SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
1. Why does happiness depend upon the maintenance of rights?
2. How do persons born under government agree to be governed by the laws?
3. If the claims of people as to their rights conflict, how is the difference settled?
4. What is meant by the phrase "common carrier"?
5. Is it right for men to hold aloof from public affairs because there is corruption in politics?
CHAPTER XVII.
LAW AND LIBERTY.
Through law rights are secured, and the performance of some duties is enforced. Law is a rule of action, prescribing what shall be done and what shall not be done. Laws exist for the purpose of securing the rights of the people. The enjoyment of rights is liberty.
As the enjoyment of rights depends upon their security, and as they are secured by law, therefore liberty is based upon law. Without law there could be no political liberty, and the civil liberty of the people would be narrow and uncertain. It may be said, therefore, that there can be no true liberty without law; but laws may be so many and so stringent that there can be no liberty. Liberty and just laws are inseparable.
Liberty and rights are of the same kinds, industrial, social, moral or religious, and political. The words "rights," "law," and "liberty" are full of meaning, and in a free country suggest ideas of the deepest reverence.
ORIGIN.--The laws of the country are partly human and partly divine. They were framed by man, but some of them are based upon the laws of God. Some are of recent origin, and many are so ancient that their beginning can not be traced. When men began, to live in society, they began to make laws, for laws at once became necessary. Laws are undergoing constant changes, as new conditions arise and new customs prevail.