Page:Essays in Historical Criticism.djvu/160



140

Number 62,

calamitous. It poisons ^ the blessings of liberty itself. It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood ; if they be repealed or revised before they are pro- mulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to- day, can guess what it will be to-morrow" (p. 340).

"Another effect of public instability is the unreasonable advantage it gives to the saga- cious, the enterprising, and the moneyed few over the indus- trious and uninformed mass of people. Every new regulation concerning commerce or reve- nue, or in any manner affecting the value of the different spe- cies of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change, and can trace its consequences."

"But the most deplorable effect of all is that diminution of attachment and reverence which steals into the hearts of

Madison.

laws : " " This evil is inti- mately connected with the former, yet deserves a distinct notice, as it emphatically de- notes a vicious legislation. We daily see laws repealed or superseded before any trial can have been made of their merits, and even before a knowledge of them can have reached the remoter districts within which they were to operate." Notes on the Confederacy, April, 1787, Writings, I, 324.

" In the regulations of trade, this instability becomes a snare not only to our own citizens, but to foreigners also," ibid.

" The sober people of Amer- ica . . . have seen with regret and indignation that sudden changes and legislative inter- ferences, in cases affecting personal rights, become jobs in the hands of enterprising and influential speculators, and snares to the more industrious and less informed part of the community." The Federalist, No. 44, 278.

"By correcting the infirmi- ties of popular government, it will prevent that disgust against that form which may

1 A favorite metaphor with Madison. Cf. The Federalist, 81 and 286 ; also Writings, II, 126 and 600 ; III, 360, and IV, 206.