The History of the Origins of Representative Government in Europe

Lecture 1

LECTURE I Subject ifthe course: the history ifthe origin and establishment ifrepresentativegovernment in Europe. ~ Different aspects under which history is considered at various epochs. ~ Poetic history; philosophic history ; political history. ~ Disposition ifour time to consider history under these various aspects. ~ Fundamental principle and essential characteristics ifrepresentative government. ~ Existence ifthisprinciple and these characteristics in Englandat all times. I THINK it necessary to remind you, gentlemen, of the plan which I adopted last year with regard to our study ofthe political institutions ofEurope. The essential object ofthat plan was to give some unity and compactness to this vast history. And this is not an arbitrary and self-chosen object. In the development ofour continent, all its peoples and all its governments are connected together; in spite ofall struggles and separations, there is really some unity and compactness in European civilization. This unity, which has been revealing itselffrom day to day, is now evident; never have geographical limits possessed less sway than in our times; never has such a community of ideas, feelings, aspirations, and efforts united, in spite of territorial demarcations, so great a mass of men. That which is now revealed has been labouring for more than twelve centuries to manifest itself; this external and apparent community has not always existed; but such has always been, at bottom, the unity ofEuropean civilization, that it is impossible thoroughly to understand the history of any of the great modern peoples without considering the history ofEurope as a whole, and contemplating the course pursued by humanity in general. It is a vast drama in which every people has its part to perform, and with the general events ofwhich we must be acquainted in order to understand the particular scenes connected therewith. I have divided the history ofthe political institutions ofEurope into four great epochs, which are distinguished from each other by essentially different characteristics. The first is the barbarian epoch; a time of conflict and confusion , in which no society could be established, no institution be founded and become regularly prevalent in any part ofEurope; this epoch extends from the 22I ESSAYS OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND fifth to the tenth century. The second is the feudal epoch, and extends from the tenth to the fourteenth century. The third is the epoch ofefforts towards constitutional monarchy; feudalism declines, the populations become free, and royalty employs them to extend and augment its power; this epoch embraces the period from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. In the fourth period, on the Continent, all efforts towards a representative system have failed or almost entirely disappeared; pure monarchy prevails. England alone decidedly obtains a constitutional government. This epoch lasts from the sixteenth century to the French Revolution. These epochs were not determined by an arbitrary choice,-their division results from the general facts which characterize them. They will not all form the subject ofthis course oflectures. I wish to study the political institutions of Europe with you, and representative government is the centre towards which all our studies tend. Where I perceive no trace ofthe representative system, and no direct effort to produce it, I turn aside, and transfer my attention to some other quarter. Nor shall I merely limit our studies in reference to epochs only; I shall limit them also in respect to places. Last year, in my lectures on the first epoch, I did not follow the progress ofpolitical institutions in the whole ofEurope, but confined my observations to France, Spain, and England. We have now to study the third epoch; but the States-General ofFrance and the Cortes ofSpain were only unfruitful attempts at representative government. I shall therefore postpone our study ofthem, and devote this year's course to the attentive examination ofthe origin ofrepresentative government in England, the only country in which it received uninterrupted and successful development. This study is particularly necessary to us at the present day, and we are ourselves well-disposed to enter upon it with an earnest desire to reap advantage from it. According to their political state, and in the degree oftheir civilization, do the peoples consider history under various aspects, and look to it for various kinds ofinterest. In the early ages ofsociety, whilst all is new and attractive to the youthful imagination of man, he demands poetical interest; the memories of the past form the groundwork of brilliant and simple narratives, fitted to charm an eager and easily satisfied curiosity. If, in such a community, where social existence is in full vigour, and...