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PREFACE.
It is to be regretted the world does not
discriminate more justly in its use of political
terms. Governments are usually called
either monarchies or republics. The former
class embraces equally those institutions in
which the sovereign is worshipped as a God,
and those in which he performs the humble
office of a mannikin. In the latter we find
aristocracies and democracies blended in
the same generic appellation. The consequence
of a generalization so wide is an
utter confusion, on the subject of the polity
of states.
The author has endeavored to give his
countrymen, in this book, a picture of the
social system of one of the soi-disant republics
of the other hemisphere. There has
been no attempt to portray historical characters,
only too fictitious in their graver
dress, but simply to set forth the familiar
operations of Venetian policy. For the
justification of his likeness, after allowing
for the defects of execution, he refers to the
well-known work of M. Daru.
A history of the progress of political liberty,
written purely in the interests of humanity,
is still a desideratum in literature.
In nations which have made a false commencement,
it would be found that the citizen,
or rather the subject, has extorted immunity
after immunity, as his growing intelligence
and importance have both instructed
and required him to defend those particular
rights which were necessary to his well-being.
A certain accumulation of these immunities
constitutes, with a solitary and recent exception
in Switzerland, the essence of European
liberty, even at this hour. It is scarcely
necessary to tell the reader that this freedom,
be it more or less, depends on a principle
entirely different from our own. Here the
immunities do not proceed from, but they
are granted to, the government, being, in
other words, concessions of natural rights
made by the people to the state, for the benefits
of social protection. So long as this
vital difference exist between ourselves and
other nations, it will be vain to think of finding
analogies in their institutions. It is true
that, in an age like this, public opinion is
itself a charter, and that the most despotic
government which exists within the pale of
its influence. The mildest and justest governments
in Europe are, at this moment,
theoretically despotisms. The character of
both prince and people enter largely into the
consideration of so extraordinary results,
and it should never be forgotten that, though
the character of the latter be sufficiently
secure, that of the former is liable to change.
But, admitting every benefit which can possibly
flow from a just administration, with
wise and humane princes, a government
which is not properly based on the people,
possesses an unavoidable and oppressive evil
of the first magnitude, in the necessity of
supporting itself by physical force and onerous
impositions, against the natural action
of the majority.
Were we to characterize a republic, we
should say it was a state in which power,
both theoretically and practically, is derived
from the nation, with a constant responsibility
of the agents of the public to the people;
a responsibility that is neither to be
evaded nor denied. That such a system is
better on a large than on a small scale, though
contrary to brilliant theories which have
been written to uphold different institutions,
since the danger of all popular governments
is from popular mistakes, and a people of
diversified interests and extended territorial
possessions, are much less likely to be the
subjects of sinister passions, than the inhabitants
of a single town, or county. If to
this definition we should add, as an infallible
test of the genius, that a true republic is a
government of which all others are jealous
and vituperative, on the instinct of self-preservation,
we believe there would be no mistaking
the class. How far Venice would have
been obnoxious to this proof, the reader is
left to judge for himself.
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