Turkish coffee shops promote the British democratic revolution

In the 17th century, the theory of divine monarchy in the Middle Ages first began to collapse in England. after the Glorious Revolution, the foundation of government has shifted from acting king of God on earth to the hands of people who are connected to each other by the "social contract".

After this great historical turning point, it can be said that the creed of modern democratic society, "public opinion is providence", has been formed. The voice of the people through the parliament becomes the law, which is the embodiment of public opinion (public opinion). Therefore, from the perspective of law and political system, the law is the embodiment of public opinion, or as Rousseau said, the law is the embodiment of public will. However, on the other hand, from a social point of view, public opinion must be a synthesis and sublimation of all kinds of opinions and public opinions (opinions) in society. It can be said that public opinion embodies the overall ideological trend of an era.

□ Dai Pengfei (Ph. D. candidate, Kaiyuan Law School, Shanghai Jiaotong University, translator of "the Power of Public opinion")

The struggle between public opinion control and anti-control

British public opinion ushered in an unprecedented opportunity for development during the two revolutions in the 17th century. Prior to this, the development of public opinion and thought was strictly restrained by the church, especially the Church of England. In the 1740s, with the temporary collapse of the monarchy and the outbreak of civil war, the control of speech by the government and the church appeared in vain, and a large number of pamphlets appeared in England to defend the political propositions of the king and parliament respectively. At the same time, the public's thirst for information on these public events led to the emergence of the earliest news newspaper, newsbook. Unlike previous similar books, news books focus on domestic political events, while previous similar books are only allowed to publish anecdotes from abroad. At the same time of the fierce struggle between Parliament and the king, a war of news and public opinion is also under way. The irascible revolutionary atmosphere made various forms of printed matter emerge like a flood, and politicians and thinkers issued suggestions and policies one after another to outline their own reform plans. And each proposal and proposal has attracted countless satirical poems and critical articles. The role of news and public opinion in this struggle determines that from then on, public opinion is no longer just an official propaganda tool of the government. The interests and rights of the people have become the focus of debate among all parties in public opinion.

Since then, during the Cromwell Republic and after the restoration of the royal family, the Republic, the royal family and parliament tried to control the development of news and public opinion, but failed. In 1695, Parliament vetoed the Publishing Act, and publication censorship has never been restored in Britain ever since. This can be said to be the starting point of freedom of speech. Since then, the government's control over the publication of public opinion can only be carried out through stamp duty. The pioneer of stamp duty in Britain was Robert Harley, a minister under Queen Anne. Through stamp duty, on the one hand, we can expand government revenue, at the same time, the implementation of stamp duty has greatly increased the price of newspapers, so that few people pay attention to newspapers. The most successful person who uses stamp duty to control public opinion is Pete Jr. During the French Revolution, William Pitt succeeded in curbing the spread of revolutionary ideas in England by raising stamp duty. However, before that, stamp duty also promoted the independence of the American colonies.

Thus it can be seen that the development and prosperity of British publishing public opinion are closely related to the gradual awakening of civil rights consciousness. It is precisely because more people are interested in their own rights and more concerned about major political events that public opinion develops from the grassroots. The things that news and public opinion are concerned about are related to the vital interests of everyone in the country, and it is no longer just a plaything for a small number of leisure classes like ancient academia. At the same time, in Britain, the development of public opinion is linked to another thing. This is Coffee and Cafe.

A cafe that breeds public opinion.

Coffee was first used by Turks as a drink. Coffee and cafes quickly became popular in Britain in the middle and late 17th century. Instead of getting drunk, coffee can make people more sober and more focused on the topics and things they are talking about. As a result, this drink from the East is popular, especially among Republicans. In the cafe, there are all kinds of people, aristocratic gentlemen, craftsmen, landlords, etc. in the cafe, aristocratic gentlemen, craftsmen, landlords are mixed with each other, and all kinds of hierarchies such as identity, wealth, power and so on are eliminated. The cafe is a place with a mixture of egalitarianism and Republican spirit.

It is under the gestation of this spirit of equality and republic that people's desire for news and public opinion has been encouraged and magnified. People spread, communicate and debate all kinds of news and opinions in cafes. The cafe became the center of news and public opinion at that time. In order to suppress the freedom of thought and speech, the king often restricted the operation of cafes or revoked their licenses. And to protect cafes is to protect freedom of speech. In the 17th century, cafes became the main place for ordinary people to talk about public affairs. "through such discussions and debates, a new concept has emerged, that is, unofficial views on government affairs, and ordinary people are interested in evaluating how they are managed." This is the origin of the modern concept of "public opinion". As a result, the historian Macaulay also gave the cafe a special status in the History of England, calling it an "important political institution" and "the main channel for the expression of public opinion in London". Coffee, a new thing from the East, helped the development of British public opinion and led to the spread of democratic and Republican ideas in Britain.

In Britain, if the law is the product of parliamentary legislation and the embodiment of public opinion, then the British cafe in the 17th and 18th centuries was undoubtedly a miniature parliament, and all kinds of opinions and opinions of the people were doubted and debated in the cafe beforehand. it was only then that members were placed in Parliament for formal and serious debate. Parliament is to some extent a national cafe where people talk about business as well as politics. The cafe, as an opposition parliament, connects public opinion with public opinion and law. Parliament (and the law) no longer has the same sacred origins as the former kings, and like the cafes of that time, it is only a place for the expression and gathering of people's opinions.

Dai Xue's thoughts on Public opinion

Dai Xue's masterpiece Law and Public opinion in Britain in the 19th Century reflects the close relationship between the changes of English law and British public opinion in the 18th and 19th centuries. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, Dai Xue's classic "the essence of the English Constitution" was translated and published by Mr. Lei Binnan into Chinese.

The book Law and Public opinion in England in the 19th Century is a collection of twelve lectures by the author. The first three lectures generally discuss the relationship between English law and public opinion. Lectures 4 to 9 respectively discuss the influence of the three dominant trends of public opinion on British legislation from 1800 to 1900, namely, old Tory, Bentham individualism and collectivism. The last three lectures of the book respectively discuss the influence of the countercurrent and tributaries of public opinion on legislation, the influence of judges' legislation on British legislation, and the relationship between legislative public opinion and general public opinion. It is worth noting that socialism, historicism and nationalism rise above the ashes of Bentham liberalism.

Dai Xue's thought was deeply influenced by Edmund Burke's idea of free empire. In the constitutional crisis caused by the resistance of the British American colonies against the British Parliament, Burke believed that it was the parliamentary sovereignty of the British Empire that maintained the empire, but the parliamentary power was not omnipotent. The exercise of parliamentary sovereignty must comply with the public opinion of the governed. "Public opinion is the carrier and organ of the unlimited authority of legislation. If there is no public opinion, the so-called "unlimited authority of legislation" is just a piece of paper, which makes people feel comfortable and can never govern the people. The real purpose of legislative power is to comply with, not force, public opinion: to guide public opinion, to give it a cloak of law, and to give it unique permission. " It is the spirit of freedom contained in the British Parliament that helped the British to gain the empire, and the maintenance of the empire must rely on the spirit of free constitutionalism. As Burke said, Britain "the spirit of constitutionalism embraces this vast crowd, and then permeates, feeds, unifies, inspires and invigorates every part of the empire, even its smallest members."

The English Law and Public opinion in the 19th Century brought by Dai Xue is not only an important way to understand the close relationship between English law and public opinion in the 19th century. at the same time, it also provides an excellent model for readers to peep into the hidden tension between constitutional freedom and imperial rule.