Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness, and faction/Section 25

 

SECT.⁠XXV.

 

Of some concomitant Remedies.

 

LET us now consider, what might be in the Power of the Legislature and the Magistrate immediately to effect.

1. 'Tis generally acknowledged, that Power naturally follows Property. Therefore exorbitant Property in Individuals must always be unfavourable to civil Liberty; must always tend to produce Licentiousness and Faction; because it throws exorbitant Power into the Hands of Individuals: And the greater the Inequality between the Poor and Rich, the more the one will ever be under the Influence of the other.

It should seem, then, to be the particular Interest even of the most Wealthy, if they be the real Friends of Liberty,—'tis certainly the general Interest of a free Community; that some legal Limitation of Property should take Place. I speak not of the Probability, but the Expediency of such a Measure.

2. It follows, that some Regulation in Respect to Boroughs would be of great Importance. For in Boroughs, contrary to all sound Policy, "Power is lodged without annexed Property." The natural Consequence is, that "this ill-placed Power will be seized by Those who are possessed of exorbitant Property." Thus Power settles on its natural Foundation: But a Foundation, in this Instance, most dangerous to Freedom; as it leads to the Establishment of an Aristocracy. In This Instance, too, I speak not of the Probability, but the Expediency of the Measure.

3. The Limitation of extended Conquest and Empire might seem an Object worthy the Attention of the highest Powers.—Rome perished by its Avidity of unbounded Empire. Colonies, when peopled beyond a certain Degree, become a Burthen to the Mother Country: They exhaust her Numbers; they distract her Attention; they divide her compacted Strength. Such Extent of Colonies, as may be necessary to maintain the Empire of the Seas, will always be a just Object of British Regard. More than this, sound Policy perhaps could hardly dictate.

4. This Limitation is of more Importance, as it would naturally set Bounds to another Excess: I mean, That of Trade and Wealth. This, the Writer knows, is of all other Topics the most unpopular: Notwithstanding which, he presumes to persist in what appears to Him a demonstrative Truth, that "exorbitant Trade and Wealth are most dangerous to private Virtue and therefore to public Freedom." The Topic is too large, to be here insisted on. He therefore refers to what he hath already written on this Subject;^[1] which hath been much clamoured against, indeed; but never confuted.^[2]

5. The immediate Care of upright Manners and Principles might seem an Object worthy the strictest Attention both of the Legislature and Magistrate.

To this End, if the growing Spirit of Novelty and Adoption could by any Means be checked, it would be a Work attended with the most salutary Consequences. The Writer would not willingly be thought chimerically to adopt all the Rigours of the Spartan State: But could wish to see a Law enacted, parallel to That of Lacedaemon, by which their raw and unexperienced Youth were prohibited from bringing Home the new Follies and Vices of foreign Countries, picked up in a premature and too early Travel.^[3]

He would by no Means discourage the Freedom of the Press: Yet, sure, its Licentiousness might seem an Object of the Magistrate's Regard. The Search of Truth is good: But to search for This in the Hoards of Irreligion, is like searching for Hope in Pandora's Box; where the sole Reward of Industry can only be Pestilence, Despair and Death. National Virtue never was maintained, but by national Religion: He, therefore, who shakes the essential Principles of Religion, undermines the Virtue of his Fellow-Subjects; and therefore deserves to feel the Rigour of the Law, as a determined Enemy of his Country—This may seem a practicable Remedy: But how to destroy those irreligious Writings, which already lie exposed on Stalls and Counters, or deposited in private Libraries, like so many Heaps of Poison, for the Gratification of Vice, and the Destruction of Virtue:—Or how to pluck from the Minds of Men those poisoned Arrows, which these Authors have already planted there!—That were a Task indeed!—The Shaft is already flown; and cannot be recalled: And this Nation, thro' succeeding Times will have Cause to say,—"Haeret Lateri lethalis Arundo."

Immoral Writings should seem no less the Object of the Magistrate's Attention. Tho' These may not shake the Principles, yet they inevitably corrupt the Manners of a Nation.

Personal Defamation, or Calumny thrown on private Characters, is another Evil, which seems rising at present with unheard-of Aggravations. Two flagrant Instances of This Enormity the Writer will pass unnoticed, lest he should seem to insult over the Exiled or the Dead.^[4]

1. See Estimate, Part iii. passim.
2. For the Conviction of Those who chuse rather to attend to present than future Consequences, the following Circumstance may deserve Notice. Much hath been said "on the Cause of the present exorbitant Price of Provisions, and general Distress of the Poor:" Every Cause hath been assigned except the true one, which seems to be "the sinking Value of Money, arising necessarily from the exorbitant Increase of Trade and Wealth." If this be so, it follows, that the Evil is incurable, excepting only by a general Augmentation of the Wages of the Poor.—Now This, which is the necessary Effect of the Exorbitancy of Commerce, naturally tends (by the increased Price of Manufactures) to the Destruction of Commerce. If the Exorbitancy of Trade should still run higher, this Evil will be aggravated in Proportion. The Consequences which must follow, are such as the Writer chuseth not to enlarge on; because he knows, the Spirit of the Times would not bear it.
3. See Estimate, Vol. ii. Part i. Sect. 10.
4. In these two Kinds of modern Profligacy, immoral Writings, and personal Calumny, there is one professed Author, now said to be living in this Kingdom with Impunity; who, in a better policed State would ere this have felt the full Weight of that public Punishment and Infamy which is due to an Enemy of Mankind. This Man, supposed to be one C——, first writ a Volume of execrable Memoirs, for the Corruption of Youth and Innocence: Since That, a Reverie, or Dream, which Hunger and Malice probably conspired to suggest; replete with the most impudent Falsehoods, and injurious Calumnies on Individuals, for the Entertainment of base and envious Minds.