CHAPTER II. THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST OF BRITAIN. 449-1066. OUR freedom, then, is no new thing, but developed from the ancient Anglo-Saxon freedom, something transmitted from times perhaps prehistoric. We are to trace its course through nearly two thousand years, from the German plains to the United States of to-day. The fluctuations in its history have been extreme and constant. Many times it has been upon the verge of extinction. Always, however, it has been maintained, until at the present hour it advances to the dominion of the world. the value of But before entering upon the story of this progress, let us inquire precisely why Anglo-Saxon freedom must be regarded as valuable. Inquiry into Precisely why is it that in an intelligent Anglo-Saxon human society it is better that the people freedom. should govern themselves than that they should be under mastership, either that of a sovereign or a ruling class, however wise and well disposed? Since human nature is what it is, it is quite certain that in the long run peace and justice between man and man will be better brought to pass through selfgovernment, in a civilized state whose citizens are fairly self-controlled, than through a monarchy or the rule of a few. Now and then a King arises of the highest good sense and the utmost worth. Sometimes a small governing class will show, through a term of years, unselfishness and solicitous skill in public business. The beneficent autocrat is sure, however, to give way sooner or later to some tyrant -the well-meaning few to a grasping oligarchy. The masses of mankind can trust no one but themselves to afford to their welfare a proper oversight. No one will claim for democratic government that it is not beset by embarrassments and dangers. Its course is always through tumults; its frictions under the most favorable circumstances cause often painful jarring and obstruction. But when all is said against it that can be said, it remains true that, for Anglo-Saxon men, no other government is in the long run so safe and efficient. View of John There is, however, a more important consideration than even this in favor of government of the people, and here I cannot do better than follow Stuart Mill. the thought of John Stuart Mill. The best government is that which does most to improve the people, and that is the government in which the supreme controlling power in the last resort is vested in the entire aggregate of the community, -every citizen not only having a voice in the exercise of that ultimate sovereignty, but being, at least occasionally, called on to take an actual part in the government by the personal discharge of some public function, local or general. The superiority of popular government over every other as to effect upon character is decided and indisputable. The practice of the dicastery and ecclesia raised the intellectual standard of an average Athenian citizen far beyond anything of which there is any example, either ancient or modern. A benefit of the same kind is produced upon Englishmen and Americans, by their liability to be placed on juries and to serve in town, district, and parish offices. They are thus made very different beings in range of ideas and development of faculties from those who have done nothing in their lives but drive a quill or sell goods over a counter. Still more salutary is the moral part of the instruction afforded when private citizens take part in the public functions. They must weigh interests not their own, and be guided by another rule than their private partialities: they must regard the general good. Participation, even in the smallest. public function, is useful: such participation should, however, be great as the general good will allow; nothing else can be ultimately desirable than the admission of all to a share in the sovereign power of the state. Unless substantial mental cultivation in the mass of mankind is to be a mere vision, this is the road by which it must come. De Tocqueville has shown the close connection between the patriotism and intelligence of Americans and their democratic institutions. No such wide diffusion of the ideas, tastes, and sentiments of educated minds has ever been seen elsewhere, or even conceived of as attainable. Nothing quickens and expands like political discussion; but political discussions fly over the heads of those who have no votes and are not endeavoring to acquire them. Their position in comparison with the electors is that of an audience in a court of justice compared with the twelve men in the jury-box.1 Views of To these views of Mill may be added those of another energetic writer. Popular government affords the only true education. It is not schools and colleges that can ever give that education. They may be the means of imposing cramps and fetters on the mind; they may dull out half the faculties by giving undue exercise to others; they may drill into a lifeless routine of proprieties and conventionalisms; they may even impart what is called refinement and politeness; but they never are, and never can be, the means of training up to the great business of life. For that a greater and wider school is necessary, -the school of the active exercise of all the faculties in the earnest work of real life. But the great instrument for drawing forth the powers of mind and sharpening the wit in every useful way will be the free schools of manly discussion and intercommunication which popular institutions will keep always open and attended. Both as to thought and action, the faculties of man will have this as their best training. Men cannot discuss without first having paid some attention to the subject-matter of discussion. As long as everything is done for them, they have no occasion to think at all, and will soon become incapable of thinking. But the moment they are thrown on their own resources, the moment selfreliance and self-dependence are made necessary to their existence, they wake from their torpor, put forth their energies, and rouse their faculties. It becomes 1 Considerations respecting Representative Government, American ed., p. 62, etc. necessary that they should act; and to act they should think.1 If, then, Anglo-Saxon freedom is a matter of such paramount importance, time will be well spent in tracing its course in history. It has been seen that a considerable similarity exists among the popular institutions of the primitive Aryan stocks, a similarity extending in some degree to savage races in general. No such development, however, has anywhere else taken place as that in the case of Anglo-Saxon freedom. The English-speaking race is the only race in which there has been an unbroken institutional growth from the forest beginnings. "No other society," says Macaulay, "has yet succeeded in uniting revolution with prescription, progress with stability, the energy of youth with the majesty of immemorial antiquity." 2 In the conquest of England there was a complete transfer to the island, of the continental order. Veritable war-keels of the times of Hengist and Horsa have been preserved in the peat- conquest of bogs of Sleswick, so that an accurate idea Anglo-Saxon Britain. may be formed of the fleets in which was effected this memorable deportation. They were flat-bottomed, so that they might be easily beached, seventy feet in length, eight or nine in width, with sides of oak planks fastened by bark ropes and iron bolts. Besides the sails, the power of fifty oars forced the dragon figure-head through the sea. Along the bul 1 J. Toulmin Smith: Local Self-Government and Centralization, London, J. Chapman, 1851, p. 50, etc. 2 History of England, Vol. I, p. 20, Harper's ed. |