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certainty, that they were indifferent to the greatest part of those who concurred in them.-From the fuccefs or the facility, with which they who dealt out the patronage of the crown carried measures like thefe, we ought not to conclude, that a fimilar application of honours and emoluments would procure the confent of parliament to councils evidently detrimental to the common welfare.

Is there not, on the contrary, more reafon to fear, that the prerogative, if deprived of influence, would not be long able to fupport itself?-For when we reflect upon the power of the house of commons to extort a compliance with its refolutions from the other parts of the legislature; or to put to death the conftitution by a refufal of the annual grants of money, to the fupport of the neceffary functions of government-when we reflect alfo, what motives there are, which in the viciffitudes of political interefts and paffions, may one day arm and point this power against the executive magiftrate-when we attend to these confiderations, we fhall be led perhaps to acknowledge, that there is not more of paradox than of truth, in that important but "that an independent much decried apophthegm," that an parliament is incompatible with the exifience of the monarchy."

SECT.

SECT. XVIII.

THE DECLARATION OF OUR RIGHTS.

LIBERTY denotes a state of freedom, in contradiftinction to flavery or reftraint; and may be confidered as either natural or civil.

The abfolute rights of man, confidered as a free agent, endowed with discernment to know good from evil, and with power of choofing those measures which appear to him to be most desirable, are usually fummed up in one general appellation, and denominated the natural liberty of mankind.—This natural liberty confifts properly in a power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or controul, unless by the law of nature; being a right inherent in us by birth, and one of the gifts of God to man at his creation, when he endued him with the faculty of free-will.-But every man, when he enters into fociety, gives up a part of his natural liberty, as the price of fo valuable a purchase; and, in confideration of receiving the advantages of mutual commerce, obS liges

liges himself to conform to thofe laws which the community has thought proper to eftablifh. And this fpecies of legal obedience and conformity is infinitely more defirable than that wild and favage liberty which is facrificed to obtain it.-For no man, that confiders a moment, would wish to retain the abfolute and uncontrouled power of doing whatever he pleases; the confequence of which is that every other man would also have the fame power; and then there would be no fecurity to individuals in any of the enjoyments of life ".

Political,

a The poets in defcribing the state of nature have painted the golden age or the reign of SATURN. The feafons, in that first period were fo temperate, if we credit thefe agrecable fictions, that there was no neceffity for men to provide themfelves with cloaths and houfes, as a fecurity against the violence of heat and cold: the rivers flowed with wine and milk: the oaks yielded honey; and nature spontaneously produced her greatest delicacies. Nor were these the chief advantages of that happy age. Tempefts were not alone removed from nature; but thofe more furious tempefts were unknown to human breafts, which now caufe fuch uproar, and engender fuch confufion. Avarice, ambition, cruelty, selfishness, were never heard of: cordial affection, compaffion, fympathy, were the only movements with which the mind was yet acquainted. Even the punctilious diftinction of mine and thine was ba nished from among that happy race of mortals, and carried with it the very notion of property and obligation, justice and injustice.

It seems evident, that, in fuch a happy ftate, every other focial virtue would flourish, and receive tenfold increase; but the cautious, jealous virtue of justice would never once have been dreamed of. For what purpose make a partition of goods, where every one has already more than enough? Why give rife to property, where there cannot foffibly be any injury? Why call this ob

ject

Political, therefore, or civil, liberty, which is that of a member of society, is no other than natural liberty, fo far reftrained by human laws (and no farther) as is neceffary and expedient for the general advantage of the public.

Hence we may collect, that the law, which restrains a man from doing mischief to his fellow citizens, though it diminishes the natural, increafes the civil liberty of mankind: but every wanton and causeless restraint of the will of the fubject, whether practised by a monarch, a nobility, or a popular affembly, is a degree of tyranny. -Nay, that even laws themselves, whether made with or without our consent, if they regulate and constrain our conduct in matters of mere indifference, without any good end in view, are laws deftructive of liberty: whereas, if any public advantage can arife from obferving fuch precepts, the controul of our private inclinations, in one or two particular points, will conduce to preserve our general freedom in others of more importance, by supporting that state of society which alone can fecure our independence. Thus the ftatute of

jeĉ mine, when, upon the feizing of it by another, I need but Aretch out my hand to poffefs myself of what is equally valuable? Juftice, in that cafe, being totally USELESS, would be an idle ceremonial, and could never poffibly have place.

S 2

king

king EDWARD IV. which forbad the fine gentlemen of those times (under the degree of a lord) to wear pikes upon their fhoes or boots of more than two inches in length, was a law that favoured of oppreffion; because, however ridiculous the fashion then in ufe might appear, the restraining it by pecuniary penalties could serve no purpose of common utility.-But the ftatute of king CHARLES II. which prefcribes a thing seemingly as indifferent, viz. a dress for the dead, who were all ordered to be buried in woollen, is a law confiftent with public liberty; for it encourages the staple trade, on which in great measure depends the universal good of the nation.

So that laws, when prudently framed, are by no means fubverfive, but rather introductive, of liberty; for (as Mr. LOCKE has well obferved) where there is no law there is no freedom.-But then, on the other hand, that conftitution or frame of government, that system of laws, is alone calculated to maintain civil liberty, which leaves the fubject entire master of his own conduct, except in thofe points, wherein the public good requires fome direction or restraint.

THE IDEA AND PRACTICE OF THIS POLITICAL OR CIVIL LIBERTY FLOURISH IN THEIR HIGHEST VI

GOUR

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