Physical and spiritual causes have contributed to swell it. Much has been done by economic theories, and more by
economic laws. The propelling force lay sometimes in
doctrine and sometimes in fact, and error has been as
powerful as truth. Popular progress has been determined
at one time by legislation, at others by a book, an
invention, or a crime; and we may trace it to the
influence of Greek metaphysicians and Roman jurists, of
barbarian custom and ecclesiastical law, of the reformers
who discarded the canonists, the sectaries who discarded the
reformers, and the philosophers who discarded the sects.
The scene has changed, as nation succeeded nation, and
during the most stagnant epoch of European life the new
world stored up the forces that have transformed the old.
A history that should pursue all the subtle threads from end to end might be eminently valuable, but not as a tribute to peace and conciliation. Few discoveries are more irritating than those which expose the pedigree of ideas. Sharp definitions and unsparing analysis would displace the veil beneath which society dissembles its divisions, would make political disputes too violent for compromise and political alliances too precarious for use, and would embitter politics with all the passion of social and religious strife. Sir Erskine May writes for all who take their stand within the broad lines of our constitution. His judgment is averse from extremes. He turns from the discussion of theories, and examines his subject by the daylight of institutions, believing that laws depend much on the condition of society, and little on notions and disputations unsupported by reality. He avows his disbelief even in the influence of Locke, and cares little to inquire how much self-government owes to Independency, or equality to the Quakers; and how democracy was affected by the doctrine that society is founded on contract, that happiness is the end of all government, or labour the only source of wealth; and for this reason, because he always touches ground, and brings to bear, on a vast array of sifted fact, the light of sound sense and tried experience rather than dogmatic precept,
