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OF POLITICAL THEORIES. 335sophers and ablest statesmen, is always entitled to our attention; nor have we the remotest wish to take from theundoubted merits of Locke : but we may observe, that thealmost blind respect which was paid to him, has been oneof the causes of that abatement in the study of politicalscience, which to a certain degree still continues. To argueagainst Locke has been considered as an infallible proof ofdisaffection to the constitution.Nevertheless, Englandliticalhas since histime had many powriters, and those of the first order, but their pursuitshave received a different direction, and have been changedfrom inquiriesas to the rights and forms of government,into questions of political economy. Men's opinions onconstitutional points, as far as these are practically concerned, have become settled, partly by the constitution underwhich they live, and partly by the writings of Locke. Onthe other hand, the more evident relations of governmentand the new wants which have been continually arising,werecalculated to draw generalattention to political economy.And as under the Stuarts the theory of government owedits rise to the revolutionary times immediately preceding, sothe circumstances of later days naturally led to the theoriesof political economy.It does not belong to our plan tomention the great writers who have appeared in this department. From them Europe has gainedits whole knowledgeof the science, and their influence, far from diminishing,must continue to increase.However highly we may estimate the services whichLocke rendered to the science of civil itgovernment, wasunavoidable that a theory which had reference only to oneparticular state, should be partial and incomplete. Thiswill be at once evident If we apply his principlesto othercountries, which we are, to a certain degree, accustomed toconsider among the best governed of Europe.According to him, none of those states in which thepower of the prince is unlimited, i e. in which the legislativeand executive powers are united in his person admit ofany approach to civil society, properly so called in fact*they present nothing but slavery. These expressions mustof course be taken with some degree of latitude, but thetheory which seeks to confine the idea of a state within suchnarrow limits, cannot be reconciled with actual history.