Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

liberty was no longer forced to the alternative of defying the authority of his sovereign, or perishing by the axe of the executioner; the same sentiments which he had spoken to the people, he was able to repeat to the King; and the same measures which he had recommended as an individual member of Parliament, he was afterwards empowered to propose, as the adviser of his sovereign. Thus harmony was produced between the different, and hitherto jarring parts of our constitution; while the means by which that harmony was attained gave, at the same time, a vent to emulation, liberty to the people, authority to Parliament, and stability to the throne. Thus the great principles of English liberty were brought into action after the revolution of 1688, whose authors, unambitious of the fame of founding a new form of government, obtained the nation the full benefit of those rights and liberties, for which their ancestors and themselves had toiled and suffered. Thus this great work was at once a lesson to the great to avoid oppression, and to the people to practise moderation.

We have now gone through the different

parts of that form of government which some bigoted and paradoxical men have had the conceit to undervalue. Those who have been shaken by nothing that they have read in history, and who still maintain that liberty cannot flourish under our barbarous and feudal monarchy, may yet perhaps be struck by the following passage from an impartial judge.

M. de Talleyrand, in speaking of America, after remarking the partiality which the Americans entertained for English maxims and manners, goes on thus: "Nor should one be astonished to find this assimilation towards England in a country, the distinguishing features of whose form of government, whether in the federal union, or in the separate States, are impressed with so strong a resemblance to the great lineaments of the English constitution. Upon what does individual liberty rest at this day in America? Upon the same foundations as English liberty; upon the Habeas Corpus and the trial by jury. Assist at the sittings of Congress, and at those of the legislatures of the separate States; attend to the discussions in the framing of national laws: whence are taken their

quotations, their analogies, their examples? From the English laws; from the customs of Great Britain; from the rules of Parliament. Enter into the courts of justice: what authorities do they cite? The statutes, the judgments, the decisions of the English courts. To no purpose do the names of republic and of monarchy appear to place between the two governments distinctions which it is not allowable to confound: it is clear to every man who examines his ideas to the bottom, that in the representative constitution of England, there is something republican; as there is something monarchical in the executive power of the Americans."

127

CHAP. XV.

LAWYERS.

Rex sub lege.

BRACTON.

AMONGST other cavillings at the practice of our constitution, there has been raised a cry against the influence of lawyers. From the earliest times, however, that influence has been felt, and felt most beneficially for the country. Bracton, who was a judge in the reign of Henry III., and much more Fortescue, who was chief justice in that of Henry VI., are among the earliest authorities in favour of the liberties of the country. In the beginning of the contest with the Stuarts, the names of Coke and Selden appear with auspicious lustre on the side of freedom. In the second contest with the Stuarts, amongst a host of lawyers, with the venerable Sergeant Maynard at their head, appears the virtuous, the temperate, the

wise and venerated Somers. From him we pass to Lord Cowper, a Whig chancellor, who yet opposed the bill of pains and penalties against Atterbury, as an unnecessary violation of justice. The next in succession, as a friend to liberty, is Lord Camden, who, by his admirable judgments on the question of general warrants, and on libel, saved the country from the slavish doctrines with which it was threatened to be inundated.

In the House of Commons the members who have taken a chief part in the debates have generally been lawyers. This is the natural result of their habits of speaking, and we see them on one side of the House as well as on the other. On the side of freedom we may reckon a series containing many bright names that began before Lord Coke, and has been continued after Dunning.

[ocr errors]

It were needless to come down any lower, were it not that I should be sorry to omit any opportunity of expressing my admiration for that great genius whose sword and buckler protected justice and freedom, during the disastrous period of the French Revolution. Defended by him, the government found, in the meanest in

« ForrigeFortsett »