The Newhampshire gazetteer — Exeter, N.H., 1791-11-04 00:00:00, page 2

tion, of which he is a part ; and it is
' only when he forgets his origin, or, to
use a more fashionable phrase, his birth
and family sat he becomes dissolute. It
is not among the least of the evils of
the present exiftiog governments in all
parts of Europe, that man, considered as
mao, is thrown back to avast distance
from his Maker, and the artificial chasm
filled up by a succession of barriers, or
a fort of turnpike gates, through which
he has to pass. I will quote Mr. Burk's
catalogue of barriers, that he has set up
between man and his Maker. Putting
himfelf in the charader of a herald, he
fay s _« We fear God—we look oat
with aweto kings, with affection
to parliaments—with duty to magif
nates with reverence to priests,
and with refpe^ to nobility." Mr.
Burke has forgot to put in “ chivalry."
He has also forgot to put in Peter.
The duty of man is not a wilderness of
turnpike gates, through which he is to
pass by tickers from one to the other.
It is plain and simple, and confits
but of two points. His duty to God,
which every man must feel ; and with
reipe& to his neighbour, to do Os he|
would be done by.. If those to whom।
power is delegated db wdlf, they will
be refpeded ; if not, they will be dcf?i
fed; And vrith regard to those to whom
no power is delegated, but who assume
it, the rational world can know no
thing ofthem. *
Hitherto we have fpoKen only (add
that but in part) of the natural rights
of man. We have now to confider the
civil rights of man, and to (hew how
the one originates out of the other.
Man did not enter into society to be
come worse than he was before, nor to
have less natural rights than he had be
fore but to have those rights better se
cured. His natural rights are the foun
dation of all his civil rights. But in
order to pursue this diftin^lion with more
precision, it will be necessary to mark
different qualities of natural and civil
rights'.•
A few words will explain this. Na
tural rights are those which appertain to
m^n in right of his exiftance. Os this
kind are all the intellectual rights, or
rights of the mind, and also all those
righesbof acting as an individual for his
own comfort and happiness, which are
not injurious to the natural rights of o
thers. Civil rights are those which ap
pertain to man in right of being a mem
ber of society, Every civil right has for
its foundation some natural rights pre
exiting in the individual, but to which
his individual power is not, in all cases,
Efficiently content. Os this kind are
all those which relate to security and
protection.
From this ffiort review, it will be
easy to distinguish between that class of
natural rights which man retains after
entering into society, and those which
he throws into common flock as a mem
ber of society.
The natural rights which he retains,
are all those in which the power to exe
cute is as perfea in the individual as the
rightitlelf. Among this class, as is be
fore mentioned, are all the intellec
tual rights, or rights of the mind :
consequently religion is one of those
rights. The natural rights which are
not retained, are all those in which,
though the right is perfect in the indi
vidual, the power to execute them is
defeaive. They answer not his pur
pose. A man, by na.ural right, has a
right tojadge in his own cause ; and so
far as the right of the mind is concern
ed, he never surrenders it : But what a
vaileth it him to judge, if he has not
power to redress ? He therefore deports
this right in the common flock of socie
ty, and takes tre arm of society, of
which he is a part in preference and in
addition, to his own. Society grants
him nothing. Every man is a propri.
etor in fociety,and draws on the capital,
as a matter of right. #
From those premises, two Or three
certain conclusions will follow.
First, That every civile right grows
out of a natutal right ; or, in other words
is a natural right exchanged.
Secondly, That civil power, properly
considered as such, is made up of the
aggregate of that class of the natural
rights of man, which becomes defeaive
in the individual in point of power, and
clo e connection with all his duties,
whether to his Creator, or to the crea-
answers not his purpose ; but .when col
lected to a focus, becomes competentto
the purpose of every one.
Thirdly, That the' power produced
from the aggregate of natural rights,
imperfect in power in the individual,
and invade the natural rights which are
retained in the individual and in which
the power to execute is as perfed as
the right icfelf.
We have now, in a few words, traced
man from a natural individual to a
member of society, and Shewn, or en
deavoured to (hew, the quality of the
natural rights retained, and of those
which are exchanged for civil rights.
Let us now apply those principles to
governments.
In casting our eyes over the world it
is extremely easy to diftinguilh the go
vernments which have arisen out of so
ciety, or out of the social compact, from
those which have not : But to place this
in a clearer' light than what a Single
glance may afford, it will be proper to
t<ke a review of the several sources
from which governments have arisen,
and on which they have been founded.
They may be all comprehended under
three heads. First, Superstition. Se
condly, Power. Thirdly, the common
interest of society, and the common
rights of man.
The firft was a government of prieft
&aft, the second of conquerors, and the
third of reason.
When a set of artful men pretended
through the medium of oracles, to.hold
intercourse with the Deity, as familiar
ly as they now march up the back,
flairs in European courts, the world was
completely' under the government of
faperftition: , The oracles were consul
ted, and whatever they were made to
fay, became the law ; and this fort of
government lasted as long as this fort
of fuperffition laffed. r<
After these a race of conquerors' arose
whose government, like that of William
the Conqueror, was founded in power,
and the sword assumed the nairie of a
feeptcr. Governments thus established,
!aft as long as the power r support
them lasts ; but that they might avail
themselves of every engine in their fa
vour, they united fraud to force, and
fee up an idol which they called Divine
Right, and which in imitation of the
Pope,who affects' to be spiritual and tem
poral, and in contradiction to the Foun
der of the Christian Religion, twisted
itfelf afterwards into an idol of another
Shape, called Church and State. The
key of St. Peter, and the key of the
Treafory, became quartered on one a
nother, and the wondering cheated mul
titude worfhipped the invention.
When I contemplate the natural dig
nity of man ; when I feel (for Nature
has not been kind enough to me to
blunt my feelings) for the honour and
happiness of its character, I become ir
ritated at the attempt to govern man
kind by force and fraud, as if they
were all knaves and fools, and can
scarcely avoid difgaft at those who are
thus imposed upon.
We have now to review the govern
ments which arise out of society, in con
tradiaion to those which arose out of
foperftition and conquest.
It has been thought a considerable
advance towards establishing the prin
ciples of Freedom, to fay, that govern
ment is a compact between those who
govern & those who are governed ; but
this cannot be true, because it is pat
ting the effe& before the cause ; for as
man must have exited before govern
ments existed, there necessarily was a
time when governments did not exist,
and consequently there could originally
be no governors to form such a compaCt
with. The fad therefore must be that
the individuals themselves, each in his
own personal and sovereign right, en
tered into a compaa with each other to
produce a government : and this is the
only mode in which governments have
a right to arise, and the only principle
on which they have a right to exist.
To possess ourselves of a clear idea of
what government is, or ought to be,
we must trace it to its origin. In do
ing this, we Shall easily discover that
governments must have arifen^either out
of the people, or over the people. Mr.
Burke has made no distinction. He in
vestigates nothing to its Source, and
therefore he confounds every thing : but
he has Signified his intention of uqder
taking at some future opportunity, a
comparison between the constitutions of
England and France. As he thus ren
ders it a fubjeft of controversy by
throwing the gauntlet. I take him up
on his own ground. It is in high chal
lenges that high truths have the right
of appearing ; and I accept it with the
more readings, because it affords me,
it the fame time, an opportunity of pur
suing the fubjed with refped to go
vernments arising out of society.
But it will be firft necessary to define
what is meant by a confutation. It is
not fufficient that we adopt the word ;
we mart fix also a Standard Signification
to it.
a constitution exists, or ever did exist,
and confcqoently 'that the people have
yet a constitution to form.
Mr. Burke will not, I prefome, deny
the position I have already advanced ;
namely, that governments arise either
out of the people, or over the people.
The Ehg'rifh government is one of those
which arose out of a conquest, and not
out of fociety,and consequently it arose
over the people ; and though it has been
much modified from the opportunity of
circumfiances Since the time of William
the Conqueror, the country has never
yet regenerated itfelf, and is therefore
without a constitution.
I readily perceive the reason why Mr.
Burke declined going into the compa
rison between the English and French
conftitution', because he cculd not but
perceive, when he fat down to the talk,
that no such thing as a conftitu ion ex
isted on his fide the question. His book
is certain bulky enough to have con
tained all he could fay on the fubjed,
and it would have been the belt manner
in which people could have judged of
their separate merits- Why then has
he declined the only thing that was
worth writing upon ? It was the flrong
eft ground he could take if the advanta
ges were on his fide ; but the weakest,
if they were not ; and his declining to
t^ke it, is either a Sign that he could
not possess it, or could not maintain it.
Mr. Burke has said in a speech last
winter in parliament, that when the
National Assembly firft met in three Or
ders, (the Tiers Etats, the Clergy, and
the Noblesse) that France had then a
good Constitution.„ This Shews, among
numerous other instances, that Mr.
Burke does not understand what a
Constitution is. The persons so met,
were not a constitution, but a convention
to make a coftitufion.
The present National Assembly of
France is, ftridly speaking, the personal
social compaft. The members of it are
the delegates of the nation in its original
character ; future assemblies will be the
delegates of the nation in its organised
charader. The authority of the present
Assembly is different to what the autho
rity of future Assemblies will be. The
authority of the present one is to form
a constitution : the authority of future
A constitution is not a thing in name
only, but in fad. It has not an ideal,
but a real exiftenee; and wherever it
cannot be produced in a viable form,
there is none. A constitution is a thing
antecedent to a government, and a go
vernnent is only the create e of a con
stitution. The constitution of a country
is not the ad of government, but of the
people constituting a government. It
is the body cf elements, to which
you can refer, and quote article by arti
cle ; and which contains the principles
on which' the government Shall be esta
blished, the manner in which it Shall be
organized, the powers it Shall have, the
mode of elections, the duration of par-
liaments, or by what other name such
bodies may be called ; the powers which
the executive part of the government
Shall have; and, in fine, every thing
that relates to the compleat organizati
on cf a civil government, and the prin
ciples on which it Shall a^, and by
which it Shall be bound. A constitution,
therefore, is to a government, what the
laws made afterwards by that govern
ment are. to a court of judicature. The
court of judicature does not make the
laws, neither can it alter them ; it only
afts in conformity to the laws made ;
and the government is in like manner
governed by the constitution.
Can then Mr. Burke produce the En
glish Constitution ?If he cannot,we may
fairly conclude, that though it has been
so much talked about, no such thing as
Assemblies will be to legislate according
to the principles & forms prescribed in
that constitution ; & if experience Should
(hew that alterations, amendments, or
additions are necessary, the constitution
wil point out the mode by which such
things Shall be done, and not leave it
to the discretionary power of the future
government,
A government on the principles on
which constitutional government; arising
out of society are eftablilhed, cannot
have the right of altering itfelf. If it
had, it would be arbitrary: It might
make itfelf what it pleased ; and where
ver such a right is set up, it Shews that
there is no constitution. They ad by
which the English Parliament empow
ered itfelf to set Seven years, Shews
there is no constitution in England, It
might, by the fame Self authority, have
fit any greater number of years, or for
life. The bill which the present Mr.
Pitt bro't into Parliament some years
ago, to reform Parliament, was on the
fame erroneous principle. The right of
reform is in the nation in its original
character, and the constitutional method
would be by a general convention elec
ted for the purpose. There is moreover
a paradox in the idea cf vitiated bodies
reforming thcmfelves.
, IT O be Continued^-
THEY write from Paris, that the
eyes of all are turned towards the
frontiers ; an attack of a very formida
ble nature being confidently looked for.
This is to be directed by the Prince of
Conde, against the department of the
Meuse, and the Moselle, where M. de
Bouille commanded. This Prince will
make his invasion at the head of a corps
cf 7 or loco gentlemen volunteers, sup
ported by another body of 8 or 10.000
men levied and paid by the emigrants,
and the two brothers of the King.
The terrible fire which consumed the
arfenat at Amflerdam, the; Dutch are
now convinced was not the tfed of ac
cident. Each party accuses the other.
The friends of the fladtholder declare
that the patriots did it to prevent a fleet
being sent to aid the French King's
cause ; the mob have therefore infolded
many of them, and orange cockades
were never so frequent as now in Am
sterdam, since all who appear withes:
them are mal-treated.
The following quota of men, to be
furnifhed by the confederated princes,
to the French Ariflocrates, lately appear
ed in a paper published at Vienna.
The Emperour, A 160,cb0
The King of Preffia,, 80,000
The King of Sweden, 30,000
The King of Sardinia, 40,000
The King of Spain, 60,000
The Stallholder, 12,000
In all, 380,000
It is further Hated, England, Holland,
Geneva, and Venice, are to advance the
money necessary Rr carrying the plan
ofinvafion into execution.
How strangely are the French altered !
It was lately represented as a degration
in the Assembly to exclude a member of
the Roy:1 Family from the Rights of a
citizen. Howinfinite formerly was the
diflindion between Prince and' citizen !
American Advices.
BALTIMORE, OCT. 11.
On Saturday left a melancholy cafe
alty took place in the precincts of this
town.—— Master William Travers (on
ly son of Mr. John Travers, of thia
place) a highly promising lad, in the
14th year of his age, went cutto shoot
patridges, accompanied by a negro boy,
who, in crossing a run of water, gave a
spring, by which incident the contents
of the gun, which he held on his arm,
were fatally difeharged, and entered the
head of the amiable yoath, who was ad
vancing just behind him. He died
in three hours.
Foreign Intelligence.
London, aug. 16.
AUGUST 17.