GOLDEN RULES OF CIVIL LIBERTY.

I.

MEN in society surrender natural rights mutually; hence the restraints of law ought to be equal and common to all.

II.

The design of all government is to promote the general and equal benefit and happiness of every member of the community.

III.

The preponderating influence of particular interests being incompatible with the equal benefit of other interests, all governments ought to flow from, and be influenced by, the ascertained will of the whole community.

IV.

Determinations in regard to what is just and true, in regard to individuals and the nation, are the problems which governments and legislators ought to be incessantly employed in solving.

V.

As the only practical test of truth is unanimity of opinion, arising from the same evidence, so all decisions should be unanimous, or be made by the nearest convenient approximations towards unanimity.*

VI.

In the arrangements of every government, the primary care should be to adopt all such practical means as should secure its measures

* No maxim is practically more true, than that there is confusion in a multitude of counsellors. Eloquence misleads many, sophistry others,-prejudice more,— the strongest side too many,-affection and hatred others; while, as an assemblage of men adds nothing to the individual wisdom of each, so their collected decision, however imposing, is not wiser than the separate decision of each. The only use of multitudes is the chance of averaging passions, and accumulating information; but,

from error,

and enable it to ascertain the truth

on every question of policy and practice.

VII.

Votes on public questions should be independent of the fears of the parties, or the machinations of undue influence, and therefore ought, in all cases, to be given by ballot.

VIII.

Every member of the community should have an influence on the government proportioned to his intelligence, and be called upon to perform no duties but such as accord with his intelligence and habits of life.

IX.

The selection of the members of the

govern

if truth is really the object, it will be more certainly attained by the decisions of five hundred broken into ten or twenty committees, than by a single decision of the whole body. Of course, if the majority decides, the chances of truth or error are only as the numbers on each side, even when no feelings, extraneous to the question, influence the votes; and, as feelings are more numerous and operative than arguments, so majorities are no tests of truth; and it too often happens that truth is on the side of the baffled minority.

ment ought to flow from the universal will; but that will or choice should be regulated by encreased intelligence, as the importance of office advances.

That the suffrages of the people may be universal, but, at the same time, regulated by their intelligence, every ten men, of mature age and sound mind, within a small district, should elect annually, with re-eligibility for five years, one of their number as a local delegate, another as a militia-man, and a third as a constable.

XI.

Every hundred delegates should assemble in primary meetings within their locality, and elect a magistrate, with re-eligibility for three years, three guardians of the poor, three arbitrators of private disputes, and three representatives to a general provincial assembly.

XII.

Three hundred representatives of every hundred local assemblies should meet annually, and elect three of its members to a

national legislature, a sheriff of the province, and also seven magistrates, with re-eligibility for three years, to preside at sessions on criminal trials, and hear appeals against decisions of local arbitrators.*

XIII.

The legislature should elect one member in every ten to a senate, with equal power in the enactment of laws and the assessment of taxes.

XIV.

The senate should elect one of every ten to

* It would be desirable that, in the legislature, certain classes should be specially represented in addition to the general representation of the population, for the sake of obtaining their information, and guarding against their intrigues in the popular elections; thus, one in every hundred representatives should be returned by the lawyers, the divines of all congregations, the medical professions, the universities or public schools, the printers, the owners of ships, the captains of ships, the commanders of regiments, the servants of the government, and the foreigners who are housekeepers. The legislature would thus amalgamate the interests and best intelligence of the entire community.