measures of value, and necessary to the exigencies of war, as well as in the operations of peace.

5. An establishment for the functions of religion, which of all functions are the most venerable.

6. Councils of deliberation, and courts of justice, which are of all establishments the most necessary.

Any of these objects being wanting, the commonwealth is imperfect or incapable of answering its end. In every commonwealth, therefore, there must be husbandmen, artisans, soldiers, merchants, priests, and judges; but, however necessary to the purposes of accommodation and comfortable subsistence, the productive labour of peasants and artisans is not to be confounded nor classed with the high political functions of priests, magistrates, and soldiers.

A city or commonwealth, therefore, is nothing else than a collection of citizens sufficiently numerous for attaining that purpose of comfortable subsistence for which civil society was instituted. Man is naturally a herding and political animal. He delights in the company of others, but utility soon strengthens the association which nature has collected. The comfortable subsistence then of the whole body col

Н

lectively, and of each individual separately, ought to be regarded as the end and purpose for which communities have assembled, and the bond by which they are held together. There is a strict coincidence of interest :-in political partnership, which aims at well being, the art of government, like all other arts, is practised directly and principally for the benefit of those over whom it is exercised, that is, the good of the governed; and those governments therefore, which consult the good of the public, and those only, are right and just. As to justice, the partisans of democracy assert it to be nothing but equality; adding, that where men are equal in liberty they are entitled to an equal enjoyment of all other advantages. Justice, the partisans of monarchy and oligarchy maintain (and maintain rightly), to consist not in equality, but in proportion: not in this-that the share of all be equal but in this-that each man have his due.-Arist. Pol. Sparsim.

Wars defensive, are those undertaken for the protection of our persons and properties.

Offensive.-Those made to obtain our due in virtue of a perfect right, or to obtain satisfaction for a damage unjustly done, and caution for the future.

There is a material difference between these

two motives for war-the enlargement of dominion, and the defence of rightful possessions. When an invasion is to be repelled, the contest is supported to the utmost; not so for the objects of ambition. Men will, indeed, attempt to gratify this passion, if permitted; but if opposed, they do not charge the opposition as injurious. -Demosthenes pro Rhodians.

It is a fallacy to extend to mankind in general observations and rules in respect to government that have been found applicable to some particular communities only. Government is nothing else but the arrangement of individuals in a state, and the propriety of every arrangement or composition must depend on the number and nature of its materials.-Arist. Pol.

If we cultivate commerce it should be for accommodation only, not for gain. Our citizens are not to degrade themselves into brokers and carriers, nor to squander away in the arts of luxury that labour which may be far more profitably, as well as more honourably, employed in the cultivation of the soil and in the production of necessaries: the occupation which is of all others the best adapted to the bulk of mankind, the most favourable to the health of their minds and bodies, and therefore the best fitted to promote national prosperity.—Arist. Pol.

A life of mechanical drudgery, or a life of haggling commerce, is totally incompatible with that dignified life which it is our wish that our citizens should lead, and totally averse to that generous elevation of mind with which it is our ambition to inspire them.-ib.

The productive labour, therefore, of peasants and artisans, how necessary soever to the purposes of outward accommodation and comfortable subsistence, is not to be confounded nor elassed with the high political functions of priests, magistrates, and soldiers, &c.-ib.

GOVERNMENT.

Ut enim tutela, sic procuratio reipublicæ, ad utilitatem eorum qui commissi sunt, non ad eorum, quibus commissa, gerenda est.-Cic. Off. 33.

To the same purport (Aristot. 241.)—the government of a commonwealth is instituted for the benefit of the governed.

The community of goods is repressive of exertion and even destructive of virtue; yet, though possessions should be strictly appropriated their uses should be freely communicated.—Aristot. Pol. 233.

The general division of governments is into

monarchies, aristocracies, and republics, ib. 281; but such a variety of dispositions, habits, manners, and characters, must necessarily flow from the differences in the parts or elements of society as must render those arrangements which suit one people altogether unsuitable to that of another.—ib. 286.

The stability of government is placed by him chiefly in the three following points.-1. The respect due to age and experience; 2. The distribution of honors and offices, according to evident and approved merit; and, 3. An education accurately adapted to the pattern of the commonwealth: and that a government residing chiefly in men of the middle rank, is, of all popular constitutions, the safest and best, and less liable to change and innovation from demagogues.

Cedo, qui vestram rempublicam tantam, amisistis tam cito. Proveniebanti oratores, novi, stulti, adolescentuli.—A saying of Cuto's, cited in the Treatise de Senectute.

National good ought not to be estimated merely by extent of territory, richness of revenue, and commercial importance: since pure religion, good morals, fine taste, and solid literature, while they contribute to elevate human nature, contribute also to render private