POLITICAL CONSTITUTIONS. [From the Edinburgh Review.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 390, 28 April 1849, Page 2

POLITICAL CONSTITUTIONS. [From the Edinburgh Review.]

Abundant experience proves that it is quite a mistake to suppose that the sudden introduction of even a better ' constitution will necessarily carry with it the great element ofall political excellence — stability ; and the reason is that just given ; that such stability is foun- . ded less upon ideas of theoretical perfectipn than upon association and habit. To, induce men to revere any system, whether it be worthy of their reverence or riot— at all events, to excite any regret or reluctance to change it, they must be accustomed to it ; and that bond of custom, slight as it may seem, and abiurd as it often is, is a thing almost omnipotent in politics ; the chief cable, in short, which holds the vessel of the state to its anchorage. " Custom," says Bacon, with his usual profundity, "is the principal magistrate of man's life.'.' Apart from it, a political theory which, has been proposed to-day, and which bit neither the experience of benefit* derived from it nor. iho association of time to plead in its d§»

feiiCe/may be supplanted by «n equally shining novelty to-raorrow. Nor, indeed, is there any reason why a darling system of this roan or this party should not be taken on trial as well as that of another man or another party, both being equally confident of the result, and both being prompted by the strongest of all principles (with the exception of habit) which can xule in the human breast — a desire to realise our, own ideal, and a perfect conviction, till experience has chastised our presnmption, that of all possible systems the one proposed by us is the very best. Hence the rapid series of constitutions which issued from the. " pigeon-holes" of the Abbe Sieves ; hence all the- other schemes of his fellow-ma-nufacturers of paper constitutions — till- Napoleon at length arose and shattered the frail tubes which were issuing so many gorgeous bubbles ! The intensity with which the human mind may.be convinced of the profound wisdom of an untried folly is strongly exemplified in the recent^evelonjne.nt ,o£jhe£o.mmunist and Socftiistuieones of France. The wildness of those theories is only to be paralleled by the unscrupulous fanaticism with which they seem to have been pursued. It is now, we think, ascertained that .the. proceedings connected with the Reform Banquet, wet e only a pretext for the late revolution — the accidental touch which broke the film that covered the huge chronic ulcer, and let out its foul and purulent contents. It is evident that ever since the year 1830, parties bad been organizing themselves, and proclaiming their organization, for the purpose of operating a revolution on the first favourable opportunity ; living, in fact, in the habitual exercise of treason. No country but France could have furnished such a parallel ; and she has just outdone it by exhibiting the example of a section of the late Provisional Government implicated in the very schemes which were to terminate in its overthrow, and the preparation of a clear stage for the working out of their more perfect schemes of human regeneration ! Nothing can equal the insanity of those schemes, except the fraud and recklessness with which they seem to have been pursued. That human nature, even 'so conditioned, and so strangely trained as in their revolutionary school, might not be easily moulded to their hands, never seems to have entered their thoughts. They never seem to have had any idea that the art of political change is an art of grafting, and not of planting ; not to say that most of their schemes of society would require a totally different animal from man to admit of their adoption, under any circumstances or any preparatives. Yet many of these men — and very learned and able men too — seem to have been sincerely convinced of the perfection of their theories, and willing to do anything to realise (hem — with a fanaticism worthy of our fifth monarchy-men, and a treachery and atrocity north y of the worst disciples of Loyola. It is a curious and instructive spectacle. But, without going any such lengths, most men, we fear, are apt to flatter themselves that they have a constructive talent of this kind in the highest perfection ; and all the failures of so many of the wise wiil not convince us that politics are not the easiest of the sciences. Perhaps there is nothing which equals man's real power to demolish systems, excepthisimaginarypowerofconstructingthem. The self-deception is the more likely to escape us, because to every charge of failure it is always so pleasantly easy to find a satisfactory reply. "If such and such events had not happened, and disturbed the grand experiment in the very moment of projection !" or; "If the men had but been of one mind, and worked the system honestly !" To these *Mfs" the objector opposes a " perhaps ;" for it is easy, for both sides to draw upon the inexhaustible fund of possibilities. But, at all events, and without any " perhaps," those " ifs" surely ought to have been taken into account »&@^<? the. experiment, and abated confidence in the result. The very test of a political arrangement should be its practicability. The very problem for' solution is : Given the actual condition of a nation, and the position of events, to construct a working system. It is easy to contrive systems of paper optimism. Far less than a Bacon or More is required to invent an Atlantis or Utopia. M. Cabet is quite equal,- (and very welcome) to the government of his fabulous Icaiie. Sir James Mackintosh never uttertd a profounder or a truer word than when he said that " political constitutions are not made, bnt grow." They are living things ; and not mere skeletons of parchment. The figure, indeed, is logically just, as it is felicitous in the conception ; since all such constitutions imply, in common with other forms of orgauised life, perpetual processes of minute change and imperceptible assimilation of parts, and the pervading influence of a vital energy from within, turning blood into muscle and cartilage into bone — in other words, hardening ductile first impressions into solid habits of reverence and affection to institutions. The law of continuity, therefore, and- the influence of time

are not accidental, but essential conditions of all political solidity. The true constitution is not that inscribed in the statute-book, but that engraved on the hearts and cherished in the habits of the people. Solon could not have more practically shown his wisdom (whether the story be true or fabulous, the moral is the same) than by binding the Athenians not to change any of his laws for a term of years ; as well knowing, not only that time was necessary to test their value and disclose their defects, but that, until thus consecrated by association and habit, endeared by the remembrance of benefits conferred, and guarded by the fear of exchanging what was known for what was unknown, there was no guarantee that the constitution which he had given them one day might not be exchanged for another, apparently more eligible, on the morrow ; and that, until the goodly fabric was thus consolidated before innoration began, it would not be the hand of reform that would touch it, but that of revolution. A somewhat sitnjjar story which is told of Lycurgus and his Spartan code carries with it a similar lesson.