CHAPTER III. ILLUSTRATION OF THE THEORY OF EQUALITY AND REPRESENTATIVE RIGHTS. Semper officio fungitur, utilitati hominum et societati consulens." CICERO. ADEQUATE protection of Life and Property, blended with rational diffusion of social prosperity, being primary objects of consideration, under the institution of civil government in every free state,-in the great work of political reformation, the remote consequences should ever be weighed with due caution, considering, that the minds of men, which are liable to become influenced thereby, both in habit and operation, are not passive but active materials in their varied composition, as existing in society, necessarily constituted of different orders and degrees, each possessing inequality of intelligence, faculty of discrimination, and worldly possessions; and consequent inequality of judgment, interests, and opinion. In our views of agreement, convenience, and utility, for all public purposes, connected with the promotion of the happiness and increase of the general comforts of our fellow-men in the popular state; or the removal of those abuses in established legislation, which trench on their private interests, and are productive either of real or imaginary wrongs,—both tending alike to the dissolution of that moral repose and general confidence which form the basis of social unity and F - national security, in every well-regulated state, we should act purely under the influence of just premises. Hence the attempt to carry objects, however popular, or however plausible in theory, per fas et nefas, must evidently be tinctured with the spirit of direct injustice towards one portion or other of the community, and must ultimately end in the injury of that body constituting the entire people. Thus, the purely rational uses and ends for which we were created, and furnished with understanding, and a presumed knowledge of the distinction between right and wrong, negative not only the propriety but the admissibility of such a course of proceeding, under every correct system of ethics! Human nature can alone be equitably or successfully governed by the control of sound maxims, and temperately adjusted to the multifarious wants and conditions of the species. In discussing the very object and process of popular or state reforms, it is imperatively necessary to pursue the object with temper and moderation; for in such matters, of all others, a trifling spark, injudiciously ignited, might produce a flame, of that dangerous extent, which neither the voice of reason nor the powers of eloquence could restrain within the bounds of social safety. Hence the utter impossibility of accommodating the various discordant viewsthe awakened desires of distinct masses of society,— assimilate them in harmonious compact, if their separate feelings and interests are suffered to predominate on every occasion when popular grievance, party feeling, and local prejudices, or the restless spirit of political adventurers, may rouse them into action! -so as to It is not for the petty selfish views of individuals, but rather, the enlarged and comprehensive interests of mankind, or an entire nation, with its aggregate importance in the stake, that we are bound to legislate, if we would legislate with honour, or govern with satisfactory advantage; for purification of state abuses, and destructive schemes of innovation, to serve the mere purposes of vanity and interested ambition, are widely different things. The statesman who does not properly calculate on the conflicting influences of popular opinion, or the momentum of those various combinations, which have grown up under the protection of free institutions, and the opportunities of acquiring information on all subjects connected with civil polity, runs the imminent hazard of creating, in his fiery zeal, a whole series of disastrous convulsions to the state for which he proposes to legislate, and should remember the Italian proverb, "Chi tutto abbracia nulla strigne." It is not his office, in the strict sense of political justice, to create, but rather to improve legislation, and that without any sudden or violent processes, preserving as much as possible of the known and tried forms, to which he may be able to return, should the designed alterations or supposed improvements fail in their safety or efficiency. It has been asserted that Voltaire-one of the most dangerous of all the various classes of liberal writers-predicted, that it would not be true philosophy, but hypocritical sophistry, le philosophisme, that would entail state miseries on France, "Non la philosophie, mais le philosophisme, causera de maux publiques à la France!" As this has been so amply verified within the last fifty years, we have good reason for denouncing that tortuous sophistry which has latterly obtained in this country, and is called into requisition at the present period, against our best institutions, under the guise of every ingenious artifice, to mislead the popular mind on questions affecting its repose and the national weal. Little is it considered by the unreflecting multitude, that extensive state revolutions, which first assail the wealthy and the powerful, eventually overwhelm all property, and the securities of private life, and not unfrequently the lives of those who planned them! The same fraternizing, equalizing, and disorganizing spirit, which razed France to her entire social foundation as a kingdom, and from which, after nearly half a century of miseries and bloodshed, she has barely recovered, is openly fostered and encouraged by some of our unthinking nobles, who appear neither to value nor honour their coronets, forgetting the judicious advice of the great Lord Lyttleton, who says, " In James the Second's time a revolution became necessary, and that necessity produced one, founded in moral obligation." But that necessity exists not at present, although it may be rendered inevitable, if the theories of political enthusiasts are suffered to progress, uncontroled by moral reasoning, and that grounded on the example of past events. According to the authority of De Bourrienne, all the political miseries which befel unhappy France, in her subsequent degradation, were attributed by Napoleon Bonaparte to Monsieur Necker, whose opinions afterwards prevailed amongst her peers, until at length they compromised their own independence and their country's honour. Necker he denounced, as “the moral assassin of his country's liberties." It would be well for some of our “thick and thin reformers" to ponder on his words! Every revolution commenced under the auspices of similar principles, similar notions of equality, and of popular rights, must end as that of France, in 1789, ended; and that is, by surrendering the whole power of the state into the hands of a few, who would riot for a time on the spoils of their country, whilst the middling and poorer orders of the people, the avowed objects of consideration under the change, left without the protection of Law, and despoiled of their trade and securities, might console themselves with the conjoint blessings of hungry bellies and universal suffrage, or shout "liberty" to please their rulers ! It is only by assimilating civil government, in a moral point of view, to the laws which control the slowly progressing economy of nature in her nobler works,—one reasoning principle in sound philosophy governing both,-that the nearest and safest approach can be made to perfection; for it cannot possibly be accomplished à priori. It was asserted by La Harpe, that the excessive freedom of our institutions had vitiated our taste for the polite sciences or letters, and morals; but, in opposition to this view, we may assert, for an historical fact, that the rational cultivation of our liberties gave us a preeminence in the display of mental power, the relics of which have principally tended to preserve us hitherto from national degeneracy, under the baneful influence of licentious publications and principles in every form. The eminence of our intellectual distinction, may be traced to the standard authorities in true logic, religion, and morals, which, during the last two centuries, have from time to time adorned the literary annals of our country, and counterpoised the evil influences of levelling infidelity, fostered amongst the less reflecting portions of the English people. 66 "That all men," says a learned writer, are equal by nature, is a fiction, innocent enough in itself, so long as it is not made the lever for subverting a Constitution, that has actually grown up and flourished under inequality." And if it could possibly be maintained, that all men have equal rights de facto, they should, in such case, be considered as possessing full claim to that privilege de jure. But, the futility with which such doctrine is deeply impregnated, as opposed to every rule of established or safe polity, is easily rendered apparent to men of impartial and discreet judgment. All history goes to prove, that under every form of government which has existed, and which remains extant, that pure philosophy, as connected with the general direction of human affairs or state policy, repose from domestic strife, and security from foreign |