1(52 ON THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. Od. 1 2, 



But as government is not natural to man, being 

 merely an artificial device, calculated to correft the 

 evils that inevitably fpring up in every kind of civil fo- 

 ciety, it will neceflarily follow that every political infti- 

 tution muft be at firft very rude and imperfeiSl — ^No 

 provifion can be made to remove evils to which the 

 Itate of fociety, at the time, could not haw given birth ; 

 nor can any attempt be made to correal: abufes, till 

 thefe abufes fliall have prevailed, and the ill effefts 

 of them have begun to be felt. In the early periods of 

 fociety, therefore, the adminiftration of government 

 muft be in all cafes rude and imperfect ; and if it would 

 ' be a vain attempt to difcovcr what it really was at a 

 very early period, it would be equally abfurd to recur 

 "to thefe firft attempts at forming what we now 

 call a conftitution of government, as a model of poli- 

 tical perfection, by which the good or ill of future in- 

 flitutions might be eftimated. In attempting, there- 

 fore, to trace a flight outline of the gradual progrefs of 

 the Britirti conftitution, it is not my intention to incul- 

 cate the abfurd idea of bringing it back to its original 

 flate. Political regulations ought in all cafes to be 

 fuited to the flate of fociety at the time tliey are made. 

 The inflitutioits that might fuffice for a few favage rov- 

 ing tribes, would but ill accord with a civilized, agri- 

 cultural, manufacturing, and commercial people. 



Mankind, as they come from the hands of the crea- 

 tor, we fliall admit, are all equal in refpedl of rank ; — 

 but nothing can be more diverfified than they are in re- 

 gard to natural talents, perfonal endowments, and in- 

 llinttive propcnfities : fo that in every poflible cafe 

 where men aflbciate together, a diftinction of rank will 

 inftantly take place. By diflinftion of rank I mean a 

 diflcrence in regartl to the rei'peclability with which 

 one man is beheld by thegeneralbody of the people when 

 compared with another. One man is acflivc, induftri- 

 ous., enterprifing ; another is indolent, flothful, and 

 fluggiih. The lii ft provides for himf'jlf Itorcs of the 



