LIBERT Y. 685 
different, viz. a drefs for the dead, who were all ordered 
to he buried in woollen, is a law confiHent with public 
liberty; for it encourages the ftaple trade, on which in 
great meafure depends the univerfai good of the nation. 
So that laws, when prudently framed, are by no tneans 
lubverfive, but rather introduCtive, of liberty; for (as Mr. 
Locke has well obferved) where there is no law there is 
no freedom. But then, on the other hand, that conftitu- 
tion or frame of government, that fyltem of laws, is alone 
calculated to maintain civil liberty, which leaves the fub- 
jeft entire mailer of his own conduct, except in thole 
points wherein the public good requires fome direction or 
re (train t. 
Civil and political eflablifhments muff always keep pace 
with the illumination of the public mind, and change ac¬ 
cording to the variations of the Hate of man. Power has 
been conltantly conferred by, and wreffed from, the peo¬ 
ple, and as conltantly abided. Uncontrouled authority 
feems to have a baneful influence on the human heart 5 
and few are the examples of permanent virtue, or ftrict 
moderation, in that dangerous ftation. The hiftory of 
mankind, and the experience of ages, ffrongly enforce a 
belief that the multitude are incapable of governing them- 
felves, and hence are reduced to the neceflity of confiding 
that important trull, which cannot be exercifed by the 
whole, to the virtue of one, or of a few; this delegation 
cannot, or, unfortunately for mankind, has not hitherto 
been conferred, without giving up at the fame time fuch a 
proportion of power as precludes a pollibility of revoking 
the grant: fhould the delegate become corrupt or arbitra¬ 
ry, he is already poffeiled of the means of fupporting his 
authority by ufurpation; for authority maintained againlt 
the confent of the whole body of the people is virtually 
ufurpation; and againlt this abufe, when eftablilhed by 
military force, there is no remedy, no redrefs, other than 
infurreftion. Although the truth of this propolition can¬ 
not be denied, and that every people have a light to op- 
pofe a fimilar ftate of tyranny, it mufl be confefled that 
the experiment has been fometimes fatal, is always dan¬ 
gerous, and molt frequently unfuccefsful. 
Such nearly has been the Hate of all the nations on the 
continent, very few excepted ; the people had not, from 
almoft time immemorial, been admitted to that rank and 
importance which their great preponderance entitled them 
to in the fcale of public affairs; defpifed and unprotected 
by that power, which they themfelves had armed for their 
defence and fecurity, they were abandoned to ail the in- 
fults of unfeeling pride and the depredations of infatiable 
fquanderers; but this unnatural perverfion of the order 
of things mull have its limits, the day of retribution was 
to come, when the irrefiftible advancement of literature 
and fcience was to make the people fenfible of the enor¬ 
mity of their grievances, the importance of their claims, 
and at the fame time the jullice of their feeking effectual 
redrefs by the recovery of their loll privileges. 
If the molt moderate governments, however well or¬ 
ganized, be defective in tome effential points, and found 
iubjeCt to corruption and degeneracy, if not renovated 
and improved in proportion to the more general diffuiion 
of knowledge, we mull not wonder that one founded on 
original injuliice, and fupported by an eltablilhed fyltem 
of rapacioufnefs and oppreffion, Ihould fall to the ground, 
and experience a more rapid decline. Defpotic Hates are 
ever expofed to convulfions and danger; tyranny in the 
eye of reafon is not government; it is a Hate of violence, 
which muH be fupported by thefword. Unqualified force 
and the flrong law of neceflity may bind down the Have, 
intimidate the turbulent, and reHrain the brave, (if the 
1 alt can be fuppofed to exiH under fuch governments :) 
but muH not at length the very inltruments of fuch a 
power become more dangerous to the ufurper, than even 
the infurreCtion of the people? When Handing armies 
become fenfible of their own flrength, mull not the def- 
pot himfelf fubmit to their dictates ? The very banditti, 
whom he had hired for the bafe purpofes of maintaining 
his ufurpation, and intimidating his valTals, mult ulti¬ 
mately become his maHers. Hiftory has furnilhed us with 
many dreadful examples of military tyranny ; and the pre- 
torian have not been the only bands that contributed to 
the fall of empires. But, when nations began to emerge 
from that Hate of general ignorance which was fo indif- 
penfably necelfary to the exiltence and exercife of defpo¬ 
tic power, when the diffuiion of knowledge became more 
univerfai, and extended to all ranks of the comn.uinity, 
the foklicr himfelf perceived that it was no longer his 
intereH to form part of a body which militated againlt 
public liberty, and had been hitherto found inimical to 
the rights of the people ; at length he became fenfible 
that his military appointment was neither irreconciieable 
with the prior claims of focial duty, nor oppofite to his 
obligations as a citizen ; and confidered the trade of war, 
as it had been carried on, to be no other than an artful 
fyfiem, eftablilhed on the ruins of feudal barbarity, formed 
for the purpofes of ambition, the fupport of tyrants, and 
the delb uClion of his fellow-creatures. 
Hence it is evident, that governments muH become 
more equitable and mild, according to the progrefs of 
knowledge and a more enlightened Hate of civil fociety. 
An ignorant and unlettered people can patiently fubmit 
to the moH outrageous aCls of violence and opprefiion, 
and fleep over their chains with an indifference bordering 
on brutal Hupidity. The moH fertile and favoured regions 
of the earth, where freedom, joined hand in hand with 
liberal knowledge, had once brought forth, nurtured, and 
matured, the faculties of man, where genius fmiled, and 
civil life had gained its ultimate perfection, where po- 
lilhed Greece had reared the empire of refinement and of 
reafon, have for ages languilhed in decay an.i hopelefs 
fervitude, and bend beneath the iron fway of haughty Ot¬ 
toman; the plains, where Tyre and Carthage Hood, are 
now the prey of rude barbarians, and the fport of ruffian 
power ; the peaceful Hindoo has, from the remotelt time, 
fubmitted. calmly to the yoke of fucceffive tyrants, and 
feems to have taken no intereH in the fcenes of rapine 
and daughter that conltantly furrpu tided him; the influ¬ 
ence of a' mild climate, an abundant foil, his habits of 
life, religion, and rigid temperance, together'with his con¬ 
tented ignorance, all contribute to enervate his mind, and 
render him incapable of refiftance. 
The idea and practice of political or civil liberty flou- 
rifh in their highefl vigour in thefe kingdoms, where it 
falls little fliort of perfection, and can only be loll or 
deflroyed by the folly or demerits of its owner; the 1c- 
giilature, and of courfe the laws of Britain, being pecu¬ 
liarly adapted to the prefervation of this ineltimable 
blefiing even in the meanefl fubjeCt. Very different from 
the modern conltitutions of other Hates on the continent 
of Europe, and from the genius of the imperial law ; 
which in general are calculated to veil an arbitrary and 
defpotic power, of controuling the actions of the fubjecf, 
in the prince, or in a few grandees. And this fpirit of 
liberty is fo deeply implanted in our conllitution, and 
rooted even in our very foil, that a Have or a negio, the 
moment he lands in Britain, falls under the protection of 
the laws, and fo far becomes a freeman ; though the mat¬ 
ter’s right to his fervice may pollibly Hill continue. 
The abfolute rights of every Briton, (which, taken in 
a political and extenfive fenfe, are ufually called their li¬ 
berties,) as they are founded on nature and reafon, fo 
they are coeval with our form of government; though 
fubject at times to fluctuate and change, their eitabiiih- 
ment (excellent as it is) being Hill human. At fome 
times we have feen them depreffed by overbearing and 
tyrannical princes; at others, fo luxuriant as even to tend 
to anarchy, a worfe Hate than tyranny itfelf, as any go¬ 
vernment is better than none at all. But the vigour of 
our free conftit ution has always delivered the nation from 
thefe embarraflinents; and, as loon as the, convulfions 
confequent on the Hruggle have been over, the balance 
of our rights and liberties has fettled to its proper ieve 1 5 
