When the sovereign is one, it is clear how he will and ought to direct the Edu cation of his people. His first object must be to maintain his own power. It is an absurdity to suppose any Education per mitted in any state which shall be incon sistent with the existence of that state ; and consequently in a monarchy, the first object is and must be the preservation of the monarchy. It is unnecessary to show that the attainment of this object is by no means inconsistent with good Education, and Education which is good when con sidered with reference to other objects than the conservation of the monarchy.
In a democracy [DEMOCRACY] the busi ness of the state is also plain and easy. It is not plain how far and to what classes of subjects the superintendence of the state should extend, for that may be as difficult to determine in a democracy as in any other form of government; but it is plain to what objects the superintendence of the state in such a community should extend. Its objects should be to maintain in all its purity the principle of individual poli tical equality, that the sovereign power is in all and every person, that the will of the majority declared in the form pre scribed by the constitution, is the rule which all must obey, and that the ex pression of opinion on all subjects, by speaking or writing, should be perfectly free. If any checks are wanting on the last head, they will always be sup plied in a democracy by the positive morality of the society in a degree at least great as is required, and certainly in a greater degree than in any other form of government ; and when opinion is ineffectual, law must supply its weak ness.
What must the state do in a political system which is neither a monarchy nor a democracy ; in a system where there are contending elements, and none has yet obtained the superiority ? The an swer is, it must do what it can, and that which it does, being the will of the stronger part for the time, must be con sidered right. But such a political sys tem, though it may continue for a long time, is always moving (at least it is only safe when it is moving) in the direction impressed upon it by one or other of the contending powers which exist in the state. Still, so long as the struggle con t in ues, there can be no Education in the sense which we are considering, no Edu cation which has the single, clear, and undivided object proposed to it in a mo narchy and in a democracy. Such a political system then would appear to be wanting in one of the chief elements of a political system, which we have explained to be the bringing up of the citizens in such a manner as to secure the stability of that system under which they live. In such a system as we here imagine, there being no unity in the object, there can be no unity of means with reference to any object; and such a system might be more properly called an aggregation of political societies, than one political society ; what is implied by the word aggregation being the existence of some thing just strong enough to keep the whole together. Such a society, in spite
of its incongruity, may be kept together by several things: one may be, that the positive morality of the whole society is favourable to order, as characterized by a love of wealth, and impressed with a profound conviction of the necessity of leaving free to every individual the pur suit of wealth and the enjoyment of it when it is acquired. Another may be, that in this same society, though there are contending elements, there may be a slow and steady progress, and a gradual change, tending in one direction only ; such a gradual progress in such a system may be regarded as the only security against its destruction.
If the history of the world has ever presented, or if it now presents, such- a phenomenon as we have attempted to de scribe ; further, if such a society contains the greatest known number of instances of enormous individual wealth opposed to the greatest amount of abject poverty; the highest intellectual cultivation and the greatest freedom of thought, side by side with the grossest ignorance and the darkest superstition ; thousands in the en joyment of wealth for which they never laboured, and tens of thousands, depend ing for their daily bread upon the labour of their hands and the sensitive vibra tions of the scale of commerce ; political power in appearance widely diffused, in effect confined to the hands of a few ; ig norance of the simplest elements of society in many of the rich and those who have power ; ignorance not greater in those who are poor and have none—such a so ciety, if it exists, is a society in which every reflecting man must at moments have misgivings as to its future condition and as to the happiness of those in whom he is most nearly interested. But if such a society contains a class, properly and truly denominated a middle class, a class neither enervated by excessive wealth and indolence nor depressed by poverty ; a class that is characterized by industry and activity unexampled ; a class that considers labour as the true source of happiness, and free inquiry on all sub jects as the best privilege of a free man— such a society may exist and continue to be indefinitely in a state of progressive improvement. Such a society, with its monstrous anomalies and defects, offers to a statesman of enlarged mind and vi gorous understanding the strongest mo tive, while it supplies him with all the means, to give to the political system an impulse that shall carry it beyond the region of unstable equilibrium and place it at once in a sta.e of security.