The Sun.
London, England, 1830-07-27 00:00:00

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GROWTH OF GOVERNMENTS.

No one at that time was taught, by a wide
survey of society, that governments are not
framed after a model, but that all their parts and
powers grow out of occasional acts, prompted
by some urgent expediency, or some private in-
terest, which in the course of time coalesce and

harden into usage; and that this bundle of
usages is the object of respect and the guide of
conduct, long before it is embodied, defined,
and enforced in written laws. Government may
be, in some degree, reduced to system, but it
cannot flow from it. It is not like a machine,
or a building, which may be constructed en-
tirely, and according to a previous plan, by the
art and labour of man. It is better illustrated
by comparison with vegetables, or even animals,
which may be, in a very high degree, improved
by skill and care, which may be grievously in-
jured by neglect or destroyed by violence, but
which cannot be produced by human contrivance.
A government can, indeed, be no more than a
mere draught or scheme of rule, when it is not
composed of habits of obedience on the part of
the people, and of an habitual exercise of certain
portions of authority by the individuals or bo-
dies who constitute the sovereign power. These
habits, like all others, can only be formed by
repeated acts ; they cannot be suddenly infused
by the lawgiver, nor can they immediately follow
the most perfect conviction of their propriety.
Many causes having more power over the human
mind than written law, it is extremely difficult,
from the mere perusal of a written scheme of
government, to foretell what it will prove in ac-
tion. There maybe governments so bad that it
is justifiable to destroy them, and to trust to
the probability that a better government will
grow in their stead. But as the rise of a worse
is also possible, so terrible a peril is never to be
incurred except in the case of a tyranny which
it is impossible to reform. It may be necessary
to burn a forest containing much useful timber,
but giving shelter to beasts of grey, who are for-
midable to an infant colony in its neighbour-
hood, and of too vast an extent to be gradually
and safely thinned by their inadequate labour.
It is fit, however, that they should be apprised,
before they take an irreparable step, how little
it is possible to foresee whether the earth,
stripped of its vegetation, shall become an un-
profitable desert or a pestilential marsh.---Dr.
Lardner's cabinet Cyclopredia, Vol. VIII.

Perhaps the most curious feature in the ap-
proaching election is the general lack of candidatee.
There never was a period when the consoling prospect of
warm contests was rarer than at present. Whence comes
this? Are the candidates too poor? The fall in rents
may have done something, and the fall in commercial pro-
fits have done much; but surely there is still enough of
unemployed capital and to spare, for a brush in the
boroughs, if not in counties. We suspect the cause lies
deeper. A membership is not so good a thing as it once
was, and it is more likely to fall in the market than to
rise. Ministers can now do little for their dependants.
They have cut the legs front below thernarlves by their
retrenchments ! Jobs are out of the question, and situa-
tions few, and such as do fell out require some brains and
is little labour. If things go on at this rate, corporations
will be stet•veil into a surrender of their privileges, and
peers of their influence. When neither will sell, the
holders will mice a merit of giving them sway...
Spectator.