thing to oppose the practice of it, but it is quite a different thing to expose its errors, to reafon on its defects, and to fhew cause why it should be repealed, or why another ought to be fubftituted in its place. I have always held it an opinion (making it also my practice), that it is better to obey a bad law, making ufe at the fame time of every argument to fhew its errors, and procure its repeal, than forcibly to violate it because the precedent of breaking a bad law might and lead to a difcretionary which are good,

weaken the force, violation of those

This cafe is the fame with refpect to principles and forms of government, or to what are called conftitutions, and the parts of which they are com. pofed.

It is for the good of nations, and not for the emolument or aggrandizement of particular individuals, that government ought to be established, and that mankind are at the expence of supporting it. The defects of every government and constitution, both as to principle and form, must, on a parity of reafoning, be as open to difcuffion as the defects of a law, and it is a duty which every man Owes to fociety, to point them out. When those defects, and the means of remedying them, are generally seen by a nation, that nation will reform its government or its conftitution in the one cafe, as the government repealed or reformed the law

in

1

in the other. The operation of government is restricted to the making, and the administering of laws-but it is to a nation that the right of forming or reforming, generating, or regenerating, conftitutions and governments, belong; and, confequently, thofe fubjects-as fubjects of investigation—are, always, before a country, as a matter of right, and cannot, without invading the general rights of that country, be made fubjects for profe cution. Mankind are not now to be told that they shall not think, or that they shall not read; and, publications that go no farther than to inveftigate principles of government, to invite men to reason, and to reflect, and to fhew the errors and excellences of different fyftems, have a right to appear. If they do not excite attention, they are not worth the trouble of a profecution; and if they do, the profecution will amount to nothing, fince it cannot amount to a prohibition of reading, This would be a sentence on the public, instead of the author, and would also be the most effectual method of making or haftening revolutions.

In all cafes that apply, univerfally, to a nation, with refpect to fyftems of government, a jury of twelve men is not competent to decide. Where there are no witneffes to be examined, no facts to be proved, and where the whole matter is before the whole public, and the merits or demerits of it refting on their opinion; and where there is no

1

thing to be known in a court, but what every body knows out of it-every twelve men is equally as good a jury as the other, and would, moft probably, reverse each other's verdict; or, from the -variety of their opinions, not be able to form one. -It is one cafe, whether a nation approve a work, or a plan; but it is quite another cafe, whether it will commit to any fuch jury the power of determining whether that nation have a right to, or shall reform its government, or not. The only effectual jury in such cases would be, a convention of the whole nation, fairly elected; for, in all fuch cafes, the whole nation is the vicinage.

23 As to the prejudices which men have from education, and habit, in favour of any particular form or fyftem of government, thofe prejudices have yet to ftand the test of reason and reflection. In fact fuch prejudices are nothing. No man is prejudiced in favour of any thing, knowing it to be wrong. He is attached to it on the belief of its being right; and, when he fees it is not fo, the prejudice will be gone. We have but a defective

idea of what prejudice is.

It might be faid, that

until men think for themselves, the whole is prejudice, and not opinion; for that only is opinion which is the refult of reafon and reflection.

Mankind have not been fairly and candidly dealt by. They have been impofed upon by parties, and by men affuming the character of lead

ers.

ers. It it time that they fhould rife fuperior to thofe trifles. It is time to difmifs that inattention which has fo long been the encouraging cause of ftretching taxes to excefs. It is time to difmifs all thofe fongs and toafts which are calculated to enflave, and operate to fuffocate reflection. On all fuch subjects men have but to think, and they will neither act wrong, nor be mifled. To fay that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to fay, that they had rather be loaded with taxes than not. If fuch a cafe could be proved, it would equally prove that those who govern are not fit to govern, for they are a part of the fame national mass.

But admitting governments to be changed all over Europe, it certainly may be done without convulfion or revenge. It is not worth making. changes or revolutions, unless it be for fome great national benefit; and, when this fhall appear to a nation, the danger will be to thofe who oppose.

CHAP. V.

OF SOCIETY AND CIVILIZATION.

GREAT

part of that order which reigns among mankind, is not the effect of government. It has its origin in the principles of fociety, and the na

tural

tural conftitution of man.

It exifted prior to go

vernment, and would exift if the formality of government was abolished. The mutual dependance and reciprocal intereft which man has upon man, and all the parts of a civilized community upon each other, create that great chain of connection which holds it together. The landholder, the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradefman, and every other occupation, profpers by the aid which each receives from the other, and from the whole. Common intereft regulates their concerns, and forms their law; and the law which common usage ordains, have a greater influencé than the laws of government. In fine, fociety performs for itself almost every thing which is afcribed to government.

To understand the nature and quantity of go. vernment proper for man, it is neceffary to attend to his character. As nature created him for focial, life, fhe fitted him for the station fhe intended. In all cafes fhe made his natural wants, greater than his individual powers. No man is capable, without the aid of fociety, of fupplying his own wants; and those wants, acting upon every individual, im. pel the whole of them into fociety, as naturally as gravitation acts to a centre.

But fhe has gone further. She has not only forced man into fociety, by a diverfity of wants, which the reciprocal aid of each other can fupply,

but