The English Constitution (v1 rescore)

'On all great subjects,' says Mr. Mill, 'much remains to be said,' and of none is this more true than of the English Constitution. The literature which has accumulated upon it is huge. But an observer who looks at the living reality will wonder at the contrast to the paper description. He will see in the life much which is not in the books; and he will not find in the rough practice many refinements of the literary theory. It was natural--perhaps inevitable--that such an under growth of irrelevant ideas should gather round the British Constitution. Language is the tradition of nations; each generation describes what it sees, but it uses words transmitted from the past. When a great entity like the British Constitution has continued in connected outward sameness, but hidden inner change, for many ages, every generation inherits a series of inapt words--of maxims once true, but of which the truth is ceasing or has ceased.

创立 "dignified/efficient" 二分法(反对 Montesquieu 1748 三权分立)+ Cabinet sovereignty(反对"checks and balances"理论)+ "the Ministry IS the English sovereign"(Ch VI 修辞转化);vs Tocqueville Card 2516 的"township as the most natural association"+ "sovereignty of mankind"+ "manners as the most powerful mitigation",Bagehot 走英国保守派的"dignified/efficient + plutocratic + three factors"诊断;6 命题合构 19 世纪英国政治社会学奠基。

The English Constitution has been the result of a peculiar combination of events. It has been produced, not by the deliberate choice of a particular person, or of a particular assembly, but by the slow conflict of many ages. It has been produced, in the main, by three causes: first, the political instinct of the English people; secondly, the peculiar structure of English society; thirdly, the peculiar character of English history. The English people, by virtue of their political instinct, are capable of self-government. The peculiar structure of English society is this, that there is no class which is either very poor or very rich; there is no class which is either very depressed or very elevated. The English history, in so far as it has affected the Constitution, is the history of the gradual growth of the House of Commons, and the gradual decay of the Crown and the House of Lords. The English Constitution is the result of material in age, by which I mean the political instinct of the people, the peculiar structure of their society, and the peculiar character of their history.

9 章节 + Introduction 递进:Introduction → Cabinet → Monarchy → Lords → Commons → Changes of Ministry → Checks and Balances → Prerequisites → History;Ch IX 收束于"three causes"综合论(政治本能 + 社会结构 + 历史特征)→ 框架严密,vs Tocqueville Card 2516 的 12 章节地理 → 历史 → 社会条件 → 主权原则 → 乡镇 → 联邦 → 出版 → 陪审 → 暴政 → 习惯;二者在 W5 历史哲学档构成"英国经验论 vs 法国理念论"对话框架。

Hobbes told us long ago, and everybody now understands, that there must be a supreme authority, a conclusive power, in every State on every point somewhere. The idea of government involves it--when that idea is properly understood. But there are two classes of Governments. In one the supreme determining power is upon all points the same: in the other, that ultimate power is different upon different points--now resides in one part of the Constitution and now in another. The Americans thought that they were imitating the English in making their Constitution upon the last principle--in having one ultimate authority for one sort of matter, and another for another sort. But in truth the English Constitution is the type of the opposite species; it has only one authority for all sorts of matters. ... First, they altogether retained what, in part, they could not help, the sovereignty of the separate States. A fundamental article of the Federal Constitution says that the powers not 'delegated' to the central Government are 'reserved to the States respectively'. And the whole recent history of the Union--perhaps all its history--has been more determined by that enactment than by any other single cause. The sovereignty of the principal matters of State has rested not with the highest Government, but with the subordinate Government. The Federal Government could not touch slavery--the 'domestic institution' which divided the Union into two halves.

9 段 verbatim + Grote《History of Greece》(1846-56 12 卷)+ Reform Act 1832 + 1867 + American Civil War 1861-65 + Andrew Johnson + Freedman's Bureau Bill + Palmerston 时代 + Lincoln 暗杀时代;vs Tocqueville Card 2516 的 Tacitus + 1620 Plymouth + 1776-83 美国独立战争 + 1787 联邦宪法 + 1830 各州实证,Bagehot 的证据覆盖稍窄(英国本土 vs 美国跨大西洋)。

our present House of Commons is plutocratic, not aristocratic; its most distinguished members are not the greatest, but the richest persons. ... The Reform Act of 1832 and the Reform Act of 1867 each added a considerable body of new voters; but the voters so added were the less wealthy of the working classes; they were not the wealthier of the trading classes; and these latter, being the only class whose wealth could enable them to give effective attention to politics, naturally continue to direct the choice of constituencies. The complete consequences of the Act of 1832 upon the House of Commons have been fully disclosed, but not so the consequences of the Act of 1867. The House of Commons, then, has in it two kinds of dignity; it has its share of 'dignified' elements, and it has its large share of 'efficient' elements. Its 'dignified' elements are derived from the tradition of its power, from its supposed similitude to the other great estates of the realm, and from its being in fact the most prominent object in the eyes of the English nation. But its 'efficient' elements are far more important. They consist of its power of dismissing the ministry at will, its power of criticising everything, its power of throwing out bills, its power of obstructing. These are the great substantive powers of the House of Commons; they are far larger than ever belonged to any other legislative assembly in the world.

"plutocratic House of Commons"诊断 + "dignified/efficient elements in House of Commons" 二分;对 1867-1900 英国自由党 vs 保守党政治 + 1900-1914 自由党改革 + 1918 Representation of the People Act + 1928 Equal Franchise Act 的直接影响;vs Tocqueville Card 2516 的"1848 法国第二共和国 + 1860 俄国 + 1868 日本 + 20 世纪冷战"的更广泛历史影响,Bagehot 是英国本土化的政治分析。

The use of the Queen, in a dignified capacity, is incalculable. Without her in England, the present English Government would fail and pass away. Most people when they read that the Queen walked on the slopes at Windsor--that the Prince of Wales went to the Derby--have imagined that too much thought and prominence were given to little things. But they have been in error; and it is nice to trace how the actions of a retired widow and an unemployed youth become of such importance. The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other. It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations. ... When you put before the mass of mankind the question, 'Will you be governed by a king, or will you be governed by a constitution?' the inquiry comes out thus--'Will you be governed in a way you understand, or will you be governed in a way you do not understand?' The issue was put to the French people; they were asked, 'Will you be governed by Louis Napoleon, or will you be governed by an assembly?' The French people said, 'We will be governed by the one man we can imagine, and not by the many people we cannot imagine'.

19 世纪英语政治评论散文高峰(The Fortnightly Review 连载风格)+ Walter Bagehot 1876 因病早逝(46 岁)留下的最后杰作;Ch II 创立"dignified/efficient"术语 + Ch III 引用 Grote 的"Grecian legend" 描述 + Ch VI "the Ministry IS the English sovereign" 的修辞转化;vs Tocqueville Card 2516 的"sovereignty of mankind" + "manners as the most powerful mitigation"的修辞风格,Bagehot 是英国保守派的"dignified/efficient"修辞。

The use of the House of Lords or, rather, of the Lords, in its dignified capacity--is very great. It does not attract so much reverence as the Queen, but it attracts very much. The office of an order of nobility is to impose on the common people--not necessarily to impose on them what is untrue, yet less what is hurtful; but still to impose on their quiescent imaginations what would not otherwise be there. ... Nobility is the symbol of mind. It has the marks from which the mass of men always used to infer mind, and often still infer it. A common clever man who goes into a country place will get no reverence; but the 'old squire' will get reverence. Even after he is insolvent, when every one knows that his ruin is but a question of time, he will get five times as much respect from the common peasantry as the newly-made rich man who sits beside him. The order of nobility is of great use, too, not only in what it creates, but in what it prevents. It prevents the rule of wealth--the religion of gold. This is the obvious and natural idol of the Anglo-Saxon. He is always trying to make money; he reckons everything in coin; he bows down before a great heap and sneers as he passes a little heap. He has a 'natural instinctive admiration of wealth for its own sake'.

跨学科(政治学 + 历史学 + 法理学 + 修辞学 + 比较政治学 + 政治教育学);Nobility as anti-wealth religion 是 19 世纪英国保守派的最深命题;vs Tocqueville Card 2516 的"three checks" + "manners as the most powerful mitigation",Bagehot 的"anti-wealth religion" + "the Ministry IS the sovereign"是 19 世纪英国保守派对工业革命后"plutocracy"的反讽性回应;深度大,接近 Tocqueville Card 2516 的政治社会学全集跨度。

The English system has been described as a system of 'double majority';--a majority in the House of Commons supporting the ministers, and a majority in the House of Lords supporting the same ministers. The phrase is not inappropriate, but it requires much development before it can be made exact. A change of ministry is a very different thing in England and in France; and the reason of the difference is in itself most instructive. In France a change of ministry is a small event; it is a change in the servants of a sovereign, and nothing more. In England it is a great event; it is a change in the sovereign. The English ministry is not the servant of the English sovereign; it is the English sovereign. The mass of the English people have not in their minds any notion of the political life of England, except as carried on by the Ministry; they know that the foreign relations of England, its laws, its literature, its arts, its trade, its religion, are all administered by a certain set of persons called the Ministry. The English are governed by the Ministry, not by the Parliament; and the Ministry governs through Parliament, not by means of fictitious force given to it by an independent sovereign.

Bagehot 1865-67(The Fortnightly Review 连载 + 1867 Chapman and Hall 第一版 + 1872 第二版)写作时是英国银行家 + 《The Economist》第三任主编(1861-77)+ The Fortnightly Review 主要撰稿人;**19 世纪英国最杰出的政治记者**之一;vs Tocqueville Card 2516 的"1831-32 美国实地考察",Bagehot 是英国本土分析,无国外实地考察;但 Bagehot 的"Cabinet sovereignty" + "three factors for English Constitution" 分析框架是 19 世纪英国政治社会学最有影响力的诊断。

The English Constitution, in a word, is fitted for a single people, and a single people may be trusted to manage it. In other countries, before the establishment of such a system, the political education of the people must be carried through many stages. The mass of the people must learn to obey before they can command. They must learn to understand that the commands of an intelligent sovereign are more beneficial to them than the wild impulses of their own unconnected minds. They must be made to feel that the monarch is the head, the organ, the representative of the whole community, and that his government is not a personal tyranny but a national polity. They must be made to feel that the king is not a foreign master, but a national organ. They must be made to feel that the cabinet is not a party of ambitious nobles, but a committee of the people. They must be made to feel that the House of Commons is not the representative of a class, but of the whole people. Such an education is the work of generations, and it cannot be done by a single teacher. It is not only the teaching of a particular doctrine, but the formation of a particular character. The English people has been forming itself for many centuries, and the result is that peculiarity of political instinct which we call the English Constitution. This peculiarity is the essence of the English Constitution; it is that which distinguishes it from all other constitutions. Without it, the English Constitution would be a poor machine indeed. With it, the English Constitution is a great political achievement.

1867 → 1884 Reform Act → 1918 Representation of the People Act → 1928 Equal Franchise Act → 20 世纪英国议会主权 vs 主权在欧洲(2016 Brexit)→ 21 世纪英国宪政改革(Scottish devolution 1998 + Welsh Assembly 1999)+ Commonwealth Realms 与英国王室关系 + "British Constitution unwritten" 现象;vs Tocqueville Card 2516 的"1848 法国 + 1860 俄国 + 1868 日本 + Trumpism 当代"的更广泛历史影响,Bagehot 是英国本土宪政的影响;政治教育(political education of the people)是 Bagehot 政治哲学对当代英国宪政的最重要遗产。