BOOK SIXTH.

CHAPTER I.

Extra-constitutional Meetings.-Their Necessity.-The Representative.Summary of his Duties.-He is the guardian of the public Treasures.When ought he to vote liberally?-The framing of Laws.-Legislation upon the Principle of mutual Accommodation.-Importance of a gentlemanly Character for the Representative.-Instruction.-History and the various Constitutions show that the Right of Instruction has been claimed and disclaimed as promoting and as injurious to Liberty, according to the Circumstances of the Times.-The Representative Government is not a mere Substitution for direct Democracy.—Essential Character of the Representative Government.-The different characteristic Principles of Ancient States; the Middle Ages, and Modern States.-Nationalization of States; Socialization of Population.—National Representation, the great Feature of Modern Times.-Difference between Deputative and Representative Systems.-New Jersey and Netherlandish Oath to promote Public Welfare.How does the Representative faithfully represent?-Advantages of Representative Government.-Objections to the Doctrine of Instruction.-Instruction belongs to the Deputative System.

I. THE true and easy operation of a representative government, and, still more, the entire realization of national civil liberty, that is, of civil liberty as appertaining to a national state, not to a city state, of which presently more, depends in a very great measure upon those many extra-constitutional, not unconstitutional, meetings, in which the citizens either unite their scattered means for the obtaining of some common end, social in general, or political in particular; or express their opinion in definite resolutions upon some important

point before the people. These meetings may be entirely unofficial; sometimes they are semi-official, at others they are conventions of delegates, sent by the people, and yet the whole being the effect of the spontaneous action of society, not called into existence by the prescribed rules of the constitutional law. No nation can hope for substantial civil liberty, before it is well acquainted with this important social agent, indispensable for our modern, that is national civil liberty. Many attempts at liberty have failed, because the people had no idea of these free extra-constitutional meetings, and expected constitutions to operate without them. In these meetings society frequently acts as such, separate from the state, for instance, when they consist of members sent for industrial, or, as we have lately seen, for scientific purposes, from various countries; sometimes they are greatly abused, and made the seat of party excitement; but, generally speaking, it is undeniable that they are at once the generators of that inmost agent, which makes the machine of a constitutional government move and work in a national spirit, and the safety valves through which the superabundant mass of that agent escapes, when otherwise it would cause fearful explosions.

If we comprehend under these meetings all those which are composed either of the people themselves, or delegates, yet of an extra constitutional character, we shall see at once that they are of great importance in order to direct public attention to subjects of magnitude, to test the opinion of the community, to inform persons at a distance, for instance, representatives, or the administration, of the state of public opinion respecting certain measures, whether yet depending or adopted;

to resolve upon and adopt petitions, to encourage individuals or bodies of men in arduous undertakings, requiring the moral support of well-expressed public approbation; to effect a contract and connexion with others, striving for the same ends; to disseminate knowledge by way of reports of committees; to form societies for charitable purposes or the melioration of laws or inștitutions; to sanction by the spontaneous expression of the opinion of the community measures not strictly agreeing with the letter of the law, but enforced by necessity; to call upon the services of individuals who otherwise would not feel warranted to appear before the public and invite its attention, or feel authorized to interfere with a subject not strictly lying within their proper sphere of action; to concert upon more or less extensive measures of public utility, and whatever else their object may be. It does not seem, however, necessary to dwell upon them particularly with reference to political ethics, except that, being so necessary and salutary if freely and calmly operating; it becomes the greater dereliction of duty in influential men to use them for selfish ends, so that the country, instead of reaping the benefits of a steady operation of social agents from them, is exposed to all the feverish and withering effects of passionate, fluctuating and wild agitation. A citizen of probity ought to remember two things; first, that he deceives himself who feels flattered by the exciting agitation which he has been able to produce; for it is frequently very easy to produce this effect; and the easier the less proud we should feel of those upon whom excitement has been produced. It is the calm and substantial action-action which bears within it the genial power of vivifying the seeds of action in others-of which alone

a true man feels proud. Secondly, that the extra constitutional meetings resemble in their necessity and usefulness, and, at the same time, likewise, the abuse for which they may serve under the guidance of some, a thousand, perhaps all, other primary agents of society, or, indeed, of nature-salutary, if in their proper path; fearful, if in irregular licentiousness.

Those who are not personally acquainted with the practical operations and necessities of civil liberty, are apt to consider all popular meetings as so many deviations and exceptions from the regular government, and ask, where is the guarantee against their abuse? The guarantees against the abuse are varied, manifold, and mutually connected; they consist in a great measure in mutual modification. An absolute guarantee does not exist against their abuse any more than against the abuse of any primary vast principle. Great as the principle of modern hereditary monarchy is, and forming and having formed one of the agents of modern European civilisation, as it does, where is the final guarantee against the chances of birth, of contractedness of mind, or weakness of conscience, except in the mutual modification of a number of other political agents? The sun warms and enlivens, but we have no guarantee against all the injury he may do, and actually does in a thousand instances, in parching the soil or breeding fever.

The citizen ought to keep in mind, that unnecessary meetings either excite and stir uselessly, and therefore injuriously, or lessen the interest in public meetings, which is equally inconvenient, and very injurious to public liberty; and that, on the other hand, it is unbecoming a free man, who values his liberty, to be prevented