vious republic, either in ancient or
modern times, had exhibited any approach to it. The seclusion of the great
body of the working class, in all the states of antiquity, from any share
either in municipal or social powers, by reason of the generality of
slavery--the arrangement of men in trades and crafts, through whose heads
all their powers were exercised, in the free cities of Italy and Flanders,
in modern times, and in general in all the European burghs, necessarily
rendered the basis of government in all former commonwealths essentially
different. A democratic valley may have existed in Uri or Underwalden,
where all the citizens were equally rich in fortune, and nearly equally
poor in intelligence; but the example of a great community resting on
universal suffrage, and a simple majority of votes, began with the year
1789.

Although the proper democratic spirit existed in great strength in many of
the leaders of the Great Rebellion, and its extravagances generally
affected the army, and some of the powerful leaders of that convulsion,
yet extension of political power was not the object of the _national_
will. This is decisively proved by the fact, that when they gained the
power, the people made no attempt, in any material respect, to alter the
public institutions. Cromwell, doubtless, was a military usurper; but a
military usurper is only the head of a warlike republic, and he is
constrained to obey the wishes of the soldiers who have elevated him to
power. Neither he nor the Long Parliament made any important alterations
on the lasting structure of government, though, for the time, they totally
altered its practice. The law was administered on the old precedents
during the whole Protectorate. The estates of the malignants were put
under sequestration, and many of the church lands were confiscated, but no
great alteration in the foundations of government took place. Power, when
the military oppression was removed, immediately returned to its former
seats. The parliaments summoned by Cromwell proved so refractory, that
they were in general dissolved after having sat a few days; juries,
throughout his reign, were so hostile to his government that they
acquitted nearly all the state offenders brought before them; and legal
prosecutions fell into disuse. Every thing was done by military force; but
it never occurred to him to turn up the soil, so as to bring up fresh
elements into action:--he never thought of summoning