TIIEIE POLITICAL CKEBD.

431

•Wi

pressing tlie weak, the crafty cheating tlie simple, and thedishonest plundering the honest,

But though the external government has a perfect moralright to take care that each man does his duty to liis neighbour,it has no title whatsoever to interfere with any one's duty tohimself; in a Word, though it may justly prevent an individualfrom destroying the happiness of his fellows, it cannot, withany show of reason, compel him to promote his own. It may,and indeed onght, to put a stop to assaults, and robbery, andplunder, but it should not prescribe the hour at which we areto go to bed, and clothes we should wear, or f'ood we shouldeat, or how and where we should worship the Almighty. This,it is manifest, constitutes the broad line of demarcation be-tween enlightened government and despotism—the one dealsonly with the public duties and rights of individuals, whilstthe other meddles with their private ones.

Piain as the above distinction appears, it has neverthelesstaken ages upon ages to make monarchs and ministers com-prehend the principle; so that formerly we not only had acurfew-bell to ring the simple people to bed at a seasonablehour, but we had sumptuary laws to regulato the expenses ofthe different members of society, and which not only prescribedthe costume that each was to appear in, but positively limitedthe length of the shoes to be worn by Masters Brown, Jones,and Robinson; whilst the most frivolous and vexatious re-strictions were placed upon trade and business, as if it werethe object of government to raise every possible impediment toa man's earnino; an honest Irving.

In England, luckily, we havo outlived such political tom-foolery, and it has grown into a maxim now with the wiseststatesmen, that " the best government is that which governsthe least,"—consistently, of course, with security to the personsand possessions of the Community.