THOUGHTS

ON THE

ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT,

TENDING TO PROVE AS A

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE,

ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE JURISTS-THE NATURE OF GOVERNMENT-
THE EXPERIENCE OF THE PRINCIPAL EUROPEAN STATES, AND
PARTICULARLY THAT OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE,

THAT THE LOWER ORDERS OF SOCIETY,
THE POPULACE,

CANNOT, CONSISTENTLY WITH THE STABILITY OF GOOD
GOVERNMENT, BE SUFFERED TO EXERCISE ANY SHARE
OF POLITICAL POWER OR CONTROLLING INFLUENCE
OVER THE CONSTITUTED GOVERNMENT.

nil ausuram plebem, ductore amoto; jam

ausam fuisse, quia parum auxilii in legibus erat.

TACITUS.

BY

A BRITISH JURIST.

LONDON.

B. FELLOWES, LUDGATE-STREET.

MILLIKEN AND SON, DUBLIN.

1836.

537.

THE RT. HON. JOHN SINGLETON

LORD BARON LYNDHURST,

ETC. ETC. ETC.

MY LORD,

Forgive me, for assuming without permission, the honor of connecting the following Tract with your Lordship's name-a name now become illustrious by a defence of that constitution which, whatever may be its ultimate fate, you have, for the present rescued from the ruffian gripe of its malignant enemy.

Utterly unknown to your Lordship—and unconnected with, as I am independent of, political party-I am induced to use the, perhaps, unwarranted freedom of addressing to you this halfphilosophical, half-political Essay, by a twofold