When I contemplate the scheme on which France is formed, and when I
compare it with these systems, with which it is, and ever must be, in
conflict, those things, which seem as defects in her polity, are the
very things which make me tremble. The states of the Christian world
have grown up to their present magnitude in a great length of time, and
by a great variety of accidents. They have been improved to what we see
them with greater or less degrees of felicity and skill. Not one of
them has been formed upon a regular plan or with any unity of design. As
their constitutions are not systematical, they have not been directed to
any PECULIAR end, eminently distinguished, and superseding every other.
The objects which they embrace are of the greatest possible variety, and
have become in a manner infinite. In all these old countries, the state
has been made to the people, and not the people conformed to the state.
Every state has pursued not only every sort of social advantage, but it
has cultivated the welfare of every individual. His wants, his wishes,
even his tastes, have been consulted. This comprehensive scheme
virtually produced a degree of personal liberty in forms the most
adverse to it. That liberty was found, under monarchies styled absolute,
in a degree unknown to the ancient commonwealths. From hence the
powers of all our modern states meet, in all their movements, with some
obstruction. It is therefore no wonder, that, when these states are
to be considered as machines to operate for some one great end, this
dissipated and balanced force is not easily concentrated, or made to
bear with the whole force of the nation upon one point.
The British state is, without question, that which pursues the greatest
variety of ends, and is the least disposed to sacrifice any one of them
to another, or to the whole. It aims at taking in the entire circle
of human desires, and securing for them their fair enjoyment. Our
legislature has been ever closely connected, in its most efficient part,
with individual feeling, and individual interest. Personal liberty, the
most lively of these feelings and the most important of these interests,
which in other European countries has rather arisen from the system of
manners and the habitudes of life, than from the laws of the state (in
which it flourished more from neglect than attention), in England, has
been a direct object of government.
On this principle England would be the weakest power in the whole
system. Fortunately, however, the great riches of this kingdom arising
from a variety of causes, and the disposition of the people, which is
as great to spend as to accumulate, has easily afforded a disposable
surplus that gives a mighty momentum to the state. This difficulty, with
these advantages to overcome it, has called forth the talents of the
English financiers, who, by the surplus of industry poured out by
prodigality, have outdone everything which has been accomplished in
other nations. The present minister has outdone his predecessors; and,
as a minister of revenue, is far above my power of praise. But still
there are cases in which England feels more than several others (though
they all feel) the perplexity of an immense body of balanced advantages,
and of individual demands, and of some irregularity in the whole mass.
France differs essentially from all those governments, which are formed
without system, which exist by habit, and which are confused with the
multitude, and with the perplexity of their pursuits. What now stands
as government in France is struck out at a heat. The design is wicked,
immoral, impious, oppressive; but it is spirited and daring; it is
systematic; it is simple in its principle; it has unity and consistency
in perfection.