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CHAP. VI.

LAWFUL CONSTITUTIONS.

1. We have seen that the labour of men operating on the land is the whole source of human wealth. The laws of nations determine in what state all men are to be, in reference to the land, (v. 10). It therefore depends upon the laws in what way they shall associate. In such laws are consequently involved, in a less or greater degree, the following all-important points,THE NUMBERS OF MANKIND THAT ARE TO ARISE IN THE WORLD,

AND

THE TEMPORAL AND ETERNAL HAPPINESS OF THOSE WHO DO.

2. We may direct the reader's attention to Russia and North America, for the effect of laws on the power and well-being of nations. But though the state of America is greatly before that of Russia, yet the situation of the former is very different to what it would be, if its laws were in accordance with the will of Heaven.

3. It is obviously incumbent on the Most High to make suitable provision for the support and happiness of the beings he calls into existence.

4. The mode by which he does provide for the well-being of men, we have seen, is so to constitute them that they can live only in association.

5. To different individuals he has assigned different qualities, and the right combination of the qualities of many conduces to the happiness of each. It is the will of God, therefore, that of all the members of an association each should do all that lies in him to bring every member to the highest separate state of excellence, and the whole association to the highest combined state of excellence, (i. 19). In the exact ratio in which these objects are attained, the happiness of all the associates must necessarily augment.

6. If, then, we suppose an association, all the members of which are actuated by these principles; a government would be necessary to control and direct the various powers of the members, in order that the great ends mentioned might be educed. These, then, may be considered the only functions of government strictly in accordance with the will of Heaven.

7. But as men will not live according to the divine will, the plenty which such a state of society would generate, might lead

to licentiousness; it is therefore impracticable to invest a government with such functions.

8. And men not only will not live according to the divine will, so as to make their various powers educe to each other all the good they are capable; but they depart still farther from this holy will, in invading, as regards each other, the means of support and happiness which Heaven has assigned to them. Hence, the necessity of a government over every human association, to prevent these invasions. In other words, the sole office of government is to secure to all the members of a nation the full enjoyment of the means which Heaven awards to them, free from all injury either from their countrymen or from foreigners.

9. Man, says a modern writer, in a state of nature, alone and abandoned to himself, could do nothing for his preservation. It was necessary, therefore, that he should unite himself and associate with his like, in order to bring together their strength and intelligence in common stock. What a man alone would not have been able to effect, men have executed in concert; and altogether they preserve their work. Such is the origin, such the advantage and the end of all society. Government owes its birth to the necessity of preventing and repulsing the injuries which the associated individuals had to fear from one another. It is the sentinel who watches, in order that the common labours be not disturbed. Thus, society originates in the wants of men-government, in their vices. Society tends always to good; government ought always to tend to the repressing of evil. Society is the first; it is in its origin independent and free ;-government was instituted for it, and it is but its instrument: it is for one to command,-for the other to obey. Society created the public power; government, which received it from society, ought to consecrate it entirely to its use. In short, society is essentially good,-government, as is well known, may be, and is but too often, evil.-(Raynal.)

10. This, says Blackstone, is what we mean by the original contract of society, which, though perhaps in no instance it has ever been formally expressed at the first institution of a state, yet, in nature and reason, must be always understood and implied in the very act of associating together,-namely, that the whole should protect all its parts, and that every part should pay obedience to the will of the whole; or, in other words, that the community should guard the rights of each individual member; and that, in return for this protection, each individual should submit to the laws of the community. The principal aim of society is to protect individuals in the enjoyment of those absolute rights, which were vested in them by the immutable laws of nature; but which could not be preserved in peace, without that mutual assistance and intercourse which is

gained by the institution of friendly and social communities. Hence it follows, that the primary end of human laws is to maintain and regulate these absolute rights.-(Com. on the Laws of England.)

11. The origin and objects of political society, require says another writer, the delegation of certain powers and authorities to those who are to administer the government. The ends required, are the preservation of the general rights and the general welfare of the community; and the means to accomplish these ends must be given by the express or implied assent of the governed. In respect to its own internal concerns, every nation possesses general and supreme authority: how that authority shall be exercised, and by whom, depends upon the particular constitution of each state, and is subject to the modification and control of the national will, expressed in such manner as the people prescribe.-(Ency. Amer. Natural Law; and Nations, Law of.)

12. Laws politic, says Hooker, ordained for external order and regiment amongst men, are never framed as they should be, unless, presuming the will of man to be inwardly obstinate, rebellious, and averse from all obedience unto the sacred law of his nature; in a word, unless presuming man to be, in regard of his depraved mind, little better than a wild beast: they do accordingly provide, notwithstanding, so to frame his outward actions, that they be no hindrance unto the common good, for which societies are instituted: unless they do this, they are not perfect.-(Eccl. Pol.) Were it not, says Mr. Prinsep, for the imperfections of human nature, the propensity of mankind to vice, society might exist without government, for no man would injure another. It is to protect one against the vices of another, that the forms and institutions of society are established or supported; thus arming individual right with the aggregate of social strength. (Notes to Say's Pol. Econ.) Society, says Paine, is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively, by uniting our affections; the latter negatively, by restraining our vices. Society, in every state, is a blessing; but government, even its best state, is but a necessary evil.(Common Sense.) Man did not enter into society to become worse than he was before, nor to have fewer rights than he had before; but to have those rights better secured. His natural rights are the foundation of all his civil rights.-The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of the people.-(Rights of Man.)

13. But what, it may be asked, are the means that Heaven awards to men for their support and happiness? These are obviously, as to each,—

THE UNRESTRICTED USE OF HIS FACULTIES;
AN EQUAL PROPERTY IN THE LAND WITH ALL HIS FELLOWS; AND,
AN EQUAL SHARE OF THE Political right, also, with ALL HIS

FELLOWS.

Between men and their Creator, nothing as matter of right can arise. Among themselves, they are all equal. What imaginable inequality can exist between those who are all equally inefficient when separated, and capable of being equally, or nearly equally, valuable to each other when united; and who are thus directed, — Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;' or thus,—' All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them'? The means Heaven assigns to men, are in reference to each other, usually called rights.

14. So long only as men's rights are preserved to them inviolate, have they the necessary means of suitably supporting themselves. To deprive men of property in the land, reduces them to slavery;-to deprive them of their liberty, to a slavery yet more abject;-to deprive them of their share of the political right, is to take from them the only means of preventing the abstraction of their other rights. The equal share of the political right, enjoyed by a man in common with all the rest of his countrymen, therefore, cannot be said to be a right in contradistinction to other rights;-it is the great right which comprehends all others.

15. To possess and apply the rights which Heaven assigns to men for the common benefit, is the obligation it lays them under; their rights flowing to them as a necessary consequence of the obligation:without the rights, they cannot perform the obligation.

16. For Heaven to have allowed some to abstract the rights of others, would only have enabled the former, for all the benefits they receive from association, to educe ill not only to the particular members from whom the rights were abstracted, but in a less or greater degree to the whole association; without any benefit accruing to those who were allowed to abstract from their neighbours.-The prosperity of all association being ever proportional to all the associates having the greatest plentitude of rights, and employing such rights for the well-being of the association; whence alone all good to any and all must ever flow.-i. 14 to 21.) The damage of any part is a detriment to the whole, says Bishop Cumberland ;-unless it be inflicted as a punishment for some crime committed against the public welfare. Hence, all invasion of another's property is prohibited,-for all damage done to the mind, body, goods, or good name of any person, is a loss to the public.-(Laws of Nature.) (v. 174.)

17. Thus, as to the right of all men of every country, and of every age, to the land; not only those who engross it are

curses to their fellows,-but those from whom it is abstracted are also necessarily curses to one another; seeing that, from the competition that must exist between them for employment, they cannot but lower the value of each other's labour; whereby they are prevented from loving God and each other aright,and hence, from both the loss of good and infliction of evil, their existence is made a curse to them. And this must ever unavoidably continue whilst men are deprived of the land. (5—126.)

18. It is obvious, that men's obtaining possession of their rights and properly exercising them, would entirely alter the state of society of every nation in the world. And not less obvious, that if any one nation associated conformably to the divine will, it could not fail in a less or greater degree to influence other nations and future generations, and in time the whole human race: thus, not only unspeakably augmenting the happiness of the living, but causing a far greater number to arise in the world, than does in an unlawful state of things. When the Divine Being created Adam, he thus commanded him:-Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth.' And after the flood, God thus also commanded Noah and his sons :'Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.' It is, therefore, the divine will, that the whole earth should be covered with a righteous population; making their temporal the prelude to their eternal happiness. The influence of a nation whose constitution and code were in accordance with the divine law, would unquestionably be great:-so great, probably, that if other nations would not follow its example, Divine Providence might so order things, that such nations should waste away gradually or rapidly, to make room for the extension of that in which the will of heaven was obeyed, so that it might at length overspread the whole earth. But should this supposition be without foundation, yet with reference to the politics of a single nation, nothing can be more obvious from what has been advanced, than that every thing that is holy is therein comprised. (3-35, 36.)

19. Men foolish and wicked as they are, almost universally concur in condemning, in the severest terms, the conduct of those who are regardless of the well-being of their own offspring. No impiety, then, can be more gross, than to imagine the Most High does not make the fullest provisions for the wants of all his children. But to whatever extent the three great rights of men are taken from any individual, in the same proportion, the means of supplying his wants are curtailed. This is true of all so acted on in any country or age. (1-22.)

20. One immortal spirit must be more important in the sight of God than the land of the whole earth, seeing that this exists for the sole purpose of being subservient to the happiness of living beings. And, had it been necessary for their happiness, the Most High could have called into existence a whole globe

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