or a relinquishment of some of them, in order to the security of the rest; whoever will claim them to their full extent, must exclude himself from a state of civil society; that is, he must abandon the liberty and security of a citizen, to roam at will as a savage amidst the wants and perils of a wilderness.

(2.) Hence every good citizen, especially if under a moderate government, will be cautious how he advances any claim or pretension, that goes beyond the present constitution and laws of his country; since (let me repeat again) every innovation is of dubious consequence; and when things on the whole are well, a wise man will wish to keep them so, without exposing them to fresh hazard. There is no topic more factious than that of our natural rights; it has overset a neighbouring country, and will overset any country where it is admitted without judgment or limitation. Nor is the matter improved by calling such rights absolutely and universally imprescriptible and unalienable; it is to call them what they are

not; since all government in its very essence implies (as we have just observed) a surrender or suspension of part of these rights, for the sake of securing the remainder; and such hyperbolical titles can serve to no other purpose than to heighten the inflammatory harangues of a seditious demagogue. Besides, every one will take care to insert in his code of rights any claim or pretension which he is strongly inclined to advance. Suppose the claim of universal suffrage has seized the imagination; this will quickly be converted into an unalienable right; and every government shall be treated as tyrannical where this pretended claim is not admitted. The case is alike with all other sweeping demands which tend, in their principle, to set aside every political test and qualification whatever; and to reduce society to an universal scramble, or to a scene of democratical and ruinous contention.

(3.) It must be allowed, indeed, that the natural rights of mankind may be more abridged, or left more at large, than is ne

cessary or agreeable to the general interest of the community. In either case, the political system is imperfect; and it concerns every good citizen, in due time and place, and by every fair and honourable method, to endeavour to correct its errors and to supply its deficiencies; till it make some approach to that happy temperament which was celebrated under the emperor Nerva, when the authority of the prince was harmoniously combined with the liberty of the subject *." It is this conjunction which constitutes the true felicity of a state under a political consideration; and to attain it, in some prevailing degree, is all that can reasonably be proposed or expected. And this brings us to the second part of the rule which we have now briefly to illustrate; namely,

II. That when the public welfare, on the whole, is provided for, it is the part of a

* "Nerva Cæsar res olim dissociabiles miscuerit, principatum ac libertatem." TAC. Agr. vita. sect. iii.

good citizen to rest satisfied in the quiet and faithful discharge of the duties of his present

station.

From what has already been advanced it may appear, that while a government continues to maintain the order and promote the general happiness of society, it deserves to be supported, whatever be its form and administration; that if indeed it can be improved or exchanged for a better, in a peaceable way, it ought to be done; but that studiously to vex and harass, and still more, any attempt to subvert such a government by force, ought severely to be condemned; war being an evil which nothing can justify but the most urgent necessity; and this, in the present supposition, has no place. A good citizen will therefore submit to many smaller grievances without murmur or complaint; and should others arise of a more grave and serious nature, he will use all gentle and regular means of redress; and before he entertains a thought of appealing to the sword, he will carry the principle of non-resistance to the last extremity; he will submit to many stretches of prerogative,

to many partial and inexpedient laws, to many abuses of power in inferior magistrates; he will submit, till government is degenerated to such a degree as no longer to answer the end of its institution; the common good.-While this on the whole is promoted, he will be ready to do full justice to the virtues and abilities of those in power, and to extenuate their faults and their imperfections. He will consider, as it is elegantly expressed in Tacitus, that "we ought to bear with the luxury and avarice of rulers, as we endure barren years, storms, and other disorders of nature; that there will be vices while there are men, yet not without some intermission; and that they are compensated by greater benefits *."

Viewing thus equitably the state of public affairs, a wise and good citizen will be modest in his demands upon his superiors; and not

* "Quomodo sterilitatem, aut nimios imbres, aut cetera naturæ mala; ita luxum aut avaritiam dominantium tolerate. Vitia erunt donec homines; sed neque hæc continua; et meliorum interventu pensantur." TAC. Hist. lib. iv. cap. 74.