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CHAP. IV.
SECT. II.

litical establishments, accordingly, which began to be formed in PART II. in the first and fimpleft ages, continue in a state of gradual formation, as the experience of every age directs, to the latest period at which states or communities, in the course of things, are allowed to arrive.

The people in republics, in the laft as well as the first stage of their political union, are devising rules by which to govern themfelves.

The monarch continues to fettle terms, on which he proposes to distribute rewards and punishments, honour or disgrace, among his fubjects. And the defpotical master continues to make known the advantage he proposes to himself or his people from the exercise of his power; whether in the gratification of a divine benevolence, that of Antoninus; or in the gratification of a brutal appetite like and passion, like those of Caligula and Nero.

SECTION

SECTION III.

Of the Cafe of fellow Citizens.

PART II.
CHAP. IV.

THIS

HIS case is indefinitely varied in the multiplicity of political SECT. III. forms. Our object, with refpect to it, is to enumerate, in general terms, the principal parties of which every political fociety confists; and to state the obligations and rights, which are essential to their relation, as members of the fame community.

Civil fociety is not improperly termed a state of convention; for, although men are actually in fociety together, before they enter into any form of bargain or compact; yet, every step that is made, in the concourfe of numbers, tends to convention. Every practice continued into custom, is fairly interpreted as the faith of parties plighted for the obfervance of it; and the members of every fociety, even of the shortest duration, become invested with rights, or subjected to obligations, founded in some species of contract exprefs or tacit.

But

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SECT. III.

But we now cease to enquire in what form the civil or politi- PART II. cal compact is ratified, whether by practice, capitulation, or fta- CHAP. IV. tute. These are the proper ftudy of profeffional lawyers, to whom the fupreme authority of their respective communities is the ultimate rule in adjusting the obligations and rights of men.

To the citizen of every particular community, the specific law of his own country is the tenure by which he holds his rights, and the measure of obligations which he is bound to fulfil; but, however the civil inftitution, in any particular inftance, may appear to depart from the law of nature, by adopting modifications, which in their first affumption were optional to the parties concerned; yet, as fuch modifications are founded in convention, there is not any fpecies of obligation or right actually valid in any community, that may not be traced to this its foundation in the law of nature.

There are certain relations of men effential to every fociety or community confidered as fuch; and there are certain obligations and duties which may not only be traced to their foundations in the law of nature, but which are to be confidered as immediate objects of that law, and placed, as we now propose to place them, among the cafes to which the law of nature is immediately applicable.

Under every political establishment, there is a relation of magiftrate and subject, and a relation of fellow citizens, which, however diversified in particular instances, are nevertheless in a certain abstract point of view common to every establishment, and effential to the nature of political fociety itself.

PART II.
CHAP. IV.
SECT. III.

It is our object, at prefent, therefore, to state the relative conditions of magiftrate and fubject, and the relative condition of fellow fubjects in the most general terms, fo as to comprehend the obligations and rights which enter into the nature of political fociety itself confidered as fuch, without attempting to specify the peculiarities, by which the relations of men, in different instances, may be diverfified.

It is the condition of the magiftrate, in his most abstract point of view, to govern and to protect the fubject: It is the condition of the subject to be governed and protected.

It is the mutual condition of fellow citizens, in the same abstract point of view, to be vested with rights, in regard to which they are to one another reciprocal objects of confideration or refpect: It is implied, in the character which is common to them all as fellow citizens, that, if any difference arife between them, they recur to the judgement of the magistrate, and that. whereever his interpofition can be obtained, and may be effectual for the prevention or redress of wrongs, they are to refrain from any application of force on their own part, and to acquiefce in fuch means of defence, as the magistrate is duly bound to employ for their protection.

The citizen, therefore, in preferving his rights amidft the collifions of different claims and pretenfions, resigns into the hands or the magiftrate the weapons of defence, which, upon the fuppofition of parties ftrangers and unconnected, we found the individual entitled to ufe for himfelf. And the magiftrate may not only employ the authority with which he is vested, fo as to defend the inno

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every

SECT. III.

cent, but lies under an exprefs obligation, fo to employ it: whilft PART II. other citizen, whatever be the means of defence with which CHAP. IV. he is cafually furnished, is restrained from the use of them, provided the interposition of the magistrate can be obtained for his fafety.

Thefe are conditions implied in every political establishment, and without which fociety either cannot be preferved, or cannot be faid to have received any political form.

In these conditions, however, the obligations and rights of the parties. fo general and fo neceffary, are derived from convention alone. The magiftrate has agreed to protect the fubject, otherwife is not bound to this any more than to any other act of beneficence which he may perform at difcretion. The citizen has agreed to abide by the judgement of the magistrate, and to refrain from any attempt to do himself right, where the interpofition of the magistrate can be obtained for that purpose; and, although the form, in which fuch agreements are entered into in different communities, may vary indefinitely, yet the compact, in respect to its general refult, is the fame in every instance; and the parties may equally plead their conventional rights and reciprocal obligations in every community.

We have already had occafion to observe, that the right of the magistrate to interpofe in the defence of the innocent, or in the repreffion of crimes, does not need the fanction of compact, in order to establish it; for this right is common to him, with every other perfon having power, in whatever manner that power may be constituted, whether in the ftrength of his arm, or in the cooperation of numbers that obey his commands.

VOL. II.

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