354 



being thus Jeft more to their own devices, run into greater excen- 

 tricities, and irregularities, with refpeft to each other, than indivi- 

 duals in I'ociety are fuffered to do, by the civil raagiftrate. Hiftory 

 is filled with afts of outrage, unprovo]<ed hoflility, fliamelefs infrac- 

 tions of treaties, blacli perfidy, committed by flates againfl each other. 

 In civil fociety, the individuals reft under the protection of the laws, 

 fecure againll aggreilions of this kind, on the part of their neigh- 

 bours ; and a£l, in their common economy, as if they were always 

 fure of their amicable difpofitions. They feldom fuffer by their con- 

 duft. It is not fo with ftates ; they mufl; aft on a fuppofition, that 

 their neighbours are hoftile. They mufl never be lulled into fecu- 

 rity ; and they mufi; often counteraft the malevolent, the impoli- 

 tic, and outrageous meafures of their neighbours, by meafures not, 

 in themfelves, and abftraftedly confidered, prudent, advifeable, or per- 

 haps ftriftly moral ; but, enforced by imperious circumftances, and 

 juftifiable, on principles of felf-defence, and felf-prefervation. 



In all matters, which are neither enjoined nor prohibited, by the muni- 

 cipal law, the individual has an unqueftioned and uncontrolled right, to 

 admininifter his concerns, to govern the interior of his family, as he 

 thinks befl ; to adopt what fyftem of economy he pleafes, and difpofe 

 of his property, at his pleafure. — There feems to be but one rule, in 

 this refpeft ; — " Ufe your own in fuch a manner, as not to injure the 

 property of another." It is very different, with the ruler of a flate or 

 community, with refpeft to his fyftem of economy. He muft ftudy po- 

 pularity, and aim at conciliating the affedions of the great family, over 

 which he is fet. His maxims of economy mull, therefore, be very dif- 

 ferent, on this account, from thofe of the individual. He mull, on 

 many occafions, refign his own ideas, and acT: in oppofition to his better 

 judgment. He will confider, not, what is excellent, but what is prac- 

 ticable. He will not aim at chimerical perfeftion, and Eutopian hap- 

 pinei's. He will purfue the interefts of fociety, as far as the paffions 



and 



