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ple?" The question is not whether men have A king, says the Reviewer again, would go. some motives for promoting the greatest happi-vern well if he were wise, for fear of provok ness, but whether the stronger motives be those which impel them to promote the greatest happiness. That this would always be the case, if men knew their own worldly interests, is the assertion of the Reviewer. As he expresses some doubt whether Mr. Bentham has demonstrated this or not, we would advise him to set the point at rest by giving his own demonstration.

ing his subjects to insurrection. Therefore, the true happiness of a king is identical with the greatest happiness of society. Tell Charles II. that if he will be constant to his queen, sober at table, regular at prayers, frugal in his ex penses, active in the transaction of business if he will drive the herd of slaves, buffoons, and procurers from Whitehall, and make the happiness of his people the rule of his conduct, he will have a much greater chance of reign. ing in comfort to an advanced age; that his profusion and tyranny have exasperated his subjects, and may, perhaps, bring him to an end as terrible as his father's. He might annot worth having without ease and vicious pleasures. And what has our philosopher to say? Does he not see that it is no more pos sible to reason a man out of liking a short life and a merry one more than a long life and a dull one, than to reason a Greenlander out of his train oil? We may say that the tastes of the thief and the tyrant differ from ours; but what right have we to say, looking at this world alone, that they do not pursue their greatest happiness very judiciously?

The Reviewer has not attempted to give a general composition of the "greatest happiness principle;" but he has tried to prove that it holds good in one or two particular cases. And even in those particular cases he has utterly failed. A man, says he, who calcu-swer, that he saw the danger, but that life was lated the chances fairly, would perceive that it would be for his greatest happiness to abstain from stealing; for a thief ruus a greater risk of being hanged than an honest man.

It would have been wise, we think, in the Westminster Reviewer, before he entered on a discussion of this sort, to settle in what human happiness consists. Each of the ancient sects of philosophy held some tenet on this subject which served for a distinguishing badge. The summum bonum of the Utilitarians, as far as we can judge from the passage which we are now considering, is the not being hanged.

It is the grossest ignorance of human nature to suppose that another man calculates the That it is an unpleasant thing to be hanged, chances differently from us, merely because we most willingly concede to our brother. But he does what, in his place, we should not do. that the whole question of happiness or misery Every man has tastes and propensities, which resolves itself into this single point, we cannot he is disposed to gratify at a risk and expense, so easily admit. We must look at the thing which people of different temperaments and hapurchased, as well as the price paid for it. A bits think extravagant. "Why," says Horace, thief, assuredly, runs a greater risk of being "does one brother like to lounge in the forum, hanged than a labourer; and so an officer in to play in the Campus, and to anoint himself the army runs a greater risk of being shot than in the baths, so well, that he would not put a banker's clerk; and a governor of India runs himself out of his way for all the wealth of the a greater risk of dying of cholera than a lord richest plantations of the East; while the other of the bedchamber. But does it therefore fol- toils from sunrise to sunset for the purpose of low that every man, whatever his habits or increasing his fortune?" Horace attributes the feelings may be, would, if he knew his own diversity to the influence of the Genius and the happiness, become a clerk rather than a.cor- natal star: and eighteen hundred years have net, or goldstick in waiting rather than go- taught us only to disguise our ignorance be vernor of India? neath a more philosophical language.

Nothing can be more absurd than to suppose, like the Westminster Reviewer, that thieves steal only because they do not calculate the chances of being hanged as correctly as honest men. It never seems to have occurred to him as possible, that a man may so greatly prefer the life of a thief to the life of a labourer, that he may determine to brave the risk of detection and punishment, though he may even think that risk greater than it really is. And how, on Utilitarian principles, is such a man to be convinced that he is in the wrong? You will be found out."-"Undoubtedly.""You will be hanged within two years."-"I expect to be hanged within one year.”- "Then why do you pursue this lawless mode of life?" -"Because I would rather live for one year with plenty of money, dressed like a gentleman, eating and drinking of the best, frequenting public places, and visiting a dashing mistress, than break stones on the road, or sit down to the loom, with the certainty of attaining a good old age. It is my humour. Are you answered?"

VOL. V.-89

We think, therefore, that the Westminster Reviewer, even if we admit his calculation of the chances to be right, does not make out his case. But he appears to us to miscalculate chances more grossly than any person who ever acted or speculated in this world. "It is for the happiness," says he, "of a member of the House of Commons to govern well; for he never can tell that he is not close on the moment when misgovernment will be terribly punished: if he was sure that he should be as lucky as his predecessors, it might be for his happiness to misgovern; but he is not sure." Certainly a member of Parliament is not sure that he shall not be torn in pieces by a mob, or guillotined by a revolutionary tribunal, for his opposition to reform. Nor is the Westminster Reviewer sure that he shall not be hanged for writing in favour of universal suffrage. We may have democratical massacres. We may also have aristocratical proscriptions. It is not very likely, thank God, that we should see either. But the radical, we think, runs as much danger as the aristocrat. As to out

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We say, that those who hold this principle to be sound, must be prepared to maintain, either that monarchs and aristocracies may be trusted to govern the community, or else that men cannot be trusted to follow their own interest, when that interest is demonstrated to them.

We say, that if men cannot be trusted to follow their own interest, when that interest has been demonstrated to them, then the Utilitarian arguments, in favour of universal suffrage, are good for nothing.

We say, that the "greatest happiness principle" has not been proved; that it cannot be

friend, the Westminster Reviewer, he, it must be owned, has as good a right as any man on his side, "Antoni gladios contemnere." But take the man whose votes, ever since he has sate in Parliament, have been the most uniformly bad, and oppose him to the man whose votes have been the most uniformly good. The Westminster Reviewer would probably select Mr. Sadler and Mr. Hume. Now, does any rational man think,-will the Westminster Reviewer himself say, that Mr. Sadler runs more risk of coming to a miserable end, on account of his public conduct, than Mr. Hume? Mr. Sadler does not know that he is not close on the moment when he will be made an ex-generally proved; that even in the particular ample of; for Mr. Sadler knows, if possible, less about the future than about the past. But he has no more reason to expect that he shall be made an example of, than to expect that London will be swallowed up by an earthquake We now leave the Westminster Reviewer next spring; and it would be as foolish in him to act on the former supposition as on the to alter and amend his "magnificent principle" latter. There is a risk; for there is a risk of as he thinks best. Unlimited, it is false. Proevery thing which does not involve a contra-perly limited, it will be barren. The "greatest diction; but it is a risk from which no man in his wits would give a shilling to be insured. Yet our Westminster Reviewer tells us, that this risk alone, apart from all considerations of religion, honour, or benevolence, would, as a matter of mere calculation, induce a wise member of the House of Commons to refuse any emoluments which might be offered him as the price of his support to pernicious mea

sures.

We have hitherto been examining cases proposed by our opponent. It is now our turn to propose one, and we beg that he will spare no wisdom in solving it.

A thief is condemned to be hanged. On the eve of the day fixed for the execution, a Turnkey enters his cell, and tells him that all is safe, that he has only to slip out, that his friends are waiting in the neighbourhood with disguises, and that a passage is taken for him in an American packet. Now, it is clearly for the greatest happiness of society that the thief should be hanged, and the corrupt turnkey exposed and punished. Will the Westminster Reviewer tell us, that it is for the greatest happiness of the thief to summon the head jailer, and tell the whole story? Now, either it is for the greatest happiness of the thief to be hanged, or it is not. If it is, then the argument, by which the Westminster Reviewer attempts to prove, that men do not promote their own happiness by thieving, falls to the ground. If it is not, then there are men whose greatest happiness is at variance with the greatest happiness of the community.

cases selected by the Reviewer it is not clear
that the principle is true; and that many cases
might be stated in which the common sense
of mankind would at once pronounce it to be
false.

happiness principle" of the 1st of July, as far
as we could discern its meaning through a
cloud of rodomontade, was an idle truism.
The "greatest happiness principle" of the 1st
of October is, in the phrase of the American
newspapers, "important if true." But unbap-
pily it is not true. It is not our business in
conjecture what new maxim is to make the
bones of sages and patriots stir on the 1st of
December. We can only say, that, unless it
be something infinitely more ingenious than
its two predecessors, we shall leave it anmo-
lested. The Westminster Reviewer may, if
he pleases, indulge himself like Sultan Schah-
riar, with espousing a rapid succession of
virgin theories. But we must beg to be ex-
cused from playing the part of the vizier, who
regularly attended on the day after the wedding
to strangle the new sultana.

The Westminster Reviewer charges us with
urging it as an objection to the "greatest hap-
piness principle," that, "it is included in the
We never attacked the morality of
Christian morality." This is a mere fiction of
his own.
the gospel. We blamed the Utilitarian for
claiming the credit of a discovery, when they
had merely stolen that morality, and spoiled it
in the stealing. They have taken the precept
of Christ, and left the motive; and they de
mand the praise of a most wonderful and bene-
ficial invention, when all that they have done
has been to make a most useful maxim useless
by separating it from its sanction. On reli-
gious principles, it is true that every individual
will best promote his own happiness by pro-
But if re-
moting the happiness of others.
ligious considerations be left out of the ques
tion, it is not true. If we do not reason on the
supposition of a future state, where is the mo
tive? If we do reason on that supposition,
where is the discovery?

To sum up our arguments shortly, we say, that the "greatest happiness principle," as now stated, is diametrically opposed to the principle stated in the Westminster Review three months ago. We say, that if the "greatest happiness The Westminster Reviewer tells us, that principle," as now stated, be sound, Mr. Mill's Essay, and all other works concerning govern-"we wish to see the science of government ment, which, like that essay, proceed on the supposition, that individuals may have an interest opposed to the greatest happiness of society, are fundamentally erroneous.

unsettled, because we see no prospect of a settlement which accords with our interests." His angry eagerness to have questions settled resembles that of a judge in one of Dryden's

When we blamed

them for talking nonsense, they cried out that they were insulted for being reformers,-just as poor Ancient Pistol swore that the scars which he had received from the cudgel of Fluellen were got in the Gallia wars. We, however, did not think it desirable to mix up political questions, about which the public mind is violently agitated, with a great problem in moral philosophy.

plays-the Amphitryon, we think-who wishes | ex officio informations. to decide a cause after hearing only one party, and when he has been at last compelled to listen to the statement of the defendant, flies into a passion, and exclaims, "There now, sir! see what you have done. The case was quite clear a minute ago; and you must come and puzzle it!" He is the zealot of a sect. We are searchers after truth. He wishes to have the question settled. We wish to have it sifted first. The querulous manner in which Our notions about government are not, howwe have been blamed for attacking Mr. Mill's ever, altogether unsettled. We have an opisystem, and propounding no system of our nion about parliamentary reform, though we own, reminds us of the horror with which that have not arrived at that opinion by the royal shallow dogmatist, Epicurus, the worst parts road which Mr. Mill has opened for the exof whose nonsense the Utilitarians have at-plorers of political science. As we are taking tempted to revive, shrank from the keen and searching scepticism of the second Academy. It is not our fault that an experimental science of vast extent does not admit of being settled by a short demonstration;-that the subtilty of nature, in the moral as in the phy- Our fervent wish, and, we will add, our sansical world, triumphs over the subtilty of syllo-guine hope, is, that we may see such a reform gism. The quack who declares on affidavit that, by using his pills, and attending to his printed directions, hundreds who had been dismissed incurable from the hospitals have renewed their youth like the eagles, may, perhaps, think that Sir Henry Halford, when he feels the pulses of patients, inquires about their symptoms, and prescribes a different remedy to each, is unsettling the science of medicine for the sake of a fee.

leave, probably for the last time, of this controversy, we will state very concisely what our doctrines are. On some future occasion we may, perhaps, explain and defend them at length.

in the House of Commons as may render its votes the express image of the opinion of the middle orders of Britain. A pecuniary quali fication we think absolutely necessary; and in settling its amount, our object would be to draw the line in such a manner that. every decent farmer and shopkeeper might possess the elective franchise. We should wish to see an end put to all the advantages which parti cular forms of property possess over other forins, and particular portions of property over other equal portions. And this would content us. Such a reform would, according to Mr. Mill, establish an aristocracy of wealth, and leave the community without protection, and exposed to all the evils of unbridled power. Most willingly would we stake the whole controversy between us on the success of the ex

If, in the course of this controversy, we have refrained from expressing any opinion respecting the political institutions of England, it is not because we have not an opinion, or because we shrink from avowing it. The Utilitarians, indeed, conscious that their boasted theory of government would not bear investigation, were desirous to turn the dispute about Mr. Mill's Essay into a dispute about the whigperiment which we propose. party, rotten boroughs, unpaid magistrates, and

THE EARL OF CHATHAM.*
[EDINBURGH REVIEW FOR OCTOBER, 1844.]

MORZ than ten years ago we commenced a sketch of the political life of the great Lord Chatham. We then stopped at the death of George the Second, with the intention of speedily resuming our task. Circumstances which it would be tedious to explain, long prevented us from carrying this intention into effect. Nor can we regret the delay. For the materials which were within our reach in 1834 were scanty and unsatisfactory, when compared with those which we at present possess. Even now, though we have had access to some valuable sources of information which have not yet been opened to the public, we cannot but feel that the history of the first ten years of the reign of George the Third is but imperfectly known to Nevertheless, we are inclined to think that we are in a condition to lay before our readers a narrative neither uninstructive nor uninteresting. We therefore return with pleasure to our long interrupted labour.

us.

We left Pitt in the zenith of prosperity and glory, the idol of England, the terror of France, the admiration of the whole civilized world. The wind, from whatever quarter it blew, carried to England tidings of battles won, fortresses taken, provinces added to the empire. At home, factions had sunk into a lethargy, such as had never been known since the great religious schism of the sixteenth century had roused the public mind from repose.

In order that the events which we have to relate may be clearly understood, it may be desirable that we should advert to the causes which had for a time suspended the animation of both the great English parties.

|ing a government to which a revolution had given being. Both came by degrees to attach more importance to the means than to the end. Both were thrown into unnatural situa tions; and both, like animals transported to an uncongenial climate, languished and degenerated. The Tory, removed from the sunshine of the court, was as a camel in the snows of Lapland. The Whig, basking in the rays of royal favour, was as a reindeer in the sands of Arabia.

Dante tells us that he saw, in Malebolge, a strange encounter between a human form and a serpent. The enemies, after cruel wounds inflicted, stood for a time glaring on each other. A great cloud surrounded them, and then a wonderful metamorphosis began. Each creature was transfigured into the likeness of its antagonist. The serpent's tail divided itself into two legs; the man's legs intertwined them selves into a tail. The body of the serpent put forth arms; the arms of the man shrank into his body. At length the serpent stood up a man, and spake; the man sank down a serpent, and glided hissing away. Something like this was the transformation which, during the reign of George the First, befell the two English parties. Each gradually took the shape and colour of its foe; till at length the Tory rose up erect the zealot of freedom, and the Whig crawled and licked the dust at the feet of power.

It is true that, when these degenerate politicians discussed questions merely speculative, and, above all, when they discussed questions relating to the conduct of their own grandIf, rejecting all that is merely accidental, we fathers, they still seemed to differ as their look at the essential characteristics of the grandfathers had differed. The Whig, who Whig and the Tory, we may consider each of during three Parliaments had never given one them as the representative of a great principle, vote against the court, and who was ready to essential to the welfare of nations. One is, sell his soul for the Comptroller's staff, or for in an especial manner, the guardian of liber- the Great Wardrobe, still professed to draw ty, and the other, of order. One is the moving his political doctrines from Locke and Milton, power, and the other the steadying power of still worshipped the memory of Pym and the state. One is the sail, without which Hampden, and would still, on the thirtieth of society would make no progress; the other January, take his glass, first to the man in the the ballast, without which there would be mask, and then to the man who would do it small safety in a tempest. But, during the without a mask. The Tory, on the other hand, forty-six years which followed the accession while he reviled the mild and temperate Walof the house of Hanover, these distinctive pole as a deadly enemy of liberty, could see peculiarities seemed to be effaced. The Whig nothing to reprobate in the iron tyranny of conceived that he could not better serve the Stafford and Laud. But, whatever judgment cause of civil and religious freedom than by the Whig or the Tory of that age might prostrenuously supporting the Protestant dynasty.nounce on transactions long past, there can The Tory conceived that he could not better be no doubt that, as respected the practical prove his hatred of revolutions than by attack-questions then pending, the Tory was a re

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former, and indeed an intemperate and indiscreet reformer, while the Whig was conservative even to bigotry. We have ourselves seen similar effects produced in a neighbour ing country by similar causes. Who would

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