APPENDIX. 109 



the (hare which the people poSTeSTes, directly or indirectly, in 

 the enactment of laws, but on the equity and expediency of the 

 laws that are enacted. The mare which the people pofTefles in 

 the government is interefting chiefly to the fmall number of 

 men whofe object is the attainment of political importance ; 

 but the equity and expediency of the laws are interefting to eve- 

 ry member of the community ; and more efpecially to thofe,. 

 whofe perfonal infignificance leaves them no encouragement, 

 but what they derive from the general fpirit of the government 

 under which they live. 



It is evident therefore, that the moft important branch of 

 political fcience is that which has for its object to afcertain the 

 philofophical principles of jurifprudence ; or (as Mr Smith ex- 

 prefTes it) to afcertain " the general principles which ought to 

 ■" run through and be the foundation of the laws of all na- 

 " tions *." In countries, where the prejudices of the peo- 

 ple are widely at variance with thefe principles, the political 

 liberty which the constitution bellows, only furnifhes them 

 with the means of accomplishing their own ruin : And if it 

 were poflible to fuppofe thefe principles completely realized in. 

 any fyftem of laws, the people would have little reafon to com- 

 plain, that they were not immediately instrumental in their 

 enactment. The only infallible criterion of the excellence of 

 any constitution is to be found in the detail of its municipal 

 code ; and the value which wife men fet on political freedom, 

 arifes chiefly from the facility it is fuppofed to afford, for the 

 introduction of thofe legislative improvements which the general 

 interefts of the community recommend. — 1 cannot help adding, 

 that the capacity of a people to exercife political rights with- 

 utility to themfelves and to their country, prefuppofes a diffu- 

 fion of knowledge and of good morals, which can only refult 

 from the previous operation of laws favourable to induftry, to 

 order and to freedom. 



Of 



* See the concluiion of his Theory of Moral Sentiments. 



Account of- 

 Dr Smith. 



