History of Civilization in England, Vol. 1 of 3

951

See decisive evidence of this, in Porter's Progress of the Nation, vol. ii. pp. 283–285; and, on the enormous increase of expense and taxation, see Pellew's Life of Sidmouth, vol. i. p. 358, vol. ii. p. 47.

952

A careful observer of what was going on late in the eighteenth century, expresses what, early in the nineteenth century, was becoming the conviction of most men of plain, sound understanding, who had no interest in the existing corruption: ‘Immoderate taxation, the result of the unnecessary wars of the reign of George III., is the cause of our embarrassments; and that immoderate taxation has been occasioned by the House of Commons being composed of men not interested to protect the property of the people.’ —Nicholl's Recollections, vol. i. p. 213.

953

Bishop Horsley, the great champion of the existing state of things, said in the House of Lords, in 1795, that he ‘did not know what the mass of the people in any country had to do with the laws, but to obey them.’ Cooke's Hist. of Party, vol. iii. p. 435. Compare Godwin on Population, p. 569.

954

Lord Cockburn (Life of Jeffrey, 1852, vol. i. pp. 67, 68) says: ‘If there was any principle that was reverenced as indisputable by almost the whole adherents of the party in power sixty, or even fifty, or perhaps even forty years ago, it was that the ignorance of the people was necessary for their obedience to the law.’ One argument was, ‘that to extend instruction, would be to multiply the crime of forgery!’ Porter's Progress of the Nation, vol. iii. p. 205.

955

See chapters ix. and x., on the history of the protective spirit.

956

Sir A. Alison notices in his History, (vol. iv. p. 213) ‘how widely the spirit of discontent was diffused’ in 1796; and the only wonder is, that the people were able to keep it in bounds. That, however, is a question which writers of his stamp never consider.

957

Bishop Burgess, in a letter to Lord Melbourne, bitterly complained that Catholic emancipation was ‘the extinction of the purely Protestant character of the British legislature.’ Harford's Life of Burgess, p. 506: see also pp. 238, 239, 369, 370. There can be no doubt that the bishop rightly estimated the danger to his own party; and as to the Corporation and Test Acts, which, says another bishop (Tomline's Life of Pitt, vol. ii. p. 604), ‘were justly regarded as the firmest bulwarks of the British constitution,’ the feeling was so strong, that at an episcopal meeting in 1787, there were only two members who were willing to repeal these persecuting laws. See Bishop Watson's Life of Himself, vol. i. p. 262. Lord Eldon, who to the last stood up for the church, pronounced the bill for repealing these acts to be a ‘revolutionary bill.’ Twiss's Life of Eldon, vol. ii. p. 202.

958

Sir C. Lewis, though in his learned work he over-estimates the resources possessed by politicians, does nevertheless allow that they are rarely able to anticipate the manner in which their measures will work. Lewis on the Methods of Observation and Reasoning in Politics, 1852, vol. ii. pp. 360–362. A writer of repute, M. Flassan, says (Hist. de la Diplomatie, vol. i. p. 19): ‘On doit être très-indulgent sur les erreurs de la politique, à cause de la facilité qu'il y a à en commettre, erreurs auxquelles la sagesse même quelquefois entraîne.’ The first part of this sentence is true enough; but it conveys a truth which ought to repress that love of interfering with the natural march of affairs which still characterizes politicians, even in the freest countries.