The only plea for it was, that all ordinary rules of jurisprudence and +morality were suspended by the extreme public danger. This was the very +plea which the Mountain urged in defence of the massacre of September, +and to which, when so urged, the Girondists refused to listen. They +therefore, by voting for the death of the King, conceded to the Mountain +the chief point at issue between the two parties. Had they given a +manful vote against the capital sentence, the regicides would have been +in a minority. It is probable that there would have been an immediate +appeal to force. The Girondists might have been victorious. In the worst +event, they would have fallen with unblemished honour. Thus much +is certain, that their boldness and honesty could not possibly have +produced a worse effect than was actually produced by their timidity and +their stratagems. + +Barere, as we have said, sided with the Mountain on this occasion. He +voted against the appeal to the people and against the respite. His +demeanour and his language also were widely different from those of the +Girondists. Their hearts were heavy, and their deportment was that of +men oppressed by sorrow. It was Vergniaud's duty to proclaim the result +of the roll-call. His face was pale, and he trembled with emotion, as in +a low and broken voice he announced that Louis was condemned to death. +Barere had not, it is true, yet attained to full perfection in the art +of mingling jests and conceits with words of death; but he already gave +promise of his future excellence in this high department of Jacobin +oratory. He concluded his speech with a sentence worthy of his head and +heart. "The tree of liberty," he said, "as an ancient author remarks, +flourishes when it is watered with the blood of all classes of tyrants." +M. Hippolyte Carnot has quoted this passage in order, as we suppose, to +do honour to his hero. We wish that a note had been added to inform us +from what ancient author Barere quoted. In the course of our own small +reading among the Greek and Latin writers, we have not happened to fall +in with trees of liberty and watering-pots full of blood; nor can we, +such is our ignorance of classical antiquity, even imagine an Attic or +Roman orator employing imagery of that sort. In plain words, when Barere +talked about an ancient author, he was lying, as he generally was when +he asserted any fact, great or small. Why he lied on this occasion we +cannot guess, unless indeed it was to keep his hand in. + +It is not improbable that, but for the one circumstance, Barere would, +like most of those with whom he ordinarily acted, have voted for +the appeal to the people and for the respite. But, just before the +commencement of the trial, papers had been discovered which proved that, +while a member of the National Assembly, he had been in communication +with the Court respecting his Reports on the Woods and Forests. He +was acquitted of all criminality by the Convention; but the fiercer +Republicans considered him as a tool of the fallen monarch; and this +reproach was long repeated in the journal of Marat, and in the speeches +at the Jacobin club. It was natural that a man like Barere should, +under such circumstances, try to distinguish himself among the crowd of +regicides by peculiar ferocity. It was because he had been a royalist +that he was one of the foremost in shedding blood. + +The King was no more. The leading Girondists had, by their conduct +towards him, lowered their character in the eyes both of friends and +foes. They still, however, maintained the contest against the Mountain, +called for vengeance on the assassins of September, and protested +against the anarchical and sanguinary doctrines of Marat. For a time +they seemed likely to prevail. As publicists and orators, they had no +rivals in the Convention. They had with them, beyond all doubt, the +great majority both of the deputies and of the French nation. These +advantages, it should seem, ought to have decided the event of the +struggle. But the opposite party had compensating advantages of a +different kind. The chiefs of the Mountain, though not eminently +distinguished by eloquence or knowledge, had great audacity, activity, +and determination. The Convention and France were against them; but the +mob of Paris, the clubs of Paris, and the municipal government of Paris, +were on their side. + +The policy of the Jacobins, in this situation, was to subject France +to an aristocracy infinitely worse than that aristocracy which had +emigrated with the count of Artois--to an aristocracy not of birth, not +of wealth, not of education, but of mere locality. They would not hear +of privileged orders; but they wished to have a privileged city. That +twenty-five millions of Frenchmen should be ruled by a hundred thousand +gentlemen and clergymen was insufferable; but that twenty-five millions +of Frenchmen should be ruled by a hundred thousand Parisians was as it +should be. The qualification of a member of the new oligarchy was simply +that he should live near the hall where the Convention met, and should +be able to squeeze himself daily into the gallery during a debate, and +now and then to attend with a pike for the purpose of blockading the +doors. It was quite agreeable to the maxims of the Mountain that a +score of draymen from Santerre's brewery, or of devils from Hebert's +printing-house, should be permitted to drown the voices of men +commissioned to speak the sense of such cities as Marseilles, Bordeaux, +and Lyons; and that a rabble of half-naked porters from the Faubourg St +Antoine should have power to annul decrees for which the representatives +of fifty or sixty departments had voted. It was necessary to find some +pretext for so odious and absurd a tyranny. Such a pretext was found. +To the old phrases of liberty and equality were added the sonorous +watchwords, unity and indivisability. A new crime was invented, and +called by the name of federalism. The object of the Girondists, it +was asserted, was to break up the great nation into little independent +commonwealths, bound together only by a league like that which connects +the Swiss Cantons or the United States of America. The great obstacle +in the way of this pernicious design was the influence of Paris. To +strengthen the influence of Paris ought therefore to be the chief object +of every patriot. + +The accusation brought against the leaders of the Girondist party was a +mere calumny. They were undoubtedly desirous to prevent the capital from +domineering over the republic, and would gladly have seen the Convention +removed for a time to some provincial town, or placed under the +protection of a trusty guard, which might have overawed the Parisian +mob; but there is not the slightest reason to suspect them of any +design against the unity of the state. Barere, however, really was a +federalist, and, we are inclined to believe, the only federalist in the +Convention. As far as a man so unstable and servile can be said to have +felt any preference for any form of government, he felt a preference for +federal government. He was born under the Pyrenees; he was a Gascon of +the Gascons, one of a people strongly distinguished by intellectual +and moral character, by manners, by modes of speech, by accent, and by +physiognomy, from the French of the Seine and of the Loire; and he had +many of the peculiarities of the race to which he belonged. When he +first left his own province he had attained his thirty-fourth year, and +had acquired a high local reputation for eloquence and literature. He +had then visited Paris for the first time. He had found himself in a new +world. His feelings were those of a banished man. It is clear also that +he had been by no means without his share of the small disappointments +and humiliations so often experienced by men of letters who, elated +by provincial applause, venture to display their powers before the +fastidious critics of a capital. On the other hand, whenever he +revisited the mountains among which he had been born, he found +himself an object of general admiration. His dislike of Paris, and his +partiality to his native district, were therefore as strong and durable +as any sentiments of a mind like his could be. He long continued to +maintain that the ascendency of one great city was the bane of France; +that the superiority of taste and intelligence which it was the fashion +to ascribe to the inhabitants of that city were wholly imaginary; and +that the nation would never enjoy a really good government till the +Alsatian people, the Breton people, the people of Bearn, the people of +Provence, should have each an independent existence, and laws suited to +its own tastes and habits. These communities he proposed to unite by +a tie similar to that which binds together the grave Puritans of +Connecticut and the dissolute slave-drivers of New Orleans. To Paris +he was unwilling to grant even the rank which Washington holds in the +United States. He thought it desirable that the congress of the French +federation should have no fixed place of meeting, but should sit +sometimes at Rouen, sometimes at Bordeaux, sometimes at his own +Toulouse. + +Animated by such feelings, he was, till the close of May 1793, a +Girondist, if not an ultra-Girondist. He exclaimed against those impure +and bloodthirsty men who wished to make the public danger a pretext for +cruelty and rapine. "Peril," he said, "could be no excuse for crime. It +is when the wind blows hard, and the waves run high, that the anchor is +most needed; it is when a revolution is raging, that the great laws of +morality are most necessary to the safety of a state." Of Marat he spoke +with abhorrence and contempt; of the municipal authorities of Paris with +just severity. He loudly complained that there were Frenchmen who paid +to the Mountain that homage which was due to the Convention alone. When +the establishment of the Revolutionary Tribunal was first proposed, he +joined himself to Vergniaud and Buzot, who strongly objected to that +odious measure. "It cannot be," exclaimed Barere, "that men really +attached to liberty will imitate the most frightful excesses of +despotism!" He proved to the Convention, after his fashion, out of +Sallust, that such arbitrary courts may indeed, for a time, be severe +only on real criminals, but must inevitably degenerate into instruments +of private cupidity and revenge. When, on the tenth of March, the worst +part of the population of Paris made the first unsuccessful attempt to +destroy the Girondists, Barere eagerly called for vigorous measures of +repression and punishment. On the second of April, another attempt of +the Jacobins of Paris to usurp supreme dominion over the republic was +brought to the knowledge of the Convention; and again Barere spoke with +warmth against the new tyranny which afflicted France, and declared that +the people of the departments would never crouch beneath the tyranny of +one ambitious city. He even proposed a resolution to the effect that the +Convention would exert against the demagogues of the capital the same +energy which had been exerted against the tyrant Louis. We are assured +that, in private as in public, he at this time uniformly spoke with +strong aversion of the Mountain. + +His apparent zeal for the cause of humanity and order had its reward. +Early in April came the tidings of Dumourier's defection. This was a +heavy blow to the Girondists. Dumourier was their general. His victories +had thrown a lustre on the whole party; his army, it had been hoped, +would, in the worst event, protect the deputies of the nation against +the ragged pikemen of the garrets of Paris. He was now a deserter and +an exile; and those who had lately placed their chief reliance on +his support were compelled to join with their deadliest enemies in +execrating his treason. At this perilous conjuncture, it was resolved +to appoint a Committee of Public Safety, and to arm that committee with +powers, small indeed when compared with those which it afterwards drew +to itself, but still great and formidable. The moderate party, regarding +Barere as a representative of their feelings and opinions, elected him +a member. In his new situation he soon began to make himself useful. He +brought to the deliberations of the Committee, not indeed the knowledge +or the ability of a great statesman, but a tongue and a pen which, if +others would only supply ideas, never paused for want of words. His mind +was a mere organ of communication between other minds. It originated +nothing; it retained nothing; but it transmitted everything. The +post assigned to him by his colleagues was not really of the highest +importance; but it was prominent, and drew the attention of all Europe. +When a great measure was to be brought forward, when an account was to +be rendered of an important event, he was generally the mouthpiece of +the administration. He was therefore not unnaturally considered, by +persons who lived at a distance from the seat of government, and above +all by foreigners, who, while the war raged, knew France only from +journals, as the head of that administration of which, in truth, he +was only the secretary and the spokesman. The author of the History of +Europe, in our own Annual Registers, appears to have been completely +under this delusion. + +The conflict between the hostile parties was meanwhile fast approaching +to a crisis. The temper of Paris grew daily fiercer and fiercer. +Delegates appointed by thirty-five of the forty-eight wards of the city +appeared at the bar of the Convention, and demanded that Vergniaud, +Brissot, Guadet, Gensonne, Barbaroux, Buzot, Petion, Louvet, and many +other deputies, should be expelled. This demand was disapproved by at +least three-fourths of the Assembly, and, when known in the departments, +called forth a general cry of indignation. Bordeaux declared that it +would stand by its representatives, and would, if necessary, defend them +by the sword against the tyranny of Paris. Lyons and Marseilles were +animated by a similar spirit. These manifestations of public opinion +gave courage to the majority of the Convention. Thanks were voted to +the people of Bordeaux for their patriotic declaration; and a +commission consisting of twelve members was appointed for the purpose of +investigating the conduct of the municipal authorities of Paris, and was +empowered to place under arrest such persons as should appear to have +been concerned in any plot against the authority of the Convention. This +measure was adopted on the motion of Barere. + +A few days of stormy excitement and profound anxiety followed; and then +came the crash. On the thirty-first of May the mob of Paris rose; the +palace of the Tuileries was besieged by a vast array of pikes; the +majority of the deputies, after vain struggles and remonstrances, +yielded to violence, and suffered the Mountain to carry a decree for the +suspension and arrest of the deputies whom the wards of the capital had +accused. + +During this contest, Barere had been tossed backwards and forwards +between the two raging factions. His feelings, languid and unsteady as +they always were, drew him to the Girondists; but he was awed by the +vigour and determination of the Mountain. At one moment he held high +and firm language, complained that the Convention was not free, and +protested against the validity of any vote passed under coercion. At +another moment he proposed to conciliate the Parisians by abolishing +that commission of twelve which he had himself proposed only a few days +before; and himself drew up a paper condemning the very measures which +had been adopted at his own instance, and eulogising the public spirit +of the insurgents. To do him justice, it was not without some symptoms +of shame that he read his document from the tribune, where he had so +often expressed very different sentiments. It is said that, at some +passages, he was even seen to blush. It may have been so; he was still +in his novitiate of infamy. + +Some days later he proposed that hostages for the personal safety of the +accused deputies should be sent to the departments, and offered to be +himself one of those hostages. Nor do we in the least doubt that the +offer was sincere. He would, we firmly believe, have thought himself far +safer at Bordeaux or Marseilles than at Paris. His proposition, however, +was not carried into effect; and he remained in the power of the +victorious Mountain. + +This was the great crisis of his life. Hitherto he had done nothing +inexpiable, nothing which marked him out as a much worse man than most +of his colleagues in the Convention. His voice had generally been on +the side of moderate measures. Had he bravely cast in his lot with the +Girondists, and suffered with them, he would, like them, have had a not +dishonourable place in history. Had he, like the great body of deputies +who meant well, but who had not the courage to expose themselves +to martyrdom, crouched quietly under the dominion of the triumphant +minority, and suffered every motion of Robespierre and Billaud to +pass unopposed, he would have incurred no peculiar ignominy. But it is +probable that this course was not open to him. He had been too prominent +among the adversaries of the Mountain to be admitted to quarter without +making some atonement. It was necessary that, if he hoped to find pardon +from his new lords, he should not be merely a silent and passive +slave. What passed in private between him and them cannot be accurately +related; but the result was soon apparent. The Committee of Public +Safety was renewed. Several of the fiercest of the dominant faction, +Couthon for example, and Saint Just, were substituted for more moderate +politicians; but Barere was suffered to retain his seat at the Board. + +The indulgence with which he was treated excited the murmurs of some +stern and ardent zealots. Marat, in the very last words that he wrote, +words not published till the dagger of Charlotte Corday had avenged +France and mankind, complained that a man who had no principles, who was +always on the side of the strongest, who had been a royalist, and who +was ready, in case of a turn of fortune, to be a royalist again, should +be entrusted with an important share in the administration. (See the +"Publiciste" of the 14th July, 1793. Marat was stabbed on the evening +of the 13th.) But the chiefs of the Mountain judged more correctly. They +knew, indeed, as well as Marat, that Barere was a man utterly without +faith or steadiness; that, if he could be said to have any political +leaning, his leaning was not towards them; that he felt for the +Girondist party that faint and wavering sort of preference of which +alone his nature was susceptible; and that, if he had been at liberty +to make his choice, he would rather have murdered Robespierre and Danton +than Vergniaud and Gensonne. But they justly appreciated that levity +which made him incapable alike of earnest love and of earnest hatred, +and that meanness which made it necessary to him to have a master. In +truth, what the planters of Carolina and Louisiana say of black men with +flat noses and woolly hair was strictly true of Barere. The curse of +Canaan was upon him. He was born a slave. Baseness was an instinct in +him. The impulse which drove him from a party in adversity to a party in +prosperity was as irresistible as that which drives the cuckoo and the +swallow towards the sun when the dark and cold months are approaching. +The law which doomed him to be the humble attendant of stronger spirits +resembled the law which binds the pilot fish to the shark. "Ken ye," +said a shrewd Scotch lord, who was asked his opinion of James the +First--"Ken ye a John Ape? If I have Jacko by the collar, I can make him +bite you; but, if you have Jacko, you can make him bite me." Just such +a creature was Barere. In the hands of the Girondists he would have been +eager to proscribe the Jacobins; he was just as ready, in the gripe of +the Jacobins, to proscribe the Girondists. On the fidelity of such a man +the heads of the Mountain could not, of course, reckon; but they +valued their conquest as the very easy and not very delicate lover +in Congreve's lively song valued the conquest of a prostitute of a +different kind. Barere was, like Chloe, false and common; but he was, +like Chloe, constant while possessed; and they asked no more. They +needed a service which he was perfectly competent to perform. Destitute +as he was of all the talents both of an active and of a speculative +statesman, he could with great facility draw up a report, or make a +speech on any subject and on any side. If other people would furnish +facts and thoughts, he could always furnish phrases; and this talent was +absolutely at the command of his owners for the time being. Nor had +he excited any angry passion among those to whom he had hitherto been +opposed. They felt no more hatred to him than they felt to the horses +which dragged the cannon of the Duke of Brunswick and of the Prince +of Saxe-Coburg. The horses had only done according to their kind, and +would, if they fell into the hands of the French, drag with equal vigour +and equal docility the guns of the republic, and therefore ought not +merely to be spared, but to be well fed and curried. So was it with +Barere. He was of a nature so low, that it might be doubted whether he +could properly be an object of the hostility of reasonable beings. +He had not been an enemy; he was not now a friend. But he had been an +annoyance; and he would now be a help. + +But, though the heads of the Mountain pardoned this man, and admitted +him into partnership with themselves, it was not without exacting +pledges such as made it impossible for him, false and fickle as he was, +ever again to find admission into the ranks which he had deserted. That +was truly a terrible sacrament by which they admitted the apostate into +their communion. They demanded of him that he should himself take the +most prominent part in murdering his old friends. To refuse was as much +as his life was worth. But what is life worth when it is only one long +agony of remorse and shame? These, however, are feelings of which it +is idle to talk, when we are considering the conduct of such a man +as Barere. He undertook the task, mounted the tribune, and told the +Convention that the time was come for taking the stern attitude of +justice, and for striking at all conspirators without distinction. He +then moved that Buzot, Barbaroux, Petion, and thirteen other deputies, +should be placed out of the pale of the law, or, in other words, +beheaded without a trial; and that Vergniaud, Guadet, Gensonne, and six +others, should be impeached. The motion was carried without debate. + +We have already seen with what effrontery Barere has denied, in these +Memoirs, that he took any part against the Girondists. This denial, we +think, was the only thing wanting to make his infamy complete. The most +impudent of all lies was a fit companion for the foulest of all murders. + +Barere, however, had not yet earned his pardon. The Jacobin party +contained one gang which, even in that party, was pre-eminent in every +mean and every savage vice; a gang so low-minded and so inhuman +that, compared with them, Robespierre might be called magnanimous and +merciful. Of these wretches Hebert was perhaps the best representative. +His favourite amusement was to torment and insult the miserable remains +of that great family which, having ruled France during eight hundred +years, had now become an object of pity to the humblest artisan or +peasant. The influence of this man, and of men like him, induced the +Committee of Public Safety to determine that Marie Antoinette should be +sent to the scaffold. Barere was again summoned to his duty. Only four +days after he had proposed the decrees against the Girondist deputies +he again mounted the tribune, in order to move that the Queen should be +brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal. He was improving fast in the +society of his new allies. When he asked for the heads of Vergniaud and +Petion he had spoken like a man who had some slight sense of his own +guilt and degradation: he had said little; and that little had not been +violent. The office of expatiating on the guilt of his old friends he +had left to Saint Just. Very different was Barere's second appearance +in the character of an accuser. He now cried out for blood in the eager +tones of the true and burning thirst, and raved against the Austrian +woman with the virulence natural to a coward who finds himself at +liberty to outrage that which he has feared and envied. We have already +exposed the shameless mendacity with which, in these Memoirs, he +attempts to throw the blame of his own guilt on the guiltless. + +On the day on which the fallen Queen was dragged, already more than half +dead, to her doom, Barere regaled Robespierre and some other Jacobins +at a tavern. Robespierre's acceptance of the invitation caused some +surprise to those who knew how long and how bitterly it was his nature +to hate. "Robespierre of the party!" muttered Saint Just. "Barere is +the only man whom Robespierre has forgiven." We have an account of +this singular repast from one of the guests. Robespierre condemned the +senseless brutality with which Hebert had conducted the proceedings +against the Austrian woman, and, in talking on that subject, became +so much excited that he broke his plate in the violence of his +gesticulation. Barere exclaimed that the guillotine had cut a diplomatic +knot which it might have been difficult to untie. In the intervals +between the Beaune and the Champagne, between the ragout of thrushes +and the partridge with truffles, he fervently preached his new political +creed. "The vessel of the revolution," he said, "can float into port +only on waves of blood. We must begin with the members of the National +Assembly and of the Legislative Assembly. That rubbish must be swept +away." + +As he talked at table he talked in the Convention. His peculiar style +of oratory was now formed. It was not altogether without ingenuity and +liveliness. But in any other age or country it would have been thought +unfit for the deliberations of a grave assembly, and still more +unfit for state papers. It might, perhaps, succeed at a meeting of a +Protestant Association in Exeter Hall, at a Repeal dinner in Ireland, +after men had well drunk, or in an American oration on the fourth of +July. No legislative body would now endure it. But in France, during +the reign of the Convention, the old laws of composition were held in as +much contempt as the old government or the old creed. Correct and noble +diction belonged, like the etiquette of Versailles and the solemnities +of Notre Dame, to an age which had passed away. Just as a swarm of +ephemeral constitutions, democratic, directorial, and consular, +sprang from the decay of the ancient monarchy; just as a swarm of new +superstitions, the worship of the Goddess of Reason, and the fooleries +of the Theo-philanthropists, sprang from the decay of the ancient +Church; even so, out of the decay of the ancient French eloquence sprang +new fashions of eloquence, for the understanding of which new grammars +and dictionaries were necessary. The same innovating spirit which +altered the common phrases of salutation, which turned hundreds of Johns +and Peters into Scaevolas and Aristogitons, and which expelled Sunday +and Monday, January and February, Lady-day and Christmas, from the +calendar, in order to substitute Decadi and Primidi, Nivose and +Pluviose, Feasts of Opinion and Feasts of the Supreme Being, changed all +the forms of official correspondence. For the calm, guarded, and sternly +courteous language which governments had long been accustomed to employ, +were substituted puns, interjections, Ossianic rants, rhetoric worthy +only of a schoolboy, scurrility worthy only of a fishwife. Of the +phraseology which was now thought to be peculiarly well suited to a +report or a manifesto Barere had a greater command than any man of his +time, and, during the short and sharp paroxysm of the revolutionary +delirium, passed for a great orator. When the fit was over, he was +considered as what he really was, a man of quick apprehension and fluent +elocution, with no originality, with little information, and with +a taste as bad as his heart. His Reports were popularly called +Carmagnoles. A few months ago we should have had some difficulty in +conveying to an English reader an exact notion of the state papers to +which this appellation was given. Fortunately a noble and distinguished +person, whom her Majesty's Ministers have thought qualified to fill the +most important post in the empire, has made our task easy. Whoever has +read Lord Ellenborough's proclamations is able to form a complete idea +of a Carmagnole. + +The effect which Barere's discourses at one time produced is not to be +wholly attributed to the perversion of the national taste. The occasions +on which he rose were frequently such as would have secured to the +worst speaker a favourable hearing. When any military advantage had been +gained, he was generally deputed by the Committee of Public Safety to +announce the good news. The hall resounded with applause as he mounted +the tribune, holding the despatches in his hand. Deputies and strangers +listened with delight while he told them that victory was the order +of the day; that the guineas of Pitt had been vainly lavished to hire +machines six feet high, carrying guns; that the flight of the English +leopard deserved to be celebrated by Tyrtaeus; and that the saltpetre +dug out of the cellars of Paris had been turned into thunder, which +would crush the Titan brethren, George and Francis. + +Meanwhile the trial of the accused Girondists, who were under arrest in +Paris, came on. They flattered themselves with a vain hope of escape. +They placed some reliance on their innocence, and some reliance on their +eloquence. They thought that shame would suffice to restrain any +man, however violent and cruel, from publicly committing the flagrant +iniquity of condemning them to death. The Revolutionary Tribunal was new +to its functions. No member of the Convention had yet been executed; +and it was probable that the boldest Jacobin would shrink from being +the first to violate the sanctity which was supposed to belong to the +representatives of the people. + +The proceedings lasted some days. Gensonne and Brissot defended +themselves with great ability and presence of mind against the vile +Hebert and Chaumette, who appeared as accusers. The eloquent voice of +Vergniaud was heard for the last time. He pleaded his own cause and that +of his friends, with such force of reason and elevation of sentiment +that a murmur of pity and admiration rose from the audience. Nay, the +court itself, not yet accustomed to riot in daily carnage, showed signs +of emotion. The sitting was adjourned; and a rumour went forth that +there would be an acquittal. The Jacobins met, breathing vengeance. +Robespierre undertook to be their organ. He rose on the following day in +the Convention, and proposed a decree of such atrocity that even among +the acts of that year it can hardly be paralleled. By this decree the +tribunal was empowered to cut short the defence of the prisoners, to +pronounce the case clear, and to pass immediate judgment. One deputy +made a faint opposition. Barere instantly sprang up to support +Robespierre--Barere, the federalist; Barere, the author of that +Commission of Twelve which was among the chief causes of the hatred +borne by Paris to the Girondists; Barere, who in these Memoirs denies +that he ever took any part against the Girondists; Barere, who has the +effrontery to declare that he greatly loved and esteemed Vergniaud. The +decree was passed; and the tribunal, without suffering the prisoners to +conclude what they had to say, pronounced them guilty. + +The following day was the saddest in the sad history of the Revolution. +The sufferers were so innocent, so brave, so eloquent, so accomplished, +so young. Some of them were graceful and handsome youths of six or seven +and twenty. Vergniaud and Gensonne were little more than thirty. They +had been only a few months engaged in public affairs. In a few months +the fame of their genius had filled Europe; and they were to die for +no crime but this, that they had wished to combine order, justice, and +mercy with freedom. Their great fault was want of courage. We mean want +of political courage--of that courage which is proof to clamour and +obloquy, and which meets great emergencies by daring and decisive +measures. Alas! they had but too good an opportunity of proving that +they did not want courage to endure with manly cheerfulness the worst +that could be inflicted by such tyrants as Saint Just, and such slaves +as Barere. + +They were not the only victims of the noble cause. Madame Roland +followed them to the scaffold with a spirit as heroic as their own. Her +husband was in a safe hiding-place, but could not bear to survive her. +His body was found on the high road near Rouen. He had fallen on his +sword. Condorcet swallowed opium. At Bordeaux the steel fell on the +necks of the bold and quick-witted Guadet and of Barbaroux, the chief +of those enthusiasts from the Rhone whose valour, in the great crisis of +the tenth of August, had turned back the tide of battle from the Louvre +to the Tuileries. In a field near the Garonne was found all that the +wolves had left of Petion, once honoured, greatly indeed beyond his +deserts, as the model of republican virtue. We are far from regarding +even the best of the Girondists with unmixed admiration; but history +owes to them this honourable testimony, that, being free to choose +whether they would be oppressors or victims, they deliberately and +firmly resolved rather to suffer injustice than to inflict it. + +And now began that strange period known by the name of the Reign of +Terror. The Jacobins had prevailed. This was their hour, and the power +of darkness. The Convention was subjugated and reduced to profound +silence on the highest questions of state. The sovereignty passed to the +Committee of Public Safety. To the edicts framed by that Committee the +representative assembly did not venture to offer even the species of +opposition which the ancient parliament had frequently offered to the +mandates of the ancient kings. Six persons held the chief power in the +small cabinet which now domineered over France--Robespierre, Saint Just, +Couthon, Collot, Billaud, and Barere. + +To some of these men, and of those who adhered to them, it is due to say +that the fanaticism which had emancipated them from the restraints of +justice and compassion had emancipated them also from the dominion of +vulgar cupidity and of vulgar fear; that, while hardly knowing where to +find an assignat of a few francs to pay for a dinner, they expended with +strict integrity the immense revenue which they collected by every art +of rapine; and that they were ready, in support of their cause, to mount +the scaffold with as much indifference as they showed when they signed +the death-warrants of aristocrats and priests. But no great party can be +composed of such materials as these. It is the inevitable law that such +zealots as we have described shall collect around them a multitude +of slaves, of cowards, and of libertines, whose savage tempers and +licentious appetites, withheld only by the dread of law and magistracy +from the worst excesses, are called into full activity by the hope of +immunity. A faction which, from whatever motive, relaxes the great laws +of morality is certain to be joined by the most immoral part of the +community. This has been repeatedly proved in religious wars. The war +of the Holy Sepulchre, the Albigensian war, the Huguenot war, the +Thirty Years' war, all originated in pious zeal. That zeal inflamed +the champions of the Church to such a point that they regarded all +generosity to the vanquished as a sinful weakness. The infidel, the +heretic, was to be run down like a mad dog. No outrage committed by the +Catholic warrior on the miscreant enemy could deserve punishment. As +soon as it was known that boundless license was thus given to barbarity +and dissoluteness, thousands of wretches who cared nothing for the +sacred cause, but who were eager to be exempted from the police of +peaceful cities, and the discipline of well-governed camps, flocked +to the standard of the faith. The men who had set up that statute were +sincere, chaste, regardless of lucre, and perhaps, where only themselves +were concerned, not unforgiving; but round that standard were assembled +such gangs of rogues, ravishers, plunderers, and ferocious bravoes, as +were scarcely ever found under the flag of any state engaged in a mere +temporal quarrel. In a very similar way was the Jacobin party composed. +There was a small nucleus of enthusiasts; round that nucleus was +gathered a vast mass of ignoble depravity; and in all that mass there +was nothing so depraved and so ignoble as Barere. + +Then came those days when the most barbarous of all codes was +administered by the most barbarous of all tribunals; when no man could +greet his neighbours, or say his prayers, or dress his hair, without +danger of committing a capital crime; when spies lurked in every corner; +when the guillotine was long and hard at work every morning; when the +jails were filled as close as the hold of a slave-ship; when the +gutters ran foaming with blood into the Seine; when it was death to +be great-niece of a captain of the royal guards, or half-brother of a +doctor of the Sorbonne, to express a doubt whether assignats would not +fall, to hint that the English had been victorious in the action of the +first of June, to have a copy of one of Burke's pamphlets locked up in a +desk, to laugh at a Jacobin for taking the name of Cassius or Timoleon, +or to call the Fifth Sansculottide by its old superstitious name of St +Matthew's Day. While the daily waggon-loads of victims were carried +to their doom through the streets of Paris, the Proconsuls whom the +sovereign Committee had sent forth to the departments revelled in an +extravagance of cruelty unknown even in the capital. The knife of the +deadly machine rose and fell too slow for their work of slaughter. Long +rows of captives were mowed down with grapeshot. Holes were made in the +bottom of crowded barges. Lyons was turned into a desert. At Arras even +the cruel mercy of a speedy death was denied to the prisoners. All +down the Loire, from Saumur to the sea, great flocks of crows and kites +feasted on naked corpses, twined together in hideous embraces. No +mercy was shown to sex or age. The number of young lads and of girls +of seventeen who were murdered by that execrable government is to be +reckoned by hundreds. Babies torn from the breast were tossed from pike +to pike along the Jacobin ranks. One champion of liberty had his pockets +well stuffed with ears. Another swaggered about with the finger of a +little child in his hat. A few months had sufficed to degrade France +below the level of New Zealand. + +It is absurd to say that any amount of public danger can justify a +system like this, we do not say on Christian principles, we do not +say on the principles of a high morality, but even on principles +of Machiavellian policy. It is true that great emergencies call for +activity and vigilance; it is true that they justify severity which, in +ordinary times, would deserve the name of cruelty. But indiscriminate +severity can never, under any circumstances, be useful. It is plain +that the whole efficacy of punishment depends on the care with which the +guilty are distinguished. Punishment which strikes the guilty and the +innocent promiscuously, operates merely like a pestilence or a great +convulsion of nature, and has no more tendency to prevent offences +than the cholera, or an earthquake like that of Lisbon, would have. The +energy for which the Jacobin administration is praised was merely the +energy of the Malay who maddens himself with opium, draws his knife, and +runs amuck through the streets, slashing right and left at friends +and foes. Such has never been the energy of truly great rulers; of +Elizabeth, for example, of Oliver, or of Frederick. They were not, +indeed, scrupulous. But, had they been less scrupulous than they were, +the strength and amplitude of their minds would have preserved them +from crimes such as those which the small men of the Committee of Public +Safety took for daring strokes of policy. The great Queen who so long +held her own against foreign and domestic enemies, against temporal and +spiritual arms; the great Protector who governed with more than regal +power, in despite both of royalists and republicans; the great King +who, with a beaten army and an exhausted treasury, defended his little +dominions to the last against the united efforts of Russia, Austria, and +France; with what scorn would they have heard that it was impossible for +them to strike a salutary terror into the disaffected without sending +school-boys and school-girls to death by cart-loads and boat-loads! + +The popular notion is, we believe, that the leading Terrorists were +wicked men, but, at the same time, great men. We can see nothing great +about them but their wickedness. That their policy was daringly original +is a vulgar error. Their policy is as old as the oldest accounts which +we have of human misgovernment. It seemed new in France and in the +eighteenth century only because it had been long disused, for excellent +reasons, by the enlightened part of mankind. But it has always +prevailed, and still prevails, in savage and half-savage nations, and is +the chief cause which prevents such nations from making advances towards +civilisation. Thousands of deys, of beys, of pachas, of rajahs, of +nabobs, have shown themselves as great masters of statecraft as the +members of the Committee of Public Safety. Djezzar, we imagine, was +superior to any of them in their new line. In fact, there is not a petty +tyrant in Asia or Africa so dull or so unlearned as not to be fully +qualified for the business of Jacobin police and Jacobin finance. +To behead people by scores without caring whether they are guilty or +innocent; to wring money out of the rich by the help of jailers and +executioners; to rob the public creditor, and to put him to death if +he remonstrates; to take loaves by force out of the bakers' shops; to +clothe and mount soldiers by seizing on one man's wool and linen, and on +another man's horses and saddles, without compensation; is of all +modes of governing the simplest and most obvious. Of its morality we at +present say nothing. But surely it requires no capacity beyond that of +a barbarian or a child. By means like those which we have described, the +Committee of Public Safety undoubtedly succeeded, for a short time, in +enforcing profound submission, and in raising immense funds. But to en +force submission by butchery, and to raise funds by spoliation, is not +statesmanship. The real statesman is he who, in troubled times, keeps +down the turbulent without unnecessarily harrassing the well-affected; +and who, when great pecuniary resources are needed, provides for the +public exigencies without violating the security of property and drying +up the sources of future prosperity. Such a statesman, we are confident, +might, in 1793, have preserved the independence of France without +shedding a drop of innocent blood, without plundering a single +warehouse. Unhappily, the Republic was subject to men who were mere +demagogues and in no sense statesmen. They could declaim at a club. They +could lead a rabble to mischief. But they had no skill to conduct the +affairs of an empire. The want of skill they supplied for a time by +atrocity and blind violence. For legislative ability, fiscal ability, +military ability, diplomatic ability, they had one substitute, the +guillotine. Indeed their exceeding ignorance, and the barrenness of +their invention, are the best excuse for their murders and robberies. We +really believe that they would not have cut so many throats, and picked +so many pockets, if they had known how to govern in any other way. + +That under their administration the war against the European Coalition +was successfully conducted is true. But that war had been successfully +conducted before their elevation, and continued to be successfully +conducted after their fall. Terror was not the order of the day when +Brussels opened its gates to Dumourier. Terror had ceased to be the +order of the day when Piedmont and Lombardy were conquered by Bonaparte. +The truth is, that France was saved, not by the Committee of Public +Safety, but by the energy, patriotism, and valour of the French people. +Those high qualities were victorious in spite of the incapacity of +rulers whose administration was a tissue, not merely of crimes, but of +blunders. + +We have not time to tell how the leaders of the savage faction at length +began to avenge mankind on each other: how the craven Hebert was dragged +wailing and trembling to his doom; how the nobler Danton, moved by a +late repentance, strove in vain to repair the evil which he had wrought, +and half redeemed the great crime of September by man fully encountering +death in the cause of mercy. + +Our business is with Barere. In all those things he was not only +consenting, but eagerly and joyously forward. Not merely was he one +of the guilty administration. He was the man to whom was especially +assigned the office of proposing and defending outrages on justice and +humanity, and of furnishing to atrocious schemes an appropriate garb of +atrocious rodomontade. Barere first proclaimed from the tribune of the +Convention that terror must be the order of the day. It was by Barere +that the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris was provided with the aid of a +public accuser worthy of such a court, the infamous Fouquier Tinville. +It was Barere who, when one of the old members of the National Assembly +had been absolved by the Revolutionary Tribunal, gave orders that a +fresh jury should be summoned. "Acquit one of the National Assembly!" +he cried. "The Tribunal is turning against the Revolution." It is +unnecessary to say that the prisoner's head was soon in the basket. It +was Barere who moved that the city of Lyons should be destroyed. "Let +the plough," he cried from the tribune, "pass over her. Let her name +cease to exist. The rebels are conquered; but are they all exterminated? +No weakness. No mercy. Let every one be smitten. Two words will suffice +to tell the whole. Lyons made war on liberty; Lyons is no more." +When Toulon was taken Barere came forward to announce the event. "The +conquest," said the apostate Brissotine, "won by the Mountain over the +Brissotines must be commemorated by a mark set on the place where Toulon +once stood." The national thunder must crush the house of every trader +in the town. When Camille Desmoulins, long distinguished among the +republicans by zeal and ability, dared to raise his eloquent voice +against the Reign of Terror, and to point out the close analogy between +the government which then oppressed France and the government of the +worst of the Caesars, Barere rose to complain of the weak compassion +which tried to revive the hopes of the aristocracy. "Whoever," he said, +"is nobly born is a man to be suspected. Every priest, every frequenter +of the old court, every lawyer, every banker, is a man to be suspected. +Every person who grumbles at the course which the Revolution takes is a +man to be suspected. There are whole castes already tried and condemned. +There are callings which carry their doom with them. There are relations +of blood which the law regards with an evil eye. Republicans of +France!" yelled the renegade Girondist, the old enemy of the +Mountain--"Republicans of France! the Brissotines led you by gentle +means to slavery. The Mountain leads you by strong measures to freedom. +Oh! who can count the evils which a false compassion may produce?" +When the friends of Danton mustered courage to express a wish that the +Convention would at least hear him in his own defence before it sent him +to certain death, the voice of Barere was the loudest in opposition to +their prayer. When the crimes of Lebon, one of the worst, if not the +very worst, of the viceregents of the Committee of Public Safety, had so +maddened the people of the Department of the North that they resorted to +the desperate expedient of imploring the protection of the Convention, +Barere pleaded the cause of the accused tyrant, and threatened the +petitioners with the utmost vengeance of the government. "These +charges," he said, "have been suggested by wily aristocrats. The man who +crushes the enemies of the people, though he may be hurried by his +zeal into some excesses, can never be a proper object of censure. The +proceedings of Lebon may have been a little harsh as to form." One of +the small irregularities thus gently censured was this: Lebon kept a +wretched man a quarter of an hour under the knife of the guillotine, +in order to torment him, by reading to him, before he was despatched, +a letter, the contents of which were supposed to be such as would +aggravate even the bitterness of death. "But what," proceeded Barere, +"is not permitted to the hatred of a republican against aristocracy? How +many generous sentiments atone for what may perhaps seem acrimonious in +the prosecution of public enemies? Revolutionary measures are always +to be spoken of with respect. Liberty is a virgin whose veil it is not +lawful to lift." + +After this, it would be idle to dwell on facts which would indeed, +of themselves, suffice to render a name infamous, but which make no +perceptible addition to the great infamy of Barere. It would be idle, +for example, to relate how he, a man of letters, a member of an Academy +of Inscriptions, was foremost in that war against learning, art, and +history which disgraced the Jacobin government; how he recommended a +general conflagration of libraries; how he proclaimed that all records +of events anterior to the Revolution ought to be destroyed; how he laid +waste the Abbey of St Denis, pulled down monuments consecrated by the +veneration of ages, and scattered on the wind the dust of ancient kings. +He was, in truth, seldom so well employed as when he turned for a moment +from making war on the living to make war on the dead. + +Equally idle would it be to dilate on his sensual excesses. That in +Barere as in the whole breed of Neros, Caligulas, and Domitians whom he +resembled, voluptuousness was mingled with cruelty; that he withdrew, +twice in every decade, from the work of blood, to the smiling gardens of +Clichy, and there forgot public cares in the madness of wine and in the +arms of courtesans, has often been repeated. M. Hippolyte Carnot does +not altogether deny the truth of these stories, but justly observes that +Barere's dissipation was not carried to such a point as to interfere +with his industry. Nothing can be more true. Barere was by no means so +much addicted to debauchery as to neglect the work of murder. It was his +boast that, even during his hours of recreation, he cut out work for the +Revolutionary Tribunal. To those who expressed a fear that his exertions +would hurt his health, he gaily answered that he was less busy than they +thought. "The guillotine," he said, "does all; the guillotine governs." +For ourselves, we are much more disposed to look indulgently on +the pleasures which he allowed to himself than on the pain which he +inflicted on his neighbours. + + "Atque utinam his potius nugis tota illa dedisset + Tempora saevitiae, claras quibus abstulit urbi + Illustresque animas, impune ac vindice nullo." + +An immoderate appetite for sensual gratifications is undoubtedly a +blemish on the fame of Henry the Fourth, of Lord Somers, of Mr Fox. But +the vices of honest men are the virtues of Barere. + +And now Barere had become a really cruel man. It was from mere +pusillanimity that he had perpetrated his first great crimes. But the +whole history of our race proves that the taste for the misery of others +is a taste which minds not naturally ferocious may too easily acquire, +and which, when once acquired, is as strong as any of the propensities +with which we are born. A very few months had sufficed to bring this man +into a state of mind in which images of despair, wailing, and death had +an exhilarating effect on him, and inspired him as wine and love inspire +men of free and joyous natures. The cart creaking under its daily +freight of victims, ancient men and lads, and fair young girls, the +binding of the hands, the thrusting of the head out of the little +national sash-window, the crash of the axe, the pool of blood beneath +the scaffold, the heads rolling by scores in the panier--these things +were to him what Lalage and a cask of Falernian were to Horace, what +Rosette and a bottle of iced champagne are to De Beranger. As soon as +he began to speak of slaughter his heart seemed to be enlarged, and +his fancy to become unusually fertile of conceits and gasconades. +Robespierre, Saint Just, and Billaud, whose barbarity was the effect of +earnest and gloomy hatred, were, in his view, men who made a toil of a +pleasure. Cruelty was no such melancholy business, to be gone about +with an austere brow and a whining tone; it was a recreation, fitly +accompanied by singing and laughing. In truth, Robespierre and Barere +might be well compared to the two renowned hangmen of Louis the +Eleventh. They were alike insensible of pity, alike bent on havoc. But, +while they murdered, one of them frowned and canted, the other grinned +and joked. For our own part, we prefer Jean qui pleure to Jean qui rit. + +In the midst of the funeral gloom which overhung Paris, a gaiety +stranger and more ghastly than the horrors of the prison and the +scaffold distinguished the dwelling of Barere. Every morning a crowd of +suitors assembled to implore his protection. He came forth in his rich +dressing-gown, went round the antechamber, dispensed smiles and promises +among the obsequious crowd, addressed himself with peculiar animation to +every handsome woman who appeared in the circle, and complimented her in +the florid style of Gascony on the bloom of her cheeks and the lustre of +her eyes. When he had enjoyed the fear and anxiety of his suppliants he +dismissed them, and flung all their memorials unread into the fire. +This was the best way, he conceived, to prevent arrears of business from +accumulating. Here he was only an imitator. Cardinal Dubois had been in +the habit of clearing his table of papers in the same way. Nor was this +the only point in which we could point out a resemblance between the +worst statesman of the monarchy and the worst statesman of the republic. + +Of Barere's peculiar vein of pleasantry a notion may be formed from +an anecdote which one of his intimate associates, a juror of the +revolutionary tribunal, has related. A courtesan who bore a conspicuous +part in the orgies of Clichy implored Barere to use his power against +a head-dress which did not suit her style of face, and which a rival +beauty was trying to bring into fashion. One of the magistrates of the +capital was summoned and received the necessary orders. Aristocracy, +Barere said, was again rearing its front. These new wigs were +counter-revolutionary. He had reason to know that they were made out of +the long fair hair of handsome aristocrats who had died by the national +chopper. Every lady who adorned herself with the relics of criminals +might justly be suspected of incivism. This ridiculous lie imposed on +the authorities of Paris. Female citizens were solemnly warned +against the obnoxious ringlets, and were left to choose between their +head-dresses and their heads. Barere's delight at the success of this +facetious fiction was quite extravagant: he could not tell the story +without going into such convulsions of laughter as made his hearers hope +that he was about to choke. There was something peculiarly tickling and +exhilarating to his mind in this grotesque combination of the frivolous +with the horrible, of false locks and curling-irons with spouting +arteries and reeking hatchets. + +But, though Barere succeeded in earning the honourable nicknames of the +Witling of Terror, and the Anacreon of the Guillotine, there was one +place where it was long remembered to his disadvantage that he had, for +a time, talked the language of humanity and moderation. That place was +the Jacobin club. Even after he had borne the chief part in the massacre +of the Girondists, in the murder of the Queen, in the destruction of +Lyons, he durst not show himself within that sacred precinct. At one +meeting of the society, a member complained that the committee to which +the supreme direction of affairs was entrusted, after all the changes +which had been made, still contained one man who was not trustworthy. +Robespierre, whose influence over the Jacobins was boundless, undertook +the defence of his colleague, owned there was some ground for what +had been said, but spoke highly of Barere's industry and aptitude for +business. This seasonable interposition silenced the accuser; but it was +long before the neophyte could venture to appear at the club. + +At length a masterpiece of wickedness, unique, we think, even among +Barere's great achievements, obtained his full pardon even from that +rigid conclave. The insupportable tyranny of the Committee of Public +Safety had at length brought the minds of men, and even of women, into +a fierce and hard temper, which defied or welcomed death. The life which +might be any morning taken away, in consequence of the whisper of a +private enemy, seemed of little value. It was something to die after +smiting one of the oppressors; it was something to bequeath to +the surviving tyrants a terror not inferior to that which they had +themselves inspired. Human nature, hunted and worried to the utmost, +now turned furiously to bay. Fouquier Tinville was afraid to walk +the streets; a pistol was snapped at Collot D'Herbois; a young girl, +animated apparently by the spirit of Charlotte Corday, attempted +to obtain an interview with Robespierre. Suspicions arose; she was +searched; and two knives were found about her. She was questioned, and +spoke of the Jacobin domination with resolute scorn and aversion. It is +unnecessary to say that she was sent to the guillotine. Barere declared +from the tribune that the cause of these attempts was evident. Pitt and +his guineas had done the whole. The English Government had organised a +vast system of murder, had armed the hand of Charlotte Corday, and +had now, by similar means, attacked two of the most eminent friends of +liberty in France. It is needless to say that these imputations were, +not only false, but destitute of all show of truth. Nay, they were +demonstrably absurd: for the assassins to whom Barere referred rushed +on certain death, a sure proof that they were not hirelings. The whole +wealth of England would not have bribed any sane person to do what +Charlotte Corday did. But, when we consider her as an enthusiast, her +conduct is perfectly natural. Even those French writers who are childish +enough to believe that the English Government contrived the infernal +machine and strangled the Emperor Paul have fully acquitted Mr Pitt of +all share in the death of Marat and in the attempt on Robespierre. +Yet on calumnies so futile as those which we have mentioned did Barere +ground a motion at which all Christendom stood aghast. He proposed a +decree that no quarter should be given to any English or Hanoverian +soldier. (M. Hippolyte Carnot does his best to excuse this decree. His +abuse of England is merely laughable. England has managed to deal with +enemies of a very different sort from either himself or his hero. One +disgraceful blunder, however, we think it right to notice. M. Hippolyte +Carnot asserts that a motion similar to that of Barere was made in +the English Parliament by the late Lord Fitzwilliam. This assertion is +false. We defy M. Hippolyte Carnot to state the date and terms of +the motion of which he speaks. We do not accuse him of intentional +misrepresentation; but we confidently accuse him of extreme ignorance +and temerity. Our readers will be amused to learn on what authority he +has ventured to publish such a fable. He quotes, not the journals of +the Lords, not the Parliamentary Debates, but a ranting message of +the Executive Directory to the Five Hundred, a message, too, the whole +meaning of which he has utterly misunderstood.) His Carmagnole was +worthy of the proposition with which it concluded. "That one Englishman +should be spared, that for the slaves of George, for the human machines +of York, the vocabulary of our armies should contain such a word as +generosity, this is what the National Convention cannot endure. War +to the death against every English soldier. If last year, at Dunkirk, +quarter had been refused to them when they asked it on their knees, +if our troops had exterminated them all, instead of suffering them to +infest our fortresses by their presence, the English government would +not have renewed its attack on our frontiers this year. It is only the +dead man who never comes back. What is this moral pestilence which has +introduced into our armies false ideas of humanity? That the English +were to be treated with indulgence was the philanthropic notion of the +Brissotines; it was the patriotic practice of Dumourier. But humanity +consists in exterminating our enemies. No mercy to the execrable +Englishman. Such are the sentiments of the true Frenchman; for he +knows that he belongs to a nation revolutionary as nature, powerful +as freedom, ardent as the saltpetre which she has just torn from +the entrails of the earth. Soldiers of liberty, when victory places +Englishmen at your mercy, strike! None of them must return to the +servile soil of Great Britain; none must pollute the free soil of +France." + +The Convention, thoroughly tamed and silenced, acquiesced in Barere's +motion without debate. And now at last the doors of the Jacobin Club +were thrown open to the disciple who had surpassed his masters. He was +admitted a member by acclamation, and was soon selected to preside. + +For a time he was not without hope that his decree would be carried +into full effect. Intelligence arrived from the seat of war of a sharp +contest between some French and English troops, in which the Republicans +had the advantage, and in which no prisoners had been made. Such +things happen occasionally in all wars. Barere, however, attributed +the ferocity of this combat to his darling decree, and entertained the +Convention with another Carmagnole. + +"The Republicans," he said, "saw a division in red uniform at a +distance. The red-coats are attacked with the bayonet. Not one of +them escapes the blows of the Republicans. All the red-coats have been +killed. No mercy, no indulgence, has been shown towards the villains. +Not an Englishman whom the Republicans could reach is now living. How +many prisoners should you guess that we have made? One single prisoner +is the result of this great day." + +And now this bad man's craving for blood had become insatiable. The more +he quaffed, the more he thirsted. He had begun with the English; +but soon he came down with a proposition for new massacres. "All the +troops," he said, "of the coalesced tyrants in garrison at Conde, +Valenciennes, Le Quesnoy, and Landrecies, ought to be put to the sword +unless they surrender at discretion in twenty-four hours. The English, +of course, will be admitted to no capitulation whatever. With the +English we have no treaty but death. As to the rest, surrender at +discretion in twenty-four hours, or death, these are our conditions. +If the slaves resist, let them feel the edge of the sword." And then he +waxed facetious. "On these terms the Republic is willing to give them a +lesson in the art of war." At that jest, some hearers, worthy of such +a speaker, set up a laugh. Then he became serious again. "Let the enemy +perish," he cried, "I have already said it from this tribune. It is only +the dead man who never comes back. Kings will not conspire against us in +the grave. Armies will not fight against us when they are annihilated. +Let our war with them be a war of extermination. What pity is due to +slaves whom the Emperor leads to war under the cane; whom the King of +Prussia beats to the shambles with the flat of the sword; and whom the +Duke of York makes drunk with rum and gin?" And at the rum and gin the +Mountain and the galleries laughed again. + +If Barere had been able to effect his purpose, it is difficult to +estimate the extent of the calamity which he would have brought on the +human race. No government, however averse to cruelty, could, in justice +to its own subjects, have given quarter to enemies who gave none. +Retaliation would have been, not merely justifiable, but a sacred duty. +It would have been necessary for Howe and Nelson to make every French +sailor whom they took walk the plank. England has no peculiar reason to +dread the introduction of such a system. On the contrary, the operation +of Barere's new law of war would have been more unfavourable to his +countrymen than to ours; for we believe that, from the beginning to the +end of the war, there never was a time at which the number of French +prisoners in England was not greater than the number of English +prisoners in France; and so, we apprehend, it will be in all wars while +England retains her maritime superiority. Had the murderous decree of +the Convention been in force from 1794 to 1815, we are satisfied that, +for every Englishman slain by the French, at least three Frenchmen would +have been put to the sword by the English. It is, therefore, not as +Englishmen, but as members of the great society of mankind, that we +speak with indignation and horror of the change which Barere attempted +to introduce. The mere slaughter would have been the smallest part of +the evil. The butchering of a single unarmed man in cold blood, under an +act of the legislature, would have produced more evil than the carnage +of ten such fields as Albuera. Public law would have been subverted from +the foundations; national enmities would have been inflamed to a degree +of rage which happily it is not easy for us to conceive; cordial peace +would have been impossible. The moral character of the European nations +would have been rapidly and deeply corrupted; for in all countries those +men whose calling is to put their lives in jeopardy for the defence of +the public weal enjoy high consideration, and are considered as the best +arbitrators on points of honour and manly bearing. With the standard of +morality established in the military profession the general standard +of morality must to a great extent sink or rise. It is, therefore, a +fortunate circumstance that, during a long course of years, respect for +the weak and clemency towards the vanquished have been considered as +qualities not less essential to the accomplished soldier than personal +courage. How long would this continue to be the case, if the slaying of +prisoners were a part of the daily duty of the warrior? What man of kind +and generous nature would, under such a system, willingly bear arms? +Who, that was compelled to bear arms, would long continue kind and +generous? And is it not certain that, if barbarity towards the helpless +became the characteristic of military men, the taint must rapidly spread +to civil and to domestic life, and must show itself in all the dealings +of the strong with the weak, of husbands with wives, of employers with +work men, of creditors with debtors? + +But, thank God, Barere's decree was a mere dead letter. It was to +be executed by men very different from those who, in the interior of +France, were the instruments of the Committee of Public Safety, who +prated at Jacobin Clubs, and ran to Fouquier Tinville with charges of +incivism against women whom they could not seduce, and bankers from whom +they could not extort money. The warriors who, under Hoche, had guarded +the walls of Dunkirk, and who, under Kleber, had made good the defence +of the wood of Monceaux, shrank with horror from an office more +degrading than that of the hangman. "The Convention," said an officer to +his men, "has sent orders that all the English prisoners shall be shot." +"We will not shoot them" answered a stout-hearted sergeant. "Send them +to the Convention. If the deputies take pleasure in killing a prisoner, +they may kill him themselves, and eat him too, like savages as +they are." This was the sentiment of the whole army. Bonaparte, who +thoroughly understood war, who at Jaffa and elsewhere gave ample proof +that he was not unwilling to strain the laws of war to their utmost +rigour, and whose hatred of England amounted to a folly, always spoke of +Barere's decree with loathing, and boasted that the army had refused to +obey the Convention. + +Such disobedience on the part of any other class of citizens would have +been instantly punished by wholesale massacre; but the Committee +of Public Safety was aware that the discipline which had tamed the +unwarlike population of the fields and cities might not answer in camps. +To fling people by scores out of a boat, and, when they catch hold of +it, to chop off their fingers with a hatchet, is undoubtedly a very +agreeable pastime for a thoroughbred Jacobin, when the sufferers are, +as at Nantes, old confessors, young girls, or women with child. But +such sport might prove a little dangerous if tried upon grim ranks of +grenadiers, marked with the scars of Hondschoote, and singed by the +smoke of Fleurus. + +Barere, however, found some consolation. If he could not succeed in +murdering the English and the Hanoverians, he was amply indemnified by +a new and vast slaughter of his own countrymen and countrywomen. If the +defence which has been set up for the members of the Committee of Public +Safety had been well founded, if it had been true that they governed +with extreme severity only because the republic was in extreme peril, +it is clear that the severity would have diminished as the peril +diminished. But the fact is, that those cruelties for which the public +danger is made a plea became more and more enormous as the danger became +less and less, and reached the full height when there was no longer any +danger at all. In the autumn of 1793, there was undoubtedly reason to +apprehend that France might be unable to maintain the struggle against +the European coalition. The enemy was triumphant on the frontiers. More +than half the departments disowned the authority of the Convention. But +at that time eight or ten necks a day were thought an ample allowance +for the guillotine of the capital. In the summer of 1794, Bordeaux, +Toulon, Caen, Lyons, Marseilles, had submitted to the ascendency of +Paris. The French arms were victorious under the Pyrenees and on +the Sambre. Brussels had fallen. Prussia announced her intention of +withdrawing from the contest. The Republic, no longer content with +defending her own independence, was beginning to meditate conquest +beyond the Alps and the Rhine. She was now more formidable to her +neighbours than ever Louis the Fourteenth had been. And now the +Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris was not content with forty, fifty, +sixty heads in a morning. It was just after a series of victories, which +destroyed the whole force of the single argument which has been urged +in defence of the system of terror, that the Committee of Public Safety +resolved to infuse into that system an energy hitherto unknown. It was +proposed to reconstruct the Revolutionary Tribunal, and to collect in +the space of two pages the whole revolutionary jurisprudence. Lists of +twelve judges and fifty jurors were made out from among the fiercest +Jacobins. The substantive law was simply this, that whatever the +tribunal should think pernicious to the republic was a capital crime. +The law of evidence was simply this, that whatever satisfied the +jurors was sufficient proof. The law of procedure was of a piece with +everything else. There was to be an advocate against the prisoner, and +no advocate for him. It was expressly declared that, if the jurors were +in any manner convinced of the guilt of the prisoner, they might convict +him without hearing a single witness. The only punishment which the +court could inflict was death. + +Robespierre proposed this decree. When he had read it, a murmur rose +from the Convention. The fear which had long restrained the deputies +from opposing the Committee was overcome by a stronger fear. Every +man felt the knife at his throat. "The decree," said one, "is of grave +importance. I move that it be printed and the debate be adjourned. If +such a measure were adopted without time for consideration, I would blow +my brains out at once." The motion for adjournment was seconded. Then +Barere sprang up. "It is impossible," he said, "that there can be +any difference of opinion among us as to a law like this, a law so +favourable in all respects to patriots; a law which insures the speedy +punishment of conspirators. If there is to be an adjournment, I must +insist that it shall not be for more than three days." The opposition +was overawed; the decree was passed; and, during the six weeks which +followed, the havoc was such as has never been known before. + +And now the evil was beyond endurance. That timid majority which had +for a time supported the Girondists, and which had, after their +fall, contented itself with registering in silence the decrees of the +Committee of Public Safety, at length drew courage from despair. Leaders +of bold and firm character were not wanting, men such as Fouche and +Tallien, who, having been long conspicuous among the chiefs of the +Mountain, now found that their own lives, or lives still dearer to +them than their own, were in extreme peril. Nor could it be longer kept +secret that there was a schism in the despotic committee. On one side +were Robespierre, Saint Just, and Couthon; on the other, Collot and +Billaud. Barere leaned towards these last, but only leaned towards +them. As was ever his fashion when a great crisis was at hand, he +fawned alternately on both parties, struck alternately at both, and held +himself in readiness to chant the praises or to sign the death-warrant +of either. In any event his Carmagnole was ready. The tree of liberty, +the blood of traitors, the dagger of Brutus, the guineas of perfidious +Albion, would do equally well for Billaud and for Robespierre. + +The first attack which was made on Robespierre was indirect. An old +woman named Catherine Theot, half maniac, half impostor, was protected +by him, and exercised a strange influence over his mind; for he was +naturally prone to superstition, and, having abjured the faith in which +he had been brought up, was looking about for something to believe. +Barere drew up a report against Catherine, which contained many +facetious conceits, and ended, as might be expected, with a motion +for sending her and some other wretched creatures of both sexes to +the Revolutionary Tribunal, or, in other words, to death. This report, +however, he did not dare to read to the Convention himself. Another +member, less timid, was induced to farther the cruel buffoonery; and the +real author enjoyed in security the dismay and vexation of Robespierre. + +Barere now thought that he had done enough on one side, and that it was +time to make his peace with the other. On the seventh of Thermidor, +he pronounced in the Convention a panegyric on Robespierre. "That +representative of the people," he said, "enjoys a reputation for +patriotism, earned by five years of exertion, and by unalterable +fidelity to the principles of independence and liberty." On the eighth +of Thermidor, it became clear that a decisive struggle was at hand. +Robespierre struck the first blow. He mounted the tribune, and uttered a +long invective on his opponents. It was moved that his discourse +should be printed; and Barere spoke for the printing. The sense of the +Convention soon appeared to be the other way; and Barere apologised for +his former speech, and implored his colleagues to abstain from disputes +which could be agreeable only to Pitt and York. On the next day, the +ever-memorable ninth of Thermidor, came the real tug of war. Tallien, +bravely taking his life in his hand, led the onset. Billaud followed; +and then all that infinite hatred which had long been kept down by +terror burst forth, and swept every barrier before it. When at length +the voice of Robespierre, drowned by the President's bell, and by shouts +of "Down with the tyrant!" had died away in hoarse gasping, Barere rose. +He began with timid and doubtful phrases, watched the effect of +every word he uttered, and, when the feeling of the Assembly had been +unequivocally manifested, declared against Robespierre. But it was not +till the people out of doors, and especially the gunners of Paris, had +espoused the cause of the Convention, that Barere felt quite at +ease. Then he sprang to the tribune, poured forth a Carmagnole about +Pisistratus and Catiline, and concluded by moving that the heads of +Robespierre and Robespierre's accomplices should be cut off without a +trial. The motion was carried. On the following morning the vanquished +members of the Committee of Public Safety and their principal adherents +suffered death. It was exactly one year since Barere had commenced his +career of slaughter by moving the proscription of his old allies the +Girondists. We greatly doubt whether any human being has ever succeeded +in packing more wickedness into the space of three hundred and +sixty-five days. + +The ninth of Thermidor is one of the great epochs in the history of +Europe. It is true that the three members of the Committee of Public +Safety who triumphed were by no means better men than the three who +fell. Indeed, we are inclined to think that of these six statesmen the +least bad were Robespierre and Saint Just, whose cruelty was the effect +of sincere fanaticism operating on narrow understandings and acrimonious +tempers. The worst of the six was, beyond all doubt, Barere, who had +no faith in any part of the system which he upheld by persecution; who, +while he sent his fellow-creatures to death for being the third cousins +of royalists, had not in the least made up his mind that a republic +was better than a monarchy; who, while he slew his old friends for +federalism, was himself far more a federalist than any of them; who +had become a murderer merely for his safety, and who continued to be a +murderer merely for his pleasure. + +The tendency of the vulgar is to embody everything. Some individual is +selected, and often selected very injudicially, as the representative +of every great movement of the public mind, of every great revolution in +human affairs; and on this individual are concentrated all the love and +all the hatred, all the admiration and all the contempt, which he ought +rightfully to share with a whole party, a whole sect, a whole nation, a +whole generation. Perhaps no human being has suffered so much from this +propensity of the multitude as Robespierre. He is regarded, not merely +as what he was, an envious, malevolent zealot, but as the incarnation of +Terror, as Jacobinism personified. The truth is, that it was not by +him that the system of terror was carried to the last extreme. The most +horrible days in the history of the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris were +those which immediately preceded the ninth of Thermidor. Robespierre had +then ceased to attend the meetings of the sovereign Committee; and the +direction of affairs was really in the hands of Billaud, of Collot, and +of Barere. + +It had never occurred to those three tyrants that, in overthrowing +Robespierre, they were overthrowing that system of terror to which they +were more attached than he had ever been. Their object was to go on +slaying even more mercilessly than before. But they had misunderstood +the nature of the great crisis which had at last arrived. The yoke +of the Committee was broken for ever. The Convention had regained +its liberty, had tried its strength, had vanquished and punished +its enemies. A great reaction had commenced. Twenty-four hours after +Robespierre had ceased to live, it was moved and carried, amidst loud +bursts of applause, that the sittings of the Revolutionary Tribunal +should be suspended. Billaud was not at that moment present. He entered +the hall soon after, learned with indignation what had passed, and moved +that the vote should be rescinded. But loud cries of "No, no!" rose +from those benches which had lately paid mute obedience to his commands. +Barere came forward on the same day, and abjured the Convention not to +relax the system of terror. "Beware, above all things," he cried, +"of that fatal moderation which talks of peace and of clemency. Let +aristocracy know that here she will find only enemies sternly bent on +vengeance, and judges who have no pity." But the day of the Carmagnoles +was over: the restraint of fear had been relaxed; and the hatred +with which the nation regarded the Jacobin dominion broke forth with +ungovernable violence. Not more strongly did the tide of public opinion +run against the old monarchy and aristocracy, at the time of the taking +of the Bastile, than it now ran against the tyranny of the Mountain. +From every dungeon the prisoners came forth as they had gone in, by +hundreds. The decree which forbade the soldiers of the republic to give +quarter to the English was repealed by an unanimous vote, amidst loud +acclamations; nor, passed as it was, disobeyed as it was, and rescinded +as it was, can it be with justice considered as a blemish on the fame +of the French nation. The Jacobin Club was refractory. It was suppressed +without resistance. The surviving Girondist deputies, who had concealed +themselves from the vengeance of their enemies in caverns and garrets, +were readmitted to their seats in the Convention. No day passed without +some signal reparation of injustice; no street in Paris was without some +trace of the recent change. In the theatre, the bust of Marat was pulled +down from its pedestal and broken in pieces, amidst the applause of +the audience. His carcass was ejected from the Pantheon. The celebrated +picture of his death, which had hung in the hall of the Convention, was +removed. The savage inscriptions with which the walls of the city had +been covered disappeared; and, in place of death and terror, humanity, +the watchword of the new rulers, was everywhere to be seen. In the +meantime, the gay spirit of France, recently subdued by oppression, and +now elated by the joy of a great deliverance, wantoned in a thousand +forms. Art, taste, luxury, revived. Female beauty regained its +empire--an empire strengthened by the remembrance of all the tender +and all the sublime virtues which women, delicately bred and reputed +frivolous, had displayed during the evil days. Refined manners, +chivalrous sentiments, followed in the train of love. The dawn of the +Arctic summer day after the Arctic winter night, the great unsealing +of the waters, the awakening of animal and vegetable life, the sudden +softening of the air, the sudden blooming of the flowers, the sudden +bursting of old forests into verdure, is but a feeble type of that +happiest and most genial of revolutions, the revolution of the ninth of +Thermidor. + +But, in the midst of the revival of all kind and generous sentiments, +there was one portion of the community against which mercy itself seemed +to cry out for vengeance. The chiefs of the late government and their +tools were now never named but as the men of blood, the drinkers of +blood, the cannibals. In some parts of France, where the creatures of +the Mountain had acted with peculiar barbarity, the populace took the +law into its own hands and meted out justice to the Jacobins with the +true Jacobin measure, but at Paris the punishments were inflicted with +order and decency, and were few when compared with the number, and +lenient when compared with the enormity, of the crimes. Soon after the +ninth of Thermidor, two of the vilest of mankind, Fouquier Tinville, +whom Barere had placed at the Revolutionary Tribunal, and Lebon, whom +Barere had defended in the Convention, were placed under arrest. A third +miscreant soon shared their fate, Carrier, the tyrant of Nantes. The +trials of these men brought to light horrors surpassing anything that +Suetonius and Lampridius have related of the worst Caesars. But it was +impossible to punish subordinate agents, who, bad as they were, had only +acted in accordance with the spirit of the government which they served, +and, at the same time, to grant impunity to the heads of the wicked +administration. A cry was raised, both within and without the Convention +for justice on Collot, Billaud, and Barere. + +Collot and Billaud, with all their vices, appear to have been men of +resolute natures. They made no submission; but opposed to the hatred +of mankind, at first a fierce resistance, and afterwards a dogged and +sullen endurance. Barere, on the other hand, as soon as he began to +understand the real nature of the revolution of Thermidor, attempted to +abandon the Mountain, and to obtain admission among his old friends of +the moderate party. He declared everywhere that he had never been in +favour of severe measures; that he was a Girondist; that he had always +condemned and lamented the manner in which the Brissotine deputies had +been treated. He now preached mercy from that tribune from which he had +recently preached extermination. "The time," he said, "has come at which +our clemency may be indulged without danger. We may now safely +consider temporary imprisonment as an adequate punishment for political +misdemeanours." It was only a fortnight since, from the same place, +he had declaimed against the moderation which dared even to talk of +clemency; it was only a fortnight since he had ceased to send men and +women to the guillotine of Paris, at the rate of three hundred a week. +He now wished to make his peace with the moderate party at the expense +of the Terrorists, as he had, a year before, made his peace with +the Terrorists at the expense of the moderate party. But he was +disappointed. He had left himself no retreat. His face, his voice, his +rants, his jokes, had become hateful to the Convention. When he spoke +he was interrupted by murmurs. Bitter reflections were daily cast on his +cowardice and perfidy. On one occasion Carnot rose to give an account +of a victory, and so far forgot the gravity of his own character as +to indulge in the sort of oratory which Barere had affected on similar +occasions. He was interrupted by cries of "No more Carmagnoles!" "No +more of Barere's puns!" + +At length, five months after the revolution of Thermidor, the Convention +resolved that a committee of twenty-one members should be appointed to +examine into the conduct of Billaud, Collot, and Barere. In some weeks +the report was made. From that report we learn that a paper had been +discovered, signed by Barere, and containing a proposition for adding +the last improvement to the system of terror. France was to be divided +into circuits; itinerant revolutionary tribunals, composed of trusty +Jacobins, were to move from department to department; and the guillotine +was to travel in their train. + +Barere, in his defence, insisted that no speech or motion which he had +made in the Convention could, without a violation of the freedom of +debate, be treated as a crime. He was asked how he could resort to such +a mode of defence, after putting to death so many deputies on account of +opinions expressed in the Convention. He had nothing to say, but that +it was much to be regretted that the sound principle had ever been +violated. + +He arrogated to himself a large share of the merit of the revolution in +Thermidor. The men who had risked their lives to effect that revolution, +and who knew that, if they had failed, Barere would, in all probability, +have moved the decree for beheading them without a trial, and have drawn +up a proclamation announcing their guilt and their punishment to all +France, were by no means disposed to acquiesce in his claims. He was +reminded that, only forty-eight hours before the decisive conflict, +he had, in the tribune, been profuse of adulation to Robespierre. His +answer to this reproach is worthy of himself. "It was necessary," he +said, "to dissemble. It was necessary to flatter Robespierre's vanity, +and, by panegyric, to impel him to the attack. This was the motive which +induced me to load him with those praises of which you complain. Who +ever blamed Brutus for dissembling with Tarquin?" + +The accused triumvirs had only one chance of escaping punishment. There +was severe distress at that moment among the working people of the +capital. This distress the Jacobins attributed to the reaction of +Thermidor, to the lenity with which the aristocrats were now treated, +and to the measures which had been adopted against the chiefs of the +late administration. Nothing is too absurd to be believed by a populace +which has not breakfasted, and which does not know how it is to dine. +The rabble of the Faubourg St Antoine rose, menaced the deputies, and +demanded with loud cries the liberation of the persecuted patriots. But +the Convention was no longer such as it had been, when similar means +were employed too successfully against the Girondists. Its spirit +was roused. Its strength had been proved. Military means were at its +command. The tumult was suppressed: and it was decreed that same evening +that Collot, Billaud, and Barere should instantly be removed to a +distant place of confinement. + +The next day the order of the Convention was executed. The account which +Barere has given of his journey is the most interesting and the most +trustworthy part of these Memoirs. There is no witness so infamous that +a court of justice will not take his word against himself; and even +Barere may be believed when he tells us how much he was hated and +despised. + +The carriage in which he was to travel passed, surrounded by armed +men, along the street of St Honore. A crowd soon gathered round it and +increased every moment. On the long flight of steps before the church of +St Roch stood rows of eager spectators. It was with difficulty that +the coach could make its way through those who hung upon it, hooting, +cursing, and striving to burst the doors. Barere thought his life in +danger, and was conducted at his own request to a public office, where +he hoped that he might find shelter till the crowd should disperse. +In the meantime, another discussion on his fate took place in the +Convention. It was proposed to deal with him as he had dealt with better +men, to put him out of the pale of the law, and to deliver him at once +without any trial to the headsman. But the humanity which, since +the ninth of Thermidor, had generally directed the public councils +restrained the deputies from taking this course. + +It was now night; and the streets gradually became quiet. The clock +struck twelve; and Barere, under a strong guard, again set forth on his +journey. He was conducted over the river to the place where the Orleans +road branches off from the southern boulevard. Two travelling carriages +stood there. In one of them was Billaud, attended by two officers; in +the other two more officers were waiting to receive Barere. Collot was +already on the road. + +At Orleans, a city which had suffered cruelly from the Jacobin tyranny, +the three deputies were surrounded by a mob bent on tearing them to +pieces. All the national guards of the neighbourhood were assembled; +and this force was not greater than the emergency required; for the +multitude pursued the carriages far on the road to Blois. + +At Amboise the prisoners learned that Tours was ready to receive them. +The stately bridge was occupied by a throng of people, who swore that +the men under whose rule the Loire had been choked with corpses should +have full personal experience of the nature of a noyade. In consequence +of this news, the officers who had charge of the criminals made such +arrangements that the carriages reached Tours at two in the morning, and +drove straight to the post-house. Fresh horses were instantly ordered; +and the travellers started again at full gallop. They had, in truth, +not a moment to lose; for the alarm had been given; lights were seen in +motion; and the yells of a great multitude, disappointed of its revenge, +mingled with the sound of the departing wheels. + +At Poitiers there was another narrow escape. As the prisoners quitted +the post-house, they saw the whole population pouring in fury down the +steep declivity on which the city is built. They passed near Niort, +but could not venture to enter it. The inhabitants came forth with +threatening aspect, and vehemently cried to the postillions to stop; but +the postillions urged the horses to full speed, and soon left the town +behind. Through such dangers the men of blood were brought in safety to +Rochelle. + +Oleron was the place of their destination, a dreary island beaten by the +raging waves of the Bay of Biscay. The prisoners were confined in the +castle; each had a single chamber, at the door of which a guard was +placed; and each was allowed the ration of a single soldier. They +were not allowed to communicate either with the garrison or with the +population of the island; and soon after their arrival they were denied +the indulgence of walking on the ramparts. The only place where they +were suffered to take exercise was the esplanade where the troops were +drilled. + +They had not been long in this situation when news came that the +Jacobins of Paris had made a last attempt to regain ascendency in the +state, that the hall of the Convention had been forced by a furious +crowd, that one of the deputies had been murdered and his head fixed on +a pike, that the life of the President had been for a time in imminent +danger, and that some members of the legislature had not been ashamed to +join the rioters. But troops had arrived in time to prevent a +massacre. The insurgents had been put to flight; the inhabitants of +the disaffected quarters of the capital had been disarmed; the guilty +deputies had suffered the just punishment of their treason; and the +power of the Mountain was broken for ever. These events strengthened the +aversion with which the system of terror and the authors of that system +were regarded. One member of the Convention had moved that the three +prisoners of Oleron should be put to death; another, that they should be +brought back to Paris, and tried by a council of war. These propositions +were rejected. But something was conceded to the party which called for +severity. A vessel which had been fitted out with great expedition at +Rochefort touched at Oleron; and it was announced to Collot and Billaud +that they must instantly go on board. They were forthwith conveyed to +Guiana, where Collot soon drank himself to death with brandy. Billaud +lived many years, shunning his fellow-creatures and shunned by them; and +diverted his lonely hours by teaching parrots to talk. Why a distinction +was made between Barere and his companions in guilt, neither he nor any +other writer, as far as we know, has explained. It does not appear that +the distinction was meant to be at all in his favour; for orders soon +arrived from Paris, that he should be brought to trial for his crimes +before the criminal court of the department of the Upper Charente. He +was accordingly brought back to the continent, and confined during some +months at Saintes, in an old convent which had lately been turned into a +jail. + +While he lingered here, the reaction which had followed the great crisis +of Thermidor met with a temporary check. The friends of the House of +Bourbon, presuming on the indulgence with which they had been treated +after the fall of Robespierre, not only ventured to avow their opinions +with little disguise, but at length took arms against the Convention, +and were not put down till much blood had been shed in the streets +of Paris. The vigilance of the public authorities was therefore now +directed chiefly against the Royalists; and the rigour with which the +Jacobins had lately been treated was somewhat relaxed. The Convention, +indeed, again resolved that Barere should be sent to Guiana. But this +decree was not carried into effect. The prisoner, probably with the +connivance of some powerful persons, made his escape from Saintes and +fled to Bordeaux, where he remained in concealment during some years. +There seems to have been a kind of understanding between him and the +government, that, as long as he hid himself, he should not be found, +but that, if he obtruded himself on the public eye, he must take the +consequences of his rashness. + +While the constitution of 1795, with its Executive Directory, its +Council of Elders, and its Council of Five Hundred, was in operation, +he continued to live under the ban of the law. It was in vain that he +solicited, even at moments when the politics of the Mountain seemed to +be again in the ascendant, a remission of the sentence pronounced by the +Convention. Even his fellow-regicides, even the authors of the slaughter +of Vendemiaire and of the arrests of Fructidor, were ashamed of him. + +About eighteen months after his escape from prison, his name was again +brought before the world. In his own province he still retained some of +his early popularity. He had, indeed, never been in that province since +the downfall of the monarchy. The mountaineers of Gascony were far +removed from the seat of government, and were but imperfectly informed +of what passed there. They knew that their countryman had played an +important part, and that he had on some occasions promoted their local +interests; and they stood by him in his adversity and in his disgrace +with a constancy which presents a singular contrast to his own abject +fickleness. All France was amazed to learn that the department of the +Upper Pyrenees had chosen the proscribed tyrant a member of the Council +of Five Hundred. The council which, like our House of Commons, was the +judge of the election of its own members, refused to admit him. When his +name was read from the roll, a cry of indignation rose from the benches. +"Which of you," exclaimed one of the members, "would sit by the side of +such a monster?" "Not I, not I!" answered a crowd of voices. One deputy +declared that he would vacate his seat if the hall were polluted by the +presence of such a wretch. The election was declared null on the ground +that the person elected was a criminal skulking from justice; and many +severe reflections were thrown on the lenity which suffered him to be +still at large. + +He tried to make his peace with the Directory, by writing a bulky +libel on England, entitled, the Liberty of the Seas. He seems to have +confidently expected that this work would produce a great effect. He +printed three thousand copies, and in order to defray the expense of +publication, sold one of his farms for the sum of ten thousand francs. +The book came out; but nobody bought it, in consequence, if Barere is +to be believed, of the villainy of Mr Pitt, who bribed the Directory +to order the Reviewers not to notice so formidable an attack on the +maritime greatness of perfidious Albion. + +Barere had been about three years at Bordeaux when he received +intelligence that the mob of the town designed him the honour of a visit +on the ninth of Thermidor, and would probably administer to him what +he had, in his defence of his friend Lebon, described as substantial +justice under forms a little harsh. It was necessary for him to disguise +himself in clothes such as were worn by the carpenters of the dock. In +this garb, with a bundle of wood shavings under his arm, he made his +escape into the vineyards which surrounded the city, lurked during some +days in a peasant's hut, and, when the dreaded anniversary was over, +stole back into the city. A few months later he was again in danger. He +now thought that he should be nowhere so safe as in the neighbourhood +of Paris. He quitted Bordeaux, hastened undetected through those towns +where four years before his life had been in extreme danger, passed +through the capital in the morning twilight, when none were in the +streets except shop-boys taking down the shutters, and arrived safe +at the pleasant village of St Ouen on the Seine. Here he remained in +seclusion during some months. In the meantime Bonaparte returned from +Egypt, placed himself at the head of a coalition of discontented parties, +covered his designs with the authority of the Elders, drove the Five +Hundred out of their hall at the point of the bayonet, and became +absolute monarch of France under the name of First Consul. + +Barere assures us that these events almost broke his heart; that he +could not bear to see France again subject to a master; and that if the +representatives had been worthy of that honourable name, they would +have arrested the ambitious general who insulted them. These feelings, +however, did not prevent him from soliciting the protection of the new +government, and from sending to the First Consul a handsome copy of the +essay on the Liberty of the Seas. + +The policy of Bonaparte was to cover all the past with a general +oblivion. He belonged half to the Revolution and half to the reaction. +He was an upstart and a sovereign; and had therefore something in +common with the Jacobin, and something in common with the Royalist. +All, whether Jacobins or Royalists, who were disposed to support his +government, were readily received--all, whether Jacobins or Royalists, +who showed hostility to his government, were put down and punished. Men +who had borne a part in the worst crimes of the Reign of Terror, and men +who had fought in the army of Conde, were to be found close together, +both in his antechambers and in his dungeons. He decorated Fouche and +Maury with the same cross. He sent Arena and Georges Cadoudal to the +same scaffold. From a government acting on such principles Barere easily +obtained the indulgence which the Directory had constantly refused to +grant. The sentence passed by the Convention was remitted; and he was +allowed to reside at Paris. His pardon, it is true, was not granted in +the most honourable form; and he remained, during some time, under the +special supervision of the police. He hastened, however, to pay his +court at the Luxembourg palace, where Bonaparte then resided, and was +honoured with a few dry and careless words by the master of France. + +Here begins a new chapter of Barere's history. What passed between him +and the Consular government cannot, of course, be so accurately known to +us as the speeches and reports which he made in the Convention. It is, +however, not difficult, from notorious facts, and from the admissions +scattered over these lying Memoirs, to form a tolerably accurate notion +of what took place. Bonaparte wanted to buy Barere: Barere wanted to +sell himself to Bonaparte. The only question was one of price; and there +was an immense interval between what was offered and what was demanded. + +Bonaparte, whose vehemence of will, fixedness of purpose, and reliance +on his own genius were not only great but extravagant, looked with +scorn on the most effeminate and dependent of human minds. He was quite +capable of perpetrating crimes under the influence either of ambition or +of revenge: but he had no touch of that accursed monomania, that craving +for blood and tears, which raged in some of the Jacobin chiefs. To +proscribe the Terrorists would have been wholly inconsistent with his +policy; but, of all the classes of men whom his comprehensive system +included, he liked them the least; and Barere was the worst of them. +This wretch had been branded with infamy, first by the Convention, and +then by the Council of Five Hundred. The inhabitants of four or five +great cities had attempted to tear him limb from limb. Nor were his +vices redeemed by eminent talents for administration or legislation. It +would be unwise to place in any honourable or important post a man so +wicked, so odious, and so little qualified to discharge high political +duties. At the same time there was a way in which it seemed likely that +he might be of use to the government. The First Consul, as he afterwards +acknowledged, greatly overrated Barere's powers as a writer. The effect +which the Reports of the Committee of Public Safety had produced by the +camp fires of the Republican armies had been great. Napoleon himself, +when a young soldier, had been delighted by those compositions, +which had much in common with the rhapsodies of his favourite poet, +Macpherson. The taste, indeed, of the great warrior and statesman +was never very pure. His bulletins, his general orders, and his +proclamations, are sometimes, it is true, masterpieces in their kind; +but we too often detect, even in his best writing, traces of Fingal, and +of the Carmagnoles. It is not strange, therefore, that he should have +been desirous to secure the aid of Barere's pen. Nor was this the only +kind of assistance which the old member of the Committee of Public +Safety might render to the Consular government. He was likely to find +admission into the gloomy dens in which those Jacobins whose constancy +was to be overcome by no reverse, or whose crimes admitted of no +expiation, hid themselves from the curses of mankind. No enterprise was +too bold or too atrocious for minds crazed by fanatacism, and familiar +with misery and death. The government was anxious to have information of +what passed in their secret councils; and no man was better qualified to +furnish such information than Barere. + +For these reasons the First Consul was disposed to employ Barere as a +writer and as a spy. But Barere--was it possible that he would submit +to such a degradation? Bad as he was, he had played a great part. He had +belonged to that class of criminals who filled the world with the renown +of their crimes; he had been one of a cabinet which had ruled France +with absolute power, and made war on all Europe with signal success. +Nay, he had been, though not the most powerful, yet, with the single +exception of Robespierre, the most conspicuous member of that cabinet. +His name had been a household word at Moscow and at Philadelphia, at +Edinburgh and at Cadiz. The blood of the Queen of France, the blood of +the greatest orators and philosophers of France, was on his hands. He +had spoken; and it had been decreed that the plough should pass over the +great city of Lyons. He had spoken again; and it had been decreed that +the streets of Toulon should be razed to the ground. When depravity is +placed so high as his, the hatred which it inspires is mingled with awe. +His place was with great tyrants, with Critias and Sylla, with Eccelino +and Borgia; not with hireling scribblers and police runners. + + "Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast; + But shall the dignity of vice be lost?" + +So sang Pope; and so felt Barere. When it was proposed to him to publish +a journal in defence of the Consular government, rage and shame inspired +him for the first and last time with something like courage. He had +filled as large a space in the eyes of mankind as Mr Pitt or General +Washington; and he was coolly invited to descend at once to the level +of Mr Lewis Goldsmith. He saw, too, with agonies of envy, that a wide +distinction was made between himself and the other statesmen of the +Revolution who were summoned to the aid of the government. Those +statesmen were required, indeed, to make large sacrifices of principle; +but they were not called on to sacrifice what, in the opinion of the +vulgar, constitutes personal dignity. They were made tribunes and +legislators, ambassadors and counsellors of state, ministers, senators, +and consuls. They might reasonably expect to rise with the rising +fortunes of their master; and, in truth, many of them were destined +to wear the badge of his Legion of Honour and of his order of the Iron +Crown; to be arch-chancellors and arch-treasurers, counts, dukes, and +princes. Barere, only six years before, had been far more powerful, far +more widely renowned, than any of them; and now, while they were thought +worthy to represent the majesty of France at foreign courts, while they +received crowds of suitors in gilded antechambers, he was to pass his +life in measuring paragraphs, and scolding correctors of the press. It +was too much. Those lips which had never before been able to fashion +themselves to a No, now murmured expostulation and refusal. "I could +not"--these are his own words--"abase myself to such a point as to serve +the First Consul merely in the capacity of a journalist, while so many +insignificant, low, and servile people, such as the Treilhards, the +Roederers, the Lebruns, the Marets, and others whom it is superfluous to +name, held the first place in this government of upstarts." + +This outbreak of spirit was of short duration. Napoleon was inexorable. +It is said indeed that he was, for a moment, half inclined to admit +Barere into the Council of State; but the members of that body +remonstrated in the strongest terms, and declared that such a nomination +would be a disgrace to them all. This plan was therefore relinquished. +Thenceforth Barere's only chance of obtaining the patronage of the +government was to subdue his pride, to forget that there had been a +time when, with three words, he might have had the heads of the three +consuls, and to betake himself, humbly and industriously, to the task of +composing lampoons on England and panegyrics on Bonaparte. + +It has been often asserted, we know not on what grounds, that Barere was +employed by the government not only as a writer, but as a censor of +the writings of other men. This imputation he vehemently denies in his +Memoirs; but our readers will probably agree with us in thinking that +his denial leaves the question exactly where it was. + +Thus much is certain, that he was not restrained from exercising the +office of censor by any scruple of conscience or honour; for he did +accept an office, compared with which that of censor, odious as it is, +may be called an august and beneficent magistracy. He began to have what +are delicately called relations with the police. We are not sure that +we have formed, or that we can convey, an exact notion of the nature +of Barere's new calling. It is a calling unknown in our country. It has +indeed often happened in England that a plot has been revealed to the +government by one of the conspirators. The informer has sometimes been +directed to carry it fair towards his accomplices, and to let the +evil design come to full maturity. As soon as his work is done, he +is generally snatched from the public gaze, and sent to some obscure +village or to some remote colony. The use of spies, even to this extent, +is in the highest degree unpopular in England; but a political spy by +profession is a creature from which our island is as free as it is from +wolves. In France the race is well-known, and was never more numerous, +more greedy, more cunning, or more savage, than under the government of +Bonaparte. + +Our idea of a gentleman in relations with the Consular and Imperial +police may perhaps be incorrect. Such as it is, we will try to convey it +to our readers. We image to ourselves a well-dressed person, with a +soft voice and affable manners. His opinions are those of the society +in which he finds himself, but a little stronger. He often complains, +in the language of honest indignation, that what passes in private +conversation finds its way strangely to the government, and cautions his +associates to take care what they say when they are not sure of their +company. As for himself, he owns that he is indiscreet. He can never +refrain from speaking his mind; and that is the reason that he is not +prefect of a department. + +In a gallery of the Palais Royal he overhears two friends talking +earnestly about the King and the Count of Artois. He follows them into +a coffee-house, sits at the table next to them, calls for his half-dish +and his small glass of cognac, takes up a journal, and seems occupied +with the news. His neighbours go on talking without restraint, and in +the style of persons warmly attached to the exiled family. They depart; +and he follows them half round the boulevards till he fairly tracks them +to their apartments, and learns their names from the porters. From +that day every letter addressed to either of them is sent from the +post-office to the police, and opened. Their correspondents become +known to the government, and are carefully watched. Six or eight honest +families, in different parts of France, find themselves at once under +the frown of power without being able to guess what offence they have +given. One person is dismissed from a public office; another learns with +dismay that his promising son has been turned out of the Polytechnic +school. + +Next, the indefatigable servant of the state falls in with an old +republican, who has not changed with the times, who regrets the red cap +and the tree of liberty, who has not unlearned the Thee and Thou, and +who still subscribes his letters with "Health and Fraternity." Into the +ears of this sturdy politician our friend pours forth a long series +of complaints. What evil times! What a change since the days when the +Mountain governed France! What is the First Consul but a king under a +new name? What is this Legion of Honour but a new aristocracy? The old +superstition is reviving with the old tyranny. There is a treaty with +the Pope, and a provision for the clergy. Emigrant nobles are returning +in crowds, and are better received at the Tuileries than the men of the +10th of August. This cannot last. What is life without liberty? What +terrors has death to the true patriot? The old Jacobin catches fire, +bestows and receives the fraternal hug, and hints that there will soon +be great news, and that the breed of Harmodius and Brutus is not quite +extinct. The next day he is close prisoner, and all his papers are in +the hands of the government. + +To this vocation, a vocation compared with which the life of a beggar, +of a pickpocket, of a pimp, is honourable, did Barere now descend. It +was his constant practice, as often as he enrolled himself in a new +party, to pay his footing with the heads of old friends. He was at first +a Royalist; and he made atonement by watering the tree of liberty with +the blood of Louis. He was then a Girondist; and he made atonement by +murdering Vergniaud and Gensonne. He fawned on Robespierre up to the +eighth of Thermidor; and he made atonement by moving, on the ninth, that +Robespierre should be beheaded without a trial. He was now enlisted +in the service of the new monarchy; and he proceeded to atone for his +republican heresies by sending republican throats to the guillotine. + +Among his most intimate associates was a Gascon named Demerville, who +had been employed in an office of high trust under the Committee of +Public Safety. This man was fanatically attached to the Jacobin system +of politics, and, in conjunction with other enthusiasts of the same +class, formed a design against the First Consul. A hint of this design +escaped him in conversation with Barere. Barere carried the intelligence +to Lannes, who commanded the Consular Guards. Demerville was arrested, +tried, and beheaded; and among the witnesses who appeared against him +was his friend Barere. + +The account which Barere has given of these transactions is studiously +confused and grossly dishonest. We think, however, that we can discern, +through much falsehood and much artful obscurity, some truths which he +labours to conceal. It is clear to us that the government suspected him +of what the Italians call a double treason. It was natural that such +a suspicion should attach to him. He had, in times not very remote, +zealously preached the Jacobin doctrine, that he who smites a tyrant +deserves higher praise than he who saves a citizen. Was it possible +that the member of the Committee of Public Safety, the king-killer, the +queen-killer, could in earnest mean to deliver his old confederates, his +bosom friends, to the executioner, solely because they had planned an +act which, if there were any truth in his own Carmagnoles, was in the +highest degree virtuous and glorious? Was it not more probable that he +was really concerned in the plot, and that the information which he gave +was merely intended to lull or to mislead the police? Accordingly, +spies were set on the spy. He was ordered to quit Paris, and not to come +within twenty leagues till he received further orders. Nay, he ran no +small risk of being sent, with some of his old friends, to Madagascar. + +He made his peace, however, with the government so far, that he was not +only permitted, during some years, to live unmolested, but was employed +in the lowest sort of political drudgery. In the summer of 1803, while +he was preparing to visit the south of France, he received a letter +which deserves to be inserted. It was from Duroc, who is well known to +have enjoyed a large share of Napoleon's confidence and favour. + +"The First Consul, having been informed that Citizen Barere is about to +set out for the country, desires that he will stay at Paris. + +"Citizen Barere will every week draw up a report on the state of +public opinion on the proceedings of the government, and generally on +everything which, in his judgment, it will be interesting to the First +Consul to learn. + +"He may write with perfect freedom. + +"He will deliver his reports under seal into General Duroc's own hand, +and General Duroc will deliver them to the First Consul. But it is +absolutely necessary that nobody should suspect that this species of +communication takes place; and, should any such suspicion get abroad, +the First Consul will cease to receive the reports of Citizen Barere. + +"It will also be proper that Citizen Barere should frequently insert in +the journals articles tending to animate the public mind, particularly +against the English." + +During some years Barere continued to discharge the functions +assigned to him by his master. Secret reports, filled with the talk +of coffee-houses, were carried by him every week to the Tuileries. His +friends assure us that he took especial pains to do all the harm in his +power to the returned emigrants. It was not his fault if Napoleon was +not apprised of every murmur and every sarcasm which old marquesses who +had lost their estates, and old clergymen who had lost their benefices, +uttered against the imperial system. M. Hippolyte Carnot, we grieve to +say, is so much blinded by party spirit that he seems to reckon this +dirty wickedness among his hero's titles to public esteem. + +Barere was, at the same time, an indefatigable journalist and +pamphleteer. He set up a paper directed against England, and called the +"Memorial Antibritannique". He planned a work entitled, "France made +great and illustrious by Napoleon." When the Imperial government was +established, the old regicide made himself conspicuous even among the +crowd of flatterers by the peculiar fulsomeness of his adulation. +He translated into French a contemptible volume of Italian verses, +entitled, "The Poetic Crown, composed on the glorious accession of +Napoleon the First, by the Shepherds of Arcadia." He commenced a new +series of Carmagnoles very different from those which had charmed +the Mountain. The title of Emperor of the French, he said, was mean; +Napoleon ought to be Emperor of Europe. King of Italy was too humble an +appellation; Napoleon's style ought to be King of Kings. + +But Barere laboured to small purpose in both his vocations. Neither as +a writer nor as a spy was he of much use. He complains bitterly that +his paper did not sell. While the "Journal des Debats", then flourishing +under the able management of Geoffroy, had a circulation of at least +twenty thousand copies, the "Memorial Antibritannique" never, in its +most prosperous times, had more than fifteen hundred subscribers; and +these subscribers were, with scarcely an exception, persons residing far +from Paris, probably Gascons, among whom the name of Barere had not yet +lost its influence. + +A writer who cannot find readers generally attributes the public neglect +to any cause rather than to the true one; and Barere was no exception to +the general rule. His old hatred to Paris revived in all its fury. +That city, he says, has no sympathy with France. No Parisian cares to +subscribe to a journal which dwells on the real wants and interests of +the country. To a Parisian nothing is so ridiculous as patriotism. The +higher classes of the capital have always been devoted to England. +A corporal from London is better received among them than a French +general. A journal, therefore, which attacks England has no chance of +their support. + +A much better explanation of the failure of the "Memorial" was given +by Bonaparte at St Helena. "Barere," said he to Barry O'Meara, "had +the reputation of being a man of talent: but I did not find him so. +I employed him to write; but he did not display ability. He used many +flowers of rhetoric, but no solid argument; nothing but coglionerie +wrapped up in high-sounding language." + +The truth is that, though Barere was a man of quick parts, and could do +with ease what he could do at all, he had never been a good writer. In +the day of his power he had been in the habit of haranguing an excitable +audience on exciting topics. The faults of his style passed uncensured; +for it was a time of literary as well as of civil lawlessness, and a +patriot was licensed to violate the ordinary rules of composition as +well as the ordinary rules of jurisprudence and of social morality. But +there had now been a literary as well as a civil reaction. As there was +again a throne and a court, a magistracy, a chivalry, and a hierarchy, +so was there a revival of classical taste. Honour was again paid to +the prose of Pascal and Massillon, and to the verse of Racine and +La Fontaine. The oratory which had delighted the galleries of the +Convention was not only as much out of date as the language of +Villehardouin and Joinville, but was associated in the public mind +with images of horror. All the peculiarities of the Anacreon of the +guillotine, his words unknown to the Dictionary of the Academy, his +conceits and his jokes, his Gascon idioms and his Gascon hyperboles, had +become as odious as the cant of the Puritans was in England after the +Restoration. + +Bonaparte, who had never loved the men of the Reign of Terror, had now +ceased to fear them. He was all-powerful and at the height of glory; +they were weak and universally abhorred. He was a sovereign; and it +is probable that he already meditated a matrimonial alliance with +sovereigns. He was naturally unwilling, in his new position, to hold +any intercourse with the worst class of Jacobins. Had Barere's literary +assistance been important to the government, personal aversion might +have yielded to considerations of policy; but there was no motive for +keeping terms with a worthless man who had also proved a worthless +writer. Bonaparte, therefore, gave loose to his feelings. Barere was not +gently dropped, not sent into an honourable retirement, but spurned +and scourged away like a troublesome dog. He had been in the habit of +sending six copies of his journal on fine paper daily to the Tuileries. +Instead of receiving the thanks and praises which he expected, he was +drily told that the great man had ordered five copies to be sent back. +Still he toiled on; still he cherished a hope that at last Napoleon +would relent, and that at last some share in the honours of the state +would reward so much assiduity and so much obsequiousness. He was +bitterly undeceived. Under the Imperial constitution the electoral +colleges of the departments did not possess the right of choosing +senators or deputies, but merely that of presenting candidates. From +among these candidates the emperor named members of the senate, and the +senate named members of the legislative body. The inhabitants of the +Upper Pyrenees were still strangely partial to Barere. In the year 1805, +they were disposed to present him as a candidate for the senate. On this +Napoleon expressed the highest displeasure; and the president of the +electoral college was directed to tell the voters, in plain terms, that +such a choice would be disgraceful to the department. All thought of +naming Barere a candidate for the senate was consequently dropped. +But the people of Argeles ventured to name him a candidate for the +legislative body. That body was altogether destitute of weight and +dignity; it was not permitted to debate; its only function was to vote +in silence for whatever the government proposed. It is not easy to +understand how any man who had sat in free and powerful deliberative +assemblies could condescend to bear a part in such a mummery. Barere, +however, was desirous of a place even in this mock legislature; and a +place even in this mock legislature was refused to him. In the whole +senate he had not a single vote. + +Such treatment was sufficient, it might have been thought, to move the +most abject of mankind to resentment. Still, however, Barere cringed and +fawned on. His letters came weekly to the Tuileries till the year +1807. At length, while he was actually writing the two hundred and +twenty-third of the series, a note was put into his hands. It was from +Duroc, and was much more perspicuous than polite. Barere was requested +to send no more of his Reports to the palace, as the Emperor was too +busy to read them. + +Contempt, says the Indian proverb, pierces even the shell of the +tortoise; and the contempt of the Court was felt to the quick even by +the callous heart of Barere. He had humbled himself to the dust; and he +had humbled himself in vain. Having been eminent among the rulers of +a great and victorious state, he had stooped to serve a master in the +vilest capacities; and he had been told that, even in those capacities, +he was not worthy of the pittance which had been disdainfully flung to +him. He was now degraded below the level even of the hirelings whom the +government employed in the most infamous offices. He stood idle in +the market-place, not because he thought any office too infamous, but +because none would hire him. + +Yet he had reason to think himself fortunate; for, had all that +is avowed in these Memoirs been known, he would have received very +different tokens of the Imperial displeasure. We learn from himself +that, while publishing daily columns of flattery on Bonaparte, and while +carrying weekly budgets of calumny to the Tuileries, he was in close +connection with the agents whom the Emperor Alexander, then by no means +favourably disposed towards France, employed to watch all that passed at +Paris; was permitted to read their secret despatches; was consulted by +them as to the temper of the public mind and the character of Napoleon; +and did his best to persuade them that the government was in a tottering +condition, and that the new sovereign was not, as the world supposed, +a great statesman and soldier. Next, Barere, still the flatterer and +talebearer of the Imperial Court, connected himself in the same manner +with the Spanish envoy. He owns that with that envoy he had relations +which he took the greatest pains to conceal from his own government; +that they met twice a day; and that their conversation chiefly turned +on the vices of Napoleon; on his designs against Spain, and on the best +mode of rendering those designs abortive. In truth, Barere's baseness +was unfathomable. In the lowest deeps of shame he found out lower deeps. +It is bad to be a sycophant; it is bad to be a spy. But even among +sycophants and spies there are degrees of meanness. The vilest sycophant +is he who privily slanders the master on whom he fawns; and the vilest +spy is he who serves foreigners against the government of his native +land. + +From 1807 to 1814 Barere lived in obscurity, railing as bitterly as his +craven cowardice would permit against the Imperial administration, +and coming sometimes unpleasantly across the police. When the Bourbons +returned, he, as might have been expected, became a royalist, and +wrote a pamphlet setting forth the horrors of the system from which the +Restoration had delivered France, and magnifying the wisdom and goodness +which had dictated the charter. He who had voted for the death of Louis, +he who had moved the decree for the trial of Marie Antoinette, he whose +hatred of monarchy had led him to make war even upon the sepulchres of +ancient monarchs, assures us, with great complacency, that "in this work +monarchical principles and attachment to the House of Bourbon are nobly +expressed." By this apostasy he got nothing, not even any additional +infamy; for his character was already too black to be blackened. + +During the hundred days he again emerged for a very short time into +public life; he was chosen by his native district a member of the +Chamber of Representatives. But, though that assembly was composed in +a great measure of men who regarded the excesses of the Jacobins with +indulgence, he found himself an object of general aversion. When the +President first informed the Chamber that M. Barere requested a hearing, +a deep and indignant murmur ran round the benches. After the battle of +Waterloo, Barere proposed that the Chamber should save France from the +victorious enemy, by putting forth a proclamation about the pass of +Thermopylae and the Lacedaemonian custom of wearing flowers in times of +extreme danger. Whether this composition, if it had then appeared, would +have stopped the English and Prussian armies, is a question respecting +which we are left to conjecture. The Chamber refused to adopt this last +of the Carmagnoles. + +The Emperor had abdicated. The Bourbons returned. The Chamber of +Representatives, after burlesquing during a few weeks the proceedings +of the National Convention, retired with the well-earned character of +having been the silliest political assembly that had met in France. +Those dreaming pedants and praters never for a moment comprehended +their position. They could never understand that Europe must be either +conciliated or vanquished; that Europe could be conciliated only by +the restoration of Louis, and vanquished only by means of a dictatorial +power entrusted to Napoleon. They would not hear of Louis; yet they +would not hear of the only measures which could keep him out. They +incurred the enmity of all foreign powers by putting Napoleon at their +head; yet they shackled him, thwarted him, quarrelled with him about +every trifle, abandoned him on the first reverse. They then opposed +declamations and disquisitions to eight hundred thousand bayonets; +played at making a constitution for their country, when it depended on +the indulgence of the victor whether they should have a country; and +were at last interrupted, in the midst of their babble about the rights +of man and the sovereignty of the people, by the soldiers of Wellington +and Blucher. + +A new Chamber of Deputies was elected, so bitterly hostile to the +Revolution that there was no small risk of a new Reign of Terror. It +is just, however, to say that the king, his ministers, and his allies +exerted themselves to restrain the violence of the fanatical royalists, +and that the punishments inflicted, though in our opinion unjustifiable, +were few and lenient when compared with those which were demanded by M. +de Labourdonnaye and M. Hyde de Neuville. We have always heard, and are +inclined to believe, that the government was not disposed to treat +even the regicides with severity. But on this point the feeling of the +Chamber of Deputies was so strong that it was thought necessary to make +some concession. It was enacted, therefore, that whoever, having voted +in January 1793 for the death of Louis the Sixteenth, had in any manner +given in an adhesion to the government of Bonaparte during the hundred +days should be banished for life from France. Barere fell within this +description. He had voted for the death of Louis; and he had sat in the +Chamber of Representatives during the hundred days. + +He accordingly retired to Belgium, and resided there, forgotten by all +mankind, till the year 1830. After the revolution of July he was at +liberty to return to France; and he fixed his residence in his native +province. But he was soon involved in a succession of lawsuits with his +nearest relations--"three fatal sisters and an ungrateful brother," to +use his own words. Who was in the right is a question about which we +have no means of judging, and certainly shall not take Barere's word. +The Courts appear to have decided some points in his favour and some +against him. The natural inference is, that there were faults on all +sides. The result of this litigation was that the old man was reduced to +extreme poverty, and was forced to sell his paternal house. + +As far as we can judge from the few facts which remain to be mentioned, +Barere continued Barere to the last. After his exile he turned Jacobin +again, and, when he came back to France, joined the party of the +extreme left in railing at Louis Philippe, and at all Louis Philippe's +ministers. M. Casimir Perier, M. De Broglie, M. Guizot, and M. Thiers, +in particular, are honoured with his abuse; and the King himself is held +up to execration as a hypocritical tyrant. Nevertheless, Barere had no +scruple about accepting a charitable donation of a thousand francs a +year from the privy purse of the sovereign whom he hated and reviled. +This pension, together with some small sums occasionally doled out +to him by the department of the Interior, on the ground that he was +a distressed man of letters, and by the department of Justice, on the +ground that he had formerly held a high judicial office, saved him from +the necessity of begging his bread. Having survived all his colleagues +of the renowned Committee of Public Safety, and almost all his +colleagues of the Convention, he died in January 1841. He had attained +his eighty-sixth year. + +We have now laid before our readers what we believe to be a just account +of this man's life. Can it be necessary for us to add anything for the +purpose of assisting their judgment of his character? If we were writing +about any of his colleagues in the Committee of Public Safety, about +Carnot, about Robespierre, or Saint Just, nay, even about Couthon, +Collot, or Billaud, we might feel it necessary to go into a full +examination of the arguments which have been employed to vindicate or +to excuse the system of Terror. We could, we think, show that France +was saved from her foreign enemies, not by the system of Terror, but in +spite of it; and that the perils which were made the plea of the violent +policy of the Mountain were to a great extent created by that very +policy. We could, we think, also show that the evils produced by +the Jacobin administration did not terminate when it fell; that it +bequeathed a long series of calamities to France and to Europe; that +public opinion, which had during two generations been constantly +becoming more and more favourable to civil and religious freedom, +underwent, during the days of Terror, a change of which the traces are +still to be distinctly perceived. It was natural that there should +be such a change, when men saw that those who called themselves the +champions of popular rights had compressed into the space of twelve +months more crimes than the Kings of France, Merovingian, Carlovingian, +and Capetian, had perpetrated in twelve centuries. Freedom was regarded +as a great delusion. Men were willing to submit to the government of +hereditary princes, of fortunate soldiers, of nobles, of priests; to +any government but that of philosophers and philanthropists. Hence the +imperial despotism, with its enslaved press and its silent tribune, +its dungeons stronger than the old Bastile, and its tribunals more +obsequious than the old parliaments. Hence the restoration of the +Bourbons and of the Jesuits, the Chamber of 1815 with its categories of +proscription, the revival of the feudal spirit, the encroachments of +the clergy, the persecution of the Protestants, the appearance of a new +breed of De Montforts and Dominics in the full light of the nineteenth +century. Hence the admission of France into the Holy Alliance, and the +war waged by the old soldiers of the tricolor against the liberties of +Spain. Hence, too, the apprehensions with which, even at the present +day, the most temperate plans for widening the narrow basis of +the French representation are regarded by those who are especially +interested in the security of property and maintenance of order. Half +a century has not sufficed to obliterate the stain which one year of +depravity and madness has left on the noblest of causes. + +Nothing is more ridiculous than the manner in which writers like M. +Hippolyte Carnot defend or excuse the Jacobin administration, while +they declaim against the reaction which followed. That the reaction has +produced and is still producing much evil, is perfectly true. But what +produced the reaction? The spring flies up with a force proportioned to +that with which it has been pressed down. The pendulum which is drawn +far in one direction swings as far in the other. The joyous madness of +intoxication in the evening is followed by languor and nausea on the +morrow. And so, in politics, it is the sure law that every excess shall +generate its opposite; nor does he deserve the name of a statesman +who strikes a great blow without fully calculating the effect of the +rebound. But such calculation was infinitely beyond the reach of the +authors of the Reign of Terror. Violence, and more violence, blood, +and more blood, made up their whole policy. In a few months these poor +creatures succeeded in bringing about a reaction, of which none of them +saw, and of which none of us may see the close; and, having brought it +about, they marvelled at it; they bewailed it; they execrated it; they +ascribed it to everything but the real cause--their own immortality and +their own profound incapacity for the conduct of great affairs. + +These, however, are considerations to which, on the present occasion, it +is hardly necessary for us to advert; for, be the defence which has been +set up for the Jacobin policy good or bad, it is a defence which cannot +avail Barere. From his own life, from his own pen, from his own mouth, +we can prove that the part which he took in the work of blood is to be +attributed, not even to sincere fanaticism, not even to misdirected +and ill-regulated patriotism, but either to cowardice, or to delight in +human misery. Will it be pretended that it was from public spirit that +he murdered the Girondists? In these very Memoirs he tells us that he +always regarded their death as the greatest calamity that could befall +France. Will it be pretended that it was from public spirit that he +raved for the head of the Austrian woman? In these very Memoirs he tells +us that the time spent in attacking her was ill spent, and ought to have +been employed in concerting measures of national defence. Will it be +pretended that he was induced by sincere and earnest abhorrence of +kingly government to butcher the living and to outrage the dead; he who +invited Napoleon to take the title of King of Kings, he who assures us +that after the Restoration he expressed in noble language his attachment +to monarchy, and to the house of Bourbon? Had he been less mean, +something might have been said in extenuation of his cruelty. Had he +been less cruel, something might have been said in extenuation of his +meanness. But for him, regicide and court-spy, for him who patronised +Lebon and betrayed Demerville, for him who wantoned alternately in +gasconades of Jacobinism and gasconades of servility, what excuse has +the largest charity to offer? + +We cannot conclude without saying something about two parts of his +character, which his biographer appears to consider as deserving of +high admiration. Barere, it is admitted, was somewhat fickle; but in two +things he was consistent, in his love of Christianity, and in his hatred +to England. If this were so, we must say that England is much more +beholden to him than Christianity. + +It is possible that our inclinations may bias our judgment; but we think +that we do not flatter ourselves when we say that Barere's aversion to +our country was a sentiment as deep and constant as his mind was +capable of entertaining. The value of this compliment is indeed somewhat +diminished by the circumstance that he knew very little about us. +His ignorance of our institutions, manners, and history is the less +excusable, because, according to his own account, he consorted much, +during the peace of Amiens, with Englishmen of note, such as that +eminent nobleman Lord Greaten, and that not less eminent philosopher +Mr Mackensie Coefhis. In spite, however, of his connection with these +well-known ornaments of our country, he was so ill-informed about us as +to fancy that our government was always laying plans to torment him. +If he was hooted at Saintes, probably by people whose relations he had +murdered, it was because the cabinet of St James's had hired the mob. If +nobody would read his bad books it was because the cabinet of St James's +had secured the Reviewers. His accounts of Mr Fox, of Mr Pitt, of the +Duke of Wellington, of Mr Canning, swarm with blunders surpassing even +the ordinary blunders committed by Frenchmen who write about England. Mr +Fox and Mr Pitt, he tells us, were ministers in two different reigns. +Mr Pitt's sinking fund was instituted in order to enable England to pay +subsidies to the powers allied against the French republic. The Duke +of Wellington's house in Hyde Park was built by the nation, which twice +voted the sum of 200,000 pounds for the purpose. This, however, is +exclusive of the cost of the frescoes, which were also paid for out of +the public purse. Mr Canning was the first Englishman whose death +Europe had reason to lament; for the death of Lord Ward, a relation, we +presume, of Lord Greaten and Mr Coefhis, had been an immense benefit to +mankind. + +Ignorant, however, as Barere was, he knew enough of us to hate us; and +we persuade ourselves that, had he known us better, he would have hated +us more. The nation which has combined, beyond all example and all hope, +the blessings of liberty with those of order, might well be an object +of aversion to one who had been false alike to the cause of order and +to the cause of liberty. We have had amongst us intemperate zeal for +popular rights; we have had amongst us also the intemperance of loyalty. +But we have never been shocked by such a spectacle as the Barere +of 1794, or as the Barere of 1804. Compared with him, our fiercest +demagogues have been gentle; compared with him, our meanest courtiers +have been manly. Mix together Thistlewood and Bubb Doddington; and you +are still far from having Barere. The antipathy between him and us is +such, that neither for the crimes of his earlier nor for those of his +later life does our language, rich as it is, furnish us with adequate +names. We have found it difficult to relate his history without having +perpetual recourse to the French vocabulary of horror, and to the French +vocabulary of baseness. It is not easy to give a notion of his conduct +in the Convention, without using those emphatic terms, guillotinade, +noyade, fusillade, mitraillade. It is not easy to give a notion of his +conduct under the Consulate and the Empire without borrowing such words +as mouchard and mouton. + +We therefore like his invectives against us much better than +anything else that he has written; and dwell on them, not merely with +complacency, but with a feeling akin to gratitude. It was but little +that he could do to promote the honour of our country; but that little +he did strenuously and constantly. Renegade, traitor, slave, coward, +liar, slanderer, murderer, hack writer, police-spy--the one small +service which he could render to England was to hate her: and such as he +was may all who hate her be! + +We cannot say that we contemplate with equal satisfaction that fervent +and constant zeal for religion which, according to M. Hippolyte Carnot, +distinguished Barere; for, as we think that whatever brings dishonour on +religion is a serious evil, we had, we own, indulged a hope that Barere +was an atheist. We now learn, however, that he was at no time even a +sceptic, that he adhered to his faith through the whole Revolution, and +that he has left several manuscript works on divinity. One of these is +a pious treatise, entitled "Of Christianity, and of its Influence." +Another consists of meditations on the Psalms, which will doubtless +greatly console and edify the Church. + +This makes the character complete. Whatsoever things are false, +whatsoever things are dishonest, whatsoever things are unjust, +whatsoever things are impure, whatsoever things are hateful, whatsoever +things are of evil report, if there be any vice, and if there be any +infamy, all these things, we knew, were blended in Barere. But one thing +was still wanting; and that M. Hippolyte Carnot has supplied. When to +such an assemblage of qualities a high profession of piety is added, +the effect becomes overpowering. We sink under the contemplation of such +exquisite and manifold perfection; and feel, with deep humility, how +presumptuous it was in us to think of composing the legend of this +beatified athlete of the faith, St Bertrand of the Carmagnoles. + +Something more we had to say about him. But let him go. We did not seek +him out, and will not keep him longer. If those who call themselves his +friends had not forced him on our notice we should never have vouchsafed +to him more than a passing word of scorn and abhorrence, such as we +might fling at his brethren, Hebert and Fouquier Tinville, and Carrier +and Lebon. We have no pleasure in seeing human nature thus degraded. We +turn with disgust from the filthy and spiteful Yahoos of the fiction; +and the filthiest and most spiteful Yahoo of the fiction was a noble +creature when compared with the Barere of history. But what is no +pleasure M. Hippolyte Carnot has made a duty. It is no light thing +that a man in high and honourable public trust, a man who, from his +connections and position, may not unnaturally be supposed to speak the +sentiments of a large class of his countrymen, should come forward to +demand approbation for a life black with every sort of wickedness, and +unredeemed by a single virtue. This M. Hippolyte Carnot has done. By +attempting to enshrine this Jacobin carrion, he has forced us to gibbet +it; and we venture to say that, from the eminence of infamy on which we +have placed it, he will not easily take it down. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Miscellaneous Writings and +Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 2 (of 4), by Thomas Babington Macaulay + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WRITINGS OF LORD MACAULAY *** + +***** This file should be named 2168.txt or 2168.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/6/2168/ + +Produced by Mike Alder and Sue Asscher + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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(January 1828.) + +History. (May 1828.) + +Mill on Government. (March 1829.) + +Westminster Reviewer's Defence of Mill. (June 1829.) + +Utilitarian Theory of Government. (October 1829.) + +Sadler's Law of Population. (July 1830.) + +Sadler's Refutation Refuted. (January 1831.) + +Mirabeau. (July 1832.) + +Barere. (April 1844.) + + + + +MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS OF LORD MACAULAY. + + + + +CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. + + +JOHN DRYDEN. + +(January 1828.) + + +"The Poetical Works of John Dryden". In 2 volumes. University +Edition. London, 1826. + + +The public voice has assigned to Dryden the first place in the +second rank of our poets,--no mean station in a table of +intellectual precedency so rich in illustrious names. It is +allowed that, even of the few who were his superiors in genius, +none has exercised a more extensive or permanent influence on the +national habits of thought and expression. His life was +commensurate with the period during which a great revolution in +the public taste was effected; and in that revolution he played +the part of Cromwell. By unscrupulously taking the lead in its +wildest excesses, he obtained the absolute guidance of it. By +trampling on laws, he acquired the authority of a legislator. By +signalising himself as the most daring and irreverent of rebels, +he raised himself to the dignity of a recognised prince. He +commenced his career by the most frantic outrages. He terminated +it in the repose of established sovereignty,--the author of a new +code, the root of a new dynasty. + +Of Dryden, however, as of almost every man who has been +distinguished either in the literary or in the political world, +it may be said that the course which he pursued, and the effect +which he produced, depended less on his personal qualities than +on the circumstances in which he was placed. Those who have read +history with discrimination know the fallacy of those panegyrics +and invectives which represent individuals as effecting great +moral and intellectual revolutions, subverting established +systems, and imprinting a new character on their age. The +difference between one man and another is by no means so great as +the superstitious crowd supposes. But the same feelings which in +ancient Rome produced the apotheosis of a popular emperor, and in +modern Rome the canonisation of a devout prelate, lead men to +cherish an illusion which furnishes them with something to adore. +By a law of association, from the operation of which even minds +the most strictly regulated by reason are not wholly exempt, +misery disposes us to hatred, and happiness to love, although +there may be no person to whom our misery or our happiness can be +ascribed. The peevishness of an invalid vents itself even on +those who alleviate his pain. The good humour of a man elated by +success often displays itself towards enemies. In the same +manner, the feelings of pleasure and admiration, to which the +contemplation of great events gives birth, make an object where +they do not find it. Thus, nations descend to the absurdities of +Egyptian idolatry, and worship stocks and reptiles--Sacheverells +and Wilkeses. They even fall prostrate before a deity to which +they have themselves given the form which commands their +veneration, and which, unless fashioned by them, would have +remained a shapeless block. They persuade themselves that they +are the creatures of what they have themselves created. For, in +fact, it is the age that forms the man, not the man that forms +the age. Great minds do indeed re-act on the society which has +made them what they are; but they only pay with interest what +they have received. We extol Bacon, and sneer at Aquinas. But, +if their situations had been changed, Bacon might have been the +Angelical Doctor, the most subtle Aristotelian of the schools; +the Dominican might have led forth the sciences from their house +of bondage. If Luther had been born in the tenth century, he +would have effected no reformation. If he had never been born at +all, it is evident that the sixteenth century could not have +elapsed without a great schism in the church. Voltaire, in the +days of Louis the Fourteenth, would probably have been, like most +of the literary men of that time, a zealous Jansenist, eminent +among the defenders of efficacious grace, a bitter assailant of +the lax morality of the Jesuits and the unreasonable decisions of +the Sorbonne. If Pascal had entered on his literary career when +intelligence was more general, and abuses at the same time more +flagrant, when the church was polluted by the Iscariot Dubois, +the court disgraced by the orgies of Canillac, and the nation +sacrificed to the juggles of Law, if he had lived to see a +dynasty of harlots, an empty treasury and a crowded harem, an +army formidable only to those whom it should have protected, a +priesthood just religious enough to be intolerant, he might +possibly, like every man of genius in France, have imbibed +extravagant prejudices against monarchy and Christianity. The +wit which blasted the sophisms of Escobar--the impassioned +eloquence which defended the sisters of Port Royal--the +intellectual hardihood which was not beaten down even by Papal +authority--might have raised him to the Patriarchate of the +Philosophical Church. It was long disputed whether the honour of +inventing the method of Fluxions belonged to Newton or to +Leibnitz. It is now generally allowed that these great men made +the same discovery at the same time. Mathematical science, +indeed, had then reached such a point that, if neither of them +had ever existed, the principle must inevitably have occurred to +some person within a few years. So in our own time the doctrine +of rent, now universally received by political economists, was +propounded, almost at the same moment, by two writers unconnected +with each other. Preceding speculators had long been blundering +round about it; and it could not possibly have been missed much +longer by the most heedless inquirer. We are inclined to think +that, with respect to every great addition which has been made to +the stock of human knowledge, the case has been similar; that +without Copernicus we should have been Copernicans,--that without +Columbus America would have been discovered,--that without Locke +we should have possessed a just theory of the origin of human +ideas. Society indeed has its great men and its little men, as +the earth has its mountains and its valleys. But the +inequalities of intellect, like the inequalities of the surface +of our globe, bear so small a proportion to the mass, that, in +calculating its great revolutions, they may safely be neglected. +The sun illuminates the hills, while it is still below the +horizon, and truth is discovered by the highest minds a little +before it becomes manifest to the multitude. This is the extent +of their superiority. They are the first to catch and reflect a +light, which, without their assistance, must, in a short time, be +visible to those who lie far beneath them. + +The same remark will apply equally to the fine arts. The laws on +which depend the progress and decline of poetry, painting, and +sculpture, operate with little less certainty than those which +regulate the periodical returns of heat and cold, of fertility +and barrenness. Those who seem to lead the public taste are, in +general, merely outrunning it in the direction which it is +spontaneously pursuing. Without a just apprehension of the laws +to which we have alluded the merits and defects of Dryden can be +but imperfectly understood. We will, therefore, state what we +conceive them to be. + +The ages in which the master-pieces of imagination have been +produced have by no means been those in which taste has been most +correct. It seems that the creative faculty, and the critical +faculty, cannot exist together in their highest perfection. The +causes of this phenomenon it is not difficult to assign. + +It is true that the man who is best able to take a machine to +pieces, and who most clearly comprehends the manner in which all +its wheels and springs conduce to its general effect, will be the +man most competent to form another machine of similar power. In +all the branches of physical and moral science which admit of +perfect analysis, he who can resolve will be able to combine. +But the analysis which criticism can effect of poetry is +necessarily imperfect. One element must for ever elude its +researches; and that is the very element by which poetry is +poetry. In the description of nature, for example, a judicious +reader will easily detect an incongruous image. But he will find +it impossible to explain in what consists the art of a writer +who, in a few words, brings some spot before him so vividly that +he shall know it as if he had lived there from childhood; while +another, employing the same materials, the same verdure, the same +water, and the same flowers, committing no inaccuracy, +introducing nothing which can be positively pronounced +superfluous, omitting nothing which can be positively pronounced +necessary, shall produce no more effect than an advertisement of +a capital residence and a desirable pleasure-ground. To take +another example: the great features of the character of Hotspur +are obvious to the most superficial reader. We at once perceive +that his courage is splendid, his thirst of glory intense, his +animal spirits high, his temper careless, arbitrary, and +petulant; that he indulges his own humour without caring whose +feelings he may wound, or whose enmity he may provoke, by his +levity. Thus far criticism will go. But something is still +wanting. A man might have all those qualities, and every other +quality which the most minute examiner can introduce into his +catalogue of the virtues and faults of Hotspur, and yet he would +not be Hotspur. Almost everything that we have said of him +applies equally to Falconbridge. Yet in the mouth of +Falconbridge most of his speeches would seem out of place. In +real life this perpetually occurs. We are sensible of wide +differences between men whom, if we were required to describe +them, we should describe in almost the same terms. If we were +attempting to draw elaborate characters of them, we should +scarcely be able to point out any strong distinction; yet we +approach them with feelings altogether dissimilar. We cannot +conceive of them as using the expressions or the gestures of each +other. Let us suppose that a zoologist should attempt to give an +account of some animal, a porcupine for instance, to people who +had never seen it. The porcupine, he might say, is of the class +mammalia, and the order glires. There are whiskers on its face; +it is two feet long; it has four toes before, five behind, two +fore teeth, and eight grinders. Its body is covered with hair +and quills. And, when all this has been said, would any one of +the auditors have formed a just idea of a porcupine? Would any +two of them have formed the same idea? There might exist +innumerable races of animals, possessing all the characteristics +which have been mentioned yet altogether unlike to each other. +What the description of our naturalist is to a real porcupine, +the remarks of criticism are to the images of poetry. What it so +imperfectly decomposes it cannot perfectly reconstruct. It is +evidently as impossible to produce an Othello or a Macbeth by +reversing an analytical process so defective, as it would be for +an anatomist to form a living man out of the fragments of his +dissecting-room. In both cases the vital principle eludes the +finest instruments, and vanishes in the very instant in which its +seat is touched. Hence those who, trusting to their critical +skill, attempt to write poems give us, not images of things, but +catalogues of qualities. Their characters are allegories--not +good men and bad men, but cardinal virtues and deadly sins. We +seem to have fallen among the acquaintances of our old friend +Christian: sometimes we meet Mistrust and Timorous; sometimes Mr +Hate-good and Mr Love-lust; and then again Prudence, Piety and +Charity. + +That critical discernment is not sufficient to make men poets, is +generally allowed. Why it should keep them from becoming poets, +is not perhaps equally evident; but the fact is, that poetry +requires not an examining but a believing frame of mind. Those +feel it most, and write it best, who forget that it is a work of +art; to whom its imitations, like the realities from which they +are taken, are subjects, not for connoisseurship, but for tears +and laughter, resentment and affection; who are too much under +the influence of the illusion to admire the genius which has +produced it; who are too much frightened for Ulysses in the cave +of Polyphemus to care whether the pun about Outis be good or bad; +who forget that such a person as Shakspeare ever existed, while +they weep and curse with Lear. It is by giving faith to the +creations of the imagination that a man becomes a poet. It is by +treating those creations as deceptions, and by resolving them, as +nearly as possible, into their elements, that he becomes a +critic. In the moment in which the skill of the artist is +perceived, the spell of the art is broken. + +These considerations account for the absurdities into which the +greatest writers have fallen, when they have attempted to give +general rules for composition, or to pronounce judgment on the +works of others. They are unaccustomed to analyse what they +feel; they, therefore, perpetually refer their emotions to causes +which have not in the slightest degree tended to produce them. +They feel pleasure in reading a book. They never consider that +this pleasure may be the effect of ideas which some unmeaning +expression, striking on the first link of a chain of +associations, may have called up in their own minds--that they +have themselves furnished to the author the beauties which they +admire. + +Cervantes is the delight of all classes of readers. Every +school-boy thumbs to pieces the most wretched translations of his +romance, and knows the lantern jaws of the Knight Errant, and the +broad cheeks of the Squire, as well as the faces of his own +playfellows. The most experienced and fastidious judges are +amazed at the perfection of that art which extracts +inextinguishable laughter from the greatest of human calamities +without once violating the reverence due to it; at that +discriminating delicacy of touch which makes a character +exquisitely ridiculous, without impairing its worth, its grace, +or its dignity. In Don Quixote are several dissertations on the +principles of poetic and dramatic writing. No passages in the +whole work exhibit stronger marks of labour and attention; and no +passages in any work with which we are acquainted are more +worthless and puerile. In our time they would scarcely obtain +admittance into the literary department of the Morning Post. +Every reader of the Divine Comedy must be struck by the +veneration which Dante expresses for writers far inferior to +himself. He will not lift up his eyes from the ground in the +presence of Brunetto, all whose works are not worth the worst of +his own hundred cantos. He does not venture to walk in the same +line with the bombastic Statius. His admiration of Virgil is +absolute idolatry. If, indeed, it had been excited by the +elegant, splendid, and harmonious diction of the Roman poet, it +would not have been altogether unreasonable; but it is rather as +an authority on all points of philosophy, than as a work of +imagination, that he values the Aeneid. The most trivial +passages he regards as oracles of the highest authority, and of +the most recondite meaning. He describes his conductor as the +sea of all wisdom--the sun which heals every disordered sight. +As he judged of Virgil, the Italians of the fourteenth century +judged of him; they were proud of him; they praised him; they +struck medals bearing his head; they quarrelled for the honour of +possessing his remains; they maintained professors to expound his +writings. But what they admired was not that mighty imagination +which called a new world into existence, and made all its sights +and sounds familiar to the eye and ear of the mind. They said +little of those awful and lovely creations on which later critics +delight to dwell--Farinata lifting his haughty and tranquil brow +from his couch of everlasting fire--the lion-like repose of +Sordello--or the light which shone from the celestial smile of +Beatrice. They extolled their great poet for his smattering of +ancient literature and history; for his logic and his divinity; +for his absurd physics, and his most absurd metaphysics; for +everything but that in which he pre-eminently excelled. Like the +fool in the story, who ruined his dwelling by digging for gold, +which, as he had dreamed, was concealed under its foundations, +they laid waste one of the noblest works of human genius, by +seeking in it for buried treasures of wisdom which existed only +in their own wild reveries. The finest passages were little +valued till they had been debased into some monstrous allegory. +Louder applause was given to the lecture on fate and free-will, +or to the ridiculous astronomical theories, than to those +tremendous lines which disclose the secrets of the tower of +hunger, or to that half-told tale of guilty love, so passionate +and so full of tears. + +We do not mean to say that the contemporaries of Dante read with +less emotion than their descendants of Ugolino groping among the +wasted corpses of his children, or of Francesca starting at the +tremulous kiss and dropping the fatal volume. Far from it. We +believe that they admired these things less than ourselves, but +that they felt them more. We should perhaps say that they felt +them too much to admire them. The progress of a nation from +barbarism to civilisation produces a change similar to that which +takes place during the progress of an individual from infancy to +mature age. What man does not remember with regret the first +time that he read Robinson Crusoe? Then, indeed, he was unable +to appreciate the powers of the writer; or, rather, he neither +knew nor cared whether the book had a writer at all. He probably +thought it not half so fine as some rant of Macpherson about +dark-browed Foldath, and white-bosomed Strinadona. He now values +Fingal and Temora only as showing with how little evidence a +story may be believed, and with how little merit a book may be +popular. Of the romance of Defoe he entertains the highest +opinion. He perceives the hand of a master in ten thousand +touches which formerly he passed by without notice. But, though +he understands the merits of the narrative better than formerly, +he is far less interested by it. Xury, and Friday, and pretty +Poll, the boat with the shoulder-of-mutton sail, and the canoe +which could not be brought down to the water edge, the tent with +its hedge and ladders, the preserve of kids, and the den where +the old goat died, can never again be to him the realities which +they were. The days when his favourite volume set him upon +making wheel-barrows and chairs, upon digging caves and fencing +huts in the garden, can never return. Such is the law of our +nature. Our judgment ripens; our imagination decays. We cannot +at once enjoy the flowers of the spring of life and the fruits of +its autumn, the pleasures of close investigation and those of +agreeable error. We cannot sit at once in the front of the stage +and behind the scenes. We cannot be under the illusion of the +spectacle, while we are watching the movements of the ropes and +pulleys which dispose it. + +The chapter in which Fielding describes the behaviour of +Partridge at the theatre affords so complete an illustration of +our proposition, that we cannot refrain from quoting some parts +of it. + +"Partridge gave that credit to Mr Garrick which he had denied to +Jones, and fell into so violent a trembling that his knees +knocked against each other. Jones asked him what was the matter, +and whether he was afraid of the warrior upon the stage?--'O, la, +sir,' said he, 'I perceive now it is what you told me. I am not +afraid of anything, for I know it is but a play; and if it was +really a ghost, it could do one no harm at such a distance and in +so much company; and yet, if I was frightened, I am not the only +person.'--'Why, who,' cries Jones, 'dost thou take to be such a +coward here besides thyself?'--'Nay, you may call me a coward if +you will; but if that little man there upon the stage is not +frightened, I never saw any man frightened in my life'...He sat +with his eyes fixed partly on the ghost and partly on Hamlet, and +with his mouth open; the same passions which succeeded each other +in Hamlet, succeeding likewise in him... + +"Little more worth remembering occurred during the play, at the +end of which Jones asked him which of the players he liked best? +To this he answered, with some appearance of indignation at the +question, 'The King, without doubt.'--'Indeed, Mr Partridge,' +says Mrs Miller, 'you are not of the same opinion with the town; +for they are all agreed that Hamlet is acted by the best player +who was ever on the stage.'--'He the best player!' cries +Partridge, with a contemptuous sneer; 'why I could act as well as +he myself. I am sure if I had seen a ghost, I should have looked +in the very same manner, and done just as he did. And then to be +sure, in that scene, as you called it, between him and his +mother, where you told me he acted so fine, why any man, that is, +any good man, that had such a mother, would have done exactly the +same. I know you are only joking with me; but indeed, madam, +though I never was at a play in London, yet I have seen acting +before in the country, and the King for my money; he speaks all +his words distinctly, and half as loud again as the other. +Anybody may see he is an actor.'" + +In this excellent passage Partridge is represented as a very bad +theatrical critic. But none of those who laugh at him possess +the tithe of his sensibility to theatrical excellence. He +admires in the wrong place; but he trembles in the right place. +It is indeed because he is so much excited by the acting of +Garrick, that he ranks him below the strutting, mouthing +performer, who personates the King. So, we have heard it said +that, in some parts of Spain and Portugal, an actor who should +represent a depraved character finely, instead of calling down +the applauses of the audience, is hissed and pelted without +mercy. It would be the same in England, if we, for one moment, +thought that Shylock or Iago was standing before us. While the +dramatic art was in its infancy at Athens, it produced similar +effects on the ardent and imaginative spectators. It is said +that they blamed Aeschylus for frightening them into fits with +his Furies. Herodotus tells us that, when Phyrnichus produced +his tragedy on the fall of Miletus, they fined him in a penalty +of a thousand drachmas for torturing their feelings by so +pathetic an exhibition. They did not regard him as a great +artist, but merely as a man who had given them pain. When they +woke from the distressing illusion, they treated the author of it +as they would have treated a messenger who should have brought +them fatal and alarming tidings which turned out to be false. In +the same manner, a child screams with terror at the sight of a +person in an ugly mask. He has perhaps seen the mask put on. +But his imagination is too strong for his reason; and he entreats +that it may be taken off. + +We should act in the same manner if the grief and horror produced +in us by works of the imagination amounted to real torture. But +in us these emotions are comparatively languid. They rarely +affect our appetite or our sleep. They leave us sufficiently at +ease to trace them to their causes, and to estimate the powers +which produce them. Our attention is speedily diverted from the +images which call forth our tears to the art by which those +images have been selected and combined. We applaud the genius of +the writer. We applaud our own sagacity and sensibility; and we +are comforted. + +Yet, though we think that in the progress of nations towards +refinement the reasoning powers are improved at the expense of +the imagination, we acknowledge that to this rule there are many +apparent exceptions. We are not, however, quite satisfied that +they are more than apparent. Men reasoned better, for example, +in the time of Elizabeth than in the time of Egbert; and they +also wrote better poetry. But we must distinguish between poetry +as a mental act, and poetry as a species of composition. If we +take it in the latter sense, its excellence depends not solely on +the vigour of the imagination, but partly also on the instruments +which the imagination employs. Within certain limits, therefore, +poetry may be improving while the poetical faculty is decaying. +The vividness of the picture presented to the reader is not +necessarily proportioned to the vividness of the prototype which +exists in the mind of the writer. In the other arts we see this +clearly. Should a man, gifted by nature with all the genius of +Canova, attempt to carve a statue without instruction as to the +management of his chisel, or attention to the anatomy of the +human body, he would produce something compared with which the +Highlander at the door of a snuff shop would deserve admiration. +If an uninitiated Raphael were to attempt a painting, it would be +a mere daub; indeed, the connoisseurs say that the early works of +Raphael are little better. Yet, who can attribute this to want +of imagination? Who can doubt that the youth of that great +artist was passed amidst an ideal world of beautiful and majestic +forms? Or, who will attribute the difference which appears +between his first rude essays and his magnificent Transfiguration +to a change in the constitution of his mind? In poetry, as in +painting and sculpture, it is necessary that the imitator should +be well acquainted with that which he undertakes to imitate, and +expert in the mechanical part of his art. Genius will not +furnish him with a vocabulary: it will not teach him what word +most exactly corresponds to his idea, and will most fully convey +it to others: it will not make him a great descriptive poet, +till he has looked with attention on the face of nature; or a +great dramatist, till he has felt and witnessed much of the +influence of the passions. Information and experience are, +therefore, necessary; not for the purpose of strengthening the +imagination, which is never so strong as in people incapable of +reasoning--savages, children, madmen, and dreamers; but for the +purpose of enabling the artist to communicate his conceptions to +others. + +In a barbarous age the imagination exercises a despotic power. +So strong is the perception of what is unreal that it often +overpowers all the passions of the mind and all the sensations of +the body. At first, indeed, the phantasm remains undivulged, a +hidden treasure, a wordless poetry, an invisible painting, a +silent music, a dream of which the pains and pleasures exist to +the dreamer alone, a bitterness which the heart only knoweth, a +joy with which a stranger intermeddleth not. The machinery, by +which ideas are to be conveyed from one person to another, is as +yet rude and defective. Between mind and mind there is a great +gulf. The imitative arts do not exist, or are in their lowest +state. But the actions of men amply prove that the faculty which +gives birth to those arts is morbidly active. It is not yet the +inspiration of poets and sculptors; but it is the amusement of +the day, the terror of the night, the fertile source of wild +superstitions. It turns the clouds into gigantic shapes, and the +winds into doleful voices. The belief which springs from it is +more absolute and undoubting than any which can be derived from +evidence. It resembles the faith which we repose in our own +sensations. Thus, the Arab, when covered with wounds, saw +nothing but the dark eyes and the green kerchief of a beckoning +Houri. The Northern warrior laughed in the pangs of death when +he thought of the mead of Valhalla. + +The first works of the imagination are, as we have said, poor and +rude, not from the want of genius, but from the want of +materials. Phidias could have done nothing with an old tree and +a fish-bone, or Homer with the language of New Holland. + +Yet the effect of these early performances, imperfect as they +must necessarily be, is immense. All deficiencies are supplied +by the susceptibility of those to whom they are addressed. We +all know what pleasure a wooden doll, which may be bought for +sixpence, will afford to a little girl. She will require no +other company. She will nurse it, dress it, and talk to it all +day. No grown-up man takes half so much delight in one of the +incomparable babies of Chantrey. In the same manner, savages are +more affected by the rude compositions of their bards than +nations more advanced in civilisation by the greatest master- +pieces of poetry. + +In process of time, the instruments by which the imagination +works are brought to perfection. Men have not more imagination +than their rude ancestors. We strongly suspect that they have +much less. But they produce better works of imagination. Thus, +up to a certain period, the diminution of the poetical powers is +far more than compensated by the improvement of all the +appliances and means of which those powers stand in need. Then +comes the short period of splendid and consummate excellence. +And then, from causes against which it is vain to struggle, +poetry begins to decline. The progress of language, which was at +first favourable, becomes fatal to it, and, instead of +compensating for the decay of the imagination, accelerates that +decay, and renders it more obvious. When the adventurer in the +Arabian tale anointed one of his eyes with the contents of the +magical box, all the riches of the earth, however widely +dispersed, however sacredly concealed, became visible to him. +But, when he tried the experiment on both eyes, he was struck +with blindness. What the enchanted elixir was to the sight of +the body, language is to the sight of the imagination. At first +it calls up a world of glorious allusions; but, when it becomes +too copious, it altogether destroys the visual power. + +As the development of the mind proceeds, symbols, instead of +being employed to convey images, are substituted for them. +Civilised men think as they trade, not in kind, but by means of a +circulating medium. In these circumstances, the sciences improve +rapidly, and criticism among the rest; but poetry, in the highest +sense of the word, disappears. Then comes the dotage of the fine +arts, a second childhood, as feeble as the former, and far more +hopeless. This is the age of critical poetry, of poetry by +courtesy, of poetry to which the memory, the judgment, and the +wit contribute far more than the imagination. We readily allow +that many works of this description are excellent: we will not +contend with those who think them more valuable than the great +poems of an earlier period. We only maintain that they belong to +a different species of composition, and are produced by a +different faculty. + +It is some consolation to reflect that this critical school of +poetry improves as the science of criticism improves; and that +the science of criticism, like every other science, is constantly +tending towards perfection. As experiments are multiplied, +principles are better understood. + +In some countries, in our own for example, there has been an +interval between the downfall of the creative school and the rise +of the critical, a period during which imagination has been in +its decrepitude, and taste in its infancy. Such a revolutionary +interregnum as this will be deformed by every species of +extravagance. + +The first victory of good taste is over the bombast and conceits +which deform such times as these. But criticism is still in a +very imperfect state. What is accidental is for a long time +confounded with what is essential. General theories are drawn +from detached facts. How many hours the action of a play may be +allowed to occupy,--how many similes an Epic Poet may introduce +into his first book,--whether a piece, which is acknowledged to +have a beginning and an end, may not be without a middle, and +other questions as puerile as these, formerly occupied the +attention of men of letters in France, and even in this country. +Poets, in such circumstances as these, exhibit all the narrowness +and feebleness of the criticism by which their manner has been +fashioned. From outrageous absurdity they are preserved indeed +by their timidity. But they perpetually sacrifice nature and +reason to arbitrary canons of taste. In their eagerness to avoid +the mala prohibita of a foolish code, they are perpetually +rushing on the mala in se. Their great predecessors, it is true, +were as bad critics as themselves, or perhaps worse, but those +predecessors, as we have attempted to show, were inspired by a +faculty independent of criticism, and, therefore, wrote well +while they judged ill. + +In time men begin to take more rational and comprehensive views +of literature. The analysis of poetry, which, as we have +remarked, must at best be imperfect, approaches nearer and nearer +to exactness. The merits of the wonderful models of former times +are justly appreciated. The frigid productions of a later age +are rated at no more than their proper value. Pleasing and +ingenious imitations of the manner of the great masters appear. +Poetry has a partial revival, a Saint Martin's Summer, which, +after a period of dreariness and decay, agreeably reminds us of +the splendour of its June. A second harvest is gathered in; +though, growing on a spent soil, it has not the heart of the +former. Thus, in the present age, Monti has successfully +imitated the style of Dante; and something of the Elizabethan +inspiration has been caught by several eminent countrymen of our +own. But never will Italy produce another Inferno, or England +another Hamlet. We look on the beauties of the modern +imaginations with feelings similar to those with which we see +flowers disposed in vases, to ornament the drawing-rooms of a +capital. We doubtless regard them with pleasure, with greater +pleasure, perhaps, because, in the midst of a place ungenial to +them, they remind us of the distant spots on which they flourish +in spontaneous exuberance. But we miss the sap, the freshness, +and the bloom. Or, if we may borrow another illustration from +Queen Scheherezade, we would compare the writers of this school +to the jewellers who were employed to complete the unfinished +window of the palace of Aladdin. Whatever skill or cost could do +was done. Palace and bazaar were ransacked for precious stones. +Yet the artists, with all their dexterity, with all their +assiduity, and with all their vast means, were unable to produce +anything comparable to the wonders which a spirit of a higher +order had wrought in a single night. + +The history of every literature with which we are acquainted +confirms, we think, the principles which we have laid down. In +Greece we see the imaginative school of poetry gradually fading +into the critical. Aeschylus and Pindar were succeeded by +Sophocles, Sophocles by Euripides, Euripides by the Alexandrian +versifiers. Of these last, Theocritus alone has left +compositions which deserve to be read. The splendour and +grotesque fairyland of the Old Comedy, rich with such gorgeous +hues, peopled with such fantastic shapes, and vocal alternately +with the sweetest peals of music and the loudest bursts of elvish +laughter, disappeared forever. The master-pieces of the New +Comedy are known to us by Latin translations of extraordinary +merit. From these translations, and from the expressions of the +ancient critics, it is clear that the original compositions were +distinguished by grace and sweetness, that they sparkled with +wit, and abounded with pleasing sentiment; but that the creative +power was gone. Julius Caesar called Terence a half Menander,--a +sure proof that Menander was not a quarter Aristophanes. + +The literature of the Romans was merely a continuation of the +literature of the Greeks. The pupils started from the point at +which their masters had, in the course of many generations +arrived. They thus almost wholly missed the period of original +invention. The only Latin poets whose writings exhibit much +vigour of imagination are Lucretius and Catullus. The Augustan +age produced nothing equal to their finer passages. + +In France that licensed jester, whose jingling cap and motley +coat concealed more genius than ever mustered in the saloon of +Ninon or of Madame Geoffrin, was succeeded by writers as decorous +and as tiresome as gentlemen ushers. + +The poetry of Italy and of Spain has undergone the same change. +But nowhere has the revolution been more complete and violent +than in England. The same person who, when a boy, had clapped +his thrilling hands at the first representation of the Tempest +might, without attaining to a marvellous longevity, have lived to +read the earlier works of Prior and Addison. The change, we +believe, must, sooner or later, have taken place. But its +progress was accelerated, and its character modified, by the +political occurrences of the times, and particularly by two +events, the closing of the theatres under the Commonwealth, and +the restoration of the House of Stuart. + +We have said that the critical and poetical faculties are not +only distinct, but almost incompatible. The state of our +literature during the reigns of Elizabeth and James the First is +a strong confirmation of this remark. The greatest works of +imagination that the world has ever seen were produced at that +period. The national taste, in the meantime, was to the last +degree detestable. Alliterations, puns, antithetical forms of +expression lavishly employed where no corresponding opposition +existed between the thoughts expressed, strained allegories, +pedantic allusions, everything, in short, quaint and affected, in +matter and manner, made up what was then considered as fine +writing. The eloquence of the bar, the pulpit, and the council- +board, was deformed by conceits which would have disgraced the +rhyming shepherds of an Italian academy. The king quibbled on +the throne. We might, indeed, console ourselves by reflecting +that his majesty was a fool. But the chancellor quibbled in +concert from the wool-sack: and the chancellor was Francis +Bacon. It is needless to mention Sidney and the whole tribe of +Euphuists; for Shakspeare himself, the greatest poet that ever +lived, falls into the same fault whenever he means to be +particularly fine. While he abandons himself to the impulse of +his imagination, his compositions are not only the sweetest and +the most sublime, but also the most faultless, that the world has +ever seen. But, as soon as his critical powers come into play, +he sinks to the level of Cowley; or rather he does ill what +Cowley did well. All that is bad in his works is bad +elaborately, and of malice aforethought. The only thing wanting +to make them perfect was, that he should never have troubled +himself with thinking whether they were good or not. Like the +angels in Milton, he sinks "with compulsion and laborious +flight." His natural tendency is upwards. That he may soar, it +is only necessary that he should not struggle to fall. He +resembles an American Cacique, who, possessing in unmeasured +abundance the metals which in polished societies are esteemed the +most precious, was utterly unconscious of their value, and gave +up treasures more valuable than the imperial crowns of other +countries, to secure some gaudy and far-fetched but worthless +bauble, a plated button, or a necklace of coloured glass. + +We have attempted to show that, as knowledge is extended and as +the reason develops itself, the imitative arts decay. We should, +therefore, expect that the corruption of poetry would commence in +the educated classes of society. And this, in fact, is almost +constantly the case. The few great works of imagination which +appear in a critical age are, almost without exception, the works +of uneducated men. Thus, at a time when persons of quality +translated French romances, and when the universities celebrated +royal deaths in verses about tritons and fauns, a preaching +tinker produced the Pilgrim's Progress. And thus a ploughman +startled a generation which had thought Hayley and Beattie great +poets, with the adventures of Tam O'Shanter. Even in the latter +part of the reign of Elizabeth the fashionable poetry had +degenerated. It retained few vestiges of the imagination of +earlier times. It had not yet been subjected to the rules of +good taste. Affectation had completely tainted madrigals and +sonnets. The grotesque conceits and the tuneless numbers of +Donne were, in the time of James, the favourite models of +composition at Whitehall and at the Temple. But, though the +literature of the Court was in its decay, the literature of the +people was in its perfection. The Muses had taken sanctuary in +the theatres, the haunts of a class whose taste was not better +than that of the Right Honourables and singular good Lords who +admired metaphysical love-verses, but whose imagination retained +all its freshness and vigour; whose censure and approbation might +be erroneously bestowed, but whose tears and laughter was never +in the wrong. The infection which had tainted lyric and didactic +poetry had but slightly and partially touched the drama. While +the noble and the learned were comparing eyes to burning-glasses, +and tears to terrestrial globes, coyness to an enthymeme, absence +to a pair of compasses, and an unrequited passion to the fortieth +remainder-man in an entail, Juliet leaning from the balcony, and +Miranda smiling over the chess-board, sent home many spectators, +as kind and simple-hearted as the master and mistress of +Fletcher's Ralpho, to cry themselves to sleep. + +No species of fiction is so delightful to us as the old English +drama. Even its inferior productions possess a charm not to be +found in any other kind of poetry. It is the most lucid mirror +that ever was held up to nature. The creations of the great +dramatists of Athens produce the effect of magnificent +sculptures, conceived by a mighty imagination, polished with the +utmost delicacy, embodying ideas of ineffable majesty and beauty, +but cold, pale, and rigid, with no bloom on the cheek, and no +speculation in the eye. In all the draperies, the figures, and +the faces, in the lovers and the tyrants, the Bacchanals and the +Furies, there is the same marble chillness and deadness. Most of +the characters of the French stage resemble the waxen gentlemen +and ladies in the window of a perfumer, rouged, curled, and +bedizened, but fixed in such stiff attitudes, and staring with +eyes expressive of such utter unmeaningness, that they cannot +produce an illusion for a single moment. In the English plays +alone is to be found the warmth, the mellowness, and the reality +of painting. We know the minds of men and women, as we know the +faces of the men and women of Vandyke. + +The excellence of these works is in a great measure the result of +two peculiarities, which the critics of the French school +consider as defects,--from the mixture of tragedy and comedy, and +from the length and extent of the action. The former is +necessary to render the drama a just representation of a world in +which the laughers and weepers are perpetually jostling each +other,--in which every event has its serious and ludicrous side. +The latter enables us to form an intimate acquaintance with +characters with which we could not possibly become familiar +during the few hours to which the unities restrict the poet. In +this respect, the works of Shakspeare, in particular, are +miracles of art. In a piece, which may be read aloud in three +hours, we see a character gradually unfold all its recesses to +us. We see it change with the change of circumstances. The +petulant youth rises into the politic and warlike sovereign. The +profuse and courteous philanthropist sours into a hater and +scorner of his kind. The tyrant is altered, by the chastening of +affliction, into a pensive moralist. The veteran general, +distinguished by coolness, sagacity, and self-command, sinks +under a conflict between love strong as death, and jealousy cruel +as the grave. The brave and loyal subject passes, step by step, +to the extremities of human depravity. We trace his progress, +from the first dawnings of unlawful ambition to the cynical +melancholy of his impenitent remorse. Yet, in these pieces, +there are no unnatural transitions. Nothing is omitted: nothing +is crowded. Great as are the changes, narrow as is the compass +within which they are exhibited, they shock us as little as the +gradual alterations of those familiar faces which we see every +evening and every morning. The magical skill of the poet +resembles that of the Dervise in the Spectator, who condensed all +the events of seven years into the single moment during which the +king held his head under the water. + +It is deserving of remark, that, at the time of which we speak, +the plays even of men not eminently distinguished by genius,-- +such, for example, as Jonson,--were far superior to the best +works of imagination in other departments. Therefore, though we +conceive that, from causes which we have already investigated, +our poetry must necessarily have declined, we think that, unless +its fate had been accelerated by external attacks, it might have +enjoyed an euthanasia, that genius might have been kept alive by +the drama till its place could, in some degree, be supplied by +taste,--that there would have been scarcely any interval between +the age of sublime invention and that of agreeable imitation. +The works of Shakspeare, which were not appreciated with any +degree of justice before the middle of the eighteenth century, +might then have been the recognised standards of excellence +during the latter part of the seventeenth; and he and the great +Elizabethan writers might have been almost immediately succeeded +by a generation of poets similar to those who adorn our own +times. + +But the Puritans drove imagination from its last asylum. They +prohibited theatrical representations, and stigmatised the whole +race of dramatists as enemies of morality and religion. Much +that is objectionable may be found in the writers whom they +reprobated; but whether they took the best measures for stopping +the evil appears to us very doubtful, and must, we think, have +appeared doubtful to themselves, when, after the lapse of a few +years, they saw the unclean spirit whom they had cast out return +to his old haunts, with seven others fouler than himself. + +By the extinction of the drama, the fashionable school of +poetry,--a school without truth of sentiment or harmony of +versification,--without the powers of an earlier, or the +correctness of a later age,--was left to enjoy undisputed +ascendency. A vicious ingenuity, a morbid quickness to perceive +resemblances and analogies between things apparently +heterogeneous, constituted almost its only claim to admiration. +Suckling was dead. Milton was absorbed in political and +theological controversy. If Waller differed from the Cowleian +sect of writers, he differed for the worse. He had as little +poetry as they, and much less wit; nor is the languor of his +verses less offensive than the ruggedness of theirs. In Denham +alone the faint dawn of a better manner was discernible. + +But, low as was the state of our poetry during the civil war and +the Protectorate, a still deeper fall was at hand. Hitherto our +literature had been idiomatic. In mind as in situation we had +been islanders. The revolutions in our taste, like the +revolutions in our government, had been settled without the +interference of strangers. Had this state of things continued, +the same just principles of reasoning which, about this time, +were applied with unprecedented success to every part of +philosophy would soon have conducted our ancestors to a sounder +code of criticism. There were already strong signs of +improvement. Our prose had at length worked itself clear from +those quaint conceits which still deformed almost every metrical +composition. The parliamentary debates, and the diplomatic +correspondence of that eventful period, had contributed much to +this reform. In such bustling times, it was absolutely necessary +to speak and write to the purpose. The absurdities of Puritanism +had, perhaps, done more. At the time when that odious style, +which deforms the writings of Hall and of Lord Bacon, was almost +universal, had appeared that stupendous work, the English Bible,- +-a book which, if everything else in our language should perish, +would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and +power. The respect which the translators felt for the original +prevented them from adding any of the hideous decorations then in +fashion. The groundwork of the version, indeed, was of an +earlier age. The familiarity with which the Puritans, on almost +every occasion, used the Scriptural phrases was no doubt very +ridiculous; but it produced good effects. It was a cant; but it +drove out a cant far more offensive. + +The highest kind of poetry is, in a great measure, independent of +those circumstances which regulate the style of composition in +prose. But with that inferior species of poetry which succeeds +to it the case is widely different. In a few years, the good +sense and good taste which had weeded out affectation from moral +and political treatises would, in the natural course of things, +have effected a similar reform in the sonnet and the ode. The +rigour of the victorious sectaries had relaxed. A dominant +religion is never ascetic. The Government connived at theatrical +representations. The influence of Shakspeare was once more felt. +But darker days were approaching. A foreign yoke was to be +imposed on our literature. Charles, surrounded by the companions +of his long exile, returned to govern a nation which ought never +to have cast him out or never to have received him back. Every +year which he had passed among strangers had rendered him more +unfit to rule his countrymen. In France he had seen the +refractory magistracy humbled, and royal prerogative, though +exercised by a foreign priest in the name of a child, victorious +over all opposition. This spectacle naturally gratified a prince +to whose family the opposition of Parliaments had been so fatal. +Politeness was his solitary good quality. The insults which he +had suffered in Scotland had taught him to prize it. The +effeminacy and apathy of his disposition fitted him to excel in +it. The elegance and vivacity of the French manners fascinated +him. With the political maxims and the social habits of his +favourite people, he adopted their taste in composition, and, +when seated on the throne, soon rendered it fashionable, partly +by direct patronage, but still more by that contemptible policy, +which, for a time, made England the last of the nations, and +raised Louis the Fourteenth to a height of power and fame, such +as no French sovereign had ever before attained. + +It was to please Charles that rhyme was first introduced into our +plays. Thus, a rising blow, which would at any time have been +mortal, was dealt to the English Drama, then just recovering from +its languishing condition. Two detestable manners, the +indigenous and the imported, were now in a state of alternate +conflict and amalgamation. The bombastic meanness of the new +style was blended with the ingenious absurdity of the old; and +the mixture produced something which the world had never before +seen, and which, we hope, it will never see again,--something, by +the side of which the worst nonsense of all other ages appears to +advantage--something, which those who have attempted to +caricature it have, against their will, been forced to flatter-- +of which the tragedy of Bayes is a very favourable specimen. +What Lord Dorset observed to Edward Howard might have been +addressed to almost all his contemporaries-- + +"As skilful divers to the bottom fall +Swifter than those who cannot swim at all; +So, in this way of writing without thinking, +Thou hast a strange alacrity in sinking." + +From this reproach some clever men of the world must be excepted, +and among them Dorset himself. Though by no means great poets, +or even good versifiers, they always wrote with meaning, and +sometimes with wit. Nothing indeed more strongly shows to what a +miserable state literature had fallen, than the immense +superiority which the occasional rhymes, carelessly thrown on +paper by men of this class, possess over the elaborate +productions of almost all the professed authors. The reigning +taste was so bad, that the success of a writer was in inverse +proportion to his labour, and to his desire of excellence. An +exception must be made for Butler, who had as much wit and +learning as Cowley, and who knew, what Cowley never knew, how to +use them. A great command of good homely English distinguishes +him still more from the other writers of the time. As for +Gondibert, those may criticise it who can read it. Imagination +was extinct. Taste was depraved. Poetry, driven from palaces, +colleges, and theatres, had found an asylum in the obscure +dwelling where a Great Man, born out of due season, in disgrace, +penury, pain and blindness, still kept uncontaminated a character +and a genius worthy of a better age. + +Everything about Milton is wonderful; but nothing is so wonderful +as that, in an age so unfavourable to poetry, he should have +produced the greatest of modern epic poems. We are not sure that +this is not in some degree to be attributed to his want of sight. +The imagination is notoriously most active when the external +world is shut out. In sleep its illusions are perfect. They +produce all the effect of realities. In darkness its visions are +always more distinct than in the light. Every person who amuses +himself with what is called building castles in the air must have +experienced this. We know artists who, before they attempt to +draw a face from memory, close their eyes, that they may recall a +more perfect image of the features and the expression. We are +therefore inclined to believe that the genius of Milton may have +been preserved from the influence of times so unfavourable to it +by his infirmity. Be this as it may, his works at first enjoyed +a very small share of popularity. To be neglected by his +contemporaries was the penalty which he paid for surpassing them. +His great poem was not generally studied or admired till writers +far inferior to him had, by obsequiously cringing to the public +taste, acquired sufficient favour to reform it. + +Of these, Dryden was the most eminent. Amidst the crowd of +authors who, during the earlier years of Charles the Second, +courted notoriety by every species of absurdity and affectation, +he speedily became conspicuous. No man exercised so much +influence on the age. The reason is obvious. On no man did the +age exercise so much influence. He was perhaps the greatest of +those whom we have designated as the critical poets; and his +literary career exhibited, on a reduced scale, the whole history +of the school to which he belonged,--the rudeness and +extravagance of its infancy,--the propriety, the grace, the +dignified good sense, the temperate splendour of its maturity. +His imagination was torpid, till it was awakened by his judgment. +He began with quaint parallels and empty mouthing. He gradually +acquired the energy of the satirist, the gravity of the moralist, +the rapture of the lyric poet. The revolution through which +English literature has been passing, from the time of Cowley to +that of Scott, may be seen in miniature within the compass of his +volumes. + +His life divides itself into two parts. There is some debatable +ground on the common frontier; but the line may be drawn with +tolerable accuracy. The year 1678 is that on which we should be +inclined to fix as the date of a great change in his manner. +During the preceding period appeared some of his courtly +panegyrics--his Annus Mirabilis, and most of his plays; indeed, +all his rhyming tragedies. To the subsequent period belong his +best dramas,--All for Love, the Spanish Friar, and Sebastian,-- +his satires, his translations, his didactic poems, his fables, +and his odes. + +Of the small pieces which were presented to chancellors and +princes it would scarcely be fair to speak. The greatest +advantage which the Fine Arts derive from the extension of +knowledge is, that the patronage of individuals becomes +unnecessary. Some writers still affect to regret the age of +patronage. None but bad writers have reason to regret it. It is +always an age of general ignorance. Where ten thousand readers +are eager for the appearance of a book, a small contribution from +each makes up a splendid remuneration for the author. Where +literature is a luxury, confined to few, each of them must pay +high. If the Empress Catherine, for example, wanted an epic +poem, she must have wholly supported the poet;--just as, in a +remote country village, a man who wants a muttonchop is sometimes +forced to take the whole sheep;--a thing which never happens +where the demand is large. But men who pay largely for the +gratification of their taste, will expect to have it united with +some gratification to their vanity. Flattery is carried to a +shameless extent; and the habit of flattery almost inevitably +introduces a false taste into composition. Its language is made +up of hyperbolical commonplaces,--offensive from their +triteness,--still more offensive from their extravagance. In no +school is the trick of overstepping the modesty of nature so +speedily acquired. The writer, accustomed to find exaggeration +acceptable and necessary on one subject, uses it on all. It is +not strange, therefore, that the early panegyrical verses of +Dryden should be made up of meanness and bombast. They abound +with the conceits which his immediate predecessors had brought +into fashion. But his language and his versification were +already far superior to theirs. + +The Annus Mirabilis shows great command of expression, and a fine +ear for heroic rhyme. Here its merits end. Not only has it no +claim to be called poetry, but it seems to be the work of a man +who could never, by any possibility, write poetry. Its affected +similes are the best part of it. Gaudy weeds present a more +encouraging spectacle than utter barrenness. There is scarcely a +single stanza in this long work to which the imagination seems to +have contributed anything. It is produced, not by creation, but +by construction. It is made up, not of pictures, but of +inferences. We will give a single instance, and certainly a +favourable instance,--a quatrain which Johnson has praised. +Dryden is describing the sea-fight with the Dutch-- + +"Amidst whole heaps of spices lights a ball; +And now their odours armed against them fly. +Some preciously by shattered porcelain fall, +And some by aromatic splinters die." + +The poet should place his readers, as nearly as possible, in the +situation of the sufferers or the spectators. His narration +ought to produce feelings similar to those which would be excited +by the event itself. Is this the case here? Who, in a sea- +fight, ever thought of the price of the china which beats out the +brains of a sailor; or of the odour of the splinter which +shatters his leg? It is not by an act of the imagination, at +once calling up the scene before the interior eye, but by painful +meditation,--by turning the subject round and round,--by tracing +out facts into remote consequences,--that these incongruous +topics are introduced into the description. Homer, it is true, +perpetually uses epithets which are not peculiarly appropriate. +Achilles is the swift-footed, when he is sitting still. Ulysses +is the much-enduring, when he has nothing to endure. Every spear +casts a long shadow, every ox has crooked horns, and every woman +a high bosom, though these particulars may be quite beside the +purpose. In our old ballads a similar practice prevails. The +gold is always red, and the ladies always gay, though nothing +whatever may depend on the hue of the gold, or the temper of the +ladies. But these adjectives are mere customary additions. They +merge in the substantives to which they are attached. If they at +all colour the idea, it is with a tinge so slight as in no +respect to alter the general effect. In the passage which we +have quoted from Dryden the case is very different. "Preciously" +and "aromatic" divert our whole attention to themselves, and +dissolve the image of the battle in a moment. The whole poem +reminds us of Lucan, and of the worst parts of Lucan,--the sea- +fight in the Bay of Marseilles, for example. The description of +the two fleets during the night is perhaps the only passage which +ought to be exempted from this censure. If it was from the Annus +Mirabilis that Milton formed his opinion, when he pronounced +Dryden a good rhymer but no poet, he certainly judged correctly. +But Dryden was, as we have said, one of those writers in whom the +period of imagination does not precede, but follow, the period of +observation and reflection. + +His plays, his rhyming plays in particular, are admirable +subjects for those who wish to study the morbid anatomy of the +drama. He was utterly destitute of the power of exhibiting real +human beings. Even in the far inferior talent of composing +characters out of those elements into which the imperfect process +of our reason can resolve them, he was very deficient. His men +are not even good personifications; they are not well-assorted +assemblages of qualities. Now and then, indeed, he seizes a very +coarse and marked distinction, and gives us, not a likeness, but +a strong caricature, in which a single peculiarity is protruded, +and everything else neglected; like the Marquis of Granby at an +inn-door, whom we know by nothing but his baldness; or Wilkes, +who is Wilkes only in his squint. These are the best specimens +of his skill. For most of his pictures seem, like Turkey +carpets, to have been expressly designed not to resemble anything +in the heavens above, in the earth beneath, or in the waters +under the earth. + +The latter manner he practises most frequently in his tragedies, +the former in his comedies. The comic characters are, without +mixture, loathsome and despicable. The men of Etherege and +Vanbrugh are bad enough. Those of Smollett are perhaps worse. +But they do not approach to the Celadons, the Wildbloods, the +Woodalls, and the Rhodophils of Dryden. The vices of these last +are set off by a certain fierce hard impudence, to which we know +nothing comparable. Their love is the appetite of beasts; their +friendship the confederacy of knaves. The ladies seem to have +been expressly created to form helps meet for such gentlemen. In +deceiving and insulting their old fathers they do not perhaps +exceed the license which, by immemorial prescription, has been +allowed to heroines. But they also cheat at cards, rob strong +boxes, put up their favours to auction, betray their friends, +abuse their rivals in the style of Billingsgate, and invite their +lovers in the language of the Piazza. These, it must be +remembered, are not the valets and waiting-women, the Mascarilles +and Nerines, but the recognised heroes and heroines who appear as +the representatives of good society, and who, at the end of the +fifth act, marry and live very happily ever after. The +sensuality, baseness, and malice of their natures is unredeemed +by any quality of a different description,--by any touch of +kindness,--or even by any honest burst of hearty hatred and +revenge. We are in a world where there is no humanity, no +veracity, no sense of shame,--a world for which any good-natured +man would gladly take in exchange the society of Milton's devils. +But as soon as we enter the regions of Tragedy, we find a great +change. There is no lack of fine sentiment there. Metastasio is +surpassed in his own department. Scuderi is out-scuderied. We +are introduced to people whose proceedings we can trace to no +motive,--of whose feelings we can form no more idea than of a +sixth sense. We have left a race of creatures, whose love is as +delicate and affectionate as the passion which an alderman feels +for a turtle. We find ourselves among beings, whose love is a +purely disinterested emotion,--a loyalty extending to passive +obedience,--a religion, like that of the Quietists, unsupported +by any sanction of hope or fear. We see nothing but despotism +without power, and sacrifices without compensation. + +We will give a few instances. In Aurengzebe, Arimant, governor +of Agra, falls in love with his prisoner Indamora. She rejects +his suit with scorn; but assures him that she shall make great +use of her power over him. He threatens to be angry. She +answers, very coolly: + +"Do not: your anger, like your love, is vain: +Whene'er I please, you must be pleased again. +Knowing what power I have your will to bend, +I'll use it; for I need just such a friend." + +This is no idle menace. She soon brings a letter addressed to +his rival,--orders him to read it,--asks him whether he thinks it +sufficiently tender,--and finally commands him to carry it +himself. Such tyranny as this, it may be thought, would justify +resistance. Arimant does indeed venture to remonstrate:-- + +"This fatal paper rather let me tear, +Than, like Bellerophon, my sentence bear." + +The answer of the lady is incomparable:-- + +"You may; but 'twill not be your best advice; +'Twill only give me pains of writing twice. +You know you must obey me, soon or late. +Why should you vainly struggle with your fate?" + +Poor Arimant seems to be of the same opinion. He mutters +something about fate and free-will, and walks off with the +billet-doux. + +In the Indian Emperor, Montezuma presents Almeria with a garland +as a token of his love, and offers to make her his queen. She +replies:-- + +"I take this garland, not as given by you; +But as my merit's and my beauty's due; +As for the crown which you, my slave, possess, +To share it with you would but make me less." + +In return for such proofs of tenderness as these, her admirer +consents to murder his two sons and a benefactor to whom he feels +the warmest gratitude. Lyndaraxa, in the Conquest of Granada, +assumes the same lofty tone with Abdelmelech. He complains that +she smiles upon his rival. + +"Lynd. And when did I my power so far resign, + That you should regulate each look of mine? + +Abdel. Then, when you gave your love, you gave that power. + +Lynd. 'Twas during pleasure--'tis revoked this hour. + +Abdel. I'll hate you, and this visit is my last. + +Lynd. Do, if you can: you know I hold you fast." + +That these passages violate all historical propriety, that +sentiments to which nothing similar was ever even affected except +by the cavaliers of Europe, are transferred to Mexico and Agra, +is a light accusation. We have no objection to a conventional +world, an Illyrian puritan, or a Bohemian seaport. While the +faces are good, we care little about the back-ground. Sir Joshua +Reynolds says that the curtains and hangings in an historical +painting ought to be, not velvet or cotton, but merely drapery. +The same principle should be applied to poetry and romance. The +truth of character is the first object; the truth of place and +time is to be considered only in the second place. Puff himself +could tell the actor to turn out his toes, and remind him that +Keeper Hatton was a great dancer. We wish that, in our own time, +a writer of a very different order from Puff had not too often +forgotten human nature in the niceties of upholstery, millinery, +and cookery. + +We blame Dryden, not because the persons of his dramas are not +Moors or Americans, but because they are not men and women;--not +because love, such as he represents it, could not exist in a +harem or in a wigwam, but because it could not exist anywhere. +As is the love of his heroes, such are all their other emotions. +All their qualities, their courage, their generosity, their +pride, are on the same colossal scale. Justice and prudence are +virtues which can exist only in a moderate degree, and which +change their nature and their name if pushed to excess. Of +justice and prudence, therefore, Dryden leaves his favourites +destitute. He did not care to give them what he could not give +without measure. The tyrants and ruffians are merely the heroes +altered by a few touches, similar to those which transformed the +honest face of Sir Roger de Coverley into the Saracen's head. +Through the grin and frown the original features are still +perceptible. + +It is in the tragi-comedies that these absurdities strike us +most. The two races of men, or rather the angels and the +baboons, are there presented to us together. We meet in one +scene with nothing but gross, selfish, unblushing, lying +libertines of both sexes, who, as a punishment, we suppose, for +their depravity, are condemned to talk nothing but prose. But, +as soon as we meet with people who speak in verse, we know that +we are in society which would have enraptured the Cathos and +Madelon of Moliere, in society for which Oroondates would have +too little of the lover, and Clelia too much of the coquette. + +As Dryden was unable to render his plays interesting by means of +that which is the peculiar and appropriate excellence of the +drama, it was necessary that he should find some substitute for +it. In his comedies he supplied its place, sometimes by wit, but +more frequently by intrigue, by disguises, mistakes of persons, +dialogues at cross purposes, hair-breadth escapes, perplexing +concealments, and surprising disclosures. He thus succeeded at +least in making these pieces very amusing. + +In his tragedies he trusted, and not altogether without reason, +to his diction and his versification. It was on this account, in +all probability, that he so eagerly adopted, and so reluctantly +abandoned, the practice of rhyming in his plays. What is +unnatural appears less unnatural in that species of verse than in +lines which approach more nearly to common conversation; and in +the management of the heroic couplet Dryden has never been +equalled. It is unnecessary to urge any arguments against a +fashion now universally condemned. But it is worthy of +observation, that, though Dryden was deficient in that talent +which blank verse exhibits to the greatest advantage, and was +certainly the best writer of heroic rhyme in our language, yet +the plays which have, from the time of their first appearance, +been considered as his best, are in blank verse. No experiment +can be more decisive. + +It must be allowed that the worst even of the rhyming tragedies +contains good description and magnificent rhetoric. But, even +when we forget that they are plays, and, passing by their +dramatic improprieties, consider them with reference to the +language, we are perpetually disgusted by passages which it is +difficult to conceive how any author could have written, or any +audience have tolerated, rants in which the raving violence of +the manner forms a strange contrast with the abject tameness of +the thought. The author laid the whole fault on the audience, +and declared that, when he wrote them, he considered them bad +enough to please. This defence is unworthy of a man of genius, +and after all, is no defence. Otway pleased without rant; and so +might Dryden have done, if he had possessed the powers of Otway. +The fact is, that he had a tendency to bombast, which, though +subsequently corrected by time and thought, was never wholly +removed, and which showed itself in performances not designed to +please the rude mob of the theatre. + +Some indulgent critics have represented this failing as an +indication of genius, as the profusion of unlimited wealth, the +wantonness of exuberant vigour. To us it seems to bear a nearer +affinity to the tawdriness of poverty, or the spasms and +convulsions of weakness. Dryden surely had not more imagination +than Homer, Dante, or Milton, who never fall into this vice. The +swelling diction of Aeschylus and Isaiah resembles that of +Almanzor and Maximin no more than the tumidity of a muscle +resembles the tumidity of a boil. The former is symptomatic of +health and strength, the latter of debility and disease. If ever +Shakspeare rants, it is not when his imagination is hurrying him +along, but when he is hurrying his imagination along,--when his +mind is for a moment jaded,--when, as was said of Euripides, he +resembles a lion, who excites his own fury by lashing himself +with his tail. What happened to Shakspeare from the occasional +suspension of his powers happened to Dryden from constant +impotence. He, like his confederate Lee, had judgment enough to +appreciate the great poets of the preceding age, but not judgment +enough to shun competition with them. He felt and admired their +wild and daring sublimity. That it belonged to another age than +that in which he lived and required other talents than those +which he possessed, that, in aspiring to emulate it, he was +wasting, in a hopeless attempt, powers which might render him +pre-eminent in a different career, was a lesson which he did not +learn till late. As those knavish enthusiasts, the French +prophets, courted inspiration by mimicking the writhings, +swoonings, and gaspings which they considered as its symptoms, he +attempted, by affected fits of poetical fury, to bring on a real +paroxysm; and, like them, he got nothing but his distortions for +his pains. + +Horace very happily compares those who, in his time, imitated +Pindar to the youth who attempted to fly to heaven on waxen +wings, and who experienced so fatal and ignominious a fall. His +own admirable good sense preserved him from this error, and +taught him to cultivate a style in which excellence was within +his reach. Dryden had not the same self-knowledge. He saw that +the greatest poets were never so successful as when they rushed +beyond the ordinary bounds, and that some inexplicable good +fortune preserved them from tripping even when they staggered on +the brink of nonsense. He did not perceive that they were guided +and sustained by a power denied to himself. They wrote from the +dictation of the imagination; and they found a response in the +imaginations of others. He, on the contrary, sat down to work +himself, by reflection and argument, into a deliberate wildness, +a rational frenzy. + +In looking over the admirable designs which accompany the Faust, +we have always been much struck by one which represents the +wizard and the tempter riding at full speed. The demon sits on +his furious horse as heedlessly as if he were reposing on a +chair. That he should keep his saddle in such a posture, would +seem impossible to any who did not know that he was secure in the +privileges of a superhuman nature. The attitude of Faust, on the +contrary, is the perfection of horsemanship. Poets of the first +order might safely write as desperately as Mephistopheles rode. +But Dryden, though admitted to communion with higher spirits, +though armed with a portion of their power, and intrusted with +some of their secrets, was of another race. What they might +securely venture to do, it was madness in him to attempt. It was +necessary that taste and critical science should supply his +deficiencies. + +We will give a few examples. Nothing can be finer than the +description of Hector at the Grecian wall:-- + +o d ar esthore phaidimos Ektor, +Nukti thoe atalantos upopia lampe de chalko +Smerdaleo, ton eesto peri chroi doia de chersi +Dour echen ouk an tis min erukakoi antibolesas, +Nosphi theun, ot esalto pulas puri d osse dedeei.-- +Autika d oi men teichos uperbasan, oi de kat autas +Poietas esechunto pulas Danaioi d ephobethen +Neas ana glaphuras omados d aliastos etuchthe. + +What daring expressions! Yet how significant! How picturesque! +Hector seems to rise up in his strength and fury. The gloom of +night in his frown,--the fire burning in his eyes,--the javelins +and the blazing armour,--the mighty rush through the gates and +down the battlements,--the trampling and the infinite roar of the +multitude,--everything is with us; everything is real. + +Dryden has described a very similar event in Maximin, and has +done his best to be sublime, as follows:-- + +"There with a forest of their darts he strove, +And stood like Capaneus defying Jove; +With his broad sword the boldest beating down, +Till Fate grew pale, lest he should win the town, +And turn'd the iron leaves of its dark book +To make new dooms, or mend what it mistook." + +How exquisite is the imagery of the fairy-songs in the Tempest +and the Midsummer Night's Dream; Ariel riding through the +twilight on the bat, or sucking in the bells of flowers with the +bee; or the little bower-women of Titania, driving the spiders +from the couch of the Queen! Dryden truly said, that + +"Shakspeare's magic could not copied be; +Within that circle none durst walk but he." + +It would have been well if he had not himself dared to step +within the enchanted line, and drawn on himself a fate similar to +that which, according to the old superstition, punished such +presumptuous interference. The following lines are parts of the +song of his fairies:-- + +"Merry, merry, merry, we sail from the East, +Half-tippled at a rainbow feast. +In the bright moonshine, while winds whistle loud, +Tivy, tivy, tivy, we mount and we fly, +All racking along in a downy white cloud; +And lest our leap from the sky prove too far, +We slide on the back of a new falling star, +And drop from above +In a jelly of love." + +These are very favourable instances. Those who wish for a bad +one may read the dying speeches of Maximin, and may compare them +with the last scenes of Othello and Lear. + +If Dryden had died before the expiration of the first of the +periods into which we have divided his literary life, he would +have left a reputation, at best, little higher than that of Lee +or Davenant. He would have been known only to men of letters; +and by them he would have been mentioned as a writer who threw +away, on subjects which he was incompetent to treat, powers +which, judiciously employed, might have raised him to eminence; +whose diction and whose numbers had sometimes very high merit, +but all whose works were blemished by a false taste, and by +errors of gross negligence. A few of his prologues and epilogues +might perhaps still have been remembered and quoted. In these +little pieces he early showed all the powers which afterwards +rendered him the greatest of modern satirists. But, during the +latter part of his life, he gradually abandoned the drama. His +plays appeared at longer intervals. He renounced rhyme in +tragedy. His language became less turgid--his characters less +exaggerated. He did not indeed produce correct representations +of human nature; but he ceased to daub such monstrous chimeras as +those which abound in his earlier pieces. Here and there +passages occur worthy of the best ages of the British stage. The +style which the drama requires changes with every change of +character and situation. He who can vary his manner to suit the +variation is the great dramatist; but he who excels in one manner +only will, when that manner happens to be appropriate, appear to +be a great dramatist; as the hands of a watch which does not go +point right once in the twelve hours. Sometimes there is a scene +of solemn debate. This a mere rhetorician may write as well as +the greatest tragedian that ever lived. We confess that to us +the speech of Sempronius in Cato seems very nearly as good as +Shakspeare could have made it. But when the senate breaks up, +and we find that the lovers and their mistresses, the hero, the +villain, and the deputy-villain, all continue to harangue in the +same style, we perceive the difference between a man who can +write a play and a man who can write a speech. In the same +manner, wit, a talent for description, or a talent for narration, +may, for a time, pass for dramatic genius. Dryden was an +incomparable reasoner in verse. He was conscious of his power; +he was proud of it; and the authors of the Rehearsal justly +charged him with abusing it. His warriors and princesses are +fond of discussing points of amorous casuistry, such as would +have delighted a Parliament of Love. They frequently go still +deeper, and speculate on philosophical necessity and the origin +of evil. + +There were, however, some occasions which absolutely required +this peculiar talent. Then Dryden was indeed at home. All his +best scenes are of this description. They are all between men; +for the heroes of Dryden, like many other gentlemen, can never +talk sense when ladies are in company. They are all intended to +exhibit the empire of reason over violent passion. We have two +interlocutors, the one eager and impassioned, the other high, +cool, and judicious. The composed and rational character +gradually acquires the ascendency. His fierce companion is first +inflamed to rage by his reproaches, then overawed by his +equanimity, convinced by his arguments, and soothed by his +persuasions. This is the case in the scene between Hector and +Troilus, in that between Antony and Ventidius, and in that +between Sebastian and Dorax. Nothing of the same kind in +Shakspeare is equal to them, except the quarrel between Brutus +and Cassius, which is worth them all three. + +Some years before his death, Dryden altogether ceased to write +for the stage. He had turned his powers in a new direction, with +success the most splendid and decisive. His taste had gradually +awakened his creative faculties. The first rank in poetry was +beyond his reach; but he challenged and secured the most +honourable place in the second. His imagination resembled the +wings of an ostrich; it enabled him to run, though not to soar. +When he attempted the highest flights, he became ridiculous; but, +while he remained in a lower region, he out-stripped all +competitors. + +All his natural and all his acquired powers fitted him to found a +good critical school of poetry. Indeed he carried his reforms +too far for his age. After his death our literature retrograded; +and a century was necessary to bring it back to the point at +which he left it. The general soundness and healthfulness of his +mental constitution, his information, of vast superficies, though +of small volume, his wit scarcely inferior to that of the most +distinguished followers of Donne, his eloquence, grave, +deliberate, and commanding, could not save him from disgraceful +failure as a rival of Shakspeare, but raised him far above the +level of Boileau. His command of language was immense. With him +died the secret of the old poetical diction of England,--the art +of producing rich effects by familiar words. In the following +century it was as completely lost as the Gothic method of +painting glass, and was but poorly supplied by the laborious and +tesselated imitations of Mason and Gray. On the other hand, he +was the first writer under whose skilful management the +scientific vocabulary fell into natural and pleasing verse. In +this department, he succeeded as completely as his contemporary +Gibbons succeeded in the similar enterprise of carving the most +delicate flowers from heart of oak. The toughest and most knotty +parts of language became ductile at his touch. His +versification, in the same manner, while it gave the first model +of that neatness and precision which the following generation +esteemed so highly, exhibited at the same time, the last examples +of nobleness, freedom, variety of pause, and cadence. His +tragedies in rhyme, however worthless in themselves, had at least +served the purpose of nonsense-verses; they had taught him all +the arts of melody which the heroic couplet admits. For bombast, +his prevailing vice, his new subjects gave little opportunity; +his better taste gradually discarded it. + +He possessed, as we have said, in a pre-eminent degree the power +of reasoning in verse; and this power was now peculiarly useful +to him. His logic is by no means uniformly sound. On points of +criticism, he always reasons ingeniously; and when he is disposed +to be honest, correctly. But the theological and political +questions which he undertook to treat in verse were precisely +those which he understood least. His arguments, therefore, are +often worthless. But the manner in which they are stated is +beyond all praise. The style is transparent. The topics follow +each other in the happiest order. The objections are drawn up in +such a manner that the whole fire of the reply may be brought to +bear on them. The circumlocutions which are substituted for +technical phrases are clear, neat, and exact. The illustrations +at once adorn and elucidate the reasoning. The sparkling +epigrams of Cowley, and the simple garrulity of the burlesque +poets of Italy, are alternately employed, in the happiest manner, +to give effect to what is obvious or clearness to what is +obscure. + +His literary creed was catholic, even to latitudinarianism; not +from any want of acuteness, but from a disposition to be easily +satisfied. He was quick to discern the smallest glimpse of +merit; he was indulgent even to gross improprieties, when +accompanied by any redeeming talent. When he said a severe +thing, it was to serve a temporary purpose,--to support an +argument, or to tease a rival. Never was so able a critic so +free from fastidiousness. He loved the old poets, especially +Shakspeare. He admired the ingenuity which Donne and Cowley had +so wildly abused. He did justice, amidst the general silence, to +the memory of Milton. He praised to the skies the school-boy +lines of Addison. Always looking on the fair side of every +object, he admired extravagance on account of the invention which +he supposed it to indicate; he excused affectation in favour of +wit; he tolerated even tameness for the sake of the correctness +which was its concomitant. + +It was probably to this turn of mind, rather than to the more +disgraceful causes which Johnson has assigned, that we are to +attribute the exaggeration which disfigures the panegyrics of +Dryden. No writer, it must be owned, has carried the flattery of +dedication to a greater length. But this was not, we suspect, +merely interested servility: it was the overflowing of a mind +singularly disposed to admiration,--of a mind which diminished +vices, and magnified virtues and obligations. The most adulatory +of his addresses is that in which he dedicates the State of +Innocence to Mary of Modena. Johnson thinks it strange that any +man should use such language without self-detestation. But he +has not remarked that to the very same work is prefixed an +eulogium on Milton, which certainly could not have been +acceptable at the Court of Charles the Second. Many years later, +when Whig principles were in a great measure triumphant, Sprat +refused to admit a monument of John Phillips into Westminster +Abbey--because, in the epitaph, the name of Milton incidentally +occurred. The walls of his church, he declared, should not be +polluted by the name of a republican! Dryden was attached, both +by principle and interest, to the Court. But nothing could +deaden his sensibility to excellence. We are unwilling to accuse +him severely, because the same disposition, which prompted him to +pay so generous a tribute to the memory of a poet whom his +patrons detested, hurried him into extravagance when he described +a princess distinguished by the splendour of her beauty and the +graciousness of her manners. + +This is an amiable temper; but it is not the temper of great men. +Where there is elevation of character, there will be +fastidiousness. It is only in novels and on tombstones that we +meet with people who are indulgent to the faults of others, and +unmerciful to their own; and Dryden, at all events, was not one +of these paragons. His charity was extended most liberally to +others; but it certainly began at home. In taste he was by no +means deficient. His critical works are, beyond all comparison, +superior to any which had, till then, appeared in England. They +were generally intended as apologies for his own poems, rather +than as expositions of general principles; he, therefore, often +attempts to deceive the reader by sophistry which could scarcely +have deceived himself. His dicta are the dicta, not of a judge, +but of an advocate:--often of an advocate in an unsound cause. +Yet, in the very act of misrepresenting the laws of composition, +he shows how well he understands them. But he was perpetually +acting against his better knowledge. His sins were sins against +light. He trusted that what was bad would be pardoned for the +sake of what was good. What was good, he took no pains to make +better. He was not, like most persons who rise to eminence, +dissatisfied even with his best productions. He had set up no +unattainable standard of perfection, the contemplation of which +might at once improve and mortify him. His path was not attended +by an unapproachable mirage of excellence, for ever receding, and +for ever pursued. He was not disgusted by the negligence of +others; and he extended the same toleration to himself. His mind +was of a slovenly character,--fond of splendour, but indifferent +to neatness. Hence most of his writings exhibit the sluttish +magnificence of a Russian noble, all vermin and diamonds, dirty +linen and inestimable sables. Those faults which spring from +affectation, time and thought in a great measure removed from his +poems. But his carelessness he retained to the last. If towards +the close of his life he less frequently went wrong from +negligence, it was only because long habits of composition +rendered it more easy to go right. In his best pieces we find +false rhymes,--triplets, in which the third line appears to be a +mere intruder, and, while it breaks the music, adds nothing to +the meaning,--gigantic Alexandrines of fourteen and sixteen +syllables, and truncated verses for which he never troubled +himself to find a termination or a partner. + +Such are the beauties and the faults which may be found in +profusion throughout the later works of Dryden. A more just and +complete estimate of his natural and acquired powers,--of the +merits of his style and of its blemishes,--may be formed from the +Hind and Panther, than from any of his other writings. As a +didactic poem, it is far superior to the Religio Laici. The +satirical parts, particularly the character of Burnet, are +scarcely inferior to the best passages in Absalom and Achitophel. +There are, moreover, occasional touches of a tenderness which +affects us more, because it is decent, rational, and manly, and +reminds us of the best scenes in his tragedies. His +versification sinks and swells in happy unison with the subject; +and his wealth of language seems to be unlimited. Yet, the +carelessness with which he has constructed his plot, and the +innumerable inconsistencies into which he is every moment +falling, detract much from the pleasure which such various +excellence affords. + +In Absalom and Achitophel he hit upon a new and rich vein, which +he worked with signal success. They ancient satirists were the +subjects of a despotic government. They were compelled to +abstain from political topics, and to confine their attention to +the frailties of private life. They might, indeed, sometimes +venture to take liberties with public men, + +"Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis atque Latina." + +Thus Juvenal immortalised the obsequious senators who met to +decide the fate of the memorable turbot. His fourth satire +frequently reminds us of the great political poem of Dryden; but +it was not written till Domitian had fallen: and it wants +something of the peculiar flavour which belongs to contemporary +invective alone. His anger has stood so long that, though the +body is not impaired, the effervescence, the first cream, is +gone. Boileau lay under similar restraints; and, if he had been +free from all restraints, would have been no match for our +countryman. + +The advantages which Dryden derived from the nature of his +subject he improved to the very utmost. His manner is almost +perfect. The style of Horace and Boileau is fit only for light +subjects. The Frenchman did indeed attempt to turn the +theological reasonings of the Provincial Letters into verse, but +with very indifferent success. The glitter of Pope is gold. The +ardour of Persius is without brilliancy. Magnificent +versification and ingenious combinations rarely harmonise with +the expression of deep feeling. In Juvenal and Dryden alone we +have the sparkle and the heat together. Those great satirists +succeeded in communicating the fervour of their feelings to +materials the most incombustible, and kindled the whole mass into +a blaze, at once dazzling and destructive. We cannot, indeed, +think, without regret, of the part which so eminent a writer as +Dryden took in the disputes of that period. There was, no doubt, +madness and wickedness on both sides. But there was liberty on +the one, and despotism on the other. On this point, however, we +will not dwell. At Talavera the English and French troops for a +moment suspended their conflict, to drink of a stream which +flowed between them. The shells were passed across from enemy to +enemy without apprehension or molestation. We, in the same +manner, would rather assist our political adversaries to drink +with us of that fountain of intellectual pleasure, which should +be the common refreshment of both parties, than disturb and +pollute it with the havoc of unseasonable hostilities. + +Macflecnoe is inferior to Absalom and Achitophel only in the +subject. In the execution it is even superior. But the greatest +work of Dryden was the last, the Ode on Saint Cecilia's Day. It +is the masterpiece of the second class of poetry, and ranks but +just below the great models of the first. It reminds us of the +Pedasus of Achilles-- + +os, kai thnetos eon, epeth ippois athanatoisi. + +By comparing it with the impotent ravings of the heroic tragedies +we may measure the progress which the mind of Dryden had made. +He had learned to avoid a too audacious competition with higher +natures, to keep at a distance from the verge of bombast or +nonsense, to venture on no expression which did not convey a +distinct idea to his own mind. There is none of that "darkness +visible" of style which he had formerly affected, and in which +the greatest poets only can succeed. Everything is definite, +significant, and picturesque. His early writings resembled the +gigantic works of those Chinese gardeners who attempt to rival +nature herself, to form cataracts of terrific height and sound, +to raise precipitous ridges of mountains, and to imitate in +artificial plantations the vastness and the gloom of some +primeval forest. This manner he abandoned; nor did he ever adopt +the Dutch taste which Pope affected, the trim parterres, and the +rectangular walks. He rather resembled our Kents and Browns, who +imitating the great features of landscape without emulating them, +consulting the genius of the place, assisting nature and +carefully disguising their art, produced, not a Chamouni or a +Niagara, but a Stowe or a Hagley. + +We are, on the whole, inclined to regret that Dryden did not +accomplish his purpose of writing an epic poem. It certainly +would not have been a work of the highest rank. It would not +have rivalled the Iliad, the Odyssey, or the Paradise Lost; but +it would have been superior to the productions of Apollonius, +Lucan, or Statius, and not inferior to the Jerusalem Delivered. +It would probably have been a vigorous narrative, animated with +something of the spirit of the old romances, enriched with much +splendid description, and interspersed with fine declamations and +disquisitions. The danger of Dryden would have been from aiming +too high; from dwelling too much, for example, on his angels of +kingdoms, and attempting a competition with that great writer who +in his own time had so incomparably succeeded in representing to +us the sights and sounds of another world. To Milton, and to +Milton alone, belonged the secrets of the great deep, the beach +of sulphur, the ocean of fire, the palaces of the fallen +dominations, glimmering through the everlasting shade, the silent +wilderness of verdure and fragrance where armed angels kept watch +over the sleep of the first lovers, the portico of diamond, the +sea of jasper, the sapphire pavement empurpled with celestial +roses, and the infinite ranks of the Cherubim, blazing with +adamant and gold. The council, the tournament, the procession, +the crowded cathedral, the camp, the guard-room, the chase, were +the proper scenes for Dryden. + +But we have not space to pass in review all the works which +Dryden wrote. We, therefore, will not speculate longer on those +which he might possibly have written. He may, on the whole, be +pronounced to have been a man possessed of splendid talents, +which he often abused, and of a sound judgment, the admonitions +of which he often neglected; a man who succeeded only in an +inferior department of his art, but who, in that department, +succeeded pre-eminently; and who with a more independent spirit, +a more anxious desire of excellence, and more respect for +himself, would, in his own walk, have attained to absolute +perfection. + + +HISTORY. + +(May 1828.) + +"The Romance of History. England." By Henry Neele. London, +1828. + +To write history respectably--that is, to abbreviate despatches, +and make extracts from speeches, to intersperse in due proportion +epithets of praise and abhorrence, to draw up antithetical +characters of great men, setting forth how many contradictory +virtues and vices they united, and abounding in "withs" and +"withouts"--all this is very easy. But to be a really great +historian is perhaps the rarest of intellectual distinctions. +Many scientific works are, in their kind, absolutely perfect. +There are poems which we should be inclined to designate as +faultless, or as disfigured only by blemishes which pass +unnoticed in the general blaze of excellence. There are +speeches, some speeches of Demosthenes particularly, in which it +would be impossible to alter a word without altering it for the +worse. But we are acquainted with no history which approaches to +our notion of what a history ought to be--with no history which +does not widely depart, either on the right hand or on the left, +from the exact line. + +The cause may easily be assigned. This province of literature is +a debatable land. It lies on the confines of two distinct +territories. It is under the jurisdiction of two hostile powers; +and, like other districts similarly situated, it is ill defined, +ill cultivated, and ill regulated. Instead of being equally +shared between its two rulers, the Reason and the Imagination, it +falls alternately under the sole and absolute dominion of each. +It is sometimes fiction. It is sometimes theory. + +History, it has been said, is philosophy teaching by examples. +Unhappily, what the philosophy gains in soundness and depth the +examples generally lose in vividness. A perfect historian must +possess an imagination sufficiently powerful to make his +narrative affecting and picturesque. Yet he must control it so +absolutely as to content himself with the materials which he +finds, and to refrain from supplying deficiencies by additions of +his own. He must be a profound and ingenious reasoner. Yet he +must possess sufficient self-command to abstain from casting his +facts in the mould of his hypothesis. Those who can justly +estimate these almost insuperable difficulties will not think it +strange that every writer should have failed, either in the +narrative or in the speculative department of history. + +It may be laid down as a general rule, though subject to +considerable qualifications and exceptions, that history begins +in novel and ends in essay. Of the romantic historians Herodotus +is the earliest and the best. His animation, his simple-hearted +tenderness, his wonderful talent for description and dialogue, +and the pure sweet flow of his language, place him at the head of +narrators. He reminds us of a delightful child. There is a +grace beyond the reach of affectation in his awkwardness, a +malice in his innocence, an intelligence in his nonsense, an +insinuating eloquence in his lisp. We know of no writer who +makes such interest for himself and his book in the heart of the +reader. At the distance of three-and-twenty centuries, we feel +for him the same sort of pitying fondness which Fontaine and Gay +are said to have inspired in society. He has written an +incomparable book. He has written something better perhaps than +the best history; but he has not written a good history; he is, +from the first to the last chapter, an inventor. We do not here +refer merely to those gross fictions with which he has been +reproached by the critics of later times. We speak of that +colouring which is equally diffused over his whole narrative, and +which perpetually leaves the most sagacious reader in doubt what +to reject and what to receive. The most authentic parts of his +work bear the same relation to his wildest legends which Henry +the Fifth bears to the Tempest. There was an expedition +undertaken by Xerxes against Greece; and there was an invasion of +France. There was a battle at Plataea; and there was a battle at +Agincourt. Cambridge and Exeter, the Constable and the Dauphin, +were persons as real as Demaratus and Pausanias. The harangue of +the Archbishop on the Salic Law and the Book of Numbers differs +much less from the orations which have in all ages proceeded from +the right reverend bench than the speeches of Mardonius and +Artabanus from those which were delivered at the council-board of +Susa. Shakspeare gives us enumerations of armies, and returns of +killed and wounded, which are not, we suspect, much less accurate +than those of Herodotus. There are passages in Herodotus nearly +as long as acts of Shakspeare, in which everything is told +dramatically, and in which the narrative serves only the purpose +of stage-directions. It is possible, no doubt, that the +substance of some real conversations may have been reported to +the historian. But events which, if they ever happened, happened +in ages and nations so remote that the particulars could never +have been known to him, are related with the greatest minuteness +of detail. We have all that Candaules said to Gyges, and all +that passed between Astyages and Harpagus. We are, therefore, +unable to judge whether, in the account which he gives of +transactions respecting which he might possibly have been well +informed, we can trust to anything beyond the naked outline; +whether, for example, the answer of Gelon to the ambassadors of +the Grecian confederacy, or the expressions which passed between +Aristides and Themistocles at their famous interview, have been +correctly transmitted to us. The great events are, no doubt, +faithfully related. So, probably, are many of the slighter +circumstances; but which of them it is impossible to ascertain. +The fictions are so much like the facts, and the facts so much +like the fictions, that, with respect to many most interesting +particulars, our belief is neither given nor withheld, but +remains in an uneasy and interminable state of abeyance. We know +that there is truth; but we cannot exactly decide where it lies. + +The faults of Herodotus are the faults of a simple and +imaginative mind. Children and servants are remarkably +Herodotean in their style of narration. They tell everything +dramatically. Their "says hes" and "says shes" are proverbial. +Every person who has had to settle their disputes knows that, +even when they have no intention to deceive, their reports of +conversation always require to be carefully sifted. If an +educated man were giving an account of the late change of +administration, he would say--"Lord Goderich resigned; and the +King, in consequence, sent for the Duke of Wellington." A porter +tells the story as if he had been hid behind the curtains of the +royal bed at Windsor: "So Lord Goderich says, 'I cannot manage +this business; I must go out.' So the King says,--says he, +'Well, then, I must send for the Duke of Wellington--that's +all.'" This is in the very manner of the father of history. + +Herodotus wrote as it was natural that he should write. He wrote +for a nation susceptible, curious, lively, insatiably desirous of +novelty and excitement; for a nation in which the fine arts had +attained their highest excellence, but in which philosophy was +still in its infancy. His countrymen had but recently begun to +cultivate prose composition. Public transactions had generally +been recorded in verse. The first historians might, therefore, +indulge without fear of censure in the license allowed to their +predecessors the bards. Books were few. The events of former +times were learned from tradition and from popular ballads; the +manners of foreign countries from the reports of travellers. It +is well known that the mystery which overhangs what is distant, +either in space or time, frequently prevents us from censuring as +unnatural what we perceive to be impossible. We stare at a +dragoon who has killed three French cuirassiers, as a prodigy; +yet we read, without the least disgust, how Godfrey slew his +thousands, and Rinaldo his ten thousands. Within the last +hundred years, stories about China and Bantam, which ought not to +have imposed on an old nurse, were gravely laid down as +foundations of political theories by eminent philosophers. What +the time of the Crusades is to us, the generation of Croesus and +Solon was to the Greeks of the time of Herodotus. Babylon was to +them what Pekin was to the French academicians of the last +century. + +For such a people was the book of Herodotus composed; and, if we +may trust to a report, not sanctioned indeed by writers of high +authority, but in itself not improbable, it was composed, not to +be read, but to be heard. It was not to the slow circulation of +a few copies, which the rich only could possess, that the +aspiring author looked for his reward. The great Olympian +festival,--the solemnity which collected multitudes, proud of the +Grecian name, from the wildest mountains of Doris, and the +remotest colonies of Italy and Libya,--was to witness his +triumph. The interest of the narrative, and the beauty of the +style, were aided by the imposing effect of recitation,--by the +splendour of the spectacle,--by the powerful influence of +sympathy. A critic who could have asked for authorities in the +midst of such a scene must have been of a cold and sceptical +nature; and few such critics were there. As was the historian, +such were the auditors,--inquisitive, credulous, easily moved by +religious awe or patriotic enthusiasm. They were the very men to +hear with delight of strange beasts, and birds, and trees,--of +dwarfs, and giants, and cannibals--of gods, whose very names it +was impiety to utter,--of ancient dynasties, which had left +behind them monuments surpassing all the works of later times,-- +of towns like provinces,--of rivers like seas,--of stupendous +walls, and temples, and pyramids,--of the rites which the Magi +performed at daybreak on the tops of the mountains,--of the +secrets inscribed on the eternal obelisks of Memphis. With equal +delight they would have listened to the graceful romances of +their own country. They now heard of the exact accomplishment of +obscure predictions, of the punishment of crimes over which the +justice of heaven had seemed to slumber,--of dreams, omens, +warnings from the dead,--of princesses, for whom noble suitors +contended in every generous exercise of strength and skill,--of +infants, strangely preserved from the dagger of the assassin, to +fulfil high destinies. + +As the narrative approached their own times, the interest became +still more absorbing. The chronicler had now to tell the story +of that great conflict from which Europe dates its intellectual +and political supremacy,--a story which, even at this distance of +time, is the most marvellous and the most touching in the annals +of the human race,--a story abounding with all that is wild and +wonderful, with all that is pathetic and animating; with the +gigantic caprices of infinite wealth and despotic power--with the +mightier miracles of wisdom, of virtue, and of courage. He told +them of rivers dried up in a day,--of provinces famished for a +meal,--of a passage for ships hewn through the mountains,--of a +road for armies spread upon the waves,--of monarchies and +commonwealths swept away,--of anxiety, of terror, of confusion, +of despair!--and then of proud and stubborn hearts tried in that +extremity of evil, and not found wanting,--of resistance long +maintained against desperate odds,--of lives dearly sold, when +resistance could be maintained no more,--of signal deliverance, +and of unsparing revenge. Whatever gave a stronger air of +reality to a narrative so well calculated to inflame the +passions, and to flatter national pride, was certain to be +favourably received. + +Between the time at which Herodotus is said to have composed his +history, and the close of the Peloponnesian war, about forty +years elapsed,--forty years, crowded with great military and +political events. The circumstances of that period produced a +great effect on the Grecian character; and nowhere was this +effect so remarkable as in the illustrious democracy of Athens. +An Athenian, indeed, even in the time of Herodotus, would +scarcely have written a book so romantic and garrulous as that of +Herodotus. As civilisation advanced, the citizens of that famous +republic became still less visionary, and still less simple- +hearted. They aspired to know where their ancestors had been +content to doubt; they began to doubt where their ancestors had +thought it their duty to believe. Aristophanes is fond of +alluding to this change in the temper of his countrymen. The +father and son, in the Clouds, are evidently representatives of +the generations to which they respectively belonged. Nothing +more clearly illustrates the nature of this moral revolution than +the change which passed upon tragedy. The wild sublimity of +Aeschylus became the scoff of every young Phidippides. Lectures +on abstruse points of philosophy, the fine distinctions of +casuistry, and the dazzling fence of rhetoric, were substituted +for poetry. The language lost something of that infantine +sweetness which had characterised it. It became less like the +ancient Tuscan, and more like the modern French. + +The fashionable logic of the Greeks was, indeed, far from strict. +Logic never can be strict where books are scarce, and where +information is conveyed orally. We are all aware how frequently +fallacies, which, when set down on paper, are at once detected, +pass for unanswerable arguments when dexterously and volubly +urged in Parliament, at the bar, or in private conversation. The +reason is evident. We cannot inspect them closely enough to +perceive their inaccuracy. We cannot readily compare them with +each other. We lose sight of one part of the subject before +another, which ought to be received in connection with it, comes +before us; and as there is no immutable record of what has been +admitted and of what has been denied, direct contradictions pass +muster with little difficulty. Almost all the education of a +Greek consisted in talking and listening. His opinions on +government were picked up in the debates of the assembly. If he +wished to study metaphysics, instead of shutting himself up with +a book, he walked down to the market-place to look for a sophist. +So completely were men formed to these habits, that even writing +acquired a conversational air. The philosophers adopted the form +of dialogue, as the most natural mode of communicating knowledge. +Their reasonings have the merits and the defects which belong to +that species of composition, and are characterised rather by +quickness and subtilty than by depth and precision. Truth is +exhibited in parts, and by glimpses. Innumerable clever hints +are given; but no sound and durable system is erected. The +argumentum ad hominem, a kind of argument most efficacious in +debate, but utterly useless for the investigation of general +principles, is among their favourite resources. Hence, though +nothing can be more admirable than the skill which Socrates +displays in the conversations which Plato has reported or +invented, his victories, for the most part, seem to us +unprofitable. A trophy is set up; but no new province is added +to the dominions of the human mind. + +Still, where thousands of keen and ready intellects were +constantly employed in speculating on the qualiies of actions and +on the principles of government, it was impossible that history +should retain its whole character. It became less gossiping and +less picturesque; but much more accurate, and somewhat more +scientific. + +The history of Thucydides differs from that of Herodotus as a +portrait differs from the representation of an imaginary scene; +as the Burke or Fox of Reynolds differs from his Ugolino or his +Beaufort. In the former case, the archetype is given: in the +latter it is created. The faculties which are required for the +latter purpose are of a higher and rarer order than those which +suffice for the former, and indeed necessarily comprise them. He +who is able to paint what he sees with the eye of the mind will +surely be able to paint what he sees with the eye of the body. +He who can invent a story, and tell it well, will also be able to +tell, in an interesting manner, a story which he has not +invented. If, in practice, some of the best writers of fiction +have been among the worst writers of history, it has been because +one of their talents had merged in another so completely that it +could not be severed; because, having long been habituated to +invent and narrate at the same time, they found it impossible to +narrate without inventing. + +Some capricious and discontented artists have affected to +consider portrait-painting as unworthy of a man of genius. Some +critics have spoken in the same contemptuous manner of history. +Johnson puts the case thus: The historian tells either what is +false or what is true: in the former case he is no historian: +in the latter he has no opportunity for displaying his abilities: +for truth is one: and all who tell the truth must tell it alike. + +It is not difficult to elude both the horns of this dilemma. We +will recur to the analogous art of portrait-painting. Any man +with eyes and hands may be taught to take a likeness. The +process, up to a certain point, is merely mechanical. If this +were all, a man of talents might justly despise the occupation. +But we could mention portraits which are resemblances,--but not +mere resemblances; faithful,--but much more than faithful; +portraits which condense into one point of time, and exhibit, at +a single glance, the whole history of turbid and eventful lives-- +in which the eye seems to scrutinise us, and the mouth to command +us--in which the brow menaces, and the lip almost quivers with +scorn--in which every wrinkle is a comment on some important +transaction. The account which Thucydides has given of the +retreat from Syracuse is, among narratives, what Vandyke's Lord +Strafford is among paintings. + +Diversity, it is said, implies error: truth is one, and admits +of no degrees. We answer, that this principle holds good only in +abstract reasonings. When we talk of the truth of imitation in +the fine arts, we mean an imperfect and a graduated truth. No +picture is exactly like the original; nor is a picture good in +proportion as it is like the original. When Sir Thomas Lawrence +paints a handsome peeress, he does not contemplate her through a +powerful microscope, and transfer to the canvas the pores of the +skin, the blood-vessels of the eye, and all the other beauties +which Gulliver discovered in the Brobdingnagian maids of honour. +If he were to do this, the effect would not merely be unpleasant, +but, unless the scale of the picture were proportionably +enlarged, would be absolutely FALSE. And, after all, a +microscope of greater power than that which he had employed would +convict him of innumerable omissions. The same may be said of +history. Perfectly and absolutely true it cannot be: for, to be +perfectly and absolutely true, it ought to record ALL the +slightest particulars of the slightest transactions--all the +things done and all the words uttered during the time of which it +treats. The omission of any circumstance, however insignificant, +would be a defect. If history were written thus, the Bodleian +Library would not contain the occurrences of a week. What is +told in the fullest and most accurate annals bears an infinitely +small proportion to what is suppressed. The difference between +the copious work of Clarendon and the account of the civil wars +in the abridgment of Goldsmith vanishes when compared with the +immense mass of facts respecting which both are equally silent. + +No picture, then, and no history, can present us with the whole +truth: but those are the best pictures and the best histories +which exhibit such parts of the truth as most nearly produce the +effect of the whole. He who is deficient in the art of selection +may, by showing nothing but the truth, produce all the effect of +the grossest falsehood. It perpetually happens that one writer +tells less truth than another, merely because he tells more +truths. In the imitative arts we constantly see this. There are +lines in the human face, and objects in landscape, which stand in +such relations to each other, that they ought either to be all +introduced into a painting together or all omitted together. A +sketch into which none of them enters may be excellent; but, if +some are given and others left out, though there are more points +of likeness, there is less likeness. An outline scrawled with a +pen, which seizes the marked features of a countenance, will give +a much stronger idea of it than a bad painting in oils. Yet the +worst painting in oils that ever hung at Somerset House resembles +the original in many more particulars. A bust of white marble +may give an excellent idea of a blooming face. Colour the lips +and cheeks of the bust, leaving the hair and eyes unaltered, and +the similarity, instead of being more striking, will be less so. + +History has its foreground and its background: and it is +principally in the management of its perspective that one artist +differs from another. Some events must be represented on a large +scale, others diminished; the great majority will be lost in the +dimness of the horizon; and a general idea of their joint effect +will be given by a few slight touches. + +In this respect no writer has ever equalled Thucydides. He was a +perfect master of the art of gradual diminution. His history is +sometimes as concise as a chronological chart; yet it is always +perspicuous. It is sometimes as minute as one of Lovelace's +letters; yet it is never prolix. He never fails to contract and +to expand it in the right place. + +Thucydides borrowed from Herodotus the practice of putting +speeches of his own into the mouths of his characters. In +Herodotus this usage is scarcely censurable. It is of a piece +with his whole manner. But it is altogether incongruous in the +work of his successor, and violates, not only the accuracy of +history, but the decencies of fiction. When once we enter into +the spirit of Herodotus, we find no inconsistency. The +conventional probability of his drama is preserved from the +beginning to the end. The deliberate orations, and the familiar +dialogues, are in strict keeping with each other. But the +speeches of Thucydides are neither preceded nor followed by +anything with which they harmonise. They give to the whole book +something of the grotesque character of those Chinese pleasure- +grounds in which perpendicular rocks of granite start up in the +midst of a soft green plain. Invention is shocking where truth +is in such close juxtaposition with it. + +Thucydides honestly tells us that some of these discourses are +purely fictitious. He may have reported the substance of others +correctly, but it is clear from the internal evidence that he has +preserved no more than the substance. His own peculiar habits of +thought and expression are everywhere discernible. Individual +and national peculiarities are seldom to be traced in the +sentiments, and never in the diction. The oratory of the +Corinthians and Thebans is not less Attic, either in matter or in +manner, than that of the Athenians. The style of Cleon is as +pure, as austere, as terse, and as significant, as that of +Pericles. + +In spite of this great fault, it must be allowed that Thucydides +has surpassed all his rivals in the art of historical narration, +in the art of producing an effect on the imagination, by skilful +selection and disposition, without indulging in the license of +invention. But narration, though an important part of the +business of a historian, is not the whole. To append a moral to +a work of fiction is either useless or superfluous. A fiction +may give a more impressive effect to what is already known; but +it can teach nothing new. If it presents to us characters and +trains of events to which our experience furnishes us with +nothing similar, instead of deriving instruction from it, we +pronounce it unnatural. We do not form our opinions from it; but +we try it by our preconceived opinions. Fiction, therefore, is +essentially imitative. Its merit consists in its resemblance to +a model with which we are already familiar, or to which at least +we can instantly refer. Hence it is that the anecdotes which +interest us most strongly in authentic narrative are offensive +when introduced into novels; that what is called the romantic +part of history is in fact the least romantic. It is delightful +as history, because it contradicts our previous notions of human +nature, and of the connection of causes and effects. It is, on +that very account, shocking and incongruous in fiction. In +fiction, the principles are given, to find the facts: in +history, the facts are given, to find the principles; and the +writer who does not explain the phenomena as well as state them, +performs only one half of his office. Facts are the mere dross +of history. It is from the abstract truth which interpenetrates +them, and lies latent among them like gold in the ore, that the +mass derives its whole value: and the precious particles are +generally combined with the baser in such a manner that the +separation is a task of the utmost difficulty. + +Here Thucydides is deficient: the deficiency, indeed, is not +discreditable to him. It was the inevitable effect of +circumstances. It was in the nature of things necessary that, in +some part of its progress through political science, the human +mind should reach that point which it attained in his time. +Knowledge advances by steps, and not by leaps. The axioms of an +English debating club would have been startling and mysterious +paradoxes to the most enlightened statesmen of Athens. But it +would be as absurd to speak contemptuously of the Athenian on +this account as to ridicule Strabo for not having given us an +account of Chili, or to talk of Ptolemy as we talk of Sir Richard +Phillips. Still, when we wish for solid geographical +information, we must prefer the solemn coxcombry of Pinkerton to +the noble work of Strabo. If we wanted instruction respecting +the solar system, we should consult the silliest girl from a +boarding-school, rather than Ptolemy. + +Thucydides was undoubtedly a sagacious and reflecting man. This +clearly appears from the ability with which he discusses +practical questions. But the talent of deciding on the +circumstances of a particular case is often possessed in the +highest perfection by persons destitute of the power of +generalisation. Men skilled in the military tactics of civilised +nations have been amazed at the far-sightedness and penetration +which a Mohawk displays in concerting his stratagems, or in +discerning those of his enemies. In England, no class possesses +so much of that peculiar ability which is required for +constructing ingenious schemes, and for obviating remote +difficulties, as the thieves and the thief-takers. Women have +more of this dexterity than men. Lawyers have more of it than +statesmen: statesmen have more of it than philosophers. Monk +had more of it than Harrington and all his club. Walpole had +more of it than Adam Smith or Beccaria. Indeed, the species of +discipline by which this dexterity is acquired tends to contract +the mind, and to render it incapable of abstract reasoning. + +The Grecian statesmen of the age of Thucydides were distinguished +by their practical sagacity, their insight into motives, their +skill in devising means for the attainment of their ends. A +state of society in which the rich were constantly planning the +oppression of the poor, and the poor the spoliation of the rich, +in which the ties of party had superseded those of country, in +which revolutions and counter-revolutions were events of daily +occurrence, was naturally prolific in desperate and crafty +political adventurers. This was the very school in which men +were likely to acquire the dissimulation of Mazarin, the +judicious temerity of Richelieu, the penetration, the exquisite +tact, the almost instinctive presentiment of approaching events +which gave so much authority to the counsel of Shaftesbury, that +"it was as if a man had inquired of the oracle of God." In this +school Thucydides studied; and his wisdom is that which such a +school would naturally afford. He judges better of circumstances +than of principles. The more a question is narrowed, the better +he reasons upon it. His work suggests many most important +considerations respecting the first principles of government and +morals, the growth of factions, the organisation of armies, and +the mutual relations of communities. Yet all his general +observations on these subjects are very superficial. His most +judicious remarks differ from the remarks of a really +philosophical historian, as a sum correctly cast up by a +bookkeeper from a general expression discovered by an algebraist. +The former is useful only in a single transaction; the latter may +be applied to an infinite number of cases. + +This opinion will, we fear, be considered as heterodox. For, not +to speak of the illusion which the sight of a Greek type, or the +sound of a Greek diphthong, often produces, there are some +peculiarities in the manner of Thucydides which in no small +degree have tended to secure to him the reputation of profundity. +His book is evidently the book of a man and a statesman; and in +this respect presents a remarkable contrast to the delightful +childishness of Herodotus. Throughout it there is an air of +matured power, of grave and melancholy reflection, of +impartiality and habitual self-command. His feelings are rarely +indulged, and speedily repressed. Vulgar prejudices of every +kind, and particularly vulgar superstitions, he treats with a +cold and sober disdain peculiar to himself. His style is +weighty, condensed, antithetical, and not unfrequently obscure. +But, when we look at his political philosophy, without regard to +these circumstances, we find him to have been, what indeed it +would have been a miracle if he had not been, simply an Athenian +of the fifth century before Christ. + +Xenophon is commonly placed, but we think without much reason, in +the same rank with Herodotus and Thucydides. He resembles them, +indeed, in the purity and sweetness of his style; but in spirit, +he rather resembles that later school of historians whose works +seem to be fables composed for a moral, and who, in their +eagerness to give us warnings and examples, forget to give us men +and women. The Life of Cyrus, whether we look upon it as a +history or as a romance, seems to us a very wretched performance. +The Expedition of the Ten Thousand, and the History of Grecian +Affairs, are certainly pleasant reading; but they indicate no +great power of mind. In truth, Xenophon, though his taste was +elegant, his disposition amiable, and his intercourse with the +world extensive, had, we suspect, rather a weak head. Such was +evidently the opinion of that extraordinary man to whom he early +attached himself, and for whose memory he entertained an +idolatrous veneration. He came in only for the milk with which +Socrates nourished his babes in philosophy. A few saws of +morality, and a few of the simplest doctrines of natural +religion, were enough for the good young man. The strong meat, +the bold speculations on physical and metaphysical science, were +reserved for auditors of a different description. Even the +lawless habits of a captain of mercenary troops could not change +the tendency which the character of Xenophon early acquired. To +the last, he seems to have retained a sort of heathen Puritanism. +The sentiments of piety and virtue which abound in his works are +those of a well-meaning man, somewhat timid and narrow-minded, +devout from constitution rather than from rational conviction. +He was as superstitious as Herodotus, but in a way far more +offensive. The very peculiarities which charm us in an infant, +the toothless mumbling, the stammering, the tottering, the +helplessness, the causeless tears and laughter, are disgusting in +old age. In the same manner, the absurdity which precedes a +period of general intelligence is often pleasing; that which +follows it is contemptible. The nonsense of Herodotus is that of +a baby. The nonsense of Xenophon is that of a dotard. His +stories about dreams, omens, and prophecies, present a strange +contrast to the passages in which the shrewd and incredulous +Thucydides mentions the popular superstitions. It is not quite +clear that Xenophon was honest in his credulity; his fanaticism +was in some degree politic. He would have made an excellent +member of the Apostolic Camarilla. An alarmist by nature, an +aristocrat by party, he carried to an unreasonable excess his +horror of popular turbulence. The quiet atrocity of Sparta did +not shock him in the same manner; for he hated tumult more than +crimes. He was desirous to find restraints which might curb the +passions of the multitude; and he absurdly fancied that he had +found them in a religion without evidences or sanction, precepts +or example, in a frigid system of Theophilanthropy, supported by +nursery tales. + +Polybius and Arrian have given us authentic accounts of facts; +and here their merit ends. They were not men of comprehensive +minds; they had not the art of telling a story in an interesting +manner. They have in consequence been thrown into the shade by +writers who, though less studious of truth than themselves, +understood far better the art of producing effect,--by Livy and +Quintus Curtius. + +Yet Polybius and Arrian deserve high praise when compared with +the writers of that school of which Plutarch may be considered as +the head. For the historians of this class we must confess that +we entertain a peculiar aversion. They seem to have been +pedants, who, though destitute of those valuable qualities which +are frequently found in conjunction with pedantry, thought +themselves great philosophers and great politicians. They not +only mislead their readers in every page, as to particular facts, +but they appear to have altogether misconceived the whole +character of the times of which they write. They were +inhabitants of an empire bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the +Euphrates, by the ice of Scythia and the sands of Mauritania; +composed of nations whose manners, whose languages, whose +religion, whose countenances and complexions, were widely +different; governed by one mighty despotism, which had risen on +the ruins of a thousand commonwealths and kingdoms. Of liberty, +such as it is in small democracies, of patriotism, such as it is +in small independent communities of any kind, they had, and they +could have, no experimental knowledge. But they had read of men +who exerted themselves in the cause of their country with an +energy unknown in later times, who had violated the dearest of +domestic charities, or voluntarily devoted themselves to death +for the public good; and they wondered at the degeneracy of their +contemporaries. It never occurred to them that the feelings +which they so greatly admired sprung from local and occasional +causes; that they will always grow up spontaneously in small +societies; and that, in large empires, though they may be forced +into existence for a short time by peculiar circumstances, they +cannot be general or permanent. It is impossible that any man +should feel for a fortress on a remote frontier as he feels for +his own house; that he should grieve for a defeat in which ten +thousand people whom he never saw have fallen as he grieves for a +defeat which has half unpeopled the street in which he lives; +that he should leave his home for a military expedition in order +to preserve the balance of power, as cheerfully as he would leave +it to repel invaders who had begun to burn all the corn fields in +his neighbourhood. + +The writers of whom we speak should have considered this. They +should have considered that in patriotism, such as it existed +amongst the Greeks, there was nothing essentially and eternally +good; that an exclusive attachment to a particular society, +though a natural, and, under certain restrictions, a most useful +sentiment, implies no extraordinary attainments in wisdom or +virtue; that, where it has existed in an intense degree, it has +turned states into gangs of robbers whom their mutual fidelity +has rendered more dangerous, has given a character of peculiar +atrocity to war, and has generated that worst of all political +evils, the tyranny of nations over nations. + +Enthusiastically attached to the name of liberty, these +historians troubled themselves little about its definition. The +Spartans, tormented by ten thousand absurd restraints, unable to +please themselves in the choice of their wives, their suppers, or +their company, compelled to assume a peculiar manner, and to talk +in a peculiar style, gloried in their liberty. The aristocracy +of Rome repeatedly made liberty a plea for cutting off the +favourites of the people. In almost all the little commonwealths +of antiquity, liberty was used as a pretext for measures directed +against everything which makes liberty valuable, for measures +which stifled discussion, corrupted the administration of +justice, and discouraged the accumulation of property. The +writers, whose works we are considering, confounded the sound +with the substance, and the means with the end. Their +imaginations were inflamed by mystery. They conceived of liberty +as monks conceive of love, as cockneys conceive of the happiness +and innocence of rural life, as novel-reading sempstresses +conceive of Almack's and Grosvenor Square, accomplished +Marquesses and handsome Colonels of the Guards. In the relation +of events, and the delineation of characters, they have paid +little attention to facts, to the costume of the times of which +they pretend to treat, or to the general principles of human +nature. They have been faithful only to their own puerile and +extravagant doctrines. Generals and statesmen are metamorphosed +into magnanimous coxcombs, from whose fulsome virtues we turn +away with disgust. The fine sayings and exploits of their heroes +remind us of the insufferable perfections of Sir Charles +Grandison, and affect us with a nausea similar to that which we +feel when an actor, in one of Morton's or Kotzebue's plays, lays +his hand on his heart, advances to the ground-lights, and mouths +a moral sentence for the edification of the gods. + +These writers, men who knew not what it was to have a country, +men who had never enjoyed political rights, brought into fashion +an offensive cant about patriotism and zeal for freedom. What +the English Puritans did for the language of Christianity, what +Scuderi did for the language of love, they did for the language +of public spirit. By habitual exaggeration they made it mean. +By monotonous emphasis they made it feeble. They abused it till +it became scarcely possible to use it with effect. + +Their ordinary rules of morality are deduced from extreme cases. +The common regimen which they prescribe for society is made up of +those desperate remedies which only its most desperate distempers +require. They look with peculiar complacency on actions which +even those who approve them consider as exceptions to laws of +almost universal application--which bear so close an affinity to +the most atrocious crimes that, even where it may be unjust to +censure them, it is unsafe to praise them. It is not strange, +therefore, that some flagitious instances of perfidy and cruelty +should have been passed unchallenged in such company, that grave +moralists, with no personal interest at stake, should have +extolled, in the highest terms, deeds of which the atrocity +appalled even the infuriated factions in whose cause they were +perpetrated. The part which Timoleon took in the assassination +of his brother shocked many of his own partisans. The +recollection of it preyed long on his own mind. But it was +reserved for historians who lived some centuries later to +discover that his conduct was a glorious display of virtue, and +to lament that, from the frailty of human nature, a man who could +perform so great an exploit could repent of it. + +The writings of these men, and of their modern imitators, have +produced effects which deserve some notice. The English have +been so long accustomed to political speculation, and have +enjoyed so large a measure of practical liberty, that such works +have produced little effect on their minds. We have classical +associations and great names of our own which we can confidently +oppose to the most splendid of ancient times. Senate has not to +our ears a sound so venerable as Parliament. We respect to the +Great Charter more than the laws of Solon. The Capitol and the +Forum impress us with less awe than our own Westminster Hall and +Westminster Abbey, the place where the great men of twenty +generations have contended, the place where they sleep together! +The list of warriors and statesmen by whom our constitution was +founded or preserved, from De Montfort down to Fox, may well +stand a comparison with the Fasti of Rome. The dying +thanksgiving of Sidney is as noble as the libation which Thrasea +poured to Liberating Jove: and we think with far less pleasure +of Cato tearing out his entrails than of Russell saying, as he +turned away from his wife, that the bitterness of death was past. +Even those parts of our history over which, on some accounts, we +would gladly throw a veil may be proudly opposed to those on +which the moralists of antiquity loved most to dwell. The enemy +of English liberty was not murdered by men whom he had pardoned +and loaded with benefits. He was not stabbed in the back by +those who smiled and cringed before his face. He was vanquished +on fields of stricken battle; he was arraigned, sentenced, and +executed in the face of heaven and earth. Our liberty is neither +Greek nor Roman; but essentially English. It has a character of +its own,--a character which has taken a tinge from the sentiments +of the chivalrous ages, and which accords with the peculiarities +of our manners and of our insular situation. It has a language, +too, of its own, and a language singularly idiomatic, full of +meaning to ourselves, scarcely intelligible to strangers. + +Here, therefore, the effect of books such as those which we have +been considering has been harmless. They have, indeed, given +currency to many very erroneous opinions with respect to ancient +history. They have heated the imaginations of boys. They have +misled the judgment and corrupted the taste of some men of +letters, such as Akenside and Sir William Jones. But on persons +engaged in public affairs they have had very little influence. +The foundations of our constitution were laid by men who knew +nothing of the Greeks but that they denied the orthodox +procession and cheated the Crusaders; and nothing of Rome, but +that the Pope lived there. Those who followed, contented +themselves with improving on the original plan. They found +models at home and therefore they did not look for them abroad. +But, when enlightened men on the Continent began to think about +political reformation, having no patterns before their eyes in +their domestic history, they naturally had recourse to those +remains of antiquity, the study of which is considered throughout +Europe as an important part of education. The historians of whom +we have been speaking had been members of large communities, and +subjects of absolute sovereigns. Hence it is, as we have already +said, that they commit such gross errors in speaking of the +little republics of antiquity. Their works were now read in the +spirit in which they had been written. They were read by men +placed in circumstances closely resembling their own, +unacquainted with the real nature of liberty, but inclined to +believe everything good which could be told respecting it. How +powerfully these books impressed these speculative reformers, is +well known to all who have paid any attention to the French +literature of the last century. But, perhaps, the writer on whom +they produced the greatest effect was Vittorio Alfieri. In some +of his plays, particularly in Virginia, Timoleon, and Brutus the +Younger, he has even caricatured the extravagance of his masters. + +It was not strange that the blind, thus led by the blind, should +stumble. The transactions of the French Revolution, in some +measure, took their character from these works. Without the +assistance of these works, indeed, a revolution would have taken +place,--a revolution productive of much good and much evil, +tremendous but shortlived, evil dearly purchased, but durable +good. But it would not have been exactly such a revolution. The +style, the accessories, would have been in many respects +different. There would have been less of bombast in language, +less of affectation in manner, less of solemn trifling and +ostentatious simplicity. The acts of legislative assemblies, and +the correspondence of diplomatists, would not have been disgraced +by rants worthy only of a college declamation. The government of +a great and polished nation would not have rendered itself +ridiculous by attempting to revive the usages of a world which +had long passed away, or rather of a world which had never +existed except in the description of a fantastic school of +writers. These second-hand imitations resembled the originals +about as much as the classical feast with which the Doctor in +Peregrine Pickle turned the stomachs of all his guests resembled +one of the suppers of Lucullus in the Hall of Apollo. + +These were mere follies. But the spirit excited by these writers +produced more serious effects. The greater part of the crimes +which disgraced the revolution sprung indeed from the relaxation +of law, from popular ignorance, from the remembrance of past +oppression, from the fear of foreign conquest, from rapacity, +from ambition, from party-spirit. But many atrocious proceedings +must, doubtless, be ascribed to heated imagination, to perverted +principle, to a distaste for what was vulgar in morals, and a +passion for what was startling and dubious. Mr Burke has touched +on this subject with great felicity of expression: "The +gradation of their republic," says he, "is laid in moral +paradoxes. All those instances to be found in history, whether +real or fabulous, of a doubtful public spirit, at which morality +is perplexed, reason is staggered, and from which affrighted +nature recoils, are their chosen and almost sole examples for the +instruction of their youth." This evil, we believe, is to be +directly ascribed to the influence of the historians whom we have +mentioned, and their modern imitators. + +Livy had some faults in common with these writers. But on the +whole he must be considered as forming a class by himself: no +historian with whom we are acquainted has shown so complete an +indifference to truth. He seems to have cared only about the +picturesque effect of his book, and the honour of his country. +On the other hand, we do not know, in the whole range of +literature, an instance of a bad thing so well done. The +painting of the narrative is beyond description vivid and +graceful. The abundance of interesting sentiments and splendid +imagery in the speeches is almost miraculous. His mind is a soil +which is never over-teemed, a fountain which never seems to +trickle. It pours forth profusely; yet it gives no sign of +exhaustion. It was probably to this exuberance of thought and +language, always fresh, always sweet, always pure, no sooner +yielded than repaired, that the critics applied that expression +which has been so much discussed lactea ubertas. + +All the merits and all the defects of Livy take a colouring from +the character of his nation. He was a writer peculiarly Roman; +the proud citizen of a commonwealth which had indeed lost the +reality of liberty, but which still sacredly preserved its forms +--in fact, the subject of an arbitrary prince, but in his own +estimation one of the masters of the world, with a hundred kings +below him, and only the gods above him. He, therefore, looked +back on former times with feelings far different from those which +were naturally entertained by his Greek contemporaries, and which +at a later period became general among men of letters throughout +the Roman Empire. He contemplated the past with interest and +delight, not because it furnished a contrast to the present, but +because it had led to the present. He recurred to it, not to +lose in proud recollections the sense of national degradation, +but to trace the progress of national glory. It is true that his +veneration for antiquity produced on him some of the effects +which it produced on those who arrived at it by a very different +road. He has something of their exaggeration, something of their +cant, something of their fondness for anomalies and lusus naturae +in morality. Yet even here we perceive a difference. They talk +rapturously of patriotism and liberty in the abstract. He does +not seem to think any country but Rome deserving of love; nor is +it for liberty as liberty, but for liberty as a part of the Roman +institutions, that he is zealous. + +Of the concise and elegant accounts of the campaigns of Caesar +little can be said. They are incomparable models for military +despatches. But histories they are not, and do not pretend to +be. + +The ancient critics placed Sallust in the same rank with Livy; +and unquestionably the small portion of his works which has come +down to us is calculated to give a high opinion of his talents. +But his style is not very pleasant: and his most powerful work, +the account of the Conspiracy of Catiline, has rather the air of +a clever party pamphlet than that of a history. It abounds with +strange inconsistencies, which, unexplained as they are, +necessarily excite doubts as to the fairness of the narrative. +It is true, that many circumstances now forgotten may have been +familiar to his contemporaries, and may have rendered passages +clear to them which to us appear dubious and perplexing. But a +great historian should remember that he writes for distant +generations, for men who will perceive the apparent +contradictions, and will possess no means of reconciling them. +We can only vindicate the fidelity of Sallust at the expense of +his skill. But in fact all the information which we have from +contemporaries respecting this famous plot is liable to the same +objection, and is read by discerning men with the same +incredulity. It is all on one side. No answer has reached our +times. Yet on the showing of the accusers the accused seem +entitled to acquittal. Catiline, we are told, intrigued with a +Vestal virgin, and murdered his own son. His house was a den of +gamblers and debauchees. No young man could cross his threshold +without danger to his fortune and reputation. Yet this is the +man with whom Cicero was willing to coalesce in a contest for the +first magistracy of the republic; and whom he described, long +after the fatal termination of the conspiracy, as an accomplished +hypocrite, by whom he had himself been deceived, and who had +acted with consummate skill the character of a good citizen and a +good friend. We are told that the plot was the most wicked and +desperate ever known, and, almost in the same breath, that the +great body of the people, and many of the nobles, favoured it; +that the richest citizens of Rome were eager for the spoliation +of all property, and its highest functionaries for the +destruction of all order; that Crassus, Caesar, the Praetor +Lentulus, one of the consuls of the year, one of the consuls +elect, were proved or suspected to be engaged in a scheme for +subverting institutions to which they owed the highest honours, +and introducing universal anarchy. We are told that a +government, which knew all this, suffered the conspirator, whose +rank, talents, and courage rendered him most dangerous, to quit +Rome without molestation. We are told that bondmen and +gladiators were to be armed against the citizens. Yet we find +that Catiline rejected the slaves who crowded to enlist in his +army, lest, as Sallust himself expresses it, "he should seem to +identify their cause with that of the citizens." Finally, we are +told that the magistrate, who was universally allowed to have +saved all classes of his countrymen from conflagration and +massacre, rendered himself so unpopular by his conduct that a +marked insult was offered to him at the expiration of his office, +and a severe punishment inflicted on him shortly after. + +Sallust tells us, what, indeed, the letters and speeches of +Cicero sufficiently prove, that some persons consider the +shocking, and atrocious parts of the plot as mere inventions of +the government, designed to excuse its unconstitutional measures. +We must confess ourselves to be of that opinion. There was, +undoubtedly, a strong party desirous to change the +administration. While Pompey held the command of an army, they +could not effect their purpose without preparing means for +repelling force, if necessary, by force. In all this there is +nothing different from the ordinary practice of Roman factions. +The other charges brought against the conspirators are so +inconsistent and improbable, that we give no credit whatever to +them. If our readers think this scepticism unreasonable, let +them turn to the contemporary accounts of the Popish plot. Let +them look over the votes of Parliament, and the speeches of the +king; the charges of Scroggs, and the harangues of the managers +employed against Strafford. A person who should form his +judgment from these pieces alone would believe that London was +set on fire by the Papists, and that Sir Edmondbury Godfrey was +murdered for his religion. Yet these stories are now altogether +exploded. They have been abandoned by statesmen to aldermen, by +aldermen to clergymen, by clergymen to old women, and by old +women to Sir Harcourt Lees. + +Of the Latin historians, Tacitus was certainly the greatest. His +style, indeed, is not only faulty in itself, but is, in some +respects, peculiarly unfit for historical composition. He +carries his love of effect far beyond the limits of moderation. +He tells a fine story finely, but he cannot tell a plain story +plainly. He stimulates till stimulants lose their power. +Thucydides, as we have already observed, relates ordinary +transactions with the unpretending clearness and succinctness of +a gazette. His great powers of painting he reserves for events +of which the slightest details are interesting. The simplicity +of the setting gives additional lustre to the brilliants. There +are passages in the narrative of Tacitus superior to the best +which can be quoted from Thucydides. But they are not enchased +and relieved with the same skill. They are far more striking +when extracted from the body of the work to which they belong +than when they occur in their place, and are read in connection +with what precedes and follows. + +In the delineation of character, Tacitus is unrivalled among +historians, and has very few superiors among dramatists and +novelists. By the delineation of character, we do not mean the +practice of drawing up epigrammatic catalogues of good and bad +qualities, and appending them to the names of eminent men. No +writer, indeed, has done this more skilfully than Tacitus; but +this is not his peculiar glory. All the persons who occupy a +large space in his works have an individuality of character which +seems to pervade all their words and actions. We know them as if +we had lived with them. Claudius, Nero, Otho, both the +Agrippinas, are masterpieces. But Tiberius is a still higher +miracle of art. The historian undertook to make us intimately +acquainted with a man singularly dark and inscrutable,--with a +man whose real disposition long remained swathed up in intricate +folds of factitious virtues, and over whose actions the hypocrisy +of his youth, and the seclusion of his old age, threw a singular +mystery. He was to exhibit the specious qualities of the tyrant +in a light which might render them transparent, and enable us at +once to perceive the covering and the vices which it concealed. +He was to trace the gradations by which the first magistrate of a +republic, a senator mingling freely in debate, a noble +associating with his brother nobles, was transformed into an +Asiatic sultan; he was to exhibit a character, distinguished by +courage, self-command, and profound policy, yet defiled by all + +"th' extravagancy +And crazy ribaldry of fancy." + +He was to mark the gradual effect of advancing age and +approaching death on this strange compound of strength and +weakness; to exhibit the old sovereign of the world sinking into +a dotage which, though it rendered his appetites eccentric, and +his temper savage, never impaired the powers of his stern and +penetrating mind--conscious of failing strength, raging with +capricious sensuality, yet to the last the keenest of observers, +the most artful of dissemblers, and the most terrible of masters. +The task was one of extreme difficulty. The execution is almost +perfect. + +The talent which is required to write history thus bears a +considerable affinity to the talent of a great dramatist. There +is one obvious distinction. The dramatist creates; the historian +only disposes. The difference is not in the mode of execution, +but in the mode of conception. Shakspeare is guided by a model +which exists in his imagination; Tacitus, by a model furnished +from without. Hamlet is to Tiberius what the Laocoon is to the +Newton of Roubilliac. + +In this part of his art Tacitus certainly had neither equal nor +second among the ancient historians. Herodotus, though he wrote +in a dramatic form, had little of dramatic genius. The frequent +dialogues which he introduces give vivacity and movement to the +narrative, but are not strikingly characteristic. Xenophon is +fond of telling his readers, at considerable length, what he +thought of the persons whose adventures he relates. But he does +not show them the men, and enable them to judge for themselves. +The heroes of Livy are the most insipid of all beings, real or +imaginary, the heroes of Plutarch always excepted. Indeed, the +manner of Plutarch in this respect reminds us of the cookery of +those continental inns, the horror of English travellers, in +which a certain nondescript broth is kept constantly boiling, and +copiously poured, without distinction, over every dish as it +comes up to table. Thucydides, though at a wide interval, comes +next to Tacitus. His Pericles, his Nicias, his Cleon, his +Brasidas, are happily discriminated. The lines are few, the +colouring faint: but the general air and expression is caught. + +We begin, like the priest in Don Quixote's library, to be tired +with taking down books one after another for separate judgment, +and feel inclined to pass sentence on them in masses. We shall +therefore, instead of pointing out the defects and merits of the +different modern historians, state generally in what particulars +they have surpassed their predecessors, and in what we conceive +them to have failed. + +They have certainly been, in one sense, far more strict in their +adherence to truth than most of the Greek and Roman writers. +They do not think themselves entitled to render their narrative +interesting by introducing descriptions, conversations, and +harangues which have no existence but in their own imagination. +This improvement was gradually introduced. History commenced +among the modern nations of Europe, as it had commenced among the +Greeks, in romance. Froissart was our Herodotus. Italy was to +Europe what Athens was to Greece. In Italy, therefore, a more +accurate and manly mode of narration was early introduced. +Machiavelli and Guicciardini, in imitation of Livy and +Thucydides, composed speeches for their historical personages. +But, as the classical enthusiasm which distinguished the age of +Lorenzo and Leo gradually subsided, this absurd practice was +abandoned. In France, we fear, it still, in some degree, keeps +its ground. In our own country, a writer who should venture on +it would be laughed to scorn. Whether the historians of the last +two centuries tell more truth than those of antiquity, may +perhaps be doubted. But it is quite certain that they tell fewer +falsehoods. + +In the philosophy of history, the moderns have very far surpassed +the ancients. It is not, indeed, strange that the Greeks and +Romans should not have carried the science of government, or any +other experimental science, so far as it has been carried in our +time; for the experimental sciences are generally in a state of +progression. They were better understood in the seventeenth +century than in the sixteenth, and in the eighteenth century than +in the seventeenth. But this constant improvement, this natural +growth of knowledge, will not altogether account for the immense +superiority of the modern writers. The difference is a +difference not in degree, but of kind. It is not merely that new +principles have been discovered, but that new faculties seem to +be exerted. It is not that at one time the human intellect +should have made but small progress, and at another time have +advanced far: but that at one time it should have been +stationary, and at another time constantly proceeding. In taste +and imagination, in the graces of style, in the arts of +persuasion, in the magnificence of public works, the ancients +were at least our equals. They reasoned as justly as ourselves +on subjects which required pure demonstration. But in the moral +sciences they made scarcely any advance. During the long period +which elapsed between the fifth century before the Christian era +and the fifth century after it little perceptible progress was +made. All the metaphysical discoveries of all the philosophers, +from the time of Socrates to the northern invasion, are not to be +compared in importance with those which have been made in England +every fifty years since the time of Elizabeth. There is not the +least reason to believe that the principles of government, +legislation, and political economy, were better understood in the +time of Augustus Caesar than in the time of Pericles. In our own +country, the sound doctrines of trade and jurisprudence have +been, within the lifetime of a single generation, dimly hinted, +boldly propounded, defended, systematised, adopted by all +reflecting men of all parties, quoted in legislative assemblies, +incorporated into laws and treaties. + +To what is this change to be attributed? Partly, no doubt, to +the discovery of printing, a discovery which has not only +diffused knowledge widely, but, as we have already observed, has +also introduced into reasoning a precision unknown in those +ancient communities, in which information, was, for the most +part, conveyed orally. There was, we suspect, another cause, +less obvious, but still more powerful. + +The spirit of the two most famous nations of antiquity was +remarkably exclusive. In the time of Homer the Greeks had not +begun to consider themselves as a distinct race. They still +looked with something of childish wonder and awe on the riches +and wisdom of Sidon and Egypt. From what causes, and by what +gradations, their feelings underwent a change, it is not easy to +determine. Their history, from the Trojan to the Persian war, is +covered with an obscurity broken only by dim and scattered gleams +of truth. But it is certain that a great alteration took place. +They regarded themselves as a separate people. They had common +religious rites, and common principles of public law, in which +foreigners had no part. In all their political systems, +monarchical, aristocratical, and democratical, there was a strong +family likeness. After the retreat of Xerxes and the fall of +Mardonius, national pride rendered the separation between the +Greeks and the barbarians complete. The conquerors considered +themselves men of a superior breed, men who, in their intercourse +with neighbouring nations, were to teach, and not to learn. They +looked for nothing out of themselves. They borrowed nothing. +They translated nothing. We cannot call to mind a single +expression of any Greek writer earlier than the age of Augustus, +indicating an opinion that anything worth reading could be +written in any language except his own. The feelings which +sprung from national glory were not altogether extinguished by +national degradation. They were fondly cherished through ages of +slavery and shame. The literature of Rome herself was regarded +with contempt by those who had fled before her arms, and who +bowed beneath her fasces. Voltaire says, in one of his six +thousand pamphlets, that he was the first person who told the +French that England had produced eminent men besides the Duke of +Marlborough. Down to a very late period, the Greeks seem to have +stood in need of similar information with respect to their +masters. With Paulus Aemilius, Sylla, and Caesar, they were well +acquainted. But the notions which they entertained respecting +Cicero and Virgil were, probably, not unlike those which Boileau +may have formed about Shakspeare. Dionysius lived in the most +splendid age of Latin poetry and eloquence. He was a critic, +and, after the manner of his age, an able critic. He studied the +language of Rome, associated with its learned men, and compiled +its history. Yet he seems to have thought its literature +valuable only for the purpose of illustrating its antiquities. +His reading appears to have been confined to its public records, +and to a few old annalists. Once, and but once, if we remember +rightly, he quotes Ennius, to solve a question of etymology. He +has written much on the art of oratory: yet he has not mentioned +the name of Cicero. + +The Romans submitted to the pretensions of a race which they +despised. Their epic poet, while he claimed for them pre- +eminence in the arts of government and war, acknowledged their +inferiority in taste, eloquence, and science. Men of letters +affected to understand the Greek language better than their own. +Pomponius preferred the honour of becoming an Athenian, by +intellectual naturalisation, to all the distinctions which were +to be acquired in the political contests of Rome. His great +friend composed Greek poems and memoirs. It is well-known that +Petrarch considered that beautiful language in which his sonnets +are written, as a barbarous jargon, and intrusted his fame to +those wretched Latin hexameters which, during the last four +centuries, have scarcely found four readers. Many eminent Romans +appear to have felt the same contempt for their native tongue as +compared with the Greek. The prejudice continued to a very late +period. Julian was as partial to the Greek language as Frederic +the Great to the French: and it seems that he could not express +himself with elegance in the dialect of the state which he ruled. + +Even those Latin writers who did not carry this affectation so +far looked on Greece as the only fount of knowledge. From Greece +they derived the measures of their poetry, and, indeed, all of +poetry that can be imported. From Greece they borrowed the +principles and the vocabulary of their philosophy. To the +literature of other nations they do not seem to have paid the +slightest attention. The sacred books of the Hebrews, for +example, books which, considered merely as human compositions, +are invaluable to the critic, the antiquarian, and the +philosopher, seem to have been utterly unnoticed by them. The +peculiarities of Judaism, and the rapid growth of Christianity, +attracted their notice. They made war against the Jews. They +made laws against the Christians. But they never opened the +books of Moses. Juvenal quotes the Pentateuch with censure. The +author of the treatise on "the Sublime" quotes it with praise: +but both of them quote it erroneously. When we consider what +sublime poetry, what curious history, what striking and peculiar +views of the Divine nature and of the social duties of men, are +to be found in the Jewish scriptures, when we consider that two +sects on which the attention of the government was constantly +fixed appealed to those scriptures as the rule of their faith and +practice, this indifference is astonishing. The fact seems to +be, that the Greeks admired only themselves, and that the Romans +admired only themselves and the Greeks. Literary men turned away +with disgust from modes of thought and expression so widely +different from all that they had been accustomed to admire. The +effect was narrowness and sameness of thought. Their minds, if +we may so express ourselves, bred in and in, and were accordingly +cursed with barrenness and degeneracy. No extraneous beauty or +vigour was engrafted on the decaying stock. By an exclusive +attention to one class of phenomena, by an exclusive taste for +one species of excellence, the human intellect was stunted. +Occasional coincidences were turned into general rules. +Prejudices were confounded with instincts. On man, as he was +found in a particular state of society--on government, as it had +existed in a particular corner of the world, many just +observations were made; but of man as man, or government as +government, little was known. Philosophy remained stationary. +Slight changes, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the +better, were made in the superstructure. But nobody thought of +examining the foundations. + +The vast despotism of the Caesars, gradually effacing all +national peculiarities, and assimilating the remotest provinces +of the empire to each other, augmented the evil. At the close of +the third century after Christ, the prospects of mankind were +fearfully dreary. A system of etiquette, as pompously frivolous +as that of the Escurial, had been established. A sovereign +almost invisible; a crowd of dignitaries minutely distinguished +by badges and titles; rhetoricians who said nothing but what had +been said ten thousand times; schools in which nothing was taught +but what had been known for ages: such was the machinery +provided for the government and instruction of the most +enlightened part of the human race. That great community was +then in danger of experiencing a calamity far more terrible than +any of the quick, inflammatory, destroying maladies, to which +nations are liable,--a tottering, drivelling, paralytic +longevity, the immortality of the Struldbrugs, a Chinese +civilisation. It would be easy to indicate many points of +resemblance between the subjects of Diocletian and the people of +that Celestial Empire, where, during many centuries, nothing has +been learned or unlearned; where government, where education, +where the whole system of life, is a ceremony; where knowledge +forgets to increase and multiply, and, like the talent buried in +the earth, or the pound wrapped up in the napkin, experiences +neither waste no augmentation. + +The torpor was broken by two great revolutions, the one moral, +the other political, the one from within, the other from without. +The victory of Christianity over Paganism, considered with +relation to this subject only, was of great importance. It +overthrew the old system of morals; and with it much of the old +system of metaphysics. It furnished the orator with new topics +of declamation, and the logician with new points of controversy. +Above all, it introduced a new principle, of which the operation +was constantly felt in every part of society. It stirred the +stagnant mass from the inmost depths. It excited all the +passions of a stormy democracy in the quiet and listless +population of an overgrown empire. The fear of heresy did what +the sense of oppression could not do; it changed men, accustomed +to be turned over like sheep from tyrant to tyrant, into devoted +partisans and obstinate rebels. The tones of an eloquence which +had been silent for ages resounded from the pulpit of Gregory. A +spirit which had been extinguished on the plains of Philippi +revived in Athanasius and Ambrose. + +Yet even this remedy was not sufficiently violent for the +disease. It did not prevent the empire of Constantinople from +relapsing, after a short paroxysm of excitement, into a state of +stupefaction, to which history furnishes scarcely any parallel. +We there find that a polished society, a society in which a most +intricate and elaborate system of jurisprudence was established, +in which the arts of luxury were well understood, in which the +works of the great ancient writers were preserved and studied, +existed for nearly a thousand years without making one great +discovery in science, or producing one book which is read by any +but curious inquirers. There were tumults, too, and +controversies, and wars in abundance: and these things, bad as +they are in themselves, have generally been favourable to the +progress of the intellect. But here they tormented without +stimulating. The waters were troubled; but no healing influence +descended. The agitations resembled the grinnings and writhings +of a galvanised corpse, not the struggles of an athletic man. + +From this miserable state the Western Empire was saved by the +fiercest and most destroying visitation with which God has ever +chastened his creatures--the invasion of the Northern nations. +Such a cure was required for such a distemper. The fire of +London, it has been observed was a blessing. It burned down the +city; but it burned out the plague. The same may be said of the +tremendous devastation of the Roman dominions. It annihilated +the noisome recesses in which lurked the seeds of great moral +maladies; it cleared an atmosphere fatal to the health and vigour +of the human mind. It cost Europe a thousand years of barbarism +to escape the fate of China. + +At length the terrible purification was accomplished; and the +second civilisation of mankind commenced, under circumstances +which afforded a strong security that it would never retrograde +and never pause. Europe was now a great federal community. Her +numerous states were united by the easy ties of international law +and a common religion. Their institutions, their languages, +their manners, their tastes in literature, their modes of +education, were widely different. Their connection was close +enough to allow of mutual observation and improvement, yet not so +close as to destroy the idioms of national opinion and feeling. + +The balance of moral and intellectual influence thus established +between the nations of Europe is far more important than the +balance of political power. Indeed, we are inclined to think +that the latter is valuable principally because it tends to +maintain the former. The civilised world has thus been preserved +from a uniformity of character fatal to all improvement. Every +part of it has been illuminated with light reflected from every +other. Competition has produced activity where monopoly would +have produced sluggishness. The number of experiments in moral +science which the speculator has an opportunity of witnessing has +been increased beyond all calculation. Society and human nature, +instead of being seen in a single point of view, are presented to +him under ten thousand different aspects. By observing the +manners of surrounding nations, by studying their literature, by +comparing it with that of his own country and of the ancient +republics, he is enabled to correct those errors into which the +most acute men must fall when they reason from a single species +to a genus. He learns to distinguish what is local from what is +universal: what is transitory from what is eternal; to +discriminate between exceptions and rules; to trace the operation +of disturbing causes; to separate those general principles which +are always true and everywhere applicable from the accidental +circumstances with which, in every community, they are blended, +and with which, in an isolated community, they are confounded by +the most philosophical mind. + +Hence it is that, in generalisation, the writers of modern times +have far surpassed those of antiquity. The historians of our own +country are unequalled in depth and precision of reason; and, +even in the works of our mere compilers, we often meet with +speculations beyond the reach of Thucydides or Tacitus. + +But it must, at the same time, be admitted that they have +characteristic faults, so closely connected with their +characteristic merits, and of such magnitude, that it may well be +doubted whether, on the whole, this department of literature has +gained or lost during the last two-and-twenty centuries. + +The best historians of later times have been seduced from truth, +not by their imagination, but by their reason. They far excel +their predecessors in the art of deducing general principles from +facts. But unhappily they have fallen into the error of +distorting facts to suit general principles. They arrive at a +theory from looking at some of the phenomena; and the remaining +phenomena they strain or curtail to suit the theory. For this +purpose it is not necessary that they should assert what is +absolutely false; for all questions in morals and politics are +questions of comparison and degree. Any proposition which does +not involve a contradiction in terms may by possibility be true; +and, if all the circumstances which raise a probability in its +favour, be stated and enforced, and those which lead to an +opposite conclusion be omitted or lightly passed over, it may +appear to be demonstrated. In every human character and +transaction there is a mixture of good and evil: a little +exaggeration, a little suppression, a judicious use of epithets, +a watchful and searching scepticism with respect to the evidence +on one side, a convenient credulity with respect to every report +or tradition on the other, may easily make a saint of Laud, or a +tyrant of Henry the Fourth. + +This species of misrepresentation abounds in the most valuable +works of modern historians. Herodotus tells his story like a +slovenly witness, who, heated by partialities and prejudices, +unacquainted with the established rules of evidence, and +uninstructed as to the obligations of his oath, confounds what he +imagines with what he has seen and heard, and brings out facts, +reports, conjectures, and fancies, in one mass. Hume is an +accomplished advocate. Without positively asserting much more +than he can prove, he gives prominence to all the circumstances +which support his case; he glides lightly over those which are +unfavourable to it; his own witnesses are applauded and +encouraged; the statements which seem to throw discredit on them +are controverted; the contradictions into which they fall are +explained away; a clear and connected abstract of their evidence +is given. Everything that is offered on the other side is +scrutinised with the utmost severity; every suspicious +circumstance is a ground for comment and invective; what cannot +be denied is extenuated, or passed by without notice; concessions +even are sometimes made: but this insidious candour only +increases the effect of the vast mass of sophistry. + +We have mentioned Hume as the ablest and most popular writer of +his class; but the charge which we have brought against him is +one to which all our most distinguished historians are in some +degree obnoxious. Gibbon, in particular, deserves very severe +censure. Of all the numerous culprits, however, none is more +deeply guilty than Mr Mitford. We willingly acknowledge the +obligations which are due to his talents and industry. The +modern historians of Greece had been in the habit of writing as +if the world had learned nothing new during the last sixteen +hundred years. Instead of illustrating the events which they +narrated by the philosophy of a more enlightened age, they judged +of antiquity by itself alone. They seemed to think that notions, +long driven from every other corner of literature, had a +prescriptive right to occupy this last fastness. They considered +all the ancient historians as equally authentic. They scarcely +made any distinction between him who related events at which he +had himself been present and him who five hundred years after +composed a philosophic romance for a society which had in the +interval undergone a complete change. It was all Greek, and all +true! The centuries which separated Plutarch from Thucydides +seemed as nothing to men who lived in an age so remote. The +distance of time produced an error similar to that which is +sometimes produced by distance of place. There are many good +ladies who think that all the people in India live together, and +who charge a friend setting out for Calcutta with kind messages +to Bombay. To Rollin and Barthelemi, in the same manner, all the +classics were contemporaries. + +Mr Mitford certainly introduced great improvements; he showed us +that men who wrote in Greek and Latin sometimes told lies; he +showed us that ancient history might be related in such a manner +as to furnish not only allusions to schoolboys, but important +lessons to statesmen. From that love of theatrical effect and +high-flown sentiment which had poisoned almost every other work +on the same subject his book is perfectly free. But his passion +for a theory as false, and far more ungenerous, led him +substantially to violate truth in every page. Statements +unfavourable to democracy are made with unhesitating confidence, +and with the utmost bitterness of language. Every charge brought +against a monarch or an aristocracy is sifted with the utmost +care. If it cannot be denied, some palliating supposition is +suggested; or we are at least reminded that some circumstances +now unknown MAY have justified what at present appears +unjustifiable. Two events are reported by the same author in the +same sentence; their truth rests on the same testimony; but the +one supports the darling hypothesis, and the other seems +inconsistent with it. The one is taken and the other is left. + +The practice of distorting narrative into a conformity with +theory is a vice not so unfavourable as at first sight it may +appear to the interests of political science. We have compared +the writers who indulge in it to advocates; and we may add, that +their conflicting fallacies, like those of advocates, correct +each other. It has always been held, in the most enlightened +nations, that a tribunal will decide a judicial question most +fairly when it has heard two able men argue, as unfairly as +possible, on the two opposite sides of it; and we are inclined to +think that this opinion is just. Sometimes, it is true, superior +eloquence and dexterity will make the worse appear the better +reason; but it is at least certain that the judge will be +compelled to contemplate the case under two different aspects. +It is certain that no important consideration will altogether +escape notice. + +This is at present the state of history. The poet laureate +appears for the Church of England, Lingard for the Church of +Rome. Brodie has moved to set aside the verdicts obtained by +Hume; and the cause in which Mitford succeeded is, we understand, +about to be reheard. In the midst of these disputes, however, +history proper, if we may use the term, is disappearing. The +high, grave, impartial summing up of Thucydides is nowhere to be +found. + +While our historians are practising all the arts of controversy, +they miserably neglect the art of narration, the art of +interesting the affections and presenting pictures to the +imagination. That a writer may produce these effects without +violating truth is sufficiently proved by many excellent +biographical works. The immense popularity which well-written +books of this kind have acquired deserves the serious +consideration of historians. Voltaire's Charles the Twelfth, +Marmontel's Memoirs, Boswell's Life of Johnson, Southey's account +of Nelson, are perused with delight by the most frivolous and +indolent. Whenever any tolerable book of the same description +makes its appearance, the circulating libraries are mobbed; the +book societies are in commotion; the new novel lies uncut; the +magazines and newspapers fill their columns with extracts. In +the meantime histories of great empires, written by men of +eminent ability, lie unread on the shelves of ostentatious +libraries. + +The writers of history seem to entertain an aristocratical +contempt for the writers of memoirs. They think it beneath the +dignity of men who describe the revolutions of nations to dwell +on the details which constitute the charm of biography. They +have imposed on themselves a code of conventional decencies as +absurd as that which has been the bane of the French drama. The +most characteristic and interesting circumstances are omitted or +softened down, because, as we are told, they are too trivial for +the majesty of history. The majesty of history seems to resemble +the majesty of the poor King of Spain, who died a martyr to +ceremony because the proper dignitaries were not at hand to +render him assistance. + +That history would be more amusing if this etiquette were relaxed +will, we suppose, be acknowledged. But would it be less +dignified or less useful? What do we mean when we say that one +past event is important and another insignificant? No past event +has any intrinsic importance. The knowledge of it is valuable +only as it leads us to form just calculations with respect to the +future. A history which does not serve this purpose, though it +may be filled with battles, treaties, and commotions, is as +useless as the series of turnpike tickets collected by Sir +Matthew Mite. + +Let us suppose that Lord Clarendon, instead of filling hundreds +of folio pages with copies of state papers, in which the same +assertions and contradictions are repeated till the reader is +overpowered with weariness, had condescended to be the Boswell of +the Long Parliament. Let us suppose that he had exhibited to us +the wise and lofty self-government of Hampden, leading while he +seemed to follow, and propounding unanswerable arguments in the +strongest forms with the modest air of an inquirer anxious for +information; the delusions which misled the noble spirit of Vane; +the coarse fanaticism which concealed the yet loftier genius of +Cromwell, destined to control a motionless army and a factious +people, to abase the flag of Holland, to arrest the victorious +arms of Sweden, and to hold the balance firm between the rival +monarchies of France and Spain. Let us suppose that he had made +his Cavaliers and Roundheads talk in their own style; that he had +reported some of the ribaldry of Rupert's pages, and some of the +cant of Harrison and Fleetwood. Would not his work in that case +have been more interesting? Would it not have been more +accurate? + +A history in which every particular incident may be true may on +the whole be false. The circumstances which have most influence +on the happiness of mankind, the changes of manners and morals, +the transition of communities from poverty to wealth, from +knowledge to ignorance, from ferocity to humanity--these are, for +the most part, noiseless revolutions. Their progress is rarely +indicated by what historians are pleased to call important +events. They are not achieved by armies, or enacted by senates. +They are sanctioned by no treaties, and recorded in no archives. +They are carried on in every school, in every church, behind ten +thousand counters, at ten thousand firesides. The upper current +of society presents no certain criterion by which we can judge of +the direction in which the under current flows. We read of +defeats and victories. But we know that nations may be miserable +amidst victories and prosperous amidst defeats. We read of the +fall of wise ministers and of the rise of profligate favourites. +But we must remember how small a proportion the good or evil +effected by a single statesman can bear to the good or evil of a +great social system. + +Bishop Watson compares a geologist to a gnat mounted on an +elephant, and laying down theories as to the whole internal +structure of the vast animal, from the phenomena of the hide. +The comparison is unjust to the geologists; but is very +applicable to those historians who write as if the body politic +were homogeneous, who look only on the surface of affairs, and +never think of the mighty and various organisation which lies +deep below. + +In the works of such writers as these, England, at the close of +the Seven Years' War, is in the highest state of prosperity: at +the close of the American war she is in a miserable and degraded +condition; as if the people were not on the whole as rich, as +well governed, and as well educated at the latter period as at +the former. We have read books called Histories of England, +under the reign of George the Second, in which the rise of +Methodism is not even mentioned. A hundred years hence this +breed of authors will, we hope, be extinct. If it should still +exist, the late ministerial interregnum will be described in +terms which will seem to imply that all government was at an end; +that the social contract was annulled; and that the hand of every +man was against his neighbour, until the wisdom and virtue of the +new cabinet educed order out of the chaos of anarchy. We are +quite certain that misconceptions as gross prevail at this moment +respecting many important parts of our annals. + +The effect of historical reading is analogous, in many respects, +to that produced by foreign travel. The student, like the +tourist, is transported into a new state of society. He sees new +fashions. He hears new modes of expression. His mind is +enlarged by contemplating the wide diversities of laws, of +morals, and of manners. But men may travel far, and return with +minds as contracted as if they had never stirred from their own +market-town. In the same manner, men may know the dates of many +battles and the genealogies of many royal houses, and yet be no +wiser. Most people look at past times as princes look at foreign +countries. More than one illustrious stranger has landed on our +island amidst the shouts of a mob, has dined with the king, has +hunted with the master of the stag-hounds, has seen the guards +reviewed, and a knight of the garter installed, has cantered +along Regent Street, has visited Saint Paul's, and noted down its +dimensions; and has then departed, thinking that he has seen +England. He has, in fact, seen a few public buildings, public +men, and public ceremonies. But of the vast and complex system +of society, of the fine shades of national character, of the +practical operation of government and laws, he knows nothing. He +who would understand these things rightly must not confine his +observations to palaces and solemn days. He must see ordinary +men as they appear in their ordinary business and in their +ordinary pleasures. He must mingle in the crowds of the exchange +and the coffee-house. He must obtain admittance to the convivial +table and the domestic hearth. He must bear with vulgar +expressions. He must not shrink from exploring even the retreats +of misery. He who wishes to understand the condition of mankind +in former ages must proceed on the same principle. If he attends +only to public transactions, to wars, congresses, and debates, +his studies will be as unprofitable as the travels of those +imperial, royal, and serene sovereigns who form their judgment of +our island from having gone in state to a few fine sights, and +from having held formal conferences with a few great officers. + +The perfect historian is he in whose work the character and +spirit of an age is exhibited in miniature. He relates no fact, +he attributes no expression to his characters, which is not +authenticated by sufficient testimony. But, by judicious +selection, rejection, and arrangement, he gives to truth those +attractions which have been usurped by fiction. In his narrative +a due subordination is observed: some transactions are +prominent; others retire. But the scale on which he represents +them is increased or diminished, not according to the dignity of +the persons concerned in them, but according to the degree in +which they elucidate the condition of society and the nature of +man. He shows us the court, the camp, and the senate. But he +shows us also the nation. He considers no anecdote, no +peculiarity of manner, no familiar saying, as too insignificant +for his notice which is not too insignificant to illustrate the +operation of laws, of religion, and of education, and to mark the +progress of the human mind. Men will not merely be described, +but will be made intimately known to us. The changes of manners +will be indicated, not merely by a few general phrases or a few +extracts from statistical documents, but by appropriate images +presented in every line. + +If a man, such as we are supposing, should write the history of +England, he would assuredly not omit the battles, the sieges, the +negotiations, the seditions, the ministerial changes. But with +these he would intersperse the details which are the charm of +historical romances. At Lincoln Cathedral there is a beautiful +painted window, which was made by an apprentice out of the pieces +of glass which had been rejected by his master. It is so far +superior to every other in the church, that, according to the +tradition, the vanquished artist killed himself from +mortification. Sir Walter Scott, in the same manner, has used +those fragments of truth which historians have scornfully thrown +behind them in a manner which may well excite their envy. He has +constructed out of their gleanings works which, even considered +as histories, are scarcely less valuable than theirs. But a +truly great historian would reclaim those materials which the +novelist has appropriated. The history of the government, and +the history of the people, would be exhibited in that mode in +which alone they can be exhibited justly, in inseparable +conjunction and intermixture. We should not then have to look +for the wars and votes of the Puritans in Clarendon, and for +their phraseology in Old Mortality; for one half of King James in +Hume, and for the other half in the Fortunes of Nigel. + +The early part of our imaginary history would be rich with +colouring from romance, ballad, and chronicle. We should find +ourselves in the company of knights such as those of Froissart, +and of pilgrims such as those who rode with Chaucer from the +Tabard. Society would be shown from the highest to the lowest,-- +from the royal cloth of state to the den of the outlaw; from the +throne of the legate to the chimney-corner where the begging +friar regaled himself. Palmers, minstrels, crusaders,--the +stately monastery, with the good cheer in its refectory and the +high-mass in its chapel,--the manor-house, with its hunting and +hawking,--the tournament, with the heralds and ladies, the +trumpets and the cloth of gold,--would give truth and life to the +representation. We should perceive, in a thousand slight +touches, the importance of the privileged burgher, and the fierce +and haughty spirit which swelled under the collar of the degraded +villain. The revival of letters would not merely be described in +a few magnificent periods. We should discern, in innumerable +particulars, the fermentation of mind, the eager appetite for +knowledge, which distinguished the sixteenth from the fifteenth +century. In the Reformation we should see, not merely a schism +which changed the ecclesiastical constitution of England and the +mutual relations of the European powers, but a moral war which +raged in every family, which set the father against the son, and +the son against the father, the mother against the daughter, and +the daughter against the mother. Henry would be painted with the +skill of Tacitus. We should have the change of his character +from his profuse and joyous youth to his savage and imperious old +age. We should perceive the gradual progress of selfish and +tyrannical passions in a mind not naturally insensible or +ungenerous; and to the last we should detect some remains of that +open and noble temper which endeared him to a people whom he +oppressed, struggling with the hardness of despotism and the +irritability of disease. We should see Elizabeth in all her +weakness and in all her strength, surrounded by the handsome +favourites whom she never trusted, and the wise old statesmen +whom she never dismissed, uniting in herself the most +contradictory qualities of both her parents,--the coquetry, the +caprice, the petty malice of Anne,--the haughty and resolute +spirit of Henry. We have no hesitation in saying that a great +artist might produce a portrait of this remarkable woman at least +as striking as that in the novel of Kenilworth, without employing +a single trait not authenticated by ample testimony. In the +meantime, we should see arts cultivated, wealth accumulated, the +conveniences of life improved. We should see the keeps, where +nobles, insecure themselves, spread insecurity around them, +gradually giving place to the halls of peaceful opulence, to the +oriels of Longleat, and the stately pinnacles of Burleigh. We +should see towns extended, deserts cultivated, the hamlets of +fishermen turned into wealthy havens, the meal of the peasant +improved, and his hut more commodiously furnished. We should see +those opinions and feelings which produced the great struggle +against the House of Stuart slowly growing up in the bosom of +private families, before they manifested themselves in +parliamentary debates. Then would come the civil war. Those +skirmishes on which Clarendon dwells so minutely would be told, +as Thucydides would have told them, with perspicuous conciseness. +They are merely connecting links. But the great characteristics +of the age, the loyal enthusiasm of the brave English gentry, the +fierce licentiousness of the swearing, dicing, drunken +reprobates, whose excesses disgraced the royal cause,--the +austerity of the Presbyterian Sabbaths in the city, the +extravagance of the independent preachers in the camp, the +precise garb, the severe countenance, the petty scruples, the +affected accent, the absurd names and phrases which marked the +Puritans,--the valour, the policy, the public spirit, which +lurked beneath these ungraceful disguises,--the dreams of the +raving Fifth-monarchy-man, the dreams, scarcely less wild, of the +philosophic republican, all these would enter into the +representation, and render it at once more exact and more +striking. + +The instruction derived from history thus written would be of a +vivid and practical character. It would be received by the +imagination as well as by the reason. It would be not merely +traced on the mind, but branded into it. Many truths, too, would +be learned, which can be learned in no other manner. As the +history of states is generally written, the greatest and most +momentous revolutions seem to come upon them like supernatural +inflictions, without warning or cause. But the fact is, that +such revolutions are almost always the consequences of moral +changes, which have gradually passed on the mass of the +community, and which originally proceed far before their progress +is indicated by any public measure. An intimate knowledge of the +domestic history of nations is therefore absolutely necessary to +the prognosis of political events. A narrative, defective in +this respect, is as useless as a medical treatise which should +pass by all the symptoms attendant on the early stage of a +disease and mention only what occurs when the patient is beyond +the reach of remedies. + +A historian, such as we have been attempting to describe, would +indeed be an intellectual prodigy. In his mind, powers scarcely +compatible with each other must be tempered into an exquisite +harmony. We shall sooner see another Shakspeare or another +Homer. The highest excellence to which any single faculty can be +brought would be less surprising than such a happy and delicate +combination of qualities. Yet the contemplation of imaginary +models is not an unpleasant or useless employment of the mind. +It cannot indeed produce perfection; but it produces improvement +and nourishes that generous and liberal fastidiousness which is +not inconsistent with the strongest sensibility to merit, and +which, while it exalts our conceptions of the art, does not +render us unjust to the artist. + +... + + +MILL ON GOVERNMENT. + +(March 1829.) + +"Essays on Government, Jurisprudence, the Liberty of the Press, +Prisons, and Prison Discipline, Colonies, the Law of Nations, and +Education." By James Mill, Esq., author of the History of +British India. Reprinted by permission from the Supplement to +the Encyclopaedia Britannica. (Not for sale.) London, 1828. + +Of those philosophers who call themselves Utilitarians, and whom +others generally call Benthamites, Mr Mill is, with the exception +of the illustrious founder of the sect, by far the most +distinguished. The little work now before us contains a summary +of the opinions held by this gentleman and his brethren on +several subjects most important to society. All the seven essays +of which it consists abound in curious matter. But at present we +intend to confine our remarks to the Treatise on Government, +which stands first in the volume. On some future occasion, we +may perhaps attempt to do justice to the rest. + +It must be owned that to do justice to any composition of Mr Mill +is not, in the opinion of his admirers, a very easy task. They +do not, indeed, place him in the same rank with Mr Bentham; but +the terms in which they extol the disciple, though feeble when +compared with the hyperboles of adoration employed by them in +speaking of the master, are as strong as any sober man would +allow himself to use concerning Locke or Bacon. The essay before +us is perhaps the most remarkable of the works to which Mr Mill +owes his fame. By the members of his sect, it is considered as +perfect and unanswerable. Every part of it is an article of +their faith; and the damnatory clauses, in which their creed +abounds far beyond any theological symbol with which we are +acquainted, are strong and full against all who reject any +portion of what is so irrefragably established. No man, they +maintain, who has understanding sufficient to carry him through +the first proposition of Euclid, can read this masterpiece of +demonstration and honestly declare that he remains unconvinced. + +We have formed a very different opinion of this work. We think +that the theory of Mr Mill rests altogether on false principles, +and that even on those false principles he does not reason +logically. Nevertheless, we do not think it strange that his +speculations should have filled the Utilitarians with admiration. +We have been for some time past inclined to suspect that these +people, whom some regard as the lights of the world and others as +incarnate demons, are in general ordinary men, with narrow +understandings and little information. The contempt which they +express for elegant literature is evidently the contempt of +ignorance. We apprehend that many of them are persons who, +having read little or nothing, are delighted to be rescued from +the sense of their own inferiority by some teacher who assures +them that the studies which they have neglected are of no value, +puts five or six phrases into their mouths, lends them an old +number of the Westminster Review, and in a month transforms them +into philosophers. Mingled with these smatterers, whose +attainments just suffice to elevate them from the insignificance +of dunces to the dignity of bores, and to spread dismay among +their pious aunts and grandmothers, there are, we well know, many +well-meaning men who have really read and thought much; but whose +reading and meditation have been almost exclusively confined to +one class of subjects; and who, consequently, though they possess +much valuable knowledge respecting those subjects, are by no +means so well qualified to judge of a great system as if they had +taken a more enlarged view of literature and society. + +Nothing is more amusing or instructive than to observe the manner +in which people who think themselves wiser than all the rest of +the world fall into snares which the simple good sense of their +neighbours detects and avoids. It is one of the principle tenets +of the Utilitarians that sentiment and eloquence serve only to +impede the pursuit of truth. They therefore affect a quakerly +plainness, or rather a cynical negligence and impurity, of style. +The strongest arguments, when clothed in brilliant language, seem +to them so much wordy nonsense. In the meantime they surrender +their understandings, with a facility found in no other party, to +the meanest and most abject sophisms, provided those sophisms +come before them disguised with the externals of demonstration. +They do not seem to know that logic has its illusions as well as +rhetoric,--that a fallacy may lurk in a syllogism as well as in a +metaphor. + +Mr Mill is exactly the writer to please people of this +description. His arguments are stated with the utmost +affectation of precision; his divisions are awfully formal; and +his style is generally as dry as that of Euclid's Elements. +Whether this be a merit, we must be permitted to doubt. Thus +much is certain: that the ages in which the true principles of +philosophy were least understood were those in which the +ceremonial of logic was most strictly observed, and that the time +from which we date the rapid progress of the experimental +sciences was also the time at which a less exact and formal way +of writing came into use. + +The style which the Utilitarians admire suits only those subjects +on which it is possible to reason a priori. It grew up with the +verbal sophistry which flourished during the dark ages. With +that sophistry it fell before the Baconian philosopher in the day +of the great deliverance of the human mind. The inductive method +not only endured but required greater freedom of diction. It was +impossible to reason from phenomena up to principles, to mark +slight shades of difference in quality, or to estimate the +comparative effect of two opposite considerations between which +there was no common measure, by means of the naked and meagre +jargon of the schoolmen. Of those schoolmen Mr Mill has +inherited both the spirit and the style. He is an Aristotelian +of the fifteenth century, born out of due season. We have here +an elaborate treatise on Government, from which, but for two or +three passing allusions, it would not appear that the author was +aware that any governments actually existed among men. Certain +propensities of human nature are assumed; and from these premises +the whole science of politics is synthetically deduced! We can +scarcely persuade ourselves that we are not reading a book +written before the time of Bacon and Galileo,--a book written in +those days in which physicians reasoned from the nature of heat +to the treatment of fever, and astronomers proved syllogistically +that the planets could have no independent motion,--because the +heavens were incorruptible, and nature abhorred a vacuum! + +The reason, too, which Mr Mill has assigned for taking this +course strikes us as most extraordinary. + +"Experience," says he, "if we look only at the outside of the +facts, appears to be DIVIDED on this subject. Absolute monarchy, +under Neros and Caligulas, under such men as the Emperors of +Morocco and Sultans of Turkey, is the scourge of human nature. +On the other side, the people of Denmark, tired out with the +oppression of an aristocracy, resolved that their king should be +absolute; and, under their absolute monarch, are as well governed +as any people in Europe." + +This Mr Mill actually gives as a reason for pursuing the a priori +method. But, in our judgment, the very circumstances which he +mentions irresistibly prove that the a priori method is +altogether unfit for investigations of this kind, and that the +only way to arrive at the truth is by induction. EXPERIENCE can +never be divided, or even appear to be divided, except with +reference to some hypothesis. When we say that one fact is +inconsistent with another fact, we mean only that it is +inconsistent with THE THEORY which we have founded on that other +fact. But, if the fact be certain, the unavoidable conclusion is +that our theory is false; and, in order to correct it, we must +reason back from an enlarged collection of facts to principles. + +Now here we have two governments which, by Mr Mill's own account, +come under the same head in his THEORETICAL classification. It +is evident, therefore, that, by reasoning on that theoretical +classification, we shall be brought to the conclusion that these +two forms of government must produce the same effects. But Mr +Mill himself tells us that they do not produce the same effects. +Hence he infers that the only way to get at truth is to place +implicit confidence in that chain of proof a priori from which it +appears that they must produce the same effects! To believe at +once in a theory and in a fact which contradicts it is an +exercise of faith sufficiently hard: but to believe in a theory +BECAUSE a fact contradicts it is what neither philosopher nor +pope ever before required. This, however, is what Mr Mill +demands of us. He seems to think that, if all despots, without +exception, governed ill, it would be unnecessary to prove, by a +synthetical argument, what would then be sufficiently clear from +experience. But, as some despots will be so perverse as to +govern well, he finds himself compelled to prove the +impossibility of their governing well by that synthetical +argument which would have been superfluous had not the facts +contradicted it. He reasons a priori, because the phenomena are +not what, by reasoning a priori, he will prove them to be. In +other words, he reasons a priori, because, by so reasoning, he is +certain to arrive at a false conclusion! + +In the course of the examination to which we propose to subject +the speculations of Mr Mill we shall have to notice many other +curious instances of that turn of mind which the passage above +quoted indicates. + +The first chapter of his Essay relates to the ends of government. +The conception on this subject, he tells us, which exists in the +minds of most men is vague and undistinguishing. He first +assumes, justly enough, that the end of government is "to +increase to the utmost the pleasures, and diminish to the utmost +the pains, which men derive from each other." He then proceeds +to show, with great form, that "the greatest possible happiness +of society is attained by insuring to every man the greatest +possible quantity of the produce of his labour." To effect this +is, in his opinion, the end of government. It is remarkable that +Mr Mill, with all his affected display of precision, has here +given a description of the ends of government far less precise +than that which is in the mouths of the vulgar. The first man +with whom Mr Mill may travel in a stage coach will tell him that +government exists for the protection of the PERSONS and property +of men. But Mr Mill seems to think that the preservation of +property is the first and only object. It is true, doubtless, +that many of the injuries which are offered to the persons of men +proceed from a desire to possess their property. But the +practice of vindictive assassination as it has existed in some +parts of Europe--the practice of fighting wanton and sanguinary +duels, like those of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in +which bands of seconds risked their lives as well as the +principals;--these practices, and many others which might be +named, are evidently injurious to society; and we do not see how +a government which tolerated them could be said "to diminish to +the utmost the pains which men derive from each other." +Therefore, according to Mr Mill's very correct assumption, such a +government would not perfectly accomplish the end of its +institution. Yet such a government might, as far as we can +perceive, "insure to every man the greatest possible quantity of +the produce of his labour." Therefore such a government might, +according to Mr Mill's subsequent doctrine, perfectly accomplish +the end of its institution. The matter is not of much +consequence, except as an instance of that slovenliness of +thinking which is often concealed beneath a peculiar ostentation +of logical neatness. + +Having determined the ends, Mr Mill proceeds to consider the +means. For the preservation of property some portion of the +community must be intrusted with power. This is government; and +the question is, how are those to whom the necessary power is +intrusted to be prevented from abusing it? + +Mr Mill first passes in review the simple forms of government. +He allows that it would be inconvenient, if not physically +impossible, that the whole community should meet in a mass; it +follows, therefore, that the powers of government cannot be +directly exercised by the people. But he sees no objection to +pure and direct Democracy, except the difficulty which we have +mentioned. + +"The community," says he, "cannot have an interest opposite to +its interests. To affirm this would be a contradiction in terms. +The community within itself, and with respect to itself, can have +no sinister interest. One community may intend the evil of +another; never its own. This is an indubitable proposition, and +one of great importance." + +Mr Mill then proceeds to demonstrate that a purely aristocratical +form of government is necessarily bad. + +"The reason for which government exists is, that one man, if +stronger than another, will take from him whatever that other +possesses and he desires. But if one man will do this, so will +several. And if powers are put into the hands of a comparatively +small number, called an aristocracy,--powers which make them +stronger than the rest of the community, they will take from the +rest of the community as much as they please of the objects of +desire. They will thus defeat the very end for which government +was instituted. The unfitness, therefore, of an aristocracy to +be intrusted with the powers of government, rests on +demonstration. + +In exactly the same manner Mr Mill proves absolute monarchy to be +a bad form of government. + +"If government is founded upon this as a law of human nature, +that a man, if able, will take from others anything which they +have and he desires, it is sufficiently evident, that when a man +is called a king he does not change his nature; so that when he +has got power to enable him to take from every man what he +pleases, he will take whatever he pleases. To suppose that he +will not, is to affirm that government is unnecessary, and that +human beings will abstain from injuring one another of their own +accord. + +"It is very evident that this reasoning extends to every +modification of the smaller number. Whenever the powers of +government are placed in any hands other than those of the +community, whether those of one man, of a few, or of several, +those principles of human nature which imply that government is +at all necessary, imply that those persons will make use of them +to defeat the very end for which government exists." + +But is it not possible that a king or an aristocracy may soon be +saturated with the objects of their desires, and may then protect +the community in the enjoyment of the rest? Mr Mill answers in +the negative. He proves, with great pomp, that every man desires +to have the actions of every other correspondent to his will. +Others can be induced to conform to our will only by motives +derived from pleasure or from pain. The infliction of pain is of +course direct injury; and, even if it take the milder course, in +order to produce obedience by motives derived from pleasure, the +government must confer favours. But, as there is no limit to its +desire of obedience, there will be no limit to its disposition to +confer favours; and, as it can confer favours only by plundering +the people, there will be no limit to its disposition to plunder +the people. It is therefore not true that there is in the mind +of a king, or in the minds of an aristocracy, any point of +saturation with the objects of desire. + +Mr Mill then proceeds to show that, as monarchical and +oligarchical governments can influence men by motives drawn from +pain, as well as by motives drawn from pleasure, they will carry +their cruelty, as well as their rapacity, to a frightful extent. +As he seems greatly to admire his own reasonings on this subject, +we think it but fair to let him speak for himself. + +"The chain of inference in this case is close and strong to a +most unusual degree. A man desires that the actions of other men +shall be instantly and accurately correspondent to his will. He +desires that the actions of the greatest possible number shall be +so. Terror is the grand instrument. Terror can work only +through assurance that evil will follow any failure of conformity +between the will and the actions willed. Every failure must +therefore be punished. As there are no bounds to the mind's +desire of its pleasure, there are, of course, no bounds to its +desire of perfection in the instruments of that pleasure. There +are, therefore, no bounds to its desire of exactness in the +conformity between its will and the actions willed; and by +consequence to the strength of that terror which is its procuring +cause. Even the most minute failure must be visited with the +heaviest infliction; and as failure in extreme exactness must +frequently happen, the occasions of cruelty must be incessant. + +"We have thus arrived at several conclusions of the highest +possible importance. We have seen that the principle of human +nature, upon which the necessity of government is founded, the +propensity of one man to possess himself of the objects of desire +at the cost of another, leads on, by infallible sequence, where +power over a community is attained, and nothing checks, not only +to that degree of plunder which leaves the members (excepting +always the recipients and instruments of the plunder) the bare +means of subsistence, but to that degree of cruelty which is +necessary to keep in existence the most intense terrors." + +Now, no man who has the least knowledge of the real state of the +world, either in former ages or at the present moment, can +possibly be convinced, though he may perhaps be bewildered, by +arguments like these. During the last two centuries, some +hundreds of absolute princes have reigned in Europe. Is it true, +that their cruelty has kept in existence the most intense degree +of terror; that their rapacity has left no more than the bare +means of subsistence to any of their subjects, their ministers +and soldiers excepted? Is this true of all of them? Of one half +of them? Of one tenth part of them? Of a single one? Is it +true, in the full extent, even of Philip the Second, of Louis the +Fifteenth, or of the Emperor Paul? But it is scarcely necessary +to quote history. No man of common sense, however ignorant he +may be of books, can be imposed on by Mr Mill's argument; because +no man of common sense can live among his fellow-creatures for a +day without seeing innumerable facts which contradict it. It is +our business, however, to point out its fallacy; and happily the +fallacy is not very recondite. + +We grant that rulers will take as much as they can of the objects +of their desires; and that, when the agency of other men is +necessary to that end, they will attempt by all means in their +power to enforce the prompt obedience of such men. But what are +the objects of human desire? Physical pleasure, no doubt, in +part. But the mere appetites which we have in common with the +animals would be gratified almost as cheaply and easily as those +of the animals are gratified, if nothing were given to taste, to +ostentation, or to the affections. How small a portion of the +income of a gentleman in easy circumstances is laid out merely in +giving pleasurable sensations to the body of the possessor! The +greater part even of what is spent on his kitchen and his cellar +goes, not to titillate his palate, but to keep up his character +for hospitality, to save him from the reproach of meanness in +housekeeping, and to cement the ties of good neighbourhood. It +is clear that a king or an aristocracy may be supplied to satiety +with mere corporal pleasures, at an expense which the rudest and +poorest community would scarcely feel. + +Those tastes and propensities which belong to us as reasoning and +imaginative beings are not indeed so easily gratified. There is, +we admit, no point of saturation with objects of desire which +come under this head. And therefore the argument of Mr Mill will +be just, unless there be something in the nature of the objects +of desire themselves which is inconsistent with it. Now, of +these objects there is none which men in general seem to desire +more than the good opinion of others. The hatred and contempt of +the public are generally felt to be intolerable. It is probable +that our regard for the sentiments of our fellow-creatures +springs, by association, from a sense of their ability to hurt or +to serve us. But, be this as it may, it is notorious that, when +the habit of mind of which we speak has once been formed, men +feel extremely solicitous about the opinions of those by whom it +is most improbable, nay, absolutely impossible, that they should +ever be in the slightest degree injured or benefited. The desire +of posthumous fame and the dread of posthumous reproach and +execration are feelings from the influence of which scarcely any +man is perfectly free, and which in many men are powerful and +constant motives of action. As we are afraid that, if we handle +this part of the argument after our own manner, we shall incur +the reproach of sentimentality, a word which, in the sacred +language of the Benthamites, is synonymous with idiocy, we will +quote what Mr Mill himself says on the subject, in his Treatise +on Jurisprudence. + +"Pains from the moral source are the pains derived from the +unfavourable sentiments of mankind...These pains are capable of +rising to a height with which hardly any other pains incident to +our nature can be compared. There is a certain degree of +unfavourableness in the sentiments of his fellow-creatures, under +which hardly any man, not below the standard of humanity, can +endure to live. + +"The importance of this powerful agency, for the prevention of +injurious acts, is too obvious to need to be illustrated. If +sufficiently at command, it would almost supersede the use of +other means... + +"To know how to direct the unfavourable sentiments of mankind, it +is necessary to know in as complete, that is, in as +comprehensive, a way as possible, what it is which gives them +birth. Without entering into the metaphysics of the question, it +is a sufficient practical answer, for the present purpose, to say +that the unfavourable sentiments of man are excited by everything +which hurts them." + +It is strange that a writer who considers the pain derived from +the unfavourable sentiments of others as so acute that, if +sufficiently at command, it would supersede the use of the +gallows and the tread-mill, should take no notice of this most +important restraint when discussing the question of government. +We will attempt to deduce a theory of politics in the +mathematical form, in which Mr Mill delights, from the premises +with which he has himself furnished us. + +PROPOSITION I. THEOREM. + +No rulers will do anything which may hurt the people. + +This is the thesis to be maintained; and the following we humbly +offer to Mr Mill, as its syllogistic demonstration. + +No rulers will do that which produces pain to themselves. + +But the unfavourable sentiments of the people will give pain to +them. + +Therefore no rulers will do anything which may excite the +unfavourable sentiments of the people. + +But the unfavourable sentiments of the people are excited by +everything which hurts them. + +Therefore no rulers will do anything which may hurt the people. +Which was the thing to be proved. + +Having thus, as we think, not unsuccessfully imitated Mr Mill's +logic, we do not see why we should not imitate, what is at least +equally perfect in its kind, its self-complacency, and proclaim +our Eureka in his own words: "The chain of inference, in this +case, is close and strong to a most unusual degree." + +The fact is, that, when men, in treating of things which cannot +be circumscribed by precise definitions, adopt this mode of +reasoning, when once they begin to talk of power, happiness, +misery, pain, pleasure, motives, objects of desire, as they talk +of lines and numbers, there is no end to the contradictions and +absurdities into which they fall. There is no proposition so +monstrously untrue in morals or politics that we will not +undertake to prove it, by something which shall sound like a +logical demonstration from admitted principles. + +Mr Mill argues that, if men are not inclined to plunder each +other, government is unnecessary; and that, if they are so +inclined, the powers of government, when entrusted to a small +number of them, will necessarily be abused. Surely it is not by +propounding dilemmas of this sort that we are likely to arrive at +sound conclusions in any moral science. The whole question is a +question of degree. If all men preferred the moderate +approbation of their neighbours to any degree of wealth or +grandeur, or sensual pleasure, government would be unnecessary. +If all men desired wealth so intensely as to be willing to brave +the hatred of their fellow-creatures for sixpence, Mr Mill's +argument against monarchies and aristocracies would be true to +the full extent. But the fact is, that all men have some desires +which impel them to injure their neighbours, and some desires +which impel them to benefit their neighbours. Now, if there were +a community consisting of two classes of men, one of which should +be principally influenced by the one set of motives and the other +by the other, government would clearly be necessary to restrain +the class which was eager for plunder and careless of reputation: +and yet the powers of government might be safely intrusted to the +class which was chiefly actuated by the love of approbation. +Now, it might with no small plausibility be maintained that, in +many countries, THERE ARE two classes which, in some degree, +answer to this description; that the poor compose the class which +government is established to restrain, and the people of some +property the class to which the powers of government may without +danger be confided. It might be said that a man who can barely +earn a livelihood by severe labour is under stronger temptations +to pillage others than a man who enjoys many luxuries. It might +be said that a man who is lost in the crowd is less likely to +have the fear of public opinion before his eyes than a man whose +station and mode of living render him conspicuous. We do not +assert all this. We only say that it was Mr Mill's business to +prove the contrary; and that, not having proved the contrary, he +is not entitled to say, "that those principles which imply that +government is at all necessary, imply that an aristocracy will +make use of its power to defeat the end for which governments +exist." This is not true, unless it be true that a rich man is +as likely to covet the goods of his neighbours as a poor man, and +that a poor man is as likely to be solicitous about the opinions +of his neighbours as a rich man. + +But we do not see that, by reasoning a priori on such subjects as +these, it is possible to advance one single step. We know that +every man has some desires which he can gratify only by hurting +his neighbours, and some which he can gratify only by pleasing +them. Mr Mill has chosen to look only at one-half of human +nature, and to reason on the motives which impel men to oppress +and despoil others, as if they were the only motives by which men +could possibly be influenced. We have already shown that, by +taking the other half of the human character, and reasoning on it +as if it were the whole, we can bring out a result diametrically +opposite to that at which Mr Mill has arrived. We can, by such a +process, easily prove that any form of government is good, or +that all government is superfluous. + +We must now accompany Mr Mill on the next stage of his argument. + +Does any combination of the three simple forms of government +afford the requisite securities against the abuse of power? Mr +Mill complains that those who maintain the affirmative generally +beg the question; and proceeds to settle the point by proving, +after his fashion, that no combination of the three simple forms, +or of any two of them, can possibly exist. + +"From the principles which we have already laid down it follows +that, of the objects of human desire, and, speaking more +definitely, of the means to the ends of human desire, namely, +wealth and power, each party will endeavour to obtain as much as +possible. + +"If any expedient presents itself to any of the supposed parties +effectual to this end, and not opposed to any preferred object of +pursuit, we may infer with certainty that it will be adopted. +One effectual expedient is not more effectual than obvious. Any +two of the parties, by combining, may swallow up the third. That +such combination will take place appears to be as certain as +anything which depends upon human will; because there are strong +motives in favour of it, and none that can be conceived in +opposition to it...The mixture of three of the kinds of +government, it is thus evident, cannot possibly exist...It may be +proper to enquire whether an union may not be possible of two of +them... + +"Let us first suppose, that monarchy is united with aristocracy. +Their power is equal or not equal. If it is not equal, it +follows, as a necessary consequence, from the principles which we +have already established, that the stronger will take from the +weaker till it engrosses the whole. The only question therefore +is, What will happen when the power is equal? + +"In the first place, it seems impossible that such equality +should ever exist. How is it to be established? or, by what +criterion is it to be ascertained? If there is no such +criterion, it must, in all cases, be the result of chance. If +so, the chances against it are as infinity to one. The idea, +therefore, is wholly chimerical and absurd... + +"In this doctrine of the mixture of the simple forms of +government is included the celebrated theory of the balance among +the component parts of a government. By this it is supposed +that, when a government is composed of monarchy, aristocracy, and +democracy, they balance one another, and by mutual checks produce +good government. A few words will suffice to show that, if any +theory deserves the epithets of 'wild, visionary, and +chimerical,' it is that of the balance. If there are three +powers, how is it possible to prevent two of them from combining +to swallow up the third? + +"The analysis which we have already performed will enable us to +trace rapidly the concatenation of causes and effects in this +imagined case. + +"We have already seen that the interests of the community, +considered in the aggregate, or in the democratical point of +view, is, that each individual should receive protection; and +that the powers which are constituted for that purpose should be +employed exclusively for that purpose...We have also seen that +the interest of the king and of the governing aristocracy is +directly the reverse. It is to have unlimited power over the +rest of the community, and to use it for their own advantage. In +the supposed case of the balance of the monarchical, +aristocratical, and democratical powers, it cannot be for the +interest of either the monarchy or the aristocracy to combine +with the democracy; because it is the interest of the democracy, +or community at large, that neither the king nor the aristocracy +should have one particle of power, or one particle of the wealth +of the community, for their own advantage. + +"The democracy or community have all possible motives to +endeavour to prevent the monarchy and aristocracy from exercising +power, or obtaining the wealth of the community for their own +advantage. The monarchy and aristocracy have all possible +motives for endeavouring to obtain unlimited power over the +persons and property of the community. The consequence is +inevitable: they have all possible motives for combining to +obtain that power." + +If any part of this passage be more eminently absurd than +another, it is, we think, the argument by which Mr Mill proves +that there cannot be an union of monarchy and aristocracy. Their +power, he says, must be equal or not equal. But of equality +there is no criterion. Therefore the chances against its +existence are as infinity to one. If the power be not equal, +then it follows, from the principles of human nature, that the +stronger will take from the weaker, till it has engrossed the +whole. + +Now, if there be no criterion of equality between two portions of +power there can be no common measure of portions of power. +Therefore it is utterly impossible to compare them together. But +where two portions of power are of the same kind, there is no +difficulty in ascertaining, sufficiently for all practical +purposes, whether they are equal or unequal. It is easy to judge +whether two men run equally fast, or can lift equal weights. Two +arbitrators, whose joint decision is to be final, and neither of +whom can do anything without the assent of the other, possess +equal power. Two electors, each of whom has a vote for a +borough, possess, in that respect, equal power. If not, all Mr +Mill's political theories fall to the ground at once. For, if it +be impossible to ascertain whether two portions of power are +equal, he never can show that even under a system of universal +suffrage, a minority might not carry every thing their own way, +against the wishes and interests of the majority. + +Where there are two portions of power differing in kind, there +is, we admit, no criterion of equality. But then, in such a +case, it is absurd to talk, as Mr Mill does, about the stronger +and the weaker. Popularly, indeed, and with reference to some +particular objects, these words may very fairly be used. But to +use them mathematically is altogether improper. If we are +speaking of a boxing-match, we may say that some famous bruiser +has greater bodily power than any man in England. If we are +speaking of a pantomime, we may say the same of some very agile +harlequin. But it would be talking nonsense to say, in general, +that the power of Harlequin either exceeded that of the pugilist +or fell short of it. + +If Mr Mill's argument be good as between different branches of a +legislature, it is equally good as between sovereign powers. +Every government, it may be said, will, if it can, take the +objects of its desires from every other. If the French +government can subdue England it will do so. If the English +government can subdue France it will do so. But the power of +England and France is either equal or not equal. The chance that +it is not exactly equal is as infinity to one, and may safely be +left out of the account; and then the stronger will infallibly +take from the weaker till the weaker is altogether enslaved. + +Surely the answer to all this hubbub of unmeaning words is the +plainest possible. For some purposes France is stronger than +England. For some purposes England is stronger than France. For +some, neither has any power at all. France has the greater +population, England the greater capital; France has the greater +army, England the greater fleet. For an expedition to Rio +Janeiro or the Philippines, England has the greater power. For a +war on the Po or the Danube, France has the greater power. But +neither has power sufficient to keep the other in quiet +subjection for a month. Invasion would be very perilous; the +idea of complete conquest on either side utterly ridiculous. +This is the manly and sensible way of discussing such questions. +The ergo, or rather the argal, of Mr Mill cannot impose on a +child. Yet we ought scarcely to say this; for we remember to +have heard A CHILD ask whether Bonaparte was stronger than an +elephant! + +Mr Mill reminds us of those philosophers of the sixteenth century +who, having satisfied themselves a priori that the rapidity with +which bodies descended to the earth varied exactly as their +weights, refused to believe the contrary on the evidence of their +own eyes and ears. The British constitution, according to Mr +Mill's classification, is a mixture of monarchy and aristocracy; +one House of Parliament being composed of hereditary nobles, and +the other almost entirely chosen by a privileged class who +possess the elective franchise on account of their property, or +their connection with certain corporations. Mr Mill's argument +proves that, from the time that these two powers were mingled in +our government, that is, from the very first dawn of our history, +one or the other must have been constantly encroaching. +According to him, moreover, all the encroachments must have been +on one side. For the first encroachment could only have been +made by the stronger; and that first encroachment would have made +the stronger stronger still. It is, therefore, matter of +absolute demonstration, that either the Parliament was stronger +than the Crown in the reign of Henry VIII., or that the Crown was +stronger than the Parliament in 1641. "Hippocrate dira ce que +lui plaira," says the girl in Moliere; "mais le cocher est mort." +Mr Mill may say what he pleases; but the English constitution is +still alive. That since the Revolution the Parliament has +possessed great power in the State, is what nobody will dispute. +The King, on the other hand, can create new peers, and can +dissolve Parliaments. William sustained severe mortifications +from the House of Commons, and was, indeed, unjustifiably +oppressed. Anne was desirous to change a ministry which had a +majority in both Houses. She watched her moment for a +dissolution, created twelve Tory peers, and succeeded. Thirty +years later, the House of Commons drove Walpole from his seat. +In 1784, George III. was able to keep Mr Pitt in office in the +face of a majority of the House of Commons. In 1804, the +apprehension of a defeat in Parliament compelled the same King to +part from his most favoured minister. But, in 1807, he was able +to do exactly what Anne had done nearly a hundred years before. +Now, had the power of the King increased during the intervening +century, or had it remained stationary? Is it possible that the +one lot among the infinite number should have fallen to us? If +not, Mr Mill has proved that one of the two parties must have +been constantly taking from the other. Many of the ablest men in +England think that the influence of the Crown has, on the whole, +increased since the reign of Anne. Others think that the +Parliament has been growing in strength. But of this there is no +doubt, that both sides possessed great power then, and possess +great power now. Surely, if there were the least truth in the +argument of Mr Mill, it could not possibly be a matter of doubt, +at the end of a hundred and twenty years, whether the one side or +the other had been the gainer. + +But we ask pardon. We forgot that a fact, irreconcilable with Mr +Mill's theory, furnishes, in his opinion, the strongest reason +for adhering to the theory. To take up the question in another +manner, is it not plain that there may be two bodies, each +possessing a perfect and entire power, which cannot be taken from +it without its own concurrence? What is the meaning of the words +stronger and weaker, when applied to such bodies as these? The +one may, indeed, by physical force, altogether destroy the other. +But this is not the question. A third party, a general of their +own, for example, may, by physical force, subjugate them both. +Nor is there any form of government, Mr Mill's utopian democracy +not excepted, secure from such an occurrence. We are speaking of +the powers with which the constitution invests the two branches +of the legislature; and we ask Mr Mill how, on his own +principles, he can maintain that one of them will be able to +encroach on the other, if the consent of the other be necessary +to such encroachment? + +Mr Mill tells us that, if a government be composed of the three +simple forms, which he will not admit the British constitution to +be, two of the component parts will inevitably join against the +third. Now, if two of them combine and act as one, this case +evidently resolves itself into the last: and all the +observations which we have just made will fully apply to it. Mr +Mill says, that "any two of the parties, by combining, may +swallow up the third;" and afterwards asks, "How is it possible +to prevent two of them from combining to swallow up the third?" +Surely Mr Mill must be aware that in politics two is not always +the double of one. If the concurrence of all the three branches +of the legislature be necessary to every law, each branch will +possess constitutional power sufficient to protect it against +anything but that physical force from which no form of government +is secure. Mr Mill reminds us of the Irishman, who could not be +brought to understand how one juryman could possibly starve out +eleven others. + +But is it certain that two of the branches of the legislature +will combine against the third? "It appears to be as certain," +says Mr Mill, "as anything which depends upon human will; because +there are strong motives in favour of it, and none that can be +conceived in opposition to it." He subsequently sets forth what +these motives are. The interest of the democracy is that each +individual should receive protection. The interest of the King +and the aristocracy is to have all the power that they can +obtain, and to use it for their own ends. Therefore the King and +the aristocracy have all possible motives for combining against +the people. If our readers will look back to the passage quoted +above, they will see that we represent Mr Mill's argument quite +fairly. + +Now we should have thought that, without the help of either +history or experience, Mr Mill would have discovered, by the +light of his own logic, the fallacy which lurks, and indeed +scarcely lurks, under this pretended demonstration. The interest +of the King may be opposed to that of the people. But is it +identical with that of the aristocracy? In the very page which +contains this argument, intended to prove that the King and the +aristocracy will coalesce against the people, Mr Mill attempts to +show that there is so strong an opposition of interest between +the King and the aristocracy that if the powers of government are +divided between them the one will inevitably usurp the power of +the other. If so, he is not entitled to conclude that they will +combine to destroy the power of the people merely because their +interests may be at variance with those of the people. He is +bound to show, not merely that in all communities the interest of +a king must be opposed to that of the people, but also that, in +all communities, it must be more directly opposed to the interest +of the people than to the interest of the aristocracy. But he +has not shown this. Therefore he has not proved his proposition +on his own principles. To quote history would be a mere waste of +time. Every schoolboy, whose studies have gone so far as the +Abridgments of Goldsmith, can mention instances in which +sovereigns have allied themselves with the people against the +aristocracy, and in which the nobles have allied themselves with +the people against the sovereign. In general, when there are +three parties, every one of which has much to fear from the +others, it is not found that two of them combine to plunder the +third. If such a combination be formed, it scarcely ever effects +its purpose. It soon becomes evident which member of the +coalition is likely to be the greater gainer by the transaction. +He becomes an object of jealousy to his ally, who, in all +probability, changes sides, and compels him to restore what he +has taken. Everybody knows how Henry VIII. trimmed between +Francis and the Emperor Charles. But it is idle to cite examples +of the operation of a principle which is illustrated in almost +every page of history, ancient or modern, and to which almost +every state in Europe has, at one time or another, been indebted +for its independence. + +Mr Mill has now, as he conceives, demonstrated that the simple +forms of government are bad, and that the mixed forms cannot +possibly exist. There is still, however, it seems, a hope for +mankind. + +"In the grand discovery of modern times, the system of +representation, the solution of all the difficulties, both +speculative and practical, will perhaps be found. If it cannot, +we seem to be forced upon the extraordinary conclusion, that good +government is impossible. For, as there is no individual or +combination of individuals, except the community itself, who +would not have an interest in bad government if intrusted with +its powers, and as the community itself is incapable of +exercising those powers, and must intrust them to certain +individuals, the conclusion is obvious: the community itself +must check those individuals; else they will follow their +interest, and produce bad government. But how is it the +community can check? The community can act only when assembled; +and when assembled, it is incapable of acting. The community, +however, can choose representatives." + +The next question is--How must the representative body be +constituted? Mr Mill lays down two principles, about which, he +says, "it is unlikely that there will be any dispute." + +"First, The checking body must have a degree of power sufficient +for the business of checking." + +"Secondly, It must have an identity of interest with the +community. Otherwise, it will make a mischievous use of its +power." + +The first of these propositions certainly admits of no dispute. +As to the second, we shall hereafter take occasion to make some +remarks on the sense in which Mr Mill understands the words +"interest of the community." + +It does not appear very easy, on Mr Mill's principles, to find +out any mode of making the interest of the representative body +identical with that of the constituent body. The plan proposed +by Mr Mill is simply that of very frequent election. "As it +appears," says he, "that limiting the duration of their power is +a security against the sinister interest of the people's +representatives, so it appears that it is the only security of +which the nature of the case admits." But all the arguments by +which Mr Mill has proved monarchy and aristocracy to be +pernicious will, as it appears to us, equally prove this security +to be no security at all. Is it not clear that the +representatives, as soon as they are elected, are an aristocracy, +with an interest opposed to the interest of the community? Why +should they not pass a law for extending the term of their power +from one year to ten years, or declare themselves senators for +life? If the whole legislative power is given to them, they will +be constitutionally competent to do this. If part of the +legislative power is withheld from them, to whom is that part +given? Is the people to retain it, and to express its assent or +dissent in primary assemblies? Mr Mill himself tells us that the +community can only act when assembled, and that, when assembled, +it is incapable of acting. Or is it to be provided, as in some +of the American republics, that no change in the fundamental laws +shall be made without the consent of a convention, specially +elected for the purpose? Still the difficulty recurs: Why may +not the members of the convention betray their trust, as well as +the members of the ordinary legislature? When private men, they +may have been zealous for the interests of the community. When +candidates, they may have pledged themselves to the cause of the +constitution. But, as soon as they are a convention, as soon as +they are separated from the people, as soon as the supreme power +is put into their hands, commences that interest opposite to the +interest of the community which must, according to Mr Mill, +produce measures opposite to the interests of the community. We +must find some other means, therefore, of checking this check +upon a check; some other prop to carry the tortoise, that carries +the elephant, that carries the world. + +We know well that there is no real danger in such a case. But +there is no danger only because there is no truth in Mr Mill's +principles. If men were what he represents them to be, the +letter of the very constitution which he recommends would afford +no safeguard against bad government. The real security is this, +that legislators will be deterred by the fear of resistance and +of infamy from acting in the manner which we have described. But +restraints, exactly the same in kind, and differing only in +degree, exist in all forms of government. That broad line of +distinction which Mr Mill tries to point out between monarchies +and aristocracies on the one side, and democracies on the other, +has in fact no existence. In no form of government is there an +absolute identity of interest between the people and their +rulers. In every form of government, the rulers stand in some +awe of the people. The fear of resistance and the sense of shame +operate in a certain degree, on the most absolute kings and the +most illiberal oligarchies. And nothing but the fear of +resistance and the sense of shame preserves the freedom of the +most democratic communities from the encroachments of their +annual and biennial delegates. + +We have seen how Mr Mill proposes to render the interest of the +representative body identical with that of the constituent body. +The next question is, in what manner the interest of the +constituent body is to be rendered identical with that of the +community. Mr Mill shows that a minority of the community, +consisting even of many thousands, would be a bad constituent +body, and, indeed, merely a numerous aristocracy. + +"The benefits of the representative system," says he, "are lost +in all cases in which the interests of the choosing body are not +the same with those of the community. It is very evident, that +if the community itself were the choosing body, the interests of +the community and that of the choosing body would be the same." + +On these grounds Mr Mill recommends that all males of mature age, +rich and poor, educated and ignorant, shall have votes. But why +not the women too? This question has often been asked in +parliamentary debate, and has never, to our knowledge, received a +plausible answer. Mr Mill escapes from it as fast as he can. +But we shall take the liberty to dwell a little on the words of +the oracle. "One thing," says he, "is pretty clear, that all +those individuals whose interests are involved in those of other +individuals, may be struck off without inconvenience...In this +light women may be regarded, the interest of almost all of whom +is involved either in that of their fathers, or in that of their +husbands." + +If we were to content ourselves with saying, in answer to all the +arguments in Mr Mill's essay, that the interest of a king is +involved in that of the community, we should be accused, and +justly, of talking nonsense. Yet such an assertion would not, as +far as we can perceive, be more unreasonable than that which Mr +Mill has here ventured to make. Without adducing one fact, +without taking the trouble to perplex the question by one +sophism, he placidly dogmatises away the interest of one half of +the human race. If there be a word of truth in history, women +have always been, and still are, over the greater part of the +globe, humble companions, play things, captives, menials, beasts +of burden. Except in a few happy and highly civilised +communities, they are strictly in a state of personal slavery. +Even in those countries where they are best treated, the laws are +generally unfavourable to them, with respect to almost all the +points in which they are most deeply interested. + +Mr Mill is not legislating for England or the United States, but +for mankind. Is then the interest of a Turk the same with that +of the girls who compose his harem? Is the interest of a Chinese +the same with that of the woman whom he harnesses to his plough? +Is the interest of an Italian the same with that of the daughter +whom he devotes to God? The interest of a respectable Englishman +may be said, without any impropriety, to be identical with that +of his wife. But why is it so? Because human nature is NOT what +Mr Mill conceives it to be; because civilised men, pursuing their +own happiness in a social state, are not Yahoos fighting for +carrion; because there is a pleasure in being loved and esteemed, +as well as in being feared and servilely obeyed. Why does not a +gentleman restrict his wife to the bare maintenance which the law +would compel him to allow her, that he may have more to spend on +his personal pleasures? Because, if he loves her, he has +pleasure in seeing her pleased; and because, even if he dislikes +her, he is unwilling that the whole neighbourhood should cry +shame on his meanness and ill-nature. Why does not the +legislature, altogether composed of males, pass a law to deprive +women of all civil privileges whatever, and reduce them to the +state of slaves? By passing such a law, they would gratify what +Mr Mill tells us is an inseparable part of human nature, the +desire to possess unlimited power of inflicting pain upon others. +That they do not pass such a law, though they have the power to +pass it, and that no man in England wishes to see such a law +passed, proves that the desire to possess unlimited power of +inflicting pain is not inseparable from human nature. + +If there be in this country an identity of interest between the +two sexes, it cannot possibly arise from anything but the +pleasure of being loved, and of communicating happiness. For, +that it does not spring from the mere instinct of sex, the +treatment which women experience over the greater part of the +world abundantly proves. And, if it be said that our laws of +marriage have produced it, this only removes the argument a step +further; for those laws have been made by males. Now, if the +kind feelings of one half of the species be a sufficient security +for the happiness of the other, why may not the kind feelings of +a monarch or an aristocracy be sufficient at least to prevent +them from grinding the people to the very utmost of their power? + +If Mr Mill will examine why it is that women are better treated +in England than in Persia, he may perhaps find out, in the course +of his inquiries, why it is that the Danes are better governed +than the subjects of Caligula. + +We now come to the most important practical question in the whole +essay. Is it desirable that all males arrived at years of +discretion should vote for representatives, or should a pecuniary +qualification be required? Mr Mill's opinion is, that the lower +the qualification the better; and that the best system is that in +which there is none at all. + +"The qualification," says he, "must either be such as to embrace +the majority of the population, or something less than the +majority. Suppose, in the first place, that it embraces the +majority, the question is, whether the majority would have an +interest in oppressing those who, upon this supposition, would be +deprived of political power? If we reduce the calculation to its +elements, we shall see that the interest which they would have of +this deplorable kind, though it would be something, would not be +very great. Each man of the majority, if the majority were +constituted the governing body, would have something less than +the benefit of oppressing a single man. If the majority were +twice as great as the minority, each man of the majority would +only have one half the benefit of oppressing a single +man...Suppose in the second place, that the qualification did not +admit a body of electors so large as the majority, in that case, +taking again the calculation in its elements, we shall see that +each man would have a benefit equal to that derived from the +oppression of more than one man; and that, in proportion as the +elective body constituted a smaller and smaller minority, the +benefit of misrule to the elective body would be increased, and +bad government would be insured." + +The first remark which we have to make on this argument is, that, +by Mr Mill's own account, even a government in which every human +being should vote would still be defective. For, under a system +of universal suffrage, the majority of the electors return the +representative, and the majority of the representatives make the +law. The whole people may vote, therefore; but only the majority +govern. So that, by Mr Mill's own confession, the most perfect +system of government conceivable is one in which the interest of +the ruling body to oppress, though not great, is something. + +But is Mr Mill in the right when he says that such an interest +could not be very great? We think not. If, indeed, every man in +the community possessed an equal share of what Mr Mill calls the +objects of desire, the majority would probably abstain from +plundering the minority. A large minority would offer a vigorous +resistance; and the property of a small minority would not repay +the other members of the community for the trouble of dividing +it. But it happens that in all civilised communities there is a +small minority of rich men, and a great majority of poor men. If +there were a thousand men with ten pounds apiece, it would not be +worth while for nine hundred and ninety of them to rob ten, and +it would be a bold attempt for six hundred of them to rob four +hundred. But, if ten of them had a hundred thousand pounds +apiece, the case would be very different. There would then be +much to be got, and nothing to be feared. + +"That one human being will desire to render the person and +property of another subservient to his pleasures, notwithstanding +the pain or loss of pleasure which it may occasion to that other +individual, is," according to Mr Mill, "the foundation of +government." That the property of the rich minority can be made +subservient to the pleasures of the poor majority will scarcely +be denied. But Mr Mill proposes to give the poor majority power +over the rich minority. Is it possible to doubt to what, on his +own principles, such an arrangement must lead? + +It may perhaps be said that, in the long run, it is for the +interest of the people that property should be secure, and that +therefore they will respect it. We answer thus:--It cannot be +pretended that it is not for the immediate interest of the people +to plunder the rich. Therefore, even if it were quite certain +that, in the long run, the people would, as a body, lose by doing +so, it would not necessarily follow that the fear of remote ill +consequences would overcome the desire of immediate acquisitions. +Every individual might flatter himself that the punishment would +not fall on him. Mr Mill himself tells us, in his Essay on +Jurisprudence, that no quantity of evil which is remote and +uncertain will suffice to prevent crime. + +But we are rather inclined to think that it would, on the whole, +be for the interest of the majority to plunder the rich. If so, +the Utilitarians will say, that the rich OUGHT to be plundered. +We deny the inference. For, in the first place, if the object of +government be the greatest happiness of the greatest number, the +intensity of the suffering which a measure inflicts must be taken +into consideration, as well as the number of the sufferers. In +the next place, we have to notice one most important distinction +which Mr Mill has altogether overlooked. Throughout his essay, +he confounds the community with the species. He talks of the +greatest happiness of the greatest number: but, when we examine +his reasonings, we find that he thinks only of the greatest +number of a single generation. + +Therefore, even if we were to concede that all those arguments of +which we have exposed the fallacy are unanswerable, we might +still deny the conclusion at which the essayist arrives. Even if +we were to grant that he had found out the form of government +which is best for the majority of the people now living on the +face of the earth, we might still without inconsistency maintain +that form of government to be pernicious to mankind. It would +still be incumbent on Mr Mill to prove that the interest of every +generation is identical with the interest of all succeeding +generations. And how on his own principles he could do this we +are at a loss to conceive. + +The case, indeed, is strictly analogous to that of an +aristocratic government. In an aristocracy, says Mr Mill, the +few being invested with the powers of government, can take the +objects of their desires from the people. In the same manner, +every generation in turn can gratify itself at the expense of +posterity,--priority of time, in the latter case, giving an +advantage exactly corresponding to that which superiority of +station gives in the former. That an aristocracy will abuse its +advantage, is, according to Mr Mill, matter of demonstration. Is +it not equally certain that the whole people will do the same: +that, if they have the power, they will commit waste of every +sort on the estate of mankind, and transmit it to posterity +impoverished and desolated? + +How is it possible for any person who holds the doctrines of Mr +Mill to doubt that the rich, in a democracy such as that which he +recommends, would be pillaged as unmercifully as under a Turkish +Pacha? It is no doubt for the interest of the next generation, +and it may be for the remote interest of the present generation, +that property should be held sacred. And so no doubt it will be +for the interest of the next Pacha, and even for that of the +present Pacha, if he should hold office long, that the +inhabitants of his Pachalik should be encouraged to accumulate +wealth. Scarcely any despotic sovereign has plundered his +subjects to a large extent without having reason before the end +of his reign to regret it. Everybody knows how bitterly Louis +the Fourteenth, towards the close of his life, lamented his +former extravagance. If that magnificent prince had not expended +millions on Marli and Versailles, and tens of millions on the +aggrandisement of his grandson, he would not have been compelled +at last to pay servile court to low-born money-lenders, to humble +himself before men on whom, in the days of his pride, he would +not have vouchsafed to look, for the means of supporting even his +own household. Examples to the same effect might easily be +multiplied. But despots, we see, do plunder their subjects, +though history and experience tell them that, by prematurely +exacting the means of profusion, they are in fact devouring the +seed-corn from which the future harvest of revenue is to spring. +Why then should we suppose that the people will be deterred from +procuring immediate relief and enjoyment by the fear of distant +calamities, of calamities which perhaps may not be fully felt +till the times of their grandchildren? + +These conclusions are strictly drawn from Mr Mill's own +principles: and, unlike most of the conclusions which he has +himself drawn from those principles, they are not as far as we +know contradicted by facts. The case of the United States is not +in point. In a country where the necessaries of life are cheap +and the wages of labour high, where a man who has no capital but +his legs and arms may expect to become rich by industry and +frugality, it is not very decidedly even for the immediate +advantage of the poor to plunder the rich; and the punishment of +doing so would very speedily follow the offence. But in +countries in which the great majority live from hand to mouth, +and in which vast masses of wealth have been accumulated by a +comparatively small number, the case is widely different. The +immediate want is, at particular seasons, craving, imperious, +irresistible. In our own time it has steeled men to the fear of +the gallows, and urged them on the point of the bayonet. And, if +these men had at their command that gallows and those bayonets +which now scarcely restrain them, what is to be expected? Nor is +this state of things one which can exist only under a bad +government. If there be the least truth in the doctrines of the +school to which Mr Mill belongs, the increase of population will +necessarily produce it everywhere. The increase of population is +accelerated by good and cheap government. Therefore, the better +the government, the greater is the inequality of conditions: and +the greater the inequality of conditions, the stronger are the +motives which impel the populace to spoliation. As for America, +we appeal to the twentieth century. + +It is scarcely necessary to discuss the effects which a general +spoliation of the rich would produce. It may indeed happen that, +where a legal and political system full of abuses is inseparably +bound up with the institution of property, a nation may gain by a +single convulsion, in which both perish together. The price is +fearful. But if, when the shock is over, a new order of things +should arise under which property may enjoy security, the +industry of individuals will soon repair the devastation. Thus +we entertain no doubt that the Revolution was, on the whole, a +most salutary event for France. But would France have gained if, +ever since the year 1793, she had been governed by a democratic +convention? If Mr Mill's principles be sound, we say that almost +her whole capital would by this time have been annihilated. As +soon as the first explosion was beginning to be forgotten, as +soon as wealth again began to germinate, as soon as the poor +again began to compare their cottages and salads with the hotels +and banquets of the rich, there would have been another scramble +for property, another maximum, another general confiscation, +another reign of terror. Four or five such convulsions following +each other, at intervals of ten or twelve years, would reduce the +most flourishing countries of Europe to the state of Barbary or +the Morea. + +The civilised part of the world has now nothing to fear from the +hostility of savage nations. Once the deluge of barbarism has +passed over it, to destroy and to fertilise; and in the present +state of mankind we enjoy a full security against that calamity. +That flood will no more return to cover the earth. But is it +possible that in the bosom of civilisation itself may be +engendered the malady which shall destroy it? Is it possible +that institutions may be established which, without the help of +earthquake, of famine, of pestilence, or of the foreign sword, +may undo the work of so many ages of wisdom and glory, and +gradually sweep away taste, literature, science, commerce, +manufactures, everything but the rude arts necessary to the +support of animal life? Is it possible that, in two or three +hundred years, a few lean and half-naked fishermen may divide +with owls and foxes the ruins of the greatest European cities-- +may wash their nets amidst the relics of her gigantic docks, and +build their huts out of the capitals of her stately cathedrals? +If the principles of Mr Mill be sound, we say, without +hesitation, that the form of government which he recommends will +assuredly produce all this. But, if these principles be unsound, +if the reasonings by which we have opposed them be just, the +higher and middling orders are the natural representatives of the +human race. Their interest may be opposed in some things to that +of their poorer contemporaries; but it is identical with that of +the innumerable generations which are to follow. + +Mr Mill concludes his essay, by answering an objection often made +to the project of universal suffrage--that the people do not +understand their own interests. We shall not go through his +arguments on this subject, because, till he has proved that it is +for the interest of the people to respect property, he only makes +matters worse by proving that they understand their interests. +But we cannot refrain from treating our readers with a delicious +bonne bouche of wisdom, which he has kept for the last moment. + +"The opinions of that class of the people who are below the +middle rank are formed, and their minds are directed, by that +intelligent, that virtuous rank, who come the most immediately in +contact with them, who are in the constant habit of intimate +communication with them, to whom they fly for advice and +assistance in all their numerous difficulties, upon whom they +feel an immediate and daily dependence in health and in sickness, +in infancy and in old age, to whom their children look up as +models for their imitation, whose opinions they hear daily +repeated, and account it their honour to adopt. There can be no +doubt that the middle rank, which gives to science, to art, and +to legislation itself their most distinguished ornaments, and is +the chief source of all that has exalted and refined human +nature, is that portion of the community, of which, if the basis +of representation were ever so far extended, the opinion would +ultimately decide. Of the people beneath them, a vast majority +would be sure to be guided by their advice and example." + +This single paragraph is sufficient to upset Mr Mill's theory. +Will the people act against their own interest? Or will the +middle rank act against its own interest? Or is the interest of +the middle rank identical with the interest of the people? If +the people act according to the directions of the middle rank, as +Mr Mill says that they assuredly will, one of these three +questions must be answered in the affirmative. But, if any one +of the three be answered in the affirmative, his whole system +falls to the ground. If the interest of the middle rank be +identical with that of the people, why should not the powers of +government be intrusted to that rank? If the powers of +government were intrusted to that rank, there would evidently be +an aristocracy of wealth; and "to constitute an aristocracy of +wealth, though it were a very numerous one, would," according to +Mr Mill, "leave the community without protection, and exposed to +all the evils of unbridled power." Will not the same motives +which induce the middle classes to abuse one kind of power induce +them to abuse another? If their interest be the same with that +of the people they will govern the people well. If it be +opposite to that of the people they will advise the people ill. +The system of universal suffrage, therefore, according to Mr +Mill's own account, is only a device for doing circuitously what +a representative system, with a pretty high qualification, would +do directly. + +So ends this celebrated Essay. And such is this philosophy for +which the experience of three thousand years is to be discarded; +this philosophy, the professors of which speak as if it had +guided the world to the knowledge of navigation and alphabetical +writing; as if, before its dawn, the inhabitants of Europe had +lived in caverns and eaten each other! We are sick, it seems, +like the children of Israel, of the objects of our old and +legitimate worship. We pine for a new idolatry. All that is +costly and all that is ornamental in our intellectual treasures +must be delivered up, and cast into the furnace--and there comes +out this Calf! + +Our readers can scarcely mistake our object in writing this +article. They will not suspect us of any disposition to advocate +the cause of absolute monarchy, or of any narrow form of +oligarchy, or to exaggerate the evils of popular government. Our +object at present is, not so much to attack or defend any +particular system of polity, as to expose the vices of a kind of +reasoning utterly unfit for moral and political discussions; of a +kind of reasoning which may so readily be turned to purposes of +falsehood that it ought to receive no quarter, even when by +accident it may be employed on the side of truth. + +Our objection to the essay of Mr Mill is fundamental. We believe +that it is utterly impossible to deduce the science of government +from the principles of human nature. + +What proposition is there respecting human nature which is +absolutely and universally true? We know of only one: and that +is not only true, but identical; that men always act from self- +interest. This truism the Utilitarians proclaim with as much +pride as if it were new, and as much zeal as if it were +important. But in fact, when explained, it means only that men, +if they can, will do as they choose. When we see the actions of +a man we know with certainty what he thinks his interest to be. +But it is impossible to reason with certainty from what WE take +to be his interest to his actions. One man goes without a dinner +that he may add a shilling to a hundred thousand pounds: another +runs in debt to give balls and masquerades. One man cuts his +father's throat to get possession of his old clothes: another +hazards his own life to save that of an enemy. One man +volunteers on a forlorn hope: another is drummed out of a +regiment for cowardice. Each of these men has, no doubt, acted +from self-interest. But we gain nothing by knowing this, except +the pleasure, if it be one, of multiplying useless words. In +fact, this principle is just as recondite and just as important +as the great truth that whatever is, is. If a philosopher were +always to state facts in the following form--"There is a shower: +but whatever is, is; therefore, there is a shower,"--his +reasoning would be perfectly sound; but we do not apprehend that +it would materially enlarge the circle of human knowledge. And +it is equally idle to attribute any importance to a proposition, +which, when interpreted means only that a man had rather do what +he had rather do. + +If the doctrine, that men always act from self-interest, be laid +down in any other sense than this--if the meaning of the word +self-interest be narrowed so as to exclude any one of the motives +which may by possibility act on any human being, the proposition +ceases to be identical: but at the same time it ceases to be +true. + +What we have said of the word "self-interest" applies to all the +synonymes and circumlocutions which are employed to convey the +same meaning; pain and pleasure, happiness and misery, objects of +desire, and so forth. + +The whole art of Mr Mill's essay consists in one simple trick of +legerdemain. It consists in using words of the sort which we +have been describing first in one sense and then in another. Men +will take the objects of their desire if they can. +Unquestionably:--but this is an identical proposition: for an +object of desire means merely a thing which a man will procure if +he can. Nothing can possibly be inferred from a maxim of this +kind. When we see a man take something we shall know that it was +an object of his desire. But till then we have no means of +judging with certainty what he desires or what he will take. The +general proposition, however, having been admitted, Mr Mill +proceeds to reason as if men had no desires but those which can +be gratified only by spoliation and oppression. It then becomes +easy to deduce doctrines of vast importance from the original +axiom. The only misfortune is, that by thus narrowing the +meaning of the word desire the axiom becomes false, and all the +doctrines consequent upon it are false likewise. + +When we pass beyond those maxims which it is impossible to deny +without a contradiction in terms, and which, therefore, do not +enable us to advance a single step in practical knowledge, we do +not believe that it is possible to lay down a single general rule +respecting the motives which influence human actions. There is +nothing which may not, by association or by comparison, become an +object either of desire or of aversion. The fear of death is +generally considered as one of the strongest of our feelings. It +is the most formidable sanction which legislators have been able +to devise. Yet it is notorious that, as Lord Bacon has observed, +there is no passion by which that fear has not been often +overcome. Physical pain is indisputably an evil; yet it has been +often endured and even welcomed. Innumerable martyrs have +exulted in torments which made the spectators shudder: and to +use a more homely illustration, there are few wives who do not +long to be mothers. + +Is the love of approbation a stronger motive than the love of +wealth? It is impossible to answer this question generally even +in the case of an individual with whom we are very intimate. We +often say, indeed, that a man loves fame more than money, or +money more than fame. But this is said in a loose and popular +sense; for there is scarcely a man who would not endure a few +sneers for a great sum of money, if he were in pecuniary +distress; and scarcely a man, on the other hand, who, if he were +in flourishing circumstances, would expose himself to the hatred +and contempt of the public for a trifle. In order, therefore, to +return a precise answer even about a single human being, we must +know what is the amount of the sacrifice of reputation demanded +and of the pecuniary advantage offered, and in what situation the +person to whom the temptation is proposed stands at the time. +But, when the question is propounded generally about the whole +species, the impossibility of answering is still more evident. +Man differs from man; generation from generation; nation from +nation. Education, station, sex, age, accidental associations, +produce infinite shades of variety. + +Now, the only mode in which we can conceive it possible to deduce +a theory of government from the principles of human nature is +this. We must find out what are the motives which, in a +particular form of government, impel rulers to bad measures, and +what are those which impel them to good measures. We must then +compare the effect of the two classes of motives; and according +as we find the one or the other to prevail, we must pronounce the +form of government in question good or bad. + +Now let it be supposed that, in aristocratical and monarchical +states, the desire of wealth and other desires of the same class +always tend to produce misgovernment, and that the love of +approbation and other kindred feelings always tend to produce +good government. Then, if it be impossible, as we have shown +that it is, to pronounce generally which of the two classes of +motives is the more influential, it is impossible to find out, a +priori, whether a monarchical or aristocratical form of +government be good or bad. + +Mr Mill has avoided the difficulty of making the comparison, by +very coolly putting all the weights into one of the scales,--by +reasoning as if no human being had ever sympathised with the +feelings, been gratified by the thanks, or been galled by the +execrations, of another. + +The case, as we have put it, is decisive against Mr Mill, and yet +we have put it in a manner far too favourable to him. For, in +fact, it is impossible to lay it down as a general rule that the +love of wealth in a sovereign always produces misgovernment, or +the love of approbation good government. A patient and far- +sighted ruler, for example, who is less desirous of raising a +great sum immediately than of securing an unencumbered and +progressive revenue, will, by taking off restraints from trade +and giving perfect security to property, encourage accumulation +and entice capital from foreign countries. The commercial policy +of Prussia, which is perhaps superior to that of any country in +the world, and which puts to shame the absurdities of our +republican brethren on the other side of the Atlantic, has +probably sprung from the desire of an absolute ruler to enrich +himself. On the other hand, when the popular estimate of virtues +and vices is erroneous, which is too often the case, the love of +approbation leads sovereigns to spend the wealth of the nation on +useless shows, or to engage in wanton and destructive wars. If +then we can neither compare the strength of two motives, nor +determine with certainty to what description of actions either +motive will lead, how can we possibly deduce a theory of +government from the nature of man? + +How, then, are we to arrive at just conclusions on a subject so +important to the happiness of mankind? Surely by that method +which, in every experimental science to which it has been +applied, has signally increased the power and knowledge of our +species,--by that method for which our new philosophers would +substitute quibbles scarcely worthy of the barbarous respondents +and opponents of the middle ages,--by the method of Induction;-- +by observing the present state of the world,--by assiduously +studying the history of past ages,--by sifting the evidence of +facts,--by carefully combining and contrasting those which are +authentic,--by generalising with judgment and diffidence,--by +perpetually bringing the theory which we have constructed to the +test of new facts,--by correcting, or altogether abandoning it, +according as those new facts prove it to be partially or +fundamentally unsound. Proceeding thus,--patiently,--diligently, +--candidly,--we may hope to form a system as far inferior in +pretension to that which we have been examining and as far +superior to it in real utility as the prescriptions of a great +physician, varying with every stage of every malady and with the +constitution of every patient, to the pill of the advertising +quack which is to cure all human beings, in all climates, of all +diseases. + +This is that noble Science of Politics, which is equally removed +from the barren theories of the Utilitarian sophists, and from +the petty craft, so often mistaken for statesmanship by minds +grown narrow in habits of intrigue, jobbing, and official +etiquette;--which of all sciences is the most important to the +welfare of nations,--which of all sciences most tends to expand +and invigorate the mind,--which draws nutriment and ornament from +every part of philosophy and literature, and dispenses in return +nutriment and ornament to all. We are sorry and surprised when +we see men of good intentions and good natural abilities abandon +this healthful and generous study to pore over speculations like +those which we have been examining. And we should heartily +rejoice to find that our remarks had induced any person of this +description to employ, in researches of real utility, the talents +and industry which are now wasted on verbal sophisms, wretched of +their wretched kind. + +As to the greater part of the sect, it is, we apprehend, of +little consequence what they study or under whom. It would be +more amusing, to be sure, and more reputable, if they would take +up the old republican cant and declaim about Brutus and Timoleon, +the duty of killing tyrants and the blessedness of dying for +liberty. But, on the whole, they might have chosen worse. They +may as well be Utilitarians as jockeys or dandies. And, though +quibbling about self-interest and motives, and objects of desire, +and the greatest happiness of the greatest number, is but a poor +employment for a grown man, it certainly hurts the health less +than hard drinking, and the fortune less than high play; it is +not much more laughable than phrenology, and is immeasurably more +humane than cock-fighting. + +... + + +WESTMINSTER REVIEWER'S DEFENCE OF MILL. + +(June 1829.) + +"Westminster Review" Number XXI., Article XVI. "Edinburgh +Review" Number XCVII., Article on Mill's Essays on Government, +etc. + +We have had great reason, we think, to be gratified by the +success of our late attack on the Utilitarians. We could publish +a long list of the cures which it has wrought in cases previously +considered as hopeless. Delicacy forbids us to divulge names; +but we cannot refrain from alluding to two remarkable instances. +A respectable lady writes to inform us that her son, who was +plucked at Cambridge last January, has not been heard to call Sir +James Mackintosh a poor ignorant fool more than twice since the +appearance of our article. A distinguished political writer in +the Westminster and Parliamentary Reviews has borrowed Hume's +History, and has actually got as far as the battle of Agincourt. +He assures us that he takes great pleasure in his new study, and +that he is very impatient to learn how Scotland and England +became one kingdom. But the greatest compliment that we have +received is that Mr Bentham himself should have condescended to +take the field in defence of Mr Mill. We have not been in the +habit of reviewing reviews: but, as Mr Bentham is a truly great +man, and as his party have thought fit to announce in puffs and +placards that this article is written by him, and contains not +only an answer to our attacks, but a development of the "greatest +happiness principle," with the latest improvements of the author, +we shall for once depart from our general rule. However the +conflict may terminate, we shall at least not have been +vanquished by an ignoble hand. + +Of Mr Bentham himself we shall endeavour, even while defending +ourselves against his reproaches, to speak with the respect to +which his venerable age, his genius, and his public services +entitle him. If any harsh expression should escape us, we trust +that he will attribute it to inadvertence, to the momentary +warmth of controversy,--to anything, in short, rather than to a +design of affronting him. Though we have nothing in common with +the crew of Hurds and Boswells, who, either from interested +motives, or from the habit of intellectual servility and +dependence, pamper and vitiate his appetite with the noxious +sweetness of their undiscerning praise, we are not perhaps less +competent than they to appreciate his merit, or less sincerely +disposed to acknowledge it. Though we may sometimes think his +reasonings on moral and political questions feeble and +sophistical--though we may sometimes smile at his extraordinary +language--we can never be weary of admiring the amplitude of his +comprehension, the keenness of his penetration, the exuberant +fertility with which his mind pours forth arguments and +illustrations. However sharply he may speak of us, we can never +cease to revere in him the father of the philosophy of +Jurisprudence. He has a full right to all the privileges of a +great inventor: and, in our court of criticism, those privileges +will never be pleaded in vain. But they are limited in the same +manner in which, fortunately for the ends of justice, the +privileges of the peerage are now limited. The advantage is +personal and incommunicable. A nobleman can now no longer cover +with his protection every lackey who follows his heels, or every +bully who draws in his quarrel: and, highly as we respect the +exalted rank which Mr Bentham holds among the writers of our +time, yet when, for the due maintenance of literary police, we +shall think it necessary to confute sophists, or to bring +pretenders to shame, we shall not depart from the ordinary course +of our proceedings because the offenders call themselves +Benthamites. + +Whether Mr Mill has much reason to thank Mr Bentham for +undertaking his defence, our readers, when they have finished +this article, will perhaps be inclined to doubt. Great as Mr +Bentham's talents are, he has, we think, shown an undue +confidence in them. He should have considered how dangerous it +is for any man, however eloquent and ingenious he may be, to +attack or defend a book without reading it: and we feel quite +convinced that Mr Bentham would never have written the article +before us if he had, before he began, perused our review with +attention, and compared it with Mr Mill's Essay. + +He has utterly mistaken our object and meaning. He seems to +think that we have undertaken to set up some theory of government +in opposition to that of Mr Mill. But we distinctly disclaimed +any such design. From the beginning to the end of our article, +there is not, as far as we remember, a single sentence which, +when fairly construed, can be considered as indicating any such +design. If such an expression can be found, it has been dropped +by inadvertence. Our object was to prove, not that monarchy and +aristocracy are good, but that Mr Mill had not proved them to be +bad; not that democracy is bad, but that Mr Mill had not proved +it to be good. The points in issue are these: whether the +famous Essay on Government be, as it has been called, a perfect +solution of the great political problem, or a series of sophisms +and blunders; and whether the sect which, while it glories in the +precision of its logic, extols this Essay as a masterpiece of +demonstration be a sect deserving of the respect or of the +derision of mankind. These, we say, are the issues; and on these +we with full confidence put ourselves on the country. + +It is not necessary, for the purposes of this investigation, that +we should state what our political creed is, or whether we have +any political creed at all. A man who cannot act the most +trivial part in a farce has a right to hiss Romeo Coates: a man +who does not know a vein from an artery may caution a simple +neighbour against the advertisements of Dr Eady. A complete +theory of government would indeed be a noble present to mankind; +but it is a present which we do not hope and do not pretend that +we can offer. If, however, we cannot lay the foundation, it is +something to clear away the rubbish; if we cannot set up truth, +it is something to pull down error. Even if the subjects of +which the Utilitarians treat were subjects of less fearful +importance, we should think it no small service to the cause of +good sense and good taste to point out the contrast between their +magnificent pretensions and their miserable performances. Some +of them have, however, thought fit to display their ingenuity on +questions of the most momentous kind, and on questions concerning +which men cannot reason ill with impunity. We think it, under +these circumstances, an absolute duty to expose the fallacy of +their arguments. It is no matter of pride or of pleasure. To +read their works is the most soporific employment that we know; +and a man ought no more to be proud of refuting them than of +having two legs. We must now come to close quarters with Mr +Bentham, whom, we need not say, we do not mean to include in this +observation. He charges us with maintaining,-- + +"First, 'That it is not true that all despots govern ill;'-- +whereon the world is in a mistake, and the Whigs have the true +light. And for proof, principally,--that the King of Denmark is +not Caligula. To which the answer is, that the King of Denmark +is not a despot. He was put in his present situation by the +people turning the scale in his favour in a balanced contest +between himself and the nobility. And it is quite clear that the +same power would turn the scale the other way the moment a King +of Denmark should take into his head to be Caligula. It is of +little consequence by what congeries of letters the Majesty of +Denmark is typified in the royal press of Copenhagen, while the +real fact is that the sword of the people is suspended over his +head, in case of ill-behaviour, as effectually as in other +countries where more noise is made upon the subject. Everybody +believes the sovereign of Denmark to be a good and virtuous +gentleman; but there is no more superhuman merit in his being so +than in the case of a rural squire who does not shoot his land- +steward or quarter his wife with his yeomanry sabre. + +"It is true that there are partial exceptions to the rule, that +all men use power as badly as they dare. There may have been +such things as amiable negro-drivers and sentimental masters of +press-gangs; and here and there, among the odd freaks of human +nature, there may have been specimens of men who were 'No +tyrants, though bred up to tyranny.' But it would be as wise to +recommend wolves for nurses at the Foundling on the credit of +Romulus and Remus as to substitute the exception for the general +fact, and advise mankind to take to trusting to arbitrary power +on the credit of these specimens." + +Now, in the first place, we never cited the case of Denmark to +prove that all despots do not govern ill. We cited it to prove +that Mr Mill did not know how to reason. Mr Mill gave it as a +reason for deducing the theory of government from the general +laws of human nature that the King of Denmark was not Caligula. +This we said, and we still say, was absurd. + +In the second place, it was not we, but Mr Mill, who said that +the King of Denmark was a despot. His words are these:--"The +people of Denmark, tired out with the oppression of an +aristocracy, resolved that their king should be absolute; and +under their absolute monarch are as well governed as any people +in Europe." We leave Mr Bentham to settle with Mr Mill the +distinction between a despot and an absolute king. + +In the third place, Mr Bentham says that there was in Denmark a +balanced contest between the king and the nobility. We find some +difficulty in believing that Mr Bentham seriously means to say +this, when we consider that Mr Mill has demonstrated the chance +to be as infinity to one against the existence of such a balanced +contest. + +Fourthly, Mr Bentham says that in this balanced contest the +people turned the scale in favour of the king against the +aristocracy. But Mr Mill has demonstrated that it cannot +possibly be for the interest of the monarchy and democracy to +join against the aristocracy; and that wherever the three parties +exist, the king and the aristocracy will combine against the +people. This, Mr Mill assures us, is as certain as anything +which depends upon human will. + +Fifthly, Mr Bentham says that, if the King of Denmark were to +oppress his people, the people and nobles would combine against +the king. But Mr Mill has proved that it can never be for the +interest of the aristocracy to combine with the democracy against +the king. It is evidently Mr Bentham's opinion, that "monarchy, +aristocracy, and democracy may balance each other, and by mutual +checks produce good government." But this is the very theory +which Mr Mill pronounces to be the wildest, the most visionary, +the most chimerical ever broached on the subject of government. + +We have no dispute on these heads with Mr Bentham. On the +contrary, we think his explanation true--or at least, true in +part; and we heartily thank him for lending us his assistance to +demolish the essay of his follower. His wit and his sarcasm are +sport to us; but they are death to his unhappy disciple. + +Mr Bentham seems to imagine that we have said something implying +an opinion favourable to despotism. We can scarcely suppose +that, as he has not condescended to read that portion of our work +which he undertook to answer, he can have bestowed much attention +on its general character. Had he done so he would, we think, +scarcely have entertained such a suspicion. Mr Mill asserts, and +pretends to prove, that under no despotic government does any +human being, except the tools of the sovereign, possess more than +the necessaries of life, and that the most intense degree of +terror is kept up by constant cruelty. This, we say, is untrue. +It is not merely a rule to which there are exceptions: but it is +not the rule. Despotism is bad; but it is scarcely anywhere so +bad as Mr Mill says that it is everywhere. This we are sure Mr +Bentham will allow. If a man were to say that five hundred +thousand people die every year in London of dram-drinking, he +would not assert a proposition more monstrously false than Mr +Mill's. Would it be just to charge us with defending +intoxication because we might say that such a man was grossly in +the wrong? + +We say with Mr Bentham that despotism is a bad thing. We say +with Mr Bentham that the exceptions do not destroy the authority +of the rule. But this we say--that a single exception overthrows +an argument which either does not prove the rule at all, or else +proves the rule to be TRUE WITHOUT EXCEPTIONS; and such an +argument is Mr Mill's argument against despotism. In this +respect there is a great difference between rules drawn from +experience and rules deduced a priori. We might believe that +there had been a fall of snow last August, and yet not think it +likely that there would be snow next August. A single occurrence +opposed to our general experience would tell for very little in +our calculation of the chances. But, if we could once satisfy +ourselves that in ANY single right-angled triangle the square of +the hypothenuse might be less than the squares of the sides, we +must reject the forty-seventh proposition of Euclid altogether. +We willingly adopt Mr Bentham's lively illustration about the +wolf; and we will say in passing that it gives us real pleasure +to see how little old age has diminished the gaiety of this +eminent man. We can assure him that his merriment gives us far +more pleasure on his account than pain on our own. We say with +him, Keep the wolf out of the nursery, in spite of the story of +Romulus and Remus. But, if the shepherd who saw the wolf licking +and suckling those famous twins were, after telling this story to +his companions, to assert that it was an infallible rule that no +wolf ever had spared, or ever would spare, any living thing which +might fall in its way--that its nature was carnivorous--and that +it could not possibly disobey its nature, we think that the +hearers might have been excused for staring. It may be strange, +but is not inconsistent, that a wolf which has eaten ninety-nine +children should spare the hundredth. But the fact that a wolf +has once spared a child is sufficient to show that there must be +some flaw in the chain of reasoning purporting to prove that +wolves cannot possibly spare children. + +Mr Bentham proceeds to attack another position which he conceives +us to maintain:-- + +"Secondly, That a government not under the control of the +community (for there is no question upon any other) 'MAY SOON BE +SATURATED.' Tell it not in Bow Street, whisper it not in Hatton +Garden,--that there is a plan for preventing injustice by +'saturation.' With what peals of unearthly merriment would +Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus be aroused upon their benches, if +the 'light wings of saffron and of blue' should bear this theory +into their grim domains! Why do not the owners of pocket- +handkerchiefs try to 'saturate?' Why does not the cheated +publican beg leave to check the gulosity of his defrauder with a +repetatur haustus, and the pummelled plaintiff neutralise the +malice of his adversary, by requesting to have the rest of the +beating in presence of the court,--if it is not that such conduct +would run counter to all the conclusions of experience, and be +the procreation of the mischief it affected to destroy? Woful is +the man whose wealth depends on his having more than somebody +else can be persuaded to take from him; and woful also is the +people that is in such a case!" + +Now this is certainly very pleasant writing: but there is no +great difficulty in answering the argument. The real reason +which makes it absurd to think of preventing theft by pensioning +off thieves is this, that there is no limit to the number of +thieves. If there were only a hundred thieves in a place, and we +were quite sure that no person not already addicted to theft +would take to it, it might become a question whether to keep the +thieves from dishonesty by raising them above distress would not +be a better course than to employ officers against them. But the +actual cases are not parallel. Every man who chooses can become +a thief; but a man cannot become a king or a member of the +aristocracy whenever he chooses. The number of the depredators +is limited; and therefore the amount of depredation, so far as +physical pleasures are concerned, must be limited also. Now, we +made the remark which Mr Bentham censures with reference to +physical pleasures only. The pleasures of ostentation, of taste, +of revenge, and other pleasures of the same description, have, we +distinctly allowed, no limit. Our words are these:--"a king or +an aristocracy may be supplied to satiety with CORPORAL +PLEASURES, at an expense which the rudest and poorest community +would scarcely feel." Does Mr Bentham deny this? If he does, we +leave him to Mr Mill. "What," says that philosopher, in his +Essay on Education, "what are the ordinary pursuits of wealth and +power, which kindle to such a height the ardour of mankind? Not +the mere love of eating and of drinking, or all the physical +objects together which wealth can purchase or power command. +With these every man is in the long run speedily satisfied." +What the difference is between being speedily satisfied and being +soon saturated, we leave Mr Bentham and Mr Mill to settle +together. + +The word "saturation," however, seems to provoke Mr Bentham's +mirth. It certainly did not strike us as very pure English; but, +as Mr Mill used it, we supposed it to be good Benthamese. With +the latter language we are not critically acquainted, though, as +it has many roots in common with our mother tongue, we can +contrive, by the help of a converted Utilitarian, who attends us +in the capacity of Moonshee, to make out a little. But Mr +Bentham's authority is of course decisive; and we bow to it. + +Mr Bentham next represents us as maintaining:-- + +"Thirdly, That 'though there may be some tastes and propensities +that have no point of saturation, there exists a sufficient check +in the desire of the good opinion of others.' The misfortune of +this argument is, that no man cares for the good opinion of those +he has been accustomed to wrong, If oysters have opinions, it is +probable they think very ill of those who eat them in August; but +small is the effect upon the autumnal glutton that engulfs their +gentle substances within his own. The planter and the slave- +driver care just as much about negro opinion, as the epicure +about the sentiments of oysters. M. Ude throwing live eels into +the fire as a kindly method of divesting them of the unsavoury +oil that lodges beneath their skins, is not more convinced of the +immense aggregate of good which arises to the lordlier parts of +the creation, than is the gentle peer who strips his fellow man +of country and of family for a wild-fowl slain. The goodly +landowner, who lives by morsels squeezed indiscriminately from +the waxy hands of the cobbler and the polluted ones of the +nightman, is in no small degree the object of both hatred and +contempt; but it is to be feared that he is a long way from +feeling them to be intolerable. The principle of 'At mihi plaudo +ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca,' is sufficient to +make a wide interval between the opinions of the plaintiff and +defendant in such cases. In short, to banish law and leave all +plaintiffs to trust to the desire of reputation on the opposite +side, would only be transporting the theory of the Whigs from the +House of Commons to Westminster Hall." + +Now, in the first place, we never maintained the proposition +which Mr Bentham puts into our mouths. We said, and say, that +there is a CERTAIN check to the rapacity and cruelty of men, in +their desire of the good opinion of others. We never said that +it was sufficient. Let Mr Mill show it to be insufficient. It +is enough for us to prove that there is a set-off against the +principle from which Mr Mill deduces the whole theory of +government. The balance may be, and, we believe, will be, +against despotism and the narrower forms of aristocracy. But +what is this to the correctness or incorrectness of Mr Mill's +accounts? The question is not, whether the motives which lead +rulers to behave ill are stronger than those which lead them to +behave well;--but, whether we ought to form a theory of +government by looking ONLY at the motives which lead rulers to +behave ill and never noticing those which lead them to behave +well. + +Absolute rulers, says Mr Bentham, do not care for the good +opinion of their subjects; for no man cares for the good opinion +of those whom he has been accustomed to wrong. By Mr Bentham's +leave, this is a plain begging of the question. The point at +issue is this:--Will kings and nobles wrong the people? The +argument in favour of kings and nobles is this:--they will not +wrong the people, because they care for the good opinion of the +people. But this argument Mr Bentham meets thus:--they will not +care for the good opinion of the people, because they are +accustomed to wrong the people. + +Here Mr Mill differs, as usual, from Mr Bentham. "The greatest +princes," says he, in his Essay on Education, "the most +despotical masters of human destiny, when asked what they aim at +by their wars and conquests, would answer, if sincere, as +Frederick of Prussia answered, pour faire parler de soi;--to +occupy a large space in the admiration of mankind." Putting Mr +Mill's and Mr Bentham's principles together, we might make out +very easily that "the greatest princes, the most despotical +masters of human destiny," would never abuse their power. + +A man who has been long accustomed to injure people must also +have been long accustomed to do without their love, and to endure +their aversion. Such a man may not miss the pleasure of +popularity; for men seldom miss a pleasure which they have long +denied themselves. An old tyrant does without popularity just as +an old water-drinker does without wine. But, though it is +perfectly true that men who for the good of their health have +long abstained from wine feel the want of it very little, it +would be absurd to infer that men will always abstain from wine +when their health requires that they should do so. And it would +be equally absurd to say, because men who have been accustomed to +oppress care little for popularity, that men will therefore +necessarily prefer the pleasure of oppression to those of +popularity. + +Then, again, a man may be accustomed to wrong people in one point +and not in another. He may care for their good opinion with +regard to one point and not with regard to another. The Regent +Orleans laughed at charges of impiety, libertinism, extravagance, +idleness, disgraceful promotions. But the slightest allusion to +the charge of poisoning threw him into convulsions. Louis the +Fifteenth braved the hatred and contempt of his subjects during +many years of the most odious and imbecile misgovernment. But, +when a report was spread that he used human blood for his baths, +he was almost driven mad by it. Surely Mr Bentham's position +"that no man cares for the good opinion of those whom he has been +accustomed to wrong" would be objectionable, as far too sweeping +and indiscriminate, even if it did not involve, as in the present +case we have shown that it does, a direct begging of the question +at issue. + +Mr Bentham proceeds:-- + +"Fourthly, The Edinburgh Reviewers are of opinion, that 'it +might, with no small plausibility, be maintained, that in many +countries, there are two classes which, in some degree, answer to +this description;' [viz.] 'that the poor compose the class which +government is established to restrain; and the people of some +property the class to which the powers of government may without +danger be confided.' + +"They take great pains, it is true, to say this and not to say +it. They shuffle and creep about, to secure a hole to escape at, +if 'what they do not assert' should be found in any degree +inconvenient. A man might waste his life in trying to find out +whether the Misses of the 'Edinburgh' mean to say Yes or No in +their political coquetry. But whichever way the lovely spinsters +may decide, it is diametrically opposed to history and the +evidence of facts, that the poor ARE the class whom there is any +difficulty in restraining. It is not the poor but the rich that +have a propensity to take the property of other people. There is +no instance upon earth of the poor having combined to take away +the property of the rich; and all the instances habitually +brought forward in support of it are gross misrepresentations, +founded upon the most necessary acts of self-defence on the part +of the most numerous classes. Such a misrepresentation is the +common one of the Agrarian law; which was nothing but an attempt +on the part of the Roman people to get back some part of what had +been taken from them by undisguised robbery. Such another is the +stock example of the French Revolution, appealed to by the +'Edinburgh Review' in the actual case. It is utterly untrue that +the French Revolution took place because 'the poor began to +compare their cottages and salads with the hotels and banquets of +the rich;' it took place because they were robbed of their +cottages and salads to support the hotels and banquets of their +oppressors. It is utterly untrue that there was either a +scramble for property or a general confiscation; the classes who +took part with the foreign invaders lost their property, as they +would have done here, and ought to do everywhere. All these are +the vulgar errors of the man on the lion's back,--which the lion +will set to rights when he can tell his own story. History is +nothing but the relation of the sufferings of the poor from the +rich; except precisely so far as the numerous classes of the +community have contrived to keep the virtual power in their +hands, or, in other words, to establish free governments. If a +poor man injures the rich, the law is instantly at his heels; the +injuries of the rich towards the poor are always inflicted BY the +law. And to enable the rich to do this to any extent that may be +practicable or prudent, there is clearly one postulate required, +which is, that the rich shall make the law." + +This passage is alone sufficient to prove that Mr Bentham has not +taken the trouble to read our article from beginning to end. We +are quite sure that he would not stoop to misrepresent it. And, +if he had read it with any attention, he would have perceived +that all this coquetry, this hesitation, this Yes and No, this +saying and not saying, is simply an exercise of the undeniable +right which in controversy belongs to the defensive side--to the +side which proposes to establish nothing. The affirmative of the +issue and the burden of the proof are with Mr Mill, not with us. +We are not bound, perhaps we are not able, to show that the form +of government which he recommends is bad. It is quite enough if +we can show that he does not prove it to be good. In his proof, +among many other flaws, is this--He says, that if men are not +inclined to plunder each other, government is unnecessary, and +that, if men are so inclined, kings and aristocracies will +plunder the people. Now, this we say, is a fallacy. That SOME +men will plunder their neighbours if they can, is a sufficient +reason for the existence of governments. But it is not +demonstrated that kings and aristocracies will plunder the +people, unless it be true that ALL men will plunder their +neighbours, if they can. Men are placed in very different +situations. Some have all the bodily pleasures that they desire, +and many other pleasures besides, without plundering anybody. +Others can scarcely obtain their daily bread without plundering. +It may be true, but surely it is not self-evident, that the +former class is under as strong temptations to plunder as the +latter. Mr Mill was therefore bound to prove it. That he has +not proved it is one of thirty or forty fatal errors in his +argument. It is not necessary that we should express an opinion +or even have an opinion on the subject. Perhaps we are in a +state of perfect scepticism: but what then? Are we the +theorymakers? When we bring before the world a theory of +government, it will be time to call upon us to offer proof at +every step. At present we stand on our undoubted logical right. +We concede nothing; and we deny nothing. We say to the +Utilitarian theorists:--When you prove your doctrine, we will +believe it; and, till you prove it, we will not believe it. + +Mr Bentham has quite misunderstood what we said about the French +Revolution. We never alluded to that event for the purpose of +proving that the poor were inclined to rob the rich. Mr Mill's +principles of human nature furnished us with that part of our +argument ready-made. We alluded to the French Revolution for the +purpose of illustrating the effects which general spoliation +produces on society, not for the purpose of showing that general +spoliation will take place under a democracy. We allowed +distinctly that, in the peculiar circumstances of the French +monarchy, the Revolution, though accompanied by a great shock to +the institution of property, was a blessing. Surely Mr Bentham +will not maintain that the injury produced by the deluge of +assignats and by the maximum fell only on the emigrants,--or that +there were not many emigrants who would have stayed and lived +peaceably under any government if their persons and property had +been secure. + +We never said that the French Revolution took place because the +poor began to compare their cottages and salads with the hotels +and banquets of the rich. We were not speaking about THE CAUSES +of the Revolution, or thinking about them. This we said, and +say, that, if a democratic government had been established in +France, the poor, when they began to compare their cottages and +salads with the hotels and banquets of the rich, would, on the +supposition that Mr Mill's principles are sound, have plundered +the rich, and repeated without provocation all the severities and +confiscations which at the time of the Revolution, were committed +with provocation. We say that Mr Mill's favourite form of +government would, if his own views of human nature be just, make +those violent convulsions and transfers of property which now +rarely happen, except, as in the case of the French Revolution, +when the people are maddened by oppression, events of annual or +biennial occurrence. We gave no opinion of our own. We give +none now. We say that this proposition may be proved from Mr +Mill's own premises, by steps strictly analogous to those by +which he proves monarchy and aristocracy to be bad forms of +government. To say this, is not to say that the proposition is +true. For we hold both Mr Mill's premises and his deduction to +be unsound throughout. + +Mr Bentham challenges us to prove from history that the people +will plunder the rich. What does history say to Mr Mill's +doctrine, that absolute kings will always plunder their subjects +so unmercifully as to leave nothing but a bare subsistence to any +except their own creatures? If experience is to be the test, Mr +Mill's theory is unsound. If Mr Mill's reasoning a priori be +sound, the people in a democracy will plunder the rich. Let us +use one weight and one measure. Let us not throw history aside +when we are proving a theory, and take it up again when we have +to refute an objection founded on the principles of that theory. + +We have not done, however, with Mr Bentham's charges against us. + +"Among other specimens of their ingenuity, they think they +embarrass the subject by asking why, on the principles in +question, women should not have votes as well as men. AND WHY +NOT? + +'Gentle shepherd, tell me why?'-- + +If the mode of election was what it ought to be, there would be +no more difficulty in women voting for a representative in +Parliament than for a director at the India House. The world +will find out at some time that the readiest way to secure +justice on some points is to be just on all:--that the whole is +easier to accomplish than the part; and that, whenever the camel +is driven through the eye of the needle, it would be simple folly +and debility that would leave a hoof behind." + +Why, says or sings Mr Bentham, should not women vote? It may +seem uncivil in us to turn a deaf ear to his Arcadian warblings. +But we submit, with great deference, that it is not OUR business +to tell him why. We fully agree with him that the principle of +female suffrage is not so palpably absurd that a chain of +reasoning ought to be pronounced unsound merely because it leads +to female suffrage. We say that every argument which tells in +favour of the universal suffrage of the males tells equally in +favour of female suffrage. Mr Mill, however, wishes to see all +men vote, but says that it is unnecessary that women should vote; +and for making this distinction HE gives as a reason an assertion +which, in the first place, is not true, and which, in the next +place, would, if true, overset his whole theory of human nature; +namely, that the interest of the women is identical with that of +the men. We side with Mr Bentham, so far, at least, as this: +that, when we join to drive the camel through the needle, he +shall go through hoof and all. We at present desire to be +excused from driving the camel. It is Mr Mill who leaves the +hoof behind. But we should think it uncourteous to reproach him +in the language which Mr Bentham, in the exercise of his paternal +authority over the sect, thinks himself entitled to employ. + +"Another of their perverted ingenuities is, that 'they are rather +inclined to think,' that it would, on the whole, be for the +interest of the majority to plunder the rich; and if so, the +Utilitarians will say that the rich OUGHT to be plundered. On +which it is sufficient to reply, that for the majority to plunder +the rich would amount to a declaration that nobody should be +rich; which, as all men wish to be rich, would involve a suicide +of hope. And as nobody has shown a fragment of reason why such a +proceeding should be for the general happiness, it does not +follow that the 'Utilitarians' would recommend it. The Edinburgh +Reviewers have a waiting gentlewoman's ideas of 'Utilitarianism.' +It is unsupported by anything but the pitiable 'We are rather +inclined to think'--and is utterly contradicted by the whole +course of history and human experience besides,--that there is +either danger or possibility of such a consummation as the +majority agreeing on the plunder of the rich. There have been +instances in human memory, of their agreeing to plunder rich +oppressors, rich traitors, rich enemies,--but the rich +simpliciter never. It is as true now as in the days of +Harrington that 'a people never will, nor ever can, never did, +nor ever shall, take up arms for levelling.' All the commotions +in the world have been for something else; and 'levelling' is +brought forward as the blind to conceal what the other was." + +We say, again and again, that we are on the defensive. We do not +think it necessary to prove that a quack medicine is poison. Let +the vendor prove it to be sanative. We do not pretend to show +that universal suffrage is an evil. Let its advocates show it to +be a good. Mr Mill tells us that, if power be given for short +terms to representatives elected by all the males of mature age, +it will then be for the interest of those representatives to +promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number. To prove +this, it is necessary that he should prove three propositions: +first, that the interest of such a representative body will be +identical with the interest of the constituent body; secondly, +that the interest of the constituent body will be identical with +that of the community; thirdly, that the interest of one +generation of a community is identical with that of all +succeeding generations. The two first propositions Mr Mill +attempts to prove and fails. The last he does not even attempt +to prove. We therefore refuse our assent to his conclusions. Is +this unreasonable? + +We never even dreamed, what Mr Bentham conceives us to have +maintained, that it could be for the greatest happiness of +MANKIND to plunder the rich. But we are "rather inclined to +think," though doubtingly and with a disposition to yield to +conviction, that it may be for the pecuniary interest of the +majority of a single generation in a thickly-peopled country to +plunder the rich. Why we are inclined to think so we will +explain, whenever we send a theory of government to an +Encyclopaedia. At present we are bound to say only that we think +so, and shall think so till somebody shows us a reason for +thinking otherwise. + +Mr Bentham's answer to us is simple assertion. He must not think +that we mean any discourtesy by meeting it with a simple denial. +The fact is, that almost all the governments that have ever +existed in the civilised world have been, in part at least, +monarchical and aristocratical. The first government constituted +on principles approaching to those which the Utilitarians hold +was, we think, that of the United States. That the poor have +never combined to plunder the rich in the governments of the old +world, no more proves that they might not combine to plunder the +rich under a system of universal suffrage, than the fact that the +English kings of the House of Brunswick have not been Neros and +Domitians proves that sovereigns may safely be intrusted with +absolute power. Of what the people would do in a state of +perfect sovereignty we can judge only by indications, which, +though rarely of much moment in themselves, and though always +suppressed with little difficulty, are yet of great significance, +and resemble those by which our domestic animals sometimes remind +us that they are of kin with the fiercest monsters of the forest. +It would not be wise to reason from the behaviour of a dog +crouching under the lash, which is the case of the Italian +people, or from the behaviour of a dog pampered with the best +morsels of a plentiful kitchen, which is the case of the purpose +of America, to the behaviour of a wolf, which is nothing but a +dog run wild, after a week's fast among the snows of the +Pyrenees. No commotion, says Mr Bentham, was ever really +produced by the wish of levelling; the wish has been put forward +as a blind; but something else has been the real object. Grant +all this. But why has levelling been put forward as a blind in +times of commotion to conceal the real objects of the agitators? +Is it with declarations which involve "a suicide of hope" that +man attempt to allure others? Was famine, pestilence, slavery, +ever held out to attract the people? If levelling has been made +a pretence for disturbances, the argument against Mr Bentham's +doctrine is as strong as if it had been the real object of +disturbances. + +But the great objection which Mr Bentham makes to our review, +still remains to be noticed:-- + +"The pith of the charge against the author of the Essays is, that +he has written 'an elaborate Treatise on Government,' and +'deduced the whole science from the assumption of certain +propensities of human nature.' Now, in the name of Sir Richard +Birnie and all saints, from what else SHOULD it be deduced? What +did ever anybody imagine to be the end, object, and design of +government AS IT OUGHT TO BE but the same operation, on an +extended scale, which that meritorious chief magistrate conducts +on a limited one at Bow Street; to wit, the preventing one man +from injuring another? Imagine, then, that the Whiggery of Bow +Street were to rise up against the proposition that their science +was to be deduced from 'certain propensities of human nature,' +and thereon were to ratiocinate as follows:-- + +"'How then are we to arrive at just conclusions on a subject so +important to the happiness of mankind? Surely by that method, +which, in every experimental science to which it has been +applied, has signally increased the power and knowledge of our +species,--by that method for which our new philosophers would +substitute quibbles scarcely worthy of the barbarous respondents +and opponents of the middle ages,--by the method of induction,-- +by observing the present state of the world,--by assiduously +studying the history of past ages,--by sifting the evidence of +facts,--by carefully combining and contrasting those which are +authentic,--by generalising with judgment and diffidence,--by +perpetually bringing the theory which we have constructed to the +test of new facts,--by correcting, or altogether abandoning it, +according as those new facts prove it to be partially or +fundamentally unsound. Proceeding thus,--patiently, diligently, +candidly, we may hope to form a system as far inferior in +pretension to that which we have been examining, and as far +superior to it in real utility, as the prescriptions of a great +physician, varying with every stage of every malady, and with the +constitution of every patient, to the pill of the advertising +quack, which is to cure all human beings, in all climates, of all +diseases.' + +"Fancy now,--only fancy,--the delivery of these wise words at Bow +Street; and think how speedily the practical catchpolls would +reply, that all this might be very fine, but, as far as they had +studied history, the naked story was, after all, that numbers of +men had a propensity to thieving, and their business was to catch +them; that they, too, had been sifters of facts; and, to say the +truth, their simple opinion was, that their brethren of the red +waistcoat--though they should be sorry to think ill of any man-- +had somehow contracted a leaning to the other side, and were more +bent on puzzling the case for the benefit of the defendants, than +on doing the duty of good officers and true. Such would, beyond +all doubt, be the sentence passed on such trimmers in the +microcosm of Bow Street. It might not absolutely follow that +they were in a plot to rob the goldsmiths' shops, or to set fire +to the House of Commons; but it would be quite clear that they +had got A FEELING,--that they were in process of siding with the +thieves,--and that it was not to them that any man must look who +was anxious that pantries should be safe." + +This is all very witty; but it does not touch us. On the present +occasion, we cannot but flatter ourselves that we bear a much +greater resemblance to a practical catchpoll than either Mr Mill +or Mr Bentham. It would, to be sure, be very absurd in a +magistrate discussing the arrangements of a police-office, to +spout in the style either of our article or Mr Bentham's; but, in +substance, he would proceed, if he were a man of sense, exactly +as WE recommend. He would, on being appointed to provide for the +security of property in a town, study attentively the state of +the town. He would learn at what places, at what times, and +under what circumstances, theft and outrage were most frequent. +Are the streets, he would ask, most infested with thieves at +sunset or at midnight? Are there any public places of resort +which give peculiar facilities to pickpockets? Are there any +districts completely inhabited by a lawless population? Which +are the flash houses, and which the shops of receivers? Having +made himself master of the facts, he would act accordingly. A +strong detachment of officers might be necessary for Petticoat +Lane; another for the pit entrance of Covent Garden Theatre. +Grosvenor Square and Hamilton Place would require little or no +protection. Exactly thus should we reason about government. +Lombardy is oppressed by tyrants; and constitutional checks, such +as may produce security to the people, are required. It is, so +to speak, one of the resorts of thieves; and there is great need +of police-officers. Denmark resembles one of those respectable +streets in which it is scarcely necessary to station a catchpoll, +because the inhabitants would at once join to seize a thief. +Yet, even in such a street, we should wish to see an officer +appear now and then, as his occasional superintence would render +the security more complete. And even Denmark, we think, would be +better off under a constitutional form of government. + +Mr Mill proceeds like a director of police, who, without asking a +single question about the state of his district, should give his +orders thus:--"My maxim is, that every man will take what he can. +Every man in London would be a thief, but for the thieftakers. +This is an undeniable principle of human nature. Some of my +predecessors have wasted their time in enquiring about particular +pawnbrokers, and particular alehouses. Experience is altogether +divided. Of people placed in exactly the same situation, I see +that one steals, and that another would sooner burn his hand off. +THEREFORE I trust to the laws of human nature alone, and +pronounce all men thieves alike. Let everybody, high and low, be +watched. Let Townsend take particular care that the Duke of +Wellington does not steal the silk handkerchief of the lord in +waiting at the levee. A person has lost a watch. Go to Lord +Fitzwilliam and search him for it; he is as great a receiver of +stolen goods as Ikey Solomons himself. Don't tell me about his +rank, and character, and fortune. He is a man; and a man does +not change his nature when he is called a lord. ("If Government +is founded upon this, as a law of human nature, that a man, if +able, will take from others anything which they have and he +desires, it is sufficiently evident that when a man is called a +king, he does not change his nature, so that, when he has power +to take what he pleases, he will take what he pleases. To +suppose that he will not, is to affirm that government is +unnecessary and that human beings will abstain from injuring one +another of their own accord."--"Mill on Government".) Either men +will steal or they will not steal. If they will not, why do I +sit here? If they will, his lordship must be a thief." The +Whiggery of Bow Street would perhaps rise up against this wisdom. +Would Mr Bentham think that the Whiggery of Bow Street was in the +wrong? + +We blamed Mr Mill for deducing his theory of government from the +principles of human nature. "In the name of Sir Richard Birnie +and all saints," cries Mr Bentham, "from what else should it be +deduced?" In spite of this solemn adjuration, with shall venture +to answer Mr Bentham's question by another. How does he arrive +at those principles of human nature from which he proposes to +deduce the science of government? We think that we may venture +to put an answer into his mouth; for in truth there is but one +possible answer. He will say--By experience. But what is the +extent of this experience? Is it an experience which includes +experience of the conduct of men intrusted with the powers of +government; or is it exclusive of that experience? If it +includes experience of the manner in which men act when intrusted +with the powers of government, then those principles of human +nature from which the science of government is to be deduced can +only be known after going through that inductive process by which +we propose to arrive at the science of government. Our knowledge +of human nature, instead of being prior in order to our knowledge +of the science of government, will be posterior to it. And it +would be correct to say, that by means of the science of +government, and of other kindred sciences--the science of +education, for example, which falls under exactly the same +principle--we arrive at the science of human nature. + +If, on the other hand, we are to deduce the theory of government +from principles of human nature, in arriving at which principles +we have not taken into the account the manner in which men act +when invested with the powers of government, then those +principles must be defective. They have not been formed by a +sufficiently copious induction. We are reasoning, from what a +man does in one situation, to what he will do in another. +Sometimes we may be quite justified in reasoning thus. When we +have no means of acquiring information about the particular case +before us, we are compelled to resort to cases which bear some +resemblance to it. But the more satisfactory course is to obtain +information about the particular case; and, whenever this can be +obtained, it ought to be obtained. When first the yellow fever +broke out, a physician might be justified in treating it as he +had been accustomed to treat those complaints which, on the +whole, had the most symptoms in common with it. But what should +we think of a physician who should now tell us that he deduced +his treatment of yellow fever from the general theory of +pathology? Surely we should ask him, Whether, in constructing +his theory of pathology, he had or had not taken into the account +the facts which had been ascertained respecting the yellow fever? +If he had, then it would be more correct to say that he had +arrived at the principles of pathology partly by his experience +of cases of yellow fever than that he had deduced his treatment +of yellow fever from the principles of pathology. If he had not, +he should not prescribe for us. If we had the yellow fever, we +should prefer a man who had never treated any cases but cases of +yellow fever to a man who had walked the hospitals of London and +Paris for years, but who knew nothing of our particular disease. + +Let Lord Bacon speak for us: "Inductionem censemus eam esse +demonstrandi formam, quae sensum tuetur, et naturam premit, et +operibus imminet, ac fere immiscetur. Itaque ordo quoque +demonstrandi plane invertitur. Adhuc enim res ita geri +consuevit, ut a sensu et particularibus primo loco ad maxime +generalia advoletur, tanquam ad polos fixos, circa quos +disputationes vertantur; ab illis caetera, per media, deriventur; +via certe compendiaria, sed praecipiti, et ad naturam impervia, +ad disputationes proclivi et accommodata. At, secundum nos, +axiomata continenter et gradatim excitantur, ut non, nisi +postremo loco, ad maxime generalia veniatur." Can any words more +exactly describe the political reasonings of Mr Mill than those +in which Lord Bacon thus describes the logomachies of the +schoolmen? Mr Mill springs at once to a general principle of the +widest extent, and from that general principle deduces +syllogistically every thing which is included in it. We say with +Bacon--"non, nisi postremo loco, ad maxime generalia veniatur." +In the present inquiry, the science of human nature is the +"maxime generale." To this the Utilitarian rushes at once, and +from this he deduces a hundred sciences. But the true +philosopher, the inductive reasoner, travels up to it slowly, +through those hundred sciences, of which the science of +government is one. + +As we have lying before us that incomparable volume, the noblest +and most useful of all the works of the human reason, the Novum +Organum, we will transcribe a few lines, in which the Utilitarian +philosophy is portrayed to the life. + +"Syllogismus ad 'Principia' scientiarum non adhibetur, ad media +axiomata frustra adhibetur, cum sit subtilitati naturae longe +impar. Assensum itaque constringit, non res. Syllogismus ex +propositionibus constat, propositiones ex verbis, verba notionum +tesserae sunt. Itaque si notiones ipsae, id quod basis rei est, +confusae sint, et tenere a rebus abstractae, nihil in iis quae +superstruuntur est firmitudinis. Itaque spes est una in +Inductione vera. In notionibus nil sani est, nec in Logicis nec +in physicis. Non substantia, non qualitas, agere, pati, ipsum +esse, bonae notiones sunt; multo minus grave, leve, densum, +tenue, humidum, siccum, generatio, corruptio, attrahere, fugare, +elementum, materia, forma, et id genus, sed omnes phantasticae et +male terminatae." + +Substitute for the "substantia," the "generatio," the +"corruptio," the "elementum," the "materia," of the old +schoolmen, Mr Mill's pain, pleasure, interest, power, objects of +desire,--and the words of Bacon will seem to suit the current +year as well as the beginning of the seventeenth century. + +We have now gone through the objections that Mr Bentham makes to +our article: and we submit ourselves on all the charges to the +judgment of the public. + +The rest of Mr Bentham's article consists of an exposition of the +Utilitarian principle, or, as he decrees that it shall be called, +the "greatest happiness principle." He seems to think that we +have been assailing it. We never said a syllable against it. We +spoke slightingly of the Utilitarian sect, as we thought of them, +and think of them; but it was not for holding this doctrine that +we blamed them. In attacking them we no more meant to attack the +"greatest happiness principle" than when we say that Mahometanism +is a false religion we mean to deny the unity of God, which is +the first article of the Mahometan creed;--no more than Mr +Bentham, when he sneers at the Whigs means to blame them for +denying the divine right of kings. We reasoned throughout our +article on the supposition that the end of government was to +produce the greatest happiness to mankind. + +Mr Bentham gives an account of the manner in which he arrived at +the discovery of the "greatest happiness principle." He then +proceeds to describe the effects which, as he conceives, that +discovery is producing in language so rhetorical and ardent that, +if it had been written by any other person, a genuine Utilitarian +would certainly have thrown down the book in disgust. + +"The only rivals of any note to the new principle which were +brought forward, were those known by the names of the 'moral +sense,' and the 'original contract.' The new principle +superseded the first of these, by presenting it with a guide for +its decisions; and the other, by making it unnecessary to resort +to a remote and imaginary contract for what was clearly the +business of every man and every hour. Throughout the whole +horizon of morals and of politics, the consequences were glorious +and vast. It might be said without danger of exaggeration, that +they who sat in darkness had seen a great light. The mists in +which mankind had jousted against each other were swept away, as +when the sun of astronomical science arose in the full +development of the principle of gravitation. If the object of +legislation was the greatest happiness, MORALITY was the +promotion of the same end by the conduct of the individual; and +by analogy, the happiness of the world was the morality of +nations. + +"...All the sublime obscurities, which had haunted the mind of +man from the first formation of society,--the phantoms whose +steps had been on earth, and their heads among the clouds-- +marshalled themselves at the sound of this new principle of +connection and of union, and stood a regulated band, where all +was order, symmetry, and force. What men had struggled for and +bled, while they saw it but as through a glass darkly, was made +the object of substantial knowledge and lively apprehension. The +bones of sages and of patriots stirred within their tombs, that +what they dimly saw and followed had become the world's common +heritage. And the great result was wrought by no supernatural +means, nor produced by any unparallelable concatenation of +events. It was foretold by no oracles, and ushered by no +portents; but was brought about by the quiet and reiterated +exercise of God's first gift of common sense." + +Mr Bentham's discovery does not, as we think we shall be able to +show, approach in importance to that of gravitation, to which he +compares it. At all events, Mr Bentham seems to us to act much +as Sir Isaac Newton would have done if he had gone about boasting +that he was the first person who taught bricklayers not to jump +off scaffolds and break their legs. + +Does Mr Bentham profess to hold out any new motive which may +induce men to promote the happiness of the species to which they +belong? Not at all. He distinctly admits that, if he is asked +why government should attempt to produce the greatest possible +happiness, he can give no answer. + +"The real answer," says he, "appeared to be, that men at large +OUGHT not to allow a government to afflict them with more evil or +less good than they can help. What A GOVERNMENT ought to do is a +mysterious and searching question, which those may answer who +know what it means; but what other men ought to do is a question +of no mystery at all. The word OUGHT, if it means anything, must +have reference to some kind of interest or motives; and what +interest a government has in doing right, when it happens to be +interested in doing wrong, is a question for the schoolmen. The +fact appears to be, that OUGHT is not predicable of governments. +The question is not why governments are bound not to do this or +that, but why OTHER MEN should let them if they can help it. The +point is not to determine why the lion should not eat sheep, but +why men should not eat their own mutton if they can." + +The principle of Mr Bentham, if we understand it, is this, that +mankind ought to act so as to produce their greatest happiness. +The word OUGHT, he tells us, has no meaning, unless it be used +with reference to some interest. But the interest of a man is +synonymous with his greatest happiness:--and therefore to say +that a man ought to do a thing, is to say that it is for his +greatest happiness to do it. And to say that mankind OUGHT to +act so as to produce their greatest happiness, is to say that the +greatest happiness is the greatest happiness--and this is all! + +Does Mr Bentham's principle tend to make any man wish for +anything for which he would not have wished, or do anything which +he would not have done, if the principle had never been heard of? +If not, it is an utterly useless principle. Now, every man +pursues his own happiness or interest--call it which you will. +If his happiness coincides with the happiness of the species, +then, whether he ever heard of the "greatest happiness principle" +or not, he will, to the best of his knowledge and ability, +attempt to produce the greatest happiness of the species. But, +if what he thinks his happiness be inconsistent with the greatest +happiness of mankind, will this new principle convert him to +another frame of mind? Mr Bentham himself allows, as we have +seen, that he can give no reason why a man should promote the +greatest happiness of others if their greatest happiness be +inconsistent with what he thinks his own. We should very much +like to know how the Utilitarian principle would run when reduced +to one plain imperative proposition? Will it run thus--pursue +your own happiness? This is superfluous. Every man pursues it, +according to his light, and always has pursued it, and always +must pursue it. To say that a man has done anything, is to say +that he thought it for his happiness to do it. Will the +principle run thus--pursue the greatest happiness of mankind, +whether it be your own greatest happiness or not? This is absurd +and impossible; and Bentham himself allows it to be so. But, if +the principle be not stated in one of these two ways, we cannot +imagine how it is to be stated at all. Stated in one of these +ways, it is an identical proposition,--true, but utterly barren +of consequences. Stated in the other way, it is a contradiction +in terms. Mr Bentham has distinctly declined the absurdity. Are +we then to suppose that he adopts the truism? + +There are thus, it seems, two great truths which the Utilitarian +philosophy is to communicate to mankind--two truths which are to +produce a revolution in morals, in laws, in governments, in +literature, in the whole system of life. The first of these is +speculative; the second is practical. The speculative truth is, +that the greatest happiness is the greatest happiness. The +practical rule is very simple; for it imports merely that men +should never omit, when they wish for anything, to wish for it, +or when they do anything, to do it! It is a great comfort to us +to think that we readily assented to the former of these great +doctrines as soon as it was stated to us; and that we have long +endeavoured, as far as human frailty would permit, to conform to +the latter in our practice. We are, however, inclined to suspect +that the calamities of the human race have been owing, less to +their not knowing that happiness was happiness, than to their not +knowing how to obtain it--less to their neglecting to do what +they did, than to their not being able to do what they wished, or +not wishing to do what they ought. + +Thus frivolous, thus useless is this philosophy,-- +"controversiarum ferax, operum effoeta, ad garriendum prompta, ad +generandum invalida." (Bacon, "Novum Organum".) The humble +mechanic who discovers some slight improvement in the +construction of safety lamps or steam-vessels does more for the +happiness of mankind than the "magnificent principle," as Mr +Bentham calls it, will do in ten thousand years. The mechanic +teaches us how we may in a small degree be better off than we +were. The Utilitarian advises us with great pomp to be as well +off as we can. + +The doctrine of a moral sense may be very unphilosophical; but we +do not think that it can be proved to be pernicious. Men did not +entertain certain desires and aversions because they believed in +a moral sense, but they gave the name of moral sense to a feeling +which they found in their minds, however it came there. If they +had given it no name at all it would still have influenced their +actions; and it will not be very easy to demonstrate that it has +influenced their actions the more because they have called it the +moral sense. The theory of the original contract is a fiction, +and a very absurd fiction; but in practice it meant, what the +"greatest happiness principle," if ever it becomes a watchword of +political warfare, will mean--that is to say, whatever served the +turn of those who used it. Both the one expression and the other +sound very well in debating clubs; but in the real conflicts of +life our passions and interests bid them stand aside and know +their place. The "greatest happiness principle" has always been +latent under the words, social contract, justice, benevolence, +patriotism, liberty, and so forth, just as far as it was for the +happiness, real or imagined, of those who used these words to +promote the greatest happiness of mankind. And of this we may be +sure, that the words "greatest happiness" will never, in any +man's mouth, mean more than the greatest happiness of others +which is consistent with what he thinks his own. The project of +mending a bad world by teaching people to give new names to old +things reminds us of Walter Shandy's scheme for compensating the +loss of his son's nose by christening him Trismegistus. What +society wants is a new motive--not a new cant. If Mr Bentham can +find out any argument yet undiscovered which may induce men to +pursue the general happiness, he will indeed be a great +benefactor to our species. But those whose happiness is +identical with the general happiness are even now promoting the +general happiness to the very best of their power and knowledge; +and Mr Bentham himself confesses that he has no means of +persuading those whose happiness is not identical with the +general happiness to act upon his principle. Is not this, then, +darkening counsel by words without knowledge? If the only fruit +of the "magnificent principle" is to be, that the oppressors and +pilferers of the next generation are to talk of seeking the +greatest happiness of the greatest number, just as the same class +of men have talked in our time of seeking to uphold the +Protestant constitution--just as they talked under Anne of +seeking the good of the Church, and under Cromwell of seeking the +Lord--where is the gain? Is not every great question already +enveloped in a sufficiently dark cloud of unmeaning words? Is it +so difficult for a man to cant some one or more of the good old +English cants which his father and grandfather canted before him, +that he must learn, in the schools of the Utilitarians, a new +sleight of tongue, to make fools clap and wise men sneer? Let +our countrymen keep their eyes on the neophytes of this sect, and +see whether we turn out to be mistaken in the prediction which we +now hazard. It will before long be found, we prophesy, that, as +the corruption of a dunce is the generation of an Utilitarian, so +is the corruption of an Utilitarian the generation of a jobber. + +The most elevated station that the "greatest happiness principle" +is ever likely to attain is this, that it may be a fashionable +phrase among newspaper writers and members of parliament--that it +may succeed to the dignity which has been enjoyed by the +"original contract," by the "constitution of 1688," and other +expressions of the same kind. We do not apprehend that it is a +less flexible cant than those which have preceded it, or that it +will less easily furnish a pretext for any design for which a +pretext may be required. The "original contract" meant in the +Convention Parliament the co-ordinate authority of the Three +Estates. If there were to be a radical insurrection tomorrow, +the "original contract" would stand just as well for annual +parliaments and universal suffrage. The "Glorious Constitution," +again, has meant everything in turn: the Habeas Corpus Act, the +Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, the Test Act, the Repeal of +the Test Act. There has not been for many years a single +important measure which has not been unconstitutional with its +opponents, and which its supporters have not maintained to be +agreeable to the true spirit of the constitution. Is it easier +to ascertain what is for the greatest happiness of the human race +than what is the constitution of England? If not, the "greatest +happiness principle" will be what the "principles of the +constitution" are, a thing to be appealed to by everybody, and +understood by everybody in the sense which suits him best. It +will mean cheap bread, dear bread, free trade, protecting duties, +annual parliaments, septennial parliaments, universal suffrage, +Old Sarum, trial by jury, martial law--everything, in short, +good, bad, or indifferent, of which any person, from rapacity or +from benevolence, chooses to undertake the defence. It will mean +six-and-eightpence with the attorney, tithes at the rectory, and +game-laws at the manor-house. The Statute of Uses, in appearance +the most sweeping legislative reform in our history, was said to +have produced no other effect than that of adding three words to +a conveyance. The universal admission of Mr Bentham's great +principle would, as far as we can see, produce no other effect +than that those orators who, while waiting for a meaning, gain +time (like bankers paying in sixpences during a run) by uttering +words that mean nothing would substitute "the greatest +happiness," or rather, as the longer phrase, "the greatest +happiness of the greatest number," for "under existing +circumstances,"--"now that I am on my legs,"--and "Mr Speaker, I, +for one, am free to say." In fact, principles of this sort +resemble those forms which are sold by law-stationers, with +blanks for the names of parties, and for the special +circumstances of every case--mere customary headings and +conclusions, which are equally at the command of the most honest +and of the most unrighteous claimant. It is on the filling up +that everything depends. + +The "greatest happiness principle" of Mr Bentham is included in +the Christian morality; and, to our thinking, it is there +exhibited in an infinitely more sound and philosophical form than +in the Utilitarian speculations. For in the New Testament it is +neither an identical proposition, nor a contradiction in terms; +and, as laid down by Mr Bentham, it must be either the one or the +other. "Do as you would be done by: Love your neighbour as +yourself:" these are the precepts of Jesus Christ. Understood +in an enlarged sense, these precepts are, in fact, a direction to +every man to promote the greatest happiness of the greatest +number. But this direction would be utterly unmeaning, as it +actually is in Mr Bentham's philosophy, unless it were +accompanied by a sanction. In the Christian scheme, accordingly, +it is accompanied by a sanction of immense force. To a man whose +greatest happiness in this world is inconsistent with the +greatest happiness of the greatest number is held out the +prospect of an infinite happiness hereafter, from which he +excludes himself by wronging his fellow-creatures here. + +This is practical philosophy, as practical as that on which penal +legislation is founded. A man is told to do something which +otherwise he would not do, and is furnished with a new motive for +doing it. Mr Bentham has no new motive to furnish his disciples +with. He has talents sufficient to effect anything that can be +effected. But to induce men to act without an inducement is too +much, even for him. He should reflect that the whole vast world +of morals cannot be moved unless the mover can obtain some stand +for his engines beyond it. He acts as Archimedes would have +done, if he had attempted to move the earth by a lever fixed on +the earth. The action and reaction neutralise each other. The +artist labours, and the world remains at rest. Mr Bentham can +only tell us to do something which we have always been doing, and +should still have continued to do, if we had never heard of the +"greatest happiness principle"--or else to do something which we +have no conceivable motive for doing, and therefore shall not do. +Mr Bentham's principle is at best no more than the golden rule of +the Gospel without its sanction. Whatever evils, therefore, have +existed in societies in which the authority of the Gospel is +recognised may, a fortiori, as it appears to us, exist in +societies in which the Utilitarian principle is recognised. We +do not apprehend that it is more difficult for a tyrant or a +persecutor to persuade himself and others that in putting to +death those who oppose his power or differ from his opinions he +is pursuing "the greatest happiness," than that he is doing as he +would be done by. But religion gives him a motive for doing as +he would be done by: and Mr Bentham furnishes him no motive to +induce him to promote the general happiness. If, on the other +hand, Mr Bentham's principle mean only that every man should +pursue his own greatest happiness, he merely asserts what +everybody knows, and recommends what everybody does. + +It is not upon this "greatest happiness principle" that the fame +of Mr Bentham will rest. He has not taught people to pursue +their own happiness; for that they always did. He has not taught +them to promote the happiness of others, at the expense of their +own; for that they will not and cannot do. But he has taught +them HOW, in some most important points, to promote their own +happiness; and, if his school had emulated him as successfully in +this respect as in the trick of passing off truisms for +discoveries, the name of Benthamite would have been no word for +the scoffer. But few of those who consider themselves as in a +more especial manner his followers have anything in common with +him but his faults. The whole science of Jurisprudence is his. +He has done much for political economy; but we are not aware that +in either department any improvement has been made by members of +his sect. He discovered truths; all that THEY have done has been +to make those truths unpopular. He investigated the philosophy +of law; he could teach them only to snarl at lawyers. + +We entertain no apprehensions of danger to the institutions of +this country from the Utilitarians. Our fears are of a different +kind. We dread the odium and discredit of their alliance. We +wish to see a broad and clear line drawn between the judicious +friends of practical reform and a sect which, having derived all +its influence from the countenance which they have imprudently +bestowed upon it, hates them with the deadly hatred of +ingratitude. There is not, and we firmly believe that there +never was, in this country a party so unpopular. They have +already made the science of political economy--a science of vast +importance to the welfare of nations--an object of disgust to the +majority of the community. The question of parliamentary reform +will share the same fate if once an association be formed in the +public mind between Reform and Utilitarianism. + +We bear no enmity to any member of the sect; and for Mr Bentham +we entertain very high admiration. We know that among his +followers there are some well-intentioned men, and some men of +talents; but we cannot say that we think the logic on which they +pride themselves likely to improve their heads, or the scheme of +morality which they have adopted likely to improve their hearts. +Their theory of morals, however, well deserves an article to +itself; and perhaps, on some future occasion, we may discuss it +more fully than time and space at present allow. + +The preceding article was written, and was actually in types, +when a letter from Mr Bentham appeared in the newspapers, +importing that, "though he had furnished the Westminster Review +with some memoranda respecting 'the greatest happiness +principle,' he had nothing to do with the remarks on our former +article." We are truly happy to find that this illustrious man +had so small a share in a performance which, for his sake, we +have treated with far greater lenity than it deserved. The +mistake, however, does not in the least affect any part of our +arguments; and we have therefore thought it unnecessary to cancel +or cast anew any of the foregoing pages. Indeed, we are not +sorry that the world should see how respectfully we were disposed +to treat a great man, even when we considered him as the author +of a very weak and very unfair attack on ourselves. We wish, +however, to intimate to the actual writer of that attack that our +civilities were intended for the author of the "Preuves +Judiciaires," and the "Defence of Usury"--and not for him. We +cannot conclude, indeed, without expressing a wish--though we +fear it has but little chance of reaching Mr Bentham--that he +would endeavour to find better editors for his compositions. If +M. Dumont had not been a redacteur of a different description +from some of his successors, Mr Bentham would never have attained +the distinction of even giving his name to a sect. + +... + + +UTILITARIAN THEORY OF GOVERNMENT. + +(October 1829.) + +Westminster Review (XXII., Article 16), on the Strictures of the +Edinburgh Review (XCVIII., Article 1), on the Utilitarian Theory +of Government, and the "Greatest Happiness Principle." + +We have long been of opinion that the Utilitarians have owed all +their influence to a mere delusion--that, while professing to +have submitted their minds to an intellectual discipline of +peculiar severity, to have discarded all sentimentality, and to +have acquired consummate skill in the art of reasoning, they are +decidedly inferior to the mass of educated men in the very +qualities in which they conceive themselves to excel. They have +undoubtedly freed themselves from the dominion of some absurd +notions. But their struggle for intellectual emancipation has +ended, as injudicious and violent struggles for political +emancipation too often end, in a mere change of tyrants. Indeed, +we are not sure that we do not prefer the venerable nonsense +which holds prescriptive sway over the ultra-Tory to the upstart +dynasty of prejudices and sophisms by which the revolutionists of +the moral world have suffered themselves to be enslaved. + +The Utilitarians have sometimes been abused as intolerant, +arrogant, irreligious,--as enemies of literature, of the fine +arts, and of the domestic charities. They have been reviled for +some things of which they were guilty, and for some of which they +were innocent. But scarcely anybody seems to have perceived that +almost all their peculiar faults arise from the utter want both +of comprehensiveness and of precision in their mode of reasoning. +We have, for some time past, been convinced that this was really +the case; and that, whenever their philosophy should be boldly +and unsparingly scrutinised, the world would see that it had been +under a mistake respecting them. + +We have made the experiment; and it has succeeded far beyond our +most sanguine expectations. A chosen champion of the School has +come forth against us. A specimen of his logical abilities now +lies before us; and we pledge ourselves to show that no +prebendary at an anti-Catholic meeting, no true-blue baronet +after the third bottle at a Pitt Club, ever displayed such utter +incapacity of comprehending or answering an argument as appears +in the speculations of this Utilitarian apostle; that he does not +understand our meaning, or Mr Mill's meaning, or Mr Bentham's +meaning, or his own meaning; and that the various parts of his +system--if the name of system can be so misapplied--directly +contradict each other. + +Having shown this, we intend to leave him in undisputed +possession of whatever advantage he may derive from the last +word. We propose only to convince the public that there is +nothing in the far-framed logic of the Utilitarians of which any +plain man has reason to be afraid; that this logic will impose on +no man who dares to look it in the face. + +The Westminster Reviewer begins by charging us with having +misrepresented an important part of Mr Mill's argument. + +"The first extract given by the Edinburgh Reviewers from the +Essay was an insulated passage, purposely despoiled of what had +preceded and what followed. The author had been observing, that +'some profound and benevolent investigators of human affairs had +adopted the conclusion that, of all the possible forms of +government, absolute monarchy is the best.' This is what the +reviewers have omitted at the beginning. He then adds, as in the +extract, that 'Experience, IF WE LOOK ONLY AT THE OUTSIDE OF THE +FACTS, appears to be divided on this subject;' there are +Caligulas in one place, and kings of Denmark in another. 'As the +surface of history affords, therefore, no certain principle of +decision, WE MUST GO BEYOND THE SURFACE, and penetrate to the +springs within.' This is what the reviewers have omitted at the +end." + +It is perfectly true that our quotation from Mr Mill's essay was, +like most other quotations, preceded and followed by something +which we did not quote. But, if the Westminster Reviewer means +to say that either what preceded or what followed would, if +quoted, have shown that we put a wrong interpretation on the +passage which was extracted, he does not understand Mr Mill +rightly. + +Mr Mill undoubtedly says that, "as the surface of history affords +no certain principle of decision, we must go beyond the surface, +and penetrate to the springs within." But these expressions will +admit of several interpretations. In what sense, then, does Mr +Mill use them? If he means that we ought to inspect the facts +with close attention, he means what is rational. But, if he +means that we ought to leave the facts, with all their apparent +inconsistencies, unexplained--to lay down a general principle of +the widest extent, and to deduce doctrines from that principle by +syllogistic argument, without pausing to consider whether those +doctrines be or be not consistent with the facts,--then he means +what is irrational; and this is clearly what he does mean: for +he immediately begins, without offering the least explanation of +the contradictory appearances which he has himself described, to +go beyond the surface in the following manner:--"That one human +being will desire to render the person and property of another +subservient to his pleasures, notwithstanding the pain or loss of +pleasure which it may occasion to that other individual, is the +foundation of government. The desire of the object implies the +desire of the power necessary to accomplish the object." And +thus he proceeds to deduce consequences directly inconsistent +with what he has himself stated respecting the situation of the +Danish people. + +If we assume that the object of government is the preservation of +the persons and property of men, then we must hold that, wherever +that object is attained, there the principle of good government +exists. If that object be attained both in Denmark and in the +United States of America, then that which makes government good +must exist, under whatever disguise of title or name, both in +Denmark and in the United States. If men lived in fear for their +lives and their possessions under Nero and under the National +Convention, it follows that the causes from which misgovernment +proceeds existed both in the despotism of Rome and in the +democracy of France. What, then, is that which, being found in +Denmark and in the United States, and not being found in the +Roman Empire or under the administration of Robespierre, renders +governments, widely differing in their external form, practically +good? Be it what it may, it certainly is not that which Mr Mill +proves a priori that it must be,--a democratic representative +assembly. For the Danes have no such assembly. + +The latent principle of good government ought to be tracked, as +it appears to us, in the same manner in which Lord Bacon proposed +to track the principle of Heat. Make as large a list as +possible, said that great man, of those bodies in which, however +widely they differ from each other in appearance, we perceive +heat; and as large a list as possible of those which, while they +bear a general resemblance to hot bodies, are nevertheless not +hot. Observe the different degrees of heat in different hot +bodies; and then, if there be something which is found in all hot +bodies, and of which the increase or diminution is always +accompanied by an increase or diminution of heat, we may hope +that we have really discovered the object of our search. In the +same manner we ought to examine the constitution of all those +communities in which, under whatever form, the blessings of good +government are enjoyed; and to discover, if possible, in what +they resemble each other, and in what they all differ from those +societies in which the object of government is not attained. By +proceeding thus we shall arrive, not indeed at a perfect theory +of government, but at a theory which will be of great practical +use, and which the experience of every successive generation will +probably bring nearer and nearer to perfection. + +The inconsistencies into which Mr Mill has been betrayed by +taking a different course ought to serve as a warning to all +speculators. Because Denmark is well governed by a monarch who, +in appearance at least, is absolute, Mr Mill thinks that the only +mode of arriving at the true principles of government is to +deduce them a priori from the laws of human nature. And what +conclusion does he bring out by this deduction? We will give it +in his own words:--"In the grand discovery of modern times, the +system of representation, the solution of all the difficulties, +both speculative and practical, will perhaps be found. If it +cannot, we seem to be forced upon the extraordinary conclusion +that good government is impossible." That the Danes are well +governed without a representation is a reason for deducing the +theory of government from a general principle from which it +necessarily follows that good government is impossible without a +representation! We have done our best to put this question +plainly; and we think that, if the Westminster Reviewer will read +over what we have written twice or thrice with patience and +attention, some glimpse of our meaning will break in even on his +mind. + +Some objections follow, so frivolous and unfair, that we are +almost ashamed to notice them. + +"When it was said that there was in Denmark a balanced contest +between the king and the nobility, what was said was, that there +was a balanced contest, but it did not last. It was balanced +till something put an end to the balance; and so is everything +else. That such a balance will not last, is precisely what Mr +Mill had demonstrated." + +Mr Mill, we positively affirm, pretends to demonstrate, not +merely that a balanced contest between the king and the +aristocracy will not last, but that the chances are as infinity +to one against the existence of such a balanced contest. This is +a mere question of fact. We quote the words of the essay, and +defy the Westminster Reviewer to impeach our accuracy:-- + +"It seems impossible that such equality should ever exist. How +is it to be established? Or by what criterion is it to be +ascertained? If there is no such criterion, it must, in all +cases, be the result of chance. If so, the chances against it +are as infinity to one." + +The Reviewer has confounded the division of power with the +balance or equal division of power. Mr Mill says that the +division of power can never exist long, because it is next to +impossible that the equal division of power should ever exist at +all. + +"When Mr Mill asserted that it cannot be for the interest of +either the monarchy or the aristocracy to combine with the +democracy, it is plain he did not assert that if the monarchy and +aristocracy were in doubtful contest with each other, they would +not, either of them, accept of the assistance of the democracy. +He spoke of their taking the side of the democracy; not of their +allowing the democracy to take side with themselves." + +If Mr Mill meant anything, he must have meant this--that the +monarchy and the aristocracy will never forget their enmity to +the democracy in their enmity to each other. + +"The monarchy and aristocracy," says he, "have all possible +motives for endeavouring to obtain unlimited power over the +persons and property of the community. The consequence is +inevitable. They have all possible motives for combining to +obtain that power, and unless the people have power enough to be +a match for both they have no protection. The balance, +therefore, is a thing the existence of which upon the best +possible evidence is to be regarded as impossible." + +If Mr Mill meant only what the Westminster Reviewer conceives him +to have meant, his argument would leave the popular theory of the +balance quite untouched. For it is the very theory of the +balance that the help of the people will be solicited by the +nobles when hard pressed by the king, and by the king when hard +pressed by the nobles; and that, as the price of giving alternate +support to the crown and the aristocracy, they will obtain +something for themselves, as the Reviewer admits that they have +done in Denmark. If Mr Mill admits this, he admits the only +theory of the balance of which we ever heard--that very theory +which he has declared to be wild and chimerical. If he denies +it, he is at issue with the Westminster Reviewer as to the +phenomena of the Danish government. + +We now come to a more important passage. Our opponent has +discovered, as he conceives, a radical error which runs through +our whole argument, and vitiates every part of it. We suspect +that we shall spoil his triumph. + +"Mr Mill never asserted 'THAT UNDER NO DESPOTIC GOVERNMENT DOES +ANY HUMAN BEING, EXCEPT THE TOOLS OF THE SOVEREIGN, POSSESS MORE +THAN THE NECESSARIES OF LIFE, AND THAT THE MOST INTENSE DEGREE OF +TERROR IS KEPT UP BY CONSTANT CRUELTY.' He said that absolute +power leads to such results 'by infallible sequence, where power +over a community is attained, AND NOTHING CHECKS.' The critic on +the Mount never made a more palpable misquotation. + +"The spirit of this misquotation runs through every part of the +reply of the Edinburgh Review that relates to the Essay on +Government; and is repeated in as many shapes as the Roman pork. +The whole description of 'Mr Mill's argument against despotism,' +--including the illustration from right-angled triangles and the +square of the hypothenuse,--is founded on this invention of +saying what an author has not said, and leaving unsaid what he +has." + +We thought, and still think, for reasons which our readers will +soon understand, that we represented Mr Mill's principle quite +fairly, and according to the rule of law and common sense, ut res +magis valeat quam pereat. Let us, however, give him all the +advantage of the explanation tendered by his advocate, and see +what he will gain by it. + +The Utilitarian doctrine then is, not that despots and +aristocracies will always plunder and oppress the people to the +last point, but that they will do so if nothing checks them. + +In the first place, it is quite clear that the doctrine thus +stated is of no use at all, unless the force of the checks be +estimated. The first law of motion is, that a ball once +projected will fly on to all eternity with undiminished velocity, +unless something checks. The fact is, that a ball stops in a few +seconds after proceeding a few yards with very variable motion. +Every man would wring his child's neck and pick his friend's +pocket if nothing checked him. In fact, the principle thus +stated means only that governments will oppress unless they +abstain from oppressing. This is quite true, we own. But we +might with equal propriety turn the maxim round, and lay it down, +as the fundamental principle of government, that all rulers will +govern well, unless some motive interferes to keep them from +doing so. + +If there be, as the Westminster Reviewer acknowledges, certain +checks which, under political institutions the most arbitrary in +seeming, sometimes produce good government, and almost always +place some restraint on the rapacity and cruelty of the powerful, +surely the knowledge of those checks, of their nature, and of +their effect, must be a most important part of the science of +government. Does Mr Mill say anything upon this part of the +subject? Not one word. + +The line of defence now taken by the Utilitarians evidently +degrades Mr Mill's theory of government from the rank which, till +within the last few months, was claimed for it by the whole sect. +It is no longer a practical system, fit to guide statesmen, but +merely a barren exercise of the intellect, like those +propositions in mechanics in which the effect of friction and of +the resistance of the air is left out of the question; and which, +therefore, though correctly deduced from the premises, are in +practice utterly false. For, if Mr Mill professes to prove only +that absolute monarchy and aristocracy are pernicious without +checks,--if he allows that there are checks which produce good +government even under absolute monarchs and aristocracies,--and +if he omits to tell us what those checks are, and what effects +they produce under different circumstances,--he surely gives us +no information which can be of real utility. + +But the fact is,--and it is most extraordinary that the +Westminster Reviewer should not have perceived it--that if once +the existence of checks on the abuse of power in monarchies and +aristocracies be admitted, the whole of Mr Mill's theory falls to +the ground at once. This is so palpable, that in spite of the +opinion of the Westminster Reviewer, we must acquit Mr Mill of +having intended to make such an admission. We still think that +the words, "where power over a community is attained, and nothing +checks," must not be understood to mean that under a monarchical +or aristocratical form of government there can really be any +check which can in any degree mitigate the wretchedness of the +people. + +For all possible checks may be classed under two general heads,-- +want of will, and want of power. Now, if a king or an +aristocracy, having the power to plunder and oppress the people, +can want the will, all Mr Mill's principles of human nature must +be pronounced unsound. He tells us, "that the desire to possess +unlimited power of inflicting pain upon others, is an inseparable +part of human nature;" and that "a chain of inference, close and +strong to a most unusual degree," leads to the conclusion that +those who possess this power will always desire to use it. It is +plain, therefore, that, if Mr Mill's principles be sound, the +check on a monarchical or an aristocratical government will not +be the want of will to oppress. + +If a king or an aristocracy, having, as Mr Mill tells us that +they always must have, the will to oppress the people with the +utmost severity, want the power, then the government, by whatever +name it may be called, must be virtually a mixed government or a +pure democracy: for it is quite clear that the people possess +some power in the state--some means of influencing the nominal +rulers. But Mr Mill has demonstrated that no mixed government +can possibly exist, or at least that such a government must come +to a very speedy end: therefore, every country in which people +not in the service of the government have, for any length of +time, been permitted to accumulate more than the bare means of +subsistence must be a pure democracy. That is to say, France +before the revolution, and Ireland during the last century, were +pure democracies. Prussia, Austria, Russia, all the governments +of the civilised world, are pure democracies. If this be not a +reductio ad absurdum, we do not know what is. + +The errors of Mr Mill proceed principally from that radical vice +in his reasoning which, in our last number we described in the +words of Lord Bacon. The Westminster Reviewer is unable to +discover the meaning of our extracts from the "Novum Organum", +and expresses himself as follows: + +"The quotations from Lord Bacon are misapplications, such as +anybody may make to anything he dislikes. There is no more +resemblance between pain, pleasure, motives, etc., and +substantia, generatio, corruptio, elementum, materia,--than +between lines angles, magnitudes, etc., and the same." + +It would perhaps be unreasonable to expect that a writer who +cannot understand his own English should understand Lord Bacon's +Latin. We will therefore attempt to make our meaning clearer. + +What Lord Bacon blames in the schoolmen of his time is this,-- +that they reasoned syllogistically on words which had not been +defined with precision; such as moist, dry, generation, +corruption, and so forth. Mr Mill's error is exactly of the same +kind. He reasons syllogistically about power, pleasure, and +pain, without attaching any definite notion to any one of those +words. There is no more resemblance, says the Westminster +Reviewer, between pain and substantia than between pain and a +line or an angle. By his permission, in the very point to which +Lord Bacon's observation applies, Mr Mill's subjects do resemble +the substantia and elementum of the schoolmen and differ from the +lines and magnitudes of Euclid. We can reason a priori on +mathematics, because we can define with an exactitude which +precludes all possibility of confusion. If a mathematician were +to admit the least laxity into his notions, if he were to allow +himself to be deluded by the vague sense which words bear in +popular use, or by the aspect of an ill-drawn diagram, if he were +to forget in his reasonings that a point was indivisible, or that +the definition of a line excluded breadth, there would be no end +to his blunders. The schoolmen tried to reason mathematically +about things which had not been, and perhaps could not be, +defined with mathematical accuracy. We know the result. Mr Mill +has in our time attempted to do the same. He talks of power, for +example, as if the meaning of the word power were as determinate +as the meaning of the word circle. But, when we analyse his +speculations, we find that his notion of power is, in the words +of Bacon, "phantiastica et male terminata." + +There are two senses in which we may use the word "power," and +those words which denote the various distributions of power, as, +for example, "monarchy":--the one sense popular and superficial, +the other more scientific and accurate. Mr Mill, since he chose +to reason a priori, ought to have clearly pointed out in which +sense he intended to use words of this kind, and to have adhered +inflexibly to the sense on which he fixed. Instead of doing +this, he flies backwards and forwards from the one sense to the +other, and brings out conclusions at last which suit neither. + +The state of those two communities to which he has himself +referred--the kingdom of Denmark and the empire of Rome--may +serve to illustrate our meaning. Looking merely at the surface +of things, we should call Denmark a despotic monarchy, and the +Roman world, in the first century after Christ, an aristocratical +republic. Caligula was, in theory, nothing more than a +magistrate elected by the senate, and subject to the senate. +That irresponsible dignity which, in the most limited monarchies +of our time, is ascribed to the person of the sovereign never +belonged to the earlier Caesars. The sentence of death which the +great council of the commonwealth passed on Nero was strictly +according to the theory of the constitution. Yet, in fact, the +power of the Roman emperors approached nearer to absolute +dominion than that of any prince in modern Europe. On the other +hand, the King of Denmark, in theory the most despotic of +princes, would in practice find it most perilous to indulge in +cruelty and licentiousness. Nor is there, we believe, at the +present moment a single sovereign in our part of the world who +has so much real power over the lives of his subjects as +Robespierre, while he lodged at a chandler's and dined at a +restaurateur's, exercised over the lives of those whom he called +his fellow citizens. + +Mr Mill and the Westminster Reviewer seem to agree that there +cannot long exist in any society a division of power between a +monarch, an aristocracy, and the people, or between any two of +them. However the power be distributed, one of the three parties +will, according to them, inevitably monopolise the whole. Now, +what is here meant by power? If Mr Mill speaks of the external +semblance of power,--of power recognised by the theory of the +constitution,--he is palpably wrong. In England, for example, we +have had for ages the name and form of a mixed government, if +nothing more. Indeed, Mr Mill himself owns that there are +appearances which have given colour to the theory of the balance, +though he maintains that these appearances are delusive. But, if +he uses the word power in a deeper and philosophical sense, he +is, if possible, still more in the wrong than on the former +supposition. For, if he had considered in what the power of one +human being over other human beings must ultimately consist, he +would have perceived, not only that there are mixed governments +in the world, but that all the governments in the world, and all +the governments which can even be conceived as existing in the +world, are virtually mixed. + +If a king possessed the lamp of Aladdin,--if he governed by the +help of a genius who carried away the daughters and wives of his +subjects through the air to the royal Parc-aux-cerfs, and turned +into stone every man who wagged a finger against his majesty's +government, there would indeed be an unmixed despotism. But, +fortunately, a ruler can be gratified only by means of his +subjects. His power depends on their obedience; and, as any +three or four of them are more than a match for him by himself, +he can only enforce the unwilling obedience of some by means of +the willing obedience of others. + +Take any of those who are popularly called absolute princes-- +Napoleon for example. Could Napoleon have walked through Paris, +cutting off the head of one person in every house which he +passed? Certainly not without the assistance of an army. If +not, why not? Because the people had sufficient physical power +to resist him, and would have put forth that power in defence of +their lives and of the lives of their children. In other words, +there was a portion of power in the democracy under Napoleon. +Napoleon might probably have indulged himself in such an +atrocious freak of power if his army would have seconded him. +But, if his army had taken part with the people, he would have +found himself utterly helpless; and, even if they had obeyed his +orders against the people, they would not have suffered him to +decimate their own body. In other words, there was a portion of +power in the hands of a minority of the people, that is to say, +in the hands of an aristocracy, under the reign of Napoleon. + +To come nearer home,--Mr Mill tells us that it is a mistake to +imagine that the English government is mixed. He holds, we +suppose, with all the politicians of the Utilitarian school, that +it is purely aristocratical. There certainly is an aristocracy +in England; and we are afraid that their power is greater than it +ought to be. They have power enough to keep up the game-laws and +corn-laws; but they have not power enough to subject the bodies +of men of the lowest class to wanton outrage at their pleasure. +Suppose that they were to make a law that any gentleman of two +thousand a-year might have a day-labourer or a pauper flogged +with a cat-of-nine-tails whenever the whim might take him. It is +quite clear that the first day on which such flagellation should +be administered would be the last day of the English aristocracy. +In this point, and in many other points which might be named, the +commonalty in our island enjoy a security quite as complete as if +they exercised the right of universal suffrage. We say, +therefore, that the English people have in their own hands a +sufficient guarantee that in some points the aristocracy will +conform to their wishes;--in other words, they have a certain +portion of power over the aristocracy. Therefore the English +government is mixed. + +Wherever a king or an oligarchy refrains from the last extremity +of rapacity and tyranny through fear of the resistance of the +people, there the constitution, whatever it may be called, is in +some measure democratical. The admixture of democratic power may +be slight. It may be much slighter than it ought to be; but some +admixture there is. Wherever a numerical minority, by means of +superior wealth or intelligence, of political concert, or of +military discipline, exercises a greater influence on the society +than any other equal number of persons,--there, whatever the form +of government may be called, a mixture of aristocracy does in +fact exist. And, wherever a single man, from whatever cause, is +so necessary to the community, or to any portion of it, that he +possesses more power than any other man, there is a mixture of +monarchy. This is the philosophical classification of +governments: and if we use this classification we shall find, +not only that there are mixed governments, but that all +governments are, and must always be, mixed. But we may safely +challenge Mr Mill to give any definition of power, or to make any +classification of governments, which shall bear him out in his +assertion that a lasting division of authority is impracticable. + +It is evidently on the real distribution of power, and not on +names and badges, that the happiness of nations must depend. The +representative system, though doubtless a great and precious +discovery in politics, is only one of the many modes in which the +democratic part of the community can efficiently check the +governing few. That certain men have been chosen as deputies of +the people,--that there is a piece of paper stating such deputies +to possess certain powers,--these circumstances in themselves +constitute no security for good government. Such a constitution +nominally existed in France; while, in fact, an oligarchy of +committees and clubs trampled at once on the electors and the +elected. Representation is a very happy contrivance for enabling +large bodies of men to exert their power with less risk of +disorder than there would otherwise be. But, assuredly, it does +not of itself give power. Unless a representative assembly is +sure of being supported in the last resort by the physical +strength of large masses who have spirit to defend the +constitution and sense to defend it in concert, the mob of the +town in which it meets may overawe it;--the howls of the +listeners in its glory may silence its deliberations;--an able +and daring individual may dissolve it. And, if that sense and +that spirit of which we speak be diffused through a society, +then, even without a representative assembly, that society will +enjoy many of the blessings of good government. + +Which is the better able to defend himself;--a strong man with +nothing but his fists, or a paralytic cripple encumbered with a +sword which he cannot lift? Such, we believe, is the difference +between Denmark and some new republics in which the +constitutional forms of the United States have been most +sedulously imitated. + +Look at the Long Parliament on the day on which Charles came to +seize the five members: and look at it again on the day when +Cromwell stamped with his foot on its floor. On which day was +its apparent power the greater? On which day was its real power +the less? Nominally subject, it was able to defy the sovereign. +Nominally sovereign, it was turned out of doors by its servant. + +Constitutions are in politics what paper money is in commerce. +They afford great facilities and conveniences. But we must not +attribute to them that value which really belongs to what they +represent. They are not power, but symbols of power, and will, +in an emergency, prove altogether useless unless the power for +which they stand be forthcoming. The real power by which the +community is governed is made up of all the means which all its +members possess of giving pleasure or pain to each other. + +Great light may be thrown on the nature of a circulating medium +by the phenomena of a state of barter. And in the same manner it +may be useful to those who wish to comprehend the nature and +operation of the outward signs of power to look at communities in +which no such signs exist; for example, at the great community of +nations. There we find nothing analogous to a constitution; but +do we not find a government? We do in fact find government in +its purest, and simplest, and most intelligible form. We see one +portion of power acting directly on another portion of power. We +see a certain police kept up; the weak to a certain degree +protected; the strong to a certain degree restrained. We see the +principle of the balance in constant operation. We see the whole +system sometimes undisturbed by any attempt at encroachment for +twenty or thirty years at a time; and all this is produced +without a legislative assembly, or an executive magistracy-- +without tribunals--without any code which deserves the name; +solely by the mutual hopes and fears of the various members of +the federation. In the community of nations, the first appeal is +to physical force. In communities of men, forms of government +serve to put off that appeal, and often render it unnecessary. +But it is still open to the oppressed or the ambitious. + +Of course, we do not mean to deny that a form of government will, +after it has existed for a long time, materially affect the real +distribution of power throughout the community. This is because +those who administer a government, with their dependants, form a +compact and disciplined body, which, acting methodically and in +concert, is more powerful than any other equally numerous body +which is inferior in organisation. The power of rulers is not, +as superficial observers sometimes seem to think, a thing sui +generis. It is exactly similar in kind, though generally +superior in amount, to that of any set of conspirators who plot +to overthrow it. We have seen in our time the most extensive and +the best organised conspiracy that ever existed--a conspiracy +which possessed all the elements of real power in so great a +degree that it was able to cope with a strong government, and to +triumph over it--the Catholic Association. An Utilitarian would +tell us, we suppose, that the Irish Catholics had no portion of +political power whatever on the first day of the late Session of +Parliament. + +Let us really go beyond the surface of facts: let us, in the +sound sense of the words, penetrate to the springs within; and +the deeper we go the more reason shall we find to smile at those +theorists who hold that the sole hope of the human race is in a +rule-of-three sum and a ballot-box. + +We must now return to the Westminster Reviewer. The following +paragraph is an excellent specimen of his peculiar mode of +understanding and answering arguments. + +"The reply to the argument against 'saturation,' supplies its own +answer. The reason why it is of no use to try to 'saturate' is +precisely what the Edinburgh Reviewers have suggested,--'THAT +THERE IS NO LIMIT TO THE NUMBER OF THIEVES.' There are the +thieves, and the thieves' cousins,--with their men-servants, +their maid-servants, and their little ones, to the fortieth +generation. It is true, that 'a man cannot become a king or a +member of the aristocracy whenever he chooses;' but if there is +to be no limit to the depredators except their own inclination to +increase and multiply, the situation of those who are to suffer +is as wretched as it needs be. It is impossible to define what +ARE 'corporal pleasures.' A Duchess of Cleveland was 'a corporal +pleasure.' The most disgraceful period in the history of any +nation--that of the Restoration--presents an instance of the +length to which it is possible to go in an attempt to 'saturate' +with pleasures of this kind." + +To reason with such a writer is like talking to a deaf man who +catches at a stray word, makes answer beside the mark, and is led +further and further into error by every attempt to explain. Yet, +that our readers may fully appreciate the abilities of the new +philosophers, we shall take the trouble to go over some of our +ground again. + +Mr Mill attempts to prove that there is no point of saturation +with the objects of human desire. He then takes it for granted +that men have no objects of desire but those which can be +obtained only at the expense of the happiness of others. Hence +he infers that absolute monarchs and aristocracies will +necessarily oppress and pillage the people to a frightful extent. + +We answered in substance thus. There are two kinds of objects of +desire; those which give mere bodily pleasure, and those which +please through the medium of associations. Objects of the former +class, it is true, a man cannot obtain without depriving somebody +else of a share. But then with these every man is soon +satisfied. A king or an aristocracy cannot spend any very large +portion of the national wealth on the mere pleasures of sense. +With the pleasures which belong to us as reasoning and +imaginative beings we are never satiated, it is true; but then, +on the other hand, many of those pleasures can be obtained +without injury to any person, and some of them can be obtained +only by doing good to others. + +The Westminster Reviewer, in his former attack on us, laughed at +us for saying that a king or an aristocracy could not be easily +satiated with the pleasures of sense, and asked why the same +course was not tried with thieves. We were not a little +surprised at so silly an objection from the pen, as we imagined, +of Mr Bentham. We returned, however, a very simple answer. +There is no limit to the number of thieves. Any man who chooses +can steal: but a man cannot become a member of the aristocracy +or a king whenever he chooses. To satiate one thief, is to tempt +twenty other people to steal. But by satiating one king or five +hundred nobles with bodily pleasures we do not produce more kings +or more nobles. The answer of the Westminster Reviewer we have +quoted above; and it will amply repay our readers for the trouble +of examining it. We never read any passage which indicated +notions so vague and confused. The number of the thieves, says +our Utilitarian, is not limited. For there are the dependants +and friends of the king and of the nobles. Is it possible that +he should not perceive that this comes under a different head? +The bodily pleasures which a man in power dispenses among his +creatures are bodily pleasures as respects his creatures, no +doubt. But the pleasure which he derives from bestowing them is +not a bodily pleasure. It is one of those pleasures which belong +to him as a reasoning and imaginative being. No man of common +understanding can have failed to perceive that, when we said that +a king or an aristocracy might easily be supplied to satiety with +sensual pleasures, we were speaking of sensual pleasures directly +enjoyed by themselves. But "it is impossible," says the +Reviewer, "to define what are corporal pleasures." Our brother +would indeed, we suspect, find it a difficult task; nor, if we +are to judge of his genius for classification from the specimen +which immediately follows, would we advise him to make the +attempt. "A Duchess of Cleveland was a corporal pleasure." And +to this wise remark is appended a note, setting forth that +Charles the Second gave to the Duchess of Cleveland the money +which he ought to have spent on the war with Holland. We +scarcely know how to answer a man who unites so much pretension +to so much ignorance. There are, among the many Utilitarians who +talk about Hume, Condillac, and Hartley, a few who have read +those writers. Let the Reviewer ask one of these what he thinks +on the subject. We shall not undertake to whip a pupil of so +little promise through his first course of metaphysics. We +shall, therefore, only say--leaving him to guess and wonder what +we can mean--that, in our opinion, the Duchess of Cleveland was +not a merely corporal pleasure,--that the feeling which leads a +prince to prefer one woman to all others, and to lavish the +wealth of kingdoms on her, is a feeling which can only be +explained by the law of association. + +But we are tired, and even more ashamed than tired, of exposing +these blunders. The whole article is of a piece. One passage, +however, we must select, because it contains a very gross +misrepresentation. + +"'THEY NEVER ALLUDED TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION FOR THE PURPOSE OF +PROVING THAT THE POOR WERE INCLINED TO ROB THE RICH.' They only +said, 'as soon as the poor AGAIN began to compare their cottages +and salads with the hotels and banquets of the rich, there would +have been another scramble for property, another general +confiscation,' etc." + +We said that, IF MR MILL'S PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN NATURE WERE +CORRECT, there would have been another scramble for property, and +another confiscation. We particularly pointed this out in our +last article. We showed the Westminster Reviewer that he had +misunderstood us. We dwelt particularly on the condition which +was introduced into our statement. We said that we had not +given, and did not mean to give, any opinion of our own. And, +after this, the Westminster Reviewer thinks proper to repeat his +former misrepresentation, without taking the least notice of that +qualification to which we, in the most marked manner, called his +attention. + +We hasten on to the most curious part of the article under our +consideration--the defence of the "greatest happiness principle." +The Reviewer charges us with having quite mistaken its nature. + +"All that they have established is, that they do not understand +it. Instead of the truism of the Whigs, 'that the greatest +happiness is the greatest happiness,' what Mr Bentham had +demonstrated, or at all events had laid such foundations that +there was no trouble in demonstrating, was, that the greatest +happiness of the individual was in the long run to be obtained by +pursuing the greatest happiness of the aggregate." + +It was distinctly admitted by the Westminster Reviewer, as we +remarked in our last article, that he could give no answer to the +question,--why governments should attempt to produce the greatest +possible happiness? The Reviewer replies thus:-- + +"Nothing of the kind will be admitted at all. In the passage +thus selected to be tacked to the other, the question started +was, concerning 'the object of government;' in which government +was spoken of as an operation, not as anything that is capable of +feeling pleasure or pain. In this sense it is true enough, that +OUGHT is not predicable of governments." + +We will quote, once again, the passage which we quoted in our +last Number; and we really hope that our brother critic will feel +something like shame while he peruses it. + +"The real answer appeared to be, that men at large OUGHT not to +allow a government to afflict them with more evil or less good, +than they can help. What a GOVERNMENT ought to do is a +mysterious and searching question which those may answer who know +what it means; but what other men ought to do is a question of no +mystery at all. The word OUGHT, if it means anything, must have +reference to some kind of interest or motives; and what interest +a government has in doing right, when it happens to be interested +in doing wrong, is a question for the schoolmen. The fact +appears to be that OUGHT is not predicable of governments. The +question is not, why governments are bound not to do this or +that, but why other men should let them if they can help it. The +point is not to determine why the lion should not eat sheep, but +why men should not eat their own mutton if they can." + +We defy the Westminster Reviewer to reconcile this passage with +the "general happiness principle" as he now states it. He tells +us that he meant by government, not the people invested with the +powers of government, but a mere OPERATION incapable of feeling +pleasure or pain. We say, that he meant the people invested with +the powers of government, and nothing else. It is true that +OUGHT is not predicable of an operation. But who would ever +dream of raising any question about the DUTIES of an operation? +What did the Reviewer mean by saying, that a government could not +be interested in doing right because it was interested in doing +wrong? Can an operation be interested in either? And what did +he mean by his comparison about the lion? Is a lion an operation +incapable of pain or pleasure? And what did he mean by the +expression, "other men," so obviously opposed to the word +"government?" But let the public judge between us. It is +superfluous to argue a point so clear. + +The Reviewer does indeed seem to feel that his expressions cannot +be explained away, and attempts to shuffle out of the difficulty +by owning, that "the double meaning of the word government was +not got clear of without confusion." He has now, at all events, +he assures us, made himself master of Mr Bentham's philosophy. +The real and genuine "greatest happiness principle" is, that the +greatest happiness of every individual is identical with the +greatest happiness of society; and all other "greatest happiness +principles" whatever are counterfeits. "This," says he, "is the +spirit of Mr Bentham's principle; and if there is anything +opposed to it in any former statement it may be corrected by the +present." + +Assuredly, if a fair and honourable opponent had, in discussing a +question so abstruse as that concerning the origin of moral +obligation, made some unguarded admission inconsistent with the +spirit of his doctrines, we should not be inclined to triumph +over him. But no tenderness is due to a writer who, in the very +act of confessing his blunders, insults those by whom his +blunders have been detected, and accuses them of misunderstanding +what, in fact, he has himself mis-stated. + +The whole of this transaction illustrates excellently the real +character of this sect. A paper comes forth, professing to +contain a full development of the "greatest happiness principle," +with the latest improvements of Mr Bentham. The writer boasts +that his article has the honour of being the announcement and the +organ of this wonderful discovery, which is to make "the bones of +sages and patriots stir within their tombs." + +This "magnificent principle" is then stated thus: Mankind ought +to pursue their greatest happiness. But there are persons whose +interest is opposed to the greatest happiness of mankind. OUGHT +is not predicable of such persons. For the word OUGHT has no +meaning unless it be used with reference to some interest. + +We answered, with much more lenity than we should have shown to +such nonsense, had it not proceeded, as we supposed, from Mr +Bentham, that interest was synonymous with greatest happiness; +and that, therefore, if the word OUGHT has no meaning, unless +used with reference to interest, then, to say that mankind ought +to pursue their greatest happiness, is simply to say, that the +greatest happiness is the greatest happiness; that every +individual pursues his own happiness; that either what he thinks +his happiness must coincide with the greatest happiness of +society or not; that, if what he thinks his happiness coincides +with the greatest happiness of society, he will attempt to +promote the greatest happiness of society whether he ever heard +of the "greatest happiness principle" or not; and that, by the +admission of the Westminster Reviewer, if his happiness is +inconsistent with the greatest happiness of society, there is no +reason why he should promote the greatest happiness of society. +Now, that there are individuals who think that for their +happiness which is not for the greatest happiness of society is +evident. The Westminster Reviewer allowed that some of these +individuals were in the right; and did not pretend to give any +reason which could induce any one of them to think himself in the +wrong. So that the "magnificent principle" turned out to be, +either a truism or a contradiction in terms; either this maxim-- +"Do what you do;" or this maxim, "Do what you cannot do." + +The Westminster Reviewer had the wit to see that he could not +defend this palpable nonsense; but, instead of manfully owning +that he had misunderstood the whole nature of the "greatest +happiness principle" in the summer, and had obtained new light +during the autumn, he attempts to withdraw the former principle +unobserved, and to substitute another, directly opposed to it, in +its place; clamouring all the time against our unfairness, like +one who, while changing the cards, diverts the attention of the +table from his sleight of hand by vociferating charges of foul +play against other people. + +The "greatest happiness principle" for the present quarter is +then this,--that every individual will best promote his own +happiness in this world, religious considerations being left out +of the question, by promoting the greatest happiness of the whole +species. And this principle, we are told, holds good with +respect to kings and aristocracies as well as with other people. + +"It is certain that the individual operators in any government, +if they were thoroughly intelligent and entered into a perfect +calculation of all existing chances, would seek for their own +happiness in the promotion of the general; which brings them, if +they knew it, under Mr Bentham's rule. The mistake of supposing +the contrary, lies in confounding criminals who have had the luck +to escape punishment with those who have the risk still before +them. Suppose, for instance, a member of the House of Commons +were at this moment to debate within himself, whether it would be +for his ultimate happiness to begin, according to his ability, to +misgovern. If he could be sure of being as lucky as some that +are dead and gone, there might be difficulty in finding him an +answer. But he is NOT sure; and never can be, till he is dead. +He does not know that he is not close upon the moment when +misgovernment such as he is tempted to contemplate, will be made +a terrible example of. It is not fair to pick out the instance +of the thief that has died unhanged. The question is, whether +thieving is at this moment an advisable trade to begin with all +the possibilities of hanging not got over? This is the spirit of +Mr Bentham's principle; and if there is anything opposed to it in +any former statement, it may be corrected by the present." + +We hope that we have now at last got to the real "magnificent +principle,"--to the principle which is really to make "the bones +of the sages and patriots stir." What effect it may produce on +the bones of the dead we shall not pretend to decide; but we are +sure that it will do very little for the happiness of the living. + +In the first place, nothing is more certain than this, that the +Utilitarian theory of government, as developed in Mr Mill's Essay +and in all the other works on the subject which have been put +forth by the sect, rests on those two principles,--that men +follow their interest, and that the interest of individuals may +be, and in fact perpetually is, opposed to the interest of +society. Unless these two principles be granted, Mr Mill's Essay +does not contain one sound sentence. All his arguments against +monarchy and aristocracy, all his arguments in favour of +democracy, nay, the very argument by which he shows that there is +any necessity for having government at all, must be rejected as +utterly worthless. + +This is so palpable that even the Westminster Reviewer, though +not the most clear-sighted of men, could not help seeing it. +Accordingly, he attempts to guard himself against the objection, +after the manner of such reasoners, by committing two blunders +instead of one. "All this," says he, "only shows that the +members of a government would do well if they were all-wise," and +he proceeds to tell us that, as rulers are not all-wise, they +will invariably act against this principle wherever they can, so +that the democratical checks will still be necessary to produce +good government. + +No form which human folly takes is so richly and exquisitely +laughable as the spectacle of an Utilitarian in a dilemma. What +earthly good can there be in a principle upon which no man will +act until he is all-wise? A certain most important doctrine, we +are told, has been demonstrated so clearly that it ought to be +the foundation of the science of government. And yet the whole +frame of government is to be constituted exactly as if this +fundamental doctrine were false, and on the supposition that no +human being will ever act as if he believed it to be true! + +The whole argument of the Utilitarians in favour of universal +suffrage proceeds on the supposition that even the rudest and +most uneducated men cannot, for any length of time, be deluded +into acting against their own true interest. Yet now they tell +us that, in all aristocratical communities, the higher and more +educated class will, not occasionally, but invariably, act +against its own interest. Now, the only use of proving anything, +as far as we can see, is that people may believe it. To say that +a man does what he believes to be against his happiness is a +contradiction in terms. If, therefore, government and laws are +to be constituted on the supposition on which Mr Mill's Essay is +founded, that all individuals will, whenever they have power over +others put into their hands, act in opposition to the general +happiness, then government and laws must be constituted on the +supposition that no individual believes, or ever will believe, +his own happiness to be identical with the happiness of society. +That is to say, government and laws are to be constituted on the +supposition that no human being will ever be satisfied by Mr +Bentham's proof of his "greatest happiness principle,"--a +supposition which may be true enough, but which says little, we +think, for the principle in question. + +But where has this principle been demonstrated? We are curious, +we confess, to see this demonstration which is to change the face +of the world and yet is to convince nobody. The most amusing +circumstance is that the Westminster Reviewer himself does not +seem to know whether the principle has been demonstrated or not. +"Mr Bentham," he says, "has demonstrated it, or at all events has +laid such foundations that there is no trouble in demonstrating +it." Surely it is rather strange that such a matter should be +left in doubt. The Reviewer proposed, in his former article, a +slight verbal emendation in the statement of the principle; he +then announced that the principle had received its last +improvement; and gloried in the circumstance that the Westminster +Review had been selected as the organ of that improvement. Did +it never occur to him that one slight improvement to a doctrine +is to prove it? + +Mr Bentham has not demonstrated the "greatest happiness +principle," as now stated. He is far too wise a man to think of +demonstrating any such thing. In those sections of his +"Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation", to +which the Reviewer refers us in his note, there is not a word of +the kind. Mr Bentham says, most truly, that there are no +occasions in which a man has not SOME motives for consulting the +happiness of other men; and he proceeds to set forth what those +motives are--sympathy on all occasions, and the love of +reputation on most occasions. This is the very doctrine which we +have been maintaining against Mr Mill and the Westminster +Reviewer. The principal charge which we brought against Mr Mill +was, that those motives to which Mr Bentham ascribes so much +influence were quite left out of consideration in his theory. +The Westminster Reviewer, in the very article now before us, +abuses us for saying, in the spirit, and almost in the words of +Mr Bentham, that "there is a certain check to the rapacity and +cruelty of men in their desire of the good opinion of others." +But does this principle, in which we fully agree with Mr Bentham, +go the length of the new "greatest happiness principle?" The +question is, not whether men have SOME motives for promoting the +greatest happiness, but whether the STRONGER motives be those +which impel them to promote the greatest happiness. That this +would always be the case if men knew their own worldly interests +is the assertion of the Reviewer. As he expresses some doubt +whether Mr Bentham has demonstrated this or not, we would advise +him to set the point at rest by giving his own demonstration. + +The Reviewer has not attempted to give a general confirmation of +the "greatest happiness principle;" but he has tried to prove +that it holds good in one or two particular cases. And even in +those particular cases he has utterly failed. A man, says he, +who calculated the chances fairly would perceive that it would be +for his greatest happiness to abstain from stealing; for a thief +runs a greater risk of being hanged than an honest man. + +It would have been wise, we think, in the Westminster Reviewer, +before he entered on a discussion of this sort, to settle in what +human happiness consists. Each of the ancient sects of +philosophy held some tenet on this subject which served for a +distinguishing badge. The summum bonum of the Utilitarians, as +far as we can judge from the passage which we are now +considering, is the not being hanged. + +That it is an unpleasant thing to be hanged, we most willingly +concede to our brother. But that the whole question of happiness +or misery resolves itself into this single point, we cannot so +easily admit. We must look at the thing purchased as well as the +price paid for it. A thief, assuredly, runs a greater risk of +being hanged than a labourer; and so an officer in the army runs +a greater risk of being shot than a banker's clerk; and a +governor of India runs a greater risk of dying of cholera than a +lord of the bedchamber. But does it therefore follow that every +man, whatever his habits or feelings may be, would, if he knew +his own happiness, become a clerk rather than a cornet, or +goldstick in waiting rather than governor of India? + +Nothing can be more absurd than to suppose, like the Westminster +Reviewer, that thieves steal only because they do not calculate +the chances of being hanged as correctly as honest men. It never +seems to have occurred to him as possible that a man may so +greatly prefer the life of a thief to the life of a labourer that +he may determine to brave the risk of detection and punishment, +though he may even think that risk greater than it really is. +And how, on Utilitarian principles, is such a man to be convinced +that he is in the wrong? "You will be found out."-- +"Undoubtedly."--"You will be hanged within two years."--"I expect +to be hanged within one year."--"Then why do you pursue this +lawless mode of life?"--"Because I would rather live for one year +with plenty of money, dressed like a gentleman, eating and +drinking of the best, frequenting public places, and visiting a +dashing mistress, than break stones on the road, or sit down to +the loom, with the certainty of attaining a good old age. It is +my humour. Are you answered?" + +A king, says the Reviewer again, would govern well, if he were +wise, for fear of provoking his subjects to insurrection. +Therefore the true happiness of a king is identical with the +greatest happiness of society. Tell Charles II. that, if he will +be constant to his queen, sober at table, regular at prayers, +frugal in his expenses, active in the transaction of business, if +he will drive the herd of slaves, buffoons, and procurers from +Whitehall, and make the happiness of his people the rule of his +conduct, he will have a much greater chance of reigning in +comfort to an advanced age; that his profusion and tyranny have +exasperated his subjects, and may, perhaps, bring him to an end +as terrible as his father's. He might answer, that he saw the +danger, but that life was not worth having without ease and +vicious pleasures. And what has our philosopher to say? Does he +not see that it is no more possible to reason a man out of liking +a short life and a merry one more than a long life and a dull one +than to reason a Greenlander out of his train oil? We may say +that the tastes of the thief and the tyrant differ from ours; but +what right have we to say, looking at this world alone, that they +do not pursue their greatest happiness very judiciously? + +It is the grossest ignorance of human nature to suppose that +another man calculates the chances differently from us, merely +because he does what, in his place, we should not do. Every man +has tastes and propensities, which he is disposed to gratify at a +risk and expense which people of different temperaments and +habits think extravagant. "Why," says Horace, "does one brother +like to lounge in the forum, to play in the Campus, and to anoint +himself in the baths, so well, that he would not put himself out +of his way for all the wealth of the richest plantations of the +East; while the other toils from sunrise to sunset for the +purpose of increasing his fortune?" Horace attributes the +diversity to the influence of the Genius and the natal star: and +eighteen hundred years have taught us only to disguise our +ignorance beneath a more philosophical language. + +We think, therefore, that the Westminster Reviewer, even if we +admit his calculation of the chances to be right, does not make +out his case. But he appears to us to miscalculate chances more +grossly than any person who ever acted or speculated in this +world. "It is for the happiness," says he, "of a member of the +House of Commons to govern well; for he never can tell that he is +not close on the moment when misgovernment will be terribly +punished: if he was sure that he should be as lucky as his +predecessors, it might be for his happiness to misgovern; but he +is not sure." Certainly a member of Parliament is not sure that +he shall not be torn in pieces by a mob, or guillotined by a +revolutionary tribunal for his opposition to reform. Nor is the +Westminster Reviewer sure that he shall not be hanged for writing +in favour of universal suffrage. We may have democratical +massacres. We may also have aristocratical proscriptions. It is +not very likely, thank God, that we should see either. But the +radical, we think, runs as much danger as the aristocrat. As to +our friend the Westminster Reviewer, he, it must be owned, has as +good a right as any man on his side, "Antoni gladios contemnere." +But take the man whose votes, ever since he has sate in +Parliament, have been the most uniformly bad, and oppose him to +the man whose votes have been the most uniformly good. The +Westminster Reviewer would probably select Mr Sadler and Mr Hume. +Now, does any rational man think,--will the Westminster Reviewer +himself say,--that Mr Sadler runs more risk of coming to a +miserable end on account of his public conduct than Mr Hume? Mr +Sadler does not know that he is not close on the moment when he +will be made an example of; for Mr Sadler knows, if possible, +less about the future than about the past. But he has no more +reason to expect that he shall be made an example of than to +expect that London will be swallowed up by an earthquake next +spring; and it would be as foolish in him to act on the former +supposition as on the latter. There is a risk; for there is a +risk of everything which does not involve a contradiction; but it +is a risk from which no man in his wits would give a shilling to +be insured. Yet our Westminster Reviewer tells us that this risk +alone, apart from all considerations of religion, honour or +benevolence, would, as a matter of mere calculation, induce a +wise member of the House of Commons to refuse any emoluments +which might be offered him as the price of his support to +pernicious measures. + +We have hitherto been examining cases proposed by our opponent. +It is now our turn to propose one; and we beg that he will spare +no wisdom in solving it. + +A thief is condemned to be hanged. On the eve of the day fixed +for the execution a turnkey enters his cell and tells him that +all is safe, that he has only to slip out, that his friends are +waiting in the neighbourhood with disguises, and that a passage +is taken for him in an American packet. Now, it is clearly for +the greatest happiness of society that the thief should be hanged +and the corrupt turnkey exposed and punished. Will the +Westminster Reviewer tell us that it is for the greatest +happiness of the thief to summon the head jailer and tell the +whole story? Now, either it is for the greatest happiness of a +thief to be hanged or it is not. If it is, then the argument, by +which the Westminster Reviewer attempts to prove that men do not +promote their own happiness by thieving, falls to the ground. If +it is not, then there are men whose greatest happiness is at +variance with the greatest happiness of the community. + +To sum up our arguments shortly, we say that the "greatest +happiness principle," as now stated, is diametrically opposed to +the principle stated in the Westminster Review three months ago. + +We say that, if the "greatest happiness principle," as now +stated, be sound, Mr Mill's Essay, and all other works concerning +Government which, like that Essay, proceed on the supposition +that individuals may have an interest opposed to the greatest +happiness of society, are fundamentally erroneous. + +We say that those who hold this principle to be sound must be +prepared to maintain, either that monarchs and aristocracies may +be trusted to govern the community, or else that men cannot be +trusted to follow their own interest when that interest is +demonstrated to them. + +We say that, if men cannot be trusted to follow their own +interest when that interest has been demonstrated to them, then +the Utilitarian arguments in favour of universal suffrage are +good for nothing. + +We say that the "greatest happiness principle" has not been +proved; that it cannot be generally proved; that even in the +particular cases selected by the Reviewer it is not clear that +the principle is true; and that many cases might be stated in +which the common sense of mankind would at once pronounce it to +be false. + +We now leave the Westminster Reviewer to alter and amend his +"magnificent principle" as he thinks best. Unlimited, it is +false. Properly limited, it will be barren. The "greatest +happiness principle" of the 1st of July, as far as we could +discern its meaning through a cloud of rodomontade, was an idle +truism. The "greatest happiness principle" of the 1st of October +is, in the phrase of the American newspapers, "important if +true." But unhappily it is not true. It is not our business to +conjecture what new maxim is to make the bones of sages and +patriots stir on the 1st of December. We can only say that, +unless it be something infinitely more ingenious than its two +predecessors, we shall leave it unmolested. The Westminster +Reviewer may, if he pleases, indulge himself like Sultan +Schahriar with espousing a rapid succession of virgin theories. +But we must beg to be excused from playing the part of the vizier +who regularly attended on the day after the wedding to strangle +the new Sultana. + +The Westminster Reviewer charges us with urging it as an +objection to the "greatest happiness principle" that "it is +included in the Christian morality." This is a mere fiction of +his own. We never attacked the morality of the Gospel. We +blamed the Utilitarians for claiming the credit of a discovery, +when they had merely stolen that morality, and spoiled it in the +stealing. They have taken the precept of Christ and left the +motive; and they demand the praise of a most wonderful and +beneficial invention, when all that they have done has been to +make a most useful maxim useless by separating it from its +sanction. On religious principles it is true that every +individual will best promote his own happiness by promoting the +happiness of others. But if religious considerations be left out +of the question it is not true. If we do not reason on the +supposition of a future state, where is the motive? If we do +reason on that supposition, where is the discovery? + +The Westminster Reviewer tells us that "we wish to see the +science of Government unsettled because we see no prospect of a +settlement which accords with our interests." His angry +eagerness to have questions settled resembles that of a judge in +one of Dryden's plays--the Amphitryon, we think--who wishes to +decide a cause after hearing only one party, and, when he has +been at last compelled to listen to the statement of the +defendant, flies into a passion, and exclaims, "There now, sir! +See what you have done. The case was quite clear a minute ago; +and you must come and puzzle it!" He is the zealot of a sect. +We are searchers after truth. He wishes to have the question +settled. We wish to have it sifted first. The querulous manner +in which we have been blamed for attacking Mr Mill's system, and +propounding no system of our own, reminds us of the horror with +which that shallow dogmatist, Epicurus, the worst parts of whose +nonsense the Utilitarians have attempted to revive, shrank from +the keen and searching scepticism of the second Academy. + +It is not our fault that an experimental science of vast extent +does not admit of being settled by a short demonstration; that +the subtilty of nature, in the moral as in the physical world, +triumphs over the subtilty of syllogism. The quack, who declares +on affidavit that, by using his pills and attending to his +printed directions, hundreds who had been dismissed incurable +from the hospitals have renewed their youth like the eagles, may, +perhaps, think that Sir Henry Halford, when he feels the pulses +of patients, inquires about their symptoms, and prescribes a +different remedy to each, is unsettling the science of medicine +for the sake of a fee. + +If, in the course of this controversy, we have refrained from +expressing any opinion respecting the political institutions of +England, it is not because we have not an opinion, or because we +shrink from avowing it. The Utilitarians, indeed, conscious that +their boasted theory of government would not bear investigation, +were desirous to turn the dispute about Mr Mill's Essay into a +dispute about the Whig party, rotten boroughs, unpaid +magistrates, and ex-officio informations. When we blamed them +for talking nonsense, they cried out that they were insulted for +being reformers,--just as poor Ancient Pistol swore that the +scars which he had received from the cudgel of Fluellen were got +in the Gallia wars. We, however, did not think it desirable to +mix up political questions, about which the public mind is +violently agitated, with a great problem in moral philosophy. + +Our notions about Government are not, however, altogether +unsettled. We have an opinion about parliamentary reform, though +we have not arrived at that opinion by the royal road which Mr +Mill has opened for the explorers of political science. As we +are taking leave, probably for the last time, of this +controversy, we will state very concisely what our doctrines are. +On some future occasion we may, perhaps, explain and defend them +at length. + +Our fervent wish, and we will add our sanguine hope, is that we +may see such a reform of the House of Commons as may render its +votes the express image of the opinion of the middle orders of +Britain. A pecuniary qualification we think absolutely +necessary; and in settling its amount, our object would be to +draw the line in such a manner that every decent farmer and +shopkeeper might possess the elective franchise. We should wish +to see an end put to all the advantages which particular forms of +property possess over other forms, and particular portions of +property over other equal portions. And this would content us. +Such a reform would, according to Mr Mill, establish an +aristocracy of wealth, and leave the community without protection +and exposed to all the evils of unbridled power. Most willingly +would we stake the whole controversy between us on the success of +the experiment which we propose. + +... + + +SADLER'S LAW OF POPULATION. + +(July 1830.) + +"The Law of Population; a Treatise in Six Books, in Disproof of +the Superfecundity of Human Beings, and developing the real +Principle of their Increase". By Michael Thomas Sadler, M.P. +2 volumes 8vo. London: 1830. + +we did not expect a good book from Mr Sadler: and it is well +that we did not; for he has given us a very bad one. The matter +of his treatise is extraordinary; the manner more extraordinary +still. His arrangement is confused, his repetitions endless, his +style everything which it ought not to be. Instead of saying +what he has to say with the perspicuity, the precision, and the +simplicity in which consists the eloquence proper to scientific +writing, he indulges without measure in vague, bombastic +declamation, made up of those fine things which boys of fifteen +admire, and which everybody, who is not destined to be a boy all +his life, weeds vigorously out of his compositions after five- +and-twenty. That portion of his two thick volumes which is not +made up of statistical tables, consists principally of +ejaculations, apostrophes, metaphors, similes,--all the worst of +their respective kinds. His thoughts are dressed up in this +shabby finery with so much profusion and so little +discrimination, that they remind us of a company of wretched +strolling players, who have huddled on suits of ragged and faded +tinsel, taken from a common wardrobe, and fitting neither their +persons nor their parts; and who then exhibit themselves to the +laughing and pitying spectators, in a state of strutting, +ranting, painted, gilded beggary. "Oh, rare Daniels!" +"Political economist, go and do thou likewise!" "Hear, ye +political economists and anti-populationists!" "Population, if +not proscribed and worried down by the Cerberean dogs of this +wretched and cruel system, really does press against the level of +the means of subsistence, and still elevating that level, it +continues thus to urge society through advancing stages, till at +length the strong and resistless hand of necessity presses the +secret spring of human prosperity, and the portals of Providence +fly open, and disclose to the enraptured gaze the promised land +of contented and rewarded labour." These are specimens, taken at +random, of Mr Sadler's eloquence. We could easily multiply them; +but our readers, we fear, are already inclined to cry for mercy. + +Much blank verse and much rhyme is also scattered through these +volumes, sometimes rightly quoted, sometimes wrongly,--sometimes +good, sometimes insufferable,--sometimes taken from Shakspeare, +and sometimes, for aught we know, Mr Sadler's own. "Let man," +cries the philosopher, "take heed how he rashly violates his +trust;" and thereupon he breaks forth into singing as follows: + +"What myriads wait in destiny's dark womb, +Doubtful of life or an eternal tomb! +'Tis his to blot them from the book of fate, +Or, like a second Deity, create; +To dry the stream of being in its source, +Or bid it, widening, win its restless course; +While, earth and heaven replenishing, the flood +Rolls to its Ocean fount, and rests in God." + +If these lines are not Mr Sadler's, we heartily beg his pardon +for our suspicion--a suspicion which, we acknowledge, ought not +to be lightly entertained of any human being. We can only say +that we never met with them before, and that we do not much care +how long it may be before we meet with them, or with any others +like them, again. + +The spirit of this work is as bad as its style. We never met +with a book which so strongly indicated that the writer was in a +good humour with himself, and in a bad humour with everybody +else; which contained so much of that kind of reproach which is +vulgarly said to be no slander, and of that kind of praise which +is vulgarly said to be no commendation. Mr Malthus is attacked +in language which it would be scarcely decent to employ +respecting Titus Oates. "Atrocious," "execrable," "blasphemous," +and other epithets of the same kind, are poured forth against +that able, excellent, and honourable man, with a profusion which +in the early part of the work excites indignation, but after the +first hundred pages, produces mere weariness and nausea. In the +preface, Mr Sadler excuses himself on the plea of haste. Two- +thirds of his book, he tells us, were written in a few months. +If any terms have escaped him which can be construed into +personal disrespect, he shall deeply regret that he had not more +time to revise them. We must inform him that the tone of his +book required a very different apology; and that a quarter of a +year, though it is a short time for a man to be engaged in +writing a book, is a very long time for a man to be in a passion. + +The imputation of being in a passion Mr Sadler will not disclaim. +His is a theme, he tells us, on which "it were impious to be +calm;" and he boasts that, "instead of conforming to the candour +of the present age, he has imitated the honesty of preceding +ones, in expressing himself with the utmost plainness and freedom +throughout." If Mr Sadler really wishes that the controversy +about his new principle of population should be carried on with +all the license of the seventeenth century, we can have no +personal objections. We are quite as little afraid of a contest +in which quarter shall be neither given nor taken as he can be. +But we would advise him seriously to consider, before he +publishes the promised continuation of his work, whether he be +not one of that class of writers who stand peculiarly in need of +the candour which he insults, and who would have most to fear +from that unsparing severity which he practises and recommends. + +There is only one excuse for the extreme acrimony with which this +book is written; and that excuse is but a bad one. Mr Sadler +imagines that the theory of Mr Malthus is inconsistent with +Christianity, and even with the purer forms of Deism. Now, even +had this been the case, a greater degree of mildness and self- +command than Mr Sadler has shown would have been becoming in a +writer who had undertaken to defend the religion of charity. +But, in fact, the imputation which has been thrown on Mr Malthus +and his followers is so absurd as scarcely to deserve an answer. +As it appears, however, in almost every page of Mr Sadler's book, +we will say a few words respecting it. + +Mr Sadler describes Mr Malthus's principle in the following +words:-- + +"It pronounces that there exists an evil in the principle of +population; an evil, not accidental, but inherent; not of +occasional occurrence, but in perpetual operation; not light, +transient, or mitigated, but productive of miseries, compared +with which all those inflicted by human institutions, that is to +say, by the weakness and wickedness of man, however instigated, +are 'light;' an evil, finally, for which there is no remedy save +one, which had been long overlooked, and which is now enunciated +in terms which evince anything rather than confidence. It is a +principle, moreover, pre-eminently bold, as well as 'clear.' +With a presumption, to call it by no fitter name, of which it may +be doubted whether literature, heathen or Christian, furnishes a +parallel, it professes to trace this supposed evil to its source, +'the laws of nature, which are those of God;' thereby implying, +and indeed asserting, that the law by which the Deity multiplies +his offspring, and that by which he makes provision for their +sustentation, are different, and, indeed, irreconcilable." + +"This theory," he adds, "in the plain apprehension of the many, +lowers the character of the Deity in that attribute, which, as +Rousseau has well observed, is the most essential to him, his +goodness; or otherwise, impugns his wisdom." + +Now nothing is more certain than that there is physical and moral +evil in the world. Whoever, therefore, believes, as we do most +firmly believe, in the goodness of God, must believe that there +is no incompatibility between the goodness of God and the +existence of physical and moral evil. If, then, the goodness of +God be not incompatible with the existence of physical and moral +evil, on what grounds does Mr Sadler maintain that the goodness +of God is incompatible with the law of population laid down by Mr +Malthus? + +Is there any difference between the particular form of evil which +would be produced by over-population, and other forms of evil +which we know to exist in the world? It is, says Mr Sadler, not +a light or transient evil, but a great and permanent evil. What +then? The question of the origin of evil is a question of ay or +no,--not a question of more or less. If any explanation can be +found by which the slightest inconvenience ever sustained by any +sentient being can be reconciled with the divine attribute of +benevolence, that explanation will equally apply to the most +dreadful and extensive calamities that can ever afflict the human +race. The difficulty arises from an apparent contradiction in +terms; and that difficulty is as complete in the case of a +headache which lasts for an hour as in the case of a pestilence +which unpeoples an empire,--in the case of the gust which makes +us shiver for a moment as in the case of the hurricane in which +an Armada is cast away. + +It is, according to Mr Sadler, an instance of presumption +unparalleled in literature, heathen or Christian, to trace an +evil to "the laws of nature, which are those of God," as its +source. Is not hydrophobia an evil? And is it not a law of +nature that hydrophobia should be communicated by the bite of a +mad dog? Is not malaria an evil? And is it not a law of nature +that in particular situations the human frame should be liable to +malaria? We know that there is evil in the world. If it is not +to be traced to the laws of nature, how did it come into the +world? Is it supernatural? And, if we suppose it to be +supernatural, is not the difficulty of reconciling it with the +divine attributes as great as if we suppose it to be natural? +Or, rather, what do the words natural and supernatural mean when +applied to the operations of the Supreme Mind? + +Mr Sadler has attempted, in another part of his work, to meet +these obvious arguments, by a distinction without a difference. + +"The scourges of human existence, as necessary regulators of the +numbers of mankind, it is also agreed by some, are not +inconsistent with the wisdom or benevolence of the Governor of +the universe; though such think that it is a mere after-concern +to 'reconcile the undeniable state of the fact to the attributes +we assign to the Deity.' 'The purpose of the earthquake,' say +they, 'the hurricane, the drought, or the famine, by which +thousands, and sometimes almost millions, of the human race, are +at once overwhelmed, or left the victims of lingering want, is +certainly inscrutable.' How singular is it that a sophism like +this, so false, as a mere illustration, should pass for an +argument, as it has long done! The principle of population is +declared to be naturally productive of evils to mankind, and as +having that constant and manifest tendency to increase their +numbers beyond the means of their subsistence, which has produced +the unhappy and disgusting consequences so often enumerated. +This is, then, its universal tendency or rule. But is there in +Nature the same constant tendency to these earthquakes, +hurricanes, droughts, and famines by which so many myriads, if +not millions, are overwhelmed or reduced at once to ruin? No; +these awful events are strange exceptions to the ordinary course +of things; their visitations are partial, and they occur at +distant intervals of time. While Religion has assigned to them a +very solemn office, Philosophy readily refers them to those great +and benevolent principles of Nature by which the universe is +regulated. But were there a constantly operating tendency to +these calamitous occurrences; did we feel the earth beneath us +tremulous, and giving ceaseless and certain tokens of the coming +catastrophe of Nature; were the hurricane heard mustering its +devastating powers, and perpetually muttering around us; were the +skies 'like brass,' without a cloud to produce one genial drop to +refresh the thirsty earth, and famine, consequently, visibly on +the approach; I say, would such a state of things, as resulting +from the constant laws of Nature, be 'reconcilable with the +attributes we assign to the Deity,' or with any attributes which +in these inventive days could be assigned to him, so as to +represent him as anything but the tormenter, rather than the kind +benefactor, of his creatures? Life, in such a condition, would +be like the unceasingly threatened and miserable existence of +Damocles at the table of Dionysius, and the tyrant himself the +worthy image of the Deity of the anti-populationists." + +Surely this is wretched trifling. Is it on the number of bad +harvests, or of volcanic eruptions, that this great question +depends? Mr Sadler's piety, it seems, would be proof against one +rainy summer, but would be overcome by three or four in +succession. On the coasts of the Mediterranean, where +earthquakes are rare, he would be an optimist. South America +would make him a sceptic, and Java a decided Manichean. To say +that religion assigns a solemn office to these visitations is +nothing to the purpose. Why was man so constituted as to need +such warnings? It is equally unmeaning to say that philosophy +refers these events to benevolent general laws of nature. In so +far as the laws of nature produce evil, they are clearly not +benevolent. They may produce much good. But why is this good +mixed with evil? The most subtle and powerful intellects have +been labouring for centuries to solve these difficulties. The +true solution, we are inclined to think, is that which has been +rather suggested, than developed, by Paley and Butler. But there +is not one solution which will not apply quite as well to the +evils of over-population as to any other evil. Many excellent +people think that it is presumptuous to meddle with such high +questions at all, and that, though there doubtless is an +explanation, our faculties are not sufficiently enlarged to +comprehend that explanation. This mode of getting rid of the +difficulty, again, will apply quite as well to the evils of over- +population as to any other evils. We are sure that those who +humbly confess their inability to expound the great enigma act +more rationally and more decorously than Mr Sadler, who tells us, +with the utmost confidence, which are the means and which the +ends,--which the exceptions and which the rules, in the +government of the universe;--who consents to bear a little evil +without denying the divine benevolence, but distinctly announces +that a certain quantity of dry weather or stormy weather would +force him to regard the Deity as the tyrant of his creatures. + +The great discovery by which Mr Sadler has, as he conceives, +vindicated the ways of Providence is enounced with all the pomp +of capital letters. We must particularly beg that our readers +will peruse it with attention. + +"No one fact relative to the human species is more clearly +ascertained, whether by general observation or actual proof, than +that their fecundity varies in different communities and +countries. The principle which effects this variation, without +the necessity of those cruel and unnatural expedients so +frequently adverted to, constitutes what I presume to call THE +LAW OF POPULATION; and that law may be thus briefly enunciated:-- + +"THE PROLIFICNESS OF HUMAN BEINGS, OTHERWISE SIMILARLY +CIRCUMSTANCED, VARIES INVERSELY AS THEIR NUMBERS. + +"The preceding definition may be thus amplified and explained. +Premising, as a mere truism, that marriages under precisely +similar circumstances will, on the average, be equally fruitful +everywhere, I proceed to state, first, that the prolificness of a +given number of marriages will, all other circumstances being the +same, vary in proportion to the condensation of the population, +so that that prolificness shall be greatest where the numbers on +an equal space are the fewest, and, on the contrary, the smallest +where those numbers are the largest." + +Mr Sadler, at setting out, abuses Mr Malthus for enouncing his +theory in terms taken from the exact sciences. "Applied to the +mensuration of human fecundity," he tells us, "the most +fallacious of all things is geometrical demonstration;" and he +again informs us that those "act an irrational and irrelevant +part who affect to measure the mighty depth of God's mercies by +their arithmetic, and to demonstrate, by their geometrical +ratios, that it is inadequate to receive and contain the efflux +of that fountain of life which is in Him." + +It appears, however, that it is not to the use of mathematical +words, but only to the use of those words in their right senses +that Mr Sadler objects. The law of inverse variation, or inverse +proportion, is as much a part of mathematical science as the law +of geometric progression. The only difference in this respect +between Mr Malthus and Mr Sadler is, that Mr Malthus knows what +is meant by geometric progression, and that Mr Sadler has not the +faintest notion of what is meant by inverse variation. Had he +understood the proposition which he has enounced with so much +pomp, its ludicrous absurdity must at once have flashed on his +mind. + +Let it be supposed that there is a tract in the back settlements +of America, or in New South Wales, equal in size to London, with +only a single couple, a man and his wife, living upon it. The +population of London, with its immediate suburbs, is now probably +about a million and a half. The average fecundity of a marriage +in London is, as Mr Sadler tells us 2.35. How many children will +the woman in the back settlements bear according to Mr Sadler's +theory? The solution of the problem is easy. As the population +in this tract in the back settlements is to the population of +London, so will be the number of children born from a marriage in +London to the number of children born from the marriage of this +couple in the back settlements. That is to say-- + +2 : 1,500,000 :: 2.35 : 1,762,500. + +The lady will have 1,762,500 children: a large "efflux of the +fountain of life," to borrow Mr Sadler's sonorous rhetoric, as +the most philoprogenitive parent could possibly desire. + +But let us, instead of putting cases of our own, look at some of +those which Mr Sadler has brought forward in support of his +theory. The following table, he tells us, exhibits a striking +proof of the truth of his main position. It seems to us to prove +only that Mr Sadler does not know what inverse proportion means. + +Countries Inhabitants on a Children to a + Square Mile, about Marriage + +Cape of Good Hope 1 5.48 +North America 4 5.22 +Russia in Europe 23 4.94 +Denmark 73 4.89 +Prussia 100 4.70 +France 140 4.22 +England 160 3.66 + +Is 1 to 160 as 3.66 to 5.48? If Mr Sadler's principle were just, +the number of children produced by a marriage at the Cape would +be, not 5.48, but very near 600. Or take America and France. Is +4 to 140 as 4.22 to 5.22? The number of births to a marriage in +North America ought, according to this proportion, to be about +150. + +Mr Sadler states the law of population in England thus:-- + +"Where the inhabitants are found to be on the square mile, + +From To Counties Number of births to 100 marriages + + 50 100 2 420 + 100 150 9 396 + 150 200 16 390 + 200 250 4 388 + 250 300 5 378 + 300 350 3 353 + 500 600 2 331 +4000 and upwards 1 246 + +"Now, I think it quite reasonable to conclude, that, were there +not another document in existence relative to this subject, the +facts thus deduced from the census of England are fully +sufficient to demonstrate the position, that the fecundity of +human beings varies inversely as their numbers. How, I ask, can +it be evaded?" + +What, we ask, is there to evade? Is 246 to 420 as 50 to 4000? +Is 331 to 396 as 100 to 500? If the law propounded by Mr Sadler +were correct, the births to a hundred marriages in the least +populous part of England, would be 246 x 4000 / 50, that is +19,680,--nearly two hundred children to every mother. But we +will not carry on these calculations. The absurdity of Mr +Sadler's proposition is so palpable that it is unnecessary to +select particular instances. Let us see what are the extremes of +population and fecundity in well-known countries. The space +which Mr Sadler generally takes is a square mile. The population +at the Cape of Good Hope is, according to him, one to the square +mile. That of London is two hundred thousand to the square mile. +The number of children at the Cape, Mr Sadler informs us, is 5.48 +to a marriage. In London, he states it at 2.35 to a marriage. +Now how can that of which all the variations lie between 2.35 and +5.48 vary, either directly or inversely, as that which admits of +all the variations between one and two hundred thousand? Mr +Sadler evidently does not know the meaning of the word +proportion. A million is a larger quantity than ten. A hundred +is a larger quantity than five. Mr Sadler thinks, therefore, +that there is no impropriety in saying that a hundred is to five +as a million is to ten, or in the inverse ratio of ten to a +million. He proposes to prove that the fecundity of marriages +varies in inverse proportion to the density of the population. +But all that he attempts to prove is that, while the population +increases from one to a hundred and sixty on the square mile, the +fecundity will diminish from 5.48 to 3.66; and that again, while +the population increases from one hundred and sixty to two +hundred thousand on the square mile, the fecundity will diminish +from 3.66 to 2.35. + +The proposition which Mr Sadler enounces, without understanding +the words which he uses, would indeed, if it could be proved, set +us at ease as to the dangers of over-population. But it is, as +we have shown, a proposition so grossly absurd that it is +difficult for any man to keep his countenance while he repeats +it. The utmost that Mr Sadler has ever attempted to prove is +this,--that the fecundity of the human race diminishes as +population becomes more condensed,--but that the diminution of +fecundity bears a very small ratio to the increase of +population,--so that, while the population on a square mile is +multiplied two hundred-thousand-fold, the fecundity decreases by +little more than one half. + +Does this principle vindicate the honour of God? Does it hold +out any new hope or comfort to man? Not at all. We pledge +ourselves to show, with the utmost strictness of reasoning, from +Mr Sadler's own principles, and from facts of the most notorious +description, that every consequence which follows from the law of +geometrical progression, laid down by Mr Malthus, will follow +from the law, miscalled a law of inverse variation, which has +been laid down by Mr Sadler. + +London is the most thickly peopled spot of its size in the known +world. Therefore the fecundity of the population of London must, +according to Mr Sadler, be less than the fecundity of human +beings living on any other spot of equal size. Mr Sadler tells +us, that "the ratios of mortality are influenced by the different +degrees in which the population is condensated; and that, other +circumstances being similar, the relative number of deaths in a +thinly-populated, or country district, is less than that which +takes place in towns, and in towns of a moderate size less again +than that which exists in large and populous cities." Therefore +the mortality in London must, according to him, be greater than +in other places. But, though, according to Mr Sadler, the +fecundity is less in London than elsewhere, and though the +mortality is greater there than elsewhere, we find that even in +London the number of births greatly exceeds the number of deaths. +During the ten years which ended with 1820, there were fifty +thousand more baptisms than burials within the bills of +mortality. It follows, therefore, that, even within London +itself, an increase of the population is taking place by internal +propagation. + +Now, if the population of a place in which the fecundity is less +and the mortality greater than in other places still goes on +increasing by propagation, it follows that in other places the +population will increase, and increase still faster. There is +clearly nothing in Mr Sadler's boasted law of fecundity which +will keep the population from multiplying till the whole earth is +as thick with human beings as St Giles's parish. If Mr Sadler +denies this, he must hold that, in places less thickly peopled +than London, marriages may be less fruitful than in London, which +is directly contrary to his own principles; or that in places +less thickly peopled than London, and similarly situated, people +will die faster than in London, which is again directly contrary +to his own principles. Now, if it follows, as it clearly does +follow, from Mr Sadler's own doctrines, that the human race might +be stowed together by three or four hundred to the acre, and +might still, as far as the principle of propagation is concerned, +go on increasing, what advantage, in a religious or moral point +of view, has his theory over that of Mr Malthus? The principle +of Mr Malthus, says Mr Sadler, leads to consequences of the most +frightful description. Be it so. But do not all these +consequences spring equally from his own principle? Revealed +religion condemns Mr Malthus. Be it so. But Mr Sadler must +share in the reproach of heresy. The theory of Mr Malthus +represents the Deity as a Dionysius hanging the sword over the +heads of his trembling slaves. Be it so. But under what +rhetorical figure are we to represent the Deity of Mr Sadler? + +A man who wishes to serve the cause of religion ought to hesitate +long before he stakes the truth of religion on the event of a +controversy respecting facts in the physical world. For a time +he may succeed in making a theory which he dislikes unpopular by +persuading the public that it contradicts the Scriptures and is +inconsistent with the attributes of the Deity. But, if at last +an overwhelming force of evidence proves this maligned theory to +be true, what is the effect of the arguments by which the +objector has attempted to prove that it is irreconcilable with +natural and revealed religion? Merely this, to make men +infidels. Like the Israelites, in their battle with the +Philistines, he has presumptuously and without warrant brought +down the ark of God into the camp as a means of ensuring +victory:--and the consequence of this profanation is that, when +the battle is lost, the ark is taken. + +In every age the Church has been cautioned against this fatal and +impious rashness by its most illustrious members,--by the fervid +Augustin, by the subtle Aquinas, by the all-accomplished Pascal. +The warning has been given in vain. That close alliance which, +under the disguise of the most deadly enmity, has always +subsisted between fanaticism and atheism is still unbroken. At +one time, the cry was,--"If you hold that the earth moves round +the sun, you deny the truth of the Bible." Popes, conclaves, and +religious orders, rose up against the Copernican heresy. But, as +Pascal said, they could not prevent the earth from moving, or +themselves from moving along with it. One thing, however, they +could do, and they did. They could teach numbers to consider the +Bible as a collection of old women's stories which the progress +of civilisation and knowledge was refuting one by one. They had +attempted to show that the Ptolemaic system was as much a part of +Christianity as the resurrection of the dead. Was it strange, +then, that when the Ptolemaic system became an object of ridicule +to every man of education in Catholic countries, the doctrine of +the resurrection should be in peril? In the present generation, +and in our own country, the prevailing system of geology has +been, with equal folly, attacked on the ground that it is +inconsistent with the Mosaic dates. And here we have Mr Sadler, +out of his especial zeal for religion, first proving that the +doctrine of superfecundity is irreconcilable with the goodness of +God, and then laying down principles, and stating facts, from +which the doctrine of superfecundity necessarily follows. This +blundering piety reminds us of the adventures of a certain +missionary who went to convert the inhabitants of Madagascar. +The good father had an audience of the king, and began to +instruct his majesty in the history of the human race as given in +the Scriptures. "Thus, sir," said he, "was woman made out of the +rib of man, and ever since that time a woman has had one rib more +than a man." "Surely, father, you must be mistaken there," said +the king. "Mistaken!" said the missionary. "It is an +indisputable fact. My faith upon it! My life upon it!" The +good man had heard the fact asserted by his nurse when he was a +child,--had always considered it as a strong confirmation of the +Scriptures, and fully believed it without having ever thought of +verifying it. The king ordered a man and woman, the leanest that +could be found, to be brought before him, and desired his +spiritual instructor to count their ribs. The father counted +over and over, upward and downward, and still found the same +number in both. He then cleared his throat, stammered, +stuttered, and began to assure the king that though he had +committed a little error in saying that a woman had more ribs +than a man, he was quite right in saying that the first woman was +made out of the rib of the first man. "How can I tell that?" +said the king. "You come to me with a strange story which you +say is revealed to you from heaven. I have already made you +confess that one half of it is a lie: and how can you have the +face to expect that I shall believe the other half?" + +We have shown that Mr Sadler's theory, if it be true, is as much +a theory of superfecundity as that of Mr Malthus. But it is not +true. And from Mr Sadler's own tables we will prove that it is +not true. + +The fecundity of the human race in England Mr Sadler rates as +follows:-- + +"Where the inhabitants are found to be on the square mile-- + +From To Counties Number of births per 100 marriages + + 50 100 2 420 + 100 150 9 396 + 150 200 16 390 + 200 250 4 388 + 250 300 5 378 + 300 350 3 353 + 500 600 2 331 +4000 and upwards 1 246 + +Having given this table, he begins, as usual, to boast and +triumph. "Were there not another document on the subject in +existence," says he, "the facts thus deduced from the census of +England are sufficient to demonstrate the position, that the +fecundity of human beings varies inversely as their numbers." In +no case would these facts demonstrate that the fecundity of human +beings varies inversely as their numbers in the right sense of +the words inverse variation. But certainly they would, "if there +were no other document in existence," appear to indicate +something like what Mr Sadler means by inverse variation. +Unhappily for him, however, there are other documents in +existence; and he has himself furnished us with them. We will +extract another of his tables:-- + +TABLE LXIV. + +Showing the Operation of the Law of Population in the different +Hundreds of the County of Lancaster. + +(In the following table the name of the Hundred is followed in +order by: +Population on each Square Mile. +Square Miles. +Population in 1821, exclusive of Towns of separate Jurisdiction. +Marriages from 1811 to 1821. +Baptisms from 1811 to 1821. +Baptisms to 100 Marriages.) + +Lonsdale : 96 : 441 : 42,486 : 3,651 : 16,129 : 442 +Almondness : 267 : 228 : 60,930 : 3,670 : 15,228 : 415 +Leyland : 354 : 126 : 44,583 : 2,858 : 11,182 : 391 +West Derby : 409 : 377 : 154,040 : 24,182 : 86,407 : 357 +Blackburn : 513 : 286 : 146,608 : 10,814 : 31,463 : 291 +Salford : 869 : 373 : 322,592 : 40,143 : 114,941 : 286 + +Mr Sadler rejoices much over this table. The results, he says, +have surprised himself; and, indeed, as we shall show, they might +well have done so. + +The result of his inquiries with respect to France he presents in +the following table: + +"In those departments where there are to each inhabitant-- + +Hectares Departments Legitimate births to + every 1000 marriages + +4 to 5 2 5130 +3 to 4 3 4372 +2 to 3 30 4250 +1 to 2 44 4234 + .06 to 1 5 4146 + .06 1 2557 + +Then comes the shout of exaltation as regularly as the Gloria +Patri at the end of a Psalm. "Is there any possibility of +gainsaying the conclusions these facts force upon us; namely that +the fecundity of marriages is regulated by the density of the +population, and inversely to it?" + +Certainly these tables, taken separately, look well for Mr +Sadler's theory. He must be a bungling gamester who cannot win +when he is suffered to pack the cards his own way. We must beg +leave to shuffle them a little; and we will venture to promise +our readers that some curious results will follow from the +operation. In nine counties of England, says Mr Sadler, in which +the population is from 100 to 150 on the square mile, the births +to 100 marriages are 396. He afterwards expresses some doubt as +to the accuracy of the documents from which this estimate has +been formed, and rates the number of births as high as 414. Let +him take his choice. We will allow him every advantage. + +In the table which we have quoted, numbered lxiv., he tells us +that in Almondness, where the population is 267 to the square +mile, there are 415 births to 100 marriages. The population of +Almondness is twice as thick as the population of the nine +counties referred to in the other table. Yet the number of +births to a marriage is greater in Almondness than in those +counties. + +Once more, he tells us that in three counties, in which the +population was from 300 to 350 on the square mile, the births to +100 marriages were 353. He afterwards rates them at 375. Again +we say, let him take his choice. But from his table of the +population of Lancashire it appears that, in the hundred of +Leyland, where the population is 354 to the square mile, the +number of births to 100 marriages is 391. Here again we have the +marriages becoming more fruitful as the population becomes +denser. + +Let us now shuffle the censuses of England and France together. +In two English counties which contain from 50 to 100 inhabitants +on the square mile, the births to 100 marriages are, according to +Mr Sadler, 420. But in forty-four departments of France, in +which there are from one to two hecatares to each inhabitant, +that is to say, in which the population is from 125 to 250 or +rather more, to the square mile, the number of births to 100 +marriages is 423 and a fraction. + +Again, in five departments of France in which there is less than +one hecatare to each inhabitant, that is to say, in which the +population is more than 250 to the square mile, the number of +births to 100 marriages is 414 and a fraction. But in the four +counties of England in which the population is from 200 to 250 on +the square mile, the number of births to 100 marriages is, +according to one of Mr Sadler's tables, only 388, and by his very +highest estimate no more than 402. + +Mr Sadler gives us a long table of all the towns of England and +Ireland, which, he tells us, irrefragably demonstrates his +principle. We assert, and will prove, that these tables are +alone sufficient to upset his whole theory. + +It is very true that, in the great towns the number of births to +a marriage appears to be smaller than in the less populous towns. +But we learn some other facts from these tables which we should +be glad to know how Mr Sadler will explain. We find that the +fecundity in towns of fewer than 3000 inhabitants is actually +much greater than the average fecundity of the kingdom, and that +the fecundity in towns of between 3000 and 4000 inhabitants is at +least as great as the average fecundity of the kingdom. The +average fecundity of a marriage in towns of fewer than 3000 +inhabitants is about four; in towns of between 3000 and 4000 +inhabitants it is 3.60. Now, the average fecundity of England, +when it contained only 160 inhabitants to a square mile, and +when, therefore, according to the new law of population, the +fecundity must have been greater than it now is, was only, +according to Mr Sadler, 3.66 to a marriage. To proceed,--the +fecundity of a marriage in the English towns of between 4000 and +5000 inhabitants is stated at 3.56. But, when we turn to Mr +Sadler's table of counties, we find the fecundity of a marriage +in Warwickshire and Staffordshire rated at only 3.48, and in +Lancashire and Surrey at only 3.41. + +These facts disprove Mr Sadler's principle; and the fact on which +he lays so much stress--that the fecundity is less in the great +towns than in the small towns--does not tend in any degree to +prove his principle. There is not the least reason to believe +that the population is more dense, ON A GIVEN SPACE, in London or +Manchester than in a town of 4000 inhabitants. But it is quite +certain that the population is more dense in a town of 4000 +inhabitants than in Warwickshire or Lancashire. That the +fecundity of Manchester is less than the fecundity of Sandwich or +Guildford is a circumstance which has nothing whatever to do with +Mr Sadler's theory. But that the fecundity of Sandwich is +greater than the average fecundity of Kent,--that the fecundity +of Guildford is greater than the average fecundity of Surrey,--as +from his own tables appears to be the case,--these are facts +utterly inconsistent with his theory. + +We need not here examine why it is that the human race is less +fruitful in great cities than in small towns or in the open +country. The fact has long been notorious. We are inclined to +attribute it to the same causes which tend to abridge human life +in great cities,--to general sickliness and want of tone, +produced by close air and sedentary employments. Thus far, and +thus far only, we agree with Mr Sadler, that, when population is +crowded together in such masses that the general health and +energy of the frame are impaired by the condensation, and by the +habits attending on the condensation, then the fecundity of the +race diminishes. But this is evidently a check of the same class +with war, pestilence, and famine. It is a check for the +operation of which Mr Malthus has allowed. + +That any condensation which does not affect the general health +will affect fecundity, is not only not proved--it is disproved-- +by Mr Sadler's own tables. + +Mr Sadler passes on to Prussia, and sums up his information +respecting that country as follows:-- + +(In the following table numbers appear in the order: +Inhabitants on a Square Mile, German. +Number of Provinces. +Births to 100 Marriages, 1754. +Births to 100 Marriages, 1784. +Births to 100 Marriages, Busching.) + +Under 1000 : 2 : 434 : 472 : 503 +1000 to 2000 : 4 : 414 : 455 : 454 +2000 to 3000 : 6 : 384 : 424 : 426 +3000 to 4000 : 2 : 365 : 408 : 394 + +After the table comes the boast as usual: + +"Thus is the law of population deduced from the registers of +Prussia also: and were the argument to pause here, it is +conclusive. The results obtained from the registers of this and +the preceding countries, exhibiting, as they do most clearly, the +principle of human increase, it is utterly impossible should have +been the work of chance; on the contrary, the regularity with +which the facts class themselves in conformity with that +principle, and the striking analogy which the whole of them bear +to each other, demonstrate equally the design of Nature, and the +certainty of its accomplishment." + +We are sorry to disturb Mr Sadler's complacency. But, in our +opinion, this table completely disproves his whole principle. If +we read the columns perpendicularly, indeed, they seem to be in +his favour. But how stands the case if we read horizontally? +Does Mr Sadler believe that, during the thirty years which +elapsed between 1754 and 1784, the population of Prussia had been +diminishing? No fact in history is better ascertained than that, +during the long peace which followed the seven years' war, it +increased with great rapidity. Indeed, if the fecundity were +what Mr Sadler states it to have been, it must have increased +with great rapidity. Yet, the ratio of births to marriages is +greater in 1784 than in 1754, and that in every province. It is, +therefore, perfectly clear that the fecundity does not diminish +whenever the density of the population increases. + +We will try another of Mr Sadler's tables: + +TABLE LXXXI. + +Showing the Estimated Prolificness of Marriages in England at the +close of the Seventeenth Century. + +(In the following table the name of the Place is followed in +order by: +Number of Inhabitants. +One Annual Marriage, to. +Number of Marriages. +Children to one Marriage. +Total Number of Births. + +London : 530,000 : 106 : 5,000 : 4. : 20,000 +Large Towns : 870,000 : 128 : 6,800 : 4.5 : 30,000 +Small Towns and +Country Places : 4,100,000 : 141 : 29,200 : 4.8 : 140,160 + ------------------------------------------- + : 5,500,000 : 134 : 41,000 : 4.65 : 190,760 + +Standing by itself, this table, like most of the others, seems to +support Mr Sadler's theory. But surely London, at the close of +the seventeenth century, was far more thickly peopled than the +kingdom of England now is. Yet the fecundity in London at the +close of the seventeenth century was 4; and the average fecundity +of the whole kingdom now is not more, according to Mr Sadler, +than 3 1/2. Then again, the large towns in 1700 were far more +thickly peopled than Westmoreland and the North Riding of +Yorkshire now are. Yet the fecundity in those large towns was +then 4.5. And Mr Sadler tells us that it is now only 4.2 in +Westmoreland and the North Riding. + +It is scarcely necessary to say anything about the censuses of +the Netherlands, as Mr Sadler himself confesses that there is +some difficulty in reconciling them with his theory, and helps +out his awkward explanation by supposing, quite gratuitously, as +it seems to us, that the official documents are inaccurate. The +argument which he has drawn from the United States will detain us +but for a very short time. He has not told us,--perhaps he had +not the means of telling us,--what proportion the number of +births in the different parts of that country bears to the number +of marriages. He shows that in the thinly peopled states the +number of children bears a greater proportion to the number of +grown-up people than in the old states; and this, he conceives, +is a sufficient proof that the condensation of the population is +unfavourable to fecundity. We deny the inference altogether. +Nothing can be more obvious than the explanation of the +phenomenon. The back settlements are for the most part peopled +by emigration from the old states; and emigrants are almost +always breeders. They are almost always vigorous people in the +prime of life. Mr Sadler himself, in another part of his book, +in which he tries very unsuccessfully to show that the rapid +multiplication of the people of America is principally owing to +emigration from Europe, states this fact in the plainest manner: + +"Nothing is more certain, than that emigration is almost +universally supplied by 'single persons in the beginning of +mature life;' nor, secondly, that such persons, as Dr Franklin +long ago asserted, 'marry and raise families.' + +"Nor is this all. It is not more true, that emigrants, generally +speaking, consist of individuals in the prime of life, than that +'they are the most active and vigorous' of that age, as Dr +Seybert describes them to be. They are, as it respects the +principle at issue, a select class, even compared with that of +their own age, generally considered. Their very object in +leaving their native countries is to settle in life, a phrase +that needs no explanation; and they do so. No equal number of +human beings, therefore, have ever given so large or rapid an +increase to a community as 'settlers' have invariably done." + +It is perfectly clear that children are more numerous in the back +settlements of America than in the maritime states, not because +unoccupied land makes people prolific, but because the most +prolific people go to the unoccupied land. + +Mr Sadler having, as he conceives, fully established his theory +of population by statistical evidence, proceeds to prove, "that +it is in unison, or rather required by the principles of +physiology." The difference between himself and his opponents he +states as follows:-- + +"In pursuing this part of my subject, I must begin by reminding +the reader of the difference between those who hold the +superfecundity of mankind and myself, in regard to those +principles which will form the basis of the present argument. +They contend, that production precedes population; I, on the +contrary, maintain that population precedes, and is indeed the +cause of, production. They teach that man breeds up to the +capital, or in proportion to the abundance of the food, he +possesses: I assert, that he is comparatively sterile when he is +wealthy, and that he breeds in proportion to his poverty; not +meaning, however, by that poverty, a state of privation +approaching to actual starvation, any more than, I suppose, they +would contend, that extreme and culpable excess is the grand +patron of population. In a word, they hold that a state of ease +and affluence is the great promoter of prolificness. I maintain +that a considerable degree of labour, and even privation, is a +more efficient cause of an increased degree of human fecundity." + +To prove this point, he quotes Aristotle, Hippocrates, Dr Short, +Dr Gregory, Dr Perceval, M. Villermi, Lord Bacon, and Rousseau. +We will not dispute about it; for it seems quite clear to us that +if he succeeds in establishing it he overturns his own theory. +If men breed in proportion to their poverty, as he tells us +here,--and at the same time breed in inverse proportion to their +numbers, as he told us before,--it necessarily follows that the +poverty of men must be in inverse proportion to their numbers. +Inverse proportion, indeed, as we have shown, is not the phrase +which expresses Mr Sadler's meaning. To speak more correctly, it +follows, from his own positions, that, if one population be +thinner than another, it will also be poorer. Is this the fact? +Mr Sadler tells us, in one of those tables which we have already +quoted, that in the United States the population is four to a +square mile, and the fecundity 5.22 to a marriage, and that in +Russia the population is twenty-three to a square mile, and the +fecundity 4.94 to a marriage. Is the North American labourer +poorer than the Russian boor? If not, what becomes of Mr +Sadler's argument? + +The most decisive proof of Mr Sadler's theory, according to him, +is that which he has kept for the last. It is derived from the +registers of the English Peerage. The peers, he says, and says +truly, are the class with respect to whom we possess the most +accurate statistical information. + +"Touching their NUMBER, this has been accurately known and +recorded ever since the order has existed in the country. For +several centuries past, the addition to it of a single individual +has been a matter of public interest and notoriety: this +hereditary honour conferring not personal dignity merely, but +important privileges, and being almost always identified with +great wealth and influence. The records relating to it are kept +with the most scrupulous attention, not only by heirs and +expectants, but they are appealed to by more distant connections, +as conferring distinction on all who can claim such affinity. +Hence there are few disputes concerning successions to this rank, +but such as go back to very remote periods. In later times, the +marriages, births, and deaths, of the nobility, have not only +been registered by and known to those personally interested, but +have been published periodically, and, consequently, subject to +perpetual correction and revision; while many of the most +powerful motives which can influence the human mind conspire to +preserve these records from the slightest falsification. +Compared with these, therefore, all other registers, or reports, +whether of sworn searchers or others, are incorrectness itself." + +Mr Sadler goes on to tell us that the peers are a marrying class, +and that their general longevity proves them to be a healthy +class. Still peerages often become extinct;--and from this fact +he infers that they are a sterile class. So far, says he, from +increasing in geometrical progression, they do not even keep up +their numbers. "Nature interdicts their increase." + +"Thus," says he, "in all ages of the world, and in every nation +of it, have the highest ranks of the community been the most +sterile, and the lowest the most prolific. As it respects our +own country, from the lowest grade of society, the Irish peasant, +to the highest, the British peer, this remains a conspicuous +truth; and the regulation of the degree of fecundity conformably +to this principle, through the intermediate gradations of +society, constitutes one of the features of the system developed +in these pages." + +We take the issue which Mr Sadler has himself offered. We agree +with him, that the registers of the English Peerage are of far +higher authority than any other statistical documents. We are +content that by those registers his principle should be judged. +And we meet him by positively denying his facts. We assert that +the English nobles are not only not a sterile, but an eminently +prolific, part of the community. Mr Sadler concludes that they +are sterile, merely because peerages often become extinct. Is +this the proper way of ascertaining the point? Is it thus that +he avails himself of those registers on the accuracy and fulness +of which he descants so largely? Surely his right course would +have been to count the marriages, and the number of births in the +Peerage. This he has not done;--but we have done it. And what +is the result? + +It appears from the last edition of Debrett's "Peerage", +published in 1828, that there were at that time 287 peers of the +United Kingdom, who had been married once or oftener. The whole +number of marriages contracted by these 287 peers was 333. The +number of children by these marriages was 1437,--more than five +to a peer,--more than 4.3 to a marriage,--more, that is to say, +than the average number in those counties of England in which, +according to Mr Sadler's own statement, the fecundity is the +greatest. + +But this is not all. These marriages had not, in 1828, produced +their full effect. Some of them had been very lately contracted. +In a very large proportion of them there was every probability of +additional issue. To allow for this probability, we may safely +add one to the average which we have already obtained, and rate +the fecundity of a noble marriage in England at 5.3;--higher than +the fecundity which Mr Sadler assigns to the people of the United +States. Even if we do not make this allowance, the average +fecundity of marriages of peers is higher by one-fifth than the +average fecundity of marriages throughout the kingdom. And this +is the sterile class! This is the class which "Nature has +interdicted from increasing!" The evidence to which Mr Sadler +has himself appealed proves that his principle is false,--utterly +false,--wildly and extravagantly false. It proves that a class, +living during half of every year in the most crowded population +in the world, breeds faster than those who live in the country;-- +that the class which enjoys the greatest degree of luxury and +ease breeds faster than the class which undergoes labour and +privation. To talk a little in Mr Sadler's style, we must own +that we are ourselves surprised at the results which our +examination of the peerage has brought out. We certainly should +have thought that the habits of fashionable life, and long +residence even in the most airy parts of so great a city as +London, would have been more unfavourable to the fecundity of the +higher orders than they appear to be. + +Peerages, it is true, often become extinct. But it is quite +clear, from what we have stated, that this is not because +peeresses are barren. There is no difficulty in discovering what +the causes really are. In the first place, most of the titles of +our nobles are limited to heirs male; so that, though the average +fecundity of a noble marriage is upwards of five, yet, for the +purpose of keeping up a peerage, it cannot be reckoned at much +more than two and a half. Secondly, though the peers are, as Mr +Sadler says, a marrying class, the younger sons of peers are +decidedly not a marrying class; so that a peer, though he has at +least as great a chance of having a son as his neighbours, has +less chance than they of having a collateral heir. + +We have now disposed, we think, of Mr Sadler's principle of +population. Our readers must, by this time, be pretty well +satisfied as to his qualifications for setting up theories of his +own. We will, therefore, present them with a few instances of +the skill and fairness which he shows when he undertakes to pull +down the theories of other men. The doctrine of Mr Malthus, that +population, if not checked by want, by vice, by excessive +mortality, or by the prudent self-denial of individuals, would +increase in a geometric progression, is, in Mr Sadler's opinion, +at once false and atrocious. + +"It may at once be denied," says he, "that human increase +proceeds geometrically; and for this simple but decisive reason, +that the existence of a geometrical ratio of increase in the +works of nature is neither true nor possible. It would fling +into utter confusion all order, time, magnitude, and space." + +This is as curious a specimen of reasoning as any that has been +offered to the world since the days when theories were founded on +the principle that nature abhors a vacuum. We proceed a few +pages further, however; and we then find that geometric +progression is unnatural only in those cases in which Mr Malthus +conceives that it exists; and that, in all cases in which Mr +Malthus denies the existence of a geometric ratio, nature changes +sides, and adopts that ratio as the rule of increase. + +Mr Malthus holds that subsistence will increase only in an +arithmetical ratio. "As far as nature has to do with the +question," says Mr Sadler, "men might, for instance, plant twice +the number of peas, and breed from a double number of the same +animals, with equal prospect of their multiplication." Now, if +Mr Sadler thinks that, as far as nature is concerned, four sheep +will double as fast as two, and eight as fast as four, how can he +deny that the geometrical ratio of increase does exist in the +works of nature? Or has he a definition of his own for +geometrical progression, as well as for inverse proportion? + +Mr Malthus, and those who agree with him, have generally referred +to the United States, as a country in which the human race +increases in a geometrical ratio, and have fixed on thirty-five +years as the term in which the population of that country doubles +itself. Mr Sadler contends that it is physically impossible for +a people to double in twenty-five years; nay, that thirty-five +years is far too short a period,--that the Americans do not +double by procreation in less than forty-seven years,--and that +the rapid increase of their numbers is produced by emigration +from Europe. + +Emigration has certainly had some effect in increasing the +population of the United States. But so great has the rate of +that increase been that, after making full allowance for the +effect of emigration, there will be a residue, attributable to +procreation alone, amply sufficient to double the population in +twenty-five years. + +Mr Sadler states the results of the four censuses as follows:-- + +"There were, of white inhabitants, in the whole of the United +States in 1790, 3,093,111; in 1800, 4,309,656; in 1810, +5,862,093; and in 1820, 7,861,710. The increase, in the first +term, being 39 per cent.; that in the second, 36 per cent.; and +that in the third and last, 33 per cent. It is superfluous to +say, that it is utterly impossible to deduce the geometric theory +of human increase, whatever be the period of duplication, from +such terms as these." + +Mr Sadler is a bad arithmetician. The increase in the last term +is not as he states it, 33 per cent., but more than 34 per cent. +Now, an increase of 32 per cent. in ten years, is more than +sufficient to double the population in twenty-five years. And +there is, we think, very strong reason to believe that the white +population of the United States does increase by 32 per cent. +every ten years. + +Our reason is this. There is in the United States a class of +persons whose numbers are not increased by emigration,--the negro +slaves. During the interval which elapsed between the census of +1810 and the census of 1820, the change in their numbers must +have been produced by procreation, and by procreation alone. +Their situation, though much happier than that of the wretched +beings who cultivate the sugar plantations of Trinidad and +Demerara, cannot be supposed to be more favourable to health and +fecundity than that of free labourers. In 1810, the slave-trade +had been but recently abolished; and there were in consequence +many more male than female slaves,--a circumstance, of course, +very unfavourable to procreation. Slaves are perpetually passing +into the class of freemen; but no freeman ever descends into +servitude; so that the census will not exhibit the whole effect +of the procreation which really takes place. + +We find, by the census of 1810, that the number of slaves in the +Union was then 1,191,000. In 1820, they had increased to +1,538,000. That is to say, in ten years, they had increased 29 +per cent.--within three per cent. of that rate of increase which +would double their numbers in twenty-five years. We may, we +think, fairly calculate that, if the female slaves had been as +numerous as the males, and if no manumissions had taken place, +the census of the slave population would have exhibited an +increase of 32 per cent. in ten years. + +If we are right in fixing on 32 per cent. as the rate at which +the white population of America increases by procreation in ten +years, it will follow that, during the last ten years of the +eighteenth century, nearly one-sixth of the increase was the +effect of emigration; from 1800 to 1810, about one-ninth; and +from 1810 to 1820, about one-seventeenth. This is what we should +have expected; for it is clear that, unless the number of +emigrants be constantly increasing, it must, as compared with the +resident population, be relatively decreasing. The number of +persons added to the population of the United States by +emigration, between 1810 and 1820, would be nearly 120,000. From +the data furnished by Mr Sadler himself, we should be inclined to +think that this would be a fair estimate. + +"Dr Seybert says, that the passengers to ten of the principal +ports of the United States, in the year 1817, amounted to 22,235; +of whom 11,977 were from Great Britain and Ireland; 4164 from +Germany and Holland; 1245 from France; 58 from Italy, 2901 from +the British possessions in North America; 1569 from the West +Indies; and from all other countries, 321. These, however, we +may conclude, with the editor of Styles's Register, were far +short of the number that arrived." + +We have not the honour of knowing either Dr Seybert or the editor +of Styles's Register. We cannot, therefore, decide on their +respective claims to our confidence so peremptorily as Mr Sadler +thinks fit to do. Nor can we agree to what Mr Sadler very +gravely assigns as a reason for disbelieving Dr Seyberts's +testimony. "Such accounts," he says, "if not wilfully +exaggerated, must always fall short of the truth." It would be a +curious question of casuistry to determine what a man ought to do +in a case in which he cannot tell the truth except by being +guilty of wilful exaggeration. We will, however, suppose, with +Mr Sadler, that Dr Seybert, finding himself compelled to choose +between two sins, preferred telling a falsehood to exaggerating; +and that he has consequently underrated the number of emigrants. +We will take it at double of the Doctor's estimate, and suppose +that, in 1817, 45,000 Europeans crossed to the United States. +Now, it must be remembered that the year 1817 was a year of the +severest and most general distress all over Europe,--a year of +scarcity everywhere, and of cruel famine in some places. There +can, therefore, be no doubt that the emigration of 1817 was very +far above the average, probably more than three times that of an +ordinary year. Till the year 1815, the war rendered it almost +impossible to emigrate to the United States either from England +or from the Continent. If we suppose the average emigration of +the remaining years to have been 16,000, we shall probably not be +much mistaken. In 1818 and 1819, the number was certainly much +beyond that average; in 1815 and 1816, probably much below it. +But, even if we were to suppose that, in every year from the +peace to 1820, the number of emigrants had been as high as we +have supposed it to be in 1817, the increase by procreation among +the white inhabitants of the United States would still appear to +be about 30 per cent. in ten years. + +Mr Sadler acknowledges that Cobbett exaggerates the number of +emigrants when he states it at 150,000 a year. Yet even this +estimate, absurdly great as it is, would not be sufficient to +explain the increase of the population of the United States on Mr +Sadler's principles. He is, he tells us, "convinced that +doubling in 35 years is a far more rapid duplication than ever +has taken place in that country from procreation only." An +increase of 20 per cent. in ten years, by procreation, would +therefore be the very utmost that he would allow to be possible. +We have already shown, by reference to the census of the slave +population, that this doctrine is quite absurd. And, if we +suppose it to be sound, we shall be driven to the conclusion that +above eight hundred thousand people emigrated from Europe to the +United States in a space of little more than five years. The +whole increase of the white population from 1810 to 1820 was +within a few hundreds of 2,000,000. If we are to attribute to +procreation only 20 per cent. on the number returned by the +census of 1810, we shall have about 830,000 persons to account +for in some other way;--and to suppose that the emigrants who +went to America between the peace of 1815 and the census of 1820, +with the children who were born to them there, would make up that +number, would be the height of absurdity. + +We could say much more; but we think it quite unnecessary at +present. We have shown that Mr Sadler is careless in the +collection of facts,--that he is incapable of reasoning on facts +when he has collected them,--that he does not understand the +simplest terms of science,--that he has enounced a proposition of +which he does not know the meaning,--that the proposition which +he means to enounce, and which he tries to prove, leads directly +to all those consequences which he represents as impious and +immoral,--and that, from the very documents to which he has +himself appealed, it may be demonstrated that his theory is +false. We may, perhaps, resume the subject when his next volume +appears. Meanwhile, we hope that he will delay its publication +until he has learned a little arithmetic, and unlearned a great +deal of eloquence. + +... + + +SADLER'S REFUTATION REFUTED. + +(January 1831.) + +"A Refutation of an Article in the Edinburgh Review (No. CII.) +entitled, 'Sadler's Law of Population, and disproof of Human +Superfecundity;' containing also Additional Proofs of the +Principle enunciated in that Treatise, founded on the Censuses of +different Countries recently published." By Michael Thomas +Sadler, M.P. 8vo. London: 1830. + +"Before anything came out against my Essay, I was told I must +prepare myself for a storm coming against it, it being resolved +by some men that it was necessary that book of mine should, as it +is phrased, be run down."--John Locke. + +We have, in violation of our usual practice, transcribed Mr +Sadler's title-page from top to bottom, motto and all. The +parallel implied between the Essay on the Human Understanding and +the Essay on Superfecundity is exquisitely laughable. We can +match it, however, with mottoes as ludicrous. We remember to +have heard of a dramatic piece, entitled "News from Camperdown," +written soon after Lord Duncan's victory, by a man once as much +in his own good graces as Mr Sadler is, and now as much forgotten +as Mr Sadler will soon be, Robert Heron. His piece was brought +upon the stage, and damned, "as it is phrased," in the second +act; but the author, thinking that it had been unfairly and +unjustly "run down," published it, in order to put his critics to +shame, with this motto from Swift: "When a true genius appears +in the world, you may know him by this mark--that the dunces are +all in confederacy against him." We remember another anecdote, +which may perhaps be acceptable to so zealous a churchman as Mr +Sadler. A certain Antinomian preacher, the oracle of a barn, in +a county of which we do not think it proper to mention the name, +finding that divinity was not by itself a sufficiently lucrative +profession, resolved to combine with it that of dog-stealing. He +was, by ill-fortune, detected in several offences of this +description, and was in consequence brought before two justices, +who, in virtue of the powers given them by an act of parliament, +sentenced him to a whipping for each theft. The degrading +punishment inflicted on the pastor naturally thinned the flock; +and the poor man was in danger of wanting bread. He accordingly +put forth a handbill solemnly protesting his innocence, +describing his sufferings, and appealing to the Christian charity +of the public; and to his pathetic address he prefixed this most +appropriate text: "Thrice was I beaten with rods.--St Paul's +Epistle to the Corinthians." He did not perceive that, though St +Paul had been scourged, no number of whippings, however severe, +will of themselves entitle a man to be considered as an apostle. +Mr Sadler seems to us to have fallen into a somewhat similar +error. He should remember that, though Locke may have been +laughed at, so has Sir Claudius Hunter; and that it takes +something more than the laughter of all the world to make a +Locke. + +The body of this pamphlet by no means justifies the parallel so +modestly insinuated on the title-page. Yet we must own that, +though Mr Sadler has not risen to the level of Locke, he has done +what was almost as difficult, if not as honourable--he has fallen +below his own. He is at best a bad writer. His arrangement is +an elaborate confusion. His style has been constructed, with +great care, in such a manner as to produce the least possible +effect by means of the greatest possible number of words. +Aspiring to the exalted character of a Christian philosopher, he +can never preserve through a single paragraph either the calmness +of a philosopher or the meekness of a Christian. His ill-nature +would make a very little wit formidable. But, happily, his +efforts to wound resemble those of a juggler's snake. The bags +of poison are full, but the fang is wanting. In this foolish +pamphlet, all the unpleasant peculiarities of his style and +temper are brought out in the strongest manner. He is from the +beginning to the end in a paroxysm of rage, and would certainly +do us some mischief if he knew how. We will give a single +instance for the present. Others will present themselves as we +proceed. We laughed at some doggerel verses which he cited, and +which we, never having seen them before, suspected to be his own. +We are now sure that if the principle on which Solomon decided a +famous case of filiation were correct, there can be no doubt as +to the justice of our suspicion. Mr Sadler, who, whatever +elements of the poetical character he may lack, possesses the +poetical irritability in an abundance which might have sufficed +for Homer himself, resolved to retaliate on the person, who, as +he supposed, had reviewed him. He has, accordingly, ransacked +some collection of college verses, in the hope of finding, among +the performances of his supposed antagonist, something as bad as +his own. And we must in fairness admit that he has succeeded +pretty well. We must admit that the gentleman in question +sometimes put into his exercises, at seventeen, almost as great +nonsense as Mr Sadler is in the habit of putting into his books +at sixty. + +Mr Sadler complains that we have devoted whole pages to mere +abuse of him. We deny the charge. We have, indeed, +characterised, in terms of just reprehension, that spirit which +shows itself in every part of his prolix work. Those terms of +reprehension we are by no means inclined to retract; and we +conceive that we might have used much stronger expressions, +without the least offence either to truth or to decorum. There +is a limit prescribed to us by our sense of what is due to +ourselves. But we think that no indulgence is due to Mr Sadler. +A writer who distinctly announces that he has not conformed to +the candour of the age--who makes it his boast that he expresses +himself throughout with the greatest plainness and freedom--and +whose constant practice proves that by plainness and freedom he +means coarseness and rancour--has no right to expect that others +shall remember courtesies which he has forgotten, or shall +respect one who has ceased to respect himself. + +Mr Sadler declares that he has never vilified Mr Malthus +personally, and has confined himself to attacking the doctrines +which that gentleman maintains. We should wish to leave that +point to the decision of all who have read Mr Sadler's book, or +any twenty pages of it. To quote particular instances of a +temper which penetrates and inspires the whole work, is to weaken +our charge. Yet, that we may not be suspected of flinching, we +will give two specimens,--the two first which occur to our +recollection. "Whose minister is it that speaks thus?" says Mr +Sadler, after misrepresenting in a most extraordinary manner, +though, we are willing to believe, unintentionally, one of the +positions of Mr Malthus. "Whose minister is it that speaks thus? +That of the lover and avenger of little children?" Again, Mr +Malthus recommends, erroneously perhaps, but assuredly from +humane motives, that alms, when given, should be given very +sparingly. Mr Sadler quotes the recommendation, and adds the +following courteous comment:--"The tender mercies of the wicked +are cruel." We cannot think that a writer who indulges in these +indecent and unjust attacks on professional and personal +character has any right to complain of our sarcasms on his +metaphors and rhymes. + +We will now proceed to examine the reply which Mr Sadler has +thought fit to make to our arguments. He begins by attacking our +remarks on the origin of evil. They are, says he, too profound +for common apprehension; and he hopes that they are too profound +for our own. That they seem profound to him we can well believe. +Profundity, in its secondary as in its primary sense, is a +relative term. When Grildrig was nearly drowned in the +Brobdingnagian cream-jug he doubtless thought it very deep. But +to common apprehension our reasoning would, we are persuaded, +appear perfectly simple. + +The theory of Mr Malthus, says Mr Sadler, cannot be true, because +it asserts the existence of a great and terrible evil, and is +therefore inconsistent with the goodness of God. We answer thus. +We know that there are in the world great and terrible evils. In +spite of these evils, we believe in the goodness of God. Why may +we not then continue to believe in his goodness, though another +evil should be added to the list? + +How does Mr Sadler answer this? Merely by telling us, that we +are too wicked to be reasoned with. He completely shrinks from +the question; a question, be it remembered, not raised by us--a +question which we should have felt strong objections to raising +unnecessarily--a question put forward by himself, as intimately +connected with the subject of his two ponderous volumes. He +attempts to carp at detached parts of our reasoning on the +subject. With what success he carries on this guerilla war after +declining a general action with the main body of our argument our +readers shall see. + +"The Reviewer sends me to Paley, who is, I confess, rather more +intelligible on the subject, and who, fortunately, has decided +the very point in dispute. I will first give the words of the +Reviewer, who, when speaking of my general argument regarding the +magnitude of the evils, moral and physical, implied in the theory +I oppose, sums up his ideas thus:--'Mr Sadler says, that it is +not a light or transient evil, but a great and permanent evil. +What then? The question of the origin of evil is a question of +aye or no,--not a question of MORE or LESS.' But what says +Paley? His express rule is this, that 'when we cannot resolve +all appearances into benevolence of design, we make the FEW give +place to the MANY, the LITTLE to the GREAT; that we take our +judgment from a large and decided preponderancy.' Now in +weighing these two authorities, directly at issue on this point, +I think there will be little trouble in determining which we +shall make 'to give place;' or, if we 'look to a large and +decided preponderancy' of either talent, learning, or +benevolence, from whom we shall 'take our judgment.' The +effrontery, or, to speak more charitably, the ignorance of a +reference to Paley on this subject, and in this instance, is +really marvellous." + +Now, does not Mr Sadler see that the very words which he quotes +from Paley contain in themselves a refutation of his whole +argument? Paley says, indeed, as every man in his senses would +say, that in a certain case, which he has specified, the more and +the less come into question. But in what case? "When we CANNOT +resolve all appearances into the benevolence of design." It is +better that there should be a little evil than a great deal of +evil. This is self-evident. But it is also self-evident, that +no evil is better than a little evil. Why, then, is there any +evil? It is a mystery which we cannot solve. It is a mystery +which Paley, by the very words which Mr Sadler has quoted, +acknowledges himself unable to solve; and it is because he cannot +solve that mystery that he proceeds to take into consideration +the more and the less. Believing in the divine goodness, we must +necessarily believe that the evils which exist are necessary to +avert greater evils. But what those greater evils are, we do not +know. How the happiness of any part of the sentient creation +would be in any respect diminished if, for example, children cut +their teeth without pain, we cannot understand. The case is +exactly the same with the principle of Mr Malthus. If +superfecundity exists, it exists, no doubt, because it is a less +evil than some other evil which otherwise would exist. Can Mr +Sadler prove that this is an impossibility? + +One single expression which Mr Sadler employs on this subject is +sufficient to show how utterly incompetent he is to discuss it. +"On the Christian hypothesis," says he, "no doubt exists as to +the origin of evil." He does not, we think, understand what is +meant by the origin of evil. The Christian Scriptures profess to +give no solution of that mystery. They relate facts: but they +leave the metaphysical question undetermined. They tell us that +man fell; but why he was not so constituted as to be incapable of +falling, or why the Supreme Being has not mitigated the +consequences of the Fall more than they actually have been +mitigated, the Scriptures did not tell us, and, it may without +presumption be said, could not tell us, unless we had been +creatures different from what we are. There is something, either +in the nature of our faculties or in the nature of the machinery +employed by us for the purpose of reasoning, which condemns us, +on this and similar subjects, to hopeless ignorance. Man can +understand these high matters only by ceasing to be man, just as +a fly can understand a lemma of Newton only by ceasing to be a +fly. To make it an objection to the Christian system that it +gives us no solution of these difficulties, is to make it an +objection to the Christian system that it is a system formed for +human beings. Of the puzzles of the Academy, there is not one +which does not apply as strongly to Deism as to Christianity, and +to Atheism as to Deism. There are difficulties in everything. +Yet we are sure that something must be true. + +If revelation speaks on the subject of the origin of evil it +speaks only to discourage dogmatism and temerity. In the most +ancient, the most beautiful, and the most profound of all works +on the subject, the Book of Job, both the sufferer who complains +of the divine government, and the injudicious advisers who +attempt to defend it on wrong principles, are silenced by the +voice of supreme wisdom, and reminded that the question is beyond +the reach of the human intellect. St Paul silences the supposed +objector, who strives to force him into controversy, in the same +manner. The church has been, ever since the apostolic times, +agitated by this question, and by a question which is inseparable +from it, the question of fate and free-will. The greatest +theologians and philosophers have acknowledged that these things +were too high for them, and have contended themselves with +hinting at what seemed to be the most probable solution. What +says Johnson? "All our effort ends in belief that for the evils +of life there is some good reason, and in confession that the +reason cannot be found." What says Paley? "Of the origin of +evil no universal solution has been discovered. I mean no +solution which reaches to all cases of complaint.--The +consideration of general laws, although it may concern the +question of the origin of evil very nearly, which I think it +does, rests in views disproportionate to our faculties, and in a +knowledge which we do not possess. It serves rather to account +for the obscurity of the subject, than to supply us with distinct +answers to our difficulties." What says presumptuous ignorance? +"No doubt whatever exists as to the origin of evil." It is +remarkable that Mr Sadler does not tell us what his solution is. +The world, we suspect, will lose little by his silence. + +He falls on the reviewer again. + +"Though I have shown," says he, "and on authorities from which +none can lightly differ, not only the cruelty and immorality +which this system necessarily involves, but its most revolting +feature, its gross partiality, he has wholly suppressed this, the +most important part of my argument; as even the bare notice of it +would have instantly exposed the sophistry to which he has had +recourse. If, however, he would fairly meet the whole question, +let him show me that 'hydrophobia,' which he gives as an example +of the laws of God and nature, is a calamity to which the poor +alone are liable; or that 'malaria,' which, with singular +infelicity, he has chosen as an illustration of the fancied evils +of population, is a respecter of persons." + +We said nothing about this argument, as Mr Sadler calls it, +merely because we did not think it worth while: and we are half +ashamed to say anything about it now. But, since Mr Sadler is so +urgent for an answer, he shall have one. If there is evil, it +must be either partial or universal. Which is the better of the +two? Hydrophobia, says this great philosopher, is no argument +against the divine goodness, because mad dogs bite rich and poor +alike; but if the rich were exempted, and only nine people +suffered for ten who suffer now, hydrophobia would forthwith, +simply because it would produce less evil than at present, become +an argument against the divine goodness! To state such a +proposition, is to refute it. And is not the malaria a respecter +of persons? It infests Rome. Does it infest London? There are +complaints peculiar to the tropical countries. There are others +which are found only in mountainous districts; others which are +confined to marshy regions; others again which run in particular +families. Is not this partiality? Why is it more inconsistent +with the divine goodness that poor men should suffer an evil from +which rich men are exempt, than that a particular portion of the +community should inherit gout, scrofula, insanity, and other +maladies? And are there no miseries under which, in fact, the +poor alone are suffering? Mr Sadler himself acknowledges, in +this very paragraph, that there are such; but he tells us that +these calamities are the effects of misgovernment, and that this +misgovernment is the effect of political economy. Be it so. But +does he not see that he is only removing the difficulty one step +further? Why does Providence suffer men, whose minds are filled +with false and pernicious notions, to have power in the state? +For good ends, we doubt not, if the fact be so; but for ends +inscrutable to us, who see only a small part of the vast scheme, +and who see that small part only for a short period. Does Mr +Sadler doubt that the Supreme Being has power as absolute over +the revolutions of political as over the organisation of natural +bodies? Surely not: and, if not, we do not see that he +vindicates the ways of Providence by attributing the distresses, +which the poor, as he confesses, endure, to an error in +legislation rather than to a law of physiology. Turn the +question as we may, disguise it as we may, we shall find that it +at last resolves itself into the same great enigma,--the origin +of physical and moral evil: an enigma which the highest human +intellects have given up in despair, but which Mr Sadler thinks +himself perfectly able to solve. + +He next accuses us of having paused long on verbal criticism. We +certainly did object to his improper use of the words "inverse +variation." Mr Sadler complains of this with his usual +bitterness. + +"Now what is the Reviewer's quarrel with me on this occasion? +That he does not understand the meaning of my terms? No. He +acknowledges the contrary. That I have not fully explained the +sense in which I have used them? No. An explanation, he knows, +is immediately subjoined, though he has carefully suppressed it. +That I have varied the sense in which I have applied them? No. +I challenge him to show it. But he nevertheless goes on for many +pages together in arguing against what he knows, and, in fact, +acknowledges, I did not mean; and then turns round and argues +again, though much more feebly, indeed, against what he says I +did mean! Now, even had I been in error as to the use of a word, +I appeal to the reader whether such an unworthy and disingenuous +course would not, if generally pursued, make controversy on all +subjects, however important, that into which, in such hands, it +always degenerates--a dispute about words." + +The best way to avoid controversies about words is to use words +in their proper senses. Mr Sadler may think our objection +captious; but how he can think it disingenuous we do not well +understand. If we had represented him as meaning what we knew +that he did not mean, we should have acted in a disgraceful +manner. But we did not represent him, and he allows that we did +not represent him, as meaning what he did not mean. We blamed +him, and with perfect justice and propriety, for saying what he +did not mean. Every man has in one sense a right to define his +own terms; that is to say, if he chooses to call one two, and two +seven, it would be absurd to charge him with false arithmetic for +saying that seven is the double of one. But it would be +perfectly fair to blame him for changing the established sense of +words. The words, "inverse variation," in matters not purely +scientific, have often been used in the loose way in which Mr +Sadler has used them. But we shall be surprised if he can find a +single instance of their having been so used in a matter of pure +arithmetic. + +We will illustrate our meaning thus. Lord Thurlow, in one of his +speeches about Indian affairs, said that one Hastings was worth +twenty Macartneys. He might, with equal propriety, have said ten +Macartneys, or a hundred Macartneys. Nor would there have been +the least inconsistency in his using all the three expressions in +one speech. But would this be an excuse for a financier who, in +a matter of account, should reason as if ten, twenty, and a +hundred were the same number? + +Mr Sadler tells us that he purposely avoided the use of the word +proportion in stating his principle. He seems, therefore, to +allow that the word proportion would have been improper. Yet he +did in fact employ it in explaining his principle, accompanied +with an awkward explanation intended to signify that, though he +said proportion, he meant something quite different from +proportion. We should not have said so much on this subject +either in our former article, or at present, but that there is in +all Mr Sadler's writings an air of scientific pedantry, which +renders his errors fair game. We will now let the matter rest; +and, instead of assailing Mr Sadler with our verbal criticism, +proceed to defend ourselves against his literal criticism. + +"The Reviewer promised his readers that some curious results +should follow from his shuffling. We will enable him to keep his +word. + +"'In two English counties,' says he, 'which contain from 50 to +100 inhabitants on the square mile, the births to 100 marriages +are, according to Mr Sadler, 420; but in 44 departments of +France, in which there are from one to two hecatares [hectares] +to each inhabitant, that is to say, in which the population is +from 125 to 250, or rather more, to the square mile, the number +of births to one hundred marriages is 423 and a fraction.' + +"The first curious result is, that our Reviewer is ignorant, not +only of the name, but of the extent, of a French hectare; +otherwise he is guilty of a practice which, even if transferred +to the gambling-table, would, I presume, prevent him from being +allowed ever to shuffle, even there, again. He was most ready to +pronounce upon a mistake of one per cent. in a calculation of +mine, the difference in no wise affecting the argument in hand; +but here I must inform him, that his error, whether wilfully or +ignorantly put forth, involves his entire argument. + +"The French hectare I had calculated to contain 107,708 67/100 +English square feet, or 2 47265/100000 acres; Dr Kelly takes it, +on authority which he gives, at 107,644 143923/1000000 English +square feet, or 2 471169/1000000 acres. The last French +"Annuaires", however, state it, I perceive, as being equal to 2 +473614/1000000 acres. The difference is very trifling, and will +not in the slightest degree cover our critic's error. The first +calculation gives about 258 83/100 hectares to an English square +mile; the second, 258 73/100; the last, or French calculation 258 +98/100. When, therefore, the Reviewer calculates the population +of the departments of France thus: 'from one to two hectares to +each inhabitant, that is to say, in which the population is from +125 to 250, or rather more, to the square mile; his 'that is to +say,' is that which he ought not to have said--no rare case with +him, as we shall show throughout." + +We must inform Mr Sadler, in the first place, that we inserted +the vowel which amuses him so much, not from ignorance or from +carelessness, but advisedly, and in conformity with the practice +of several respectable writers. He will find the word hecatare +in Ree's Cyclopaedia. He will find it also in Dr Young. We +prefer the form which we have employed, because it is +etymologically correct. Mr Sadler seems not to know that a +hecatare is so-called, because it contains a hundred ares. + +We were perfectly acquainted with the extent as well as with the +name of a hecatare. Is it at all strange that we should use the +words "250, or rather more," in speaking of 258 and a fraction? +Do not people constantly employ round numbers with still greater +looseness, in translating foreign distances and foreign money? +If indeed, as Mr Sadler says, the difference which he chooses to +call an error involved the entire argument, or any part of the +argument, we should have been guilty of gross unfairness. But it +is not so. The difference between 258 and 250, as even Mr Sadler +would see if he were not blind with fury, was a difference to his +advantage. Our point was this. The fecundity of a dense +population in certain departments of France is greater than that +of a thinly scattered population in certain counties of England. +The more dense, therefore, the population in those departments of +France, the stronger was our case. By putting 250, instead of +258, we understated our case. Mr Sadler's correction of our +orthography leads us to suspect that he knows very little of +Greek; and his correction of our calculation quite satisfies us +that he knows very little of logic. + +But, to come to the gist of the controversy. Our argument, drawn +from Mr Sadler's own tables, remains absolutely untouched. He +makes excuses indeed; for an excuse is the last thing that Mr +Sadler will ever want. There is something half laughable and +half provoking in the facility with which he asserts and +retracts, says and unsays, exactly as suits his argument. +Sometimes the register of baptisms is imperfect, and sometimes +the register of burials. Then again these registers become all +at once exact almost to an unit. He brings forward a census of +Prussia in proof of his theory. We show that it directly +confutes his theory; and it forthwith becomes "notoriously and +grossly defective." The census of the Netherlands is not to be +easily dealt with; and the census of the Netherlands is therefore +pronounced inaccurate. In his book on the Law of Population, he +tells us that "in the slave-holding States of America, the male +slaves constitute a decided majority of that unfortunate class." +This fact we turned against him; and, forgetting that he had +himself stated it, he tells us that "it is as erroneous as many +other ideas which we entertain," and that "he will venture to +assert that the female slaves were, at the nubile age, as +numerous as the males." The increase of the negroes in the +United States puzzles him; and he creates a vast slave-trade to +solve it. He confounds together things perfectly different; the +slave-trade carried on under the American flag, and the slave- +trade carried on for the supply of the American soil,--the slave- +trade with Africa, and the internal slave-trade between the +different States. He exaggerates a few occasional acts of +smuggling into an immense and regular importation, and makes his +escape as well as he can under cover of this hubbub of words. +Documents are authentic and facts true precisely in proportion to +the support which they afford to his theory. This is one way, +undoubtedly, of making books; but we question much whether it be +the way to make discoveries. + +As to the inconsistencies which we pointed out between his theory +and his own tables, he finds no difficulty in explaining them +away or facing them out. In one case there would have been no +contradiction if, instead of taking one of his tables, we had +multiplied the number of three tables together, and taken the +average. Another would never have existed if there had not been +a great migration of people into Lancashire. Another is not to +be got over by any device. But then it is very small, and of no +consequence to the argument. + +Here, indeed, he is perhaps right. The inconsistencies which we +noticed, were, in themselves, of little moment. We give them as +samples,--as mere hints, to caution those of our readers who +might also happen to be readers of Mr Sadler against being +deceived by his packing. He complains of the word packing. We +repeat it; and, since he has defied us to the proof, we will go +fully into the question which, in our last article, we only +glanced at, and prove, in such a manner as shall not leave even +to Mr Sadler any shadow of excuse, that his theory owes its +speciousness to packing, and to packing alone. + +That our readers may fully understand our reasoning, we will +again state what Mr Sadler's proposition is. He asserts that, on +a given space, the number of children to a marriage becomes less +and less as the population becomes more and more numerous. + +We will begin with the census of France given by Mr Sadler. By +joining the departments together in combinations which suit his +purpose, he has contrived to produce three tables, which he +presents as decisive proofs of his theory. + +The first is as follows:-- + +"The legitimate births are, in those departments where there are +to each inhabitant-- + +Hectares Departments To every 1000 marriages + +4 to 5 2 130 +3 to 4 3 4372 +2 to 3 30 4250 +1 to 2 44 4234 + .06 to 1 5 4146 + .06 1 2657 + +The two other computations he has given in one table. We subjoin +it. + +Hect. to each Number of Legit. Births to Legit. Births to +Inhabitant Departments 100 Marriages 100 Mar. (1826) + +4 to 5 2 497 397 +3 to 4 3 439 389 +2 to 3 30 424 379 +1 to 2 44 420 375 +under 1 5 415 372 +and .06 1 263 253 + +These tables, as we said in our former article, certainly look +well for Mr Sadler's theory. "Do they?" says he. "Assuredly +they do; and in admitting this, the Reviewer has admitted the +theory to be proved." We cannot absolutely agree to this. A +theory is not proved, we must tell Mr Sadler, merely because the +evidence in its favour looks well at first sight. There is an +old proverb, very homely in expression, but well deserving to be +had in constant remembrance by all men, engaged either in action +or in speculation--"One story is good till another is told!" + +We affirm, then, that the results which these tables present, and +which seem so favourable to Mr Sadler's theory, are produced by +packing, and by packing alone. + +In the first place, if we look at the departments singly, the +whole is in disorder. About the department in which Paris is +situated there is no dispute: Mr Malthus distinctly admits that +great cities prevent propagation. There remain eighty-four +departments; and of these there is not, we believe, a single one +in the place which, according to Mr Sadler's principle, it ought +to occupy. + +That which ought to be highest in fecundity is tenth in one +table, fourteenth in another, and only thirty-first according to +the third. That which ought to be third is twenty-second by the +table, which places it highest. That which ought to be fourth is +fortieth by the table, which places it highest. That which ought +to be eighth is fiftieth or sixtieth. That which ought to be +tenth from the top is at about the same distance from the bottom. +On the other hand, that which, according to Mr Sadler's +principle, ought to be last but two of all the eighty-four is +third in two of the tables, and seventh in that which places it +lowest; and that which ought to be last is, in one of Mr Sadler's +tables, above that which ought to be first, in two of them, above +that which ought to be third, and, in all of them, above that +which ought to be fourth. + +By dividing the departments in a particular manner, Mr Sadler has +produced results which he contemplates with great satisfaction. +But, if we draw the lines a little higher up or a little lower +down, we shall find that all his calculations are thrown into +utter confusion; and that the phenomena, if they indicate +anything, indicate a law the very reverse of that which he has +propounded. + +Let us take, for example, the thirty-two departments, as they +stand in Mr Sadler's table, from Lozere to Meuse inclusive, and +divide them into two sets of sixteen departments each. The set +from Lozere and Loiret inclusive consists of those departments in +which the space to each inhabitant is from 3.8 hecatares to 2.42. +The set from Cantal to Meuse inclusive consists of those +departments in which the space to each inhabitant is from 2.42 +hecatares to 2.07. That is to say, in the former set the +inhabitants are from 68 to 107 on the square mile, or +thereabouts. In the latter they are from 107 to 125. Therefore, +on Mr Sadler's principle, the fecundity ought to be smaller in +the latter set than in the former. It is, however, greater, and +that in every one of Mr Sadler's three tables. + +Let us now go a little lower down, and take another set of +sixteen departments--those which lie together in Mr Sadler's +tables, from Herault to Jura inclusive. Here the population is +still thicker than in the second of those sets which we before +compared. The fecundity, therefore, ought, on Mr Sadler's +principle, to be less than in that set. But it is again greater, +and that in all Mr Sadler's three tables. We have a regularly +ascending series, where, if his theory had any truth in it, we +ought to have a regularly descending series. We will give the +results of our calculation. + +The number of children to 1000 marriages is-- + + 1st Table 2nd Table 3rd Table + +In the sixteen departments where +there are from 68 to 107 people +on a square mile................ 4188 4226 3780 + +In the sixteen departments where +there are from 107 to 125 people +on a square mile................ 4374 4332 3855 + +In the sixteen departments where +there are from 134 to 155 people +on a square mile................ 4484 4416 3914 + +We will give another instance, if possible still more decisive. +We will take the three departments of France which ought, on Mr +Sadler's principle, to be the lowest in fecundity of all the +eighty-five, saving only that in which Paris stands; and we will +compare them with the three departments in which the fecundity +ought, according to him, to be greater than in any other +department of France, two only excepted. We will compare Bas +Rhin, Rhone, and Nord, with Lozere, Landes, and Indre. In +Lozere, Landes, and Indre, the population is from 68 to 84 on the +square mile or nearly so. In Bas Rhin, Rhone, and Nord, it is +from 300 to 417 on the square mile. There cannot be a more +overwhelming answer to Mr Sadler's theory than the table which we +subjoin: + +The number of births to 1000 marriages is-- + + 1st Table 2nd Table 3rd Table + +In the three departments in which +there are from 68 to 84 people +on the square mile............... 4372 4390 3890 + +In the three departments in which +there are from 300 to 417 people +on the square mile............... 4457 4510 4060 + +These are strong cases. But we have a still stronger case. Take +the whole of the third, fourth, and fifth divisions into which Mr +Sadler has portioned out the French departments. These three +divisions make up almost the whole kingdom of France. They +contain seventy-nine out of the eighty-five departments. Mr +Sadler has contrived to divide them in such a manner that, to a +person who looks merely at his averages, the fecundity seems to +diminish as the population thickens. We will separate them into +two parts instead of three. We will draw the line between the +department of Gironde and that of Herault. On the one side are +the thirty-two departments from Cher to Gironde inclusive. On +the other side are the forty-six departments from Herault to Nord +inclusive. In all the departments of the former set, the +population is under 132 on the square mile. In all the +departments of the latter set, it is above 132 on the square +mile. It is clear that, if there be one word of truth in Mr +Sadler's theory, the fecundity in the latter of these divisions +must be very decidedly smaller than in the former. Is it so? It +is, on the contrary, greater in all the three tables. We give +the result. + +The number of births to 1000 marriages is-- + + 1st Table 2nd Table 3rd Table + +In the thirty-two departments in +which there are from 86 to 132 +people on the square mile....... 4210 4199 3760 + +In the forty-seven departments in +which there are from 132 to 417 +people on the square mile........ 4250 4224 3766 + +This fact is alone enough to decide the question. Yet it is only +one of a crowd of similar facts. If the line between Mr Sadler's +second and third division be drawn six departments lower down, +the third and fourth divisions will, in all the tables, be above +the second. If the line between the third and fourth divisions +be drawn two departments lower down, the fourth division will be +above the third in all the tables. If the line between the +fourth and fifth division be drawn two departments lower down, +the fifth will, in all the tables, be above the fourth, above the +third, and even above the second. How, then, has Mr Sadler +obtained his results? By packing solely. By placing in one +compartment a district no larger than the Isle of Wight; in +another, a district somewhat less than Yorkshire; in the third, a +territory much larger than the island of Great Britain. + +By the same artifice it is that he has obtained from the census +of England those delusive averages which he brings forward with +the utmost ostentation in proof of his principle. We will +examine the facts relating to England, as we have examined those +relating to France. + +If we look at the counties one by one, Mr Sadler's principle +utterly fails. Hertfordshire with 251 on the square mile; +Worcester with 258; and Kent with 282, exhibit a far greater +fecundity than the East Riding of York, which has 151 on the +square mile; Monmouthshire, which has 145; or Northumberland, +which has 108. The fecundity of Staffordshire, which has more +than 300 on the square mile, is as high as the average fecundity +of the counties which have from 150 to 200 on the square mile. +But, instead of confining ourselves to particular instances, we +will try masses. + +Take the eight counties of England which stand together in Mr +Sadler's list, from Cumberland to Dorset inclusive. In these the +population is from 107 to 150 on the square mile. Compare with +these the eight counties from Berks to Durham inclusive, in which +the population is from 175 to 200 on the square mile. Is the +fecundity in the latter counties smaller than in the former? On +the contrary, the result stands thus: + +The number of children to 100 marriages is-- + +In the eight counties of England, in which there are +from 107 to 146 people on the square mile............. 388 + +In the eight counties of England, in which there are +from 175 to 200 people on the square mile..............402 + +Take the six districts from the East Riding of York to the County +of Norfolk inclusive. Here the population is from 150 to 170 on +the square mile. To these oppose the six counties from Derby to +Worcester inclusive. The population is from 200 to 260. Here +again we find that a law, directly the reverse of that which Mr +Sadler has laid down, appears to regulate the fecundity of the +inhabitants. + +The number of children to 100 marriages is-- + +In the six counties in which there are from 150 to 170 +people on the square mile................................392 + +In the six counties in which there are from 200 to 260 +people on the square mile................................399 + +But we will make another experiment on Mr Sadler's tables, if +possible more decisive than any of those which we have hitherto +made. We will take the four largest divisions into which he has +distributed the English counties, and which follow each other in +regular order. That our readers may fully comprehend the nature +of that packing by which his theory is supported, we will set +before them this part of his table. + +(Here follows a table showing for population on a square mile the +proportion of births to 100 marriages, based on figures for the +years 1810 to 1821. + +100 to 150...396 +150 to 200...390 +200 to 250...388 +250 to 300...378) + +These averages look well, undoubtedly, for Mr Sadler's theory. +The numbers 396, 390, 388, 378, follow each other very speciously +in a descending order. But let our readers divide these thirty- +four counties into two equal sets of seventeen counties each, and +try whether the principle will then hold good. We have made this +calculation, and we present them with the following result. + +The number of children to 100 marriages is-- + +In the seventeen counties of England in which there +are from 100 to 177 people on the square mile..........387 + +In the seventeen counties in which there +are from 177 to 282 people on the square mile..........389 + +The difference is small, but not smaller than differences which +Mr Sadler has brought forward as proofs of his theory. We say +that these English tables no more prove that fecundity increases +with the population than that it diminishes with the population. +The thirty-four counties which we have taken make up, at least +four-fifths of the kingdom: and we see that, through those +thirty-four counties, the phenomena are directly opposed to Mr +Sadler's principle. That in the capital, and in great +manufacturing towns, marriages are less prolific than in the open +country, we admit, and Mr Malthus admits. But that any +condensation of the population, short of that which injures all +physical energies, will diminish the prolific powers of man, is, +from these very tables of Mr Sadler, completely disproved. + +It is scarcely worth while to proceed with instances, after +proofs so overwhelming as those which we have given. Yet we will +show that Mr Sadler has formed his averages on the census of +Prussia by an artifice exactly similar to that which we have +already exposed. + +Demonstrating the Law of Population from the Censuses of Prussia +at two several Periods. + +(Here follows a table showing for inhabitants on a square league +the average number of births to each marriage from two different +censuses.) + + 1756 1784 + + 832 to 928...4.34 and 4.72 +1175 to 1909...4.14 and 4.45 (including East Prussia at 1175) +2083 to 2700...3.84 and 4.24 +3142 to 3461...3.65 and 4.08 + +Of the census of 1756 we will say nothing, as Mr Sadler, finding +himself hard pressed by the argument which we drew from it, now +declares it to be grossly defective. We confine ourselves to the +census of 1784: and we will draw our lines at points somewhat +different from those at which Mr Sadler has drawn his. Let the +first compartment remain as it stands. Let East Prussia, which +contains a much larger population than his last compartment, +stand alone in the second division. Let the third consist of the +New Mark, the Mark of Brandenburg, East Friesland and +Guelderland, and the fourth of the remaining provinces. Our +readers will find that, on this arrangement, the division which, +on Mr Sadler's principle, ought to be second in fecundity stands +higher than that which ought to be first; and that the division +which ought to be fourth stands higher than that which ought to +be third. We will give the result in one view. + +The number of births to a marriage is-- + +In those provinces of Prussia where there are fewer than +1000 people on the square league.......................4.72 + +In the province in which there are 1175 people on the +square league..........................................5.10 + +In the provinces in which there are from 1190 to 2083 +people on the square league............................4.10 + +In the provinces in which there are from 2314 to 3461 +people on the square league............................4.27 + +We will go no further with this examination. In fact, we have +nothing more to examine. The tables which we have scrutinised +constitute the whole strength of Mr Sadler's case; and we +confidently leave it to our readers to say, whether we have not +shown that the strength of his case is weakness. + +Be it remembered too that we are reasoning on data furnished by +Mr Sadler himself. We have not made collections of facts to set +against his, as we easily might have done. It is on his own +showing, it is out of his own mouth, that his theory stands +condemned. + +That packing which we have exposed is not the only sort of +packing which Mr Sadler has practised. We mentioned in our +review some facts relating to the towns of England, which appear +from Mr Sadler's tables, and which it seems impossible to explain +if his principles be sound. The average fecundity of a marriage +in towns of fewer than 3000 inhabitants is greater than the +average fecundity of the kingdom. The average fecundity in towns +of from 4000 to 5000 inhabitants is greater than the average +fecundity of Warwickshire, Lancashire, or Surrey. How is it, we +asked, if Mr Sadler's principle be correct, that the fecundity of +Guildford should be greater than the average fecundity of the +county in which it stands? + +Mr Sadler, in reply, talks about "the absurdity of comparing the +fecundity in the small towns alluded to with that in the counties +of Warwick and Stafford, or in those of Lancaster and Surrey." +He proceeds thus-- + +"In Warwickshire, far above half the population is comprised in +large towns, including, of course, the immense metropolis of one +great branch of our manufactures, Birmingham. In the county of +Stafford, besides the large and populous towns in its iron +districts, situated so close together as almost to form, for +considerable distances, a continuous street; there is, in its +potteries, a great population, recently accumulated, not +included, indeed, in the towns distinctly enumerated in the +censuses, but vastly exceeding in its condensation that found in +the places to which the Reviewer alludes. In Lancashire, again, +to which he also appeals, one-fourth of the entire population is +made up of the inhabitants of two only of the towns of that +county; far above half of it is contained in towns, compared with +which those he refers to are villages: even the hamlets of the +manufacturing parts of Lancashire are often far more populous +than the places he mentions. But he presents us with a climax of +absurdity in appealing lastly to the population of Surrey as +quite rural compared with that of the twelve towns having less +than 5000 inhabitants in their respective jurisdictions, such as +Saffron-Walden, Monmouth, etc. Now, in the last census, Surrey +numbered 398,658 inhabitants, and to say not a word about the +other towns of the county, much above two hundred thousands of +these are WITHIN THE BILLS OF MORTALITY! 'We should, therefore, +be glad to know' how it is utterly inconsistent with my principle +that the fecundity of Guildford, which numbers about 3000 +inhabitants, should be greater than the average fecundity of +Surrey, made up, as the bulk of the population of Surrey is, of +the inhabitants of some of the worst parts of the metropolis? Or +why the fecundity of a given number of marriages in the eleven +little rural towns he alludes to, being somewhat higher than that +of an equal number, half taken, for instance, from the heart of +Birmingham or Manchester, and half from the populous districts by +which they are surrounded, is inconsistent with my theory? + +"Had the Reviewer's object, in this instance, been to discover +the truth, or had he known how to pursue it, it is perfectly +clear, at first sight, that he would not have instituted a +comparison between the prolificness which exists in the small +towns he has alluded to, and that in certain districts, the +population of which is made up, partly of rural inhabitants and +partly of accumulations of people in immense masses, the +prolificness of which, if he will allow me still the use of the +phrase, is inversely as their magnitude; but he would have +compared these small towns with the country places properly so +called, and then again the different classes of towns with each +other; this method would have led him to certain conclusions on +the subject." + +Now, this reply shows that Mr Sadler does not in the least +understand the principle which he has himself laid down. What is +that principle? It is this, that the fecundity of human beings +ON GIVEN SPACES, varies inversely as their numbers. We know what +he means by inverse variation. But we must suppose that he uses +the words, "given spaces," in the proper sense. Given spaces are +equal spaces. Is there any reason to believe, that in those +parts of Surrey which lie within the bills of mortality, there is +any space equal in area to the space on which Guildford stands, +which is more thickly peopled than the space on which Guildford +stands? We do not know that there is any such. We are sure that +there are not many. Why, therefore, on Mr Sadler's principle, +should the people of Guildford be more prolific than the people +who live within the bills of mortality? And, if the people of +Guildford ought, as on Mr Sadler's principle they unquestionably +ought, to stand as low in the scale of fecundity as the people of +Southwark itself, it follows, most clearly, that they ought to +stand far lower than the average obtained by taking all the +people of Surrey together. + +The same remark applies to the case of Birmingham, and to all the +other cases which Mr Sadler mentions. Towns of 5000 inhabitants +may be, and often are, as thickly peopled "on a given space," as +Birmingham. They are, in other words, as thickly peopled as a +portion of Birmingham, equal to them in area. If so, on Mr +Sadler's principle, they ought to be as low in the scale of +fecundity as Birmingham. But they are not so. On the contrary, +they stand higher than the average obtained by taking the +fecundity of Birmingham in combination with the fecundity of the +rural districts of Warwickshire. + +The plain fact is, that Mr Sadler has confounded the population +of a city with its population "on a given space,"--a mistake +which, in a gentleman who assures us that mathematical science +was one of his early and favourite studies, is somewhat curious. +It is as absurd, on his principle, to say that the fecundity of +London ought to be less than the fecundity of Edinburgh, because +London has a greater population than Edinburgh, as to say that +the fecundity of Russia ought to be greater than that of England, +because Russia has a greater population than England. He cannot +say that the spaces on which towns stand are too small to +exemplify the truth of his principle. For he has himself brought +forward the scale of fecundity in towns, as a proof of his +principle. And, in the very passage which we quoted above, he +tells us that, if we knew how to pursue truth or wished to find +it, we "should have compared these small towns with country +places, and the different classes of towns with each other." +That is to say, we ought to compare together such unequal spaces +as give results favourable to his theory, and never to compare +such equal spaces as give results opposed to it. Does he mean +anything by "a given space?" Or does he mean merely such a space +as suits his argument? It is perfectly clear that, if he is +allowed to take this course, he may prove anything. No fact can +come amiss to him. Suppose, for example, that the fecundity of +New York should prove to be smaller than the fecundity of +Liverpool. "That," says Mr Sadler, "makes for my theory. For +there are more people within two miles of the Broadway of New +York, than within two miles of the Exchange of Liverpool." +Suppose, on the other hand, that the fecundity of New York should +be greater than the fecundity of Liverpool. "This," says Mr +Sadler again, "is an unanswerable proof of my theory. For there +are many more people within forty miles of Liverpool than within +forty miles of New York." In order to obtain his numbers, he +takes spaces in any combinations which may suit him. In order to +obtain his averages, he takes numbers in any combinations which +may suit him. And then he tells us that, because his tables, at +the first glance, look well for his theory, his theory is +irrefragably proved. + +We will add a few words respecting the argument which we drew +from the peerage. Mr Sadler asserted that the peers were a class +condemned by nature to sterility. We denied this, and showed +from the last edition of Debrett, that the peers of the United +Kingdom have considerably more than the average number of +children to a marriage. Mr Sadler's answer has amused us much. +He denies the accuracy of our counting, and, by reckoning all the +Scotch and Irish peers as peers of the United Kingdom, certainly +makes very different numbers from those which we gave. A member +of the Parliament of the United Kingdom might have been expected, +we think, to know better what a peer of the United Kingdom is. + +By taking the Scotch and Irish peers, Mr Sadler has altered the +average. But it is considerably higher than the average +fecundity of England, and still, therefore, constitutes an +unanswerable argument against his theory. + +The shifts to which, in this difficulty, he has recourse, are +exceedingly diverting. "The average fecundity of the marriages +of peers," said we, "is higher by one-fifth than the average +fecundity of marriages throughout the kingdom." + +"Where, or by whom did the Reviewer find it supposed," answers Mr +Sadler, "that the registered baptisms expressed the full +fecundity of the marriages of England?" + +Assuredly, if the registers of England are so defective as to +explain the difference which, on our calculation, exists between +the fecundity of the peers and the fecundity of the people, no +argument against Mr Sadler's theory can be drawn from that +difference. But what becomes of all the other arguments which Mr +Sadler has founded on these very registers? Above all, what +becomes of his comparison between the censuses of England and +France? In the pamphlet before us, he dwells with great +complacency on a coincidence which seems to him to support his +theory, and which to us seems, of itself, sufficient to overthrow +it. + +"In my table of the population of France in the forty-four +departments in which there are from one to two hectares to each +inhabitant, the fecundity of 100 marriages, calculated on the +average of the results of the three computations relating to +different periods given in my table, is 406 7/10. In the twenty- +two counties of England in which there is from one to two +hectares to each inhabitant, or from 129 to 259 on the square +mile,--beginning, therefore, with Huntingdonshire, and ending +with Worcestershire,--the whole number of marriages during ten +years will be found to amount to 379,624, and the whole number of +the births during the same term to 1,545,549--or 407 1/10 births +to 100 marriages! A difference of one in one thousand only, +compared with the French proportion!" + +Does not Mr Sadler see that, if the registers of England, which +are notoriously very defective, give a result exactly +corresponding almost to an unit with that obtained from the +registers of France, which are notoriously very full and +accurate, this proves the very reverse of what he employs it to +prove? The correspondence of the registers proves that there is +no correspondence in the facts. In order to raise the average +fecundity of England even to the level of the average fecundity +of the peers of the three kingdoms, which is 3.81 to a marriage, +it is necessary to add nearly six per cent. to the number of +births given in the English registers. But, if this addition be +made, we shall have, in the counties of England, from +Huntingdonshire to Worcestershire inclusive, 4.30 births to a +marriage or thereabouts: and the boasted coincidence between the +phenomena of propagation in France and England disappears at +once. This is a curious specimen of Mr Sadler's proficiency in +the art of making excuses. In the same pamphlet he reasons as if +the same registers were accurate to one in a thousand, and as if +they were wrong at the very least by one in eighteen. + +He tries to show that we have not taken a fair criterion of the +fecundity of the peers. We are not quite sure that we understand +his reasoning on this subject. The order of his observations is +more than usually confused, and the cloud of words more than +usually thick. We will give the argument on which he seems to +lay most stress in his own words:-- + +"But I shall first notice a far more obvious and important +blunder into which the Reviewer has fallen; or into which, I +rather fear, he knowingly wishes to precipitate his readers, +since I have distinctly pointed out what ought to have preserved +him from it in the very chapter he is criticising and +contradicting. It is this:--he has entirely omitted 'counting' +the sterile marriages of all those peerages which have become +extinct during the very period his counting embraces. He counts, +for instance, Earl Fitzwilliam, his marriages, and heir; but has +he not omitted to enumerate the marriages of those branches of +the same noble house, which have become extinct since that +venerable individual possessed his title? He talks of my having +appealed merely to the extinction of peerages in my argument; +but, on his plan of computation, extinctions are perpetually and +wholly lost sight of. In computing the average prolificness of +the marriages of the nobles, he positively counts from a select +class of them only, one from which the unprolific are constantly +weeded, and regularly disappear; and he thus comes to the +conclusion, that the peers are 'an eminently prolific class!' +Just as though a farmer should compute the rate of increase; not +from the quantity of seed sown, but from that part of it only +which comes to perfection, entirely omitting all which had failed +to spring up or come to maturity. Upon this principle the most +scanty crop ever obtained, in which the husbandman should fail to +receive 'seed again,' as the phrase is, might be so 'counted' as +to appear 'eminently prolific' indeed." + +If we understand this passage rightly, it decisively proves that +Mr Sadler is incompetent to perform even the lowest offices of +statistical research. What shadow of reason is there to believe +that the peers who were alive in the year 1828 differed as to +their prolificness from any other equally numerous set of peers +taken at random? In what sense were the peers who were alive in +1828 analogous to that part of the seed which comes to +perfection? Did we entirely omit all that failed? On the +contrary, we counted the sterile as well as the fruitful +marriages of all the peers of the United Kingdom living at one +time. In what way were the peers who were alive in 1828 a select +class? In what way were the sterile weeded from among them? Did +every peer who had been married without having issue die in 1827? +What shadow of reason is there to suppose that there was not the +ordinary proportion of barren marriages among the marriages +contracted by the noblemen whose names are in Debrett's last +edition? But we ought, says Mr Sadler, to have counted all the +sterile marriages of all the peers "whose titles had become +extinct during the period which our counting embraced;" that is +to say, since the earliest marriage contracted by any peer living +in 1828. Was such a proposition ever heard of before? Surely we +were bound to do no such thing, unless at the same time we had +counted also the children born from all the fruitful marriages +contracted by peers during the same period. Mr Sadler would have +us divide the number of children born to peers living in 1828, +not by the number of marriages which those peers contracted, but +by the number of marriages which those peers contracted added to +a crowd of marriages selected, on account of their sterility, +from among the noble marriages which have taken place during the +last fifty years. Is this the way to obtain fair averages? We +might as well require that all the noble marriages which during +the last fifty years have produced ten children apiece should be +added to those of the peers living in 1828. The proper way to +ascertain whether a set of people be prolific or sterile is, not +to take marriages selected from the mass either on account of +their fruitfulness or on account of their sterility, but to take +a collection of marriages which there is no reason to think +either more or less fruitful than others. What reason is there +to think that the marriages contracted by the peers who were +alive in 1828 were more fruitful than those contracted by the +peers who were alive in 1800 or in 1750? + +We will add another passage from Mr Sadler's pamphlet on this +subject. We attributed the extinction of peerages partly to the +fact that those honours are for the most part limited to heirs +male. + +"This is a discovery indeed! Peeresses 'eminently prolific,' do +not, as Macbeth conjured his spouse, 'bring forth men-children +only;' they actually produce daughters as well as sons!! Why, +does not the Reviewer see, that so long as the rule of nature, +which proportions the sexes so accurately to each other, +continues to exist, a tendency to a diminution in one sex proves, +as certainly as the demonstration of any mathematical problem, a +tendency to a diminution in both; but to talk of 'eminently +prolific' peeresses, and still maintain that the rapid extinction +in peerages is owing to their not bearing male children +exclusively, is arrant nonsense." + +Now, if there be any proposition on the face of the earth which +we should not have expected to hear characterised as arrant +nonsense, it is this,--that an honour limited to males alone is +more likely to become extinct than an honour which, like the +crown of England, descends indifferently to sons and daughters. +We have heard, nay, we actually know families, in which, much as +Mr Sadler may marvel at it, there are daughters and no sons. +Nay, we know many such families. We are as much inclined as Mr +Sadler to trace the benevolent and wise arrangements of +Providence in the physical world, when once we are satisfied as +to the facts on which we proceed. And we have always considered +it as an arrangement deserving of the highest admiration, that, +though in families the number of males and females differs +widely, yet in great collections of human beings the disparity +almost disappears. The chance undoubtedly is, that in a thousand +marriages the number of daughters will not very much exceed the +number of sons. But the chance also is, that several of those +marriages will produce daughters, and daughters only. In every +generation of the peerage there are several such cases. When a +peer whose title is limited to male heirs dies, leaving only +daughters, his peerage must expire, unless he have, not only a +collateral heir, but a collateral heir descended through an +uninterrupted line of males from the first possessor of the +honour. If the deceased peer was the first nobleman of his +family, then, by the supposition, his peerage will become +extinct. If he was the second, it will become extinct, unless he +leaves a brother or a brother's son. If the second peer had a +brother, the first peer must have had at least two sons; and this +is more than the average number of sons to a marriage in England. +When, therefore, it is considered how many peerages are in the +first and second generation, it will not appear strange that +extinctions should frequently take place. There are peerages +which descend to females as well as males. But, in such cases, +if a peer dies, leaving only daughters, the very fecundity of the +marriage is a cause of the extinction of the peerage. If there +were only one daughter, the honour would descend. If there are +several, it falls into abeyance. + +But it is needless to multiply words in a case so clear; and, +indeed it is needless to say anything more about Mr Sadler's +book. We have, if we do not deceive ourselves, completely +exposed the calculations on which his theory rests; and we do not +think that we should either amuse our readers or serve the cause +of science if we were to rebut in succession a series of futile +charges brought in the most angry spirit against ourselves; +ignorant imputations of ignorance, and unfair complaints of +unfairness,--conveyed in long, dreary, declamations, so prolix +that we cannot find space to quote them, and so confused that we +cannot venture to abridge them. + +There is much indeed in this foolish pamphlet to laugh at, from +the motto in the first page down to some wisdom about cows in the +last. One part of it indeed is solemn enough, we mean a certain +jeu d'esprit of Mr Sadler's touching a tract of Dr Arbuthnot's. +This is indeed "very tragical mirth," as Peter Quince's playbill +has it; and we would not advise any person who reads for +amusement to venture on it as long as he can procure a volume of +the Statutes at Large. This, however, to do Mr Sadler justice, +is an exception. His witticisms, and his tables of figures, +constitute the only parts of his work which can be perused with +perfect gravity. His blunders are diverting, his excuses +exquisitely comic. But his anger is the most grotesque +exhibition that we ever saw. He foams at the mouth with the love +of truth, and vindicates the Divine benevolence with a most +edifying heartiness of hatred. On this subject we will give him +one word of parting advice. If he raves in this way to ease his +mind, or because he thinks that he does himself credit by it, or +from a sense of religious duty, far be it from us to interfere. +His peace, his reputation, and his religion are his own concern; +and he, like the nobleman to whom his treatise is dedicated, has +a right to do what he will with his own. But, if he has adopted +his abusive style from a notion that it would hurt our feelings, +we must inform him that he is altogether mistaken; and that he +would do well in future to give us his arguments, if he has any, +and to keep his anger for those who fear it. + +... + + +MIRABEAU. + +(July 1832.) + +"Souvenirs sur Mirabeau, et sur les deux Premieres Assemblees +Legislatives". Par Etienne Dumont, de Geneve: ouvrage posthume +publie par M.J.L. Duval, Membre du Conseil Representatif du +Canton du Geneve. 8vo. Paris: 1832. + +This is a very amusing and a very instructive book: but even if +it were less amusing and less instructive, it would still be +interesting as a relic of a wise and virtuous man. M. Dumont was +one of those persons, the care of whose fame belongs in an +especial manner to mankind. For he was one of those persons who +have, for the sake of mankind, neglected the care of their own +fame. In his walk through life there was no obtrusiveness, no +pushing, no elbowing, none of the little arts which bring forward +little men. With every right to the head of the board, he took +the lowest room, and well deserved to be greeted with--Friend, go +up higher. Though no man was more capable of achieving for +himself a separate and independent renown, he attached himself to +others; he laboured to raise their fame; he was content to +receive as his share of the reward the mere overflowings which +redounded from the full measure of their glory. Not that he was +of a servile and idolatrous habit of mind:--not that he was one +of the tribe of Boswells,--those literary Gibeonites, born to be +hewers of wood and drawers of water to the higher intellectual +castes. Possessed of talents and acquirements which made him +great, he wished only to be useful. In the prime of manhood, at +the very time of life at which ambitious men are most ambitious, +he was not solicitous to proclaim that he furnished information, +arguments, and eloquence to Mirabeau. In his later years he was +perfectly willing that his renown should merge in that of Mr +Bentham. + +The services which M. Dumont has rendered to society can be fully +appreciated only by those who have studied Mr Bentham's works, +both in their rude and in their finished state. The difference +both for show and for use is as great as the difference between a +lump of golden ore and a rouleau of sovereigns fresh from the +mint. Of Mr Bentham we would at all times speak with the +reverence which is due to a great original thinker, and to a +sincere and ardent friend of the human race. If a few weaknesses +were mingled with his eminent virtues,--if a few errors +insinuated themselves among the many valuable truths which he +taught,--this is assuredly no time for noticing those weaknesses +or those errors in an unkind or sarcastic spirit. A great man +has gone from among us, full of years, of good works, and of +deserved honours. In some of the highest departments in which +the human intellect can exert itself he has not left his equal or +his second behind him. From his contemporaries he has had, +according to the usual lot, more or less than justice. He has +had blind flatterers and blind detractors--flatterers who could +see nothing but perfection in his style, detractors who could see +nothing but nonsense in his matter. He will now have judges. +Posterity will pronounce its calm and impartial decision; and +that decision will, we firmly believe, place in the same rank +with Galileo, and with Locke, the man who found jurisprudence a +gibberish and left it a science. Never was there a literary +partnership so fortunate as that of Mr Bentham and M. Dumont. +The raw material which Mr Bentham furnished was most precious; +but it was unmarketable. He was, assuredly, at once a great +logician and a great rhetorician. But the effect of his logic +was injured by a vicious arrangement, and the effect of his +rhetoric by a vicious style. His mind was vigorous, +comprehensive, subtile, fertile of arguments, fertile of +illustrations. But he spoke in an unknown tongue; and, that the +congregation might be edified, it was necessary that some brother +having the gift of interpretation should expound the invaluable +jargon. His oracles were of high import; but they were traced on +leaves and flung loose to the wind. So negligent was he of the +arts of selection, distribution, and compression, that to persons +who formed their judgment of him from his works in their +undigested state he seemed to be the least systematic of all +philosophers. The truth is, that his opinions formed a system, +which, whether sound or unsound, is more exact, more entire, and +more consistent with itself than any other. Yet to superficial +readers of his works in their original form, and indeed to all +readers of those works who did not bring great industry and great +acuteness to the study, he seemed to be a man of a quick and +ingenious but ill-regulated mind,--who saw truth only by +glimpses,--who threw out many striking hints, but who had never +thought of combining his doctrines in one harmonious whole. + +M. Dumont was admirably qualified to supply what was wanting in +Mr Bentham. In the qualities in which the French writers surpass +those of all other nations--neatness, clearness, precision, +condensation--he surpassed all French writers. If M. Dumont had +never been born, Mr Bentham would still have been a very great +man. But he would have been great to himself alone. The +fertility of his mind would have resembled the fertility of those +vast American wildernesses in which blossoms and decays a rich +but unprofitable vegetation, "wherewith the reaper filleth not +his hand, neither he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosom." It +would have been with his discoveries as it has been with the +"Century of Inventions." His speculations on laws would have +been of no more practical use than Lord Worcester's speculations +on steam-engines. Some generations hence, perhaps, when +legislation had found its Watt, an antiquarian might have +published to the world the curious fact that, in the reign of +George the Third, there had been a man called Bentham, who had +given hints of many discoveries made since his time, and who had +really, for his age, taken a most philosophical view of the +principles of jurisprudence. + +Many persons have attempted to interpret between this powerful +mind and the public. But, in our opinion, M. Dumont alone has +succeeded. It is remarkable that, in foreign countries, where Mr +Bentham's works are known solely through the medium of the French +version, his merit is almost universally acknowledged. Even +those who are most decidedly opposed to his political opinions-- +the very chiefs of the Holy Alliance--have publicly testified +their respect for him. In England, on the contrary, many persons +who certainly entertained no prejudice against him on political +grounds were long in the habit of mentioning him contemptuously. +Indeed, what was said of Bacon's philosophy may be said of +Bentham's. It was in little repute among us, till judgments in +its favour came from beyond sea, and convinced us, to our shame, +that we had been abusing and laughing at one of the greatest men +of the age. + +M. Dumont might easily have found employments more gratifying to +personal vanity than that of arranging works not his own. But he +could have found no employment more useful or more truly +honourable. The book before us, hastily written as it is, +contains abundant proof, if proof were needed, that he did not +become an editor because he wanted the talents which would have +made him eminent as a writer. + +Persons who hold democratical opinions, and who have been +accustomed to consider M. Dumont as one of their party, have been +surprised and mortified to learn that he speaks with very little +respect of the French Revolution and of its authors. Some +zealous Tories have naturally expressed great satisfaction at +finding their doctrines, in some respects, confirmed by the +testimony of an unwilling witness. The date of the work, we +think, explains everything. If it had been written ten years +earlier, or twenty years later, it would have been very different +from what it is. It was written, neither during the first +excitement of the Revolution, nor at that later period when the +practical good produced by the Revolution had become manifest to +the most prejudiced observers; but in those wretched times when +the enthusiasm had abated, and the solid advantages were not yet +fully seen. It was written in the year 1799,--a year in which +the most sanguine friend of liberty might well feel some +misgivings as to the effects of what the National Assembly had +done. The evils which attend every great change had been +severely felt. The benefit was still to come. The price--a +heavy price--had been paid. The thing purchased had not yet been +delivered. Europe was swarming with French exiles. The fleets +and armies of the second coalition were victorious. Within +France, the reign of terror was over; but the reign of law had +not commenced. There had been, indeed, during three or four +years, a written Constitution, by which rights were defined and +checks provided. But these rights had been repeatedly violated; +and those checks had proved utterly inefficient. The laws which +had been framed to secure the distinct authority of the executive +magistrates and of the legislative assemblies--the freedom of +election--the freedom of debate--the freedom of the press--the +personal freedom of citizens--were a dead letter. The ordinary +mode in which the Republic was governed was by coups d'etat. On +one occasion, the legislative councils were placed under military +restraint by the directors. Then, again, directors were deposed +by the legislative councils. Elections were set aside by the +executive authority. Ship-loads of writers and speakers were +sent, without a legal trial, to die of fever in Guiana. France, +in short, was in that state in which revolutions, effected by +violence, almost always leave a nation. The habit of obedience +had been lost. The spell of prescription had been broken. Those +associations on which, far more than on any arguments about +property and order, the authority of magistrates rests, had +completely passed away. The power of the government consisted +merely in the physical force which it could bring to its support. +Moral force it had none. It was itself a government sprung from +a recent convulsion. Its own fundamental maxim was, that +rebellion might be justifiable. Its own existence proved that +rebellion might be successful. The people had been accustomed, +during several years, to offer resistance to the constituted +authorities on the slightest provocation, and to see the +constituted authorities yield to that resistance. The whole +political world was "without form and void"--an incessant whirl +of hostile atoms, which, every moment, formed some new +combination. The only man who could fix the agitated elements of +society in a stable form was following a wild vision of glory and +empire through the Syrian deserts. The time was not yet come, +when + +"Confusion heard his voice; and wild uproar +Stood ruled:" + +when, out of the chaos into which the old society had been +resolved, were to rise a new dynasty, a new peerage, a new +church, and a new code. + +The dying words of Madame Roland, "Oh, Liberty! how many crimes +are committed in thy name!" were at that time echoed by many of +the most upright and benevolent of mankind. M. Guizot has, in +one of his admirable pamphlets, happily and justly described M. +Laine as "an honest and liberal man, discouraged by the +Revolution." This description, at the time when M. Dumont's +Memoirs were written, would have applied to almost every honest +and liberal man in Europe; and would, beyond all doubt, have +applied to M. Dumont himself. To that fanatical worship of the +all-wise and all-good people, which had been common a few years +before, had succeeded an uneasy suspicion that the follies and +vices of the people would frustrate all attempts to serve them. +The wild and joyous exaltation, with which the meeting of the +States-General and the fall of the Bastile had been hailed, had +passed away. In its place was dejection, and a gloomy distrust +of suspicious appearances. The philosophers and philanthropists +had reigned. And what had their reign produced? Philosophy had +brought with it mummeries as absurd as any which had been +practised by the most superstitious zealot of the darkest age. +Philanthropy had brought with it crimes as horrible as the +massacre of Saint Bartholomew. This was the emancipation of the +human mind. These were the fruits of the great victory of reason +over prejudice. France had rejected the faith of Pascal and +Descartes as a nursery fable, that a courtezan might be her idol, +and a madman her priest. She had asserted her freedom against +Louis, that she might bow down before Robespierre. For a time +men thought that all the boasted wisdom of the eighteenth century +was folly; and that those hopes of great political and social +ameliorations which had been cherished by Voltaire and Condorcet +were utterly delusive. + +Under the influence of these feelings, M. Dumont has gone so far +as to say that the writings of Mr Burke on the French Revolution, +though disfigured by exaggeration, and though containing +doctrines subversive of all public liberty, had been, on the +whole, justified by events, and had probably saved Europe from +great disasters. That such a man as the friend and fellow- +labourer of Mr Bentham should have expressed such an opinion is a +circumstance which well deserves the consideration of +uncharitable politicians. These Memoirs have not convinced us +that the French Revolution was not a great blessing to mankind. +But they have convinced us that very great indulgence is due to +those who, while the Revolution was actually taking place, +regarded it with unmixed aversion and horror. We can perceive +where their error lay. We can perceive that the evil was +temporary, and the good durable. But we cannot be sure that, if +our lot had been cast in their times, we should not, like them, +have been discouraged and disgusted--that we should not, like +them, have seen, in that great victory of the French people, only +insanity and crime. + +It is curious to observe how some men are applauded, and others +reviled, for merely being what all their neighbours are,--for +merely going passively down the stream of events,--for merely +representing the opinions and passions of a whole generation. +The friends of popular government ordinarily speak with extreme +severity of Mr Pitt, and with respect and tenderness of Mr +Canning. Yet the whole difference, we suspect, consisted merely +in this,--that Mr Pitt died in 1806, and Mr Canning in 1827. +During the years which were common to the public life of both, Mr +Canning was assuredly not a more liberal statesman than his +patron. The truth is that Mr Pitt began his political life at +the end of the American War, when the nation was suffering from +the effects of corruption. He closed it in the midst of the +calamities produced by the French Revolution, when the nation was +still strongly impressed with the horrors of anarchy. He +changed, undoubtedly. In his youth he had brought in reform +bills. In his manhood he brought in gagging bills. But the +change, though lamentable, was, in our opinion, perfectly +natural, and might have been perfectly honest. He changed with +the great body of his countrymen. Mr Canning on the other hand, +entered into public life when Europe was in dread of the +Jacobins. He closed his public life when Europe was suffering +under the tyranny of the Holy Alliance. He, too, changed with +the nation. As the crimes of the Jacobins had turned the master +into something very like a Tory, the events which followed the +Congress of Vienna turned the pupil into something very like a +Whig. + +So much are men the creatures of circumstances. We see that, if +M. Dumont had died in 1799, he would have died, to use the new +cant word, a decided "Conservative." If Mr Pitt had lived in +1832, it is our firm belief that he would have been a decided +Reformer. + +The judgment passed by M. Dumont in this work on the French +Revolution must be taken with considerable allowances. It +resembles a criticism on a play of which only the first act has +been performed, or on a building from which the scaffolding has +not yet been taken down. We have no doubt that, if the excellent +author had revised these Memoirs thirty years after the time at +which they were written, he would have seen reason to omit a few +passages, and to add many qualifications and explanations. + +He would not probably have been inclined to retract the censures, +just, though severe, which he has passed on the ignorance, the +presumption, and the pedantry, of the National Assembly. But he +would have admitted that, in spite of those faults, perhaps even +by reason of those faults, that Assembly had conferred +inestimable benefits on mankind. It is clear that, among the +French of that day, political knowledge was absolutely in its +infancy. It would indeed have been strange if it had attained +maturity in the time of censors, of lettres-de-cachet, and of +beds of justice. The electors did not know how to elect. The +representatives did not know how to deliberate. M. Dumont taught +the constituent body of Montreuil how to perform their functions, +and found them apt to learn. He afterwards tried, in concert +with Mirabeau, to instruct the National Assembly in that +admirable system of Parliamentary tactics which has been long +established in the English House of Commons, and which has made +the House of Commons, in spite of all the defects in its +composition, the best and fairest debating society in the world. +But these accomplished legislators, though quite as ignorant as +the mob of Montreuil, proved much less docile, and cried out that +they did not want to go to school to the English. Their debates +consisted of endless successions of trashy pamphlets, all +beginning with something about the original compact of society, +man in the hunting state, and other such foolery. They sometimes +diversified and enlivened these long readings by a little +rioting. They bawled; they hooted; they shook their fists. They +kept no order among themselves. They were insulted with impunity +by the crowd which filled their galleries. They gave long and +solemn consideration to trifles. They hurried through the most +important resolutions with fearful expedition. They wasted +months in quibbling about the words of that false and childish +Declaration of Rights on which they professed to found their new +constitution, and which was at irreconcilable variance with every +clause of that constitution. They annihilated in a single night +privileges, many of which partook of the nature of property, and +ought therefore to have been most delicately handled. + +They are called the Constituent Assembly. Never was a name less +appropriate. They were not constituent, but the very reverse of +constituent. They constituted nothing that stood or that +deserved to last. They had not, and they could not possibly +have, the information or the habits of mind which are necessary +for the framing of that most exquisite of all machines--a +government. The metaphysical cant with which they prefaced their +constitution has long been the scoff of all parties. Their +constitution itself,--that constitution which they described as +absolutely perfect, and to which they predicted immortality,-- +disappeared in a few months, and left no trace behind it. They +were great only in the work of destruction. + +The glory of the National Assembly is this, that they were in +truth, what Mr Burke called them in austere irony, the ablest +architects of ruin that ever the world saw. They were utterly +incompetent to perform any work which required a discriminating +eye and a skilful hand. But the work which was then to be done +was a work of devastation. They had to deal with abuses so +horrible and so deeply rooted that the highest political wisdom +could scarcely have produced greater good to mankind than was +produced by their fierce and senseless temerity. Demolition is +undoubtedly a vulgar task; the highest glory of the statesman is +to construct. But there is a time for everything,--a time to set +up, and a time to pull down. The talents of revolutionary +leaders and those of the legislator have equally their use and +their season. It is the natural, the almost universal, law, that +the age of insurrections and proscriptions shall precede the age +of good government, of temperate liberty, and liberal order. + +And how should it be otherwise? It is not in swaddling-bands +that we learn to walk. It is not in the dark that we learn to +distinguish colours. It is not under oppression that we learn +how to use freedom. The ordinary sophism by which misrule is +defended is, when truly stated, this:--The people must continue +in slavery, because slavery has generated in them all the vices +of slaves. Because they are ignorant, they must remain under a +power which has made and which keeps them ignorant. Because they +have been made ferocious by misgovernment, they must be +misgoverned for ever. If the system under which they live were +so mild and liberal that under its operation they had become +humane and enlightened, it would be safe to venture on a change. +But, as this system has destroyed morality, and prevented the +development of the intellect,--as it has turned men, who might +under different training have formed a virtuous and happy +community, into savage and stupid wild beasts,--therefore it +ought to last for ever. The English Revolution, it is said, was +truly a glorious Revolution. Practical evils were redressed; no +excesses were committed; no sweeping confiscations took place; +the authority of the laws was scarcely for a moment suspended; +the fullest and freest discussion was tolerated in Parliament; +the nation showed, by the calm and temperate manner in which it +asserted its liberty, that it was fit to enjoy liberty. The +French Revolution was, on the other hand, the most horrible event +recorded in history,--all madness and wickedness,--absurdity in +theory, and atrocity in practice. What folly and injustice in +the revolutionary laws! What grotesque affectation in the +revolutionary ceremonies! What fanaticism! What licentiousness! +What cruelty! Anacharsis Clootz and Marat,--feasts of the +Supreme Being, and marriages of the Loire--trees of liberty, and +heads dancing on pikes--the whole forms a kind of infernal farce, +made up of everything ridiculous, and everything frightful. This +it is to give freedom to those who have neither wisdom nor +virtue. + +It is not only by bad men interested in the defence of abuses +that arguments like these have been urged against all schemes of +political improvement. Some of the highest and purest of human +beings conceived such scorn and aversion for the follies and +crimes of the French Revolution that they recanted, in the moment +of triumph, those liberal opinions to which they had clung in +defiance of persecution. And, if we inquire why it was that they +began to doubt whether liberty were a blessing, we shall find +that it was only because events had proved, in the clearest +manner, that liberty is the parent of virtue and of order. They +ceased to abhor tyranny merely because it had been signally shown +that the effect of tyranny on the hearts and understandings of +men is more demoralising and more stupifying than had ever been +imagined by the most zealous friend of popular rights. The truth +is, that a stronger argument against the old monarchy of France +may be drawn from the noyades and the fusillades than from the +Bastile and the Parc-aux-cerfs. We believe it to be a rule +without an exception, that the violence of a revolution +corresponds to the degree of misgovernment which has produced +that revolution. Why was the French Revolution so bloody and +destructive? Why was our revolution of 1641 comparatively mild? +Why was our revolution of 1688 milder still? Why was the +American Revolution, considered as an internal movement, the +mildest of all? There is an obvious and complete solution of the +problem. The English under James the First and Charles the First +were less oppressed than the French under Louis the Fifteenth and +Louis the Sixteenth. The English were less oppressed after the +Restoration than before the great Rebellion. And America under +George the Third was less oppressed than England under the +Stuarts. The reaction was exactly proportioned to the pressure, +--the vengeance to the provocation. + +When Mr Burke was reminded in his later years of the zeal which +he had displayed in the cause of the Americans, he vindicated +himself from the charge of inconsistency, by contrasting the +wisdom and moderation of the Colonial insurgents of 1776 with the +fanaticism and wickedness of the Jacobins of 1792. He was in +fact bringing an argument a fortiori against himself. The +circumstances on which he rested his vindication fully proved +that the old government of France stood in far more need of a +complete change than the old government of America. The +difference between Washington and Robespierre,--the difference +between Franklin and Barere,--the difference between the +destruction of a few barrels of tea and the confiscation of +thousands of square miles,--the difference between the tarring +and feathering of a tax-gatherer and the massacres of September, +--measure the difference between the government of America under +the rule of England and the government of France under the rule +of the Bourbons. + +Louis the Sixteenth made great voluntary concessions to his +people; and they sent him to the scaffold. Charles the Tenth +violated the fundamental laws of the state, established a +despotism, and butchered his subjects for not submitting quietly +to that despotism. He failed in his wicked attempt. He was at +the mercy of those whom he had injured. The pavements of Paris +were still heaped up in barricades;--the hospitals were still +full of the wounded;--the dead were still unburied;--a thousand +families were in mourning;--a hundred thousand citizens were in +arms. The crime was recent;--the life of the criminal was in the +hands of the sufferers;--and they touched not one hair of his +head. In the first revolution, victims were sent to death by +scores for the most trifling acts proved by the lowest testimony, +before the most partial tribunals. After the second revolution, +those ministers who had signed the ordinances, those ministers, +whose guilt, as it was of the foulest kind, was proved by the +clearest evidence,--were punished only with imprisonment. In the +first revolution, property was attacked. In the second, it was +held sacred. Both revolutions, it is true, left the public mind +of France in an unsettled state. Both revolutions were followed +by insurrectionary movements. But, after the first revolution, +the insurgents were almost always stronger than the law; and, +since the second revolution, the law has invariably been found +stronger than the insurgents. There is, indeed, much in the +present state of France which may well excite the uneasiness of +those who desire to see her free, happy, powerful, and secure. +Yet, if we compare the present state of France with the state in +which she was forty years ago, how vast a change for the better +has taken place! How little effect, for example, during the +first revolution, would the sentence of a judicial body have +produced on an armed and victorious partty! If, after the 10th +of August, or after the proscription of the Gironde, or after the +9th of Thermidor, or after the carnage of Vendemiaire, or after +the arrests of Fructidor, any tribunal had decided against the +conquerors in favour of the conquered, with what contempt, with +what derision, would its award have been received! The judges +would have lost their heads, or would have been sent to die in +some unwholesome colony. The fate of the victim whom they had +endeavoured to save would only have been made darker and more +hopeless by their interference. We have lately seen a signal +proof that, in France, the law is now stronger than the sword. +We have seen a government, in the very moment of triumph and +revenge, submitting itself to the authority of a court of law. A +just and independent sentence has been pronounced--a sentence +worthy of the ancient renown of that magistracy to which belong +the noblest recollections of French history--which, in an age of +persecutors, produced L'Hopital,--which, in an age of courtiers, +produced D'Aguesseau,--which, in an age of wickedness and +madness, exhibited to mankind a pattern of every virtue in the +life and in the death of Malesherbes. The respectful manner in +which that sentence has been received is alone sufficient to show +how widely the French of this generation differ from their +fathers. And how is the difference to be explained? The race, +the soil, the climate, are the same. If those dull, honest +Englishmen, who explain the events of 1793 and 1794 by saying +that the French are naturally frivolous and cruel, were in the +right, why is the guillotine now standing idle? Not surely for +want of Carlists, of aristocrats, of people guilty of incivism, +of people suspected of being suspicious characters. Is not the +true explanation this, that the Frenchman of 1832 has been far +better governed than the Frenchman of 1789,--that his soul has +never been galled by the oppressive privileges of a separate +caste,--that he has been in some degree accustomed to discuss +political questions, and to perform political functions,--that he +has lived for seventeen or eighteen years under institutions +which, however defective, have yet been far superior to any +institutions that had before existed in France? + +As the second French Revolution has been far milder than the +first, so that great change which has just been effected in +England has been milder even than the second French Revolution,-- +milder than any revolution recorded in history. Some orators +have described the reform of the House of Commons as a +revolution. Others have denied the propriety of the term. The +question, though in seeming merely a question of definition, +suggests much curious and interesting matter for reflection. If +we look at the magnitude of the reform, it may well be called a +revolution. If we look at the means by which it has been +effected, it is merely an Act of Parliament, regularly brought +in, read, committed, and passed. In the whole history of +England, there is no prouder circumstance than this,--that a +change, which could not, in any other age, or in any other +country, have been effected without physical violence, should +here have been effected by the force of reason, and under the +forms of law. The work of three civil wars has been accomplished +by three sessions of Parliament. An ancient and deeply rooted +system of abuses has been fiercely attacked and stubbornly +defended. It has fallen; and not one sword has been drawn; not +one estate has been confiscated; not one family has been forced +to emigrate. The bank has kept its credit. The funds have kept +their price. Every man has gone forth to his work and to his +labour till the evening. During the fiercest excitement of the +contest,--during the first fortnight of that immortal May,--there +was not one moment at which any sanguinary act committed on the +person of any of the most unpopular men in England would not have +filled the country with horror and indignation. + +And now that the victory is won, has it been abused? An immense +mass of power has been transferred from an oligarchy to the +nation. Are the members of the vanquished oligarchy insecure? +Does the nation seem disposed to play the tyrant? Are not those +who, in any other state of society, would have been visited with +the severest vengeance of the triumphant party,--would have been +pining in dungeons, or flying to foreign countries,--still +enjoying their possessions and their honours, still taking part +as freely as ever in public affairs? Two years ago they were +dominant. They are now vanquished. Yet the whole people would +regard with horror any man who should dare to propose any +vindictive measure. So common is this feeling,--so much is it a +matter of course among us,--that many of our readers will +scarcely understand what we see to admire in it. + +To what are we to attribute the unparalleled moderation and +humanity which the English people had displayed at this great +conjuncture? The answer is plain. This moderation, this +humanity, are the fruits of a hundred and fifty years of liberty. +During many generations we have had legislative assemblies which, +however defective their constitution might be, have always +contained many members chosen by the people, and many others +eager to obtain the approbation of the people:--assemblies in +which perfect freedom of debate was allowed;--assemblies in which +the smallest minority had a fair hearing; assemblies in which +abuses, even when they were not redressed, were at least exposed. +For many generations we have had the trial by jury, the Habeas +Corpus Act, the freedom of the press, the right of meeting to +discuss public affairs, the right of petitioning the legislature. +A vast portion of the population has long been accustomed to the +exercise of political functions, and has been thoroughly seasoned +to political excitement. In most other countries there is no +middle course between absolute submission and open rebellion. In +England there has always been for centuries a constitutional +opposition. Thus our institutions had been so good that they had +educated us into a capacity for better institutions. There is +not a large town in the kingdom which does not contain better +materials for a legislature than all France could furnish in +1789. There is not a spouting-club at any pot-house in London in +which the rules of debate are not better understood, and more +strictly observed, than in the Constituent Assembly. There is +scarcely a Political Union which could not frame in half an hour +a declaration of rights superior to that which occupied the +collective wisdom of France for several months. + +It would be impossible even to glance at all the causes of the +French Revolution within the limits to which we must confine +ourselves. One thing is clear. The government, the aristocracy, +and the church were rewarded after their works. They reaped that +which they had sown. They found the nation such as they had made +it. That the people had become possessed of irresistible power +before they had attained the slightest knowledge of the art of +government--that practical questions of vast moment were left to +be solved by men to whom politics had been only matter of theory +--that a legislature was composed of persons who were scarcely +fit to compose a debating society--that the whole nation was +ready to lend an ear to any flatterer who appealed to its +cupidity, to its fears, or to its thirst for vengeance--all this +was the effect of misrule, obstinately continued in defiance of +solemn warnings, and of the visible signs of an approaching +retribution. + +Even while the monarchy seemed to be in its highest and most +palmy state, the causes of that great destruction had already +begun to operate. They may be distinctly traced even under the +reign of Louis the Fourteenth. That reign is the time to which +the Ultra-Royalists refer as the Golden Age of France. It was in +truth one of those periods which shine with an unnatural and +delusive splendour, and which are rapidly followed by gloom and +decay. + +Concerning Louis the Fourteenth himself, the world seems at last +to have formed a correct judgment. He was not a great general; +he was not a great statesman; but he was, in one sense of the +words, a great king. Never was there so consummate a master of +what our James the First would have called kingcraft,--of all +those arts which most advantageously display the merits of a +prince, and most completely hide his defects. Though his +internal administration was bad,--though the military triumphs +which gave splendour to the early part of his reign were not +achieved by himself,--though his later years were crowded with +defeats and humiliations,--though he was so ignorant that he +scarcely understood the Latin of his mass-book,--though he fell +under the control of a cunning Jesuit and of a more cunning old +woman,--he succeeded in passing himself off on his people as a +being above humanity. And this is the more extraordinary because +he did not seclude himself from the public gaze like those +Oriental despots whose faces are never seen, and whose very names +it is a crime to pronounce lightly. It has been said that no man +is a hero to his valet;--and all the world saw as much of Louis +the Fourteenth as his valet could see. Five hundred people +assembled to see him shave and put on his breeches in the +morning. He then kneeled down at the side of his bed, and said +his prayer while the whole assembly awaited the end in solemn +silence--the ecclesiastics on their knees, and the laymen with +their hats before their faces. He walked about his gardens with +a train of two hundred courtiers at his heels. All Versailles +came to see him dine and sup. He was put to bed at night in the +midst of a crowd as great as that which had met to see him rise +in the morning. He took his very emetics in state, and vomited +majestically in the presence of all the grandes and petites +entrees. Yet, though he constantly exposed himself to the public +gaze in situations in which it is scarcely possible for any man +to preserve much personal dignity, he to the last impressed those +who surrounded him with the deepest awe and reverence. The +illusion which he produced on his worshippers can be compared +only to those illusions to which lovers are proverbially subject +during the season of courtship. It was an illusion which +affected even the senses. The contemporaries of Louis thought +him tall. Voltaire, who might have seen him, and who had lived +with some of the most distinguished members of his court, speaks +repeatedly of his majestic stature. Yet it is as certain as any +fact can be, that he was rather below than above the middle size. +He had, it seems, a way of holding himself, a way of walking, a +way of swelling his chest and rearing his head, which deceived +the eyes of the multitude. Eighty years after his death, the +royal cemetery was violated by the revolutionists, his coffin was +opened; his body was dragged out; and it appeared that the +prince, whose majestic figure had been so long and loudly +extolled, was in truth a little man. (Even M. de Chateaubriand, +to whom we should have thought all the Bourbons would have seemed +at least six feet high, admits this fact. "C'est une erreur," +says he in his strange memoirs of the Duke of Berri, "de croire +que Louis XIV. etait d'une haute stature. Une cuirasse qui nous +reste de lui, et les exhumations de St Denys, n'ont laisse sur +certain point aucun doute.") That fine expression of Juvenal is +singularly applicable, both in its literal and in its +metaphorical sense, to Louis the Fourteenth: + +"Mors sola fatetur +Quantula sint hominum corpuscula." + +His person and his government have had the same fate. He had the +art of making both appear grand and august, in spite of the +clearest evidence that both were below the ordinary standard. +Death and time have exposed both the deceptions. The body of the +great king has been measured more justly than it was measured by +the courtiers who were afraid to look above his shoe-tie. His +public character has been scrutinized by men free from the hopes +and fears of Boileau and Moliere. In the grave, the most +majestic of princes is only five feet eight. In history, the +hero and the politician dwindles into a vain and feeble tyrant,-- +the slave of priests and women--little in war,--little in +government,--little in everything but the art of simulating +greatness. + +He left to his infant successor a famished and miserable people, +a beaten and humbled army, provinces turned into deserts by +misgovernment and persecution, factions dividing the court, a +schism raging in the church, an immense debt, an empty treasury, +immeasurable palaces, an innumerable household, inestimable +jewels and furniture. All the sap and nutriment of the state +seemed to have been drawn to feed one bloated and unwholesome +excrescence. The nation was withered. The court was morbidly +flourishing. Yet it does not appear that the associations which +attached the people to the monarchy had lost strength during his +reign. He had neglected or sacrificed their dearest interests; +but he had struck their imaginations. The very things which +ought to have made him most unpopular,--the prodigies of luxury +and magnificence with which his person was surrounded, while, +beyond the inclosure of his parks, nothing was to be seen but +starvation and despair,--seemed to increase the respectful +attachment which his subjects felt for him. That governments +exist only for the good of the people, appears to be the most +obvious and simple of all truths. Yet history proves that it is +one of the most recondite. We can scarcely wonder that it should +be so seldom present to the minds of rulers, when we see how +slowly, and through how much suffering, nations arrive at the +knowledge of it. + +There was indeed one Frenchman who had discovered those +principles which it now seems impossible to miss,--that the many +are not made for the use of one,--that the truly good government +is not that which concentrates magnificence in a court, but that +which diffuses happiness among a people,--that a king who gains +victory after victory, and adds province to province, may +deserve, not the admiration, but the abhorrence and contempt of +mankind. These were the doctrines which Fenelon taught. +Considered as an epic poem, Telemachus can scarcely be placed +above Glover's Leonidas or Wilkie's Epigoniad. Considered as a +treatise on politics and morals, it abounds with errors of +detail; and the truths which it inculcates seem trite to a modern +reader. But, if we compare the spirit in which it is written +with the spirit which pervades the rest of the French literature +of that age, we shall perceive that, though in appearance trite, +it was in truth one of the most original works that have ever +appeared. The fundamental principles of Fenelon's political +morality, the test by which he judged of institutions and of men, +were absolutely new to his countrymen. He had taught them +indeed, with the happiest effect, to his royal pupil. But how +incomprehensible they were to most people, we learn from Saint +Simon. That amusing writer tells us, as a thing almost +incredible, that the Duke of Burgundy declared it to be his +opinion that kings existed for the good of the people, and not +the people for the good of kings. Saint Simon is delighted with +the benevolence of this saying; but startled by its novelty and +terrified by its boldness. Indeed he distinctly says that it was +not safe to repeat the sentiment in the court of Louis. Saint +Simon was, of all the members of that court, the least courtly. +He was as nearly an oppositionist as any man of his time. His +disposition was proud, bitter, and cynical. In religion he was a +Jansenist; in politics, a less hearty royalist than most of his +neighbours. His opinions and his temper had preserved him from +the illusions which the demeanour of Louis produced on others. +He neither loved nor respected the king. Yet even this man,--one +of the most liberal men in France,--was struck dumb with +astonishment at hearing the fundamental axiom of all government +propounded,--an axiom which, in our time, nobody in England or +France would dispute,--which the stoutest Tory takes for granted +as much as the fiercest Radical, and concerning which the Carlist +would agree with the most republican deputy of the "extreme +left." No person will do justice to Fenelon, who does not +constantly keep in mind that Telemachus was written in an age and +nation in which bold and independent thinkers stared to hear that +twenty millions of human beings did not exist for the +gratification of one. That work is commonly considered as a +schoolbook, very fit for children, because its style is easy and +its morality blameless, but unworthy of the attention of +statesmen and philosophers. We can distinguish in it, if we are +not greatly mistaken, the first faint dawn of a long and splendid +day of intellectual light,--the dim promise of a great +deliverance,--the undeveloped germ of the charter and of the +code. + +What mighty interests were staked on the life of the Duke of +Burgundy! and how different an aspect might the history of France +have borne if he had attained the age of his grandfather or of +his son;--if he had been permitted to show how much could be done +for humanity by the highest virtue in the highest fortune! There +is scarcely anything in history more remarkable than the +descriptions which remain to us of that extraordinary man. The +fierce and impetuous temper which he showed in early youth,--the +complete change which a judicious education produced in his +character,--his fervid piety,--his large benevolence,--the +strictness with which he judged himself,--the liberality with +which he judged others,--the fortitude with which alone, in the +whole court, he stood up against the commands of Louis, when a +religious scruple was concerned,--the charity with which alone, +in the whole court, he defended the profligate Orleans against +calumniators,--his great projects for the good of the people,-- +his activity in business,--his taste for letters,--his strong +domestic attachments,--even the ungraceful person and the shy and +awkward manner which concealed from the eyes of the sneering +courtiers of his grandfather so many rare endowments,--make his +character the most interesting that is to be found in the annals +of his house. He had resolved, if he came to the throne, to +disperse that ostentatious court, which was supported at an +expense ruinous to the nation,--to preserve peace,--to correct +the abuses which were found in every part of the system of +revenue,--to abolish or modify oppressive privileges,--to reform +the administration of justice,--to revive the institution of the +States-General. If he had ruled over France during forty or +fifty years, that great movement of the human mind, which no +government could have arrested, which bad government only +rendered more violent, would, we are inclined to think, have been +conducted, by peaceable means to a happy termination. + +Disease and sorrow removed from the world that wisdom and virtue +of which it was not worthy. During two generations France was +ruled by men who, with all the vices of Louis the Fourteenth, had +none of the art by which that magnificent prince passed off his +vices for virtues. The people had now to see tyranny naked. +That foul Duessa was stripped of her gorgeous ornaments. She had +always been hideous; but a strange enchantment had made her seem +fair and glorious in the eyes of her willing slaves. The spell +was now broken; the deformity was made manifest; and the lovers, +lately so happy and so proud, turned away loathing and horror- +struck. + +First came the Regency. The strictness with which Louis had, +towards the close of his life, exacted from those around him an +outward attention to religious duties, produced an effect similar +to that which the rigour of the Puritans had produced in England. +It was the boast of Madame de Maintenon, in the time of her +greatness, that devotion had become the fashion. A fashion +indeed it was; and, like a fashion, it passed away. The +austerity of the tyrant's old age had injured the morality of the +higher orders more than even the licentiousness of his youth. +Not only had he not reformed their vices, but, by forcing them to +be hypocrites, he had shaken their belief in virtue. They had +found it so easy to perform the grimace of piety, that it was +natural for them to consider all piety as grimace. The times +were changed. Pensions, regiments, and abbeys, were no longer to +be obtained by regular confession and severe penance: and the +obsequious courtiers, who had kept Lent like monks of La Trappe, +and who had turned up the whites of their eyes at the edifying +parts of sermons preached before the king, aspired to the title +of roue as ardently as they had aspired to that of devot; and +went, during Passion Week, to the revels of the Palais Royal as +readily as they had formerly repaired to the sermons of +Massillon. + +The Regent was in many respects the fac-simile of our Charles the +Second. Like Charles, he was a good-natured man, uttl destitute +of sensibility. Like Charles, he had good natural talents, which +a deplorable indolence rendered useless to the state. Like +Charles, he thought all men corrupted and interested, and yet did +not dislike them for being so. His opinion of human nature was +Gulliver's; but he did not regard human nature with Gulliver's +horror. He thought that he and his fellow-creatures were Yahoos; +and he thought a Yahoo a very agreeable kind of animal. No +princes were ever more social than Charles and Philip of Orleans: +yet no princes ever had less capacity for friendship. The +tempers of these clever cynics were so easy, and their minds so +languid, that habit supplied in them the place of affection, and +made them the tools of people for whom they cared not one straw. +In love, both were mere sensualists without delicacy or +tenderness. In politics, both were utterly careless of faith and +of national honour. Charles shut up the Exchequer. Philip +patronised the System. The councils of Charles were swayed by +the gold of Barillon; the councils of Philip by the gold of +Walpole. Charles for private objects made war on Holland, the +natural ally of England. Philip for private objects made war on +the Spanish branch of the house of Bourbon, the natural ally, +indeed the creature of France. Even in trifling circumstances +the parallel might be carried on. Both these princes were fond +of experimental philosophy, and passed in the laboratory much +time which would have been more advantageously passed at the +council-table. Both were more strongly attached to their female +relatives than to any other human being; and in both cases it was +suspected that this attachment was not perfectly innocent. In +personal courage, and in all the virtues which are connected with +personal courage, the Regent was indisputably superior to +Charles. Indeed Charles but narrowly escaped the stain of +cowardice. Philip was eminently brave, and, like most brave men, +was generally open and sincere. Charles added dissimulation to +his other vices. + +The administration of the Regent was scarcely less pernicious, +and infinitely more scandalous, than that of the deceased +monarch. It was by magnificent public works, and by wars +conducted on a gigantic scale, that Louis had brought distress on +his people. The Regent aggravated that distress by frauds of +which a lame duck on the stock-exchange would have been ashamed. +France, even while suffering under the most severe calamities, +had reverenced the conqueror. She despised the swindler. + +When Orleans and the wretched Dubois had disappeared, the power +passed to the Duke of Bourbon; a prince degraded in the public +eye by the infamously lucrative part which he had taken in the +juggles of the System, and by the humility with which he bore the +caprices of a loose and imperious woman. It seemed to be decreed +that every branch of the royal family should successively incur +the abhorrence and contempt of the nation. + +Between the fall of the Duke of Bourbon and the death of Fleury, +a few years of frugal and moderate government intervened. Then +recommenced the downward progress of the monarchy. Profligacy in +the court, extravagance in the finances, schism in the church, +faction in the Parliaments, unjust war terminated by ignominious +peace,--all that indicates and all that produces the ruin of +great empires, make up the history of that miserable period. +Abroad, the French were beaten and humbled everywhere, by land +and by sea, on the Elbe and on the Rhine, in Asia and in America. +At home, they were turned over from vizier to vizier, and from +sultana to sultana, till they had reached that point beneath +which there was no lower abyss of infamy,--till the yoke of +Maupeou had made them pine for Choiseul,--till Madame du Barri +had taught them to regret Madame de Pompadour. + +But unpopular as the monarchy had become, the aristocracy was +more unpopular still; and not without reason. The tyranny of an +individual is far more supportable than the tyranny of a caste. +The old privileges were galling and hateful to the new wealth and +the new knowledge. Everything indicated the approach of no +common revolution,--of a revolution destined to change, not +merely the form of government, but the distribution of property +and the whole social system,--of a revolution the effects of +which were to be felt at every fireside in France,--of a new +Jaquerie, in which the victory was to remain with Jaques +bonhomme. In the van of the movement were the moneyed men and +the men of letters,--the wounded pride of wealth, and the wounded +pride of intellect. An immense multitude, made ignorant and +cruel by oppression, was raging in the rear. + +We greatly doubt whether any course which could have been pursued +by Louis the Sixteenth could have averted a great convulsion. +But we are sure that, if there was such a course, it was the +course recommended by M. Turgot. The church and the aristocracy, +with that blindness to danger, that incapacity of believing that +anything can be except what has been, which the long possession +of power seldom fails to generate, mocked at the counsel which +might have saved them. They would not have reform; and they had +revolution. They would not pay a small contribution in place of +the odious corvees; and they lived to see their castles +demolished, and their lands sold to strangers. They would not +endure Turgot; and they were forced to endure Robespierre. + +Then the rulers of France, as if smitten with judicial blindness, +plunged headlong into the American war. They thus committed at +once two great errors. They encouraged the spirit of revolution. +They augmented at the same time those public burdens, the +pressure of which is generally the immediate cause of +revolutions. The event of the war carried to the height the +enthusiasm of speculative democrats. The financial difficulties +produced by the war carried to the height the discontent of that +larger body of people who cared little about theories, and much +about taxes. + +The meeting of the States-General was the signal for the +explosion of all the hoarded passions of a century. In that +assembly, there were undoubtedly very able men. But they had no +practical knowledge of the art of government. All the great +English revolutions have been conducted by practical statesmen. +The French Revolution was conducted by mere speculators. Our +constitution has never been so far behind the age as to have +become an object of aversion to the people. The English +revolutions have therefore been undertaken for the purpose of +defending, correcting, and restoring,--never for the mere purpose +of destroying. Our countrymen have always, even in times of the +greatest excitement, spoken reverently of the form of government +under which they lived, and attacked only what they regarded as +its corruptions. In the very act of innovating they have +constantly appealed to ancient prescription; they have seldom +looked abroad for models; they have seldom troubled themselves +with Utopian theories; they have not been anxious to prove that +liberty is a natural right of men; they have been content to +regard it as the lawful birthright of Englishmen. Their social +contract is no fiction. It is still extant on the original +parchment, sealed with wax which was affixed at Runnymede, and +attested by the lordly names of the Marischals and Fitzherberts. +No general arguments about the original equality of men, no fine +stories out of Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos, have ever affected +them so much as their own familiar words,--Magna Charta,--Habeas +Corpus,--Trial by Jury,--Bill of Rights. This part of our +national character has undoubtedly its disadvantages. An +Englishman too often reasons on politics in the spirit rather of +a lawyer than of a philosopher. There is too often something +narrow, something exclusive, something Jewish, if we may use the +word, in his love of freedom. He is disposed to consider popular +rights as the special heritage of the chosen race to which he +belongs. He is inclined rather to repel than to encourage the +alien proselyte who aspires to a share of his privileges. Very +different was the spirit of the Constituent Assembly. They had +none of our narrowness; but they had none of our practical skill +in the management of affairs. They did not understand how to +regulate the order of their own debates; and they thought +themselves able to legislate for the whole world. All the past +was loathsome to them. All their agreeable associations were +connected with the future. Hopes were to them all that +recollections are to us. In the institutions of their country +they found nothing to love or to admire. As far back as they +could look, they saw only the tyranny of one class and the +degradation of another,--Frank and Gaul, knight and villein, +gentleman and roturier. They hated the monarchy, the church, the +nobility. They cared nothing for the States or the Parliament. +It was long the fashion to ascribe all the follies which they +committed to the writings of the philosophers. We believe that +it was misrule, and nothing but misrule, that put the sting into +those writings. It is not true that the French abandoned +experience for theories. They took up with theories because they +had no experience of good government. It was because they had no +charter that they ranted about the original contract. As soon as +tolerable institutions were given to them, they began to look to +those institutions. In 1830 their rallying cry was "Vive la +Charte". In 1789 they had nothing but theories round which to +rally. They had seen social distinctions only in a bad form; and +it was therefore natural that they should be deluded by sophisms +about the equality of men. They had experienced so much evil +from the sovereignty of kings that they might be excused for +lending a ready ear to those who preached, in an exaggerated +form, the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people. + +The English, content with their own national recollections and +names, have never sought for models in the institutions of Greece +or Rome. The French, having nothing in their own history to +which they could look back with pleasure, had recourse to the +history of the great ancient commonwealths: they drew their +notions of those commonwealths, not from contemporary writers, +but from romances written by pedantic moralists long after the +extinction of public liberty. They neglected Thucydides for +Plutarch. Blind themselves, they took blind guides. They had no +experience of freedom; and they took their opinions concerning it +from men who had no more experience of it than themselves, and +whose imaginations, inflamed by mystery and privation, +exaggerated the unknown enjoyment;--from men who raved about +patriotism without having ever had a country, and eulogised +tyrannicide while crouching before tyrants. The maxim which the +French legislators learned in this school was, that political +liberty is an end, and not a means; that it is not merely +valuable as the great safeguard of order, of property, and of +morality, but that it is in itself a high and exquisite happiness +to which order, property, and morality ought without one scruple +to be sacrificed. The lessons which may be learned from ancient +history are indeed most useful and important; but they were not +likely to be learned by men who, in all their rhapsodies about +the Athenian democracy, seemed utterly to forget that in that +democracy there were ten slaves to one citizen; and who +constantly decorated their invectives against the aristocrats +with panegyrics on Brutus and Cato,--two aristocrats, fiercer, +prouder, and more exclusive, than any that emigrated with the +Count of Artois. + +We have never met with so vivid and interesting a picture of the +National Assembly as that which M. Dumont has set before us. His +Mirabeau, in particular, is incomparable. All the former +Mirabeaus were daubs in comparison. Some were merely painted +from the imagination--others were gross caricatures: this is the +very individual, neither god nor demon, but a man--a Frenchman--a +Frenchman of the eighteenth century, with great talents, with +strong passions, depraved by bad education, surrounded by +temptations of every kind,--made desperate at one time by +disgrace, and then again intoxicated by fame. All his opposite +and seemingly inconsistent qualities are in this representation +so blended together as to make up a harmonious and natural whole. +Till now, Mirabeau was to us, and, we believe, to most readers of +history, not a man, but a string of antitheses. Henceforth he +will be a real human being, a remarkable and eccentric being +indeed, but perfectly conceivable. + +He was fond, M. Dumont tells us, of giving odd compound +nicknames. Thus, M. de Lafayette was Grandison-Cromwell; the +King of Prussia was Alaric-Cottin; D'Espremenil was Crispin- +Catiline. We think that Mirabeau himself might be described, +after his own fashion, as a Wilkes-Chatham. He had Wilkes's +sensuality, Wilkes's levity, Wilkes's insensibility to shame. +Like Wilkes, he had brought on himself the censure even of men of +pleasure by the peculiar grossness of his immorality, and by the +obscenity of his writings. Like Wilkes, he was heedless, not +only of the laws of morality, but of the laws of honour. Yet he +affected, like Wilkes, to unite the character of the demagogue to +that of the fine gentleman. Like Wilkes, he conciliated, by his +good-humour and his high spirits, the regard of many who despised +his character. Like Wilkes, he was hideously ugly; like Wilkes, +he made a jest of his own ugliness; and, like Wilkes, he was, in +spite of his ugliness, very attentive to his dress, and very +successful in affairs of gallantry. + +Resembling Wilkes in the lower and grosser parts of his +character, he had, in his higher qualities, some affinity to +Chatham. His eloquence, as far as we can judge of it, bore no +inconsiderable resemblance to that of the great English minister. +He was not eminently successful in long set speeches. He was +not, on the other hand, a close and ready debater. Sudden +bursts, which seemed to be the effect of inspiration--short +sentences which came like lightning, dazzling, burning, striking +down everything before them--sentences which, spoken at critical +moments, decided the fate of great questions--sentences which at +once became proverbs--sentences which everybody still knows by +heart--in these chiefly lay the oratorical power both of Chatham +and of Mirabeau. There have been far greater speakers, and far +greater statesmen, than either of them; but we doubt whether any +men have, in modern times, exercised such vast personal influence +over stormy and divided assemblies. The power of both was as +much moral as intellectual. In true dignity of character, in +private and public virtue, it may seem absurd to institute any +comparison between them; but they had the same haughtiness and +vehemence of temper. In their language and manner there was a +disdainful self-confidence, an imperiousness, a fierceness of +passion, before which all common minds quailed. Even Murray and +Charles Townshend, though intellectually not inferior to Chatham, +were always cowed by him. Barnave, in the same manner, though +the best debater in the National Assembly, flinched before the +energy of Mirabeau. Men, except in bad novels, are not all good +or all evil. It can scarcely be denied that the virtue of Lord +Chatham was a little theatrical. On the other hand there was in +Mirabeau, not indeed anything deserving the name of virtue, but +that imperfect substitute for virtue which is found in almost all +superior minds,--a sensibility to the beautiful and the good, +which sometimes amounted to sincere enthusiasm; and which, +mingled with the desire of admiration, sometimes gave to his +character a lustre resembling the lustre of true goodness,--as +the "faded splendour wan" which lingered round the fallen +archangel resembled the exceeding brightness of those spirits who +had kept their first estate. + +There are several other admirable portraits of eminent men in +these Memoirs. That of Sieyes in particular, and that of +Talleyrand, are master-pieces, full of life and expression. But +nothing in the book has interested us more than the view which M. +Dumont has presented to us, unostentatiously, and, we may say, +unconsciously, of his own character. The sturdy rectitude, the +large charity, the good-nature, the modesty, the independent +spirit, the ardent philanthropy, the unaffected indifference to +money and to fame, make up a character which, while it has +nothing unnatural, seems to us to approach nearer to perfection +than any of the Grandisons and Allworthys of fiction. The work +is not indeed precisely such a work as we had anticipated--it is +more lively, more picturesque, more amusing than we had promised +ourselves; and it is, on the other hand, less profound and +philosophic. But, if it is not, in all respects, such as might +have been expected from the intellect of M. Dumont, it is +assuredly such as might have been expected from his heart. + +... + + +BARERE. + +(April 1844.) + +"Memoires de Bertrand Barere": publies par MM. Hippolyte Carnot, +Membre de la Chambre des Deputes, et David d'Angers, Membre de +l'Institut: precedes d'une Notice Historique par H. Carnot. +4 tomes. Paris: 1843. + +This book has more than one title to our serious attention. It +is an appeal, solemnly made to posterity by a man who played a +conspicuous part in great events, and who represents himself as +deeply aggrieved by the rash and malevolent censure of his +contemporaries. To such an appeal we shall always give ready +audience. We can perform no duty more useful to society, or more +agreeable to our own feelings, than that of making, as far as our +power extends, reparation to the slandered and persecuted +benefactors of mankind. We therefore promptly took into our +consideration this copious apology for the life of Bertrand +Barere. We have made up our minds; and we now purpose to do him, +by the blessing of God, full and signal justice. It is to be +observed that the appellant in this case does not come into court +alone. He is attended to the bar of public opinion by two +compurgators who occupy highly honourable stations. One of these +is M. David of Angers, member of the institute, an eminent +sculptor, and, if we have been rightly informed, a favourite +pupil, though not a kinsman, of the painter who bore the same +name. The other, to whom we owe the biographical preface, is M. +Hippolyte Carnot, member of the Chamber of Deputies, and son of +the celebrated Director. In the judgment of M. David and of M. +Hippolyte Carnot, Barere was a deserving and an ill-used man--a +man who, though by no means faultless, must yet, when due +allowance is made for the force of circumstances and the +infirmity of human nature, be considered as on the whole entitled +to our esteem. It will be for the public to determine, after a +full hearing, whether the editors have, by thus connecting their +names with that of Barere, raised his character or lowered their +own. + +We are not conscious that, when we opened this book, we were +under the influence of any feeling likely to pervert our +judgment. Undoubtedly we had long entertained a most +unfavourable opinion of Barere: but to this opinion we were not +tied by any passion or by any interest. Our dislike was a +reasonable dislike, and might have been removed by reason. +Indeed our expectation was, that these Memoirs would in some +measure clear Barere's fame. That he could vindicate himself +from all the charges which had been brought against him, we knew +to be impossible; and his editors admit that he has not done so. +But we thought it highly probable that some grave accusations +would be refuted, and that many offences to which he would have +been forced to plead guilty would be greatly extenuated. We were +not disposed to be severe. We were fully aware that temptations +such as those to which the members of the Convention and of the +Committee of Public Safety were exposed must try severely the +strength of the firmest virtue. Indeed our inclination has +always been to regard with an indulgence, which to some rigid +moralists appears excessive, those faults into which gentle and +noble spirits are sometimes hurried by the excitement of +conflict, by the maddening influence of sympathy, and by ill- +regulated zeal for a public cause. + +With such feelings we read this book, and compared it with other +accounts of the events in which Barere bore a part. It is now +our duty to express the opinion to which this investigation has +led us. + +Our opinion then is this: that Barere approached nearer than any +person mentioned in history or fiction, whether man or devil, to +the idea of consummate and universal depravity. In him the +qualities which are the proper objects of hatred, and the +qualities which are the proper objects of contempt, preserve an +exquisite and absolute harmony. In almost every particular sort +of wickedness he has had rivals. His sensuality was immoderate; +but this was a failing common to him with many great and amiable +men. There have been many men as cowardly as he, some as cruel, +a few as mean, a few as impudent. There may also have been as +great liars, though we never met with them or read of them. But +when we put everything together, sensuality, poltroonery, +baseness, effrontery, mendacity, barbarity, the result is +something which in a novel we should condemn as caricature, and +to which, we venture to say, no parallel can be found in history. + +It would be grossly unjust, we acknowledge, to try a man situated +as Barere was by a severe standard. Nor have we done so. We +have formed our opinion of him, by comparing him, not with +politicians of stainless character, not with Chancellor +D'Aguesseau, or General Washington, or Mr Wilberforce, or Earl +Grey, but with his own colleagues of the Mountain. That party +included a considerable number of the worst men that ever lived; +but we see in it nothing like Barere. Compared with him, Fouche +seems honest; Billaud seems humane; Hebert seems to rise into +dignity. Every other chief of a party, says M. Hippolyte Carnot, +has found apologists: one set of men exalts the Girondists; +another set justifies Danton; a third deifies Robespierre: but +Barere has remained without a defender. We venture to suggest a +very simple solution of this phenomenon. All the other chiefs of +parties had some good qualities; and Barere had none. The +genius, courage, patriotism, and humanity of the Girondist +statesmen more than atoned for what was culpable in their +conduct, and should have protected them from the insult of being +compared with such a thing as Barere. Danton and Robespierre +were indeed bad men; but in both of them some important parts of +the mind remained sound. Danton was brave and resolute, fond of +pleasure, of power, and of distinction, with vehement passions, +with lax principles, but with some kind and manly feelings, +capable of great crimes, but capable also of friendship and of +compassion. He, therefore, naturally finds admirers among +persons of bold and sanguine dispositions. Robespierre was a +vain, envious, and suspicious man, with a hard heart, weak +nerves, and a gloomy temper. But we cannot with truth deny that +he was, in the vulgar sense of the word, disinterested, that his +private life was correct, or that he was sincerely zealous for +his own system of politics and morals. He, therefore, naturally +finds admirers among honest but moody and bitter democrats. If +no class has taken the reputation of Barere under its patronage, +the reason is plain: Barere had not a single virtue, nor even +the semblance of one. + +It is true that he was not, as far as we are able to judge, +originally of a savage disposition; but this circumstance seems +to us only to aggravate his guilt. There are some unhappy men +constitutionally prone to the darker passions, men all whose +blood is gall, and to whom bitter words and harsh actions are as +natural as snarling and biting to a ferocious dog. To come into +the world with this wretched mental disease is a greater calamity +than to be born blind or deaf. A man who, having such a temper, +keeps it in subjection, and constrains himself to behave +habitually with justice and humanity towards those who are in his +power, seems to us worthy of the highest admiration. There have +been instances of this self-command; and they are among the most +signal triumphs of philosophy and religion. On the other hand, a +man who, having been blessed by nature with a bland disposition, +gradually brings himself to inflict misery on his fellow- +creatures with indifference, with satisfaction, and at length +with a hideous rapture, deserves to be regarded as a portent of +wickedness; and such a man was Barere. The history of his +downward progress is full of instruction. Weakness, cowardice, +and fickleness were born with him; the best quality which he +received from nature was a good temper. These, it is true, are +not very promising materials; yet, out of materials as +unpromising, high sentiments of piety and of honour have +sometimes made martyrs and heroes. Rigid principles often do for +feeble minds what stays do for feeble bodies. But Barere had no +principles at all. His character was equally destitute of +natural and of acquired strength. Neither in the commerce of +life, nor in books, did we ever become acquainted with any mind +so unstable, so utterly destitute of tone, so incapable of +independent thought and earnest preference, so ready to take +impressions and so ready to lose them. He resembled those +creepers which must lean on something, and which, as soon as +their prop is removed, fall down in utter helplessness. He could +no more stand up, erect and self-supported, in any cause, than +the ivy can rear itself like the oak, or the wild vine shoot to +heaven like the cedar of Lebanon. It is barely possible that, +under good guidance and in favourable circumstances, such a man +might have slipped through life without discredit. But the +unseaworthy craft, which even in still water would have been in +danger of going down from its own rottenness, was launched on a +raging ocean, amidst a storm in which a whole armada of gallant +ships was cast away. The weakest and most servile of human +beings found himself on a sudden an actor in a Revolution which +convulsed the whole civilised world. At first he fell under the +influence of humane and moderate men, and talked the language of +humanity and moderation. But he soon found himself surrounded by +fierce and resolute spirits, scared by no danger and restrained +by no scruple. He had to choose whether he would be their victim +or their accomplice. His choice was soon made. He tasted blood, +and felt no loathing; he tasted it again, and liked it well. +Cruelty became with him, first a habit, then a passion, at last a +madness. So complete and rapid was the degeneracy of his nature, +that within a very few months after the time when he had passed +for a good-natured man, he had brought himself to look on the +despair and misery of his fellow-creatures with a glee resembling +that of the fiends whom Dante saw watching the pool of seething +pitch in Malebolge. He had many associates in guilt; but he +distinguished himself from them all by the Bacchanalian +exaltation which he seemed to feel in the work of death. He was +drunk with innocent and noble blood, laughed and shouted as he +butchered, and howled strange songs and reeled in strange dances +amidst the carnage. Then came a sudden and violent turn of +fortune. The miserable man was hurled down from the height of +power to hopeless ruin and infamy. The shock sobered him at +once. The fumes of his horrible intoxication passed away. But +he was now so irrecoverably depraved that the discipline of +adversity only drove him further into wickedness. Ferocious +vices, of which he had never been suspected, had been developed +in him by power. Another class of vices, less hateful perhaps, +but more despicable, was now developed in him by poverty and +disgrace. Having appalled the whole world by great crimes +perpetrated under the pretence of zeal for liberty, he became the +meanest of all the tools of despotism. It is not easy to settle +the order of precedence among his vices, but we are inclined to +think that his baseness was, on the whole, a rarer and more +marvellous thing than his cruelty. + +This is the view which we have long taken of Barere's character; +but, till we read these Memoirs, we held our opinion with the +diffidence which becomes a judge who has only heard one side. +The case seemed strong, and in parts unanswerable; yet we did not +know what the accused party might have to say for himself; and, +not being much inclined to take our fellow-creatures either for +angels of light or for angels of darkness, we could not but feel +some suspicion that his offences had been exaggerated. That +suspicion is now at an end. The vindication is before us. It +occupies four volumes. It was the work of forty years. It would +be absurd to suppose that it does not refute every serious charge +which admitted of refutation. How many serious charges, then, +are here refuted? Not a single one. Most of the imputations +which have been thrown on Barere he does not even notice. In +such cases, of course, judgment must go against him by default. +The fact is, that nothing can be more meagre and uninteresting +than his account of the great public transactions in which he was +engaged. He gives us hardly a word of new information respecting +the proceedings of the Committee of Public Safety; and, by way of +compensation, tells us long stories about things which happened +before he emerged from obscurity, and after he had again sunk +into it. Nor is this the worst. As soon as he ceases to write +trifles, he begins to write lies; and such lies! A man who has +never been within the tropics does not know what a thunderstorm +means; a man who has never looked on Niagara has but a faint idea +of a cataract; and he who has not read Barere's Memoirs may be +said not to know what it is to lie. Among the numerous classes +which make up the great genus Mendacium, the Mendacium +Vasconicum, or Gascon lie, has, during some centuries, been +highly esteemed as peculiarly circumstantial and peculiarly +impudent; and, among the Mendacia Vasconica, the Mendacium +Barerianum is, without doubt, the finest species. It is indeed a +superb variety, and quite throws into the shade some Mendacia +which we were used to regard with admiration. The Mendacium +Wraxallianum, for example, though by no means to be despised, +will not sustain the comparison for a moment. Seriously, we +think that M. Hippolyte Carnot is much to blame in this matter. +We can hardly suppose him to be worse read than ourselves in the +history of the Convention, a history which must interest him +deeply, not only as a Frenchman, but also as a son. He must, +therefore, be perfectly aware that many of the most important +statements which these volumes contain are falsehoods, such as +Corneille's Dorante, or Moliere's Scapin, or Colin d'Harleville's +Monsieur de Crac would have been ashamed to utter. We are far, +indeed, from holding M. Hippolyte Carnot answerable for Barere's +want of veracity; but M. Hippolyte Carnot has arranged these +Memoirs, has introduced them to the world by a laudatory preface, +has described them as documents of great historical value, and +has illustrated them by notes. We cannot but think that, by +acting thus, he contracted some obligations of which he does not +seem to have been at all aware; and that he ought not to have +suffered any monstrous fiction to go forth under the sanction of +his name, without adding a line at the foot of the page for the +purpose of cautioning the reader. + +We will content ourselves at present with pointing out two +instances of Barere's wilful and deliberate mendacity; namely, +his account of the death of Marie Antoinette, and his account of +the death of the Girondists. His account of the death of Marie +Antoinette is as follows:--"Robespierre in his turn proposed that +the members of the Capet family should be banished, and that +Marie Antoinette should be brought to trial before the +Revolutionary Tribunal. He would have been better employed in +concerting military measures which might have repaired our +disasters in Belgium, and might have arrested the progress of the +enemies of the Revolution in the west."--(Volume ii. page 312.) + +Now, it is notorious that Marie Antoinette was sent before the +Revolutionary Tribunal, not at Robespierre's instance, but in +direct opposition to Robespierre's wishes. We will cite a single +authority, which is quite decisive. Bonaparte, who had no +conceivable motive to disguise the truth, who had the best +opportunities of knowing the truth, and who, after his marriage +with the Archduchess, naturally felt an interest in the fate of +his wife's kinswomen, distinctly affirmed that Robespierre +opposed the trying of the Queen. (O'Meara's "Voice from St +Helena", ii. 170.) Who, then, was the person who really did +propose that the Capet family should be banished, and that Marie +Antoinette should be tried? Full information will be found in +the "Moniteur". ("Moniteur", 2d, 7th and 9th of August, 1793.) +From that valuable record it appears that, on the first of August +1793, an orator, deputed by the Committee of Public Safety, +addressed the Convention in a long and elaborate discourse. He +asked, in passionate language, how it happened that the enemies +of the Republic still continued to hope for success. "Is it," he +cried, "because we have too long forgotten the crimes of the +Austrian woman? Is it because we have shown so strange an +indulgence to the race of our ancient tyrants? It is time that +this unwise apathy should cease; it is time to extirpate from the +soil of the Republic the last roots of royalty. As for the +children of Louis the conspirator, they are hostages for the +Republic. The charge of their maintenance shall be reduced to +what is necessary for the food and keep of two individuals. The +public treasure shall no longer be lavished on creatures who have +too long been considered as privileged. But behind them lurks a +woman who has been the cause of all the disasters of France, and +whose share in every project adverse to the revolution has long +been known. National justice claims its rights over her. It is +to the tribunal appointed for the trial of conspirators that she +ought to be sent. It is only by striking the Austrian woman that +you can make Francis and George, Charles and William, sensible of +the crimes which their ministers and their armies have +committed." The speaker concluded by moving that Marie +Antoinette should be brought to judgment, and should, for that +end, be forthwith transferred to the Conciergerie; and that all +the members of the house of Capet, with the exception of those +who were under the sword of the law, and of the two children of +Louis, should be banished from the French territory. The motion +was carried without debate. + +Now, who was the person who made this speech and this motion? It +was Barere himself. It is clear, then, that Barere attributed +his own mean insolence and barbarity to one who, whatever his +crimes may have been, was in this matter innocent. The only +question remaining is, whether Barere was misled by his memory, +or wrote a deliberate falsehood. + +We are convinced that he wrote a deliberate falsehood. His +memory is described by his editors as remarkably good, and must +have been bad indeed if he could not remember such a fact as +this. It is true that the number of murders in which he +subsequently bore a part was so great that he might well confound +one with another, that he might well forget what part of the +daily hecatomb was consigned to death by himself, and what part +by his colleagues. But two circumstances make it quite +incredible that the share which he took in the death of Marie +Antoinette should have escaped his recollection. She was one of +his earliest victims. She was one of his most illustrious +victims. The most hardened assassin remembers the first time +that he shed blood; and the widow of Louis was no ordinary +sufferer. If the question had been about some milliner, +butchered for hiding in her garret her brother who had let drop a +word against the Jacobin Club--if the question had been about +some old nun, dragged to death for having mumbled what were +called fanatical words over her beads--Barere's memory might well +have deceived him. It would be as unreasonable to expect him to +remember all the wretches whom he slew as all the pinches of +snuff that he took. But, though Barere murdered many hundreds of +human beings, he murdered only one Queen. That he, a small +country lawyer, who, a few years before, would have thought +himself honoured by a glance or a word from the daughter of so +many Caesars, should call her the Austrian woman, should send her +from jail to jail, should deliver her over to the executioner, +was surely a great event in his life. Whether he had reason to +be proud of it or ashamed of it, is a question on which we may +perhaps differ from his editors; but they will admit, we think, +that he could not have forgotten it. + +We, therefore, confidently charge Barere with having written a +deliberate falsehood; and we have no hesitation in saying that we +never, in the course of any historical researches that we have +happened to make, fell in with a falsehood so audacious, except +only the falsehood which we are about to expose. + +Of the proceeding against the Girondists, Barere speaks with just +severity. He calls it an atrocious injustice perpetrated against +the legislators of the republic. He complains that distinguished +deputies, who ought to have been readmitted to their seats in the +Convention, were sent to the scaffold as conspirators. The day, +he exclaims, was a day of mourning for France. It mutilated the +national representation; it weakened the sacred principle, that +the delegates of the people were inviolable. He protests that he +had no share in the guilt. "I have had," he says, "the patience +to go through the 'Moniteur', extracting all the charges brought +against deputies, and all the decrees for arresting and +impeaching deputies. Nowhere will you find my name. I never +brought a charge against any of my colleagues, or made a report +against any, or drew up an impeachment against any." (Volume ii. +407.) + +Now, we affirm that this is a lie. We affirm that Barere himself +took the lead in the proceedings of the Convention against the +Girondists. We affirm that he, on the twenty-eighth of July +1793, proposed a decree for bringing nine Girondist deputies to +trial, and for putting to death sixteen other Girondist deputies +without any trial at all. We affirm that, when the accused +deputies had been brought to trial, and when some apprehension +arose that their eloquence might produce an effect even on the +Revolutionary Tribunal, Barere did, on the 8th of Brumaire, +second a motion for a decree authorising the tribunal to decide +without hearing out the defence; and, for the truth of every one +of these things so affirmed by us, we appeal to the very +"Moniteur" to which Barere has dared to appeal. ("Moniteur", +31st of July 1793, and Nonidi, first Decade of Brumaire, in the +year 2(?).) + +What M. Hippolyte Carnot, knowing, as he must know, that this +book contains such falsehoods as those which we have exposed, can +have meant, when he described it as a valuable addition to our +stock of historical information, passes our comprehension. When +a man is not ashamed to tell lies about events which took place +before hundreds of witnesses, and which are recorded in well- +known and accessible books, what credit can we give to his +account of things done in corners? No historian who does not +wish to be laughed at will ever cite the unsupported authority of +Barere as sufficient to prove any fact whatever. The only thing, +as far as we can see, on which these volumes throw any light, is +the exceeding baseness of the author. + +So much for the veracity of the Memoirs. In a literary point of +view, they are beneath criticism. They are as shallow, flippant, +and affected, as Barere's oratory in the Convention. They are +also, what his oratory in the Convention was not, utterly +insipid. In fact, they are the mere dregs and rinsings of a +bottle of which even the first froth was but of very questionable +flavour. + +We will now try to present our readers with a sketch of this +man's life. We shall, of course, make very sparing use indeed of +his own Memoirs; and never without distrust, except where they +are confirmed by other evidence. + +Bertrand Barere was born in the year 1755, at Tarbes in Gascony. +His father was the proprietor of a small estate at Vieuzac, in +the beautiful vale of Argeles. Bertrand always loved to be +called Barere de Vieuzac, and flattered himself with the hope +that, by the help of this feudal addition to his name, he might +pass for a gentleman. He was educated for the bar at Toulouse, +the seat of one of the most celebrated parliaments of the +kingdom, practised as an advocate with considerable success, and +wrote some small pieces, which he sent to the principal literary +societies in the south of France. Among provincial towns, +Toulouse seems to have been remarkably rich in indifferent +versifiers and critics. It gloried especially in one venerable +institution, called the Academy of the Floral Games. This body +held every year a grand meeting which was a subject of intense +interest to the whole city, and at which flowers of gold and +silver were given as prizes for odes, for idyls, and for +something that was called eloquence. These bounties produced of +course the ordinary effect of bounties, and turned people who +might have been thriving attorneys and useful apothecaries into +small wits and bad poets. Barere does not appear to have been so +lucky as to obtain any of these precious flowers; but one of his +performances was mentioned with honour. At Montauban he was more +fortunate. The academy of that town bestowed on him several +prizes, one for a panegyric on Louis the Twelfth, in which the +blessings of monarchy and the loyalty of the French nation were +set forth; and another for a panegyric on poor Franc de +Pompignan, in which, as may easily be supposed, the philosophy of +the eighteenth century was sharply assailed. Then Barere found +an old stone inscribed with three Latin words, and wrote a +dissertation upon it, which procured him a seat in a learned +Assembly, called the Toulouse Academy of Sciences, Inscriptions, +and Polite Literature. At length the doors of the Academy of the +Floral Games were opened to so much merit. Barere, in his +thirty-third year, took his seat as one of that illustrious +brotherhood, and made an inaugural oration which was greatly +admired. He apologises for recounting these triumphs of his +youthful genius. We own that we cannot blame him for dwelling +long on the least disgraceful portion of his existence. To send +in declamations for prizes offered by provincial academies is +indeed no very useful or dignified employment for a bearded man; +but it would have been well if Barere had always been so +employed. + +In 1785 he married a young lady of considerable fortune. Whether +she was in other respects qualified to make a home happy, is a +point respecting which we are imperfectly informed. In a little +work, entitled "Melancholy Pages", which was written in 1797, +Barere avers that his marriage was one of mere convenience, that +at the altar his heart was heavy with sorrowful forebodings, that +he turned pale as he pronounced the solemn "Yes," that unbidden +tears rolled down his cheeks, that his mother shared his +presentiment, and that the evil omen was accomplished. "My +marriage," he says, "was one of the most unhappy of marriages." +So romantic a tale, told by so noted a liar, did not command our +belief. We were, therefore, not much surprised to discover that, +in his Memoirs, he calls his wife a most amiable woman, and +declares that, after he had been united to her six years, he +found her as amiable as ever. He complains, indeed, that she was +too much attached to royalty and to the old superstition; but he +assures us that his respect for her virtues induced him to +tolerate her prejudices. Now Barere, at the time of his +marriage, was himself a Royalist and a Catholic. He had gained +one prize by flattering the Throne, and another by defending the +Church. It is hardly possible, therefore, that disputes about +politics or religion should have embittered his domestic life +till some time after he became a husband. Our own guess is, that +his wife was, as he says, a virtuous and amiable woman, and that +she did her best to make him happy during some years. It seems +clear that, when circumstances developed the latent atrocity of +his character, she could no longer endure him, refused to see +him, and sent back his letters unopened. Then it was, we +imagine, that he invented the fable about his distress on his +wedding day. + +In 1788 Barere paid his first visit to Paris, attended reviews, +heard Laharpe at the Lycaeum, and Condorcet at the Academy of +Sciences, stared at the envoys of Tippoo Sahib, saw the Royal +Family dine at Versailles, and kept a journal in which he noted +down adventures and speculations. Some parts of this journal are +printed in the first volume of the work before us, and are +certainly most characteristic. The worst vices of the writer had +not yet shown themselves; but the weakness which was the parent +of those vices appears in every line. His levity, his +inconsistency, his servility, were already what they were to the +last. All his opinions, all his feelings, spin round and round +like a weathercock in a whirlwind. Nay, the very impressions +which he receives through his senses are not the same two days +together. He sees Louis the Sixteenth, and is so much blinded by +loyalty as to find his Majesty handsome. "I fixed my eyes," he +says, "with a lively curiosity on his fine countenance, which I +thought open and noble." The next time that the king appears all +is altered. His Majesty's eyes are without the smallest +expression; he has a vulgar laugh which seems like idiocy, an +ignoble figure, an awkward gait, and the look of a big boy ill +brought up. It is the same with more important questions. +Barere is for the parliaments on the Monday and against the +parliaments on the Tuesday, for feudality in the morning and +against feudality in the afternoon. One day he admires the +English constitution; then he shudders to think that, in the +struggles by which that constitution had been obtained, the +barbarous islanders had murdered a king, and gives the preference +to the constitution of Bearn. Bearn, he says, has a sublime +constitution, a beautiful constitution. There the nobility and +clergy meet in one house, and the Commons in another. If the +houses differ, the King has the casting vote. A few weeks later +we find him raving against the principles of this sublime and +beautiful constitution. To admit deputies of the nobility and +clergy into the legislature is, he says, neither more nor less +than to admit enemies of the nation into the legislature. + +In this state of mind, without one settled purpose or opinion, +the slave of the last word, royalist, aristocrat, democrat, +according to the prevailing sentiment of the coffee-house or +drawing-room into which he had just looked, did Barere enter into +public life. The States-General had been summoned. Barere went +down to his own province, was there elected one of the +representatives of the Third Estate, and returned to Paris in May +1789. + +A great crisis, often predicted, had at last arrived. In no +country, we conceive, have intellectual freedom and political +servitude existed together so long as in France, during the +seventy or eighty years which preceded the last convocation of +the Orders. Ancient abuses and new theories flourished in equal +vigour side by side. The people, having no constitutional means +of checking even the most flagitious misgovernment, were +indemnified for oppression by being suffered to luxuriate in +anarchical speculation, and to deny or ridicule every principle +on which the institutions of the State reposed. Neither those +who attribute the downfall of the old French institutions to the +public grievances, nor those who attribute it to the doctrines of +the philosophers, appear to us to have taken into their view more +than one half of the subject. Grievances as heavy have often +been endured without producing a revolution; doctrines as bold +have often been propounded without producing a revolution. The +question, whether the French nation was alienated from its old +polity by the follies and vices of the Viziers and Sultanas who +pillaged and disgraced it, or by the writings of Voltaire and +Rousseau, seems to us as idle as the question whether it was fire +or gunpowder that blew up the mills at Hounslow. Neither cause +would have sufficed alone. Tyranny may last through ages where +discussion is suppressed. Discussion may safely be left free by +rulers who act on popular principles. But combine a press like +that of London with a government like that of St Petersburg; and +the inevitable effect will be an explosion that will shake the +world. So it was in France. Despotism and License, mingling in +unblessed union, engendered that mighty Revolution in which the +lineaments of both parents were strangely blended. The long +gestation was accomplished; and Europe saw, with mixed hope and +terror, that agonising travail and that portentous birth. + +Among the crowd of legislators which at this conjuncture poured +from all the provinces of France into Paris, Barere made no +contemptible figure. The opinions which he for the moment +professed were popular, yet not extreme. His character was fair; +his personal advantages are said to have been considerable; and, +from the portrait which is prefixed to these Memoirs, and which +represents him as he appeared in the Convention, we would judge +that his features must have been strikingly handsome, though we +think that we can read in them cowardice and meanness very +legibly written by the hand of God. His conversation was lively +and easy; his manners remarkably good for a country lawyer. +Women of rank and wit said that he was the only man who, on his +first arrival from a remote province, had that indescribable air +which it was supposed that Paris alone could give. His +eloquence, indeed, was by no means so much admired in the capital +as it had been by the ingenious academicians of Montauban and +Toulouse. His style was thought very bad; and very bad, if a +foreigner may venture to judge, it continued to the last. It +would, however, be unjust to deny that he had some talents for +speaking and writing. His rhetoric, though deformed by every +imaginable fault of taste, from bombast down to buffoonery, was +not wholly without force and vivacity. He had also one quality +which, in active life, often gives fourth-rate men an advantage +over first-rate men. Whatever he could do, he could do without +effort, at any moment, in any abundance, and on any side of any +question. There was, indeed, a perfect harmony between his moral +character and his intellectual character. His temper was that of +a slave; his abilities were exactly those which qualified him to +be a useful slave. Of thinking to purpose, he was utterly +incapable; but he had wonderful readiness in arranging and +expressing thoughts furnished by others. + +In the National Assembly he had no opportunity of displaying the +full extent either of his talents or of his vices. He was indeed +eclipsed by much abler men. He went, as was his habit, with the +stream, spoke occasionally with some success, and edited a +journal called the "Point du Jour", in which the debates of the +Assembly were reported. + +He at first ranked by no means among the violent reformers. He +was not friendly to that new division of the French territory +which was among the most important changes introduced by the +Revolution, and was especially unwilling to see his native +province dismembered. He was entrusted with the task of framing +Reports on the Woods and Forests. Louis was exceedingly anxious +about this matter; for his majesty was a keen sportsman, and +would much rather have gone without the Veto, or the prerogative +of making peace and war, than without his hunting and shooting. +Gentlemen of the royal household were sent to Barere, in order to +intercede for the deer and pheasants. Nor was this intercession +unsuccessful. The reports were so drawn that Barere was +afterwards accused of having dishonestly sacrificed the interests +of the public to the tastes of the court. To one of these +reports he had the inconceivable folly and bad taste to prefix a +punning motto from Virgil, fit only for such essays as he had +been in the habit of composing for the Floral Games-- + +"Si canimus sylvas, sylvae sint Consule dignae." + +This literary foppery was one of the few things in which he was +consistent. Royalist or Girondist, Jacobin or Imperialist, he +was always a Trissotin. + +As the monarchical party became weaker and weaker, Barere +gradually estranged himself more and more from it, and drew +closer and closer to the republicans. It would seem that, during +this transition, he was for a time closely connected with the +family of Orleans. It is certain that he was entrusted with the +guardianship of the celebrated Pamela, afterwards Lady Edward +Fitzgerald; and it was asserted that he received during some +years a pension of twelve thousand francs from the Palais Royal. + +At the end of September 1791, the labours of the National +Assembly terminated, and those of the first and last Legislative +Assembly commenced. + +It had been enacted that no member of the National Assembly +should sit in the Legislative Assembly; a preposterous and +mischievous regulation, to which the disasters which followed +must in part be ascribed. In England, what would be thought of a +Parliament which did not contain one single person who had ever +sat in parliament before? Yet it may safely be affirmed that the +number of Englishmen who, never having taken any share in public +affairs, are yet well qualified, by knowledge and observation, to +be members of the legislature is at least a hundred times as +great as the number of Frenchmen who were so qualified in 1791. +How, indeed, should it have been otherwise? In England, +centuries of representative government have made all educated +people in some measure statesmen. In France the National +Assembly had probably been composed of as good materials as were +then to be found. It had undoubtedly removed a vast mass of +abuses; some of its members had read and thought much about +theories of government; and others had shown great oratorical +talents. But that kind of skill which is required for the +constructing, launching, and steering of a polity was lamentably +wanting; for it is a kind of skill to which practice contributes +more than books. Books are indeed useful to the politician, as +they are useful to the navigator and to the surgeon. But the +real navigator is formed on the waves; the real surgeon is formed +at bedsides; and the conflicts of free states are the real school +of constitutional statesmen. The National Assembly had, however, +now served an apprenticeship of two laborious and eventful years. +It had, indeed, by no means finished its education; but it was no +longer, as on the day when it met, altogether rude to political +functions. Its later proceedings contain abundant proof that the +members had profited by their experience. Beyond all doubt there +was not in France any equal number of persons possessing in an +equal degree the qualities necessary for the judicious direction +of public affairs; and, just at this moment, these legislators, +misled by a childish wish to display their own disinterestedness, +deserted the duties which they had half learned, and which nobody +else had learned at all, and left their hall to a second crowd of +novices, who had still to master the first rudiments of political +business. When Barere wrote his Memoirs, the absurdity of this +self-denying ordinance had been proved by events, and was, we +believe, acknowledged by all parties. He accordingly, with his +usual mendacity, speaks of it in terms implying that he had +opposed it. There was, he tells us, no good citizen who did not +regret this fatal vote. Nay, all wise men, he says, wished the +National Assembly to continue its sittings as the first +Legislative Assembly. But no attention was paid to the wishes of +the enlightened friends of liberty; and the generous but fatal +suicide was perpetrated. Now the fact is, that Barere, far from +opposing this ill-advised measure, was one of those who most +eagerly supported it; that he described it from the tribune as +wise and magnanimous; that he assigned, as his reasons for taking +this view, some of those phrases in which orators of his class +delight, and which, on all men who have the smallest insight into +politics, produce an effect very similar to that of ipecacuanha. +"Those," he said, "who have framed a constitution for their +country are, so to speak, out of the pale of that social state of +which they are the authors; for creative power is not in the same +sphere with that which it has created." + +M. Hippolyte Carnot has noticed this untruth, and attributes it +to mere forgetfulness. We leave it to him to reconcile his very +charitable supposition with what he elsewhere says of the +remarkable excellence of Barere's memory. + +Many members of the National Assembly were indemnified for the +sacrifice of legislative power by appointments in various +departments of the public service. Of these fortunate persons +Barere was one. A high Court of Appeal had just been instituted. +This court was to sit at Paris: but its jurisdiction was to +extend over the whole realm; and the departments were to choose +the judges. Barere was nominated by the department of the Upper +Pyrenees, and took his seat in the Palace of Justice. He +asserts, and our readers may, if they choose, believe, that it +was about this time in contemplation to make him Minister of the +Interior, and that in order to avoid so grave a responsibility, +he obtained permission to pay a visit to his native place. It is +certain that he left Paris early in the year 1792, and passed +some months in the south of France. + +In the mean time, it became clear that the constitution of 1791 +would not work. It was, indeed, not to be expected that a +constitution new both in its principles and its details would at +first work easily. Had the chief magistrate enjoyed the entire +confidence of the people, had he performed his part with the +utmost zeal, fidelity, and ability--had the representative body +included all the wisest statesmen of France, the difficulties +might still have been found insuperable. But, in fact, the +experiment was made under every disadvantage. The King, very +naturally, hated the constitution. In the Legislative Assembly +were men of genius and men of good intentions, but not a single +man of experience. Nevertheless, if France had been suffered to +settle her own affairs without foreign interference, it is +possible that the calamities which followed might have been +averted. The King, who, with many good qualities, was sluggish +and sensual, might have found compensation for his lost +prerogatives in his immense civil list, in his palaces and +hunting grounds, in soups, Perigord pies, and champagne. The +people, finding themselves secure in the enjoyment of the +valuable reforms which the National Assembly had, in the midst of +all its errors, effected, would not have been easily excited by +demagogues to acts of atrocity; or, if acts of atrocity had been +committed, those acts would probably have produced a speedy and +violent reaction. Had tolerable quiet been preserved during a +few years, the constitution of 1791 might perhaps have taken +root, might have gradually acquired the strength which time alone +can give, and might, with some modifications which were +undoubtedly needed, have lasted down to the present time. The +European coalition against the Revolution extinguished all hope +of such a result. The deposition of Louis was, in our opinion, +the necessary consequence of that coalition. The question was +now no longer, whether the King should have an absolute Veto or a +suspensive Veto, whether there should be one chamber or two +chambers, whether the members of the representative body should +be re-eligible or not; but whether France should belong to the +French. The independence of the nation, the integrity of the +territory, were at stake; and we must say plainly that we +cordially approve of the conduct of those Frenchmen who, at that +conjuncture, resolved, like our own Blake, to play the men for +their country, under whatever form of government their country +might fall. + +It seems to us clear that the war with the Continental coalition +was, on the side of France, at first a defensive war, and +therefore a just war. It was not a war for small objects, or +against despicable enemies. On the event were staked all the +dearest interests of the French people. Foremost among the +threatening powers appeared two great and martial monarchies, +either of which, situated as France then was, might be regarded +as a formidable assailant. It is evident that, under such +circumstances, the French could not, without extreme imprudence, +entrust the supreme administration of their affairs to any person +whose attachment to the national cause admitted of doubt. Now, +it is no reproach to the memory of Louis to say that he was not +attached to the national cause. Had he been so, he would have +been something more than man. He had held absolute power, not by +usurpation, but by the accident of birth, and by the ancient +polity of the kingdom. That power he had, on the whole, used +with lenity. He had meant well by his people. He had been +willing to make to them, of his own mere motion, concessions such +as scarcely any other sovereign has ever made except under +duress. He had paid the penalty of faults not his own, of the +haughtiness and ambition of some of his predecessors, of the +dissoluteness and baseness of others. He had been vanquished, +taken captive, led in triumph, put in ward. He had escaped; he +had been caught; he had been dragged back like a runaway galley- +slave to the oar. He was still a state prisoner. His quiet was +broken by daily affronts and lampoons. Accustomed from the +cradle to be treated with profound reverence, he was now forced +to command his feelings, while men who, a few months before, had +been hackney writers or country attorneys, sat in his presence +with covered heads, and addressed him in the easy tone of +equality. Conscious of fair intentions, sensible of hard usage, +he doubtless detested the Revolution; and, while charged with the +conduct of the war against the confederates, pined in secret for +the sight of the German eagles and the sound of the German drums. +We do not blame him for this. But can we blame those who, being +resolved to defend the work of the National Assembly against the +interference of strangers, were not disposed to have him at their +head in the fearful struggle which was approaching? We have +nothing to say in defence or extenuation of the insolence, +injustice, and cruelty with which, after the victory of the +republicans, he and his family were treated. But this we say, +that the French had only one alternative, to deprive him of the +powers of first magistrate, or to ground their arms and submit +patiently to foreign dictation. The events of the tenth of +August sprang inevitably from the league of Pilnitz. The King's +palace was stormed; his guards were slaughtered. He was +suspended from his regal functions; and the Legislative Assembly +invited the nation to elect an extraordinary Convention, with the +full powers which the conjuncture required. To this Convention +the members of the National Assembly were eligible; and Barere +was chosen by his own department. + +The Convention met on the 21st of September 1792. The first +proceedings were unanimous. Royalty was abolished by +acclamation. No objections were made to this great change; and +no reasons were assigned for it. For certainly we cannot honour +with the name of reasons such apophthegms, as that kings are in +the moral world what monsters are in the physical world; and that +the history of kings is the martyrology of nations. But, though +the discussion was worthy only of a debating club of schoolboys, +the resolution to which the Convention came seems to have been +that which sound policy dictated. In saying this, we do not mean +to express an opinion that a republic is, either in the abstract +the best form of government, or is, under ordinary circumstances, +the form of government best suited to the French people. Our own +opinion is, that the best governments which have ever existed in +the world have been limited monarchies; and that France, in +particular, has never enjoyed so much prosperity and freedom as +under a limited monarchy. Nevertheless, we approve of the vote +of the Convention which abolished kingly government. The +interference of foreign powers had brought on a crisis which made +extraordinary measures necessary. Hereditary monarchy may be, +and we believe that it is, a very useful institution in a country +like France. And masts are very useful parts of a ship. But, if +the ship is on her beam-ends, it may be necessary to cut the +masts away. When once she has righted, she may come safe into +port under jury rigging, and there be completely repaired. But, +in the meantime, she must be hacked with unsparing hand, lest +that which, under ordinary circumstances, is an essential part of +her fabric should, in her extreme distress, sink her to the +bottom. Even so there are political emergencies in which it is +necessary that governments should be mutilated of their fair +proportions for a time, lest they be cast away forever; and with +such an emergency the Convention had to deal. The first object +of a good Frenchman should have been to save France from the fate +of Poland. The first requisite of a government was entire +devotion to the national cause. That requisite was wanting in +Louis; and such a want, at such a moment, could not be supplied +by any public or private virtues. If the king were set aside, +the abolition of kingship necessarily followed. In the state in +which the public mind then was, it would have been idle to think +of doing what our ancestors did in 1688, and what the French +Chamber of Deputies did in 1830. Such an attempt would have +failed amidst universal derision and execration. It would have +disgusted all zealous men of all opinions; and there were then +few men who were not zealous. Parties fatigued by long conflict, +and instructed by the severe discipline of that school in which +alone mankind will learn, are disposed to listen to the voice of +a mediator. But when they are in their first heady youth, devoid +of experience, fresh for exertion, flushed with hope, burning +with animosity, they agree only in spurning out of their way the +daysman who strives to take his stand between them and to lay his +hand upon them both. Such was in 1792 the state of France. On +one side was the great name of the heir of Hugh Capet, the +thirty-third king of the third race; on the other side was the +great name of the republic. There was no rallying point save +these two. It was necessary to make a choice; and those, in our +opinion, judged well who, waving for the moment all subordinate +questions, preferred independence to subjugation, and the natal +soil to the emigrant camp. + +As to the abolition of royalty, and as to the vigorous +prosecution of the war, the whole Convention seemed to be united +as one man. But a deep and broad gulf separated the +representative body into two great parties. + +On one side were those statesmen who are called, from the name of +the department which some of them represented, the Girondists, +and, from the name of one of their most conspicuous leaders, the +Brissotines. In activity and practical ability, Brissot and +Gensonne were the most conspicuous among them. In parliamentary +eloquence, no Frenchman of that time can be considered as equal +to Vergniaud. In a foreign country, and after the lapse of half +a century, some parts of his speeches are still read with +mournful admiration. No man, we are inclined to believe, ever +rose so rapidly to such a height of oratorical excellence. His +whole public life lasted barely two years. This is a +circumstance which distinguishes him from our own greatest +speakers, Fox, Burke, Pitt, Sheridan, Windham, Canning. Which of +these celebrated men would now be remembered as an orator, if he +had died two years after he first took his seat in the House of +Commons? Condorcet brought to the Girondist party a different +kind of strength. The public regarded him with justice as an +eminent mathematician, and, with less reason, as a great master +of ethical and political science; the philosophers considered him +as their chief, as the rightful heir, by intellectual descent and +by solemn adoption, of their deceased sovereign D'Alembert. In +the same ranks were found Guadet, Isnard, Barbaroux, Buzot, +Louvet, too well known as the author of a very ingenious and very +licentious romance, and more honourably distinguished by the +generosity with which he pleaded for the unfortunate, and by the +intrepidity with which he defied the wicked and powerful. Two +persons whose talents were not brilliant, but who enjoyed a high +reputation for probity and public spirit, Petion and Roland, lent +the whole weight of their names to the Girondist connection. The +wife of Roland brought to the deliberations of her husband's +friends masculine courage and force of thought, tempered by +womanly grace and vivacity. Nor was the splendour of a great +military reputation wanting to this celebrated party. Dumourier, +then victorious over the foreign invaders, and at the height of +popular favour, must be reckoned among the allies of the Gironde. + +The errors of the Brissotines were undoubtedly neither few nor +small; but, when we fairly compare their conduct with the conduct +of any other party which acted or suffered during the French +Revolution, we are forced to admit their superiority in every +quality except that single quality which in such times prevails +over every other, decision. They were zealous for the great +social reform which had been effected by the National Assembly; +and they were right. For, though that reform was, in some +respects, carried too far, it was a blessing well worth even the +fearful price which has been paid for it. They were resolved to +maintain the independence of their country against foreign +invaders; and they were right. For the heaviest of all yokes is +the yoke of the stranger. They thought that, if Louis remained +at their head, they could not carry on with the requisite energy +the conflict against the European coalition. They therefore +concurred in establishing a republican government; and here, +again, they were right. For, in that struggle for life and +death, it would have been madness to trust a hostile or even a +half hearted leader. + +Thus far they went along with the revolutionary movement. At +this point they stopped; and, in our judgment, they were right in +stopping, as they had been right in moving. For great ends, and +under extraordinary circumstances, they had concurred in measures +which, together with much good, had necessarily produced much +evil; which had unsettled the public mind; which had taken away +from government the sanction of prescription; which had loosened +the very foundations of property and law. They thought that it +was now their duty to prop what it had recently been their duty +to batter. They loved liberty, but liberty associated with +order, with justice, with mercy, and with civilisation. They +were republicans; but they were desirous to adorn their republic +with all that had given grace and dignity to the fallen monarchy. +They hoped that the humanity, the courtesy, the taste, which had +done much in old times to mitigate the slavery of France, would +now lend additional charms to her freedom. They saw with horror +crimes exceeding in atrocity those which had disgraced the +infuriated religious factions of the sixteenth century, +perpetrated in the name of reason and philanthropy. They +demanded, with eloquent vehemence, that the authors of the +lawless massacre, which, just before the meeting of the +Convention, had been committed in the prisons of Paris, should be +brought to condign punishment. They treated with just contempt +the pleas which have been set up for that great crime. They +admitted that the public danger was pressing; but they denied +that it justified a violation of those principles of morality on +which all society rests. The independence and honour of France +were indeed to be vindicated, but to be vindicated by triumphs +and not by murders. + +Opposed to the Girondists was a party which, having been long +execrated throughout the civilised world, has of late--such is +the ebb and flow of opinion--found not only apologists, but even +eulogists. We are not disposed to deny that some members of the +Mountain were sincere and public spirited men. But even the best +of them, Carnot, for example, and Cambon, were far too +unscrupulous as to the means which they employed for the purpose +of attaining great ends. In the train of these enthusiasts +followed a crowd, composed of all who, from sensual, sordid, or +malignant motives, wished for a period of boundless license. + +When the Convention met, the majority were with the Girondists, +and Barere was with the majority. On the King's trial, indeed, +he quitted the party with which he ordinarily acted, voted with +the Mountain, and spoke against the prisoner with a violence such +as few members even of the Mountain showed. + +The conduct of the leading Girondists on that occasion was little +to their honour. Of cruelty, indeed, we fully acquit them; but +it is impossible to acquit them of criminal irresolution and +disingenuousness. They were far, indeed, from thirsting for the +blood of Louis: on the contrary, they were most desirous to +protect him. But they were afraid that, if they went straight +forward to their object, the sincerity of their attachment to +republican institutions would be suspected. They wished to save +the King's life, and yet to obtain all the credit of having been +regicides. Accordingly, they traced out for themselves a crooked +course, by which they hoped to attain both their objects. They +first voted the King guilty. They then voted for referring the +question respecting his fate to the whole body of the people. +Defeated in this attempt to rescue him, they reluctantly, and +with ill-suppressed shame and concern, voted for the capital +sentence. Then they made a last attempt in his favour, and voted +for respiting the execution. These zigzag politics produced the +effect which any man conversant with public affairs might have +foreseen. The Girondists, instead of attaining both their ends, +failed of both. The Mountain justly charged them with having +attempted to save the King by underhand means. Their own +consciences told them, with equal justice, that their hands had +been dipped in the blood of the most inoffensive and most +unfortunate of men. The direct path was here, as usual, the path +not only of honour, but of safety. The principle on which the +Girondists stood as a party was, that the season for +revolutionary violence was over, and that the reign of law and +order ought now to commence. But the proceeding against the King +was clearly revolutionary in its nature. It was not in +conformity with the laws. The only plea for it was, that all +ordinary rules of jurisprudence and morality were suspended by +the extreme public danger. This was the very plea which the +Mountain urged in defence of the massacre of September, and to +which, when so urged, the Girondists refused to listen. They +therefore, by voting for the death of the King, conceded to the +Mountain the chief point at issue between the two parties. Had +they given a manful vote against the capital sentence, the +regicides would have been in a minority. It is probable that +there would have been an immediate appeal to force. The +Girondists might have been victorious. In the worst event, they +would have fallen with unblemished honour. Thus much is certain, +that their boldness and honesty could not possibly have produced +a worse effect than was actually produced by their timidity and +their stratagems. + +Barere, as we have said, sided with the Mountain on this +occasion. He voted against the appeal to the people and against +the respite. His demeanour and his language also were widely +different from those of the Girondists. Their hearts were heavy, +and their deportment was that of men oppressed by sorrow. It was +Vergniaud's duty to proclaim the result of the roll-call. His +face was pale, and he trembled with emotion, as in a low and +broken voice he announced that Louis was condemned to death. +Barere had not, it is true, yet attained to full perfection in +the art of mingling jests and conceits with words of death; but +he already gave promise of his future excellence in this high +department of Jacobin oratory. He concluded his speech with a +sentence worthy of his head and heart. "The tree of liberty," he +said, "as an ancient author remarks, flourishes when it is +watered with the blood of all classes of tyrants." M. Hippolyte +Carnot has quoted this passage in order, as we suppose, to do +honour to his hero. We wish that a note had been added to inform +us from what ancient author Barere quoted. In the course of our +own small reading among the Greek and Latin writers, we have not +happened to fall in with trees of liberty and watering-pots full +of blood; nor can we, such is our ignorance of classical +antiquity, even imagine an Attic or Roman orator employing +imagery of that sort. In plain words, when Barere talked about +an ancient author, he was lying, as he generally was when he +asserted any fact, great or small. Why he lied on this occasion +we cannot guess, unless indeed it was to keep his hand in. + +It is not improbable that, but for the one circumstance, Barere +would, like most of those with whom he ordinarily acted, have +voted for the appeal to the people and for the respite. But, +just before the commencement of the trial, papers had been +discovered which proved that, while a member of the National +Assembly, he had been in communication with the Court respecting +his Reports on the Woods and Forests. He was acquitted of all +criminality by the Convention; but the fiercer Republicans +considered him as a tool of the fallen monarch; and this reproach +was long repeated in the journal of Marat, and in the speeches at +the Jacobin club. It was natural that a man like Barere should, +under such circumstances, try to distinguish himself among the +crowd of regicides by peculiar ferocity. It was because he had +been a royalist that he was one of the foremost in shedding +blood. + +The King was no more. The leading Girondists had, by their +conduct towards him, lowered their character in the eyes both of +friends and foes. They still, however, maintained the contest +against the Mountain, called for vengeance on the assassins of +September, and protested against the anarchical and sanguinary +doctrines of Marat. For a time they seemed likely to prevail. +As publicists and orators, they had no rivals in the Convention. +They had with them, beyond all doubt, the great majority both of +the deputies and of the French nation. These advantages, it +should seem, ought to have decided the event of the struggle. +But the opposite party had compensating advantages of a different +kind. The chiefs of the Mountain, though not eminently +distinguished by eloquence or knowledge, had great audacity, +activity, and determination. The Convention and France were +against them; but the mob of Paris, the clubs of Paris, and the +municipal government of Paris, were on their side. + +The policy of the Jacobins, in this situation, was to subject +France to an aristocracy infinitely worse than that aristocracy +which had emigrated with the count of Artois--to an aristocracy +not of birth, not of wealth, not of education, but of mere +locality. They would not hear of privileged orders; but they +wished to have a privileged city. That twenty-five millions of +Frenchmen should be ruled by a hundred thousand gentlemen and +clergymen was insufferable; but that twenty-five millions of +Frenchmen should be ruled by a hundred thousand Parisians was as +it should be. The qualification of a member of the new oligarchy +was simply that he should live near the hall where the Convention +met, and should be able to squeeze himself daily into the gallery +during a debate, and now and then to attend with a pike for the +purpose of blockading the doors. It was quite agreeable to the +maxims of the Mountain that a score of draymen from Santerre's +brewery, or of devils from Hebert's printing-house, should be +permitted to drown the voices of men commissioned to speak the +sense of such cities as Marseilles, Bordeaux, and Lyons; and that +a rabble of half-naked porters from the Faubourg St Antoine +should have power to annul decrees for which the representatives +of fifty or sixty departments had voted. It was necessary to +find some pretext for so odious and absurd a tyranny. Such a +pretext was found. To the old phrases of liberty and equality +were added the sonorous watchwords, unity and indivisability. A +new crime was invented, and called by the name of federalism. +The object of the Girondists, it was asserted, was to break up +the great nation into little independent commonwealths, bound +together only by a league like that which connects the Swiss +Cantons or the United States of America. The great obstacle in +the way of this pernicious design was the influence of Paris. To +strengthen the influence of Paris ought therefore to be the chief +object of every patriot. + +The accusation brought against the leaders of the Girondist party +was a mere calumny. They were undoubtedly desirous to prevent +the capital from domineering over the republic, and would gladly +have seen the Convention removed for a time to some provincial +town, or placed under the protection of a trusty guard, which +might have overawed the Parisian mob; but there is not the +slightest reason to suspect them of any design against the unity +of the state. Barere, however, really was a federalist, and, we +are inclined to believe, the only federalist in the Convention. +As far as a man so unstable and servile can be said to have felt +any preference for any form of government, he felt a preference +for federal government. He was born under the Pyrenees; he was a +Gascon of the Gascons, one of a people strongly distinguished by +intellectual and moral character, by manners, by modes of speech, +by accent, and by physiognomy, from the French of the Seine and +of the Loire; and he had many of the peculiarities of the race to +which he belonged. When he first left his own province he had +attained his thirty-fourth year, and had acquired a high local +reputation for eloquence and literature. He had then visited +Paris for the first time. He had found himself in a new world. +His feelings were those of a banished man. It is clear also that +he had been by no means without his share of the small +disappointments and humiliations so often experienced by men of +letters who, elated by provincial applause, venture to display +their powers before the fastidious critics of a capital. On the +other hand, whenever he revisited the mountains among which he +had been born, he found himself an object of general admiration. +His dislike of Paris, and his partiality to his native district, +were therefore as strong and durable as any sentiments of a mind +like his could be. He long continued to maintain that the +ascendency of one great city was the bane of France; that the +superiority of taste and intelligence which it was the fashion to +ascribe to the inhabitants of that city were wholly imaginary; +and that the nation would never enjoy a really good government +till the Alsatian people, the Breton people, the people of Bearn, +the people of Provence, should have each an independent +existence, and laws suited to its own tastes and habits. These +communities he proposed to unite by a tie similar to that which +binds together the grave Puritans of Connecticut and the +dissolute slave-drivers of New Orleans. To Paris he was +unwilling to grant even the rank which Washington holds in the +United States. He thought it desirable that the congress of the +French federation should have no fixed place of meeting, but +should sit sometimes at Rouen, sometimes at Bordeaux, sometimes +at his own Toulouse. + +Animated by such feelings, he was, till the close of May 1793, a +Girondist, if not an ultra-Girondist. He exclaimed against those +impure and bloodthirsty men who wished to make the public danger +a pretext for cruelty and rapine. "Peril," he said, "could be no +excuse for crime. It is when the wind blows hard, and the waves +run high, that the anchor is most needed; it is when a revolution +is raging, that the great laws of morality are most necessary to +the safety of a state." Of Marat he spoke with abhorrence and +contempt; of the municipal authorities of Paris with just +severity. He loudly complained that there were Frenchmen who +paid to the Mountain that homage which was due to the Convention +alone. When the establishment of the Revolutionary Tribunal was +first proposed, he joined himself to Vergniaud and Buzot, who +strongly objected to that odious measure. "It cannot be," +exclaimed Barere, "that men really attached to liberty will +imitate the most frightful excesses of despotism!" He proved to +the Convention, after his fashion, out of Sallust, that such +arbitrary courts may indeed, for a time, be severe only on real +criminals, but must inevitably degenerate into instruments of +private cupidity and revenge. When, on the tenth of March, the +worst part of the population of Paris made the first unsuccessful +attempt to destroy the Girondists, Barere eagerly called for +vigorous measures of repression and punishment. On the second of +April, another attempt of the Jacobins of Paris to usurp supreme +dominion over the republic was brought to the knowledge of the +Convention; and again Barere spoke with warmth against the new +tyranny which afflicted France, and declared that the people of +the departments would never crouch beneath the tyranny of one +ambitious city. He even proposed a resolution to the effect that +the Convention would exert against the demagogues of the capital +the same energy which had been exerted against the tyrant Louis. +We are assured that, in private as in public, he at this time +uniformly spoke with strong aversion of the Mountain. + +His apparent zeal for the cause of humanity and order had its +reward. Early in April came the tidings of Dumourier's +defection. This was a heavy blow to the Girondists. Dumourier +was their general. His victories had thrown a lustre on the +whole party; his army, it had been hoped, would, in the worst +event, protect the deputies of the nation against the ragged +pikemen of the garrets of Paris. He was now a deserter and an +exile; and those who had lately placed their chief reliance on +his support were compelled to join with their deadliest enemies +in execrating his treason. At this perilous conjuncture, it was +resolved to appoint a Committee of Public Safety, and to arm that +committee with powers, small indeed when compared with those +which it afterwards drew to itself, but still great and +formidable. The moderate party, regarding Barere as a +representative of their feelings and opinions, elected him a +member. In his new situation he soon began to make himself +useful. He brought to the deliberations of the Committee, not +indeed the knowledge or the ability of a great statesman, but a +tongue and a pen which, if others would only supply ideas, never +paused for want of words. His mind was a mere organ of +communication between other minds. It originated nothing; it +retained nothing; but it transmitted everything. The post +assigned to him by his colleagues was not really of the highest +importance; but it was prominent, and drew the attention of all +Europe. When a great measure was to be brought forward, when an +account was to be rendered of an important event, he was +generally the mouthpiece of the administration. He was therefore +not unnaturally considered, by persons who lived at a distance +from the seat of government, and above all by foreigners, who, +while the war raged, knew France only from journals, as the head +of that administration of which, in truth, he was only the +secretary and the spokesman. The author of the History of +Europe, in our own Annual Registers, appears to have been +completely under this delusion. + +The conflict between the hostile parties was meanwhile fast +approaching to a crisis. The temper of Paris grew daily fiercer +and fiercer. Delegates appointed by thirty-five of the forty- +eight wards of the city appeared at the bar of the Convention, +and demanded that Vergniaud, Brissot, Guadet, Gensonne, +Barbaroux, Buzot, Petion, Louvet, and many other deputies, should +be expelled. This demand was disapproved by at least three- +fourths of the Assembly, and, when known in the departments, +called forth a general cry of indignation. Bordeaux declared +that it would stand by its representatives, and would, if +necessary, defend them by the sword against the tyranny of Paris. +Lyons and Marseilles were animated by a similar spirit. These +manifestations of public opinion gave courage to the majority of +the Convention. Thanks were voted to the people of Bordeaux for +their patriotic declaration; and a commission consisting of +twelve members was appointed for the purpose of investigating the +conduct of the municipal authorities of Paris, and was empowered +to place under arrest such persons as should appear to have been +concerned in any plot against the authority of the Convention. +This measure was adopted on the motion of Barere. + +A few days of stormy excitement and profound anxiety followed; +and then came the crash. On the thirty-first of May the mob of +Paris rose; the palace of the Tuileries was besieged by a vast +array of pikes; the majority of the deputies, after vain +struggles and remonstrances, yielded to violence, and suffered +the Mountain to carry a decree for the suspension and arrest of +the deputies whom the wards of the capital had accused. + +During this contest, Barere had been tossed backwards and +forwards between the two raging factions. His feelings, languid +and unsteady as they always were, drew him to the Girondists; but +he was awed by the vigour and determination of the Mountain. At +one moment he held high and firm language, complained that the +Convention was not free, and protested against the validity of +any vote passed under coercion. At another moment he proposed to +conciliate the Parisians by abolishing that commission of twelve +which he had himself proposed only a few days before; and himself +drew up a paper condemning the very measures which had been +adopted at his own instance, and eulogising the public spirit of +the insurgents. To do him justice, it was not without some +symptoms of shame that he read his document from the tribune, +where he had so often expressed very different sentiments. It is +said that, at some passages, he was even seen to blush. It may +have been so; he was still in his novitiate of infamy. + +Some days later he proposed that hostages for the personal safety +of the accused deputies should be sent to the departments, and +offered to be himself one of those hostages. Nor do we in the +least doubt that the offer was sincere. He would, we firmly +believe, have thought himself far safer at Bordeaux or Marseilles +than at Paris. His proposition, however, was not carried into +effect; and he remained in the power of the victorious Mountain. + +This was the great crisis of his life. Hitherto he had done +nothing inexpiable, nothing which marked him out as a much worse +man than most of his colleagues in the Convention. His voice had +generally been on the side of moderate measures. Had he bravely +cast in his lot with the Girondists, and suffered with them, he +would, like them, have had a not dishonourable place in history. +Had he, like the great body of deputies who meant well, but who +had not the courage to expose themselves to martyrdom, crouched +quietly under the dominion of the triumphant minority, and +suffered every motion of Robespierre and Billaud to pass +unopposed, he would have incurred no peculiar ignominy. But it +is probable that this course was not open to him. He had been +too prominent among the adversaries of the Mountain to be +admitted to quarter without making some atonement. It was +necessary that, if he hoped to find pardon from his new lords, he +should not be merely a silent and passive slave. What passed in +private between him and them cannot be accurately related; but +the result was soon apparent. The Committee of Public Safety was +renewed. Several of the fiercest of the dominant faction, +Couthon for example, and Saint Just, were substituted for more +moderate politicians; but Barere was suffered to retain his seat +at the Board. + +The indulgence with which he was treated excited the murmurs of +some stern and ardent zealots. Marat, in the very last words +that he wrote, words not published till the dagger of Charlotte +Corday had avenged France and mankind, complained that a man who +had no principles, who was always on the side of the strongest, +who had been a royalist, and who was ready, in case of a turn of +fortune, to be a royalist again, should be entrusted with an +important share in the administration. (See the "Publiciste" of +the 14th July, 1793. Marat was stabbed on the evening of the +13th.) But the chiefs of the Mountain judged more correctly. +They knew, indeed, as well as Marat, that Barere was a man +utterly without faith or steadiness; that, if he could be said to +have any political leaning, his leaning was not towards them; +that he felt for the Girondist party that faint and wavering sort +of preference of which alone his nature was susceptible; and +that, if he had been at liberty to make his choice, he would +rather have murdered Robespierre and Danton than Vergniaud and +Gensonne. But they justly appreciated that levity which made him +incapable alike of earnest love and of earnest hatred, and that +meanness which made it necessary to him to have a master. In +truth, what the planters of Carolina and Louisiana say of black +men with flat noses and woolly hair was strictly true of Barere. +The curse of Canaan was upon him. He was born a slave. Baseness +was an instinct in him. The impulse which drove him from a party +in adversity to a party in prosperity was as irresistible as that +which drives the cuckoo and the swallow towards the sun when the +dark and cold months are approaching. The law which doomed him +to be the humble attendant of stronger spirits resembled the law +which binds the pilot fish to the shark. "Ken ye," said a shrewd +Scotch lord, who was asked his opinion of James the First--"Ken +ye a John Ape? If I have Jacko by the collar, I can make him +bite you; but, if you have Jacko, you can make him bite me." +Just such a creature was Barere. In the hands of the Girondists +he would have been eager to proscribe the Jacobins; he was just +as ready, in the gripe of the Jacobins, to proscribe the +Girondists. On the fidelity of such a man the heads of the +Mountain could not, of course, reckon; but they valued their +conquest as the very easy and not very delicate lover in +Congreve's lively song valued the conquest of a prostitute of a +different kind. Barere was, like Chloe, false and common; but he +was, like Chloe, constant while possessed; and they asked no +more. They needed a service which he was perfectly competent to +perform. Destitute as he was of all the talents both of an +active and of a speculative statesman, he could with great +facility draw up a report, or make a speech on any subject and on +any side. If other people would furnish facts and thoughts, he +could always furnish phrases; and this talent was absolutely at +the command of his owners for the time being. Nor had he excited +any angry passion among those to whom he had hitherto been +opposed. They felt no more hatred to him than they felt to the +horses which dragged the cannon of the Duke of Brunswick and of +the Prince of Saxe-Coburg. The horses had only done according to +their kind, and would, if they fell into the hands of the French, +drag with equal vigour and equal docility the guns of the +republic, and therefore ought not merely to be spared, but to be +well fed and curried. So was it with Barere. He was of a nature +so low, that it might be doubted whether he could properly be an +object of the hostility of reasonable beings. He had not been an +enemy; he was not now a friend. But he had been an annoyance; +and he would now be a help. + +But, though the heads of the Mountain pardoned this man, and +admitted him into partnership with themselves, it was not without +exacting pledges such as made it impossible for him, false and +fickle as he was, ever again to find admission into the ranks +which he had deserted. That was truly a terrible sacrament by +which they admitted the apostate into their communion. They +demanded of him that he should himself take the most prominent +part in murdering his old friends. To refuse was as much as his +life was worth. But what is life worth when it is only one long +agony of remorse and shame? These, however, are feelings of +which it is idle to talk, when we are considering the conduct of +such a man as Barere. He undertook the task, mounted the +tribune, and told the Convention that the time was come for +taking the stern attitude of justice, and for striking at all +conspirators without distinction. He then moved that Buzot, +Barbaroux, Petion, and thirteen other deputies, should be placed +out of the pale of the law, or, in other words, beheaded without +a trial; and that Vergniaud, Guadet, Gensonne, and six others, +should be impeached. The motion was carried without debate. + +We have already seen with what effrontery Barere has denied, in +these Memoirs, that he took any part against the Girondists. +This denial, we think, was the only thing wanting to make his +infamy complete. The most impudent of all lies was a fit +companion for the foulest of all murders. + +Barere, however, had not yet earned his pardon. The Jacobin +party contained one gang which, even in that party, was pre- +eminent in every mean and every savage vice; a gang so low-minded +and so inhuman that, compared with them, Robespierre might be +called magnanimous and merciful. Of these wretches Hebert was +perhaps the best representative. His favourite amusement was to +torment and insult the miserable remains of that great family +which, having ruled France during eight hundred years, had now +become an object of pity to the humblest artisan or peasant. The +influence of this man, and of men like him, induced the Committee +of Public Safety to determine that Marie Antoinette should be +sent to the scaffold. Barere was again summoned to his duty. +Only four days after he had proposed the decrees against the +Girondist deputies he again mounted the tribune, in order to move +that the Queen should be brought before the Revolutionary +Tribunal. He was improving fast in the society of his new +allies. When he asked for the heads of Vergniaud and Petion he +had spoken like a man who had some slight sense of his own guilt +and degradation: he had said little; and that little had not +been violent. The office of expatiating on the guilt of his old +friends he had left to Saint Just. Very different was Barere's +second appearance in the character of an accuser. He now cried +out for blood in the eager tones of the true and burning thirst, +and raved against the Austrian woman with the virulence natural +to a coward who finds himself at liberty to outrage that which he +has feared and envied. We have already exposed the shameless +mendacity with which, in these Memoirs, he attempts to throw the +blame of his own guilt on the guiltless. + +On the day on which the fallen Queen was dragged, already more +than half dead, to her doom, Barere regaled Robespierre and some +other Jacobins at a tavern. Robespierre's acceptance of the +invitation caused some surprise to those who knew how long and +how bitterly it was his nature to hate. "Robespierre of the +party!" muttered Saint Just. "Barere is the only man whom +Robespierre has forgiven." We have an account of this singular +repast from one of the guests. Robespierre condemned the +senseless brutality with which Hebert had conducted the +proceedings against the Austrian woman, and, in talking on that +subject, became so much excited that he broke his plate in the +violence of his gesticulation. Barere exclaimed that the +guillotine had cut a diplomatic knot which it might have been +difficult to untie. In the intervals between the Beaune and the +Champagne, between the ragout of thrushes and the partridge with +truffles, he fervently preached his new political creed. "The +vessel of the revolution," he said, "can float into port only on +waves of blood. We must begin with the members of the National +Assembly and of the Legislative Assembly. That rubbish must be +swept away." + +As he talked at table he talked in the Convention. His peculiar +style of oratory was now formed. It was not altogether without +ingenuity and liveliness. But in any other age or country it +would have been thought unfit for the deliberations of a grave +assembly, and still more unfit for state papers. It might, +perhaps, succeed at a meeting of a Protestant Association in +Exeter Hall, at a Repeal dinner in Ireland, after men had well +drunk, or in an American oration on the fourth of July. No +legislative body would now endure it. But in France, during the +reign of the Convention, the old laws of composition were held in +as much contempt as the old government or the old creed. Correct +and noble diction belonged, like the etiquette of Versailles and +the solemnities of Notre Dame, to an age which had passed away. +Just as a swarm of ephemeral constitutions, democratic, +directorial, and consular, sprang from the decay of the ancient +monarchy; just as a swarm of new superstitions, the worship of +the Goddess of Reason, and the fooleries of the Theo- +philanthropists, sprang from the decay of the ancient Church; +even so, out of the decay of the ancient French eloquence sprang +new fashions of eloquence, for the understanding of which new +grammars and dictionaries were necessary. The same innovating +spirit which altered the common phrases of salutation, which +turned hundreds of Johns and Peters into Scaevolas and +Aristogitons, and which expelled Sunday and Monday, January and +February, Lady-day and Christmas, from the calendar, in order to +substitute Decadi and Primidi, Nivose and Pluviose, Feasts of +Opinion and Feasts of the Supreme Being, changed all the forms of +official correspondence. For the calm, guarded, and sternly +courteous language which governments had long been accustomed to +employ, were substituted puns, interjections, Ossianic rants, +rhetoric worthy only of a schoolboy, scurrility worthy only of a +fishwife. Of the phraseology which was now thought to be +peculiarly well suited to a report or a manifesto Barere had a +greater command than any man of his time, and, during the short +and sharp paroxysm of the revolutionary delirium, passed for a +great orator. When the fit was over, he was considered as what +he really was, a man of quick apprehension and fluent elocution, +with no originality, with little information, and with a taste as +bad as his heart. His Reports were popularly called Carmagnoles. +A few months ago we should have had some difficulty in conveying +to an English reader an exact notion of the state papers to which +this appellation was given. Fortunately a noble and +distinguished person, whom her Majesty's Ministers have thought +qualified to fill the most important post in the empire, has made +our task easy. Whoever has read Lord Ellenborough's +proclamations is able to form a complete idea of a Carmagnole. + +The effect which Barere's discourses at one time produced is not +to be wholly attributed to the perversion of the national taste. +The occasions on which he rose were frequently such as would have +secured to the worst speaker a favourable hearing. When any +military advantage had been gained, he was generally deputed by +the Committee of Public Safety to announce the good news. The +hall resounded with applause as he mounted the tribune, holding +the despatches in his hand. Deputies and strangers listened with +delight while he told them that victory was the order of the day; +that the guineas of Pitt had been vainly lavished to hire +machines six feet high, carrying guns; that the flight of the +English leopard deserved to be celebrated by Tyrtaeus; and that +the saltpetre dug out of the cellars of Paris had been turned +into thunder, which would crush the Titan brethren, George and +Francis. + +Meanwhile the trial of the accused Girondists, who were under +arrest in Paris, came on. They flattered themselves with a vain +hope of escape. They placed some reliance on their innocence, +and some reliance on their eloquence. They thought that shame +would suffice to restrain any man, however violent and cruel, +from publicly committing the flagrant iniquity of condemning them +to death. The Revolutionary Tribunal was new to its functions. +No member of the Convention had yet been executed; and it was +probable that the boldest Jacobin would shrink from being the +first to violate the sanctity which was supposed to belong to the +representatives of the people. + +The proceedings lasted some days. Gensonne and Brissot defended +themselves with great ability and presence of mind against the +vile Hebert and Chaumette, who appeared as accusers. The +eloquent voice of Vergniaud was heard for the last time. He +pleaded his own cause and that of his friends, with such force of +reason and elevation of sentiment that a murmur of pity and +admiration rose from the audience. Nay, the court itself, not +yet accustomed to riot in daily carnage, showed signs of emotion. +The sitting was adjourned; and a rumour went forth that there +would be an acquittal. The Jacobins met, breathing vengeance. +Robespierre undertook to be their organ. He rose on the +following day in the Convention, and proposed a decree of such +atrocity that even among the acts of that year it can hardly be +paralleled. By this decree the tribunal was empowered to cut +short the defence of the prisoners, to pronounce the case clear, +and to pass immediate judgment. One deputy made a faint +opposition. Barere instantly sprang up to support Robespierre-- +Barere, the federalist; Barere, the author of that Commission of +Twelve which was among the chief causes of the hatred borne by +Paris to the Girondists; Barere, who in these Memoirs denies that +he ever took any part against the Girondists; Barere, who has the +effrontery to declare that he greatly loved and esteemed +Vergniaud. The decree was passed; and the tribunal, without +suffering the prisoners to conclude what they had to say, +pronounced them guilty. + +The following day was the saddest in the sad history of the +Revolution. The sufferers were so innocent, so brave, so +eloquent, so accomplished, so young. Some of them were graceful +and handsome youths of six or seven and twenty. Vergniaud and +Gensonne were little more than thirty. They had been only a few +months engaged in public affairs. In a few months the fame of +their genius had filled Europe; and they were to die for no crime +but this, that they had wished to combine order, justice, and +mercy with freedom. Their great fault was want of courage. We +mean want of political courage--of that courage which is proof to +clamour and obloquy, and which meets great emergencies by daring +and decisive measures. Alas! they had but too good an +opportunity of proving that they did not want courage to endure +with manly cheerfulness the worst that could be inflicted by such +tyrants as Saint Just, and such slaves as Barere. + +They were not the only victims of the noble cause. Madame Roland +followed them to the scaffold with a spirit as heroic as their +own. Her husband was in a safe hiding-place, but could not bear +to survive her. His body was found on the high road near Rouen. +He had fallen on his sword. Condorcet swallowed opium. At +Bordeaux the steel fell on the necks of the bold and quick-witted +Guadet and of Barbaroux, the chief of those enthusiasts from the +Rhone whose valour, in the great crisis of the tenth of August, +had turned back the tide of battle from the Louvre to the +Tuileries. In a field near the Garonne was found all that the +wolves had left of Petion, once honoured, greatly indeed beyond +his deserts, as the model of republican virtue. We are far from +regarding even the best of the Girondists with unmixed +admiration; but history owes to them this honourable testimony, +that, being free to choose whether they would be oppressors or +victims, they deliberately and firmly resolved rather to suffer +injustice than to inflict it. + +And now began that strange period known by the name of the Reign +of Terror. The Jacobins had prevailed. This was their hour, and +the power of darkness. The Convention was subjugated and reduced +to profound silence on the highest questions of state. The +sovereignty passed to the Committee of Public Safety. To the +edicts framed by that Committee the representative assembly did +not venture to offer even the species of opposition which the +ancient parliament had frequently offered to the mandates of the +ancient kings. Six persons held the chief power in the small +cabinet which now domineered over France--Robespierre, Saint +Just, Couthon, Collot, Billaud, and Barere. + +To some of these men, and of those who adhered to them, it is due +to say that the fanaticism which had emancipated them from the +restraints of justice and compassion had emancipated them also +from the dominion of vulgar cupidity and of vulgar fear; that, +while hardly knowing where to find an assignat of a few francs to +pay for a dinner, they expended with strict integrity the immense +revenue which they collected by every art of rapine; and that +they were ready, in support of their cause, to mount the scaffold +with as much indifference as they showed when they signed the +death-warrants of aristocrats and priests. But no great party +can be composed of such materials as these. It is the inevitable +law that such zealots as we have described shall collect around +them a multitude of slaves, of cowards, and of libertines, whose +savage tempers and licentious appetites, withheld only by the +dread of law and magistracy from the worst excesses, are called +into full activity by the hope of immunity. A faction which, +from whatever motive, relaxes the great laws of morality is +certain to be joined by the most immoral part of the community. +This has been repeatedly proved in religious wars. The war of +the Holy Sepulchre, the Albigensian war, the Huguenot war, the +Thirty Years' war, all originated in pious zeal. That zeal +inflamed the champions of the Church to such a point that they +regarded all generosity to the vanquished as a sinful weakness. +The infidel, the heretic, was to be run down like a mad dog. No +outrage committed by the Catholic warrior on the miscreant enemy +could deserve punishment. As soon as it was known that boundless +license was thus given to barbarity and dissoluteness, thousands +of wretches who cared nothing for the sacred cause, but who were +eager to be exempted from the police of peaceful cities, and the +discipline of well-governed camps, flocked to the standard of the +faith. The men who had set up that statute were sincere, chaste, +regardless of lucre, and perhaps, where only themselves were +concerned, not unforgiving; but round that standard were +assembled such gangs of rogues, ravishers, plunderers, and +ferocious bravoes, as were scarcely ever found under the flag of +any state engaged in a mere temporal quarrel. In a very similar +way was the Jacobin party composed. There was a small nucleus of +enthusiasts; round that nucleus was gathered a vast mass of +ignoble depravity; and in all that mass there was nothing so +depraved and so ignoble as Barere. + +Then came those days when the most barbarous of all codes was +administered by the most barbarous of all tribunals; when no man +could greet his neighbours, or say his prayers, or dress his +hair, without danger of committing a capital crime; when spies +lurked in every corner; when the guillotine was long and hard at +work every morning; when the jails were filled as close as the +hold of a slave-ship; when the gutters ran foaming with blood +into the Seine; when it was death to be great-niece of a captain +of the royal guards, or half-brother of a doctor of the Sorbonne, +to express a doubt whether assignats would not fall, to hint that +the English had been victorious in the action of the first of +June, to have a copy of one of Burke's pamphlets locked up in a +desk, to laugh at a Jacobin for taking the name of Cassius or +Timoleon, or to call the Fifth Sansculottide by its old +superstitious name of St Matthew's Day. While the daily waggon- +loads of victims were carried to their doom through the streets +of Paris, the Proconsuls whom the sovereign Committee had sent +forth to the departments revelled in an extravagance of cruelty +unknown even in the capital. The knife of the deadly machine +rose and fell too slow for their work of slaughter. Long rows of +captives were mowed down with grapeshot. Holes were made in the +bottom of crowded barges. Lyons was turned into a desert. At +Arras even the cruel mercy of a speedy death was denied to the +prisoners. All down the Loire, from Saumur to the sea, great +flocks of crows and kites feasted on naked corpses, twined +together in hideous embraces. No mercy was shown to sex or age. +The number of young lads and of girls of seventeen who were +murdered by that execrable government is to be reckoned by +hundreds. Babies torn from the breast were tossed from pike to +pike along the Jacobin ranks. One champion of liberty had his +pockets well stuffed with ears. Another swaggered about with the +finger of a little child in his hat. A few months had sufficed +to degrade France below the level of New Zealand. + +It is absurd to say that any amount of public danger can justify +a system like this, we do not say on Christian principles, we do +not say on the principles of a high morality, but even on +principles of Machiavellian policy. It is true that great +emergencies call for activity and vigilance; it is true that they +justify severity which, in ordinary times, would deserve the name +of cruelty. But indiscriminate severity can never, under any +circumstances, be useful. It is plain that the whole efficacy of +punishment depends on the care with which the guilty are +distinguished. Punishment which strikes the guilty and the +innocent promiscuously, operates merely like a pestilence or a +great convulsion of nature, and has no more tendency to prevent +offences than the cholera, or an earthquake like that of Lisbon, +would have. The energy for which the Jacobin administration is +praised was merely the energy of the Malay who maddens himself +with opium, draws his knife, and runs amuck through the streets, +slashing right and left at friends and foes. Such has never been +the energy of truly great rulers; of Elizabeth, for example, of +Oliver, or of Frederick. They were not, indeed, scrupulous. +But, had they been less scrupulous than they were, the strength +and amplitude of their minds would have preserved them from +crimes such as those which the small men of the Committee of +Public Safety took for daring strokes of policy. The great Queen +who so long held her own against foreign and domestic enemies, +against temporal and spiritual arms; the great Protector who +governed with more than regal power, in despite both of royalists +and republicans; the great King who, with a beaten army and an +exhausted treasury, defended his little dominions to the last +against the united efforts of Russia, Austria, and France; with +what scorn would they have heard that it was impossible for them +to strike a salutary terror into the disaffected without sending +school-boys and school-girls to death by cart-loads and boat- +loads! + +The popular notion is, we believe, that the leading Terrorists +were wicked men, but, at the same time, great men. We can see +nothing great about them but their wickedness. That their policy +was daringly original is a vulgar error. Their policy is as old +as the oldest accounts which we have of human misgovernment. It +seemed new in France and in the eighteenth century only because +it had been long disused, for excellent reasons, by the +enlightened part of mankind. But it has always prevailed, and +still prevails, in savage and half-savage nations, and is the +chief cause which prevents such nations from making advances +towards civilisation. Thousands of deys, of beys, of pachas, of +rajahs, of nabobs, have shown themselves as great masters of +statecraft as the members of the Committee of Public Safety. +Djezzar, we imagine, was superior to any of them in their new +line. In fact, there is not a petty tyrant in Asia or Africa so +dull or so unlearned as not to be fully qualified for the +business of Jacobin police and Jacobin finance. To behead people +by scores without caring whether they are guilty or innocent; to +wring money out of the rich by the help of jailers and +executioners; to rob the public creditor, and to put him to death +if he remonstrates; to take loaves by force out of the bakers' +shops; to clothe and mount soldiers by seizing on one man's wool +and linen, and on another man's horses and saddles, without +compensation; is of all modes of governing the simplest and most +obvious. Of its morality we at present say nothing. But surely +it requires no capacity beyond that of a barbarian or a child. +By means like those which we have described, the Committee of +Public Safety undoubtedly succeeded, for a short time, in +enforcing profound submission, and in raising immense funds. But +to en force submission by butchery, and to raise funds by +spoliation, is not statesmanship. The real statesman is he who, +in troubled times, keeps down the turbulent without unnecessarily +harrassing the well-affected; and who, when great pecuniary +resources are needed, provides for the public exigencies without +violating the security of property and drying up the sources of +future prosperity. Such a statesman, we are confident, might, in +1793, have preserved the independence of France without shedding +a drop of innocent blood, without plundering a single warehouse. +Unhappily, the Republic was subject to men who were mere +demagogues and in no sense statesmen. They could declaim at a +club. They could lead a rabble to mischief. But they had no +skill to conduct the affairs of an empire. The want of skill +they supplied for a time by atrocity and blind violence. For +legislative ability, fiscal ability, military ability, diplomatic +ability, they had one substitute, the guillotine. Indeed their +exceeding ignorance, and the barrenness of their invention, are +the best excuse for their murders and robberies. We really +believe that they would not have cut so many throats, and picked +so many pockets, if they had known how to govern in any other +way. + +That under their administration the war against the European +Coalition was successfully conducted is true. But that war had +been successfully conducted before their elevation, and continued +to be successfully conducted after their fall. Terror was not +the order of the day when Brussels opened its gates to Dumourier. +Terror had ceased to be the order of the day when Piedmont and +Lombardy were conquered by Bonaparte. The truth is, that France +was saved, not by the Committee of Public Safety, but by the +energy, patriotism, and valour of the French people. Those high +qualities were victorious in spite of the incapacity of rulers +whose administration was a tissue, not merely of crimes, but of +blunders. + +We have not time to tell how the leaders of the savage faction at +length began to avenge mankind on each other: how the craven +Hebert was dragged wailing and trembling to his doom; how the +nobler Danton, moved by a late repentance, strove in vain to +repair the evil which he had wrought, and half redeemed the great +crime of September by man fully encountering death in the cause +of mercy. + +Our business is with Barere. In all those things he was not only +consenting, but eagerly and joyously forward. Not merely was he +one of the guilty administration. He was the man to whom was +especially assigned the office of proposing and defending +outrages on justice and humanity, and of furnishing to atrocious +schemes an appropriate garb of atrocious rodomontade. Barere +first proclaimed from the tribune of the Convention that terror +must be the order of the day. It was by Barere that the +Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris was provided with the aid of a +public accuser worthy of such a court, the infamous Fouquier +Tinville. It was Barere who, when one of the old members of the +National Assembly had been absolved by the Revolutionary +Tribunal, gave orders that a fresh jury should be summoned. +"Acquit one of the National Assembly!" he cried. "The Tribunal +is turning against the Revolution." It is unnecessary to say +that the prisoner's head was soon in the basket. It was Barere +who moved that the city of Lyons should be destroyed. "Let the +plough," he cried from the tribune, "pass over her. Let her name +cease to exist. The rebels are conquered; but are they all +exterminated? No weakness. No mercy. Let every one be smitten. +Two words will suffice to tell the whole. Lyons made war on +liberty; Lyons is no more." When Toulon was taken Barere came +forward to announce the event. "The conquest," said the apostate +Brissotine, "won by the Mountain over the Brissotines must be +commemorated by a mark set on the place where Toulon once stood. +The national thunder must crush the house of every trader in the +town. When Camille Desmoulins, long distinguished among the +republicans by zeal and ability, dared to raise his eloquent +voice against the Reign of Terror, and to point out the close +analogy between the government which then oppressed France and +the government of the worst of the Caesars, Barere rose to +complain of the weak compassion which tried to revive the hopes +of the aristocracy. "Whoever," he said, "is nobly born is a man +to be suspected. Every priest, every frequenter of the old +court, every lawyer, every banker, is a man to be suspected. +Every person who grumbles at the course which the Revolution +takes is a man to be suspected. There are whole castes already +tried and condemned. There are callings which carry their doom +with them. There are relations of blood which the law regards +with an evil eye. Republicans of France!" yelled the renegade +Girondist, the old enemy of the Mountain--"Republicans of France! +the Brissotines led you by gentle means to slavery. The Mountain +leads you by strong measures to freedom. Oh! who can count the +evils which a false compassion may produce?" When the friends of +Danton mustered courage to express a wish that the Convention +would at least hear him in his own defence before it sent him to +certain death, the voice of Barere was the loudest in opposition +to their prayer. When the crimes of Lebon, one of the worst, if +not the very worst, of the viceregents of the Committee of Public +Safety, had so maddened the people of the Department of the North +that they resorted to the desperate expedient of imploring the +protection of the Convention, Barere pleaded the cause of the +accused tyrant, and threatened the petitioners with the utmost +vengeance of the government. "These charges," he said, "have +been suggested by wily aristocrats. The man who crushes the +enemies of the people, though he may be hurried by his zeal into +some excesses, can never be a proper object of censure. The +proceedings of Lebon may have been a little harsh as to form." +One of the small irregularities thus gently censured was this: +Lebon kept a wretched man a quarter of an hour under the knife of +the guillotine, in order to torment him, by reading to him, +before he was despatched, a letter, the contents of which were +supposed to be such as would aggravate even the bitterness of +death. "But what," proceeded Barere, "is not permitted to the +hatred of a republican against aristocracy? How many generous +sentiments atone for what may perhaps seem acrimonious in the +prosecution of public enemies? Revolutionary measures are always +to be spoken of with respect. Liberty is a virgin whose veil it +is not lawful to lift." + +After this, it would be idle to dwell on facts which would +indeed, of themselves, suffice to render a name infamous, but +which make no perceptible addition to the great infamy of Barere. +It would be idle, for example, to relate how he, a man of +letters, a member of an Academy of Inscriptions, was foremost in +that war against learning, art, and history which disgraced the +Jacobin government; how he recommended a general conflagration of +libraries; how he proclaimed that all records of events anterior +to the Revolution ought to be destroyed; how he laid waste the +Abbey of St Denis, pulled down monuments consecrated by the +veneration of ages, and scattered on the wind the dust of ancient +kings. He was, in truth, seldom so well employed as when he +turned for a moment from making war on the living to make war on +the dead. + +Equally idle would it be to dilate on his sensual excesses. That +in Barere as in the whole breed of Neros, Caligulas, and +Domitians whom he resembled, voluptuousness was mingled with +cruelty; that he withdrew, twice in every decade, from the work +of blood, to the smiling gardens of Clichy, and there forgot +public cares in the madness of wine and in the arms of +courtesans, has often been repeated. M. Hippolyte Carnot does +not altogether deny the truth of these stories, but justly +observes that Barere's dissipation was not carried to such a +point as to interfere with his industry. Nothing can be more +true. Barere was by no means so much addicted to debauchery as +to neglect the work of murder. It was his boast that, even +during his hours of recreation, he cut out work for the +Revolutionary Tribunal. To those who expressed a fear that his +exertions would hurt his health, he gaily answered that he was +less busy than they thought. "The guillotine," he said, "does +all; the guillotine governs." For ourselves, we are much more +disposed to look indulgently on the pleasures which he allowed to +himself than on the pain which he inflicted on his neighbours. + +"Atque utinam his potius nugis tota illa dedisset +Tempora saevitiae, claras quibus abstulit urbi +Illustresque animas, impune ac vindice nullo." + +An immoderate appetite for sensual gratifications is undoubtedly +a blemish on the fame of Henry the Fourth, of Lord Somers, of Mr +Fox. But the vices of honest men are the virtues of Barere. + +And now Barere had become a really cruel man. It was from mere +pusillanimity that he had perpetrated his first great crimes. +But the whole history of our race proves that the taste for the +misery of others is a taste which minds not naturally ferocious +may too easily acquire, and which, when once acquired, is as +strong as any of the propensities with which we are born. A very +few months had sufficed to bring this man into a state of mind in +which images of despair, wailing, and death had an exhilarating +effect on him, and inspired him as wine and love inspire men of +free and joyous natures. The cart creaking under its daily +freight of victims, ancient men and lads, and fair young girls, +the binding of the hands, the thrusting of the head out of the +little national sash-window, the crash of the axe, the pool of +blood beneath the scaffold, the heads rolling by scores in the +panier--these things were to him what Lalage and a cask of +Falernian were to Horace, what Rosette and a bottle of iced +champagne are to De Beranger. As soon as he began to speak of +slaughter his heart seemed to be enlarged, and his fancy to +become unusually fertile of conceits and gasconades. +Robespierre, Saint Just, and Billaud, whose barbarity was the +effect of earnest and gloomy hatred, were, in his view, men who +made a toil of a pleasure. Cruelty was no such melancholy +business, to be gone about with an austere brow and a whining +tone; it was a recreation, fitly accompanied by singing and +laughing. In truth, Robespierre and Barere might be well +compared to the two renowned hangmen of Louis the Eleventh. They +were alike insensible of pity, alike bent on havoc. But, while +they murdered, one of them frowned and canted, the other grinned +and joked. For our own part, we prefer Jean qui pleure to Jean +qui rit. + +In the midst of the funeral gloom which overhung Paris, a gaiety +stranger and more ghastly than the horrors of the prison and the +scaffold distinguished the dwelling of Barere. Every morning a +crowd of suitors assembled to implore his protection. He came +forth in his rich dressing-gown, went round the antechamber, +dispensed smiles and promises among the obsequious crowd, +addressed himself with peculiar animation to every handsome woman +who appeared in the circle, and complimented her in the florid +style of Gascony on the bloom of her cheeks and the lustre of her +eyes. When he had enjoyed the fear and anxiety of his suppliants +he dismissed them, and flung all their memorials unread into the +fire. This was the best way, he conceived, to prevent arrears of +business from accumulating. Here he was only an imitator. +Cardinal Dubois had been in the habit of clearing his table of +papers in the same way. Nor was this the only point in which we +could point out a resemblance between the worst statesman of the +monarchy and the worst statesman of the republic. + +Of Barere's peculiar vein of pleasantry a notion may be formed +from an anecdote which one of his intimate associates, a juror of +the revolutionary tribunal, has related. A courtesan who bore a +conspicuous part in the orgies of Clichy implored Barere to use +his power against a head-dress which did not suit her style of +face, and which a rival beauty was trying to bring into fashion. +One of the magistrates of the capital was summoned and received +the necessary orders. Aristocracy, Barere said, was again +rearing its front. These new wigs were counter-revolutionary. +He had reason to know that they were made out of the long fair +hair of handsome aristocrats who had died by the national +chopper. Every lady who adorned herself with the relics of +criminals might justly be suspected of incivism. This ridiculous +lie imposed on the authorities of Paris. Female citizens were +solemnly warned against the obnoxious ringlets, and were left to +choose between their head-dresses and their heads. Barere's +delight at the success of this facetious fiction was quite +extravagant: he could not tell the story without going into such +convulsions of laughter as made his hearers hope that he was +about to choke. There was something peculiarly tickling and +exhilarating to his mind in this grotesque combination of the +frivolous with the horrible, of false locks and curling-irons +with spouting arteries and reeking hatchets. + +But, though Barere succeeded in earning the honourable nicknames +of the Witling of Terror, and the Anacreon of the Guillotine, +there was one place where it was long remembered to his +disadvantage that he had, for a time, talked the language of +humanity and moderation. That place was the Jacobin club. Even +after he had borne the chief part in the massacre of the +Girondists, in the murder of the Queen, in the destruction of +Lyons, he durst not show himself within that sacred precinct. At +one meeting of the society, a member complained that the +committee to which the supreme direction of affairs was +entrusted, after all the changes which had been made, still +contained one man who was not trustworthy. Robespierre, whose +influence over the Jacobins was boundless, undertook the defence +of his colleague, owned there was some ground for what had been +said, but spoke highly of Barere's industry and aptitude for +business. This seasonable interposition silenced the accuser; +but it was long before the neophyte could venture to appear at +the club. + +At length a masterpiece of wickedness, unique, we think, even +among Barere's great achievements, obtained his full pardon even +from that rigid conclave. The insupportable tyranny of the +Committee of Public Safety had at length brought the minds of +men, and even of women, into a fierce and hard temper, which +defied or welcomed death. The life which might be any morning +taken away, in consequence of the whisper of a private enemy, +seemed of little value. It was something to die after smiting +one of the oppressors; it was something to bequeath to the +surviving tyrants a terror not inferior to that which they had +themselves inspired. Human nature, hunted and worried to the +utmost, now turned furiously to bay. Fouquier Tinville was +afraid to walk the streets; a pistol was snapped at Collot +D'Herbois; a young girl, animated apparently by the spirit of +Charlotte Corday, attempted to obtain an interview with +Robespierre. Suspicions arose; she was searched; and two knives +were found about her. She was questioned, and spoke of the +Jacobin domination with resolute scorn and aversion. It is +unnecessary to say that she was sent to the guillotine. Barere +declared from the tribune that the cause of these attempts was +evident. Pitt and his guineas had done the whole. The English +Government had organised a vast system of murder, had armed the +hand of Charlotte Corday, and had now, by similar means, attacked +two of the most eminent friends of liberty in France. It is +needless to say that these imputations were, not only false, but +destitute of all show of truth. Nay, they were demonstrably +absurd: for the assassins to whom Barere referred rushed on +certain death, a sure proof that they were not hirelings. The +whole wealth of England would not have bribed any sane person to +do what Charlotte Corday did. But, when we consider her as an +enthusiast, her conduct is perfectly natural. Even those French +writers who are childish enough to believe that the English +Government contrived the infernal machine and strangled the +Emperor Paul have fully acquitted Mr Pitt of all share in the +death of Marat and in the attempt on Robespierre. Yet on +calumnies so futile as those which we have mentioned did Barere +ground a motion at which all Christendom stood aghast. He +proposed a decree that no quarter should be given to any English +or Hanoverian soldier. (M. Hippolyte Carnot does his best to +excuse this decree. His abuse of England is merely laughable. +England has managed to deal with enemies of a very different sort +from either himself or his hero. One disgraceful blunder, +however, we think it right to notice. M. Hippolyte Carnot +asserts that a motion similar to that of Barere was made in the +English Parliament by the late Lord Fitzwilliam. This assertion +is false. We defy M. Hippolyte Carnot to state the date and +terms of the motion of which he speaks. We do not accuse him of +intentional misrepresentation; but we confidently accuse him of +extreme ignorance and temerity. Our readers will be amused to +learn on what authority he has ventured to publish such a fable. +He quotes, not the journals of the Lords, not the Parliamentary +Debates, but a ranting message of the Executive Directory to the +Five Hundred, a message, too, the whole meaning of which he has +utterly misunderstood.) His Carmagnole was worthy of the +proposition with which it concluded. "That one Englishman should +be spared, that for the slaves of George, for the human machines +of York, the vocabulary of our armies should contain such a word +as generosity, this is what the National Convention cannot +endure. War to the death against every English soldier. If last +year, at Dunkirk, quarter had been refused to them when they +asked it on their knees, if our troops had exterminated them all, +instead of suffering them to infest our fortresses by their +presence, the English government would not have renewed its +attack on our frontiers this year. It is only the dead man who +never comes back. What is this moral pestilence which has +introduced into our armies false ideas of humanity? That the +English were to be treated with indulgence was the philanthropic +notion of the Brissotines; it was the patriotic practice of +Dumourier. But humanity consists in exterminating our enemies. +No mercy to the execrable Englishman. Such are the sentiments of +the true Frenchman; for he knows that he belongs to a nation +revolutionary as nature, powerful as freedom, ardent as the +saltpetre which she has just torn from the entrails of the earth. +Soldiers of liberty, when victory places Englishmen at your +mercy, strike! None of them must return to the servile soil of +Great Britain; none must pollute the free soil of France." + +The Convention, thoroughly tamed and silenced, acquiesced in +Barere's motion without debate. And now at last the doors of the +Jacobin Club were thrown open to the disciple who had surpassed +his masters. He was admitted a member by acclamation, and was +soon selected to preside. + +For a time he was not without hope that his decree would be +carried into full effect. Intelligence arrived from the seat of +war of a sharp contest between some French and English troops, in +which the Republicans had the advantage, and in which no +prisoners had been made. Such things happen occasionally in all +wars. Barere, however, attributed the ferocity of this combat to +his darling decree, and entertained the Convention with another +Carmagnole. + +"The Republicans," he said, "saw a division in red uniform at a +distance. The red-coats are attacked with the bayonet. Not one +of them escapes the blows of the Republicans. All the red-coats +have been killed. No mercy, no indulgence, has been shown +towards the villains. Not an Englishman whom the Republicans +could reach is now living. How many prisoners should you guess +that we have made? One single prisoner is the result of this +great day." + +And now this bad man's craving for blood had become insatiable. +The more he quaffed, the more he thirsted. He had begun with the +English; but soon he came down with a proposition for new +massacres. "All the troops," he said, "of the coalesced tyrants +in garrison at Conde, Valenciennes, Le Quesnoy, and Landrecies, +ought to be put to the sword unless they surrender at discretion +in twenty-four hours. The English, of course, will be admitted +to no capitulation whatever. With the English we have no treaty +but death. As to the rest, surrender at discretion in twenty- +four hours, or death, these are our conditions. If the slaves +resist, let them feel the edge of the sword." And then he waxed +facetious. "On these terms the Republic is willing to give them +a lesson in the art of war." At that jest, some hearers, worthy +of such a speaker, set up a laugh. Then he became serious again. +"Let the enemy perish," he cried, "I have already said it from +this tribune. It is only the dead man who never comes back. +Kings will not conspire against us in the grave. Armies will not +fight against us when they are annihilated. Let our war with +them be a war of extermination. What pity is due to slaves whom +the Emperor leads to war under the cane; whom the King of Prussia +beats to the shambles with the flat of the sword; and whom the +Duke of York makes drunk with rum and gin?" And at the rum and +gin the Mountain and the galleries laughed again. + +If Barere had been able to effect his purpose, it is difficult to +estimate the extent of the calamity which he would have brought +on the human race. No government, however averse to cruelty, +could, in justice to its own subjects, have given quarter to +enemies who gave none. Retaliation would have been, not merely +justifiable, but a sacred duty. It would have been necessary for +Howe and Nelson to make every French sailor whom they took walk +the plank. England has no peculiar reason to dread the +introduction of such a system. On the contrary, the operation of +Barere's new law of war would have been more unfavourable to his +countrymen than to ours; for we believe that, from the beginning +to the end of the war, there never was a time at which the number +of French prisoners in England was not greater than the number of +English prisoners in France; and so, we apprehend, it will be in +all wars while England retains her maritime superiority. Had the +murderous decree of the Convention been in force from 1794 to +1815, we are satisfied that, for every Englishman slain by the +French, at least three Frenchmen would have been put to the sword +by the English. It is, therefore, not as Englishmen, but as +members of the great society of mankind, that we speak with +indignation and horror of the change which Barere attempted to +introduce. The mere slaughter would have been the smallest part +of the evil. The butchering of a single unarmed man in cold +blood, under an act of the legislature, would have produced more +evil than the carnage of ten such fields as Albuera. Public law +would have been subverted from the foundations; national enmities +would have been inflamed to a degree of rage which happily it is +not easy for us to conceive; cordial peace would have been +impossible. The moral character of the European nations would +have been rapidly and deeply corrupted; for in all countries +those men whose calling is to put their lives in jeopardy for the +defence of the public weal enjoy high consideration, and are +considered as the best arbitrators on points of honour and manly +bearing. With the standard of morality established in the +military profession the general standard of morality must to a +great extent sink or rise. It is, therefore, a fortunate +circumstance that, during a long course of years, respect for the +weak and clemency towards the vanquished have been considered as +qualities not less essential to the accomplished soldier than +personal courage. How long would this continue to be the case, +if the slaying of prisoners were a part of the daily duty of the +warrior? What man of kind and generous nature would, under such +a system, willingly bear arms? Who, that was compelled to bear +arms, would long continue kind and generous? And is it not +certain that, if barbarity towards the helpless became the +characteristic of military men, the taint must rapidly spread to +civil and to domestic life, and must show itself in all the +dealings of the strong with the weak, of husbands with wives, of +employers with work men, of creditors with debtors? + +But, thank God, Barere's decree was a mere dead letter. It was +to be executed by men very different from those who, in the +interior of France, were the instruments of the Committee of +Public Safety, who prated at Jacobin Clubs, and ran to Fouquier +Tinville with charges of incivism against women whom they could +not seduce, and bankers from whom they could not extort money. +The warriors who, under Hoche, had guarded the walls of Dunkirk, +and who, under Kleber, had made good the defence of the wood of +Monceaux, shrank with horror from an office more degrading than +that of the hangman. "The Convention," said an officer to his +men, "has sent orders that all the English prisoners shall be +shot." "We will not shoot them" answered a stout-hearted +sergeant. "Send them to the Convention. If the deputies take +pleasure in killing a prisoner, they may kill him themselves, and +eat him too, like savages as they are." This was the sentiment +of the whole army. Bonaparte, who thoroughly understood war, who +at Jaffa and elsewhere gave ample proof that he was not unwilling +to strain the laws of war to their utmost rigour, and whose +hatred of England amounted to a folly, always spoke of Barere's +decree with loathing, and boasted that the army had refused to +obey the Convention. + +Such disobedience on the part of any other class of citizens +would have been instantly punished by wholesale massacre; but the +Committee of Public Safety was aware that the discipline which +had tamed the unwarlike population of the fields and cities might +not answer in camps. To fling people by scores out of a boat, +and, when they catch hold of it, to chop off their fingers with a +hatchet, is undoubtedly a very agreeable pastime for a +thoroughbred Jacobin, when the sufferers are, as at Nantes, old +confessors, young girls, or women with child. But such sport +might prove a little dangerous if tried upon grim ranks of +grenadiers, marked with the scars of Hondschoote, and singed by +the smoke of Fleurus. + +Barere, however, found some consolation. If he could not succeed +in murdering the English and the Hanoverians, he was amply +indemnified by a new and vast slaughter of his own countrymen and +countrywomen. If the defence which has been set up for the +members of the Committee of Public Safety had been well founded, +if it had been true that they governed with extreme severity only +because the republic was in extreme peril, it is clear that the +severity would have diminished as the peril diminished. But the +fact is, that those cruelties for which the public danger is made +a plea became more and more enormous as the danger became less +and less, and reached the full height when there was no longer +any danger at all. In the autumn of 1793, there was undoubtedly +reason to apprehend that France might be unable to maintain the +struggle against the European coalition. The enemy was +triumphant on the frontiers. More than half the departments +disowned the authority of the Convention. But at that time eight +or ten necks a day were thought an ample allowance for the +guillotine of the capital. In the summer of 1794, Bordeaux, +Toulon, Caen, Lyons, Marseilles, had submitted to the ascendency +of Paris. The French arms were victorious under the Pyrenees and +on the Sambre. Brussels had fallen. Prussia announced her +intention of withdrawing from the contest. The Republic, no +longer content with defending her own independence, was beginning +to meditate conquest beyond the Alps and the Rhine. She was now +more formidable to her neighbours than ever Louis the Fourteenth +had been. And now the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris was not +content with forty, fifty, sixty heads in a morning. It was just +after a series of victories, which destroyed the whole force of +the single argument which has been urged in defence of the system +of terror, that the Committee of Public Safety resolved to infuse +into that system an energy hitherto unknown. It was proposed to +reconstruct the Revolutionary Tribunal, and to collect in the +space of two pages the whole revolutionary jurisprudence. Lists +of twelve judges and fifty jurors were made out from among the +fiercest Jacobins. The substantive law was simply this, that +whatever the tribunal should think pernicious to the republic was +a capital crime. The law of evidence was simply this, that +whatever satisfied the jurors was sufficient proof. The law of +procedure was of a piece with everything else. There was to be +an advocate against the prisoner, and no advocate for him. It +was expressly declared that, if the jurors were in any manner +convinced of the guilt of the prisoner, they might convict him +without hearing a single witness. The only punishment which the +court could inflict was death. + +Robespierre proposed this decree. When he had read it, a murmur +rose from the Convention. The fear which had long restrained the +deputies from opposing the Committee was overcome by a stronger +fear. Every man felt the knife at his throat. "The decree," +said one, "is of grave importance. I move that it be printed and +the debate be adjourned. If such a measure were adopted without +time for consideration, I would blow my brains out at once." The +motion for adjournment was seconded. Then Barere sprang up. "It +is impossible," he said, "that there can be any difference of +opinion among us as to a law like this, a law so favourable in +all respects to patriots; a law which insures the speedy +punishment of conspirators. If there is to be an adjournment, I +must insist that it shall not be for more than three days." The +opposition was overawed; the decree was passed; and, during the +six weeks which followed, the havoc was such as has never been +known before. + +And now the evil was beyond endurance. That timid majority which +had for a time supported the Girondists, and which had, after +their fall, contented itself with registering in silence the +decrees of the Committee of Public Safety, at length drew courage +from despair. Leaders of bold and firm character were not +wanting, men such as Fouche and Tallien, who, having been long +conspicuous among the chiefs of the Mountain, now found that +their own lives, or lives still dearer to them than their own, +were in extreme peril. Nor could it be longer kept secret that +there was a schism in the despotic committee. On one side were +Robespierre, Saint Just, and Couthon; on the other, Collot and +Billaud. Barere leaned towards these last, but only leaned +towards them. As was ever his fashion when a great crisis was at +hand, he fawned alternately on both parties, struck alternately +at both, and held himself in readiness to chant the praises or to +sign the death-warrant of either. In any event his Carmagnole +was ready. The tree of liberty, the blood of traitors, the +dagger of Brutus, the guineas of perfidious Albion, would do +equally well for Billaud and for Robespierre. + +The first attack which was made on Robespierre was indirect. An +old woman named Catherine Theot, half maniac, half impostor, was +protected by him, and exercised a strange influence over his +mind; for he was naturally prone to superstition, and, having +abjured the faith in which he had been brought up, was looking +about for something to believe. Barere drew up a report against +Catherine, which contained many facetious conceits, and ended, as +might be expected, with a motion for sending her and some other +wretched creatures of both sexes to the Revolutionary Tribunal, +or, in other words, to death. This report, however, he did not +dare to read to the Convention himself. Another member, less +timid, was induced to farther the cruel buffoonery; and the real +author enjoyed in security the dismay and vexation of +Robespierre. + +Barere now thought that he had done enough on one side, and that +it was time to make his peace with the other. On the seventh of +Thermidor, he pronounced in the Convention a panegyric on +Robespierre. "That representative of the people," he said, +"enjoys a reputation for patriotism, earned by five years of +exertion, and by unalterable fidelity to the principles of +independence and liberty." On the eighth of Thermidor, it became +clear that a decisive struggle was at hand. Robespierre struck +the first blow. He mounted the tribune, and uttered a long +invective on his opponents. It was moved that his discourse +should be printed; and Barere spoke for the printing. The sense +of the Convention soon appeared to be the other way; and Barere +apologised for his former speech, and implored his colleagues to +abstain from disputes which could be agreeable only to Pitt and +York. On the next day, the ever-memorable ninth of Thermidor, +came the real tug of war. Tallien, bravely taking his life in +his hand, led the onset. Billaud followed; and then all that +infinite hatred which had long been kept down by terror burst +forth, and swept every barrier before it. When at length the +voice of Robespierre, drowned by the President's bell, and by +shouts of "Down with the tyrant!" had died away in hoarse +gasping, Barere rose. He began with timid and doubtful phrases, +watched the effect of every word he uttered, and, when the +feeling of the Assembly had been unequivocally manifested, +declared against Robespierre. But it was not till the people out +of doors, and especially the gunners of Paris, had espoused the +cause of the Convention, that Barere felt quite at ease. Then he +sprang to the tribune, poured forth a Carmagnole about +Pisistratus and Catiline, and concluded by moving that the heads +of Robespierre and Robespierre's accomplices should be cut off +without a trial. The motion was carried. On the following +morning the vanquished members of the Committee of Public Safety +and their principal adherents suffered death. It was exactly one +year since Barere had commenced his career of slaughter by moving +the proscription of his old allies the Girondists. We greatly +doubt whether any human being has ever succeeded in packing more +wickedness into the space of three hundred and sixty-five days. + +The ninth of Thermidor is one of the great epochs in the history +of Europe. It is true that the three members of the Committee of +Public Safety who triumphed were by no means better men than the +three who fell. Indeed, we are inclined to think that of these +six statesmen the least bad were Robespierre and Saint Just, +whose cruelty was the effect of sincere fanaticism operating on +narrow understandings and acrimonious tempers. The worst of the +six was, beyond all doubt, Barere, who had no faith in any part +of the system which he upheld by persecution; who, while he sent +his fellow-creatures to death for being the third cousins of +royalists, had not in the least made up his mind that a republic +was better than a monarchy; who, while he slew his old friends +for federalism, was himself far more a federalist than any of +them; who had become a murderer merely for his safety, and who +continued to be a murderer merely for his pleasure. + +The tendency of the vulgar is to embody everything. Some +individual is selected, and often selected very injudicially, as +the representative of every great movement of the public mind, of +every great revolution in human affairs; and on this individual +are concentrated all the love and all the hatred, all the +admiration and all the contempt, which he ought rightfully to +share with a whole party, a whole sect, a whole nation, a whole +generation. Perhaps no human being has suffered so much from +this propensity of the multitude as Robespierre. He is regarded, +not merely as what he was, an envious, malevolent zealot, but as +the incarnation of Terror, as Jacobinism personified. The truth +is, that it was not by him that the system of terror was carried +to the last extreme. The most horrible days in the history of +the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris were those which immediately +preceded the ninth of Thermidor. Robespierre had then ceased to +attend the meetings of the sovereign Committee; and the direction +of affairs was really in the hands of Billaud, of Collot, and of +Barere. + +It had never occurred to those three tyrants that, in +overthrowing Robespierre, they were overthrowing that system of +terror to which they were more attached than he had ever been. +Their object was to go on slaying even more mercilessly than +before. But they had misunderstood the nature of the great +crisis which had at last arrived. The yoke of the Committee was +broken for ever. The Convention had regained its liberty, had +tried its strength, had vanquished and punished its enemies. A +great reaction had commenced. Twenty-four hours after +Robespierre had ceased to live, it was moved and carried, amidst +loud bursts of applause, that the sittings of the Revolutionary +Tribunal should be suspended. Billaud was not at that moment +present. He entered the hall soon after, learned with +indignation what had passed, and moved that the vote should be +rescinded. But loud cries of "No, no!" rose from those benches +which had lately paid mute obedience to his commands. Barere +came forward on the same day, and abjured the Convention not to +relax the system of terror. "Beware, above all things," he +cried, "of that fatal moderation which talks of peace and of +clemency. Let aristocracy know that here she will find only +enemies sternly bent on vengeance, and judges who have no pity." +But the day of the Carmagnoles was over: the restraint of fear +had been relaxed; and the hatred with which the nation regarded +the Jacobin dominion broke forth with ungovernable violence. Not +more strongly did the tide of public opinion run against the old +monarchy and aristocracy, at the time of the taking of the +Bastile, than it now ran against the tyranny of the Mountain. +From every dungeon the prisoners came forth as they had gone in, +by hundreds. The decree which forbade the soldiers of the +republic to give quarter to the English was repealed by an +unanimous vote, amidst loud acclamations; nor, passed as it was, +disobeyed as it was, and rescinded as it was, can it be with +justice considered as a blemish on the fame of the French nation. +The Jacobin Club was refractory. It was suppressed without +resistance. The surviving Girondist deputies, who had concealed +themselves from the vengeance of their enemies in caverns and +garrets, were readmitted to their seats in the Convention. No +day passed without some signal reparation of injustice; no street +in Paris was without some trace of the recent change. In the +theatre, the bust of Marat was pulled down from its pedestal and +broken in pieces, amidst the applause of the audience. His +carcass was ejected from the Pantheon. The celebrated picture of +his death, which had hung in the hall of the Convention, was +removed. The savage inscriptions with which the walls of the +city had been covered disappeared; and, in place of death and +terror, humanity, the watchword of the new rulers, was everywhere +to be seen. In the meantime, the gay spirit of France, recently +subdued by oppression, and now elated by the joy of a great +deliverance, wantoned in a thousand forms. Art, taste, luxury, +revived. Female beauty regained its empire--an empire +strengthened by the remembrance of all the tender and all the +sublime virtues which women, delicately bred and reputed +frivolous, had displayed during the evil days. Refined manners, +chivalrous sentiments, followed in the train of love. The dawn +of the Arctic summer day after the Arctic winter night, the great +unsealing of the waters, the awakening of animal and vegetable +life, the sudden softening of the air, the sudden blooming of the +flowers, the sudden bursting of old forests into verdure, is but +a feeble type of that happiest and most genial of revolutions, +the revolution of the ninth of Thermidor. + +But, in the midst of the revival of all kind and generous +sentiments, there was one portion of the community against which +mercy itself seemed to cry out for vengeance. The chiefs of the +late government and their tools were now never named but as the +men of blood, the drinkers of blood, the cannibals. In some +parts of France, where the creatures of the Mountain had acted +with peculiar barbarity, the populace took the law into its own +hands and meted out justice to the Jacobins with the true Jacobin +measure, but at Paris the punishments were inflicted with order +and decency, and were few when compared with the number, and +lenient when compared with the enormity, of the crimes. Soon +after the ninth of Thermidor, two of the vilest of mankind, +Fouquier Tinville, whom Barere had placed at the Revolutionary +Tribunal, and Lebon, whom Barere had defended in the Convention, +were placed under arrest. A third miscreant soon shared their +fate, Carrier, the tyrant of Nantes. The trials of these men +brought to light horrors surpassing anything that Suetonius and +Lampridius have related of the worst Caesars. But it was +impossible to punish subordinate agents, who, bad as they were, +had only acted in accordance with the spirit of the government +which they served, and, at the same time, to grant impunity to +the heads of the wicked administration. A cry was raised, both +within and without the Convention for justice on Collot, Billaud, +and Barere. + +Collot and Billaud, with all their vices, appear to have been men +of resolute natures. They made no submission; but opposed to the +hatred of mankind, at first a fierce resistance, and afterwards a +dogged and sullen endurance. Barere, on the other hand, as soon +as he began to understand the real nature of the revolution of +Thermidor, attempted to abandon the Mountain, and to obtain +admission among his old friends of the moderate party. He +declared everywhere that he had never been in favour of severe +measures; that he was a Girondist; that he had always condemned +and lamented the manner in which the Brissotine deputies had been +treated. He now preached mercy from that tribune from which he +had recently preached extermination. "The time," he said, "has +come at which our clemency may be indulged without danger. We +may now safely consider temporary imprisonment as an adequate +punishment for political misdemeanours." It was only a fortnight +since, from the same place, he had declaimed against the +moderation which dared even to talk of clemency; it was only a +fortnight since he had ceased to send men and women to the +guillotine of Paris, at the rate of three hundred a week. He now +wished to make his peace with the moderate party at the expense +of the Terrorists, as he had, a year before, made his peace with +the Terrorists at the expense of the moderate party. But he was +disappointed. He had left himself no retreat. His face, his +voice, his rants, his jokes, had become hateful to the +Convention. When he spoke he was interrupted by murmurs. Bitter +reflections were daily cast on his cowardice and perfidy. On one +occasion Carnot rose to give an account of a victory, and so far +forgot the gravity of his own character as to indulge in the sort +of oratory which Barere had affected on similar occasions. He +was interrupted by cries of "No more Carmagnoles!" "No more of +Barere's puns!" + +At length, five months after the revolution of Thermidor, the +Convention resolved that a committee of twenty-one members should +be appointed to examine into the conduct of Billaud, Collot, and +Barere. In some weeks the report was made. From that report we +learn that a paper had been discovered, signed by Barere, and +containing a proposition for adding the last improvement to the +system of terror. France was to be divided into circuits; +itinerant revolutionary tribunals, composed of trusty Jacobins, +were to move from department to department; and the guillotine +was to travel in their train. + +Barere, in his defence, insisted that no speech or motion which +he had made in the Convention could, without a violation of the +freedom of debate, be treated as a crime. He was asked how he +could resort to such a mode of defence, after putting to death so +many deputies on account of opinions expressed in the Convention. +He had nothing to say, but that it was much to be regretted that +the sound principle had ever been violated. + +He arrogated to himself a large share of the merit of the +revolution in Thermidor. The men who had risked their lives to +effect that revolution, and who knew that, if they had failed, +Barere would, in all probability, have moved the decree for +beheading them without a trial, and have drawn up a proclamation +announcing their guilt and their punishment to all France, were +by no means disposed to acquiesce in his claims. He was reminded +that, only forty-eight hours before the decisive conflict, he +had, in the tribune, been profuse of adulation to Robespierre. +His answer to this reproach is worthy of himself. "It was +necessary," he said, "to dissemble. It was necessary to flatter +Robespierre's vanity, and, by panegyric, to impel him to the +attack. This was the motive which induced me to load him with +those praises of which you complain. Who ever blamed Brutus for +dissembling with Tarquin?" + +The accused triumvirs had only one chance of escaping punishment. +There was severe distress at that moment among the working people +of the capital. This distress the Jacobins attributed to the +reaction of Thermidor, to the lenity with which the aristocrats +were now treated, and to the measures which had been adopted +against the chiefs of the late administration. Nothing is too +absurd to be believed by a populace which has not breakfasted, +and which does not know how it is to dine. The rabble of the +Faubourg St Antoine rose, menaced the deputies, and demanded with +loud cries the liberation of the persecuted patriots. But the +Convention was no longer such as it had been, when similar means +were employed too successfully against the Girondists. Its +spirit was roused. Its strength had been proved. Military means +were at its command. The tumult was suppressed: and it was +decreed that same evening that Collot, Billaud, and Barere should +instantly be removed to a distant place of confinement. + +The next day the order of the Convention was executed. The +account which Barere has given of his journey is the most +interesting and the most trustworthy part of these Memoirs. +There is no witness so infamous that a court of justice will not +take his word against himself; and even Barere may be believed +when he tells us how much he was hated and despised. + +The carriage in which he was to travel passed, surrounded by +armed men, along the street of St Honore. A crowd soon gathered +round it and increased every moment. On the long flight of steps +before the church of St Roch stood rows of eager spectators. It +was with difficulty that the coach could make its way through +those who hung upon it, hooting, cursing, and striving to burst +the doors. Barere thought his life in danger, and was conducted +at his own request to a public office, where he hoped that he +might find shelter till the crowd should disperse. In the +meantime, another discussion on his fate took place in the +Convention. It was proposed to deal with him as he had dealt +with better men, to put him out of the pale of the law, and to +deliver him at once without any trial to the headsman. But the +humanity which, since the ninth of Thermidor, had generally +directed the public councils restrained the deputies from taking +this course. + +It was now night; and the streets gradually became quiet. The +clock struck twelve; and Barere, under a strong guard, again set +forth on his journey. He was conducted over the river to the +place where the Orleans road branches off from the southern +boulevard. Two travelling carriages stood there. In one of them +was Billaud, attended by two officers; in the other two more +officers were waiting to receive Barere. Collot was already on +the road. + +At Orleans, a city which had suffered cruelly from the Jacobin +tyranny, the three deputies were surrounded by a mob bent on +tearing them to pieces. All the national guards of the +neighbourhood were assembled; and this force was not greater than +the emergency required; for the multitude pursued the carriages +far on the road to Blois. + +At Amboise the prisoners learned that Tours was ready to receive +them. The stately bridge was occupied by a throng of people, who +swore that the men under whose rule the Loire had been choked +with corpses should have full personal experience of the nature +of a noyade. In consequence of this news, the officers who had +charge of the criminals made such arrangements that the carriages +reached Tours at two in the morning, and drove straight to the +post-house. Fresh horses were instantly ordered; and the +travellers started again at full gallop. They had, in truth, not +a moment to lose; for the alarm had been given; lights were seen +in motion; and the yells of a great multitude, disappointed of +its revenge, mingled with the sound of the departing wheels. + +At Poitiers there was another narrow escape. As the prisoners +quitted the post-house, they saw the whole population pouring in +fury down the steep declivity on which the city is built. They +passed near Niort, but could not venture to enter it. The +inhabitants came forth with threatening aspect, and vehemently +cried to the postillions to stop; but the postillions urged the +horses to full speed, and soon left the town behind. Through +such dangers the men of blood were brought in safety to Rochelle. + +Oleron was the place of their destination, a dreary island beaten +by the raging waves of the Bay of Biscay. The prisoners were +confined in the castle; each had a single chamber, at the door of +which a guard was placed; and each was allowed the ration of a +single soldier. They were not allowed to communicate either with +the garrison or with the population of the island; and soon after +their arrival they were denied the indulgence of walking on the +ramparts. The only place where they were suffered to take +exercise was the esplanade where the troops were drilled. + +They had not been long in this situation when news came that the +Jacobins of Paris had made a last attempt to regain ascendency in +the state, that the hall of the Convention had been forced by a +furious crowd, that one of the deputies had been murdered and his +head fixed on a pike, that the life of the President had been for +a time in imminent danger, and that some members of the +legislature had not been ashamed to join the rioters. But troops +had arrived in time to prevent a massacre. The insurgents had +been put to flight; the inhabitants of the disaffected quarters +of the capital had been disarmed; the guilty deputies had +suffered the just punishment of their treason; and the power of +the Mountain was broken for ever. These events strengthened the +aversion with which the system of terror and the authors of that +system were regarded. One member of the Convention had moved +that the three prisoners of Oleron should be put to death; +another, that they should be brought back to Paris, and tried by +a council of war. These propositions were rejected. But +something was conceded to the party which called for severity. A +vessel which had been fitted out with great expedition at +Rochefort touched at Oleron; and it was announced to Collot and +Billaud that they must instantly go on board. They were +forthwith conveyed to Guiana, where Collot soon drank himself to +death with brandy. Billaud lived many years, shunning his +fellow-creatures and shunned by them; and diverted his lonely +hours by teaching parrots to talk. Why a distinction was made +between Barere and his companions in guilt, neither he nor any +other writer, as far as we know, has explained. It does not +appear that the distinction was meant to be at all in his favour; +for orders soon arrived from Paris, that he should be brought to +trial for his crimes before the criminal court of the department +of the Upper Charente. He was accordingly brought back to the +continent, and confined during some months at Saintes, in an old +convent which had lately been turned into a jail. + +While he lingered here, the reaction which had followed the great +crisis of Thermidor met with a temporary check. The friends of +the House of Bourbon, presuming on the indulgence with which they +had been treated after the fall of Robespierre, not only ventured +to avow their opinions with little disguise, but at length took +arms against the Convention, and were not put down till much +blood had been shed in the streets of Paris. The vigilance of +the public authorities was therefore now directed chiefly against +the Royalists; and the rigour with which the Jacobins had lately +been treated was somewhat relaxed. The Convention, indeed, again +resolved that Barere should be sent to Guiana. But this decree +was not carried into effect. The prisoner, probably with the +connivance of some powerful persons, made his escape from Saintes +and fled to Bordeaux, where he remained in concealment during +some years. There seems to have been a kind of understanding +between him and the government, that, as long as he hid himself, +he should not be found, but that, if he obtruded himself on the +public eye, he must take the consequences of his rashness. + +While the constitution of 1795, with its Executive Directory, its +Council of Elders, and its Council of Five Hundred, was in +operation, he continued to live under the ban of the law. It was +in vain that he solicited, even at moments when the politics of +the Mountain seemed to be again in the ascendant, a remission of +the sentence pronounced by the Convention. Even his fellow- +regicides, even the authors of the slaughter of Vendemiaire and +of the arrests of Fructidor, were ashamed of him. + +About eighteen months after his escape from prison, his name was +again brought before the world. In his own province he still +retained some of his early popularity. He had, indeed, never +been in that province since the downfall of the monarchy. The +mountaineers of Gascony were far removed from the seat of +government, and were but imperfectly informed of what passed +there. They knew that their countryman had played an important +part, and that he had on some occasions promoted their local +interests; and they stood by him in his adversity and in his +disgrace with a constancy which presents a singular contrast to +his own abject fickleness. All France was amazed to learn that +the department of the Upper Pyrenees had chosen the proscribed +tyrant a member of the Council of Five Hundred. The council +which, like our House of Commons, was the judge of the election +of its own members, refused to admit him. When his name was read +from the roll, a cry of indignation rose from the benches. +"Which of you," exclaimed one of the members, "would sit by the +side of such a monster?" "Not I, not I!" answered a crowd of +voices. One deputy declared that he would vacate his seat if the +hall were polluted by the presence of such a wretch. The +election was declared null on the ground that the person elected +was a criminal skulking from justice; and many severe reflections +were thrown on the lenity which suffered him to be still at +large. + +He tried to make his peace with the Directory, by writing a bulky +libel on England, entitled, the Liberty of the Seas. He seems to +have confidently expected that this work would produce a great +effect. He printed three thousand copies, and in order to defray +the expense of publication, sold one of his farms for the sum of +ten thousand francs. The book came out; but nobody bought it, in +consequence, if Barere is to be believed, of the villainy of Mr +Pitt, who bribed the Directory to order the Reviewers not to +notice so formidable an attack on the maritime greatness of +perfidious Albion. + +Barere had been about three years at Bordeaux when he received +intelligence that the mob of the town designed him the honour of +a visit on the ninth of Thermidor, and would probably administer +to him what he had, in his defence of his friend Lebon, described +as substantial justice under forms a little harsh. It was +necessary for him to disguise himself in clothes such as were +worn by the carpenters of the dock. In this garb, with a bundle +of wood shavings under his arm, he made his escape into the +vineyards which surrounded the city, lurked during some days in a +peasant's hut, and, when the dreaded anniversary was over, stole +back into the city. A few months later he was again in danger. +He now thought that he should be nowhere so safe as in the +neighbourhood of Paris. He quitted Bordeaux, hastened undetected +through those towns where four years before his life had been in +extreme danger, passed through the capital in the morning +twilight, when none were in the streets except shop-boys taking +down the shutters, and arrived safe at the pleasant village of St +Ouen on the Seine. Here he remained in seclusion during some +months. In the meantime Bonaparte returned from Egypt, placed +himself at the had of a coalition of discontented parties, +covered his designs with the authority of the Elders, drove the +Five Hundred out of their hall at the point of the bayonet, and +became absolute monarch of France under the name of First Consul. + +Barere assures us that these events almost broke his heart; that +he could not bear to see France again subject to a master; and +that if the representatives had been worthy of that honourable +name, they would have arrested the ambitious general who insulted +them. These feelings, however, did not prevent him from +soliciting the protection of the new government, and from sending +to the First Consul a handsome copy of the essay on the Liberty +of the Seas. + +The policy of Bonaparte was to cover all the past with a general +oblivion. He belonged half to the Revolution and half to the +reaction. He was an upstart and a sovereign; and had therefore +something in common with the Jacobin, and something in common +with the Royalist. All, whether Jacobins or Royalists, who were +disposed to support his government, were readily received--all, +whether Jacobins or Royalists, who showed hostility to his +government, were put down and punished. Men who had borne a part +in the worst crimes of the Reign of Terror, and men who had +fought in the army of Conde, were to be found close together, +both in his antechambers and in his dungeons. He decorated +Fouche and Maury with the same cross. He sent Arena and Georges +Cadoudal to the same scaffold. From a government acting on such +principles Barere easily obtained the indulgence which the +Directory had constantly refused to grant. The sentence passed +by the Convention was remitted; and he was allowed to reside at +Paris. His pardon, it is true, was not granted in the most +honourable form; and he remained, during some time, under the +special supervision of the police. He hastened, however, to pay +his court at the Luxembourg palace, where Bonaparte then resided, +and was honoured with a few dry and careless words by the master +of France. + +Here begins a new chapter of Barere's history. What passed +between him and the Consular government cannot, of course, be so +accurately known to us as the speeches and reports which he made +in the Convention. It is, however, not difficult, from notorious +facts, and from the admissions scattered over these lying +Memoirs, to form a tolerably accurate notion of what took place. +Bonaparte wanted to buy Barere: Barere wanted to sell himself to +Bonaparte. The only question was one of price; and there was an +immense interval between what was offered and what was demanded. + +Bonaparte, whose vehemence of will, fixedness of purpose, and +reliance on his own genius were not only great but extravagant, +looked with scorn on the most effeminate and dependent of human +minds. He was quite capable of perpetrating crimes under the +influence either of ambition or of revenge: but he had no touch +of that accursed monomania, that craving for blood and tears, +which raged in some of the Jacobin chiefs. To proscribe the +Terrorists would have been wholly inconsistent with his policy; +but, of all the classes of men whom his comprehensive system +included, he liked them the least; and Barere was the worst of +them. This wretch had been branded with infamy, first by the +Convention, and then by the Council of Five Hundred. The +inhabitants of four or five great cities had attempted to tear +him limb from limb. Nor were his vices redeemed by eminent +talents for administration or legislation. It would be unwise to +place in any honourable or important post a man so wicked, so +odious, and so little qualified to discharge high political +duties. At the same time there was a way in which it seemed +likely that he might be of use to the government. The First +Consul, as he afterwards acknowledged, greatly overrated Barere's +powers as a writer. The effect which the Reports of the +Committee of Public Safety had produced by the camp fires of the +Republican armies had been great. Napoleon himself, when a young +soldier, had been delighted by those compositions, which had much +in common with the rhapsodies of his favourite poet, Macpherson. +The taste, indeed, of the great warrior and statesman was never +very pure. His bulletins, his general orders, and his +proclamations, are sometimes, it is true, masterpieces in their +kind; but we too often detect, even in his best writing, traces +of Fingal, and of the Carmagnoles. It is not strange, therefore, +that he should have been desirous to secure the aid of Barere's +pen. Nor was this the only kind of assistance which the old +member of the Committee of Public Safety might render to the +Consular government. He was likely to find admission into the +gloomy dens in which those Jacobins whose constancy was to be +overcome by no reverse, or whose crimes admitted of no expiation, +hid themselves from the curses of mankind. No enterprise was too +bold or too atrocious for minds crazed by fanatacism, and +familiar with misery and death. The government was anxious to +have information of what passed in their secret councils; and no +man was better qualified to furnish such information than Barere. + +For these reasons the First Consul was disposed to employ Barere +as a writer and as a spy. But Barere--was it possible that he +would submit to such a degradation? Bad as he was, he had played +a great part. He had belonged to that class of criminals who +filled the world with the renown of their crimes; he had been one +of a cabinet which had ruled France with absolute power, and made +war on all Europe with signal success. Nay, he had been, though +not the most powerful, yet, with the single exception of +Robespierre, the most conspicuous member of that cabinet. His +name had been a household word at Moscow and at Philadelphia, at +Edinburgh and at Cadiz. The blood of the Queen of France, the +blood of the greatest orators and philosophers of France, was on +his hands. He had spoken; and it had been decreed that the +plough should pass over the great city of Lyons. He had spoken +again; and it had been decreed that the streets of Toulon should +be razed to the ground. When depravity is placed so high as his, +the hatred which it inspires is mingled with awe. His place was +with great tyrants, with Critias and Sylla, with Eccelino and +Borgia; not with hireling scribblers and police runners. + +"Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast; +But shall the dignity of vice be lost?" + +So sang Pope; and so felt Barere. When it was proposed to him to +publish a journal in defence of the Consular government, rage and +shame inspired him for the first and last time with something +like courage. He had filled as large a space in the eyes of +mankind as Mr Pitt or General Washington; and he was coolly +invited to descend at once to the level of Mr Lewis Goldsmith. +He saw, too, with agonies of envy, that a wide distinction was +made between himself and the other statesmen of the Revolution +who were summoned to the aid of the government. Those statesmen +were required, indeed, to make large sacrifices of principle; but +they were not called on to sacrifice what, in the opinion of the +vulgar, constitutes personal dignity. They were made tribunes +and legislators, ambassadors and counsellors of state, ministers, +senators, and consuls. They might reasonably expect to rise with +the rising fortunes of their master; and, in truth, many of them +were destined to wear the badge of his Legion of Honour and of +his order of the Iron Crown; to be arch-chancellors and arch- +treasurers, counts, dukes, and princes. Barere, only six years +before, had been far more powerful, far more widely renowned, +than any of them; and now, while they were thought worthy to +represent the majesty of France at foreign courts, while they +received crowds of suitors in gilded antechambers, he was to pass +his life in measuring paragraphs, and scolding correctors of the +press. It was too much. Those lips which had never before been +able to fashion themselves to a No, now murmured expostulation +and refusal. "I could not"--these are his own words--"abase +myself to such a point as to serve the First Consul merely in the +capacity of a journalist, while so many insignificant, low, and +servile people, such as the Treilhards, the Roederers, the +Lebruns, the Marets, and others whom it is superfluous to name, +held the first place in this government of upstarts." + +This outbreak of spirit was of short duration. Napoleon was +inexorable. It is said indeed that he was, for a moment, half +inclined to admit Barere into the Council of State; but the +members of that body remonstrated in the strongest terms, and +declared that such a nomination would be a disgrace to them all. +This plan was therefore relinquished. Thenceforth Barere's only +chance of obtaining the patronage of the government was to subdue +his pride, to forget that there had been a time when, with three +words, he might have had the heads of the three consuls, and to +betake himself, humbly and industriously, to the task of +composing lampoons on England and panegyrics on Bonaparte. + +It has been often asserted, we know not on what grounds, that +Barere was employed by the government not only as a writer, but +as a censor of the writings of other men. This imputation he +vehemently denies in his Memoirs; but our readers will probably +agree with us in thinking that his denial leaves the question +exactly where it was. + +Thus much is certain, that he was not restrained from exercising +the office of censor by any scruple of conscience or honour; for +he did accept an office, compared with which that of censor, +odious as it is, may be called an august and beneficent +magistracy. He began to have what are delicately called +relations with the police. We are not sure that we have formed, +or that we can convey, an exact notion of the nature of Barere's +new calling. It is a calling unknown in our country. It has +indeed often happened in England that a plot has been revealed to +the government by one of the conspirators. The informer has +sometimes been directed to carry it fair towards his accomplices, +and to let the evil design come to full maturity. As soon as his +work is done, he is generally snatched from the public gaze, and +sent to some obscure village or to some remote colony. The use +of spies, even to this extent, is in the highest degree unpopular +in England; but a political spy by profession is a creature from +which our island is as free as it is from wolves. In France the +race is well-known, and was never more numerous, more greedy, +more cunning, or more savage, than under the government of +Bonaparte. + +Our idea of a gentleman in relations with the Consular and +Imperial police may perhaps be incorrect. Such as it is, we will +try to convey it to our readers. We image to ourselves a well- +dressed person, with a soft voice and affable manners. His +opinions are those of the society in which he finds himself, but +a little stronger. He often complains, in the language of honest +indignation, that what passes in private conversation finds its +way strangely to the government, and cautions his associates to +take care what they say when they are not sure of their company. +As for himself, he owns that he is indiscreet. He can never +refrain from speaking his mind; and that is the reason that he is +not prefect of a department. + +In a gallery of the Palais Royal he overhears two friends talking +earnestly about the King and the Count of Artois. He follows +them into a coffee-house, sits at the table next to them, calls +for his half-dish and his small glass of cognac, takes up a +journal, and seems occupied with the news. His neighbours go on +talking without restraint, and in the style of persons warmly +attached to the exiled family. They depart; and he follows them +half round the boulevards till he fairly tracks them to their +apartments, and learns their names from the porters. From that +day every letter addressed to either of them is sent from the +post-office to the police, and opened. Their correspondents +become known to the government, and are carefully watched. Six +or eight honest families, in different parts of France, find +themselves at once under the frown of power without being able to +guess what offence they have given. One person is dismissed from +a public office; another learns with dismay that his promising +son has been turned out of the Polytechnic school. + +Next, the indefatigable servant of the state falls in with an old +republican, who has not changed with the times, who regrets the +red cap and the tree of liberty, who has not unlearned the Thee +and Thou, and who still subscribes his letters with "Health and +Fraternity." Into the ears of this sturdy politician our friend +pours forth a long series of complaints. What evil times! What +a change since the days when the Mountain governed France! What +is the First Consul but a king under a new name? What is this +Legion of Honour but a new aristocracy? The old superstition is +reviving with the old tyranny. There is a treaty with the Pope, +and a provision for the clergy. Emigrant nobles are returning in +crowds, and are better received at the Tuileries than the men of +the 10th of August. This cannot last. What is life without +liberty? What terrors has death to the true patriot? The old +Jacobin catches fire, bestows and receives the fraternal hug, and +hints that there will soon be great news, and that the breed of +Harmodius and Brutus is not quite extinct. The next day he is +close prisoner, and all his papers are in the hands of the +government. + +To this vocation, a vocation compared with which the life of a +beggar, of a pickpocket, of a pimp, is honourable, did Barere now +descend. It was his constant practice, as often as he enrolled +himself in a new party, to pay his footing with the heads of old +friends. He was at first a Royalist; and he made atonement by +watering the tree of liberty with the blood of Louis. He was +then a Girondist; and he made atonement by murdering Vergniaud +and Gensonne. He fawned on Robespierre up to the eighth of +Thermidor; and he made atonement by moving, on the ninth, that +Robespierre should be beheaded without a trial. He was now +enlisted in the service of the new monarchy; and he proceeded to +atone for his republican heresies by sending republican throats +to the guillotine. + +Among his most intimate associates was a Gascon named Demerville, +who had been employed in an office of high trust under the +Committee of Public Safety. This man was fanatically attached to +the Jacobin system of politics, and, in conjunction with other +enthusiasts of the same class, formed a design against the First +Consul. A hint of this design escaped him in conversation with +Barere. Barere carried the intelligence to Lannes, who commanded +the Consular Guards. Demerville was arrested, tried, and +beheaded; and among the witnesses who appeared against him was +his friend Barere. + +The account which Barere has given of these transactions is +studiously confused and grossly dishonest. We think, however, +that we can discern, through much falsehood and much artful +obscurity, some truths which he labours to conceal. It is clear +to us that the government suspected him of what the Italians call +a double treason. It was natural that such a suspicion should +attach to him. He had, in times not very remote, zealously +preached the Jacobin doctrine, that he who smites a tyrant +deserves higher praise than he who saves a citizen. Was it +possible that the member of the Committee of Public Safety, the +king-killer, the queen-killer, could in earnest mean to deliver +his old confederates, his bosom friends, to the executioner, +solely because they had planned an act which, if there were any +truth in his own Carmagnoles, was in the highest degree virtuous +and glorious? Was it not more probable that he was really +concerned in the plot, and that the information which he gave was +merely intended to lull or to mislead the police? Accordingly, +spies were set on the spy. He was ordered to quit Paris, and not +to come within twenty leagues till he received further orders. +Nay, he ran no small risk of being sent, with some of his old +friends, to Madagascar. + +He made his peace, however, with the government so far, that he +was not only permitted, during some years, to live unmolested, +but was employed in the lowest sort of political drudgery. In +the summer of 1803, while he was preparing to visit the south of +France, he received a letter which deserves to be inserted. It +was from Duroc, who is well known to have enjoyed a large share +of Napoleon's confidence and favour. + +"The First Consul, having been informed that Citizen Barere is +about to set out for the country, desires that he will stay at +Paris. + +"Citizen Barere will every week draw up a report on the state of +public opinion on the proceedings of the government, and +generally on everything which, in his judgment, it will be +interesting to the First Consul to learn. + +"He may write with perfect freedom. + +"He will deliver his reports under seal into General Duroc's own +hand, and General Duroc will deliver them to the First Consul. +But it is absolutely necessary that nobody should suspect that +this species of communication takes place; and, should any such +suspicion get abroad, the First Consul will cease to receive the +reports of Citizen Barere. + +"It will also be proper that Citizen Barere should frequently +insert in the journals articles tending to animate the public +mind, particularly against the English." + +During some years Barere continued to discharge the functions +assigned to him by his master. Secret reports, filled with the +talk of coffee-houses, were carried by him every week to the +Tuileries. His friends assure us that he took especial pains to +do all the harm in his power to the returned emigrants. It was +not his fault if Napoleon was not apprised of every murmur and +every sarcasm which old marquesses who had lost their estates, +and old clergymen who had lost their benefices, uttered against +the imperial system. M. Hippolyte Carnot, we grieve to say, is +so much blinded by party spirit that he seems to reckon this +dirty wickedness among his hero's titles to public esteem. + +Barere was, at the same time, an indefatigable journalist and +pamphleteer. He set up a paper directed against England, and +called the "Memorial Antibritannique". He planned a work +entitled, "France made great and illustrious by Napoleon." When +the Imperial government was established, the old regicide made +himself conspicuous even among the crowd of flatterers by the +peculiar fulsomeness of his adulation. He translated into French +a contemptible volume of Italian verses, entitled, "The Poetic +Crown, composed on the glorious accession of Napoleon the First, +by the Shepherds of Arcadia." He commenced a new series of +Carmagnoles very different from those which had charmed the +Mountain. The title of Emperor of the French, he said, was mean; +Napoleon ought to be Emperor of Europe. King of Italy was too +humble an appellation; Napoleon's style ought to be King of +Kings. + +But Barere laboured to small purpose in both his vocations. +Neither as a writer nor as a spy was he of much use. He +complains bitterly that his paper did not sell. While the +"Journal des Debats", then flourishing under the able management +of Geoffroy, had a circulation of at least twenty thousand +copies, the "Memorial Antibritannique" never, in its most +prosperous times, had more than fifteen hundred subscribers; and +these subscribers were, with scarcely an exception, persons +residing far from Paris, probably Gascons, among whom the name of +Barere had not yet lost its influence. + +A writer who cannot find readers generally attributes the public +neglect to any cause rather than to the true one; and Barere was +no exception to the general rule. His old hatred to Paris +revived in all its fury. That city, he says, has no sympathy +with France. No Parisian cares to subscribe to a journal which +dwells on the real wants and interests of the country. To a +Parisian nothing is so ridiculous as patriotism. The higher +classes of the capital have always been devoted to England. A +corporal from London is better received among them than a French +general. A journal, therefore, which attacks England has no +chance of their support. + +A much better explanation of the failure of the "Memorial" was +given by Bonaparte at St Helena. "Barere," said he to Barry +O'Meara, "had the reputation of being a man of talent: but I did +not find him so. I employed him to write; but he did not display +ability. He used many flowers of rhetoric, but no solid +argument; nothing but coglionerie wrapped up in high-sounding +language." + +The truth is that, though Barere was a man of quick parts, and +could do with ease what he could do at all, he had never been a +good writer. In the day of his power he had been in the habit of +haranguing an excitable audience on exciting topics. The faults +of his style passed uncensured; for it was a time of literary as +well as of civil lawlessness, and a patriot was licensed to +violate the ordinary rules of composition as well as the ordinary +rules of jurisprudence and of social morality. But there had now +been a literary as well as a civil reaction. As there was again +a throne and a court, a magistracy, a chivalry, and a hierarchy, +so was there a revival of classical taste. Honour was again paid +to the prose of Pascal and Massillon, and to the verse of Racine +and La Fontaine. The oratory which had delighted the galleries +of the Convention was not only as much out of date as the +language of Villehardouin and Joinville, but was associated in +the public mind with images of horror. All the peculiarities of +the Anacreon of the guillotine, his words unknown to the +Dictionary of the Academy, his conceits and his jokes, his Gascon +idioms and his Gascon hyperboles, had become as odious as the +cant of the Puritans was in England after the Restoration. + +Bonaparte, who had never loved the men of the Reign of Terror, +had now ceased to fear them. He was all-powerful and at the +height of glory; they were weak and universally abhorred. He was +a sovereign; and it is probable that he already meditated a +matrimonial alliance with sovereigns. He was naturally +unwilling, in his new position, to hold any intercourse with the +worst class of Jacobins. Had Barere's literary assistance been +important to the government, personal aversion might have yielded +to considerations of policy; but there was no motive for keeping +terms with a worthless man who had also proved a worthless +writer. Bonaparte, therefore, gave loose to his feelings. +Barere was not gently dropped, not sent into an honourable +retirement, but spurned and scourged away like a troublesome dog. +He had been in the habit of sending six copies of his journal on +fine paper daily to the Tuileries. Instead of receiving the +thanks and praises which he expected, he was drily told that the +great man had ordered five copies to be sent back. Still he +toiled on; still he cherished a hope that at last Napoleon would +relent, and that at last some share in the honours of the state +would reward so much assiduity and so much obsequiousness. He +was bitterly undeceived. Under the Imperial constitution the +electoral colleges of the departments did not possess the right +of choosing senators or deputies, but merely that of presenting +candidates. From among these candidates the emperor named +members of the senate, and the senate named members of the +legislative body. The inhabitants of the Upper Pyrenees were +still strangely partial to Barere. In the year 1805, they were +disposed to present him as a candidate for the senate. On this +Napoleon expressed the highest displeasure; and the president of +the electoral college was directed to tell the voters, in plain +terms, that such a choice would be disgraceful to the department. +All thought of naming Barere a candidate for the senate was +consequently dropped. But the people of Argeles ventured to name +him a candidate for the legislative body. That body was +altogether destitute of weight and dignity; it was not permitted +to debate; its only function was to vote in silence for whatever +the government proposed. It is not easy to understand how any +man who had sat in free and powerful deliberative assemblies +could condescend to bear a part in such a mummery. Barere, +however, was desirous of a place even in this mock legislature; +and a place even in this mock legislature was refused to him. In +the whole senate he had not a single vote. + +Such treatment was sufficient, it might have been thought, to +move the most abject of mankind to resentment. Still, however, +Barere cringed and fawned on. His letters came weekly to the +Tuileries till the year 1807. At length, while he was actually +writing the two hundred and twenty-third of the series, a note +was put into his hands. It was from Duroc, and was much more +perspicuous than polite. Barere was requested to send no more of +his Reports to the palace, as the Emperor was too busy to read +them. + +Contempt, says the Indian proverb, pierces even the shell of the +tortoise; and the contempt of the Court was felt to the quick +even by the callous heart of Barere. He had humbled himself to +the dust; and he had humbled himself in vain. Having been +eminent among the rulers of a great and victorious state, he had +stooped to serve a master in the vilest capacities; and he had +been told that, even in those capacities, he was not worthy of +the pittance which had been disdainfully flung to him. He was +now degraded below the level even of the hirelings whom the +government employed in the most infamous offices. He stood idle +in the market-place, not because he thought any office too +infamous, but because none would hire him. + +Yet he had reason to think himself fortunate; for, had all that +is avowed in these Memoirs been known, he would have received +very different tokens of the Imperial displeasure. We learn from +himself that, while publishing daily columns of flattery on +Bonaparte, and while carrying weekly budgets of calumny to the +Tuileries, he was in close connection with the agents whom the +Emperor Alexander, then by no means favourably disposed towards +France, employed to watch all that passed at Paris; was permitted +to read their secret despatches; was consulted by them as to the +temper of the public mind and the character of Napoleon; and did +his best to persuade them that the government was in a tottering +condition, and that the new sovereign was not, as the world +supposed, a great statesman and soldier. Next, Barere, still the +flatterer and talebearer of the Imperial Court, connected himself +in the same manner with the Spanish envoy. He owns that with +that envoy he had relations which he took the greatest pains to +conceal from his own government; that they met twice a day; and +that their conversation chiefly turned on the vices of Napoleon; +on his designs against Spain, and on the best mode of rendering +those designs abortive. In truth, Barere's baseness was +unfathomable. In the lowest deeps of shame he found out lower +deeps. It is bad to be a sycophant; it is bad to be a spy. But +even among sycophants and spies there are degrees of meanness. +The vilest sycophant is he who privily slanders the master on +whom he fawns; and the vilest spy is he who serves foreigners +against the government of his native land. + +From 1807 to 1814 Barere lived in obscurity, railing as bitterly +as his craven cowardice would permit against the Imperial +administration, and coming sometimes unpleasantly across the +police. When the Bourbons returned, he, as might have been +expected, became a royalist, and wrote a pamphlet setting forth +the horrors of the system from which the Restoration had +delivered France, and magnifying the wisdom and goodness which +had dictated the charter. He who had voted for the death of +Louis, he who had moved the decree for the trial of Marie +Antoinette, he whose hatred of monarchy had led him to make war +even upon the sepulchres of ancient monarchs, assures us, with +great complacency, that "in this work monarchical principles and +attachment to the House of Bourbon are nobly expressed." By this +apostasy he got nothing, not even any additional infamy; for his +character was already too black to be blackened. + +During the hundred days he again emerged for a very short time +into public life; he was chosen by his native district a member +of the Chamber of Representatives. But, though that assembly was +composed in a great measure of men who regarded the excesses of +the Jacobins with indulgence, he found himself an object of +general aversion. When the President first informed the Chamber +that M. Barere requested a hearing, a deep and indignant murmur +ran round the benches. After the battle of Waterloo, Barere +proposed that the Chamber should save France from the victorious +enemy, by putting forth a proclamation about the pass of +Thermopylae and the Lacedaemonian custom of wearing flowers in +times of extreme danger. Whether this composition, if it had +then appeared, would have stopped the English and Prussian +armies, is a question respecting which we are left to conjecture. +The Chamber refused to adopt this last of the Carmagnoles. + +The Emperor had abdicated. The Bourbons returned. The Chamber +of Representatives, after burlesquing during a few weeks the +proceedings of the National Convention, retired with the well- +earned character of having been the silliest political assembly +that had met in France. Those dreaming pedants and praters never +for a moment comprehended their position. They could never +understand that Europe must be either conciliated or vanquished; +that Europe could be conciliated only by the restoration of +Louis, and vanquished only by means of a dictatorial power +entrusted to Napoleon. They would not hear of Louis; yet they +would not hear of the only measures which could keep him out. +They incurred the enmity of all foreign powers by putting +Napoleon at their head; yet they shackled him, thwarted him, +quarrelled with him about every trifle, abandoned him on the +first reverse. They then opposed declamations and disquisitions +to eight hundred thousand bayonets; played at making a +constitution for their country, when it depended on the +indulgence of the victor whether they should have a country; and +were at last interrupted, in the midst of their babble about the +rights of man and the sovereignty of the people, by the soldiers +of Wellington and Blucher. + +A new Chamber of Deputies was elected, so bitterly hostile to the +Revolution that there was no small risk of a new Reign of Terror. +It is just, however, to say that the king, his ministers, and his +allies exerted themselves to restrain the violence of the +fanatical royalists, and that the punishments inflicted, though +in our opinion unjustifiable, were few and lenient when compared +with those which were demanded by M. de Labourdonnaye and M. Hyde +de Neuville. We have always heard, and are inclined to believe, +that the government was not disposed to treat even the regicides +with severity. But on this point the feeling of the Chamber of +Deputies was so strong that it was thought necessary to make some +concession. It was enacted, therefore, that whoever, having +voted in January 1793 for the death of Louis the Sixteenth, had +in any manner given in an adhesion to the government of Bonaparte +during the hundred days should be banished for life from France. +Barere fell within this description. He had voted for the death +of Louis; and he had sat in the Chamber of Representatives during +the hundred days. + +He accordingly retired to Belgium, and resided there, forgotten +by all mankind, till the year 1830. After the revolution of July +he was at liberty to return to France; and he fixed his residence +in his native province. But he was soon involved in a succession +of lawsuits with his nearest relations--"three fatal sisters and +an ungrateful brother," to use his own words. Who was in the +right is a question about which we have no means of judging, and +certainly shall not take Barere's word. The Courts appear to +have decided some points in his favour and some against him. The +natural inference is, that there were faults on all sides. The +result of this litigation was that the old man was reduced to +extreme poverty, and was forced to sell his paternal house. + +As far as we can judge from the few facts which remain to be +mentioned, Barere continued Barere to the last. After his exile +he turned Jacobin again, and, when he came back to France, joined +the party of the extreme left in railing at Louis Philippe, and +at all Louis Philippe's ministers. M. Casimir Perier, M. De +Broglie, M. Guizot, and M. Thiers, in particular, are honoured +with his abuse; and the King himself is held up to execration as +a hypocritical tyrant. Nevertheless, Barere had no scruple about +accepting a charitable donation of a thousand francs a year from +the privy purse of the sovereign whom he hated and reviled. This +pension, together with some small sums occasionally doled out to +him by the department of the Interior, on the ground that he was +a distressed man of letters, and by the department of Justice, on +the ground that he had formerly held a high judicial office, +saved him from the necessity of begging his bread. Having +survived all his colleagues of the renowned Committee of Public +Safety, and almost all his colleagues of the Convention, he died +in January 1841. He had attained his eighty-sixth year. + +We have now laid before our readers what we believe to be a just +account of this man's life. Can it be necessary for us to add +anything for the purpose of assisting their judgment of his +character? If we were writing about any of his colleagues in the +Committee of Public Safety, about Carnot, about Robespierre, or +Saint Just, nay, even about Couthon, Collot, or Billaud, we might +feel it necessary to go into a full examination of the arguments +which have been employed to vindicate or to excuse the system of +Terror. We could, we think, show that France was saved from her +foreign enemies, not by the system of Terror, but in spite of it; +and that the perils which were made the plea of the violent +policy of the Mountain were to a great extent created by that +very policy. We could, we think, also show that the evils +produced by the Jacobin administration did not terminate when it +fell; that it bequeathed a long series of calamities to France +and to Europe; that public opinion, which had during two +generations been constantly becoming more and more favourable to +civil and religious freedom, underwent, during the days of +Terror, a change of which the traces are still to be distinctly +perceived. It was natural that there should be such a change, +when men saw that those who called themselves the champions of +popular rights had compressed into the space of twelve months +more crimes than the Kings of France, Merovingian, Carlovingian, +and Capetian, had perpetrated in twelve centuries. Freedom was +regarded as a great delusion. Men were willing to submit to the +government of hereditary princes, of fortunate soldiers, of +nobles, of priests; to any government but that of philosophers +and philanthropists. Hence the imperial despotism, with its +enslaved press and its silent tribune, its dungeons stronger than +the old Bastile, and its tribunals more obsequious than the old +parliaments. Hence the restoration of the Bourbons and of the +Jesuits, the Chamber of 1815 with its categories of proscription, +the revival of the feudal spirit, the encroachments of the +clergy, the persecution of the Protestants, the appearance of a +new breed of De Montforts and Dominics in the full light of the +nineteenth century. Hence the admission of France into the Holy +Alliance, and the war waged by the old soldiers of the tricolor +against the liberties of Spain. Hence, too, the apprehensions +with which, even at the present day, the most temperate plans for +widening the narrow basis of the French representation are +regarded by those who are especially interested in the security +of property and maintenance of order. Half a century has not +sufficed to obliterate the stain which one year of depravity and +madness has left on the noblest of causes. + +Nothing is more ridiculous than the manner in which writers like +M. Hippolyte Carnot defend or excuse the Jacobin administration, +while they declaim against the reaction which followed. That the +reaction has produced and is still producing much evil, is +perfectly true. But what produced the reaction? The spring +flies up with a force proportioned to that with which it has been +pressed down. The pendulum which is drawn far in one direction +swings as far in the other. The joyous madness of intoxication +in the evening is followed by languor and nausea on the morrow. +And so, in politics, it is the sure law that every excess shall +generate its opposite; nor does he deserve the name of a +statesman who strikes a great blow without fully calculating the +effect of the rebound. But such calculation was infinitely +beyond the reach of the authors of the Reign of Terror. +Violence, and more violence, blood, and more blood, made up their +whole policy. In a few months these poor creatures succeeded in +bringing about a reaction, of which none of them saw, and of +which none of us may see the close; and, having brought it about, +they marvelled at it; they bewailed it; they execrated it; they +ascribed it to everything but the real cause--their own +immortality and their own profound incapacity for the conduct of +great affairs. + +These, however, are considerations to which, on the present +occasion, it is hardly necessary for us to advert; for, be the +defence which has been set up for the Jacobin policy good or bad, +it is a defence which cannot avail Barere. From his own life, +from his own pen, from his own mouth, we can prove that the part +which he took in the work of blood is to be attributed, not even +to sincere fanaticism, not even to misdirected and ill-regulated +patriotism, but either to cowardice, or to delight in human +misery. Will it be pretended that it was from public spirit that +he murdered the Girondists? In these very Memoirs he tells us +that he always regarded their death as the greatest calamity that +could befall France. Will it be pretended that it was from +public spirit that he raved for the head of the Austrian woman? +In these very Memoirs he tells us that the time spent in +attacking her was ill spent, and ought to have been employed in +concerting measures of national defence. Will it be pretended +that he was induced by sincere and earnest abhorrence of kingly +government to butcher the living and to outrage the dead; he who +invited Napoleon to take the title of King of Kings, he who +assures us that after the Restoration he expressed in noble +language his attachment to monarchy, and to the house of Bourbon? +Had he been less mean, something might have been said in +extenuation of his cruelty. Had he been less cruel, something +might have been said in extenuation of his meanness. But for +him, regicide and court-spy, for him who patronised Lebon and +betrayed Demerville, for him who wantoned alternately in +gasconades of Jacobinism and gasconades of servility, what excuse +has the largest charity to offer? + +We cannot conclude without saying something about two parts of +his character, which his biographer appears to consider as +deserving of high admiration. Barere, it is admitted, was +somewhat fickle; but in two things he was consistent, in his love +of Christianity, and in his hatred to England. If this were so, +we must say that England is much more beholden to him than +Christianity. + +It is possible that our inclinations may bias our judgment; but +we think that we do not flatter ourselves when we say that +Barere's aversion to our country was a sentiment as deep and +constant as his mind was capable of entertaining. The value of +this compliment is indeed somewhat diminished by the circumstance +that he knew very little about us. His ignorance of our +institutions, manners, and history is the less excusable, +because, according to his own account, he consorted much, during +the peace of Amiens, with Englishmen of note, such as that +eminent nobleman Lord Greaten, and that not less eminent +philosopher Mr Mackensie Coefhis. In spite, however, of his +connection with these well-known ornaments of our country, he was +so ill-informed about us as to fancy that our government was +always laying plans to torment him. If he was hooted at Saintes, +probably by people whose relations he had murdered, it was +because the cabinet of St James's had hired the mob. If nobody +would read his bad books it was because the cabinet of St James's +had secured the Reviewers. His accounts of Mr Fox, of Mr Pitt, +of the Duke of Wellington, of Mr Canning, swarm with blunders +surpassing even the ordinary blunders committed by Frenchmen who +write about England. Mr Fox and Mr Pitt, he tells us, were +ministers in two different reigns. Mr Pitt's sinking fund was +instituted in order to enable England to pay subsidies to the +powers allied against the French republic. The Duke of +Wellington's house in Hyde Park was built by the nation, which +twice voted the sum of 200,000 pounds for the purpose. This, +however, is exclusive of the cost of the frescoes, which were +also paid for out of the public purse. Mr Canning was the first +Englishman whose death Europe had reason to lament; for the death +of Lord Ward, a relation, we presume, of Lord Greaten and Mr +Coefhis, had been an immense benefit to mankind. + +Ignorant, however, as Barere was, he knew enough of us to hate +us; and we persuade ourselves that, had he known us better, he +would have hated us more. The nation which has combined, beyond +all example and all hope, the blessings of liberty with those of +order, might well be an object of aversion to one who had been +false alike to the cause of order and to the cause of liberty. +We have had amongst us intemperate zeal for popular rights; we +have had amongst us also the intemperance of loyalty. But we +have never been shocked by such a spectacle as the Barere of +1794, or as the Barere of 1804. Compared with him, our fiercest +demagogues have been gentle; compared with him, our meanest +courtiers have been manly. Mix together Thistlewood and Bubb +Doddington; and you are still far from having Barere. The +antipathy between him and us is such, that neither for the crimes +of his earlier nor for those of his later life does our language, +rich as it is, furnish us with adequate names. We have found it +difficult to relate his history without having perpetual recourse +to the French vocabulary of horror, and to the French vocabulary +of baseness. It is not easy to give a notion of his conduct in +the Convention, without using those emphatic terms, guillotinade, +noyade, fusillade, mitraillade. It is not easy to give a notion +of his conduct under the Consulate and the Empire without +borrowing such words as mouchard and mouton. + +We therefore like his invectives against us much better than +anything else that he has written; and dwell on them, not merely +with complacency, but with a feeling akin to gratitude. It was +but little that he could do to promote the honour of our country; +but that little he did strenuously and constantly. Renegade, +traitor, slave, coward, liar, slanderer, murderer, hack writer, +police-spy--the one small service which he could render to +England was to hate her: and such as he was may all who hate her +be! + +We cannot say that we contemplate with equal satisfaction that +fervent and constant zeal for religion which, according to M. +Hippolyte Carnot, distinguished Barere; for, as we think that +whatever brings dishonour on religion is a serious evil, we had, +we own, indulged a hope that Barere was an atheist. We now +learn, however, that he was at no time even a sceptic, that he +adhered to his faith through the whole Revolution, and that he +has left several manuscript works on divinity. One of these is a +pious treatise, entitled "Of Christianity, and of its Influence." +Another consists of meditations on the Psalms, which will +doubtless greatly console and edify the Church. + +This makes the character complete. Whatsoever things are false, +whatsoever things are dishonest, whatsoever things are unjust, +whatsoever things are impure, whatsoever things are hateful, +whatsoever things are of evil report, if there be any vice, and +if there be any infamy, all these things, we knew, were blended +in Barere. But one thing was still wanting; and that M. +Hippolyte Carnot has supplied. When to such an assemblage of +qualities a high profession of piety is added, the effect becomes +overpowering. We sink under the contemplation of such exquisite +and manifold perfection; and feel, with deep humility, how +presumptuous it was in us to think of composing the legend of +this beatified athlete of the faith, St Bertrand of the +Carmagnoles. + +Something more we had to say about him. But let him go. We did +not seek him out, and will not keep him longer. If those who +call themselves his friends had not forced him on our notice we +should never have vouchsafed to him more than a passing word of +scorn and abhorrence, such as we might fling at his brethren, +Hebert and Fouquier Tinville, and Carrier and Lebon. We have no +pleasure in seeing human nature thus degraded. We turn with +disgust from the filthy and spiteful Yahoos of the fiction; and +the filthiest and most spiteful Yahoo of the fiction was a noble +creature when compared with the Barere of history. But what is +no pleasure M. Hippolyte Carnot has made a duty. It is no light +thing that a man in high and honourable public trust, a man who, +from his connections and position, may not unnaturally be +supposed to speak the sentiments of a large class of his +countrymen, should come forward to demand approbation for a life +black with every sort of wickedness, and unredeemed by a single +virtue. This M. Hippolyte Carnot has done. By attempting to +enshrine this Jacobin carrion, he has forced us to gibbet it; and +we venture to say that, from the eminence of infamy on which we +have placed it, he will not easily take it down. + + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Miscellaneous Writings +and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Volume II. + diff --git a/old/2mwsm10.zip b/old/2mwsm10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0109ab6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2mwsm10.zip |