Instead of the function of governing, for which it is radically
unfit, the proper office of a representative assembly is to watch
and control the government: to throw the light of publicity on its
acts: to compel a full exposition and justification of all of them
which any one considers questionable; to censure them if found
condemnable, and, if the men who compose the government abuse their
trust, or fulfil it in a manner which conflicts with the deliberate
sense of the nation, to expel them from office, and either expressly
or virtually appoint their successors. This is surely ample power, and
security enough for the liberty of the nation. In addition to this,
the Parliament has an office, not inferior even to this in importance;
to be at once the nation's Committee of Grievances, and its Congress
of Opinions; an arena in which not only the general opinion of the
nation, but that of every section of it, and as far as possible of
every eminent individual whom it contains, can produce itself in
full light and challenge discussion; where every person in the country
may count upon finding somebody who speaks his mind, as well or better
than he could speak it himself- not to friends and partisans
exclusively, but in the face of opponents, to be tested by adverse
controversy; where those whose opinion is overruled, feel satisfied
that it is heard, and set aside not by a mere act of will, but for
what are thought superior reasons, and commend themselves as such to
the representatives of the majority of the nation; where every party
or opinion in the country can muster its strength, and be cured of any
illusion concerning the number or power of its adherents; where the
opinion which prevails in the nation makes itself manifest as
prevailing, and marshals its hosts in the presence of the
government, which is thus enabled and compelled to give way to it on
the mere manifestation, without the actual employment, of its
strength; where statesmen can assure themselves, far more certainly
than by any other signs, what elements of opinion and power are
growing, and what declining, and are enabled to shape their measures
with some regard not solely to present exigencies, but to tendencies
in progress.
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