GOVERNMENT. 
744 
To thefe obfervations of arclidcacon Paley, we miglit 
add the remarks of Dr. Shipley, bifliop of St. Afaph : 
“ Thofe v/)io think government inftituted for the fole- 
iife and emoVument of tlie perfons who govern, muft 
neceffarily think their powers unlimited. For, on this 
fuppoi'ltion, their interefls alone are to be regarded, of 
which they are the only judges; and who will fet bounds 
to tlieir own pretenfions ? But they who believe go¬ 
vernment to be inftituted purely for the good of the go¬ 
verned, will naturally fuppole that tiie powers of their 
rulers are, in ail cafes, to be limited by the end for 
which thofe rulers were appointed. And, as they mtilt 
have obferved that the other opinion has, in all coun¬ 
tries, v6ry numerous and Very form.idable fupporters ; 
and in practice, at lead, has prevailed almoli: univerfally ; 
they mud regard it as a chief point of civil wifdom to 
truil no more power to rulers than is drittly necelfarv 
to procure /the good of focicty. Nor Htould this be 
conlidered as a difadvantage even by a prince; for the 
happied date that man can be placed in, is, to be en¬ 
dowed with great powers of doing good, and, at the 
fame time, to be preferved from the temptation to do 
evil ; from the dangers of an unbounded trud, and from 
the pride and intoxication of arbitrary jiower. Righ- 
teoulnefs and mercy, or, in the modern ufe of language, 
judice and benevolence, arc fb far from being fit to be 
excluded from the cabinets of princes, that good go¬ 
vernment is nothing elfe but the full exercife and dif- 
play.of thofe fovereign virtues. They contain in them- 
lelves the very art and mydery of true policy, d'hey 
are not beneath the attention of the greated monarchs ; 
■llnce God himfclf does not difdain to ufe them in the 
government of the world. And'all the miniderial arts 
and refinements which lead through the crooked paths 
of policy, falfely lo called, are a fort of unwife cunning, 
that leads only to guilt and difgruce ; and to ciieat and 
betray the.people it was their duty to protect. Let it 
be allowed me to mention one inftance of this falfe po¬ 
licy with a becoming dread and abhorrence ; the art of 
government by a corrupt influence and bribery. Per- 
liaps human nature does not afford a dronger indance of 
the potver of habit to make men 'do wrong. It is unne- 
.cedary and improper for me to fay, how long this prac¬ 
tice has prevailed. 1 here is a decency attending our 
profedion that judly redrains us from provoking paifions 
and enmities by perfonal cenfures; but there is alfo a 
dignity iit truth, which ought to embolden us to inform 
the greated of their duty. It is the fault of the people 
.in all countries to be credulous and ignorant, and to 
place a too unfufpefting contidence in their rulers ; 
from whence it has happened, that in mod nations, ex¬ 
cept our own, the appearance, or name, of freedom, is 
hardly to be met with. But if any thing upon earth is 
facred, it is the rights which a people have cxprel'sly re- 
ferved to themlelves; after truding every thing ell'e to 
the diferetion of their rulers. Such, with us, is the 
fecurity of our perfons ; a trial by known laws and un¬ 
prejudiced judges; and, above all, the independency 
of parliament, efpecially of our own reprefentatives. 
To undermine thefe rights, and to corrupt thefe repre¬ 
fentatives, would be to deprive us of all that is valu¬ 
able in our free government ; and to ruin the very cf- 
fence of our conditution. Under the appearance and 
ti'ie expenfive forms of limited monarchy, it fubjedls 
us, in ed'ed, to arbitrary w'ill. It mocks men with the 
image of liberty, while it dips on their fetters, and ri¬ 
vets them fad.” 
It were almod needlefs to obferve, that the-obliga- 
tion of obedience to civil government, is limited to 
adtions in themfflves not criminal. Virtue has claims, 
tvhich are prior and Aiperior to thofe of political re- 
ftraint. When William Tell was ordered to Ihoot with 
an arrow at an apple placed on the head of liis Ion, if 
he had been uncertain of his aim, and had, in conle- 
quence, refufed to comply with the inhuman mandate, 
who could have prefumed to call his condudl criminal 
on the Icore of difobedicnce > His obligation to abdaiii 
froin ailing as an indrument, in taking away the life of 
hisfon, was luperior to that which bound his obedience 
to the commands of the duke of Audria, however jnd 
may be fuppofed to have been the found.ition of the 
authority which the latter cxercifed over the inhabi¬ 
tants of Uri, either as a political chief, or as a military 
commander. Tiiis, however, is widely different from 
leaving a man’s general obligation of obedience to tlie 
civil government of his country, to depend on his pri¬ 
vate opinion of its right •’ or his obfervance of the lav.'s, 
to depend on his opiinion of their general expediency. 
It is evidently incumbent on civil government, in its 
ordinances or adminidration, to refpeft the confciences 
ot men : duty and tight in this, as in all other cales, are 
reciprocal. On the other hand, it is the duty of every 
man to endeavour that his confcience may be rightly 
informed. But with an exception of criminal adlions, 
and in due fubordination to the rights of confcience, 
obedience and loyalty to civil government are duties of 
i'acred and indilpenfable obligation. 
All mankind will agree, tliat government diould be 
repoled in fuch perfons in whom thofe qualities are 
mod likely to be found, the perfedtion of which is 
among tlie attributes of him who is emphatically diled 
The Supreme Being ; the three grand reqiiifites of wisd O.M, 
of GOODNESS, and of power: wildom to dil'cern the 
real intcred of the community; goodnefs to endeavour 
always to purfiie that real intered ; and drength or 
power to carry this knowledge and intention into action. 
Thele arc the natural foundations of fovereignty, and 
tliefe are the requilites that ought to be found in every 
well-condituted frame of government. 
Political writers have in general redrained the rowers 
of legillation to no more than three regular forms of go, 
vernment. Tiie fird, when the fovereign power is veded 
in an aggregate alfembly confiding of all the free mem¬ 
bers of a community, which is called a democracy-, the 
fecond when it is lodged in a council, compoled of fe- 
ledt members, and then it is diled an arijlocracy the lad 
when it is entruded in the hands-of a dngle perfon, and 
then it alfumes the name of a monarchy. All other fpe. 
cies of government, they contend, are either corruptions 
of, or reducible to, thefe three. By the fovereign pow¬ 
er, is meant the power of making laws; for wherever 
that power reddes, all others mud conform to, and be 
direiited by it, whatever appearance the outward form 
and adminidration of the government may put on. F'or 
it is at any time at the option of the legillature to alter 
that form and adminidration by a new edidl or rule, 
and to put the execiitioa of the laws into whatever 
hands it pleafes, by condituting one, or a few, or many, 
executive magidrates; and all the other powers of the 
date mud obey the legifiative power in the difeharge of 
their feveral funitions, or elfe tiie conditution or form 
of government is at an end. 
Ill a democracy, where the right of making laws re- 
fides in the people at large, public virtue, or goodnel's 
of intention, is more likely to be found, than either of 
the other qualities of government. Popular alfemblies 
are frequently injudicious in their contrivance, and ir- 
refolute in tlieir execution; but generally intend to do 
tile thing that is mod proper; and always manifed a de¬ 
gree ofpatriotifm or public fpirit. In aridocracies there 
is more wildom to be found, than in the other frames ol 
government ; being compoled, or intended to be com- 
poled, of the mod e.xperienced citizens. But there is 
lels integrity than in a republic, and lefs drength than 
ill a monarchy. A monarciiy is indeed the mod power, 
fill of any ; for by the entire conjunttion of the legilla- 
tive and executive powers, all the linews of government 
are knit together, and united in the hand of the prince; 
i • bwt 
