[61] This has been done in a lower instance. Parents have been furnished with a particular affection for their children, in order to prevent any abuse of their power over them.
[62] “In ages of darkness, and too often also in those of greater knowledge, by the perfidious arts of designing princes, and by the base servility of too many ecclesiastics, who managed the superstition of the populace, by the violent restraints put upon divulging any juster sentiments about the rights of mankind, the natural notions of polity were erased out of the minds of men; and they were filled with some confused imaginations of something adorable in monarchs, some representation of the Divinity; and that even in the worst of them; and of some certain Divine claims in certain families.—No wonder this! that millions thus look upon themselves as a piece of property to one of their fellows as silly and worthless as the meanest of them; when the like arts of superstition have made millions, nay the very artificers themselves, fall down before the block or stone they had set up; or adore monkies, cats, and crocodiles, as the sovereign disposers of their fortunes.” See Dr. Hutcheson’s System of Moral Philosophy. Vol. ii. p. 280.
[63] “Let not, therefore, these pretended masters of the people be allowed even to do good against the general consent.—Let it be considered, that the condition of rulers is exactly the same as that of the Cacique, who being asked whether he had any slaves, answered; Slaves? I know but one slave in all my district, and that is myself.” See the Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies. Translated from the French of the Abbe Raynal, by Mr. Justamond. Vol. v. page 414.
[64] See Obs. p. 25. “The rights of mankind are so sacred that no prescription of tyranny or arbitrary power can have authority enough to abolish them.” Mr. Hume’s Essays, vol. iii. Essay on the Coalition of Parties.
[65] “Mankind have been generally a great deal too tractable; and hence so many wretched forms of power have always enslaved nine tenths of the nations of the world, where they have the fullest right to make all efforts for a change.” Dr. Hutcheson’s Moral Philosophy. Vol. ii. p. 280.
[66] See Remarks on the Acts of the Thirteenth Parliament of Great Britain. P. 34, &c.—“Is not the same reasoning applicable to taxes paid for the support of civil government? Are not these too the property of the civil magistrate?” Ibid. p. 56.—If I understand this writer, his meaning is, not only that the taxes which the civil magistrate has imposed are his property; but also, any which he shall please to impose.
[67] Matth. xxiii. 8-12.—John xiii. 14.
[68] Luke xxii. 25, &c.
[69] 1 Pet. v. 3.—2 Cor. i. 24.
[70] He who wants to be convinced of the practicability, even in this country, of a complete representation, should read a pamphlet lately published, the title of which is, Take your Choice.