CHAPTER I.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.

§ 1. General view of the subject. THE word tactics, derived from the Greek, and rendered familiar by its application to one branch of the military art, signifies, in general, the art of setting in order. It may serve to designate the art of conducting the operations of a political body, as well as the art of directing the evolutions of an army.

Order supposes an end. The tactics of political assemblies form the science, therefore, which teaches how to guide them to the end of their institution, by means of the order to be observed in their proceedings.

In this branch of government, as in many others, the end is, so to speak, of a negative character. The object is to avoid the inconveniences, to prevent the difficulties, which must result from a large assembly of men being called to deliberate in common. The art of the legislator is limited to the prevention of everything which might prevent the development of their liberty and their intelligence.

The good or evil which an assembly may do depends upon two general causes: — - The most palpable and the most powerful is its composition; the other is its method of acting. The latter of these two causes alone belongs to our subject. The composition of the assembly-the number and the quality of its

members-the mode of its election-its relation to the citizens or to the government ;these things all belong to its political constitution.

Upon this great object, I shall confine myself to observing, that the composition of a legislative assembly will be the better in proportion with the greater number of the points of its contact with the nation; that is to say, in proportion as its interest is similar to that of the community.†

This work is now first published in English, being edited from the work of M. Dumont, and the papers of Bentham.

+Four conditions are requisite to inspire a nation with permanent confidence in an assembly which is considered to represent it: -1. Direct election; 2. Amoveability; 3. Certain conditions for being an elector, or elected; 4. A number proportioned to the extent of the country. It is upon these points that questions of detail multiply.

The election ought to be direct. If it be made by more steps, the people, who only elect the electors, cannot regard the deputies elected as their

In a treatise on tactics, an assembly is supposed to be formed; and the subject under consideration is only the manner in which its operations ought to be conducted.

work; they are not connected with them by the affection of choice, nor by the feeling of power. The electors are connected with the people neither by gratitude nor responsibility; there is no approximation of the superior and inferior classes, and the political bond continues imperfect.

Amoveability is absolutely necessary. What is an election? It is a solemn declaration that a certain man actually enjoys the confidence of his constituents. But this declaration does not possess a miraculous virtue, which will, guarantee the character and the future actions of this man.

It is absurd to cause a whole nation to assert this hundred individuals, who now possess our confi"We declare that these five grave foolery: dence, will equally possess it whatever they do during all the rest of their lives."

The conditions to be required are of a more doubtful nature. Eligibility founded upon pecudistrust of individuals who cannot offer the pledge niary conditions appears to turn upon a general of property: they are considered as less attached to the established order, or less secure from corruption. The conditions required to constitute an elector, have for their object the exclusion from political power of those who are considered incapable of exercising this power with intelligence or probity; they are precautions against venality, ignorance, and intrigue.

The number is an important consideration: legislative functions demand qualities and virtues which are not common; there is no chance of finding them except in a large assembly of indi

viduals.

Legislation requires a variety of local knowledge, which can only be obtained in a numerous body of deputies chosen from all parts of the empire. It is proper that all interests should be known and discussed.

Legislation is not susceptible of direct responsibility. A small junta of legislators may have particular interests in making laws opposed to the general interest. It will be easy for the executive power to subject them to its influence. But number is a preservative against this danger. A numerous body of amoveable legislators participate too strongly in the interest of the community to neglect it long. Oppressive laws would press upon themselves. Even the rivalries which are formed in a large assembly become the security of the people.

In conclusion, if the number of the deputies were too small, the extent of the electoral district would render the elections embarrassing; and by reducing the value of a vote almost to nothing, would proportionally diminish the authority of the electors, at the same time that it augmented the relative value of the offices so much, as to expose the elections to the most violent contests and intrigues.

But there are points, with respect to which it may be a question whether they belong to constitutional law, or to tactics: for example, whether all the members should have the same rights, or whether these rights should be divided among them; so that some should have that of proposing others, that of deciding upon a proposition already made; some, that of deliberating without voting-others, that of voting without deliberating; whether their deliberations ought to be public; whether absence ought to be permitted-and in case of absence, whether the rights of an individual ought to be transmissible to another; whether the assembly ought always to remain entire, or whether it ought to be obliged or authorized to subdivide itself.

I shall consider these questions as part of my subject, because it appears to me that their examination is intimately connected with that of the best rules to be followed in deliberation ;-it not being possible to treat well of the latter, without referring to the others.

§ 2. Ends that ought to be kept in view in a code of regulations relative to this head. The tactics of deliberative assemblies, as well as every other branch of the science of government, ought to have reference to the greatest happiness of society: this is the general end. But its particular object is to obviate the inconveniences to which a political assembly is exposed in the exercise of its functions. Each rule of this tactics can therefore have no justifying reason, except in the prevention of an evil. It is therefore with a distinct knowledge of these evils that we should proceed in search of remedies.

These inconveniences may be arranged under the ten following heads:

arrangement for beginning business — if the assembly can only act upon propositions presented to it by the executive power. It may also remain inactive, as was often the case with the ancient States-General of France, because there are preliminaries upon which it is not agreed, questions of etiquette or precedence, disputes concerning priority in the objects to be discussed, &c.

2. Useless decision. This is an evil, not only on account of the loss of time, but also because every useless decision, by augmenting the mass of the laws, renders the whole more obscure, and more difficult to be retained and comprehended.

3. Indecision. Is the measure proposed a bad one? Indecision is not only an evil from the time lost, but it allows a state of dread to subsist in the public mind-the dread lest this measure should at last be adopted.

Is the measure proposed a good one? The evil which it would have caused to cease is prolonged, and the enjoyment of the good it would produce is retarded, so long as the indecision subsists.

4. Delays.. This head may sometimes be confounded with the preceding, but at other times it differs from it: there may be occasion of complaining of indecision when there is no delay; as if, after a single sitting, nothing is done. There may be ground for complaining of delay in cases in which a decision has been formed. In matters of legislation, indecision corresponds to denial of justice, in affairs of justice. Superfluous delays in the deliberations, correspond with useless delays in procedure.

Under the head of delays may be ranked all vague and useless procedures - preliminaries which do not tend to a decision- questions badly propounded, or presented in a bad order-personal quarrels-witty speeches, and amusements suited to the amphitheatre or the playhouse.

5. Surprises or precipitations. Surprises consist in precipitating a decision, either by taking advantage of the absence of many of the members, or by not allowing to the assembly either the time or the means of enlightening itself. The evil of precipitation lies in the danger lest it should be a cover for a surprise, or should give a suspicious character to a decision otherwise salutary.

6. Fluctuation in measures. - This inconvenience might be referred to the head of delays and lost time; but the evil which results is much greater. Fluctuations tend to diminish the confidence in the wisdom of the assembly, and in the duration of the measures it adopts.

7. Quarrels. The time lost in these is the

+ I understand by this, the being in a state of irresolution in relation to questions upon which it is desirable to take one side,