of this defcription diflike nothing fo much as the restraints of law and decorum. Their wishes are thwarted by the controul of any Government which has vigour enough to protect the good from the attacks of the bad, to repel the incurfions of violence and licentioufnefs, and to keep Society together in a firm and compact band of union. Such perfons, who from the nature of their difpofitions and purfuits are abundantly more watchful and active than the friends of Order, are obliged to any body who will furnish them with a fhadow of a pretext for raifing a clamour against imaginary defects in any part of the exifting Government: they flock to a Declaration of abfurd, fictitious, and impracticable Rights, as to a Manifefto of Rebellion. or a Standard of Revolt-happy in an occafion to blow the flame which may catch all that is combuftible in a State thrice happy to find a head, whether a TYLER, a CADE, or a CATILINE, who may lead them to the attack, or may give confiftence and effect to their confpiracies.

Thus, upon the whole, are the modern "Rights of Man" intended to take advantage of all that is weak and of all that is wicked in Society; of the failings and the vices, of the worft paffions and the bafeft propenfities of mankind: thus are they defigned to collect into a focus the turbulent and the difaffected: they tend to embitter the labourer's toil, and to infufe the poifon of difcontent into his invigorating draughts, which were wont to fupport him cheerfully under his fatigues: and, adapted by their coarfe and fuperficial reafonings to minds entirely uncultivated, which are unufed to the detection of fallacy, and unable to trace caufes to effects, they form a catechism of fedition and difloyalty for the lower orders of the people.

These are the confiderations which have made me fo eagerly oppofe the eirculation of a work which in fo many ways tends to produce the most pernicious effects. I admit indeed that its impreffion is not likely to be general, becaufe, fortunately, it is not so easy a matter as thefe incendiaries vainly fuppofe, to induce a Nation to part with substantial felicity and rational freedom: their nefarious attempts, however, keep Society in a ftate of ferment and agitation, give uncafinefs to the virtuous and well-difpofed, and tend to weaken the beneficial energies of Government. Instead, therefore, of being encouraged in any degree, they ought, by all poffible means, to be difcountenanced by all real friends to their country; and if we cannot wholly prevent the mischievous induftry with which fuch doctrines are propagated,

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propagated, we ought at least, on our part, to be equally diligent in endeavouring to counteract its effects. Why fhould a good caufe infpire lefs vigour or lefs activity than a bad one? Why should the adherents of the Conftitution be lefs zealous than its foes? Why should the welldifpofed be lefs vigilant, or less animated, than thofe of a contrary defcription? The strongest fortrefs must fall, if the garrifon, fupinely depending upon the frength of the walls, neglect to repel the affailants. It ought not to fatisfy the minds of good citizens, to leave to Government the whole tafk of preferving the public tranquillity. It is on every account to be defired, that the extraordinary interpofition of the public force for the maintenance of order fhould be but feldom reforted to. The neceffity of fuch interference would be generally prevented, if individuals were to exert themselves within the fphere of their influence, and endeavour to check caufes inftead of waiting for effects; if they would overawe and difcourage the common difturbers of fociety by a marked deteftation of their characters, and by a fteady and unremitting watchfulness of their measures and defigns. The odium attached to vice furnishes perhaps a more general check to its progrefs than even the penalties of the law.

To explain more particularly the general reafoning which I have already urged, we need only appeal shortly to fome few paffages of Mr. Paine's work.

Mr. Paine, in both the Firft and Second Parts of his RIGHTS OF MAN, begins, very judicioufly, with preparing the way for that fyflem of deftruction which it is the object of both to introduce. The grand obftacles in the way of his defigns are LAWS and GOVERNMENT: it was therefore very neceflary, as a preparatory step, to weaken thefe impediments, by withdrawing or diminishing as much as poffible the refpect which mankind usually pofffs for fuch inftitutions. Accordingly, in the commencement of his First Part, our Author endeavours to establish, as a fundamental principle, that the prefent age or generation is not at all bound by any act of preceding times, and that all laws and inftitutions heretofore made and eftablifhed are now deftitute of all binding authority. This, it must be owned, is no injudicious ftep in purfuit of his grand object; for if he could but get rid of the authority of all fecial regulations which have not been actually introduced in the prefent day, veryl ittle would remain to check the progrefs of his wifhes and undertakings. Such reafoning is, however, the most adfurb and nonfenfical that ever came

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from the pen of any writer. Mankind is not really fufceptible of any fuch divifion as that of ages and generations. The tranfactions of the world are, indeed, for the fake of convenience and hiftorical precision, claffed under certain periodical denominations of time; but the race of men, like a stream, is perpetually running off and perpetually supplied afresh; its continuity is preferved unbroken from year to year, and from century to century. There is no point, line, or boundary, at which one generation can be faid to terminate and another commence: at every moment fome are commencing the career of existence, while others are going off the courfe. This uninterupted chain of human existence preferves a correfpondent connection in human affairs. Society is thus held conftantly together, and knows nothing, in its aggregate capacity, of that mortality which is the attribute of the individuals who compofe it. Of course the obligation of the laws by which Society is regulated, is neceffarily as uniform as the existence of Society itself: neither the death of the Legislator nor of his contemporaries can diffolve or weaken their force. The Laws are not made to bind any particular fet of individuals, but the community at large, of whomfoever it may be compofed. We are born under fubjection to them, as well as under their protection. The legiflative authority exercifed a hundred years ago is of precifely the fame force with regard to ourselves as that exercifed yesterday; and the Laws made in our own time are in no fenfe more compulfory than the fubfifting Laws enacted by our forefathers. The latter are even rendered more venerable by their antiquity. No Legislature can indeed infringe upon the powers of a fubfequent one. There always exifts the fame right to repeal, as well as the fame obligation to obey, till that right be properly exercised. Society is at every period of time poffeffed of the fame powers, and its right to annul a law of the laft year, or of the last century, ftands exactly upon the fame ground. Thus while the continued obligation of the Laws, till regularly repealed by the fupreme authority, is neceffary to the order, the harmony, and indeed the existence of a State; the right exifting equally at all times to abrogate and to alter as well as to enact, preferves the conftant independence of Society, and renders it at all times equally free. It is therefore the groffeft fophiftry in Mr. Paine to contend, that the authority of the Parliament of 1688, or of any prior Parliament is fuperfeded by lapfe of time.

We continue to recognize fuch authority; we continue thereby to reap the fruits of the wifdom then exercifed; and we are, nevertheless, as free and as independent as the people of that age. So the authority of modern Parliaments will, in like manner, be binding upon Pofterity, without encroaching upon its freedom.So much for Mr. Paine's endeavour to undermine the authority of the Laws.

A fecond grand object of this Writer is to perfuade mankind, that Government itfelf is almost useless and unne ceffary. Accordingly he tells us, in Part II. page 8, that "Government is no farther neceffary than to fupply the "few cafes to which fociety and civilization are not con

veniently competent:" that "The abolition of any "formal Government, far from being the diffolution of "fociety, brings it clofer together: that " Formal Go66 vernment makes but a fmall part of civilized life; "and, whenever the best that human wisdom can devise "is established, it is a thing more in name and idea than "in fact:" and page 10, that " It is but few general laws that civilized life requires, and thofe of fuch common "usefulness, that whether they are enforced by the form of Government or not, the effect will be the fame *.' But furely it is not poffible that fuch trash (which I have only quoted in order to point out the cloven foot, and expofe the defign and the extent of our author's doctrines) can raise a film before the understanding, and obfcure the real, the efficient, the univerfal operation of Government, as maintaining the union of Society, and affording to each individual the only poffible fource of protection, in all the relations and in all the fituations in which he can be fuppofed to exift.

Society is a ftate where the compulfory obligation of laws is interpofed to guard the enjoyment of those rights which are properly recognized and defined, from paffion, violence, and injuftice. It is plain, that thefe laws cannot be made and enforced without fome adequate authority. And what is that authority but government? which, as it fuperin

The example of the American States, during the war, is quoted, in order to prove that Society can exift without Government. But in a time of civil war, when a country is covered with armies, though its government be in a manner fufpended, for inter arma filent leges, yet the very ftate of hoftilities compreffes the people into compactness and fubordination, and the civil government is only merged in the neceffarily more vigorous and more unlimited controul of military power.

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tends the whole, and every part, is neceffarily fupreme. In what condition, in what occupation, in what retirement, is not the agency of this power to be traced? And what can poffibly be fubftituted in its place? It is the only fource of all protection and of all fecurity, and alone enables us to enjoy the gifts of fortune and the fruits of industry. It does not indeed furnifh the vegetative principle by which the corn grows, nor does it beftow the genial warmth that matures the fruit of the vineyard; but it extends its guardian care over the fwelling ear and the ripening cluster; it protects the labours of the hufbandman, and defends the harvest and the vintage from rapine and depredation.

The doctrine of Mr. Paine, that Government is of very limited importance and utility, is confuted not only by the plaïneft dictates of common fenfe, but alfo by the daily experience of common life. Do we not find that every inferior affociation of mankind calls of neceffity for fome connecting and controuling authority? By what other means are the domeftic concerns of a private family (the moft natural type, and perhaps the original foundation of fociety at large) to be preserved from confufion and ruin? What a fcene would the application of equalizing principles produce in a domeftic eftablishment? Do not the common interefts of every parifh require the management, direction, and control, of a government within itfelf? Nay (to defcend to inftances almoft below the gravity and importance of the fubject), will our author affert, that in the highest state of exhilaration which he ever experienced in thofe fashionable convivial meetings (commonly denominated Clubs), he ever propofed to his free and animated affociates to relieve themfelves from the irkfome authority of the chair? Ten or twenty equals, affimilated by their difpofitions and habits, cannot aflemble for any particular purpose, and scarcely to eat and drink together, without a Prefident, Chairman, or Head, to preferve order and decorum. But, if we are to credit the wonderful discoveries of Modern Philofophy, ten or twenty millions of all ranks, habits, and difpofitions, affociated for the protection of unnumbered complex interefts, and for the prefervation of multifarious rights, have but little occafion for fuch affistance; and with them the best Government "that human wifdom 66 can devife, is a thing more in name and idea than in " fact !!!"

Mr. Paine himself, however, feems to confider this ground as fo defperate that he foon quits it, and commences his at

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