To individual reformers the
question is almost irrelevant, since, if no other objection can be
made to their enterprise than that the opinion of the nation is not
yet on their side, they have the ready and proper answer, that to
bring it over to their side is the very end they aim at. When
opinion is really adverse, its hostility is usually to the fact of
change, rather than to representative government in itself. The
contrary case is not indeed unexampled; there has sometimes been a
religious repugnance to any limitation of the power of a particular
line of rulers; but, in general, the doctrine of passive obedience
meant only submission to the will of the powers that be, whether
monarchical or popular. In any case in which the attempt to
introduce representative government is at all likely to be made,
indifference to it, and inability to understand its processes and
requirements, rather than positive opposition, are the obstacles to be
expected. These, however, are as fatal, and may be as hard to be got
rid of, as actual aversion; it being easier, in most cases, to
change the direction of an active feeling, than to create one in a
state previously passive. When a people have no sufficient value
for, and attachment to, a representative constitution, they have
next to no chance of retaining it. In every country, the executive
is the branch of the government which wields the immediate power,
and is in direct contact with the public; to it, principally, the
hopes and fears of individuals are directed, and by it both the
benefits, and the terrors and prestige, of government are mainly
represented to the public eye.
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