is improbable that, except under very particular circumstances, they fhould continue long under fo rude a form. The fame general causes, which had induced men to enter into that flight connection, would speedily allure them into one more close and more beneficial. And as the numbers of a fociety became enlarged, and a clearer infight into the measures conducive to the general good was acquired

"to act against them with concert and vigour, than to "maintain interior order by any public regulations."These tribes have continued to the present day exactly in the same state in which the greater part of the inhabitants of North and South America were found by the Spaniards early in the fixteenth century. See Robertson's History of America, 4th edit. vol. ii. p. 116-119.

The accounts given of the ancient Germans by Cæfar and Tacitus, of the Huns and Alans by Ammianus Marcellinus, and of the North American Indians by Charlevoix, which are brought into one point of view by Dr. Robertson in his Hiftory of Charles V. 8vo. vol. i. p. 246, &c. prove that in the nations refpectively defcribed by thofe authors, fociety had advanced few steps further at the time when the picture was drawn. The learned hiftorian obferves that, while fociety remains in this fimple ftate, men by uniting together scarcely relinquish any portion of their "natural independence."

by

by experience and reflection (b), an additional' number of restraints on the rights of individuals would evidently promise an increase of public happiness. It would in confequence appear expedient that various laws and in ftitutions should be framed to regulate the objects of internal polity, the transfer and defcent of property, the proof of crimes, and the in

(6) Dr. Robertfon (Hift. Charles V. vol. i. p. 16), speaking of the northern conquerors of Europe, remarks that "felf-defence was their chief care, and feems to have been "the fole object of their first inftitutions and policy;" but that afterwards, "inftead of thofe loofe affociations which, "though they scarcely diminished their perfonal independ"ence, had been fufficient for their fecurity while they "remained in their original countries; they faw the ne"ceffity of confederating more closely together, and of relinquishing fome of their private rights, in order to at"tain public safety."

The whole of Dr. Robertfon's View of the Progress of Society in Europe, with the notes and illuftrations, contained in the first volume of his Hiftory of Charles V. affords a very appofite elucidation of this fubject. The fame author, in his History of America, exhibits instances of civil government in various stages of its progrefs. See particularly his Account of the People of Bogota, vol. ii. p. 121— 123; of the Mexicans, vol. iii. p. 159, &c.—and of the Peruvians, p. 209, &c.

fliction

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fliction of punishments; and be established as binding on all who fhould choose to be members of the community; that officers fhould be appointed to fuperintend the execution of them; that a public force fhould be conftituted for the purpose of ensuring domestic tranquillity by exacting obedience to the laws, and of repelling the attacks of invaders; and that a legislative power, temporary or permanent, should be deputed to watch over the whole; and be invested with the authority, fubjected to more or fewer limitations, of enacting fuch ordinances from time to time, as it should deem effential to the welfare of the rising state. In proportion as events were more or lefs favourable to the diffusion of knowledge and refinement, a shorter or a longer period would elapfe before a country could attain to any of the settled modes of political adminiftration, which prevail among the polished nations of Europe.

Among the moral obligations incumbent on all men as accountable beings, there are fome which in different countries and on particular occafions affume different forms, point to different modes of conduct, and have to encounter

the

the oppofition of different temptations and impediments, in confequence of peculiarities in the established forms of civil government. No ethical work therefore, which profeffes to treat of the duties of various claffes of fociety in Great Britain, can be complete as to its plan, unless it pays a marked attention to the British Conftitution. The ufes of the principal parts of that Conftitution will be diftinctly noticed in fubfequent chapters, in which the respective duties of the individuals compofing the feveral branches of the Legislature will be difcuffed. The way however may be cleared for thofe details, by a previous inveftigation of fome points of a more general nature. The prefent chapter therefore will be employed in ascertaining thofe leading principles, the obfervance of which political wifdom feems to require as cffential to the equity and good conduct of civil government; and in examining how far each of those principles is obferved in the exifting (c) Conftitution of this realm.

In

(c) This expreffion is ufed in the prefent chapter, in a fenfe perhaps fomewhat more extended than its usual acceptation; not merely as characterising the form of go

vernment

In the difcuffion of this fubject little more will commonly be neceffary than briefly to ftate the principles themselves, with the grounds on which they rest. For a very flight degree of reflection will evince that they are fully comprehended within the general outline of the British Conftitution; and the particular manner in which they are carried into effect will be more fitly inveftigated hereafter, when the functions of the feveral branches of the Legislature come to be diftinctly confidered. One or two points however will require rather more explanation.

1. The firft principle dictated by political wisdom is this; that thofe fundamental rules be observed, which natural juftice inculcates as the proper groundwork of all social inftitutions. For as far as these are violated or ne.. glected, oppreffion will take place in the community; the members will gradually become more and more diffatisfied; and if the hard

vernment by King, Lords, and Commons, but as including the general spirit of the laws, and of the principles which guide the execution of them.

VOL. I.

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