time to diminish the fum of public profperity. I do not mean, that it is neceffary to the juftice of. a measure, that it profit each and every part of the community; (for, as the happiness of the whole may be increased, whilft that of fome parts is diminished, it is poffible that the conduct of one part of an empire may be detrimental to fome other part, and yet juft, provided one part gain more in happiness than the other part lofes, fo that the common weal be augmented by the change:) but what I affirm is, that those counfels can never be reconciled with the obligations refulting from civil union, which caufe the whole happiness of the fociety to be impaired for the conveniency of a part. This conclufion is applicable to the queftion of right between Great Britain and her revolted colonies. Had I been an American, I fhould not have thought it enough to have had it even demonftrated, that a feparation from the parent state would produce effects beneficial to America; my relation to that ftate impofed upon me a further enquiry, namely, whether the whole happinefs of the empire was likely to be promoted by fuch a measure: Not indeed the happiness of every part; that was not neceffary, nor to be expected-but whether what Great Britain would lófe by the feparation

1

was likely to be compenfated to the joint ftock of happiness, by the advantages which America would receive from it. The contested claims of fovereign ftates, and their remote dependences, may be fubmitted to the adjudication of this rule with mutual fafety. A public advantage is meatured by the advantage which each individual receives, and by the number of those who receive it. A public evil is compounded of the fame proportions. Whilft, therefore, a colony is small, or a province thinly inhabited, if a competition of interefts arise between the original country and their acquired dominions, the former ought to be preferred, because it is fit that if one must necessarily be facrificed, the less give place to the greater; but when, by an increase of population, the intereft of the provinces begins to bear a confiderable proportion to the entire interest of the community, it is poffible that they may fuffer so much by their fubjection, that not only theirs, but the whole happiness of the empire may be obftructed by their union. The rule and principle of the calculation being fill the fame, the refult is different; and this difference begets a new fituation, which entitles the fubordinate parts of the ftate to more equal terms of confederation, and, if these be refused, to independency.

CHAP.

CHAP. IV.

OF THE DUTY OF CIVIL OBEDIENCE, AS STATED IN THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES.

WE

E affirm that, as to the extent of our civil rights and obligations, Christianity hath left us where she found us; that she hath neither altered nor afcertained it; that the New Teftament contains not one paffage, which, fairly interpreted, affords either argument or objection applicable to any conclufions upon the subject that are deduced from the law and religion of

nature.

The only paffages which have been seriously alleged in the controverfy, or which it is neceffary for us to ftate and examine, are the two following; the one extracted from St. Paul's, Epiftle to the Romans, the other from the First General Epiftle of St. Peter:

ROMANS, xiii. 1-7.

"Let every foul be fubject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God;

"the powers that be are ordained of God. "Whofoever therefore refifteth the power re"fifteth the ordinance of God: and they that "refift fhall receive to themselves damnation. "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but

to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of "the power? Do that which is good, and thou "fhalt have praise of the fame; for he is the “minister of God to thee for good. But if "thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he "beareth not the fword in vain: for he is the "minifter of God, a revenger to execute wrath

upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye muft "needs be fubject, not only for wrath, but also "for confcience fake. For, for this caufe pay

you tribute alfo for they are God's minifters, "attending continually upon this very thing. "Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to "whom tribute is due, cuftom to whom cuftom, "fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour."

1 PETER, ii. 13-18.

"Submit yourselves to every ordinance of "man for the Lord's fake: whether it be to the King as fupreme; or unto Governors, as unto ❝them that are fent by him for the punishment "of evil doers, and for the praise of them that

"do

"do well. For fo is the will of God, that with "well-doing ye may put to filence the igno❝rance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for 'a cloak of maliciousness, but as the fervants of God."

:

To comprehend the proper import of thefet inftructions, let the reader reflect, that upon the fubject of civil obedience there are two queftions; the first, whether to obey government be a moral duty and obligation upon the conscience at all the fecond, how far, and to what cafes, that obedience ought to extend that these two queftions are fo.diftinguishable in the imagination, that it is poffible to treat of the one, without any thought of the other; and lastly, that if expreffions which relate to one of thefe queftions be transferred and applied to the other, it is with great danger of giving them a fignification very different from the author's meaning. This distinction is not only poffible, but natural. If I met with a perfon who appeared to entertain doubts, whether civil obedience were a moral duty which ought to be voluntarily discharged, or whether it were not a mere fubmiffion to force, like that which we yield to a robber who holds a pistol to our breast, I should represent to him the ufe and offices of civil government,

the