time the smaller number should either prevail, or that they might be excused from abiding by the decision of the larger number, is to say that no state or community shall exist at all. It would be a return to a state of nature, and a dissolution of any compact made or implied. The majority, therefore, has a right in all cases to decide the proper occasions and degrees of that restraint, which, as a political body, it is to place upon all the individuals composing it. Men may differ in their opinions—in their predictions of consequences, they may and ought to be allowed the full liberty of endeavouring to gain over a majority to act upon their view. But no practical dissent can be tolerated. They may talk-persuade-entreat and complain-but the moment they act against the decision of the majority, they commit treason, and are to be proceeded against as traitors.-Anon.

Every thing like an act in opposition to the will of the majority is treason, and must be dealt with as such. But any attempt to influence the opinion of other members of the state, is what reason and sound policy sanction and approve. If the proposed measure be bad, show it to be So. If it have an evil tendency, point out the tendency, and prove it to be evil; it will only be acted upon, on the supposition of its being good. However it may appear to you, if it be calculated to influence the opinion of the majority, it ought to be permitted to exert that influence. If the people choose to worship a golden calf, no one has a right to overthrow the idol; but every body has a right to make the attempt at reasoning them out of their idolatry. If the people choose to elect one or more hereditary governors, with almost every chance of misgovernment, on the side of the election; if they choose to be governed and scourged at the same time, no one has a right to wrest the Scourge from the authorized hand; but every one should have leave to show the wretchedness and folly of the proceeding, and to prove the justice of returning such favours in kind, at the first opportunity. A limited right to disseminate opinions is wholly inconsistent with a free government; and, upon the ground stated-its tendency to perpetuate every existing error. On the other hand, no man has any right to complain that any of his acts are limited, if that check be thought necessary by the majority. It is his duty to assert, if he think so, that there is more lost

than gained by the restraint in question-to take every means of bringing over others to his opinion, so that a majority may at last decree its removal; but, until then, he must not dare to neglect compliance with its positive dietates, nor rise in any species of active opposition to the law, upon the pain of its penalties.-Westminster Review.

SECTION II.

THE INDIVIDUAL, OR COMPETITIVE SYSTEM.

IT has been, and still is, a received opinion among theorists in political economy, that man can provide better for himself, and more advantageously for the public, when left to his own individual exertion, opposed to, and in competition with, his fellows, than when aided by any social arrangements which shall unite his interests individually and generally with society. This principle of individual interest, opposed, as it is perpetually, to the public good, is considered by the most celebrated of the political economists to be the corner-stone of the social system, and without which society could not exist. Yet, when they shall discover the wonderful effects which combination and unity can produce, they will acknowledge that the present arrangement of society is the most anti-social, impolitic, and irrational, that can be devised; that under its influence, all the superior and valuable qualities of human nature are repressed from infancy, and that the most unnatural means are used to bring out the most injurious propensities :-in short, that the utmost pains are taken to make that which by nature is the most delightful compound for producing excellence and happiness, absurd, imbecile, and wretched.

-Owen.

Like so many buckets in a well, as one riseth, another falleth, one's empty, another's full; his ruin is a ladder to the third; such are our ordinary proceedings. What's the market? A place, according to Anacharsis, wherein they cozen one another, a trap; nay, what's the world itself? A vast chaos, a confusion of manners, as fickle as the air, domicilium insanorum, a turbulent troop of impurities, a mart of walking spirits, goblins, the theatre of hypocrisy, a shop full of knavery, flattery, a nursery of villany, the

scene of babbing, the school of giddiness, the academy of vice; a warfare ubi velis nolis pugnandum, aut vincas autf succumbas, in which kill, or be killed; wherein every man is for himself, his private ends, and stands upon his own guard.-Burton.

In the Individual System, each man acts for himsel alone. Individual power, wealth, learning, fame, are aspired to by the mass of mankind, according to their various talents and opportunities; and the means by which these are pursued, are right or wrong, honourable or dishonourable, virtuous or criminal, according to the moral character of each individual. According to this system, there is a strong tendency for power, wealth, and even for learning and science-to accumulate in a few hands, while mankind at large, are weak, poor, ignorant, and, in a word, barbarous.

This system is necessarily a mixture of extremes, as to power, wealth, and poverty; despotism in some, slavery in others, are almost inseparable from it. The learning which exists in such a state of society, is in like manner extremely liable to monopoly. Privilege and caste divide the world into classes: each class is separated from the others by the individual principle, while within each class, the same principle divides the members as much from each other, as if they belonged to a different rank; thus also, a principle of competition is established, each man considering his neighbour as a rival, who stands in the way of his own prosperity, and whom he must by every means in his power out-strip or supplant. Excessive competition is so essential to this system, that it is the grand motive inculcated upon every child from its birth; high or low, rich or poor, all are stimulated from the cradle, in all their childish pastimes, and in all their elementary education, to aim only at one object, which is to get above a neighbour. A comparison is drawn, not between the pupil and the subject, but between one pupil and another. A boy is not simply to acquire knowledge, but to know more than another; not to select the most useful studies, but to excel in those which are most in vogue; not to hold correct opinions, but to defend those that are held; not to search for truth, but to bow to authority.

Whatever objections there may be to such a state of society, theoretically viewed-whatever abuses it may be liable to whatever miseries it may be connected with

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yet, it is a system unavoidable in the infancy of the world; it has been invented by no set of artful men, but it is the growth of nature herself; the injuries, crimes, and miseries of which it is accused, are the abuses, and not the essence of the system; and though a severe parent, it is still the parent of the most momentous blessings to the world at large.

The Individual System results necessarily and unavoidably, among a set of beings, gifted with high and noble faculties, born in a state of entire ignorance, and compelled to support life by daily labour. Inequality of faculties, character, and circumstances, must immediately give rise to inequality of rank, and division of labour; and hence, the origin of arts and sciences, and the ultimate regeneration and happiness of the whole race. Had mankind remained perfectly equal, they would for ever have remained ignorant and barbarous. Their boasted equality would have been an equality of degradation, of mere animal life, beyond which they never would have advanced. The very mode in which beings are introduced into the world, the relation of old and young, of parent and child, at once destroys all trace of equality. The simple yet important fact, that knowledge is acquired, not innate-that knowledge is the result of experience and time—that it generally grows with our growth-this simple fact proclaims at once two momentous truths, that rank is unequal, and that man is progressive.

It is true, that the mere labourer is a man of few ideas, of narrow mind, of low desires: but, his incessant labour gives leisure to others, that leisure gives rise to reflection (properly so called), to knowledge of all kinds, to arts and sciences. The mind of man is enabled to unfold itself; the nature and qualities of its powers are tried and proved; and a new world, totally different from that with which his daily wants are connected, begins to be entered upon. The world of mind, of intellectual power, of spiritual refinement, of moral perfection, would never have been known to man, without inequality of rank, and without the Individual System. That principle in man, by which whole tribes and nations are induced to look up to one individual, a creature in every respect like themselves, with a degree of awe and veneration approaching to religious homage, and which makes it even a duty to consider him as the

absolute master of their lives and property; this very principle, acting under different modifications, is also the parent of civilization, and of the progressive improvement of man.

In the Individual System, as all power emanates from one to many, so all knowledge follows the same direction. The course, indeed, of knowledge is more especially confined to that one direction. Knowledge being progressive, must necessarily be an object of discovery and invention. Some one individual must first be the happy person to become acquainted with a new fact and a new truth; from him it must be communicated to others, who become the instruments of handing it on still farther, till it descends to the lowest of mankind. So one country shall attain a superior degree of light and knowledge to other nations, and be the means of illuminating those that sit in ignorance and darkness.

Those who have paid much attention to knowledge, and have self-reflection enough to watch the progress of their own minds, are the best to judge of the extreme slowness with which the first steps are made in the cultivation of the faculties, and the first grains picked up on the golden mountain of knowledge. They also must see the extreme importance of assistance at the outset; when artificial signs come to be studied instead of things themselves; and the obscure and often absurd records of man, are to be compared with facts and things, and to be received or rejected, by the principles of eternal truth. The first steps in knowledge are indeed extremely difficult and laborious, and require exclusive leisure of time, as well as a mind of a peculiar turn. Thus, in the early period of the world, ages might roll away before the leisure of the division of ranks could give birth to any thing deserving the name of knowledge or science. The wonder is, not that man has not achieved more, but rather that he was able to achieve so much, under such disadvantages.

The Individual System, therefore, seems to have been absolutely necessary for the birth of arts and sciences, because absolutely necessary for the leisure required. Nor when power was thus accumulated in the hands of a few, are we to conclude that the few would necessarily misdirect it. History, indeed, teems with the deeds of power, often employed in a questionable shape; but, that the