letter. The RIGHT GOVERNMENT of a COMMON • WEALTH EXAMINED. {Continuedfroth our la]}.'] larchamont Nedham lays it down as a funda mental principle, and an undeniable rule, " that ...e people, that is, Inch as ihall be fucceflivcly " chosen to represent the people, are the belt keepers 01 their own liberties, and that for many reaions : firfl, because they never think " of ufarping over other men's rights, but mind " which way to preserve their own." Our fir ft attention fliould be turned to the pro polition irfelf, " The people art the belt keepers " oi their own liberties." But who are the peo pie ? '• Such as fiiall be fbcceUively chosen to re " prefcnt them."_ Here is a confufion both of words and ideas, which, though it may pals with the generality of readers in a fugitive pamphlet, or witlj a majority of auditors in a popular ha rangue, ought, for that very reason, to be as carefully avoided in politics as it is inphilofophy or mathematics. If by the people is meant the whole body of a great nation, it fliould never be forgotten, that they can never atfl, consult or rea son together, because they cannot march five hundred miles, nor spare the'time, nor find a space so meet; and therefore the propofitio'n, that they are the bell keepers of their own liberties, is not true. They are the worlt conceivable ; they arc no keepeis at all: fh?y can neither aift, judge, think, or will, as a body politic or corporation.- If by the people is meant all the inhabitants of a ftngle city, they are not in a-general afleniljjy, at all times, the belt keepers of their own liber ties, norperhaps at any time, ur.lefs you i'epa rate ii oin them the executive and judicial power, and temper their authority in legiilation with the mature councils of tWe oue and the few. If it is meant by the people, as our author explains him felf, a representative a'dlmbly, " fueh as shall be " successively chosen to represent the people," they are not Hill the best keepers of the people's liberties, or their own, if ypu give them all the power, legislative, executive, an [judicial: they Would invade the liberties of the people, at lealt the majority of them would invade the liberties of the minority, sooner and ofceiier than an ab solute monarchy, such as that of France, Spain, or Ruflia, or than a well checked like Venice, Bern, or Holland. An excellent writer has laid, somewhat incautioully, that" a ".people wili never oppress themlel vesj or invade << their own rights." This compliment, if ap plied to human nature, or to mankind, or to any nation or people in being or in memory, is more than has been merited. If it should be'admitted, that a people will not unanimously agree to op press thejnfcvfs, it is as much as is ever, and more than is always, true. All kinds of experi ence shew, that greater numbers of individuals do oppress great lumbers of other individuals; that pdrtie-; often, if not always, oppress other parties ; and majorities almost universally mino rities. All that this observation can mean then, consistently with any colour of fact, is, that the people will never unanimously agree to oppress themselves: but if one parry agrees to oppress another, or the majority the minority, the peo pie still opprels tliemfelvcs, for one part of them opprfcfc another.—" The people never think of " ufarping over other men's rights." What can this mekn ? l!>oes it mean that the people never itn'anitmu'ilv think of usurping over other men's, rights ? l'liis would be trifling, for there would, by the supposition, be no other men's rights to "ttfurp. But if the people never jointly, nor fe derally, think of usurping the rights of others, ■what occafton can there be for any government at :rll ? Are there no robberies, burglaries, murders, adulteries, thefts, norpheats? Is not every crime an usurpation over other men's rights ? Is not a great part, I will not fay the greatest part, of men detected every day in some difpolition or other, stronger or weaker, moreorlefs, toufurp over other men's rights ? There are some few, indeed, whose V/hole lives and conventions (how, that in every thought, word, and action, they confcientiouily re fpecl the rights of others : there lis a larger body still, who, in the general tenor of thoughts and actions, dil'cover similar principles and feelings, yet frequently err. If we fliould extend our candour so far as to own that the majority of men are generally under the • dominion of benevolence aud good intentions, yet it must be confefled that a valt majority fre quently transgress; and, what is more diretftlv to the point, not only a majority, butalmoftall, confine their benevolence to their families, rela fions, personal friends, parish, village, city, county, province, and that very few indeed ex rend it impartially to the whole community, Now g ant but this truth, and the quqftion is decided : If a majority are capable of preferring tneir own private interest, or that of their fami lies, counties, and part;, to. that.of the nation fouie provision niuft be made in the constitution, in favour of justice, to compel all to rcfpec'i the common right, the public good, the universal law, jji preference .to all private and partial considerations. The proposition of our author then fhouhl be reversed, and it ihould have been said, that they mind so much their own, that they never think enough of others. Suppose a nation, rich and poor, high and low, ten millions in number, all afleinbled together; not more than one cr two millions will have lands, houses, or any personal property : If we take into the account the women and children, or even if we leave thein out of the quefHon, a great majority of every nation is wholly destitute of property, except a small quan tify of clothes, and a few trifles of other move ables. Would Mr. Nedham be rejfponfible that, if all were to be decided by a vote of the majority, the eight or nine millions who have no property, would not think of usurping over the rights of the one or two millions who have ? Property is surely a right of mankind as really as liberty. Perhaps, at firft, prejudice,habit, fhanie, or fear, principle or religion, would restrain the poor from attacking the rich, and the idle from usurping on the industrious ; but the time would not be long before courage and enterprize would come, and pretexts be invented by degrees, to countenance the majority in dividing all he property amono them, oral least i.i fhaiing it equally with its pre sent pofiellors. Debts would be abolished firft; ta\es laid heavy on the rich, and not at all on the others ; and at lad a downright equal division of every thing be demanded, and voted. What would be the confeqnence of this ? The idle, the vicious, the intemperate, would rush into the ut iii oft extravagance of debauchery, fell and spend all theirfljare, and then demand a new division of tliofe who purchased from them. The moment the i lea : s admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarfhj- and tyranny commence. If " Thou '• SHALT NOT COVET," and " I Hot? SHALT NOT " steal." were not commandments of Heaven, the) must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can b? civilized or made free. If the firft part of the proposition, viz. thai "the " pc oj : never think of usurping over other " men's lights,' cannot be admitted, is the se cond, viz. that " they mind which way to pre " serve their own," better founded ? There is in every nation and people under Heaven a large proportion of persons who take no rational and prudent precautions to preserve what they have, much left to acquire more. Indolence is the natural character of man to such a degree, that nothing bur the necefljties of hunger, thirst, and other wants equally pressing, can him to action, until education is introduced in civi lized societies, and the strongest motives of ambi tion to ejccel in arts, trades, and profeflions, are established in the minds of all men : Until this emulation is introduced, the lazy savage holds property in too little eftitnation to trouble for the preservation or acquisition of ir. In societies the most cultivated and polished, vanity, fafliion, and folly, prevail over every thought of ways to preserve their own: They seem rather chiefly to study what means of'luxury, dissipation and extravagance, they can invent to get rid of it. " Tire cafe is far otlierwife among " Kings and grandees," fays our author, "as all " nations in the world have felt to some purpose that is, in other words, Kings and grandees think of usurping over other ihen's rights, but do not mnid w: ich way to" preserve their own. It is very easy to flatter the deinocratical portion of society, by making such distinctions between them and the monarchical and ariftocratical; but flat tery is as base an artifice, and as pernicious a vice, when offered to the people; as when given to the oihers. There is no reason to believe the one much honefter or wiser than the other ; they are all of the fame clay, their minds and bodies are alike. The two latter have more knowledge and sagacity derived from education, and more advantages for acqui ing wisdom and virtue. As to usurping others rights, they are all three equally o- u ilty when unlimited in power: No wife man wiTl trust either with an opportunity ; and every judicious legillator will let all three to watch and controul each oilier. We may appeal to every page of hiltory we have hitherto turned over, for woofs irrefragable, that the people,when they have been unchecked, have been as unjust, tyrannical, bru fal.barbarous, and cruel, as any King or Senate poliefled of uncontronlable power : The majority has eternally, and without one exception, usurped over the rights of tlieroinority. '" They naturally " move," fays Nedham, " within the circle of " domination, as in their proper centre." When writerson legislation have recourse to poetry thei. images may be beautiful, butthey prove nothing 1 his however, has neither the merit of a brilliant figure, nor of a convincing argument: The popu lace, the rabble, the canaille, move as naturally in the circle of domination, whenever they dare, as the Nobles or a King; nay, although it may give pain, truth and experience force us to add that even the middling people, wlien unfcontroul ed, have moved in the fame circle, and have not only tyrannized over all above and all below but the majority among themfelvcs lias tyrannized over the minority. " Aiid count it no leiis fecn " rity than wisdom and policy, to brave it ov e . " rhc people." Declamatory fjourilhes, although they may fnrnilh a mob with watch-words, afford no reasonable convitftion to the nnderftanding. What is meant by braving it > In the liilkory of Holland you will Tee the people braving it ever the De Witts and in that of Florence', Siena, Bologna, Piltoia, and the reft, over many others! " Csefar, Crailus, and another, made a contract with each other, that nothing ihould be done " without the concurrence of all three; Spa it a-, " tern intert y uequid agerttur in rtpub/ica, quad dij. " ulti y e tribus." Nedham could not have felecfted a less fortunate example for his purpose since there never was a more arrant creature ci' the people than Carfar ; 110, not even C atilline Wat Tyler, Maffianello, or Shafe. Th> people created Csfar on the ruins of the Senate, 2nd oil purpose to usurp over the rights of others. Ll; this example, among innumerable others, is \*ry ajipofite for our purpose. >• (To be continued-) MISCELLANEOUS. [London.'] It is thought that Dr. Wiliis will not retire from town, as it is expected there may be great occasion for his abilities for the relief oV several members of the opposition, whole. heads are not strong enough to bear the lhock caui'ed by a late recovery. of French forces are eXpet'ctd to march into Flanders, orders having been received at Bruxelles to prepare barrativs lor them ; they are to poflefs.tliemielves of and Nieuport. The Speaker applied to Sir Joshua to have his portrait drawn, adorned with the official robes, but exprefled his fears at the difficulty whiehmult arise in doing proper justice to the win r-Sir Joshua replied, "be not alarmed, Mr. Grenville, for I afl'ure you there is nothing in that!" Ihe Fate or Genius.—Many a wife head, and many a worthy heart, are doomed to ache with the preftiire of human fufferings, living in misery, and dying in obfeuritv and want, while the duller worms of mortality fatten on the nar row ol prosperity, living to tlienifelves alone, with minds incapable of expanding, and forbid den by fordid principles to do good and benefit mankind.—The following short, but ir.elancholly lift, proves the juftnels of a remark which wounds sensibility : Plautus turned a mill '; Terence was a Cave; Boethius died in a gaol; Paolo Borghere had 14 different trades, yet starved with them all; Taf fo was often diftrefled for five shillings; Benti voglio was refufed admilfion into an hospital he had himfelf erec r ted ; Cervantes died of hunger ; Camoens ended his days in an alms-lioufe; and \'angelus left his body to the surgeons, to pay his debts, as far as it would go ! [ Pittjburgy Penn. May 2. J Died on the 2?th nit. 1 homas Hutchins, Esq. formerly a Captain in the Britilh army, and late Geographer Ge neral to the United States. Hisillnefs had been of i'orae months continuance. It was not such as to give him great pain, being a gradual failingof the nerves, and analmoft ihfennble waste of the constitution. He was in a country where he had been early known, and to which he had a parti cular attachment; in the house of his particular friend, John Ormfbv. He wr^- daily visited dur ing liis indisposition by thu» this place, and by gentlemen occasionally resident or palling through irom different parts of the continent. His fune ral was attended by a considerable concourse of people, and the service read at his obfequi'es, by ■ lr. Heckenwelder, a Moravian clergyman, acci dentally present, and who had long known the deceased. His merit is well known; a man greatly ami able ; and integrity his predominant quality.— 1 Ie gave a proof of this which few have it in their power to give, viz. relinquifliing his commission, worth 15001. for the fake of America, his native country, and lying some time in irons before he was able to make his efeape from the dungeon in England. His map early laid the foundation of American and his services since his appoint ment under the United States, have been uriver fally acknowledged. He has measured much earth, but a small space now contains him. By a gentleman who arrived here a few days ago from S:in lufky, we are informed, that news was brought there before he left it, of five paities of Indians, of different tribes, preparingto <*o to war; it is said they intend for the frontiers of Kentucky and the Ohio, to watch for beats coming down that river. Th' s nforrtiation, we hope, will shew the necefTity to tliofe goinj down the river, of being well prepared, as much danger is un doubtedly to be apprehended. (ts Completefeltsfrom the beginning, cf the GAZETTE Of I [JA IT ED 'il.il ES, may at any time be obtained by thvfe ivhochujito fu'-f.nlefor that pulslicaiwh, at'he. EdttofsOJicc, No. 9, Mutien-Lar.t. Published by JOHN FENNO, No. 9, Maide*"- Lan i., near tfce Os wecp-Markit, Niw-Yos k.
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