Book Description

Excerpt from Report of the Proceedings at the National Banquet Held at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Sydney, on the 17th of July, 1856, to Celebrate the Establishment and Inauguration of Responsible Government in the Colony of New South Wales In a brochure which was published in Sydney seventeen years ago, the authorship of which, we believe, is to be ascribed to Dr. Bland, the following passages appear in defence of the great principle of "Responsible Government": - The greatest improvement in political constitutions that has occurred, has been that of introducing into them the principle of responsibility to the people, and the beautiful machinery by which this indispensable object is effected. It had not escaped the attention of those interested in the moral and intellectual advancement of the human race, that political freedom was invariably found to be the basis, as well as principal actuating power, of all such improvement. With this principle in operation,. the smallest communities had often outstripped the wealthiest, and most extensive empires in every attribute of human excellence. But the ancient forms of government of this description, however excellent in their effects, were yet deficient in some principle essential to their preservation; and, until this principle was discovered, it was in vain to hope for permanent success from any of the free forms of government that had been devised. The lapse of eighteen centuries has at length given to political science, in this department, a degree of perfection which, as in some of our most splendid discoveries in mechanical science, has rendered it practically applicable, and that with a facility and effect which, but a few years since, would have been considered hopeless. The vital element to which we allude, and which it has required so many years to reduce to practical perfection, is that of the responsibility of the governing to the governed. This one principle, in respect to constitutional forms of government, in its operation may not unaptly be compared to what steam is discovered to be in mechanical science; though, great as are the effects of the latter, it would indeed be an injustice to the former to compare their respective results. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.