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A LIST OF THE BOOKS

Used in Compiling the following Work.

ABBOTT'S History of the Roman and English Hierarchies.

ADDRESS to the Members of Trade Societies, by a LABOURER.

BACON'S (Lord) Works.

BENTHAM'S Plan of Parliamentary Reform.

BALLANTYNE'S Comparison of the Established and Dissenting Churches.

BLACKSTONE'S Commentaries on the Laws of England. BOLINGBROKE's Works.

BURKE'S Works.

BURTON'S Anatomy Melancholy.

CARPENTER'S Political Magazine.

Political and Historical Essays.

Political Letters.

CATO's Letters, translated by Trenchard.

COBBETT'S Paper against Gold.

COMMERCE. Library of Useful Knowledge.

COOPER'S Bravo.

Co-OPERATOR, The.

DOUGLAS'S Advancement of Society in Knowledge and Religion.

ECONOMIST (the), by J. M.

EXTRAORDINARY BLACK BOOK.

ENSOR on National Government.

EDMONDS'S Practical, Moral, and Political Economy.

FRANKLIN'S Essays.

GODWIN'S Political Justice.

GRAY'S Lecture on Happiness.

Social System.

HALL'S (Rev. R.) Works; edited by Gregory.
HELVETIUS on Man.

HODGKIN'S Popular Political Economy.

HUME'S Essays.

JOYCE's Abridgment of Smith's Wealth of Nations.
JUNIUS'S Letters.

LETTER to Lord Brougham, on Union of Church and State.

LABOUR DEfended.

LOCKE on Civil Government.

MANDEVILLE's Fable of the Bees.

MILTON'S Prose Works.

MONTESQUIEU's Spirit of Laws.

OWEN's Report to the County of Lanark.

Lectures on a New State of Society.

PAINE'S Miscellaneous Works.

PALEY'S Moral and Political Philosophy.

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES.

PRICE'S Political Tracts.

Hansard.

PUTT'S Essay on Civil Policy.

ROUSSEAU'S Social Contract.

SMITH'S Wealth of Nations.

SWIFT's Works.

THOMPSON'S Labour Rewarded.

UTILITARIAN CATECHISM.

VOLTAIRE'S Philosophical Dictionary.

WESTMINSTER REVIEW.

THE

POLITICAL TEXT BOOK.

PART I.

OF SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT.

CHAPTER I.

THE ORIGIN AND OBJECTS OF SOCIETY.

THE principal aim of society is to protect individuals in the enjoyment of those absolute rights which were vested in them by the immutable laws of nature; but which could not be preserved in peace without that mutual assistance and intercourse which is gained by the institution of friendly and social communities. Hence it follows, that the first and primary end of human laws is to maintain and regulate these absolute rights of individuals. Such rights as are social and relative, result from, and are posterior to, the formation of states and societies: so that to maintain and regulate these is clearly a subsequent consideration. And therefore the principal view of human laws is, or ought always to be, to explain, protect, and enforce such rights as are absolute, which in themselves are few and simple; and then such rights as are relative, which, arising from a variety of connexions, will be far more numerous and complicated.-Blackstone.

Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them: whereas, they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively, by uniting our affections: the latter,

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