DÉMOCRATES ET UTILITAIRES

1. Essay Xll, Of the Original Contract (Jîswys, vol. I, pp. 446-7).

2. Lecky, Hist, of England in the XVIIIth century, vol. III, p. 338.

3. Discounes conceming Government, chap. II, sect. xvi : « As for democracy, ...I believe it can suit only with the convenience of a small town, accompanied with such circumstances as are seldom found. — Cf. Priestley, First Principles of Government, sect. II, éd. 1771, p. 15.

4. E^ay XVI, ïdea of a perfect commonweaWi {Essays, vol. I, p. 49i).

5. Price, Obserratiom on the nature of ciml liberty, the principles of government, and the justice and policy of the war of America, etc. sect. II.

6. Il fait paraître, en 1774, des Proposais for recovering America, and saving great Britain., dédiés au roi, où déjà il demande la dissolution du parlement, et la convocation d'un parlement nouveau, différemment recruté, annuel, a the writs for that purpose directing that ail the members returnable within each county collectively shall be chosen in one gênerai county élection, by ail persons who now enjoy the privilège of voting, whether freeholders, citizens, or burghcsses ».

7. Voici le titre de la seconde édition (1777), plus complet que celui de la première : le titre de la première édition est devenu un sous-titre. The Législative Righis ofthe CommonaUy vindicated, or Take your Choicef Représentation and Respect. — Imposition and Conlempt ; Ânnual Parliaments and Liberty — Long Parliaracnts and Slavery. Wherein it is

3o0 NOTES. (Pp. 224-228)

cuotcnded, upoQ thc unaltcrablc principles of Law an<l tlio Constitution, ttiat an cqual and complète représentation in Parliamenl, and annual élections, are, at this Day, the undoubted Riglits of the Commonalty of tliis Realm ; notwithstanding the supposed validity of certain Acts of Parliament ; and wherein is aiso shown precisely how far (and it is to a most alarming Degree) the People are absoltUely en^laved already, notwithstanding they vainly imagine themselves free, 2 éd. 1777.

8. C'est grâce à cette succession d'incidents violents que la Constitution anglaise ne dégénère pas en une oligarchie étroite, en un « régime vénitien», scion l'expression que Disraeli a rendue fameuse. Mais Bentham avait déjà trouvé la même expn^ssion pour caractériser le régime (Essay on PolUical Taclics ; Bowring, vol. II, p. 316) : « As to the contents of the debates and the names of the voters, there are numorous publications \\'hich give account of them. Thèse publications are crimes, but it is to thèse fortunate crimes that Englnnd is indebted for her escape from an aristocratie government ressembling that of Venice x>.