SECTION IV.

*

We have already, I think fully satisfied ourselves by the authorities to which we have referred, that they establish the two propositions stated in the first section, and that, from the constitution of man's nature, the great end, object, and duty of civil government, and for which men have fled from the dangerous liberty of, what has been called, the state of nature, to the bonds of civil society, is to protect the weak against the strong, those who possess property against the assaults of the spoiler, and life and liberty to all against unlawful violence; and to do this by the strong hand of an executory power, directing and executing the just sentence of efficient law, and a just and impartial judicature. We have, therefore, made no trifling advance towards the discovery of that fundamental principle of which we have been in quest. In fact, it now remains for us only to ascertain by whom, or from what particular portion of the general mass of society, the evils, against which civil government is to protect society, * Page 31.

are most likely to arise; by what class is it reasonable to believe that violation of property, and danger to public peace, or to life and liberty of individuals, may be inflicted with the greatest possible mischief to the society in general; for, against that class certainly, it must be the guiding principle of the governing power to direct its precautionary as well as its executory measures-and this not only for the sake of individuals who may become the objects of violence—but to preserve in safety the existence of the government itself.

Can it be long a question with us who those are that compose this dangerous class? To what denomination or description of society do they belong? Is not Property most likely to be invaded, when it may be done with impunity, by those whom poverty tempts ?—who, destitute of property, are equally destitute of means to acquire it by talents, knowledge, or industry? What is the crime to which poverty tempts and points? Spoliation, plunder. Who are they that fill our jails, for those offences against private property?—The poor-the lowest order of society, tempted by famine or stimulated by vice, and unrestrained by any other feeling than the fear of punishment, and even that usually disregarded or defied. If Personal Safety from insult, violence, and ruffian force is to be the object of solicitude, by whom is it most likely to be assailed ? Is it not by the bold and reckless, who, safe in his

poverty against pecuniary punishment, and regardless of any other than that which may be inflicted on his person, feels comparatively safe in offering violence even to the life of others, that he may live himself; or, to gratify, by outrage and insult, a spirit of insolence against those who stand above him in the social scale, though not in his own estimation; is it not, to use the passage before quoted from HobbesHe in whom " inest voluntas lædendi, superiorem se aliis æstimans, et qui sibi soli vult omnia licere, et præ cæteris honorem sibi arrogat (quod ingenii ferocis est) cui igitur voluntas lædendi est ab inani gloria et falsa sui æstimatione?"" Is it not, in a word, from those who, if we were in that imaginary state of nature of which the jurists speak, would laugh at the rules prescribed by the law of that state which there is no power to enforce ?-those who, being restrained by the law of society, while it subsists, must naturally be ready and watchful for all opportunities which a disturbed or subverted order of society affords, to snatch, what they cannot otherwise obtain, by physical force from the wealthy and the weak? or who, while civil government stands in the way of their crimes, must find the strongest motives to subvert that government itself? What then is this numerous class?

By what name shall we designate it? Where are these dangerous men to be found but among the Populace of every country? the bad many ! that class from which the seditious

or the

rebel leader always derives his means of disturbing the peace and subverting the law which guards the interests of society, and places in their stead anarchy, or popular despotism! Yes, it is to curb this Populace-the lowest rank in civilized society—the multitude—the poor—the vicious—the ignorant; it is to protect us against them that society is formed; and, therefore, we here find the PRINCIPLE which we have sought the PRINCIPLE which while it protects the individual members of the society from individual private wrong, tends, beyond any other principle in the social code, to secure the permanency of that government itself by which alone protection can be had!

The principle, therefore, announced as a rule is—

Exclude from sharing in the Civil Power of the state, and prevent from overawing it, the whole of that class which by poverty, ignorance, and the vices which they generate, have always been found to threaten the interests of civil society.

Such, I submit, is the main principle on which the STABILITY of good government must rest. It is the result of the whole of this enquiry. It is warranted by the theory of the jurist. It is supported by the uniform experience of ages! It holds true in, and is applicable to, every species of government known to man-whether despotism, monarchy, aristocracy,

or the most democratic rule that the world has ever known. For, whether the revolution is from the iron rule of one despot to another, from the constitutional monarch to the tyrant, from the rule of lords to the people, or of the people to the aristocracy-the POPULACE the bribed, or the cajoled, or the infuriated POPULACE, are the instrument-the senseless instrument of the revolutionizing power! If they are not roused into outrage, they are lulled or bribed into torpid indifference-they never have-nor are they capable of having, an intelligent, prudent, and patriotic feeling on subjects connected with public rule.

Such subjects are too high and too holy for them!—those, therefore, who constitute the class in which the moral-the intelligent-the educatedthe affluent-the men who have the greatest interests in good government, are to be found-are they, and they only, to whom the guidance of civil government must be entrusted.

But perhaps we may be told, that all this is theory -that it is the dream of the sophist in his chambernot a principle derived by the practical statesman from his actual experience in public affairs, nor vouched by the common sense of mankind.

Should this be said, (and said it will be, with much beside, by the numerous opponents of this most unpopular principle,) the answer is at handnot an answer in words, or depending on historical