verbs xii. 13.) shall be carried harmless through the difficulties and trials of life, and shall become a safeguard to himself, and a blessing to others; they will learn, that the just are the peculiar objects of God's watchful providence, and that they shall be finally recompensed in their integrity, for "the lip of truth shall be established for ever; and there shall no evil happen to the just:" (Prov. xii. 19, 21.) they will learn that justice is a defence to the good man, and that it gives him a sacredness of character, which is not only a munition to himself, but descends in blessings upon his family; for "the just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him" (Proverbs xx. 7.) they will learn that a principle of justice is a means of recovery from error, or injudicious conduct, and that however a man's judgment may have been perverted by feeling, however his conduct may have deviated from rectitude, under the influence of surprise, or inconsideration, or emotion, or passion; however he may have formed hasty opinions, and may have been betrayed into indiscreet observations; yet that with the simple desire of doing justly, he possesses the means of returning to the path of sincerity, "for a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again;" (Proverbs xxiv. 16.) and lastly, they will learn that the influence of the just is great, not only over relatives, and friends, and connexions, and neighbours, but upon society at large; not only upon individuals and upon motives, but upon large masses of mankind, and

upon their actions; not only immediate, but remote and contingent; not only present, but abiding, even long after the example has ceased to exist, since the memory of the just is blessed." Proverbs x. 7.

A most important principle of justice is, that it be impartial; that it do not form its judgment from hearing only one side of a question, but that it should ever listen to the version of the several individuals concerned, whose views, however intended to be marked by truth, will commonly take the form of selfish, or prejudiced feeling, and will be insensibly biassed by a thousand emotions which are hostile to the judgment of simple truth. "He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him." Proverbs xviii. 17.

But farther, justice is a social or political virtue, which renders to every man his due, and which in the domestic sphere, or larger circle of government, distributes equally its awards. As a relative virtue, it moderates affectionate feeling, modifies it by that principle which forms its last appeal, and equally distributes rewards to the well intentioned, encouragement to the diffident, strength to the feeble and sincere; as well as punishment to the wicked, restraint to the impetuous, and admonition and guidance to the insincere. As an attribute of the executive government, it regards the equal supply of the wants of all, the uniform care of all interests, the preservation of the several links of which society is

composed, the nice adjustment of complicated claims, the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well, although the latter is scarcely to be met by adequate provisions of the civil magistrate. In all these cases, it is based on the one principle of seeking the common weal : in the former, or relative institution, it is stated of Abraham, that the Lord knew him, "that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment: and in the latter, whatever may be the form of civil government, it should have but one object, the happiness and the virtue of the people, so that it might be always said of the executive, "When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me; because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor; and the cause which I knew not, I searched out. And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth." Job xxix. 11-17. Thus, its simplicity, utility, and necessity, are the principal recommendations of relative and political justice: and its exercise will be required on every day, for

every day will produce some new act of violence and injustice.

There are they, who fancy that justice may be left to individual feeling, or to the opinions of private bodies, or to the decision of larger sections of society, or to the judgment of mankind in general; and who vainly think the parade of executive government altogether unnecessary, since they plead for their virtue, as if it existed already in the bosom of man, as defined by common sense, directed by moral principle, and governed by conscience, not intending by this term reason enlightened by revelation, and sanctioned by religion, but a kind of half judgment of right and wrong, according to some fancied standard of accommodating purity. But the grand source of error in all this reasoning, consists in a forgetfulness of the real state of man, and in assuming the untenable position, that he is perfectly innocent; that even here, happiness is within his own reach; that his bosom is not agitated by conflicting passions; that he has no tendency to evil; that wisdom and piety, sincerity and truth, benevolence and compassion alone actuate him; that he is free from the influence of temptation; that he has clean escaped from the power of ignorance and vice, duplicity and falsehood, envy and selfconceit; and that his heart is governed by motives the most disinterested; thus assuming an imaginary state of perfection for man, and avowing a practical disbelief of the scriptural account of his

really lost and ruined condition: and when once the casuist has lost sight of this, the great compass of his thoughts, he has abandoned the only guide of his ratiocination, and is lost in unsatisfactory conjecture. The simple, but melancholy truth is, that man cannot confide in his fellowman; that he is taught by experience to be suspicious of his motives and conduct; and that the apparatus of justice is interposed as a barrier to his vicious and anti-social conduct, under the influence of selfish passions, exhibited in the form of despotic power on the one hand, where a sufficient quantity can be accumulated in the hands of one, or of a few individuals; or of licentious freedom on the other, where the lawless will of the many is placed in the room of that single unlimited sway, which has been just noticed. The natural tendency of both these forms of power, is towards injustice, towards a sacrifice of the interests of many, and especially of the feeble, for the gratification of the few, and particularly for the aggrandizement of the strong. But justice interposes; and since it is perfectly equal in its decisions, it admits of no claims of pre-eminence of the great over the little: all is equal, and the views and feelings of the highest personage, demand, or at least obtain, no greater attention, than those of the peasant. Memorable instances of the truth of this position, are to be found in our own code of laws, and in the mode of their upright and independent administration.

In spite of the perversion of human opinion,