- - Toleration Bill. Riots of 1780. Bill to reform Parliament. -Peace-ministers and War-ministers. The American Re- volution.-Public Opinion on this Subject.-Its Vacillations. - Unpopularity of the War with America. - Its Impolicy.- Declaration of the Commons. The India Bill. - - The Trou- bles in Holland. - Attempts to abolish the Slave Trade. Effect on Public Opinion of the Revolution in France. - Ex- cesses of the French Demagogues denounced in England. Public Opinion supports the Government in commencing Hos- tilities with France. - Popular Clamour enlisted in the same Cause. Mr. Pitt's Policy. Suspension by the Bank of England of Cash Payments. Effect of this. - Republican Societies in Great Britain and Ireland. - - England's Attitude of Defence and Defiance. Enrolment, as Volunteers, of almost the entire Male Population. Mr. Pitt's Speech on this subject. - Unparallelled Exertions of Horrible Frequency of Capital Punish- ments. - Gibbets in the Highways. Feeble Attempts in 1763 to organise a Constabulary Force. - Destitute Class. Alteration in the Proportion of the several Classes of Society. - Tendency of the last War, and the Increase of the Public Debt, to augment the Middle Class and to diminish the Strength of Constitutional Authority. Genuine Loyalty. - Opinion of Frederick the Great on the Sovereigns of his Day. Uncertain Tenure of Despotism. Succession of Females to the English Crown. Necessity of upholding the Mo- narchical Power. - Effects of the Reform Bill.— Increase of The House of Lords sanctioned by the Voice of the Country.— Admission to it a high and distinguished Reward for Ser- vices to the State. Its Importance as one of the Branches of the Legislature. - Influence of Personal Property. - An- Powerless State of the Commons in former Times. Conduct of the Tudors and Stuarts towards the Commons' House. -Peter and Paul Wentworth. Subserviency of the Commons. - Advance of the House in Power.-Early Desire for repre- sentative Government. — Influence of Property.—Curtail- CHAPTER XVIII. INFLUENCE OF CIVILISATION ON THE LOWER CLASS. - Civilisation not without Disadvantages. - Effects of Machinery. - - - Page 360 HISTORY OF CIVILISATION, &c. INTRODUCTION. Civilisation and Public Opinion depend on each other. Definition of the several Classes of Society.-Upper, Middle, and Lower Class. —Popular Clamour.—Public Opinion. Middle Class the most important in a Civilised State.-Increased by the Use of Machinery. - Machinery increases Civilisation. Enumeration of the several Stages of Society as they advance towards Civilisation.-Savage Tribes.-Pastoral Tribes. Agricultural Population.-Feudal System. Arbitrary Power. Increase of Happiness in the People caused by Civilisation. Ancient States have decayed from a deficiency in Moral Principle. CIVILISATION and public opinion do not coexist exactly in an equal proportion. The latter, nevertheless, depends so much on the former, that the history of one includes, in some degree, that of the other. Civilisation, uninfluenced by public opinion, has been recognised, to a certain extent, at various eras in different parts of the world. It is said to have been found in the Grecian Republics, in the Augustan Age at Rome, and during the reign of Louis XIV. in France. But at neither of these periods do we discover that diffused and all-reaching civilisation which can alone exalt the destiny of nations, give comfort to nearly every class, and make each man feel that, in his degree, he has a stake in the country to which he belongs. To be clearly understood in the following pages, let us define the meaning we attach to the words "Civilisation Civilisation" and "Public Opinion." From an attentive perusal of British history and the annals of other parts of the world, we find that civilisation is formed and gains strength according to the information, moral principle (based on religious faith), facility of communication, and amount of wealth possessed by individuals composing a given community. These elements we shall style the requisites for civilisation, and we shall attempt to show that the form of any government, and its measures, becomes adapted to the interests and wants of a people as public opinion grows and is disseminated, and the efficacy of this national sentiment depends, in great measure, on the relative proportion of those persons not forced to labour with the number who are compelled to gain their daily bread by daily |