George Cockburn Henderson

“ It is a growth, not a sudden acquisition, and just for that reason it is likely to be so well adjusted to the temper and capacity of the people at large that any attempt to replace it by the cut-and-dried schemes of logicians and theorists will assuredly bring on a reaction. It has always been so in the past. Great upheavals are followed by periods of unrest and change; but the continuity of history is never lost. When the wave of revolution has swept by, the habits of a nation, which are called traditions, have asserted their power. ”

“ History is the record of human experience, and the best way to explode a shibboleth of this kind is to bring it to the test of experience. Theorists in the matters of government have nearly always paid too much homage to logic and too little to the importance of passion, prejudice, habit, and tradition. Some, like the anarchists, assume that men are so good that they do not need to be governed at all, and some, like the Bolshevist, that the poorer and more inexperienced they are the better they can manage human affairs. ”

“ I commend to you the working constitution of Great Britain and the Dominions, because of its intrinsic worth. Something I have said about this already, but let me add now that I can conceive of no better machinery by which an enlightened people may make use of the best managers in the community, and at the same time keep them true to a sense of their national responsibility. It avoids the extremes of autocracy and ochlocracy. It sweeps aside the fantastic notion that men are born with equal capacity for government ”

“ Theoretical democracy is a delusion and a snare, but the working constitution under which the people of the self-governing Dominions of the British Empire are living is, in its essential principles, admirable. It provides all the machinery that is needed for selecting and controlling men who are fitted by nature and training for leadership and management, and as Taussig says, in his great work on the "Principles of Economics," "all progress, material and spiritual, depends on the selection of the right leaders, and on spurring them on to the best exercise of their faculties." ”

“ The Greatest Merit of the British Constitution.
One of the greatest merits of our working constitution—perhaps the greatest—is that direct action and revolution within the State are no longer necessary for any reform whatsoever. If the majority of the people are determined on change, there is no reason why they should not get it in a regular constitutional way, and that is infinitely better and more worthy of rational beings than having recourse to brute force and violence. ”

“ The Government of Great Britain is more organic than the Government of the United States, which still preserves the character of a system of checks and balances. The men who drew up the United States Constitution showed' a deep distrust of public opinion. The British Constitution is a contrivance for giving effect to the will of the people at any time. Few, if any, of the American republics that have adopted the presidential executive of the United States have escaped civil war or dictatorship. ”

“ Reaction has followed revolution for some time, and after that the people have settled down to the task of making bottles for "the new wine that is worth preserving. Evolution does not always proceed at the same rate in human affairs; it is sometimes rapid, sometimes slow; but there is evolution, and it is more persistent in constitutional than in any other branch of British history.
Our age is in love with novelty and experiment, not only in the art of government, but in nearly all branches of art. ”

“ Institutions and systems that endure derive their nourishment from habit, feeling, and tradition, and all that goes to make up experience.
But it is not enough to argue that our working constitution is venerable. It has often happened in this world's history that systems have outlived their usefulness, and some constitutions have been deservedly overthrown. ”

“ There is a combination of popular and aristocratic principles in our working Constitution, and both principles have been emphasized in the political development of the last century. Adult suffrage has made popular control more effective than ever it was, but the Cabinet has never been so powerful as it is to-day. "Aristo-democracy" is an awkward compound, but at least the word expresses more accurately the government under which we live than "democracy." ”

“ How very different are our modern democracies, which include millions of people scattered over wide areas! It is only by means of representation that modern nations can make any form of democratic government possible. ”

“ I say the best available, because we must not assume that the most capable administrators in the community; are willing to submit themselves for election to Parliament. Such a constitution can fail only if the people as a whole prove themselves unequal to the task of encouraging the right men to undertake national responsibilities. What more can you ask of any constitution suited to the temper of a democratic people? ”

“ Germany had a liberal franchise before this war; but the executive in Germany was practically independent of the House of Representatives, and Germany was therefore an autocracy. When the Chancellor in Germany is made responsible to the Reichstag, as the Prime Minister is to the British House of Commons, then Germany will be a democracy. Whether Germany will attain to this remains to be seen. The character of the people and the conditions under which they are to live will ultimately determine the nature of their working constitution. ”

“ It is, true that people have sometimes controlled their rulers in the past, and that in the more enlightened countries of the world they have devised political machinery for controlling them more effectively. But there is a vast difference between actual governance and the control of those who govern. ”

“ But while it is well to entrust our duly constituted leaders with supreme authority in the conduct of national affairs, history teaches that it is right and necessary to keep them under constitutional control, and it is clear from the extension of the franchise since 1832 that British people have made up their minds to do so. There are some people who argue that a board of experts could manage the country's affairs much more cheaply and efficiently than a Cabinet dependent upon Parliament. ”

“ All those who believe with Edmund Burke that representatives owe their judgment as well as their voice to their constituents, will be pleased to know that, in this particular aim, the associations failed. The leaders of the political party in Parliament found their restrictions too burdensome, and incompatible with the self-respect of men who aspired to lead and direct the nation in the assembly that represented all the people, and not merely a section. ”

“ In the seventeenth century the greatest revolution in British history arose out of a contest between Parliamentary authority and the rule of a king who claimed to derive his power from a source outside the constitution. ”

“ If there is anything unsatisfactory in the written constitution under which we live, the people can amend it to their own liking, subject only to approved safeguards against ill-considered tampering. All that is needed is that the people shall make up their minds. ”

“ Our danger lies rather in the enfeeblement of the Executive by excessive criticism through the press and public meetings, and interference from organized public opinion in the electorates, as well as a want of scope for the exercise of initiative and judgment inside Parliament because of the lavish promises made in electioneering campaigns, and the pressure which is brought to bear on Parliamentary leaders by caucus and other organizations unknown to the Constitution. ”

“ Apart from the suffering and slaughter of innocent beings, unavoidable in revolutions, victories won by force are not so enduring as those that come by reason and arbitration. Bismarck put his trust in blood and iron, and he was remarkably successful for a time. ”

“ They carry one principle so far that other principles, equally true, if brought to the test of experience and common sense, are abandoned or forgotten. It is likely that most of these theories in art and government will have their day and cease to be. ”

“ They will not fail of some effect; the old order is bound to be modified and changed to some extent; but in matters of government tradition is so powerful that I shall be very much mistaken if Bolshevism of the twentieth century does not go the way of Communism and Anarchy of the nineteenth, and Antinomianism and Fifth Monarchism of the seventeenth century. Any "ism" is good enough to make a few converts; but unless it strikes its roots deeper than intellect it is not likely to live long. ”

“ They need insight and initiative in the hour of crisis, as well as foresight in preparing for it. When events are moving rapidly they must be able to see at a flash what is the right thing to do, and lose no time in doing it. ”