ESSAY V.

Of the ORIGIN of GOVERNMENT.

AN, born in a family, is compelled to maintain

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fociety, from neceffity, from natural inclination, and from habit. The fame creature, in his farther progrefs, is engaged to establish political fociety, in order to adminifter juftice; without which there can be no peace among them, nor fafety, nor mutual intercourfe. We are, therefore, to look upon all the vaft apparatus of our government, as having ultimately no other object or purpose but the distribution of justice, or, in other words, the support of the twelve judges. Kings and parliaments, fleets and armies, officers of the court and revenue, ambaffadors, minifters, and privy-counfellors, are all fubordinate in their end to this part of adminiftration. Even the clergy, as their duty leads them to inculcate morality, may justly be thought, fo far as regards this world, to have no other ufeful object of their inftitution.

All men are fenfible of the neceffity of juftice to maintain peace and order; and all men are fenfible of the neceffity of peace and order for the maintenance of fociety. Yet, notwithstanding this ftrong and obvious neceffity, fuch is the frailty or perverfeness of our nature it is impoffible to keep men, faithfully and unerringly, in the paths of juftice. Some extraordinary cir cumstances may happen, in which a man finds his interests

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terefts to be more promoted by fraud or rapine, than hurt by the breach which his injustice makes in the focial union. But much more frequently, he is feduced from his great and important, but diftant interests, by the allurement of prefent, though often very frivolous temptations. This great weakness is incurable in human

nature.

Men muft, therefore, endeavour to palliate what they cannot cure. They muft inftitute fome perfons, under the appellation of magiftrates, whofe peculiar office it is, to point out the decrees of equity, to punish transgreffors, to correct fraud and violence, and to oblige men, however reluctant, to confult their own real and permanent interefts. In a word, OBEDIENCE is a new duty which must be invented to fupport that of JUSTICE; and the ties of equity must be corroborated by those of allegiance.

But ftill, viewing matters in an abftract light, it may be thought, that nothing is gained by this alliance, and that the factitious duty of obedience, from its very nature, lays as feeble a hold of the human mind, as the primitive and natural duty of juftice. Peculiar interests and present temptations may overcome the one as well as the other. They are equally expofed to the fame inconvenience. And the man, who is inclined to be a bad neighbour, must be led by the fame motives, well or ill understood, to be a bad citizen and fubject. Not to mention, that the magiftrate himself may often be negligent, or partial, or unjust in his administration.

Experience, however, proves, that there is a great difference between the cafes. Order in fociety, we find, is much better maintained by means of government; and our duty to the magiftrate is more ftrictly guarded

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by the principles of human nature, than our duty to our fellow-citizens. The love of dominion is so strong in the breast of man, that many not only fubmit to, but court all the dangers, and fatigues, and cares of government; and men, once raised to that ftation, though often led aftray by private paffions, find, in ordinary cafes, a visible intereft in the impartial adminiftration of juftice. The perfons, who first attain this distinction by the confent, tacit or express, of the people, must be endowed with fuperior perfonal qualities of valour, force, integrity, or prudence, which command refpect and confidence: and, after government is established, a regard to birth, rank, and ftation, has a mighty influence over men, and enforces the decrees of the magistrate. The prince or leader exclaims against every diforder which difturbs his fociety, He fummons all his partizans and all men of probity to aid him in correcting and redreffing it and he is readily followed by all indifferent perfons in the execution of his office. He foon acquires the power of rewarding thefe fervices; and in the progrefs of fociety, he establishes fubordinate minifters and often a military force, who find an immediate and a visible intereft, in fupporting his authority. Habit foon confolidates what other principles of human nature had imperfectly founded; and men, once accustomed to obedience, never think of departing from that path, in which they and their ancestors have conftantly trod, and to which they are confined by fo many urgent and visible motives.

But though this progrefs of human affairs may ap pear certain and inevitable, and though the fupport which allegiance brings to juftice, be founded on obvious principles of human nature, it cannot be expected

that men fhould beforehand be able to discover them, or foresee their operation. Government commences more cafually and more imperfectly. It is probable, that the first ascendant of one man over multitudes begun during a state of war; where the fuperiority of courage and of genius difcovers itself moft vifibly, where unanimity and concert are moft requifite, and where the pernicious effects of diforder are most fenfibly felt. The long continuance of that state, an incident common among favage tribes, enured the people to fubmiffion; and if the chieftain poffeffed as much equity as prudence and valour, he became, even during peace, the arbiter of all differences, and could gradually, by a mixture of force and confent, establish his authority. The benefit fenfibly felt from his influence, made it be cherished by the people, at leaft by the peaceable and well-difpofed among them; and if his fon enjoyed the fame good qualities, government advanced the fooner to maturity and perfection; but was ftill in a feeble state, till the farther progrefs of improvement procured the magiftrate a revenue, and enabled him to bestow rewards on the feveral instruments of his administration, and to inflict punishments on the refractory and difobedient. Before that period, each exertion of his influence must have been particular, and founded on the peculiar circumftances of the cafe. After it, fubmiffion was no longer a matter of choice in the bulk of the community, but was rigorously exacted by the authority of the fupreme magistrate.

In all governments, there is a perpetual inteftine ftruggle, open or fecret, between AUTHORITY and LIBERTY; and neither of them can ever abfolutely prevail in the conteft. A great facrifice of liberty muft necef

farily be made in every government; yet even the authority, which confines liberty, can never, and perhaps ought never, in any conftitution, to become quite entire and uncontroulable. The fultan is master of the life and fortune of any individual; but will not be permitted to impose new taxes on his subjects: a French monarch can impose taxes at pleasure; but would find it dangerous to attempt the lives and fortunes of individuals. Religion alfo, in most countries, is commonly found to be a very intractable principle; and other principles or prejudices frequently refift all the authority of the civil magiftrate; whofe power, being founded on opinion, can never fubvert other opinions, equally rooted with that of his title to dominion. The government, which, in common appellation, receives the appellation of free, is that which admits of a partition of power among feveral members, whofe united authority is no lefs, or is commonly greater, than that of any monarch; but who, in the usual course of adminiftration, must act by general and equal laws, that are previously known to all the members, and to all their fubjects. In this sense, it must be owned, that liberty is the perfection of civil fociety; but still authority must be acknowledged effential to its very exiftence: and in thofe contefts, which so often take place between the one and the other, the latter may, on that account, challenge the preference. Unless perhaps one may fay (and it may be faid with fome reafon) that a circumftance, which is effential to the existence of civil fociety, must always support itself, and needs be guarded with lefs jealoufy, than one that contributes only to its perfection, which the indolence of men is so apt to neglect, or their ignorance to overlook.

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