That government is at present considerably, though
imperfectly, a system of liberty. To such a system the most essential
maxim is, that the governors shall be accountable and amenable to the
governed. This principle has sometimes been denominated responsibility.
Responsibility in a republican government is carried as high as
possible. In a limited monarchy it stops at the first ministers, the
immediate servants of the crown. Now to this system nothing can be more
fatal, than for the public measures not really to originate with
administration, but with secret advisers who cannot be traced. This is
to cut all the nerves of government, to loosen all the springs of
liberty, to make the constitution totter to its lowest foundations.
I say this, my lord, not to terrify your lordship. The students and the
imitators of Machiavel must not be frightened with bugbears. Beside,
were cowardice as congenial to the feelings of your lordship as I
confess it has sometimes been to mine, cowardice itself is not so apt to
be terrified with threats hung up _in terrorem_, and menaces of a vague
and general nature. It trembles only at a danger definite and impending.
It is the dagger at the throat, it is the pistol at the breast, that
shakes her nerves.
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