state (la politique) ought to propound for the preservation of the balance of Liberty (balance de la liberté). Under such rules, the world may be governed with her counsel, by common consent."-BELISAIRE, à l'Empereur Justinien.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ANTIQUITY OF NOBILITY, AND RELATIVE ADVAN

TAGES OF THE ENGLISH PEERAGE, IN CONNEXION WITH THE FOUNDATION OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND FREE INSTITUTIONS.

"What development can the civilization of a People assume, if there be nothing to connect the present with the past,-if the depositories of human knowledge must be constantly removed,-if the finer monuments of Genius and Wisdom cannot be transmitted to posterity ?"-HUMBOLDT.

"Nec vera virtus, cum semel excidit,

Curat reponi deterioribus !"-HORAT.

It has been admitted by the most able writers of ancient and modern times, that in the institution of Civil Government there exists an unlimited power,—absolute, needful, and comprehensive. This principle of power is the universal reason of mankind, or, substantially, human Law, and as such seems, à priori, to have been deposited with the whole body politic, wherever that body rested, although in the executive part it needed an Authority for its foundation. Such needful authority could alone be properly supplied by a Power to which the whole human race, in its natural state and mortal condition, was both subject and responsible for its actions in every form. Hence the establishment of civil government, both in the eye and under the express decree of God, constituted a Trust for

certain uses and specific purposes, embracing at once the temporal advantage and eternal welfare of man, dependent upon his general conduct. This marked distinction becomes highly necessary for consideration, because, unless for the purpose of illustrating the imperfection of all human undertakings, we entirely exclude from our fundamental scheme the institution of heathen government, as having not only been deficient of that needful authority, but absolutely founded in direct rebellion against the Creator and Supreme Governor of the World!

It does not follow, that because the Almighty did not on every occasion, by a direct interposition, destroy those governments which were of a purely human or heathen institution, that he was either pleased or satisfied with them, and the marked denunciations of Scripture expressly negative such an assumption. The very name of Nimrod, in the enigmatical construction of the Hebrew language, signifies rebellion; and the full manifestation of God's displeasure, by the dispersion at the tower of Babel, which signifies confusion, is conclusive evidence, even where the heathen nations were concerned, against the establishment of government, or at least the executive part of it, without his authority!

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Saith Cyrus, king of Persia," a heathen monarch, the Lord God of Heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth." By the delegated authority then of this heathen King was the temple of the Jews rebuilt, after its entire destruction by Nebuchadnezzar; and it marks the use which the Almighty made of Cyrus as an instrument of his purpose for the twofold object of manifesting his power to the heathens, and showing to the Israelites that the Temple could not be built up again without his express authority. But the perfect institution of legitimate civil government must be sought for in the covenant which God made with Noah in the Ark!

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Upon this foundation rests the view taken by Locke, when in the 22d chapter of his Common Place Book, he arranges Magistrates and Magistracy," as "the ordinance of God, and that by Him are they advanced to offices, and their Titles given them."

The authority for creating the kingly office, or that of supreme magistrate in the State, may be gathered from what passed between the Almighty and Samuel, who, although He first warned the people, through him as the chief judge, of the danger they would incur of becoming subservient to the purposes of pride and ambition, afterwards conceded their request, and not only appointed unto them a King, but the Law by which they were to be governed was written by Samuel in a Book. And when, as a Christian nation and people, we implore the Divine blessing on our Sovereign, in our national anthem, we should remember the antiquity of its precedent, and the solemn and responsible circumstances which gave rise to it: "And Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the LORD hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, GOD SAVE THE KING!" "Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the LORD." See 1 Samuel, chap. x. v. 24, 25. It may possibly be objected by some, that this express institution of the Almighty for civil purposes, had sole reference to the Jewish dispensation and people, or the customs of one particular tribe or class of men. In answer to such objections, we may with propriety array the authority of Him, who emphatically declared, Nemo est propheta in patriá sud; but who also said to the Roman, Pilate, when on the judgment-seat, in the warning voice of admonition, "Thou couldst have no power whatever against me, except it were given thee from above!” Having thus briefly illustrated the necessity for an authority,

in the foundation of civil government, or the execution of the law emanating therefrom, in a Scriptural and Christian point of view, we now proceed to the discussion of those circumstances which led to its establishment as an institution of human emergency, independently of or apart from divine

agency.

In the natural economy of human existence or Life, whether we place the power of volition in the head, heart, or entire nervous system, the body moves and acts by a concurrent impulse, or co-operation and consent of all its members, under the directing influence of the mind. This general diffusion of power, or stimulus of action, placed essentially in the entire body of a people, or community of human beings, is what the best legislators of all ages, in their several designs of government, have laboured to deposit in such hands only, and in such forms, as would on all occasions tend to the preservation of the whole body from the evils of tyranny or anarchy within, as well as the consequences of violence, rapine, and injustice, from without. By far the greater number, and the most eminent in every nation, have agreed that it constituted a trust of too great moment to be deposited with any one man, or single association of men of equal pretensions, independent of control; they therefore reserved to the whole body the right of maintaining an authority, but left the executive power unfettered in the hands of the one, the few, or the many; into which three distinct divisions or classes all purely independent bodies amongst mankind seem naturally to have separated themselves from the earliest period of time.

Passing here over the great empires of remote antiquity, of whose civil institutions, excepting those of the Jews, we have but partial and imperfect records, the system of Solon may be taken as an early specimen of standard perfection in