either to prevent the labour or to withhold the bread. BURKE. Two Letters to Gentlemen in Bristol, p. 25. EVERY man has naturally a right to every thing which is necessary to his subsistence. To allow to the first occupier of land as much as he can cultivate, and is necessary to his subsistence, is certainly carrying the matter as far as is reasonable: otherwise we know not how to set bounds to this right. The social system, instead of annihilating the natural equality of mankind, substitutes, on the contrary, a moral and legal equality. This equality indeed is, under bad governments, merely apparent and delusive, serving only to keep the poor in misery, and favour the oppression of the rich. In fact, the laws are always useful to persons of fortune, and hurtful to those who are destitute. Whence it follows, that a state of society is advantageous to mankind in general, only when they all possess something, and none of them have any thing too much. ROUSSEAU. Du Contrat Social, liv. i. ch. ix. No father can transmit to his son the right of being useless to his fellow creatures. In a state of society, where every man must be necessarily maintained at the expence of the community, he certainly owes the state so much labour as will pay for his subsistence, and this without exception of rank or persons. Rich or poor, strong or weak, every idle citizen is a knave. The man who earns not his subsistence, but eats the bread of idleness, is no better than a thief; and a pensioner who is paid by the state for doing nothing, differs little from a robber who is supported by the plunder he makes on the highway. In the hive of human society, to preserve order and justice, and to banish vice and corruption, it is necessary that all the individuals be equally employed, and obliged to concur equally in the general good; and that the labour be equally divided among them. If there be any whose riches and birth exempt them from all employment, there will be divisions and unhappiness in the hive. Their idleness is destructive to the general welfare. HELVETIUS. De l'Homme, vol. ii. sect. vi. ch. v. EVERY man is entitled, so far as the general stock will suffice, not only to the means of being, but' of well being. It is unjust, if one man labour to the destruction of his health, that another may abound in luxuries. It is unjust, if one man be deprived of leisure to cultivate his rational powers, while another man contributes not a single effort to add to the common stock. The faculties of one man are like the faculties of another. Justice 2 directs, that each, unless perhaps he be employed 273 more beneficially to the public, should contribute to to the cultivation of the common harvest, of which each consumes a share. This reciprocity is of the ALL men are born free: liberty is a gift which they received from God himself, nor can they alienate the same by consent, though possibly they may forfeit it by crimes. No man has power over his own life, or to dispose of his own religion, and cannot consequently transfer the power of either to any body else, much less can he give away the lives, liberties, religion, of his posterity, who will be born as free as himself, and can never be bound by his wicked and ridiculous bargain. TRENCHARD. Cato's Letters, vol. ii. No. 59. THERE are people who have disputed, whether liberty be a positive or negative idea; whether it does not consist in being governed by laws; without considering what are the laws or who are the makers C4 makers; whether man has any rights by nature; and whether all the property he enjoys, be not the alms of his government, and his life itself their favour and indulgence. Others corrupting rel'gion, as these have perverted philosophy, contend that Christians are redeemed into captivity, and the blood of the Saviour of mankind has been shed to make them the slaves of a few proud and insolent sinners. Civil freedom is not, as many have endeavoured to persuade you, a thing that lies hid in the depth of abstruse science. It is a blessing and a benefit, not an abstract speculation; and all the just reasoning that can be upon it, is of so coarse a texture, as perfectly to suit the ordinary capacities of those who are to enjoy and those who are to defend it. It is not only a private blessing, but the vital spring and energy of the state itself, which has just as much life and vigour as there is liberty in it. BURKE. Letter to Sheriffs of Bristol, p. 56,7,8. ALL government is founded on compromise and barter. We balance inconveniences; we give and take; we remit some rights that we may enjoy others. But in all fair dealings, the thing bought must bear some proportion to the purchase paid. None will barter away the immediate jewel of the soul. IDEM. Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies, p. 85. THE THE ultimate end of all government is the good of the people.Now the greatest good of a people is their liberty. Liberty is to the collective body what health is to every individual body." Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty no happiness can be enjoyed by society. BOLINGBROKE. POLITICIANS are guilty of the same sophistry respecting the love of liberty, as philosophers respecting a state of nature. They judge by what they see, of things very different which they have not seen; imputing to man a natural propensity to servitude, because some slaves within their observation are seen to bear the yoke without impatience. They do not reflect that the case of liberty is the same with that of innocence and virtue: the value is not known except by those who possess them, and a taste for them is lost when they are lost themselves. I know the charms of your country, said Brasidas to a satrape, who was comparing the manner of life at Sparta with that at Persepolis, but it is out of your power to know the pleasures of mine. An unbroken horse erects his mane, paws the ground, and starts back at the sight of the bridle, while a horse that is properly trained suffers patiently the whip and the spur; so savage man bends not his neck to the yoke which civilized man submits to without murmuring, but prefers the most turbulent state of liberty to the most peaceful slavery. |