The steps by which the argument proceeds are few and direct. "It is the will of God that "the happiness of human life be promoted:"this is the firft ftep, and the foundation not only of this, but of every moral conclufion. "Civil fociety conduces to that end:"-this is the fecond propofition. "Civil focieties cannot "be upheld, unless, in each, the intereft of the "whole fociety be binding upon every part and "member of it:"- this is the third ftep, and conducts us to the conclufion, namely, "that "fo long as the intereft of the whole fociety "requires it, that is, fo long as the established

government cannot be refifted or changed "without public inconveniency, it is the will "of God (which will univerfally determines

our duty) that the established government be "obeyed,”—and no longer.

This principle being admitted, the juftice of every particular cafe of refiftance is reduced to a computation of the quantity of the danger and grievance on the one fide, and of the probability and expence of redreffing it on the other.

But who fhall judge of this? We answer, Every man for himfelf." In contentions between the fovereign and the fubject, the parties acknowledge

acknowledge no common arbitrator; and it would be abfurd to refer the decifion to those whofe conduct has provoked the question, and whose own intereft, authority, and fate, are immediately concerned in it. The danger of error and abuse is no objection to the rule of expediency, because every other rule is liable to the fame or greater; and every rule that can be propounded upon the subject (like all rules indeed which appeal to, or bind, the confcience) muft in the application depend upon private judgment. It may be obferved, however, that it ought equally to be accounted the exercife of a man's private judgment, whether he be determined by reasonings and conclufions of his own, or fubmit to be directed by the advice of others, provided he be free to choose his guide.

We proceed to point out fome easy but important inferences, which refult from the fubftitution of public expediency into the place of all implied compacts, promifes, or conventions whatfoever.

I. It may be as much a duty, at one time, to refift government, as it is, at another, to obey it; to wit, whenever more advantage will, in our

opinion,

opinion, accrue to the community, from resistance, than mischief.

II. The lawfulness of refiftance, or the lawfulness of a revolt, does not depend alone upon the grievance which is fuftained or feared, but alfo upon the probable expence and event of the conteft. They who concerted the Revolution in England were juftifiable in their counfels, because from the apparent difpofition of the nation, and the strength and character of the parties engaged, the measure was likely to be brought about with little mifchief or bloodshed; whereas, it might have been a queftion with many friends of their country, whether the injuries then endured and threatened would have authorized the renewal of a doubtful civil war.

III. Irregularity in the firft foundation of a ftate, or fubfequent violence, fraud, or injustice in getting poffeffion of the fupreme power, are not fufficient reafons for refiftance, after the government is once peaceably fettled. No fubject of the British empire conceives himself engaged to vindicate the juftice of the Norman claim or conqueft, or apprehends that his duty in any manner depends upon that controverfy. So, likewife, if the houfe of Lancaster, or even the pofterity of Cromwell, had been at this day feated

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feated upon the throne of England, we should have been as little concerned to enquire how the founder of the family came there. No civil contests are so futile, although none have been fo furious and fanguinary, as those which are excited by a difputed fucceffion.

IV. Not every invasion of the fubject's rights, or liberty, or of the conftitution; not every breach of promise, or of oath; not every stretch of prerogative, abuse of power, or neglect of duty by the chief magiftrate, or by the whole or any branch of the legislative body, justifies refiftance, unless these crimes draw after them public confequences of fufficient magnitude to outweigh the evils of civil difturbance. Nevertheless, every violation of the conftitution ought to be watched with jealousy, and resented as fuch, beyond what the quantity of estimable damage would require or warrant; because a known and fettled ufage of governing affords the only fecurity against the enormities of uncontrolled dominion, and because this fecurity is weakened by every encroachment which is made without oppofition, or oppofed without effect.

V. No ufage, law, or authority whatever, is fo binding, that it need or ought to be continued, when it may be changed with advan

VOL. II.

L

tage

tage to the community. The family of the prince, the order of fucceffion, the prerogative of the crown, the form and parts of the legiflature, together with the refpective powers, office, duration, and mutual dependency of the feveral parts, are all only fo many laws, mutable like other laws, whenever expediency requires, either by the ordinary act of the legiflature, or, if the occafion deferve it, by the interpofition of the people. These points are wont to be approached with a kind of awes they are reprefented to the mind as principles of the conftitution. fettled by our ancestors, and, being fettled, to be no more committed to innovation or debate; as foundations never to be ftirred; as the terms and conditions of the focial compact, to which every citizen of the ftate has engaged his fidelity, by virtue of a promife which he cannot now recall. Such reasons have no place in our system to us, if there be any good reafon for treating these with more deference and respect than other laws, it is, either the advantage of the prefent conftitution of government (which reafon must be of different force in different countries), or because in all countries it is of importance, that the form and ufage of governing be acknowledged and under

3.