The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-09

enjoyed under the unreformed Parliamen
Of 1890" Even the Wings, who were de
termined to reform the House Of Com
mons, never desired to do more than tc
repair the revered fabric of the Constitu
ton. Many Of them held that the kind o
reforming which they contemplated wa'
nothing but the strengthening Of the origina
foundation on which rested England''
institutions. Both Russell and Falmerstor
believed and acted on the belief, that
Frenchmen. Germans or Italians might
all Of them put an end to any grievances
under which they suffered by the adoption
Of the form of government which existed
in England. Such having been the creed
of at least two generations of Englishmen
We can understand the enthusiasm. other
wise incomprehensible to us. exhibited in
England for the so-called Days Of July
when Charles X was deposed and Louis
Philippe was placed on the French throne,
events which in 1880 all Englshmen believed
would close the era Of revolutions by be-
slowing on France the blessings of con-
stitutional monarchy.
From 1890 onward. however, attacks
began to be made on the popular faith in
| the English Constitution. Benthamites
led the way in the assault. place. who
carried the doctrines Of his teachers to abb
surdity, pronounced tn, Constitution to be
nothing better than nose OF wax, which
could be twisted in any way one pleased. '
In 1893 Richard Golden, who condemned
the great jugge of the English Consti-
t,ition-a thing of monopoles and church.
craft and sinecures, armorial hocus- pocus,
primogeniture and pageantry,' graVely
| uspected that, for the great mass OF the
! people. Prussia possessed tn best govern
ment in EUROPE and would gladly have given
up his taste for talking politics to secure
for England an administration as good as
| that Of Prussia Carlyle, too, derided all
| the favorite formulas Of constitutionalists
as shams, and accustomed his readers to
see in Cromwell and Frederick the Great
the sort Of heroes who, in defiance OF consti-
tutional or democratic principles, could
govern people vigorously for the peoples
own good. 1t is true that faith in consti-
tutional government died hard Even as
late as the seventh decade Of the nineteenth
century Matthew Arnolds satire was di-
rected against that stolid belief in English
institutions which, to his mind. was still
strong enough to present formidable
hindrance to the intellectual and moral i'm
provement of his countrymen.
Where now, asks Mr.. Dicey. shall We find
ardent believers in the Constitution of
England? IT, however, belief in consttu-
tionalsm has all but vanished, the faiths
or heresies which were its rivals are like
wise rapidly becoming the ghosts OF dead
ideals. Who is there that now expects
political salvation from any heaven sent
hero? Repuhlicanism, as an eminent
Frenchman has said, has ceased to be
heresy but it has also ceased to be faith
Such il our authors judgment, Is the
epitaph which. with the necessary verbal
changes. must be inscribed over the tomb
Of more than one political system which
during the nineteenth century has for
time commanded more or less confidence.
To no political and social faith is ii more
applicable than to the Benthamite liberalism
OF 1880. Utilitarianism, in its turn has
been shattered by the disintegration Of be-
liefs. In no part OF British public life did
the principles OF utilitarianisrn obtain at one
time more complete acceptance than in
everything which regarded the relation OF
England to her colonies. The interesting
fact is here mentioned that Bentham's
.Emancipate Your Colonies published in
1898, was addressed to the French National
Convention. 1t urged upon France and
upon all other countries which possessed
colonial empire, the expediency and the
duty Of bringing about peaceable serara-
ton from their transmarine dependencies.
The counsel did not obtain the assent of
Frcnchmen. nor did it produce any imme-
diate effect in England. This application
of the principle Of ldissez faite however
gradually gained the approval OF English
opinion. Certain familiar facts told for
more than arguments. THE contest with
the American colonies and its issue had
never been forgotten. No revenue could he
raised from Englishmen living outside the
United Kingdom The possibility Of mo-
nopolizing colonial trade had become
doubtful. Hence it was increasingly diff
cult to prove that England gained any
pecuniary advantage from the posses
SIGN of oversea dependencies In no
sphere of action was the trouble saved by |
leaving things alone more obvious than in
Englands government Of colonies, which,
II distance be measured by time, were much |
furt her of from the mother country sixty |
years ago than they are at present and |
which assuredly desired to govern them
selves"
To Sir George Cornewall Lewis and all
sensible Liberals between 1910 and 1850 !
IT, seemed indisputable that the course Of !
prudent statemanship was to leave the |
colonies as much as possible alone. to be pre-
pared at any moment for their desiring in
dependence. and to be careful only that
separation, when it came, should be peace
able and take place under feelings Of mutual
good will and friendship.
We need not say that during the last sixty |
years a drastic change has come over the
whole spiri, of Englands colonial pc Icy.
Az Mr. James Bryce as remarked, the very
word imperialism has undergone change
of Specification withinJforty years. In 1884
imperialism meant Casarism ii. e., an au-
tocracy like Louis Napoleon's) as opposed
to constitutional government, nd was al
ways used with an unfavorable connotation.
In los imperialism means England the
wish to maintain the unit and increase
the siren eth Of an empire which contains
within its limits variou more or less inde-
PENDENT States. As Mr.. Dicey say the