Malta Further Correspondence Respecting The Constitution And Administration Of Malta With Map In Continuation Of Hl84 May 1887

Author : Guglielmo Rapinet
Publisher : Theclassics.Us
ISBN 13 : 9781230369464
Total Pages : 68 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (694 download)

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Download or read book Lectures on the British Constitution and on the Government of Malta written by Guglielmo Rapinet and published by Theclassics.Us. This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ...men, who working on the feelings, and pandering to the passions of the multitude, soon monopolized the supreme authority. But the majority of mankind were not so enei-getic or could not get rid of the highly dangerous royal animal. They merely strove to guard against his beak and claws, by setting limits to his power, by constitutional checks. These checks have gradually succeeded in curtailing to such an extent the royal functions, that government is virtually carried on by the community, through its representatives. It might appear no longer necessary to limit and check the supreme authority, which has thus descended to the Nation. It sounds like an axiom that the people have no need to restrict their authority over themselves. But this axiom is a fallacy. The will and interests of the sovereign nation is the will and interests of the most numerous or the most active part of the community, of the majority, or of those who succeed in making themselves accepted as the majority, and this majority, real or apparent, is as dangerous to the minority as the original unrestricted royal vulture. Civil liberty is in need of protection both in absolute and in representative governments. This protection has been obtained not by doing away with standing armies, --an impossibility in the present age, --not by instituting national guards to counteract the regular army, --a permanent encouragement to civil strife and commotion, --but by establishing a sacred area of individual liberty of action, on which the supreme political authority is not allowed to intrude, except under exceptional circumstances clearly defined, and with the concurrence, or the approval of an independent judicial authority. 118. This sacred area of individual liberty is hedged.