adminiftration of the government, the members do acquire certain pofitive rights, which they can enjoy only in a civil ftate, and which are therefore to be confidered as the gift and the offspring of fo cial inftitutions. It is in virtue of his being a member of the fociety,. that a man is a proprietor, and has a right to draw on the capital, and not in virtue of any natural right.

Men at their birth are all vefted with equal rights, but are en. dowed with unequal powers. There is a great difference between their intellectual, as well as corporeal faculties, which is the origin of the inequality of mankind. The man who has fuperior strength of body, or powers of mind, mult take a correfpondent rank in fociety. The man who poffeffes uncommon talents for accumulating property, will grow rich, while the oppofite character, with equal advantages will remain poor. Those who are bleft with the powers of cloquence, or talents to render them diftinguifhed in the various branches of literature, will acquire a fame that cannot be reached by men of moderate capacity. Hlence in the nature of man, we find the foundation of that difference of condition, which is every where eftablished. There is a gradation in human powers from the highest to the loweft, which has produced a correfpondent gradati on in the ranks of fociety. But whether men poflèss the greatest, or the fmallest talents, they have equal claims to protection, and fecurity in their exertions, and acquifitions.

It is idle to lay it down as a general proposition that all men are born equal. It is contrary to the truth of the fact, and the defign of the creator. The difference of genius by which they are quali fied for different occupations, is effèntial to the existence, and conformable to the nature of man. But the real misfortune is, that this natural inequality among mankind, has been directed to eftablish an artificial inequality, which has been the fource of serious evils, and complicated inconveniences. The establishment of hereditary honors and privileged orders among the nations of Europe, and the divifion of the Hindoos, into four tribes, or cafts in Afia, by which birth, and not fuperior accomplishments, has placed certain perfons in the higheft ranks in fociety, to the exclufion of thofe who poffefied the requifite talents, may be confidered as a violation of VOL, I.

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natural

natural right. It is in a country where fuch artificial distinctions of rank are established, that people are to complain of inequality, and attempt a reform. But in a country where the laws know no dif tinction of rank, and furnifu equal fecurity to the exertions of the various extent of human powers, we have no occafion to trouble ourfelves with idle fpeculations refpecting equality. We fhall find that the operation of thefe equal laws will be the establishment of a gradation of ranks, and a variety of conditions, effential to the existence of fociety, and productive of the greatest happiness.

An attempt to reduce all men to a ftate of equality would be a violation of the laws of nature, and fuch a project could never be carried into effect. The man who poffeffing feeble powers of mind, But greas ftrength of body, acquires by conftant labour the means of fubfiftence, can find no fault that a man poffeffing great firength of intellect, with feeble powers of body, should acquire by his own exertions immenfe wealth; for fuch is the law of our being, and fuch will be the refult of things, where fociety grants equal fecurity to the exertions of different capacities. But this is counterbalanced by the confideration that human happiness, is not unequal in proportion to the inequality of condition. Let not thofe then who are placed in what is deemed the unfortunate grade of poverty, repine at their fate, or attempt to fubvert the order of things, for in the humblest rank to which men are aligned by providence, this confideration ought to filence every murmur, that human felicity is not proportioned to dignity of rank, or abundance of wealth, but is diftributed with an equal tho fparing hand to every grade, and that there is as much genuine blifs to be found in the lowly cottages of the poor, as in the palaces of princes, or on the thrones of kings.

1

SECTION FOURTH.

OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

To understand the nature of laws, we must know the princi

ples and forms of government. Upon a fubject fo extenfive and

important

important, it is difficult to condenfe our obfervations into proper limits. In an inveftigation fo fublime and pleafing, it is difficult to fet proper bounds to cur enquiries. In an elementary treatise upon jurifprudence, we must reduce our remarks to a narrow compass.

Mankind, when they enter into the focial ftate, and form the original compact, adopt fome form of government.

There are four fimple, uncompounded forms of government, to which all others are reducible. The first is where the fupremne fovereign power is vefted in the people, who collectively affemble for the purposes of legislation and government: this is called a democracy. The fecond is where the fovereignty is lodged in the hands of a council or fenate, confifting of the principal perfons of the state, either in refpect of nobility, capacity, or probity: this is called an aristocracy. The third form is where the whole power is vefted in the hands of one perfon, which is called a monarchy. The fourth is a government by reprefentation, or a reprefentative republic, where the fovereignty is lodged in the hands of certain representatives, elected by the people, and to whom they delegate certain conftitutional powers to promote the public welfare.

Thefe four different forms may be combined and modelled into a thousand different governments.

Perhaps a pure and unmixed democracy has never existed in any age or country. Thofe which have the nearest refemblance to it, will be found to have fome tincture of aristocracy. The Areopagus of Athens, and the Senate cf Rome, were a conftant and powerful check upon the democracy. It may generally be remarked, that the more a government resembles a pure democracy, the more they abound with disorder and confufion. That the people will frequently commit the most aftonishing acts of cruelty and oppreffion, that they have all the relifh for war, and ambition for conqueft, that diftinguifh monarchs, and that the confequence of their violence and contention, is the establishment of a defpotic goverment. These facts are most fully verified by the ftorics of the Grecian and Roman republics.

Many pure ariftocracies have existed, fuch as Venice, the United Netherlands,

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Netherlands, and many of the Swifs Cantons. Where certain wellcalculated checks have been inftituted, the community have fometimes enjoyed a tolerable fhare of political happiness, but in general the happinefs of the many has been facrificed to the happiness of the few.

Monarchies may be abfolute, or limited. Abfolute monarchies, where the will of the prince is the fupreme law, and the lives and eftates of his fubjects are at his difpofal, have exifted in fome of the oriental countries: but the monarchies of Europe are limited by certain forms of proceeding, and certain long established customs, which controul the will of the monarch, and temper the feverity of the government.

Of mixed governments, Sparta and Great-Britain conftitute the moft illuftrious examples. Sparta may be confidered as a compound of monarchy, ariftocracy and democracy. There were two kings, a fenate, and an affembly of the people. In Great-Britain there is a king, who has an hereditary right to the crown ; a house of lords, who are hereditary nobles; but the house of commons being the reprefentatives of the people, cannot be confidered as refembling a de-, mocracy, but a reprefentative republic. This circumftauce conftitutes the fuperior excellence of this government. They have combined the advantages of monarchy and ariftocracy, and for the rafhness and inftability of democracy, they have fubftituted the advantages of a branch of the government by reprefentation.

A representative republic may be constituted in different manners. The fovereign authority may be collected in one center, or a fingle house of reprefentatives, according to the French theories of government, or it may be vefted in a legiñatare confifting of three diftin&t branches, like the conftitution of the United States, and feveral of the state governments. The United States have cxhibited the first fair example of a reprefentative republic, with a legiflature, compofed of three branches. It appears the best in theory of any government, that has been inftituted, but time alone can determine how well it is calculated for energy and duration. The government of the UnitedStates is fingular in this refpect, that there are ftate legiflatures to regulate the interior local concerns of the feveral

feveral flates, while the federal legislature regulates the general concerns of the republic. The blending of thefe different govern ments, for different purposes, feems to be well calculated for an extenfive country, and if the line of demarcation between them, can be so accurately aftertained, as to prevent any clashing of jurifdiction, it will promote the happiness of the people, and ftrengthen the hands of the government.

Nothing can be more erroneous than the opinion that the government of the United States is a democracy. It has not a fingle feature of that form of government. The people have no power but that of clecting the reprefentatives, which they have not in a democracy; they can not do a fingle act in framing the laws or adminiftering the government, any more than they can in the most despotic government on the globe. Some have called it a reprefentative democracy; but this is a contradiction in terms, and as improper as to call it a democratic ariftocracy; for democracy fignifics a government by the people themselves, and a reprefentative government is where the government is not by the people, but by reprefentatives for that purpofe elected by the people, and to whom they have delegated the power of adininiftering the govern ment. Let us only confider our government in this light, and many groundless prejudices will be removed. The people are invefted with the right of electing their rulers, which is no part of government; and the adminiftration of the government is in the hands of reprefentatives of different defcriptions elected by the people. Here are neither democracy, ariftocracy or monarchy. It is a pure original form of government.

An hiftorical view of the progreffive, but gradual improvement of government, from the ealieft to the prefent time, would be a fubject of the nobleft fpeculation-But our plan confines us to the utmost brevity.

The ancients were far behind the moderns in their improvement in the profound fciences of government and policy. They had no idea of fecuring the rights of the different orders in fociety, and moderating the rafhnefs and impetuofity of a democracy, by a

fair