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Show eucroaches on the liberties of others. That is, it is licentioufuefs fights which it ought to protcé‘t ----- A PARLIAMENT, for it reporting, and liberty itfelfonly when ufed to del'troy liberty.- lnilance, confii'ting of a body of reprefentatives, chofen for a It appears from hence, that licentioufnefs and defpotifm are more nearly allied than is Commonly imagined. They are both alike incontii'tent with liberty, and the true end of go- fervices, would forfeit its authority by making itfelf perpetual, imited period, to make laws, and to grant money for public or even prolonging its own duration; by nominating its own members; by accepting bribes; or fubjeéting itfelf to any vernment; nor is there any other difference between them, than that the one is the licentioufnefs of great men, and the other the licentioufnefs of little men; or that, by the one, the kind of foreign influence. This would convert a Parliament Into a (and/mt or junta of {elf-created tools; and a {tate that perfons and property of a people are fubjeét to outrage and invafion from the king; or a lawlefs body of Grandccr; and that, by the others, they are fubjeél: to the like outrage from :1 breach of truft in its rulers, is enflaved. ----- Nothing, there- fore, can be more abfurd than the doé'trine which fome have a Zara/{f5 mob.-----In avoiding one of thefe evils, mankind have often run into the other. But all \vell-conf'tituted governments guard equally againfl both. Indeed of the two, the lalt is, on feveral accounts, the leaft to be dreaded, and has done the lcait mifchief. It may be truly (aid, that if licentioufnefs has def'troycd its thoufands, defpotifm has deu firoyed its millions. 'lhe former, having little power, and no fyiiem to fupport it, necefiarily finds its own remedy; and a people foon get out of the tumult and anarchy attending has loft its regard to its own rights, f0 far as to fubmit to fuch taught, with refpeét to the omnipotence of parliaments. They poilefs no power beyond the limits of the Unit for the execution of which they were formed. If they contradict this truth they betray their confiituents, and diflolve themfelves. All delegated power mul't be fubordinate and limited. If omnipotence can, with any fenfe, be afcribed to a leg-fliture, it muff be lodged where all legiflative authority originates; that is, in the PEOPLE. For t/zeir fakes government is initi- tuted; and their's is the only real omnipotence. It goes on from age to age, de- I am fenlihle, that all l have been faying would be very abfurd, were the opinions juft which fome have maintained concerning the origin of government. According to theft: baflng the human faculties, levelling all dif'tinétions, and opinions, government is not the creature of the people, or the preying on the rights and bleflings of lociety.------It deferves refult of a convention between them and their rulers: But there are certain men who poffefs in :hemfelvcs, indepen- it. But a dclpotil‘m, wearing the form of government, and being armed with its force, is an evil not to be conquered without dreadful fli'uggles. to be added, that in a Rate diiturbed by licentionfnefs, there is an animation which is favourable to the human mind, and which puts it upon exerting its powers. But in a ltate habituarcd to a defpotifm, all is t'till and torpcd. A dark and favage tyrarny liifles every effort of genius; and the mind lofes all its fpirit and dignity. Before I proceed to what I have farther in view, I wiil obferve, that the account now given of the principles of public Liberti', and the nature of an equal and free government, lhews what judgment we lhould form of that OMNIPOTENCE, which, it has been laid, rnuit belong to every government as fuch. Great lirefs has been laid on this, but molt unreafona~ lily.------Government, as has been before obferved, is, in the very mum: of it, a TRUST; and all its powers a DELEGA- 'l‘ION for gaining particular ends. This 1779'} may be mif- ripplit-d and abuttd. it may be employed to defeat the very ends for which it Was inflituted; and to fubvert the very rights dently of the will of the people, a right of governing them, which they derive from the Deity. This doé‘trine has been abundantly refuted by many * excellent writers. It is a doc- trine which avowedly fubverts Civil Liberty; and which reprefents mankind as a body of vail‘als, formed to defcend like cattle from one fet of owners to another, who have an abfolute dominion over them. It is a wonder, that thofc who view their fpecies in alight fo humiliating, fhould ever be able to think of themfelves without regret and theme. The inten- tion of thefe obfervations is not to oppofe fuch fentiments; but taking for granted the reafonablenei's of Civil Liberty, to ihew wherein it confii'ts, and what dii'tingnifhes it from it; contrary. And in coniidering this fubjeét, as it has been new treated, it is unavoidable to reflect on the excellency of a free government, and its tendency to exalt the nature of a B 2 man. ' Se; among others Mr Locke on Government, and Mr, l'ricllley‘s Hill) on the nril l‘rinci F.lcs of Government. \ |
