Part 6 (2/2)
From observation on these cla.s.ses of facts,--the Occupation of the people, the respective Characters of the occupied cla.s.ses, the Health of the population, the state of Marriage and of Women, and the character of Childhood,--the moralist may learn more of the private life of a community than from the conversation of any number of the individuals who compose it.
CHAPTER IV.
IDEA OF LIBERTY.
”He who taught man to vanquish whatsoever Can be between the cradle and the grave, Crowned him the King of Life. O vain endeavour, If on his own high will, a willing slave, He has enthroned the oppression and the oppressor!
What if earth can clothe and feed Amplest millions at their need, And power in thought be as the tree within the seed?
Or what if Art, an ardent intercessor, Diving on fiery wings to Nature's throne, Checks the great mother stooping to caress her, And cries, Give me, thy child, dominion Over all height and depth? If Life can breed New wants, and wealth from those who toil and groan Rend of thy gifts and her's a thousandfold for one.”
_Sh.e.l.ley._
The same rule--of observing Things in preference to relying upon the Discourse of persons--holds good in the task of ascertaining the Idea of Liberty entertained and realized by any society. The Things to be observed for this purpose are those which follow.
The most obvious consideration of all is the amount of feudal arrangements which remain,--so obvious as to require only a bare mention. If people are satisfied to obey the will of a lord of the soil, to go out to hunt or to fight at his bidding, to require his consent to marriages among his dependants, and to hold whatever they have at his permission, their case is clear. They are dest.i.tute of any idea of liberty, and can be considered at best only half-civilized.--It matters little whether all this subservience is yielded to the owner of an estate, or the sovereign of the country, represented by his police or soldiery. Blind, ignorant obedience to any ruling power which the subjects had no hand in const.i.tuting, on the one part, and the enforcement of that obedience on the other, is the feudal temper.
A sleek Austrian of the middle ranks stood, of late, smoking at his door. A practical joker, who had a mind to see how far the man's deference for the police would carry him, drew towards him, and whispered in his ear, ”You must dance.” The Austrian stared. ”Dance, I say!” repeated the stranger, with an air of authority. ”Why must I dance?” asked the Austrian, when he had removed the pipe from his mouth.
”Because I, an agent of the police, insist upon it.” The Austrian instantly began capering, and continued his exercise till desired to stand still, a.s.sured that he had satisfied the police.--In the United States, the contrast is amusing. On occasions of public a.s.sembly, the appeal is made to the democratic sentiment of the people to preserve order. If an orator is to hold forth on an anniversary, the soldiers (most citizen-like militia) may be seen putting their arms round the necks of newly arrived listeners, in supplication that they will leave seats vacant for the band. If a piece of plate is to be presented to a statesman, and twice as many people throng to the theatre as the building will hold, harangues may be heard from the neighbouring balconies,--appeals to the gallantry and kindliness of the crowd,--which are found quite as effectual in controlling the movements of the a.s.semblage as any number of bayonets or constables' staves could be.
This leads to the mention of the Police of a country as a sure sign of the idea of liberty existing within it. Where the soldiery are the guards of social order, it makes all the difference whether they are royal troops,--a destructive machinery organized against the people,--or a National Guard, springing up when needed from among the people, for the people's sake,--or a militia, like the American, mentioned above,--virtually stewards of the meeting, and nothing more. Whatever may be thought of the comparative ease of proceeding, on any given occasion, between a police like that of Paris, and a constabulary like that of the American cities, (a mockery to European rulers,) it is a striking fact that order has been generally preserved for half a century, in a country where public meetings are a hundred times as numerous as in any kingdom in Europe, by means which would in Europe be no means at all. It is clear that the idea of liberty must be elevated, and the love of social order intelligent and strong, where the peace has been kept through unanimity of will. With the exception of outrages growing out of the inst.i.tution of slavery, (which require a deeper treatment than any species of constabulary can practise,) the United States, with opportunities of disturbance which have been as a hundred to one, have exhibited fewer instances of a breach of public order than any other country in the same s.p.a.ce of time; and this order has been preserved by the popular will, in the full knowledge on all hands that no power existed to control this will. This is a fact which speaks volumes in favour of the principles, if not the policy, of the American people.
In the United States, the traveller may proceed a thousand miles in any direction, or live ten years in one place, without the idea of control, beyond that of social convenience, being once presented to his mind.
Paul Louis Courier gives us the experience of an acquaintance of his.
”Un homme que j'ai vu arrive d'Amerique. Il y est reste trois ans sans entendre parler de ce que nous appelons ici l'autorite. Il a vecu trois ans sans etre gouverne, s'ennuyant a perir.”--In France, he cannot go in search of the site of the Bastille without finding himself surrounded by watchers before he has stood five minutes.--In Italy, his trunks are opened to examine the books he carries, and compare them with the list of proscribed works.--In Spain, he can say nothing in public that is not likely to be known to the authorities before the day is out; or in private that is not in possession of some priest after the next period of confession.--In Switzerland, he finds that he is free to do any thing but make inquiries about the condition of the country. If he asks, as the Emperor Joseph did before him, ”Quels sont les revenues de votre republique?” he may receive the same answer, ”Ils excedent nos depenses.”--In Germany, his case is like that of the inhabitants of the cities;--his course is open and agreeable as long as he pursues inferior objects, but it is made extremely inconvenient to him to gratify his interest in politics.--In Poland, evidences of authority will meet his observation in every direction, while he will rarely hear the name of its head.--In Russia, he will find the people speaking of their despot as their father, and will perceive that it is more offensive to allude to the mortality of emperors than to talk lightly to children of the death of their parents. A gentleman in the suite of an English amba.s.sador inquired, after having been conducted over the imperial palace at St. Petersburgh, which of the rooms he had seen was that in which the Emperor Paul was killed. No answer was returned to his question, nor to his repet.i.tion of it. He imprudently persisted till some reply was necessary. His guide whispered, with white lips, ”Paul was not killed. Emperors do not die; they transpire out of life.”
Such are some of the relations of the people to authority which will strike the observation of the traveller in the most civilized of foreign countries. These will be further ill.u.s.trated by the smallest circ.u.mstances which meet his eye that can in any way indicate what are the functions of the police, and where it has most or least authority.
The Emperor Paul issued an ukase about shoestrings, which it was highly penal to disobey. His son has lately ordained the precise measurement of whiskers, and cut of the hair behind, to be observed by the officers of the army. In some regions, all men go armed: in others, it is penal to wear arms: in others, people may do as they please. In some countries, there are costumes of cla.s.ses enforced by law: in others, by opinion: while fas.h.i.+on is the only dictator in a third. In some societies citizens must obtain leave from the authorities to move from place to place: in others, strangers alone are plagued with pa.s.sports: in others, there is perfect freedom of locomotion for all.--In his observation of the workings of authority, as embodied in a police, his own experience of restraint or liberty will afford him ample material for thought, and ground of inference.
Such restraint as exists derives its character chiefly from its origin.
It makes a wide difference whether the police are the creatures of a despotic sovereign who treats his subjects as property; or whether they are the agents of a representative government, appointed by responsible rulers for the public good; or whether they are the servants of a self-governing people, chosen by those among whom their work lies. It makes a wide difference whether they are in the secret pay of an irresponsible individual, or appointed by command of a parliament, or elected by a concourse of citizens. In any case, their existence and their function testify to the absence or presence of a general idea of liberty among the people; and to its nature, if present.
It is taken for granted that the traveller is informed, before he sets out, respecting the form of Government and general course of Legislation of the nation he studies. He will watch both, attending upon the administration as well as the formation of laws,--visiting, where it is allowed, the courts of justice as well as the halls of parliament. But he must remember that neither the composition of the government, nor the body of the laws, nor the administration of them, is an evidence of what the idea of liberty at present is among the people, except in a democratic republic, where the acts of the government are the result of the last expression of the national will. Every other representative system is too partial for its legislative acts to be more than the expression of the will of a party; and the great body of laws is everywhere, except in America, the work of preceding ages. Though, therefore, the observer will allow no great legislative and administrative acts to pa.s.s without his notice, he will apply himself to other sets of circ.u.mstances to ascertain what is the existing idea of liberty prevalent among the people. He will observe, from certain facts of their position, what this idea must be; and, from certain cla.s.ses of their own deeds, what it actually is.
One of the most important circ.u.mstances is, whether the population is thinly sprinkled over the face of the country, or whether it is collected into neighbourly societies. This all-important condition has been alluded to so often already that it is only necessary to remind the observer never to lose sight of it. ”Plus un peuple nombreux se rapproche,” says Rousseau, ”moins le gouvernement peut usurper sur le souverain. L'avantage d'un gouvernement tyrannique est donc en ceci, d'agir a grandes distances. A l'aide des points d'appui qu'il se donne, sa force augmente au loin, comme celle des leviers. Celle du peuple, au contraire, n'agit que concentree: elle s'evapore et se perd en s'etendant, comme l'effet de la poudre epa.r.s.e a terre, et qui ne prend feu que grain a grain. Les pays les moins peuples sont ainsi les plus propres a la tyrannie. Les betes feroces ne regnent que dans les deserts.”
It is obvious enough that the Idea of Liberty, which can originate only in the intercourse of many minds, as the liberty itself can be wrought out only by the labours of many united hands, is not to be looked for where the people live apart, and are dest.i.tute of any knowledge of the interests and desires of the community at large.
Whether the society is divided into Two Cla.s.ses, or whether there is a Gradation, is another important consideration. Where there are only two, proprietors and labourers, the Idea of Liberty is deficient or absent.
The proprietory cla.s.s can have no other desires on the subject than to repress the encroachments of the sovereign above them, or of the servile cla.s.s below them: and in the servile cla.s.s the conception of liberty is yet unformed. Only in barbarous countries, in countries where slavery subsists, and in some few strongholds of feudalism, is this decided division of society into two cla.s.ses now to be found. Everywhere else there is more or less gradation; and in the most advanced countries the cla.s.ses are least distinguishable. Below those members who, in European societies, are distinguished by birth, there is cla.s.s beneath cla.s.s of capitalists, though it is usual to comprehend them all, for convenience of speech, under the name of the middle cla.s.s. Thus society in Great Britain, France, and Germany is commonly spoken of as consisting of three cla.s.ses; while the divisions of the middle cla.s.s are, in fact, very numerous. The small shopkeeper is not of the same cla.s.s with the landowner, or wealthy banker, or professional man; while their views of life, their political principles, and their social aspirations, are as different as those of the peer and the mechanic.
There are two pledges of the advancement of the idea of liberty in a community:--the one is the mingling of the functions of proprietor and labourer throughout the whole of a society ruled by a representative government; the other is the graduation of ranks by some other principle than hereditary succession.
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