On the Principles of Political Philofophy.
LL the different philofophical fyftems
of political justice, all the theories on
the rightful origin of government, are
reducible in the end to three claffes,

correfpondent to the three different points of view, in which the human being itself may be contemplated. The firft denies all truth and diftinct meaning to the words, right and duty; and affirming that the human mind confifts of nothing but manifold modifications of paffive sensation, confiders men as the highest sort of animals indeed, but at the fame time the moft wretched; inafmuch as their defenceless nature forces them into society: while fuch is the multiplicity of wants engendered by the focial state, that the wishes of one are fure to be in contradiction to those of fome other. The affertors of this fyftem confequently afcribe the origin and continuance of government to fear, or the power of the stronger, aided by the force of cuftom. This is the fyftem of Hobbes. Its ftatement is its confutation. It is, indeed, in the literal fense of the word prepofterous: for fear pre-fupposes conqueft, and conqueft a previous union and agreement between the conquerors. A vaft empire may perhaps be governed by fear; at least the fuppofition is not abfolutely inconceivable, under circumftances which prevent the, confcioufness of a common ftrength. A million of men

united by mutual confidence and free intercourse of thoughts form one power, and this is as much a real thing as a steam engine; but a million of infulated individuals is only an abstraction of the mind, and but one told fo many times over without addition, as an idiot would tell the clock at noon-one, one, one. But when, in the first instances, the descendants of one family joined together to attack those of another family, it is impoffible that their chief or leader fhould have appeared to them stronger than all the reft together; they must therefore have chosen him, and this as for particular purposes, fo doubtlefs under particular conditions, expreffed or understood. Such we know to be the cafe with the North American tribes at present; such, we are informed by hiftory, was the case with our own remote ancestors. Therefore, even on the fyftem of those who, in contempt of the oldest and most authentic records, confider the favage as the first and natural state of man, government must have originated in choice and an agreement. The apparent exceptions in Africa and Afia are, if poffible, still more fubverfive of this system: for they will be found to have originated in religious imposture, and the first chiefs to have secured a willing and enthusiastic obedience to themselves as delegates of the Deity.

But the whole theory is baseless. We are told by history, we learn from our experience, we know from our own hearts, that fear, of itself, is utterly incapable of producing any regular, continuous,

and calculable effect, even on an individual; and that the fear, which does act systematically upon the mind, always presupposes a sense of duty, as its cause. The most cowardly of the European nations, the Neapolitans and Sicilians, thofe among whom the fear of death exercises the most tyrannous influence relatively to their own perfons, are the very men who least fear to take away the life of a fellow-citizen by poifon or affaffination; while in Great Britain, a tyrant, who has abused the power, which a vaft property has given him, to oppress a whole neighbourhood, can walk in safety unarmed and unattended, amid a hundred men, each of whom feels his heart burn with rage and indignation at the fight of him. It was this man who broke my father's heart; or, it is through him that my children are clad in rags, and cry for the food which I am no longer able to provide for them. And yet they dare not touch a hair of his head! Whence does this arife? Is it from a cowardice of sensibility that makes the injured man shudder at the thought of shedding blood? Or from a cowardice of selfishness which makes him afraid of hazarding his own life? Neither the one nor the other! The field of Waterloo, as the most recent of a hundred equal proofs, has borne witness that,

bring a Briton frae his hill,

Say, fuch is royal George's will,
An' there's the foe,

He has nae thought but how to kill
Twa at a blow.

Nae cauld, faint-hearted doubtings tease him;
Death comes, wi' fearless eye he fees him;
Wi' bluidy hand, a welcome gies him;
And when he fa's,

His latest draught o' breathin leaves him
In faint huzzas.*

Whence then arifes the difference of feeling in the former cafe? To what does the oppreffor owe his fafety? To the fpirit-quelling thought; the laws of God and of my country have made his life facred! I dare not touch a hair of his head! -'Tis confcience that makes cowards of us all,but oh! it is confcience too which makes heroes of us all.

ESSAY II.

Le plus fort n'eft jamais affez fort pour être toujours le maître, s'il ne transforme fa force en droit et l'obeisance en devoir. ROUSSEAU.

Viribus parantur provincia, jure retinentur. Igitur breve id gaudium, quippe Germani victi magis, quam domiti. FLORUS, iv. 12.*

The ftrongest is never ftrong enough to be always the mafter, unless he transforms his power into right, and obedience into duty.

Provinces are taken by force, but they are kept by right. This exultation therefore was of brief continuance, inafmuch as the Germans had been overcome, but not fubdued.

TRULY great man,† the best and greatest public character that I had ever the opportunity of making myfelf acquainted with, on affuming the command of a man of war, found a mutinous crew, more than one half of them uneducated Irishmen, and of the remainder no fmall portion had become failors by compromise of punishment. What terror could effect by feverity and frequency of acts of difcipline, had been already effected.

* Slightly altered.-Ed.
+ Sir Alexander Ball.-Ed.