to it, as he that has five hundred pounds has to his larger portion.

"I have in contemplation the civil social man and no other; and as to the share of power, authority, and direction which each individual ought to have in the management of the state, that I must deny to be amongst the direct original rights of man in civil society."

Burke's reasoning was somewhat confused, and open to the objections which Mackintosh, Thomas Paine, and other writers urged against it.

When Burke asserted "Civil society is an institution of beneficence," the answer was obvious; the institution may be so corrupt that its beneficence is nullified.

The condition of the civil social man (to use Burke's phrase) had in France become intolerable, and human nature revolted. It was a condition of which the Abbé Galiani truly observed: "Ad hæc tempora ventum est, ubi nec mala nec remedia pati possumus."

All this vague language about the natural rights or original rights of man will convince every thoughtful reader, that it is as difficult to analyze the elementary principles on which human society is founded, as it is to resolve into their primary ingredients the material objects of the visible world.

The root-and-branch men of the seventeenth century, the revolutionist of the eighteenth century, and the Radical in the early part of the nineteenth century, all aimed at some reconstruction of the whole social fabric.

Democracy was discredited in this country by the atrocities and follies of the French Government during, what was called, the Reign of Terror. So long, again, as the war with the first Napoleon occupied the mind of the nation, questions of internal government remained in abeyance, but on the restoration of peace, public opinion was directed to the reforms which had been advocated by statesmen in the previous century.

The cessation of war expenditure, combined

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with other causes, produced much distress among the labouring classes, and led to tumultuous meetings and riots. The Tory Government of that day, taking advantage of the general feeling against these rioters, denounced all reformers as revolutionists.

Thus many sober-minded men who were loyally attached to the British Constitution, but who held that our representative system required enlargement and amelioration, were induced to unite with more violent reformers. The country was gradually divided into two camps; the calm consideration of our representative institutions was rendered impossible, and a strong impulse was given to the party who were denominated Radicals.

THE GROWTH

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OF RADICALISM.

Radice in Tartara tendit.”-CANNING.

There were, soon after the peace of 1815, two classes of men who were called Radicals. One class consisted of indigent and ignorant men, whom noisy orators instigated to acts of

violence, which they themselves carefully eschewed; the other class consisted of thoughtful politicians, who discussed and expounded theories of government. These men held democracy to be the only rational system of government, pretended to test every institution by the principle of utility, despised all poetry as silly exaggeration, and the fine arts as needless extravagance; they disparaged the British Constitution, which they regarded as an illogical combination of conflicting authorities. Of this class Jeremy Bentham was the oracle, and James Mill the interpreter.

As a law reformer, Bentham has been deservedly praised, and his "Essay on Usury" is admired for its argumentative vigour; but on questions of religion or of politics Bentham was a destructive fanatic; he could not write without bursting out in abusive epithets. Even in his book on Fallacies, his political partiality mars his judgment. According to his view, ministers are the only disputants who employ fallacious arguments.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE THEORY OF JAMES MILL-POLITICAL

SCIENCE BASED ON SELFISHNESS.

SOME fifty years have elapsed since James Mill published, in the "Encyclopædia Britannica," a treatise on "Government," which was presented to English readers as a scientific solution of the political problem. Mill undertook to demonstrate as a general proposition that democracy is the best form of govern

ment.

This treatise was regarded by the Radical reformers of that day as a masterpiece of political wisdom, and its leading principles were accepted as articles of faith in the democratic creed.

James Mill was a sincere Republican. He hated monarchy; loathed all churches; detested