CHAP, x LIMITATION OF STATE FUNCTIONS 151 



in assuming that they are of equal importance, and in 

 affirming that it is as much the duty of Government to 

 protect its individual subjects from wrong to person or 

 property committed by their fellows, as to protect the 

 entire community from foreign enemies. 



But if we look around us to see how these primary 

 duties are performed, it becomes evident, either that 

 existing Governments do not consider these duties as 

 equally imperative upon them (even if they are not of 

 absolutely equal importance), or that the former duty is a 

 very much more difficult one than the latter. In every 

 country we find an enormous organization for the purpose 

 of national defence, which occupies a large portion of the 

 wealth, the skill, and the labour of the community. No 

 cost is too great, no preparations are too tedious, in order 

 to deter an enemy from venturing to attack us, or to 

 secure us the victory should he be so bold as to do so. For 

 this end we keep thousands of young and healthy men in 

 a state of unproductive activity, or idleness ; for this we 

 pile up mountains of debt, which continue to burthen the 

 country for successive generations. New ships, new 

 weapons, every invention that art or science can produce, 

 are at once taken advantage of, while the less perfect 

 appliances of a few years ago are thrown aside with hardly 

 a thought of the vast sums which they represent. 



If we now turn to see how the other paramount duty 

 of the State is performed, we find a very different condition 

 of things. Here everything is antiquated, cumbrous, and 

 inefficient. The laws are an almost unintelligible mass of 

 patchwork which the professional study of a life is unable 

 to master ; and the mode of procedure, handed down from 

 the dark ages, is often circuitous and ineffective, notwith- 

 standing a number of modern improvements. It may be 

 admitted that in criminal cases tolerably sure, if not very 

 speedy, punishment falls on the aggressor ; but the 

 sufferer receives, in most cases, no compensation, and often 

 incurs great expense and much trouble in the prosecution. 

 He gets revenge, not justice. That relic of barbarism, the 

 fixed money fine, the same for the beggar and the millionaire, 

 though almost universally admitted to be unjust, is not yet 



