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from the mind of any individual, however ingenious, but to be gradually adapted to the character, usages, and knowledge of the people for whom they are intended.

A second deduction may be made more important to public happiness than the first. Before the French revolution, the general impression was, that the people were made for the benefit of the government not the government for the benefit of the people The inversion of this position has been fruitful practical advantages. Rulers were wont to be occupied solely with themselves, not with the communities they governed. Wars for ambition or pastime— family alliances-an extension of territory-the ostentation and trickery of diplomacy-with the intrigues of senators, ministers, and mistresses, for places, honours, and pensions, formed the staple, but costly and unprofitable, trifling of public authorities, both at London and Paris. This has been all changed. Judicial and fiscal improvements-popular education-the freedom and advancement of commercepopulation, and the proportion it bears to subsistence and employment-national police-the slavery of negroes-the immunities of corporations-church establishments, and their social usefulness, form the subjects of investigation, to which both the executive and legislative powers are compelled to devote themselves.

The most rational and able disquisition of Mr. Burke, is his Thoughts on the Present Discontents; it contains clever writing on men, their motives and machinations, but it is all blank on the im

portant questions I have enumerated. The truth is, they were neither thought of, nor understood, by the public men of the last century. Government was considered a sinecure or appanage of the great, with which the people had no concern-a splendid prize for clever men to aim at, and a toy or plaything of hereditary imbecility. It is so no longer; it must be a productive machine, and that it has been made such, is a triumph we owe to the French revolution.*

* Having frequently, in the course of this chapter, used the terms, "abstract proposition" and "general principle," (see p.' 411) it may be proper to explain, more particularly, what I mean by their misapplication; lest it be inferred, I wish to countenance empiricism in place of science.

A general principle, is only another term for a rule or law, by which moral and physical phenomena are regulated. It is a general principle, that a bullet discharged from a gun, will, by the joint action of gravity, and the force of expulsion, describe a parabolic curve, and if mathematicians know the angle of projection and velocity, they can calculate its time of flight, its range, and the greatest height to which it will rise. This is the general principle, or theory of projectiles. But it applies only to a vacuum or free space, not to the passage of bodies through a resisting medium like the atmosphere. Marshal Gerard would never have reduced the citadel of Antwerp, had his shells only been directed by the general principle, or theory, of gunnery. Again, it is the interest of every one to lead a virtuous life, and refrain from crime. This is the general principle of morals. But we are afraid to trust to its operation in actual life, and, therefore, enact laws to punish offences. The reason is, tha all men are not sufficiently enlightened to appreciate their own interests, and if they were, they have not all sufficient control over their passions, to enable them to follow them. Ignorance and passion thus render the application of the general principle

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CHAP. II.

NATURAL AND CIVIL LIBERTY.

THE natural liberty of man consists in freedom tò do all he wills, and has power to do; civil liberty, in freedom to do all the law has not prohibited. The basis of natural liberty, is the exclusive good of the individual; the basis of civil liberty, is the good of the individual too, but it is an equal good, consistent with the possession of the same good, by every other person.

In exchanging the natural for the social state, man obtains two advantages-a knowledge of his rights, as prescribed by the law, and security for

of morals impossible, and human conduct is necessarily controlled by the artificial institutions of society.

It is the same with other general principles; they may be true in the abstract, but in real life, additional circumstances may interfere, to counteract their operation and cause them to be productive of results different from those anticipated. Just as in the flight of a shell, when opposed by the resistance of the air, it describes a very different curve from a parabola; and the conduct of an individual, while biassed by his passions and ignorance, would, without the restraint of law, and public opinion, be much less virtuous than it is, though it might be contrary to his self-interest to be so.

their enjoyment, as guaranteed by the common in. terest of all who belong to the same community.

Were there no civil rights, all men would equally possess the natural rights to live, to the produce of their labour, and to use, in common, the light, air, and water. These are as much the property of each individual, as his person: but the only security for their exercise, would be, the power to defend them. In the absence of law, there would be no transgression; the strong might overpower the weak, or the artful, with impunity, circumvent the unsuspecting. A state of nature, therefore, is a state of great inequality; as much so as men's abilities and physical power. It follows, that it is civil, not natural liberty, which introduces equity among mankind, by making the law, not force, the shield and arbiter of right.

The natural right of a man, to do as he desires, and can, supposes the same right in every other person: but the exertion of so many independent rights, would often cause them to clash and destroy each other. A law that would restrain all, might be beneficial to all; because each might gain more by the limitation of the freedom of others, than he lost by the curtailment of his own. Natural liberty is the right of every one to go where he lists, without regard to his neighbour; civil liberty compels him to go on the public road, which is most convenient to himself, consistently with the enjoyment of the same convenience by other persons. The establishment of civil liberty, is the enclosure of the waste, by which

each surrenders his right of common, for the quiet possession and culture of a separate allotment.

The transition from the natural to the civil state, subjects man to responsibilities to which he was not before liable. In the former, he indulges his appetites, solely with reference to himself; in the latter, he can only indulge them, with reference to the society of which he is a member: and this he is bound to do, first, by the criminal restraint which the law imposes on actions of importance; and, secondly, by the moral restraint, which public opinion imposes on those of lesser degree.

As the natural was the first state of man, it may be inferred that this state would have continued, had not a persuasion arisen, that social order would be more conducive to happiness. As the public good was the motive, so it must continue the end of civil society; and for this reason: that there is no obligation imposed on mankind, save their advantage, to maintain the social in preference to the individual state of existence. And upon this principle the laws of a free people are founded, namely, that they shall impose no restraints on the acts of individuals, which do not conduce in a greater degree to the general good; by which it is implied, 1. That restraint itself is an evil; 2. That this evil should be overbalanced by some public advantage; 3. That the proof of this advantage lies upon the legislature, or those imposing the restraint; 4. That a law producing no real good is an evil of itself, and a sufficient reason for its repeal, without further proo.

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