THE

GUERNSEY & JERSEY MAGAZINE.

FEBRUARY, 1836.

ON THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL GOVERNMENT.

THE true object of political government is the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers for the longest period of time. No proposition can be more simple in theory, yet none has proved more difficult of being reduced into practice. Monarchies, aristocracies, and democracies, have all existed, as well as mixed forms of government composed of fractional amalgamations of the three leading divisions; and still, in every case, the aggregate of evil has exceeded the aggregate of good, and while happiness has been the monopoly of the few, misery has been the portion of the many. These results may be ascribed either to the total absence of first principles, or the neglect of them in cases where they have been nominally recognized. The governments of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, being irresponsible and unlimited despotisms, pay no attention whatever to first principles, the will of the chief being law. In England and France, where the representative system exists, and public opinion has a mighty influence, it is impossible for the rulers to keep first principles entirely out of view, though both the legislature and the executive of these comparatively free countries limit, within the narrowest compass, their practical operation. English and French statesmen are too fond of appealing to what they call the "doctrine of expediency," the vaguest standard of right and wrong, susceptible of any and every degree of modification that may suit the purposes of men in power, the direct effect of which is to neutralize first principles, and deprive them of all their efficacy.

By the first principles of political government we understand certain indefeasible, unerring, and universally binding conditions on human existence, which spring out of, and are based upon, religion. We become acquainted with them from two sources, to wit, the light of nature, and revelation. Man, whatever may be his position in society, is obliged to fulfil those conditions, and those conditions, as will be shown hereafter, declare God to be the supreme legislator, and man the accountable agent : they announce God as the sole landlord, and man as the responsible Vol. I.-No. II.

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tenant. Hence it follows that every human being is bound, by a prior obligation to his Creator, not only to abstain from doing any act that militates against first principles, but also to carry out the application of those first principles to every department of government. Among the Jews, this notion of theocracy was avowed; among Christians, it is implied. Man is an instrument in the hand of Providence to effect the intentions of Deity to act in opposition to them, is essentially sin. We shall now endeavour to explain in what these first principles consist, so far as they are binding on human legislators.

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Natural law is a declaration of the will of God. This will is manifested by his works, that is to say, by the relations he has caused to exist between our necessities and our faculties, between ourselves and external objects.

In order that man might understand the divine will and obey its mandates, God has endowed him with reason to distinguish between good and evil; with liberty of choice to determine his conduct under the influence of motives; and with liberty of action to execute the determinations on which he may resolve.

The possession of these intellectual faculties renders man a moral being, responsible to God for the use or abuse of the privileges he enjoys, which are not in the nature of absolute property, but in the nature of a trust, to which accountability is attached. Consequently, the morality of human actions is their conformity, or opposition, to natural law.

From the truth of all natural laws having God for their author, their character, their authority, and their sanction, are deducible. These are to be inferred from the attributes of the supreme legislator. They are immutable, because, God being perfect, neither succession nor change can exist in his decrees; coherent, because an infinite intelligence can never be involved in contradictions; universal, because divine justice requires that they should impose similar obligations on the whole human race. Such are the characteristics of natural laws, and it is sufficient to know that they emanate from God, to induce every reflecting man to pay them obedience.

Law confers rights; but the creation of a right necessarily involves the idea of a wrong; hence it follows, that law imposes duties. The duties imposed on man by natural law are fourfold; a duty to God, a duty to himself, a duty to his fellow creatures, and a duty to external objects.

The first relations of man, if not in the order of our ideas, at least in the order of our obligations, are those which connect him with the author of his being. It is to God that man owes his existence, and all the advantages he possesses over other animals: it is God who sustains his present life, and can, if he pleases, extend it after death to an eternity of happiFor his Providence, man owes to his Creator love and gratitude: his omnipotence he is bound to reverence and adore. It is the conviction

ness.

we feel of the goodness, power, and wisdom of God, that creates religion, the only sure foundation of public and private felicity, the salutary influence of which has never been questioned by wise legislators, who have studied the well being of society.

The manifestation of those sentiments which arise from our ideas of Deity, constitutes worship, which is either internal or external. The former resides in the soul, and consists in the mental feeling or consciousness of the religious sentiment. The second is comprised in those outward observances of ecclesiastical discipline, which are overt acts declaratory of our faith. To limit religion to internal worship, or to confine it to external worship, would generate two extremes; truth, which is in the centre, is connected with either, and therefore, true religion requires both these descriptions of worship.

Legislation can only influence external worship, which it ought to encourage by the mild influence of persuasion, without coercing by authority. Pains or penalties are useless, for belief is an involuntary operation of the mind, and cannot be forced; they are moreover unjust, because they trample down the natural rights of man, the most precious of which is liberty of conscience.

The love of self, that primitive feeling, indestructible in its character, and inseparable from the nature of all living beings, leads man to refer all his actions to his own personal individuality. The object nearest to his heart is the sustentation of life, and the improvement of his condition. This is his ruling thought, and his actions are correspondent. This is the second obligation which the natural law imposes, from which are derived all the duties which we owe to ourselves.

These duties relate to our physical and moral existence. In reference to the former, man is bound, as much as possible, to preserve his body in a perfect state of health, which obligation renders temperance a virtue. He ought to exercise the most guarded discretion in all sensual pleasures, not however to the total abnegation of rational indulgence, for that would amount to ascetism: but he should so restrain the gratification of his passions, that they may be a pure source of happiness, and not a curse. Sensual pleasure is a treacherous friend, who caresses his companion so long as he can find the means of convivial enjoyment, but quits him when he is ruined.

In reference to our moral existence, it is a duty to cultivate intellectual pleasure, which consists in the research after truth. We are bound to fortify our minds against ignorance, which is the privation of ideas, and equally so against error, which is the opposition of ideas to the real nature of things, the consequences of which are more dangerous than those of absolute ignorance, which is, as it were, the middle term between truth and error.

Every man is united to his fellow creatures, as his fellow creatures are

united to him, by identity of origin and final destination, by an instinctive inclination, and by reciprocal wants which require reciprocal aid. All the natural duties which result from these relations of man with man, are based on the principle of "sociability," which includes all the affections which prompt him to live with his fellow creatures.

The first condition of social intercourse is the domestic state, involving those relations of family which flow out of marriage. The desires which attract the sexes take their origin in the physical order of nature, but when they are strictly limited to that source, they are general in their object, and precarious in their duration. When a preference exists, founded on moral esteem, then the sexual attachment is grounded on natural law, having for its object the continuation of the species. The passion then ceases to be purely animal, and becomes intellectual. Thus marriage becomes a positive contract, imposing reciprocal obligations on the husband and wife, and a joint duty to maintain their offspring.

It has been disputed whether strict equality should exist between the sexes, or whether the wife should obey the husband. Such questions, however, are only suited to the unprofitable ingenuity of sophists. In species, they are the same: in sex, different. Had they resembled each other more, they would have had less inclination for marriage: nature made them different to ensure their union.

Natural law compels the parents to take care of their children, and not simply to feed, clothe, and house them, which duties are limited to their physical preservation, but also to instruct them in sound religious principles, both by precept and example, which relates to their moral character. Children owe to their parents love and gratitude, and it becomes their sacred duty to maintain them in old age, to nurse them in sickness, and shield them in adversity.

Such are the rights and duties which obtain among the members of the same family. We are now to consider the natural rights and duties of associated families towards each other, which are the bases of political government.

All the duties which man, without reference to his family obligations, is bound to perform towards his fellow creatures, consist in respecting the rights which they hold from one and the same Creator. That we may know and understand the character of those rights, the natural law incessantly reminds us that God is our supreme legislator, and that we are entirely in his hand. It tells us that He has rights over us which precede any right that we may have over our fellow creatures, or over any of the external objects of animate or inanimate nature. Correspondent with those rights of the Creator over the creature are the duties which the creature owes to the Creator, and out of these duties are evolved the perfect rights which are thus vested in every man, and which every other man is bound to respect and guarantee.

These perfect rights are expressed by the words property, liberty, equality, and security, each of which terms, well understood, contains all the others. Man holds from God a property in his own person, that is to say, in all his physical and intellectual qualities. From this it is deducible that man has a right to procure all things needful to support his existence, and render life agreeable, and further, to have such an ample and secure possession of them, as to enjoy them without restraint, and dispose of them according to his inclination. In all this consists the right of property.

To have the full benefit of this right, the free and unfettered exercise of his faculties is indispensable to man, and this constitutes the right of liberty. But liberty is common to all, and to prevent its being the exclusive privilege of a few by usurpation, no man ought to be allowed with impunity to attack or abridge the liberty of his neighbour. This implies a limitation in its exercise, but only to the extent of not allowing one man to take away the share of another, and in this sense it is not a restriction of natural law, but a guarantee for its due observance, and it thus establishes equality. Equality, in its true and unperverted signification, is the right of every man to be protected against all such acts of any other man, the doing of which acts is not permitted, under similar circumstances, to all men; for the rights of any given individual are the same as the rights of every other individual, and therefore of all individuals; consequently, no given individual can be disturbed in the exercise of his own rights.

Since, then, natural law confers on man the rights of property, liberty, and equality, it also gives, by implication, a sufficient guarantee for their full and free enjoyment, which constitutes the right of security. Man, therefore, is allowed to repel all unlawful attacks which threaten to disturb those rights which he claims from natural law.

This view of the subject leads to the important conclusion, that all the natural rights of man flow out of his duties to God, for if man were deprived of those rights by any human law, he would also be deprived of the means of accomplishing the object for which he was created. He was born to live a certain number of years, and continue his species; consequently, he has a perfect indefeasible right to the means of subsistence, or, in other terms, to property. He is endowed with reason to guide his conduct; therefore, he has a perfect indefeasible right to cultivate his understanding, and express his thoughts without restraint, in which is involved the idea of liberty. He could not do these acts if a privileged class were to prescribe to the many what food they should eat, what dwellings they should inhabit, what apparel they should wear, or within what limit they should cultivate their understanding; consequently, man has a perfect indefeasible right to equality. But it is not sufficient that these rights should be merely acknowledged as a simple theory they must be practically enforced, and protected against the