654.

Necessity includes the idea of inevitable. Whereever it is so, it creates a law to which all positive laws, and all positive rights, must give way.-Letters of Junius.

655.

No institutions of man, however solid in their fundamental principles, and however beneficial in their general tendencies, can be fenced against the incursions of contingent evil.-Dr Parr.

656.

The laws of England provide, as effectually as any human laws can do, for the protection of the subject, in his reputation, as well as in his person and property.-Letters of Junius.

657.

The advantages of wise institutions can be sought for only in an inflexible observance of them. -Chinese maxim.

658.

Impunity and remissness for certain are the bane of a commonwealth; but here the great art lies, to discern in what the law is to bid restraint and punishment, and in what things persuasion only is to work.-John Milton.

659.

One of the firmest supports of princes and statesmen, is the general distribution of moderate wealth, and the multiplication of domestic comforts among the members of the community.-W. B. Clulow.

660.

The pure and impartial administration of justice is, perhaps, the firmest bond to secure a cheerful submission of the people, and to engage their affections to government.-Letters of Junius.

661.

Through idleness, negligence, and too much

L

trust in fortune, not only men, but cities and kingdoms, have been utterly lost and destroyed.

662.

Liberty and property are precarious, unless the possessors have sense and spirit enough to defend them.-Letters of Junius.

663.

Good sense is common sense well applied. The possession of it is shewn in the use.—W. Danby.

664.

Sound policy is never at variance with substantial justice.-Dr Parr.

665.

I question whether affairs were not conducted as wisely, at least as successfully, in times of antiquity, when auguries and oracles, events of an accidental nature, or the decisions of individual opinion, formed the rules of procedure, as in the present epoch, when political skill and deliberative counsel are the ostensible directors of government. Under any species of administration, it is seldom that both intellect and integrity have a predominating sway; and in the transactions of empires, success is often attained not so much by well-adjusted schemes, as by a happy concurrence of fortuitous incidents. With regard however to the ancient practice of divination, it is but fair to mention that those to whom it was chiefly intrusted, as among the Romans, the college of augurs, the haruspices, and the interpreters of the Sibylline prophecies, were usually persons more or less connected with the government or magistracy, and whose explanations therefore were in great measure determined by reasons of state. The oracles in particular, it is well known, were often bribed by those who consulted them; so that both auguries and oracular responses were less influenced by chance, than might at first be supposed.-W. B. Clulow.

666.

There are three great maxims to be observed by those who hold public situations; viz. to be upright, to be circumspect,-to be diligent. Those who know these three rules, know that by which they will ensure their own safety in office.-Chinese maxim.

667.

Ignorance, indeed, so far as it may be resolved into natural inability, is, as to men at least, inculpable, and consequently not the object of scorn, but pity; but in a governor, it cannot be without the conjunction of the highest impudence; for who bid such an one aspire to teach and to govern? A blind man sitting in the chimney-corner is pardonable enough, but sitting at the helm he is intolerable. If men will be ignorant and illiterate, let them be so in private, and to themselves, and not set their defects in a high place, to make them visible and conspicuous. If owls will not be hooted at, let them keep close within the tree, and not perch upon the upper boughs.-Dr South.

668.

If governors were actuated by the same benevolent spirit which Christianity was meant to infuse into the minds of those whom they are appointed to govern,—if justice and mercy, which are recommended to all the followers of our Blessed Redeemer, without regard to the infinitely varied and continually changing distinctions of climate, custom, laws, rank, and fortune, and the obligations to which are modified, but not suspended, by such distinctions, really pervaded the whole of a community, every corruption would be purified; every abuse would be corrected; every violence would be averted; and the blessings of public as well as private life would be more widely diffused, and more permanently secured. The honest magistrate,

the wise legislator, the brave warrior, and the upright patriot, might, each in his own province, claim to himself the appellation of a good Christian.—

Dr Parr.

669.

There is a gradual and silent extension of power, which in its effects is scarcely less pernicious than usurpation; when under specious pretexts of necessity, it has been permitted to answer other purposes than those for which it was primarily conferred; and when, having imperceptibly obtained the force of immemorial usage, it represses all investigation into its comparative merits and demerits in the actual business of life.-Dr Parr.

670.

The violation of the law should not be measured by the magnitude of the instance, but by the important consequences which flow from the principle. — Letters of Junius.

671:

It is equally criminal in the governor, and the governed, to violate the laws.-Chinese maxim. 672.

Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough, to be trusted with unlimited power; for, whatever qualifications he may have evinced to entitle him to the possession of so dangerous a privilege, yet, when possessed, others can no longer answer for him, because he can no longer answer for himself.-Lacon.

673.

Wisdom and power are perfections only as they are in conjunction with justice and goodness.Dr Whichcote.

674.

There is a manifest marked distinction, which ill men with ill designs, or weak men incapable of

any design, will constantly be confounding, that is, a marked distinction between change and reformation. The former alters the substance of the objects themselves, and gets rid of all their essential good, as well as all the accidental evil annexed to them. Change is novelty; and whether it is to operate any one of the effects of reformation at all, or whether it may not contradict the very principle upon which reformation is desired, cannot be certainly known beforehand. Reform is, not a change in the substance, or in the primary modification of the object, but a direct application of a remedy to the grievance complained of. So far as that is removed, all is sure. It stops there; and if it fails, the substance which underwent the operation, at the very worst, is but where it was. To innovate is not to reform.Burke.

675.

The world will not endure to hear that we are wiser than any have been which went before. In which consideration there is cause why we should be slow and unwilling to change, without very urgent necessity, the ancient ordinances, rites, and longapproved customs, of our venerable predecessors. The love of things ancient doth argue stayedness, but levity and want of experience maketh apt unto innovations. That which wisdom did first begin, and hath been with good men long continued, challengeth allowance of them that succeed, although it plead for itself nothing. That which is new, if it promise not much, doth fear condemnation before trial; till trial, no man doth acquit, or trust it, what good soever it pretend and promise. So that in this kind there are few things known to be good, till such time as they grow to be ancient.-Hooker. 676.

We ought not to be over anxious to encourage innovation in cases of doubtful improvement, for