PRINCIPLES

OF

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

PART THE SECOND.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE INSTITUTION AND OBJECTS OF GOVERNMENT.

In the infancy of society population is widely scattered over the earth. Man is dependent for food upon the superior soils, which scarcely afford him, in return to the severest labour, the means of subsistence. At one time he riots in abundance; at another, he is in a state approaching to starvation, when he roams over the earth ready to take by force what is required for the supply of his wants. His hand is against every man, and every man's hand is against him. He is obliged to rely upon his own powers for the protection of his person and of his property, and pursues his labours under the apprehension that the next comer may deprive him of food, of liberty, and perhaps of life.

With improvement in the machinery of cultivation he is enabled to obtain from a diminished surface larger supplies of food-to draw nearer to his fellow men-to unite with them in exertions for their common good-and to devote a larger proportion of his time to the construction of houses, and to increasing in other ways the comforts and conveniences of life. Communities are formed, and each member is enabled to rely upon his neighbour for aid against marauders. Instead of pursuing his avocations under a constant dread of attack, he works in VOL. II.-2.

security while his neighbour is on guard, and that neighbour feels equally secure when his time for labour comes round. He no longer carries his musket to the field; he is no longer compelled to limit his labours to the few acres adjoining his house; he no longer pursues those labours under the apprehension that his house may be burnt, and his wife and children carried into captivity during his temporary absence.

At length a further division of labour takes place, and to certain persons are assigned the duty of attending to defence against exterior enemies, leaving the others to pursue their avocations in peace and security. Population and property increase, and it becomes necessary to establish rules for defining the rights of the various members of the community, and officers are appointed whose duty it is to enforce attention to those rules, or laws. In other words, a government is established.†

* Political economy "shows mankind accumulating wealth, and employing this wealth in the production of other wealth; sanctioning by mutual agreement the institution of property; establishing laws to prevent individuals from encroaching on the property of others by force or fraud; adopting various contrivances for increasing the productiveness of their labour; settling the division of the produce by agreement, under the influence of competition, &e."-London and Westminster Review, October, 1836. Among the contrivances for increasing the productiveness of labour, the most important is that which gives security and enables each man to devote his time and attention to the production of the commodities necessary for his subsistence.

+ The emigrants to New England, upon their arrival, united in the following agreement for the establishment of a government: "IN THE NAME Of God, amen! We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord, King James, &c., &c., having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and the honour of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia: Do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and officers, from time to time, as shall be thought meet and convenient for the general good of the colony: unto which we promise all due submission and obedience, &c."—New England Memorial, p. 37.

A similar case is to be found, at the present day, west of the Mississippi. Upon lands belonging to the United States, not yet surveyed or offered for sale, are numerous bodies of people who have occupied them with the intention of purchasing when they shall be brought into the market. These persons are called squatters, and it is not to be supposed that they consist of the élite of the emigrants to the west; yet we are informed that they have organized a govern. ment for themselves, and regularly elect magistrates to attend to the execution of the laws. They appear, in this respect, to be worthy descendants of the pilgrims.

Upon the establishment of a government, were each individual to state what he would desire to obtain from its formation, ast likely to enable him to apply most advantageously his powers to the production of the necessaries of life, and thus most rapidly to improve his condition, it would be found that every one would ask for himself,

First, that he should be secure in his person. He would feel that unless he were so he could devote but a part of his time to production-that if he were obliged to go armed, or to be always on the watch to defend himself, he could not labour to advantage—and that if his house were liable to be attacked, or if he were exposed to be waylaid in going to or from his place of business, a large portion of his time would be lost. He would desire to be secure, on the one hand, from the incursions of invading armies, and, on the other, from the tyranny of lettres de cachet to know that if he conducted himself as a good citizen, he was not liable to be torn from the guardianship of his family and the management of his business, and that so long as he abstained from injuring others, the community guarantied him security, or redress. He would be willing to leave to the law the redress of injuries, knowing that the fear thereof was the best preventive of injury, and would render him more secure than he could otherwise be, were his powers tenfold increased. He would deem it essential to security that he should be free to perform all those actions which did not tend to the injury of others-to change his place of residence-to travel when and where it suited him-to apply his labour or his talents in such manner as he might judge to be most likely to produce advantage—to be a farmer, a brewer, a physician, or a lawyer, without being compelled to ask permission of any one. He would deem it equally essential to enjoy perfect freedom of thought-to be at liberty to investigate for himself, and to form his own opinions without the fear of injury to his person, or of being deprived of any advantages enjoyed by his neighbours, because of entertaining opinions different from those which they believed to be true. He would desire to feel at liberty to make public those opinions, so far as they did not tend to the injury of others. He would wish to feel perfectly free to publish to the world the results of his experience in production, or his views in relation to any matter of science, or art, or government, in order that while he might thereby enable his neighbour to profit by his

experience, he might benefit equally by that of others, and thus by the speedy communication of the results, lessen the risk of making, in various places, and at various times, the same fruitless attempts at improvement.

Second, he would desire to feel that his property was secure -that it was not necessary to conceal it as is common in eastern countries, but that he could safely use it in such way as he deemed most likely to promote the increase of his wealth or of his happiness; that he might invest it in ploughs or horses-in rail roads or canals-in houses or mills-in lands or stocks-in splendid establishments or rich jewelry. Without security he could not invest it in the manner that would most tend to increase his productive powers, and if not at liberty freely to expend the proceeds in such manner as was most agreeable to him, he would have no inducement to exert those powers. He would desire to have perfect control over the products of his labour; to use his commodities, or to exchange them, whether shoes, or hats, or stockings, for the wheat, cotton, or wool of his neighbours, for the sugar of the West Indian, or the tea of the Chinese, freely and without restraint of any kind; to give his shoes to the man who would give him the most corn for them, knowing that no regulation which tended to lessen the quantity of corn that they would command, could benefit him. He would feel that if a day's labour would give him a bushel of wheat produced in one place, there could be no reason why he should accept in lieu thereof, half a bushel produced in another-and that any measure that might render it necessary for him to do so, or that would compel him to apply his labour to the production of wheat, yielding him only half a bushel in return for a day's iabour, when he could obtain a bushel in exchange for the coats or shoes that he could produce in the same time and with the same exertion, would diminish his power of improving his condition. He would feel that interference with the power of freely applying his labour and freely exchanging its products, was a violation of his rights of person and of property.

Third, he would desire to have the power of retaining in his possession, and of having the enjoyment of the whole fruits of his labour. Security could not be obtained without contributions for the support of those charged with the preservation of the public peace, but he would wish to have it at

as small cost as possible, and he would desire that each member of the community should contribute in the proportion of his interest in its maintenance. Any demand upon him for more than his fair proportion of the sum necessary for the economical administration of the government, he would deem interference with his rights, tending to diminish his security.

Such would be the demand of each member of such a community, for himself. Every one would feel that if free to employ his time, attention, and talents, in such manner as appeared to himself most likely to maintain and improve his condition, his labour would be more productively applied than if he were obliged to do so under the dictation of others. There might, however, be some who would object to granting to all this perfect freedom in the employment of person or of property-in the formation or publication of opinions -in the employment of capital in aid of labour-yet were an inquiry instituted it would be found that those persons would be the last to yield to others the power to dictate to them how they should employ their time or their property, or what opinions they should entertain; or to admit that their productive powers could be augmented by any regulations. They would claim for themselves perfect freedom, although they might not be disposed to grant it to their neighbours. It would then be fair to conclude that what they desired for themselves was what they should grant to others, as tending most to enable all to attain the object for which they were about to associate themselves-the improvement of their condition.

The tendency to association is natural to man. It has its origin in the desire of maintaining and improving his condition. Each feels that he may derive benefit from his neighbour, and knows that to enable him to do so he must grant aid in his turn. If two men are thrown on an island, they associate for mutual security, but neither will grant to the other any control over his actions, nor will either contribute a larger amount of labour in building the house, or in guarding against the attacks of wild beasts, than the other. All the rules of a well constituted government exist in this case. Each recognises in the other the right to call upon him to aid in rendering his person and his property secure; each admits that he is bound to contribute equally to the maintenance of that security; and each feels that the more perfect it can be rendered, the more advantageusly