The laws of political motion occupy the same prominent place in our new science as Newton’s laws do in ordinary dynamics. These are very important in calculating the positions which various States will occupy in the future. First, we have the doctrine of nationality, which prevented the progress of Austria into [108] Italy, and of the Bourbons in Naples, and produced the amalgamation of the small German States in the great empire of Germany. The second law of political motion is the doctrine of the independence of all true States, and the equality of all States to each other. This had its growth in feudalism; and all the chief wars of modern times have been the result of the efforts of nature to establish this law of independence. The doctrine of intervention is a modification of the preceding law, and is applicable when the law of necessity demands its use, such as the restoration of order after protracted anarchy, the abolition of slave trade, etc. The third law is the law of morality. Just as for each man there exists a right and a wrong; just as duty and conscience are certain elements in his daily motion, which dictate his course of action, although he may chose to neglect them; so a nation is bound by the same moral laws which govern the individual; and a nation errs if it transgresses them. Christianity is the agent which has [109] produced so powerful an influence in making men obey the dictates of conscience and walk in the path of duty; and I read with thankfulness the conclusion of Mr. Amos, that Christianity has triumphed quite as much in moralizing secular politics as it has in the sphere of individual life.
These are some of the principal laws of motion which I have observed at work in various States and nations. Inasmuch as political science embraces, in addition to the physical sciences, all those branches which are contained in ethics, economics, jurisprudence, sociology and others, the laws of each are generally applicable to the whole grand subject of which my lectures treat. Other general laws may be deduced, and have been enumerated in my previous lectures, from the social properties of curves and conics; and when our researches are complete we may hope to produce a code of laws for the guidance of our statesmen which maybe of immense use in determining [110] the policies of the future. Already there is strong evidence that the affairs of this country are being conducted on sound scientific principles, rather than by any species of guess-work or haphazard contrivances. The use of history is recognised as extremely important in determining a future line of conduct; and statesmen are in the habit of endeavouring to find from their study of the past what is the logical sequence of events. Just as mathematicians endeavour to determine the law of a series of figures, and having found the law, can write down the next, and the next, ad infinitum; so scientific politicians may be able soon to establish the various laws of a series of events, and calculate their course of actions. That there is considerable progress in this direction is manifest by the value which they place upon statistics, and their continued use of this important information.
There are a few great evils in our present system which are strongly opposed to any scientific methods in politics; and in the interests of the country as well as those of [111] science they ought to be removed. One great evil is the want of political and scientific knowledge on the part of the electors, who are in the habit of choosing their representatives on personal grounds, or party considerations, rather than on sound principles of political science. All this is opposed to any idea of law. Owing to the ignorance of the electors they fall an easy prey to adventurers and unprincipled politicians, who make all kinds of specious promises, tempt them with all manner of baits, and make self-interest instead of the welfare of the State the principle of voting. Selfishness is the ruin of social life and intercourse, the destroyer of all happiness, peace, and mutual trust in family life or in society. It is the root of most of the faults, vices, and crimes in the individual; and who can tell the endless disasters which will befall the State, where selfishness is the chief motive-power of the electors and the elected? A selfish statesman, one who goes into Parliament to gain his own ends and forward his own personal interests, is a disgrace to society—
[112]
‘Feeling himself, his own low self, the whole,
When he by sacred sympathy might make
The whole one self. Self, that no alien knows!
Self, far diffused as fancy’s wing can travel!
Self, spreading still, oblivious of its own,
Yet all of all possessing!’