States or in England, than the thousandfold evidences of an all-pervading associative spirit in all moral and practical spheres, from the almost universal commercial copartnerships and associations, the " exchanges" of artisans, and banks, to those unofficial yet national associations which rise to real grandeur. Strike out from England or America this feature and principle, and they are no longer the same self-relying, energetic, indomitably active people. The spirit of self-government would be gone. In France, an opposite spirit prevails. Not only does the government believe that it must control everything, but the people themselves seem hardly ever to believe in success until the government has made the undertaking its own."

5

5 I cannot forbear mentioning here one of those occurrences which, although apparently trivial, nevertheless show the constant action of a great principle, as the leaf of a tree reveals the operation of the vastest elements in nature to the philosopher. At a late meeting of the Royal Academy at London, at which the ministers were present, the premier, Lord Aberdeen, said that, "as a fact full of hope, he remarked that for several years the public, in the appreciation of art, had outstripped the government and the parliament itself."

The chief executive officer considers it a fact full of hope that the people have outstripped, in interest and action, the government and parliament. How different would a similar case have presented itself in any of the continental countries!

2

CHAPTER XIII.

PUBLICITY.

18. We now approach those guarantees of liberty which relate more especially to the government of a free country, and the character of its polity. The first of all we have to mention under this head, is publicity of public business. This implies the publicity of legislatures and judicial courts, as well as of all minor transactions that can in their nature be transacted publicly, and also the publication of all important documents and reports, treaties, and whatever else can interest the people at large. It farther implies the perfect freedom with which reporters may publish the transactions of public bodies. Without the latter, the admission of the public would hardly amount in our days to any publicity at all. We do not assemble in the markets as the people of antiquity did. The millions depending upon public information, in our national states, could not meet in the market, as was possible in the ancient city-states, even if we had not a representative government. The journals are to modern freemen what the agora was to the Athenian, the forum to the Roman.

Important as the printing of transactions, reports, and documents is, it is nevertheless true that oral discussions are a most important feature of Anglican publicity of legislative, judicial, and of many of the common ad

ministrative transactions. Modern centralized absolutism has developed a system of writing and secrecy, and consequent pedantry, abhorrent to free citizens who exist and feed upon the living word of liberty.' Bureaucracy is founded upon writing, liberty on the breathing word. I do not hesitate to point out orality, especially in the administration of justice, in legislation, and local self-government, as an important element of our civil

1 The following passage is given here for a twofold purpose. Everything in it applies to the government of the pen on the Continent of Europe, and it shows how similar causes have produced similar results in India and under Englishmen, who at home are so adverse to government writing and to bureaucracy. In the Notes on the North-western Provinces of India, by Charles Raikes, Magistrate and Collector of Mynpoorie, London, 1853, we find the following passage:

"Action, however, and energy, are what we now lay most stress upon, because in days of peace and outward tranquillity, these qualities are not always valued at their true price, and their absence is not so palpably mischievous as in more stirring times. There is more danger now of men becoming plodding, methodical, mere office functionaries, than of their stepping with too hasty a zeal beyond the limits of the law. There is truth, too, in Jacquemont's sneer-India is governed by stationery, to a more than sufficient extent; and one of the commonest errors of our magistrates, which they imbibe from constant and early Indian associations, is to mistake writing for action, to fancy that dictation will supply the place of exertion. In no other country are so many written orders issued with so much confidence, received with such respect, and broken with such complacency. In fact, as for writing, we believe the infection of the cacoëthes scribendi' must first have grown up in the East. It pervades everything, but is more rampant and more out of place in a police office than anywhere else. It was not the magistrates who originated this passion for scribbling; but they have never succeeded in repressing it, nor, whilst the law requires that every discontented old woman's story shall be taken down in writing, is it to be expected they ever will? The Khayeths worship their pen and ink on certain festivals, and there is a sort of 'religio' attaching to written forms and statements, which is not confined to official life, but pervades the whole social polity of the writing tribes. An Indian scribe, whose domestic expenditure may average sixpence a day, will keep an account-book with as many columns, headings, and totals, as would serve for the budget of a chancellor of the exchequer. To Tudor Mul and such worthies, we owe, no doubt, a great deal for the method and order which they infused into public records; but we have also to thank these knights of the pen for the plaguiest long-figured statements, and the greatest number of such statements, which the world ever saw." Well may the Continental European, reading this, exclaim, "C'est tout comme chez nous !"

liberty. I do not believe that a high degree of liberty can be imagined without widely pervading orality; but oral transaction alone is no indication of liberty. The patriarchal and tribal governments of Asia, the chieftain government of our Indians, indeed, all primitive governments are carried on by oral transaction without any civil liberty.

Publicus, originally populicus, meant that which relates to the populus-to the state; and it is significant that the term gradually acquired the meaning of public, as we take it,-as significant as it is that a great French philosopher, honoured throughout our whole country, lately wrote to a friend-" Political matters here are no longer public matters." 2

In free countries, political matters relate to the people, and therefore ought to be public. Publicity informs of public matters; it teaches, and educates, and it binds together. There is no patriotism without publicity; and though publicity cannot always prevent mischief, it is at all events an alarm-bell, which calls the public attention to the spot of danger. In former times, secrecy was considered indispensable in public matters; it is still so where cabinet policy is pursued, or monarchical absolutism sways; but even these governments have been obliged somewhat to yield to a better spirit, and even Russia publishes occasionally government reports.

That there are certain transactions which the public service requires to be withdrawn for a time from publicity, is evident. We need point only to diplomatic transactions when not yet brought to a close. But even with reference to these, it will be observed that a great change has been wrought in modern times; and, com

2 This observation followed a request to write henceforth with caution, because, said he, "choses politiques ne sont plus ici choses publiques."

paratively, a great degree of publicity now prevails even in the foreign intercourse of nations-a change of which the United States have set the example. A state secret was formerly a potent word, while one of our first statesmen wrote to the author, many years ago-"I would not give a dime for all the secrets that people may imagine to be locked up in the United States archives."

It is a remarkable fact, that no law insures the publicity of the courts of justice, either in England or the United States. Our constitution insures neither the publicity of courts nor that of Congress; and in England, the admission of the public to the Commons or the Lords is merely by sufferance. The public may at any time be excluded, merely by a member observing to the presiding officer that strangers are present; while we all know that the candid publication of the debates was not permitted in the times of Dr. Johnson. Yet so thoroughly is publicity now ingrained in the American and Englishman, that a suppression of this precious principle cannot even be conceived of. If any serious attempt could be made to carry out the existing law in England, and the public were really excluded from the House of Commons, a revolution would be unquestionably the consequence, and publicity would be added to the declaration of rights. We can no more imagine England or the United States without the reporting newspapers, than nature without the principle of vegetation.

The principle of publicity so pervaded all the American politics, that the framers of our constitution probably never thought of it; or, if they did, they did not think it worth while to provide for it in the constitution, since no one had doubted it. It is part and parcel of our common law of political existence. They did not trouble themselves with unnecessaries, or things which would