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of human happiness: of the latter, (that is, if the Constitution and Government are perfect) the Bills are still iniquitous, for they destroy the sole boundary which divides that Government from Despotism, and change that Constitution, from whose present perfectness they derive their only possible justification. In order to prove these assertions, we must briefly examine the British Constitution, or mode of Government.
Governments have assumed many different forms; but in their essence and properties, all possible modes of Government are reducible to these three: Government by the people, Government over the people, and Government with the people.
The Government is by the people, when the affairs of the whole are directed by all actually present; as among the American Tribes, and {perhaps[1]) in Athens and some other of the ancient Grecian States, or by all morally present, that is, where every man is represented, and the representatives act according to instructions. Such, I trust,will
- ↑ We say perhaps on account of the large proportion of Slaves in the ancient states, which seems to destroy their claim to the tides of republic.
