3. CHAPTER III
SPIRIT OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.
Additional perspicuity will be communicated to our view of the evils of
political society if we reflect with further and closer attention upon what
may be called its interior and domestic history.
Two of the greatest abuses relative to the interior policy of nations,
which at this time prevail in the world, consist in the irregular transfer
of property, either first by violence, or secondly by fraud. If among the
inhabitants of any country there existed no desire in one individual to possess
himself of the substance of another, or no desire so vehement and restless
as to prompt him to acquire it by means inconsistent with order and justice,
undoubtedly in that country guilt could scarcely be known but by report.
If every man could with perfect facility obtain the necessaries of life,
and, obtaining them, feel no uneasy craving after its superfluities, temptation
would lose its power. Private interest would visibly accord with public good;
and civil society become what poetry has feigned of the golden age. Let us
enquire into the principles to which these abuses are indebted for their
existence.
First then it is to be observed that, in the most refined states of Europe,
the inequality of property has risen to an alarming height. Vast numbers
of their inhabitants are deprived of almost every accommodation that can
render life tolerable or secure. Their utmost industry scarcely suffices
for their support. The women and children lean with an insupportable weight
upon the efforts of the man, so that a large family has in the lower orders
of life become a proverbial expression for an uncommon degree of poverty
and wretchedness. If sickness, or some of those casualties which are perpetually
incident to an active and laborious life, be added to these burdens, the
distress is yet greater.
It seems to be agreed that in England there is less wretchedness and distress
than in most of the kingdoms of the continent. In England the poors' rates
amount to the sum of two millions sterling per annum. It has been calculated
that one person in seven of the inhabitants of this country derives at some
period of his life assistance from this fund. If to this we add the persons
who, from pride, a spirit of independence, or the want of a legal settlement,
though in equal distress receive no such assistance, the proportion will
be considerably increased.
I lay no stress upon the accuracy of this calculation; the general fact
is sufficient to give us an idea of the greatness of the abuse. The consequences
that result are placed beyond the reach of contradiction. A perpetual struggle
with the evils of poverty, if frequently ineffectual, must necessarily render
many of the sufferers desperate. A painful feeling of their oppressed situation
will itself deprive them of the power of surmounting it. The superiority
of the rich, being thus unmercifully exercised, must inevitably expose them
to reprisals; and the poor man will be induced to regard the state of society
as a state of war, an unjust combination, not for protecting every man in
his rights and securing to him the means of existence, but for engrossing
all its advantages to a few favoured individuals, and reserving for the portion
of the rest want, dependence and misery.
A second source of those destructive passions by which the peace of society
is interrupted is to be found in the luxury, the pageantry and magnificence
with which enormous wealth is usually accompanied. Human beings are capable
of encountering with cheerfulness considerable hardships when those hardships
are impartially shared with the rest of the society, and they are not insulted
with the spectacle of indolence and ease in others, no way deserving of
greater advantages than themselves. But it is a bitter aggravation of their
own calamity, to have the privileges of others forced on their observation,
and, while they are perpetually and vainly endeavouring to secure for themselves
and their families the poorest conveniences, to find others revelling in
the fruits of their labours. This aggravation is assiduously administered
to them under most of the political establishments at present in existence.
There is a numerous class of individuals who, though rich, have neither brilliant
talents nor sublime virtues; and, however highly they may prize their education,
their affability, their superior polish and the elegance of their manners,
have a secret consciousness that they possess nothing by which they can so
securely assert their pre-eminence and keep their inferiors at a distance
as the splendour of their equipage, the magnificence of their retinue and
the sumptuousness of their entertainments. The poor man is struck with this
exhibition; he feels his own miseries; he knows how unwearied are his efforts
to obtain a slender pittance of this prodigal waste; and he mistakes opulence
for felicity. He cannot persuade himself that an embroidered garment may
frequently cover an aching heart.
A third disadvantage that is apt to connect poverty with discontent consists
in the insolence and usurpation of the rich. If the poor man would in other
respects compose himself in philosophic indifference, and, conscious that
he possesses every thing that is truly honourable to man as fully as his
rich neighbour, would look upon the rest as beneath his envy, his neighbour
will not permit him to do so. He seems as if he could never be satisfied
with his possessions unless he can make the spectacle of them grating to
others; and that honest self-esteem, by which his inferior might otherwise
attain to tranquillity, is rendered the instrument of galling him with oppression
and injustice. In many countries justice is avowedly made a subject of solicitation,
and the man of the highest rank and most splendid connections almost infallibly
carries his cause against the unprotected and friendless. In countries where
this shameless practice is not established, justice is frequently a matter
of expensive purchase, and the man with the longest purse is proverbially
victorious. A consciousness of these facts must be expected to render the
rich little cautious of offence in his dealings with the poor, and to inspire
him with a temper overbearing, dictatorial and tyrannical. Nor does this
indirect oppression satisfy his despotism. The rich are in all such countries
directly or indirectly the legislators of the state; and of consequence are
perpetually reducing oppression into a system, and depriving the poor of
that little commonage of nature which might otherwise still have remained
to them.
The opinions of individuals, and of consequence their desires, for desire
is nothing but opinion maturing for action, will always be in a great degree
regulated by the opinions of the community. But the manners prevailing in
many countries are accurately calculated to impress a conviction that integrity,
virtue, understanding and industry are nothing, and that opulence is everything.
Does a man whose exterior denotes indigence expect to be well received in
society, and especially by those who would be understood to dictate to the
rest? Does he find or imagine himself in want of their assistance and favour?
He is presently taught that no merit can atone for a mean appearance. The
lesson that is read to him is, "Go home; enrich yourself by whatever
means; obtain those superfluities which are alone regarded as estimable;
and you may then be secure of an amicable reception." Accordingly poverty
in such countries is viewed as the greatest of demerits. It is escaped from
with an eagerness that has no leisure for the scruples of honesty. It is
concealed as the most indelible disgrace. While one man chooses the path
of undistinguishing accumulation, another plunges into expenses which are
to impose him upon the world as more opulent than he is. He hastens to the
reality of that penury the appearance of which he dreads; and, together
with his property, sacrifices the integrity, veracity and character which
might have consoled him in his adversity.
Such are the causes that, in different degrees under the different governments
of the world, prompt mankind openly or secretly to encroach upon the property
of each other. Let us consider how far they admit either of remedy or aggravation
from political institution. Whatever tends to decrease the injuries attendant
upon poverty decreases at the same time the inordinate desire and the enormous
accumulation of wealth. Wealth is not pursued for its own sake, and seldom
for the sensual gratifications it can purchase, but for the same reasons
that ordinarily prompt men to the acquisition of learning, eloquence and
skill, for the love of distinction and the fear of contempt. How few would
prize the possession of riches if they were condemned to enjoy their equipage,
their palaces and their entertainments in solitude, with no eye to wonder
at their magnificence, and no sordid observer ready to convert that wonder
into an adulation of the owner? If admiration were not generally deemed the
exclusive property of the rich, and contempt the constant lacquey of poverty,
the love of gain would cease to be an universal passion. Let us consider
in what respects political institution is rendered subservient to this passion.
First then, legislation is in almost every country grossly the favourer
of the rich against the poor. Such is the character of the game-laws, by
which the industrious rustic is forbidden to destroy the animal that preys
upon the hopes of his future subsistence, or to supply himself with the food
that unsought thrusts itself in his path. Such was the spirit of the late
revenue-laws of France, which in several of their provisions fell exclusively
upon the humble and industrious, and exempted from their operation those
who were best able to support it. Thus in England the land-tax at this moment
produces half a million less than it did a century ago, while the taxes on
consumption have experienced an addition of thirteen millions per annum
during the same period. This is an attempt, whether effectual or no, to throw
the burthen from the rich upon the poor, and as such is an example of the
spirit of legislation. Upon the same principle robbery and other offences,
which the wealthier part of the community have no temptation to commit, are
treated as capital crimes, and attended with the most rigorous, often the
most inhuman punishments. The rich are encouraged to associate for the execution
of the most partial and oppressive positive laws; monopolies and patents
are lavishly dispensed to such as are able to purchase them; while the most
vigilant policy is employed to prevent combinations of the poor to fix the
price of labour, and they are deprived of the benefit of that prudence and
judgement which would select the scene of their industry.
Secondly, the administration of law is not less iniquitous than the spirit
in which it is framed. Under the late government of France the office of
judge was a matter of purchase, partly by an open price advanced to the crown,
and partly by a secret douceur paid to the minister. He who knew best how
to manage his market in the retail trade of justice could afford to purchase
the good will of its functions at the highest price. To the client justice
was avowedly made an object of personal solicitation; and a powerful friend,
a handsome woman, or a proper present were articles of much greater value
than a good cause. In England the criminal law is administered with greater
impartiality so far as regards the trial itself; but the number of capital
offences, and of consequence the frequency of pardons, open a wide door to
favour and abuse. In causes relating to property the practice of law is arrived
at such a pitch as to render its nominal impartiality utterly nugatory. The
length of our chancery suits, the multiplied appeals from court to court,
the enormous fees of counsel, attorneys, secretaries, clerks, the drawing
of briefs, bills, replications and rejoinders, and what has sometimes been
called the "glorious uncertainty" of the law, render it frequently
more advisable to resign a property than to contest it, and particularly
exclude the impoverished claimant from the faintest hope of redress.
Thirdly, the inequality of conditions usually maintained by political
institution is calculated greatly to enhance the imagined excellence of wealth.
In the ancient monarchies of the East, and in Turkey at the present day,
an eminent station could scarcely fail to excite implicit deference. The
timid inhabitant trembled before his superior; and would have thought it
little less than blasphemy to touch the veil drawn by the proud satrap over
his inglorious origin. The same principles were extensively prevalent under
the feudal system. The vassal, who was regarded as a sort of live stock upon
the estate, and knew no appeal from the arbitrary fiat of his lord, would
scarcely venture to suspect that he was of the same species. This however
constituted an unnatural and violent situation. There is a propensity in
man to look further than the outside; and to come with a writ of enquiry
into the title of the upstart and the successful. By the operation of these
causes the insolence of wealth has been in some degree moderated. Meantime
it cannot be pretended that even among ourselves the inequality is not strained
so as to give birth to very unfortunate consequences. If, in the enormous
degree in which it prevails in some parts of the world, it wholly debilitate
and emasculate the human race, we shall feel some reason to believe that,
even in the milder state in which we are accustomed to behold it, it is still
pregnant with the most mischievous effects.