第47章 Letter XII(1)

Sir,We have observed already,that the constitution of the British government supposes our Kings may abuse their power,and our representatives betray their trust,and provides against both these contingencies,as well as human wisdom can provide.Here let us observe,that the same constitution is very far from supposing the people will ever betray themselves;and yet this case is possible,no doubt.We do not read,I think of more than one nation,who refused liberty when it was offered to them;but we read of many,and have almost seen some,who lost it through their own fault,by the plain and necessary consequences of their own conduct,when they were in full possession of it,and had the means of securing it effectually in their power.A wise and brave people will neither be cozened,nor bullied out of their liberty;but a wise and brave people may cease to be such:they may degenerate;they may sink into sloth and luxury;they may resign themselves to a treacherous conduct;or abet the enemies of the constitution,under a notion of supporting the friends of the government:they may want the sense to discern their danger in time,or the courage to resist,when it stares them in the face.The Tarquins were expelled,and Rome resumed her liberty.Caesar was murdered,and all his race extinct,but Rome remained in bondage.From whence this difference?

Machiavel shall account for it.In the days of Tarquin the people of Rome were not vet corrupted.In the days of Caesar they were most corrupt.A free people may be sometimes betrayed;but no people will betray themselves,and sacrifice their liberty,unless they fall into a state of universal corruption:

and when they are once fallen into such a state,they will be sure to lose what they deserve no longer to enjoy.To what purpose therefore should our constitution have supposed a case,in which no remedy can avail;a case which can never happen,till the spirit which formed this constitution first,and hath preserved it ever since,shall be totally extinguished;and till it becomes an ideal entity,like the Utopia,existing in the imagination,or memory,nowhere else?As all government began,so all government must end by the people:tyrannical governments by their virtue and courage,and even free governments by their vice and baseness.Our constitution,indeed,makes it impossible to destroy liberty by any sudden blast of popular fury,or by the treachery of a few;for though the many cannot easily hurt,they may easily save themselves.But if the many will concur with the few;if they will advisedly and deliberately suffer their liberty to be taken away by those,to whom they delegate power to preserve it;this no constitution can prevent.God would not support even his own theocracy against the concurrent desire of the children of Israel,but gave them a king in his anger.How then should our human constitution of government support itself against so universal a change,as we here suppose,in the temper and character of our people?It cannot be.We may give ourselves a tyrant in our folly,if we please.But this can never happen till the whole nation falls into a state of political reprobation.Then,and not till then,political damnation will be our lot.

Let us descend into a greater detail,in order to develop these reflections fully,and to push the consequences of them home to ourselves,and to our present state.They deserve our utmost attention,and are so far from being foreign to the subject of these essays upon parties,that they will terminate in the very point at which we began,and wind up the whole in one important lesson.

To proceed then:I say,that if the people of this island should suffer their liberties to be at any time ravished,or stolen from them,they would incur greater blame,and deserve by consequence less pity,than any enslaved and oppressed people ever did.By how much true liberty,that is,liberty stated and ascertained by law,in equal opposition to popular licence and arbitrary will,hath been more boldly asserted,more wisely or more successfully improved,and more firmly established in this than in other countries,by so much the more heavy would our just condemnation prove in the case that is here supposed.The virtue of our ancestors,to whom all these advantages are owing,would aggravate the guilt and the infamy of their degenerate posterity.

There have been ages of gold and of silver,of brass and of iron,in our little world,as in the great world,though not in the same order.In which of these ages we are at present,let others determine.This,at least,is certain,that in all these ages Britain hath been the temple,as it were,of liberty.Whilst her sacred fires have been extinguished in so many countries,here they have been religiously kept alive.Here she hath her saints,her confessors,and a whole army of martyrs,and the gates of hell have not hitherto prevailed against her:so that if a fatal reverse is to happen;if servility and servitude are to overrun the whole world,like injustice,and liberty is to retire from it,like Astraea,our portion of the abandoned globe will have,at least,the mournful honour,whenever it happens,of showing her last,her parting steps.