Declaration of Rights (which was in many respects a copy of the American Declaration), is more valuable to the student of political science, and far more useful to mankind, than a whole volume of brilliant declamation against metaphysical sophistry. That such a work is not more known is to be regretted. It is a proof of the slow progress which close and accurate thinking makes in the world, that, except amongst a very small circle of writers, the term natural rights, although less employed than formerly, continues to be used with as much laxity as ever. Well might Burke exclaim, “The march of the human mind is slow" NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. NOTE A. (P. 61.) We are happy to be able to corroborate the views in the text respecting the over-rated importance of government, by the authority of a writer with whom it is always a pleasure to agree. "We mean not to deny, we steadily affirm, that government is a great good, and essential to human happiness; but it does its good chiefly by a negative influence, by repressing injustice and crime, by securing property from invasion, and thus removing obstructions to the free exercise of human powers. It confers little positive benefit. Its office is, not to confer happiness, but to give men opportunity to work out happiness for themselves. Government resembles a wall which surrounds our lands; a needful protection, but rearing no harvests, ripening no fruits. It is the individual who must choose whether the enclosure shall be a paradise or a waste. How little positive good can government confer! It does not till our fields, build our houses, weave the ties which bind us to our families, give disinterestedness to the heart, or energy to the intellect and will. All our great interests are left to ourselves: and governments, where they |