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Show 66 ON THE SLAVERY ANIJ CoMMERCll which we mentioned to have been elrentially connected with the fubject, and which fome, from [peculation only, and withQut any allufion to facts, have been bold enough to deny. It appears firll, that liberty is a 1zatura!, and government an adventitious right, becaufe all men were originally free. It appears fecondly, that government is a *contratl; becaufe, in thefe primceval fubordinate • The author has lately read a work, intitled Paley's Moral :tnd Political Philofophy, which, in this one refpeft, favours thofc which have been hinted at, as it denies that government was a contr:~.B::. " No focial compaCt wa!t ever made in "fatl:,"-u it is to fuppofc it poffiblc to call favages out of u caves and dcfcrts, to dclibcr:nc upon topicks, which the exu pcricncc and lludies, and the refinements of civil life alone " fuggefi:. Therefore no government in the univerfe begun .r from this original." But there arc no grounds for foabfurd 2. fuppof1tion; for government, ~nd of courfe the focial com~ paCl:, docs not appear to have been introduced at the time, when families coming out of their caves and deferts, or, in other words, quitting their former dijfociatti fl:ate, joined themfelves together. They had lived a confidcrable time in fociety, like the Lybians and G:etulians before-mentioned, and had felt many of the difadvantages of a want of difcipline and laws, before government was introduced at all. The author of this Eff:1.y, before he took into confideration the origin of government, was determined,in a mattecoffuch importance, to be biatred OF TIIE HuMAN SPECIES. dinate focieties, we have feen it voluntarily conferred on the one hand, and accepted on the other. We have feen it fubject to various relhictions. We have lecn its articles, which could then only be written by tradition and ufe, as perfect and binding as thofe, which are now committed to letters. We have feen it, in lhort, partaking of the fa!deral nature, as much as it could in a flate, which wanted the means of recording its tranfactions. bialfed by no opinion wh:never,andmuch lefs to indulge himfelf in (peculation. He was determined folely to adhere to fact, and, by looking into the accounts left us of thofe go\·ernmcnts which were in their infancy, and, of courfe in the lcafi complicated flate, to attempt to difcover thcil' foundation; he cannot fay therefore, that upon a very minute perufal of the excellent work before quoted, he has been fo f.1r convinced, a~ to retract in the le..afl from his fcntiments on this head, and to give up maxims, which arc drawn from hiftorical facts, for thofc, which arc the rcfult of fpcculation. He may obferve here. th.1.t whether government was a conlrll8 or not, it will not affeCt the rcafoning of the prcfcnt E{fay; fince where ever the contract is afterwards mentioned, it is inferred only that its ohjeCl: was " the happinefi if the peoplr," which is confeflCdly the end of government. Notwithfl:anding this, he is under the neceflity of inferting this little note, though he almoll: feels himfelf ungrateful in contradiaing a work, which has afforded him fo much entertainment. E 2 It |