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    Untitled Article

    The great evil of our present condition , as respects the community and its prospects , is the absence of fixed political principles . The science of politics can scarcely be sa . id to exist . It has not only never been systematically and popularly taught , it has

    scarcely been studied . Most of our public men are evidently ignorant of its very elements . We have had plenty of catchwords , a new one invented as an old one was exploded , to put into mouths which must have something to shout , and to serve their day for the purposes of faction . We have had questions taken up with ardour whenever their discussion could embarrass

    or unseat a Ministry . We have had plenty of clamour from classes which felt the pressure of taxation , or desired the privilege of protection ; that is to say , of taxing others for their own advantage . And our ' great statesmen' have been those who could with most dexterity manage these discordant elements of

    ignorance and selfishness , so as to obtain the support of the stronger by the sacrifice of the weaker , and keep the balance of influential interests in their favour . The people have usually only looked to an immediate grievance , and its removal when it became intolerable . Our political writers have written for this

    state of things . ' Sufficient for the day' has been their motto . Where shall we look for the luminous exposition of those general principles of Government which alone can redeem it from the charge of quackery , and guide in the framing or remodelling of institutions , so as to secure their permanent utility ? < Echo answers , where ? ' and the solidity of John Bull himself cannot give a more sensible or pertinent reply . The best exposition we

    know of is in the articles ( on Government , Jurisprudence , &c ) , contributed by Mr . James Mill , to the ' Supplement of the Encyclopaedia Britannica , ' and which have been often reprinted in a separate form . But the style of these articles is not popular , and they rather serve as a directory for the public writer than as a manual for the general reader . In that way , they have no

    doubt rendered essential service ; but a popular Principia of Politics is the great want of the day . It is the first necessity of our condition ; and we believe the people are quite sufficientl y matured in intelligence to receive and profit by such instruction . For lack of it , they were much better qualified to struggle unitedly for reform , than unitedly to turn what reform they obtained to the best account as soon as they had triumphed .

    While there has been a want of clear and common principles by which to be guided , there has been too great a multiplicity of objects at which to aim . No one grievance had singled itself out , in the public mind , as of such paramount importance that its redress must needs be the first consequence of reform . A hundred different points were driven at together . Every class , every trade and occupation , had its peculiar burden , of which it hoped to be lightened . Every empiric or demagogue had his

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    Forwards or Backwards ? 5

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1834, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2629/page/5/