The
Providence Gazette;
and
Country Journal:
Containing the freſheſt Advices, Foreign and Domeſtic.
Saturday, August 9, 1777.
For the Providence Gazette.
To the Public.
Perhaps, in the ſcarcity of news, a few thoughts on government and liberty may not be diſagreeable.—“All men will, and in a free country ought to judge of politics.”
Political writers ſay, that there are three ſpecies or forms of government; the republican, the monarchical, and the despotic, from which all others are taken, or to which they may be reduced. To theſe three forms of government they have given the names of democracy, ariſtocraſy, and monarchy.
1ſt. By a democracy is meant, that form of government where the higheſt power of making laws is lodged in the common people, or perſons choſen out from them. This is what by ſome is called a republic, a commonwealth, or free ſtate, and ſeems to be moſt agreeable to natural right and liberty.
2d. By an ariſtocraſy is meant, that form of government where the higheſt power is in the nobles and peers.
3d. By a monarchy is meant, the government of a ſtate or people by a ſingle perſon, a kingly government.
In the two laſt, the common people are excluded from making laws, or rather have given up their right, and excluded themſelves. Yet theſe two, as well as the firſt, are ſaid to be inſtituted for the good of the people. Each of thoſe three governments have their particular and different laws; for the freeſt ſociety of people on earth cannot be governed without laws. The public good of the ſociety or whole community ſhould be the great end and deſign of all thoſe laws which the people are to obey; and if that deſign be really attained, the people are happy; and that form of government ſeems to be beſt, which is beſt administered. “That government only can be pronounced conſiſtent with any laudable deſign, which allows to the governed the liberty of doing what they may deſire to do, conſiſtent with the general good, and which forbids only their doing the contrary.” True political liberty does not exclude all reſtraint; it only excludes unreaſonable reſtraint. To determine preciſely how far perſonal liberty is compatible with the general good, and of the propriety of ſocial conduct in all caſes, is a matter of great extent, and demands the united wiſdom of a whole people, and the conſent of the whole people, as far as it can be obtained, is indiſpenſibly neceſſary to every law, by which the people are to be bound; otherwiſe the whole people will be enſlaved to one or the few, who frame the laws for them. It cannot reaſonably be imagined that the Almighty intended, that the greater part of mankind ſhould come into the world with ſaddles on their backs, and bridles in their mouths, and a few ready booted and ſpurred to ride the reſt to death.
If there could be, in any region in the univerſe, an order of moral agents, living in ſociety, whoſe reaſon is ſtrong, whoſe paſſions are moderate, and whoſe diſpoſitions are wholly turned to virtue, to ſuch an order of happy beings, legiſlation, adminiſtration, and police, with the endleſs, various, and complicated apparatus of politics, muſt be in a great meaſure needleſs and ſuperfluous. Did reaſon govern mankind, there would be little occaſion for any other government, either monarchical, ariſtocratical, democratical, or mixed. But, alas! Man, whom we dignify with the honorable title of rational, being much more frequently influenced in his proceedings by ſuppoſed intereſt, by paſſion, by ſenſual appetite, by caprice, by any thing, by nothing, than by reaſon; it has in all civilized ages and countries been found proper and neceſſary to make laws, fortified by ſanction and to eſtabliſh orders of men, inveſted with authority to execute thoſe laws, and inflict deſerved puniſhments upon the violators of them. By ſuch means only, has it been found poſſible in any good degree to preſerve the general peace and tranquility. Such is the perverſe and ſelfiſh diſpoſition of man, the moſt unruly of all animals, that this moſt uſeful inſtitution has been generally debauched into an engine of oppreſſion and tyranny over thoſe whom it was expreſſly and ſolely eſtabliſhed to defend: And to ſuch a degree has this evil prevailed, that in almoſt every age and country the government has been the principal grievance of the people, as appears too dreadfully manifeſt, from the bloody and deformed page of hiſtory. For what is hiſtory but a view of the abuſes of power, committed by thoſe who have had it, and who have got it into their hands, to the ſubjugation, ſlavery and deſtruction of the human ſpecies, to the ruin of the general peace and happineſs, and turning the Almighty’s fair world into a butchery of its inhabitants, only for the gratification of the unbounded ambition of a few, who in overthrowing the happineſs of their fellow creatures, have confounded their own? All lawful authority, legiſlative and executive, originates in the people. Power in the people, is like light in the ſun: native, original, inherent and unlimited, by anything human.
Power in Governors, whether they be called Kings, or by whatever name or titles they may be called, may be compared to the reflected light of the moon; for it is only borrowed, delegated and ⟨limited⟩ by the intention of the people, whoſe it is, and to whom Governors are and ought to be accountable; the people being anſwerable only to God; themſelves being the loſers, if they purſue a falſe ſcheme of politics. As the people are the fountain of power, ſo are they the object of government, in ſuch manner that where the people are ſafe, the good ends of government are anſwered; and where the people are ſufferers by their Governors, thoſe Governors have failed of the main deſign of their inſtitution. As the people are the fountain of power and object of government, ſo are they the laſt reſource, the laſt reſort, when their Governors betray their truſt. Happy is that people, who have originally ſo principled their form of government, their conſtitution, that they themſelves can, without violence to it, lay hold of its power, wield it as they pleaſe, and when neceſſary turn it againſt thoſe to whom it was entruſted, and who have exerted it to the prejudice of its original proprietors. In planning a government by repreſentation, the people ought to provide againſt their own annihilation.
The planners of the Britiſh conſtitution were provident, but far from being provident enough. They ſat up Parliaments, as a curb on kings and miniſters; but they neglected to reſerve to the people a regular and conſtitutional method of exerting their power in curbing of parliaments. In any country like Britain, where the parliament is conſtitutionally the laſt reſort, and where there lies no regular appeal to the people, the perverſion and corruption of a parliament from its original intention may prove the utter ruin of the people, as leaving no conſtitutional means of redreſs, and compelling the people to take into their own hands the work of vindicating their liberties by force, which in the concuſſion of jarring parties may ſometimes produce anarchy, and end in tyranny.
There is no word that has admitted of more various ſignifications, and has made more different impreſsions on human minds, than the word Liberty. Some have taken it for a facility of depoſing a perſon, on whom they had conferred a tyrannical authority; others for a power of chuſing a perſon whom they are obliged to obey; others for a right of bearing arms, and being thereby enabled to uſe violence; others for being governed by a native of their own country; others for doing what they pleaſe with their own. It is true, in free governments, the people ſeem to do what they pleaſe; but their political liberty does not conſiſt in an unreſtrained and unlimited freedom; for in all governments and ſocieties directed by laws, their true liberty can conſiſt only in their power of doing what they ought to deſire, and in not being conſtrained to do what they ought not to deſire.
There is a real difference between Independence and Liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws, made by a free people, permit; and if a citizen could do what the laws forbid, he would no longer be poſſeſſed of liberty, becauſe all his fellow-citizens would have the ſame power, and the ſame liberty to break the laws. Political liberty is to be met with only in moderate governments; and in theſe it is not always to be met with. It is there only, when there is no abuſe of power: But conſtant experience ſhews, that every man inveſted with power, is apt to abuſe it; he puſhes on to the utmoſt limits. Therefore, to prevent the abuse of power, it is neceſſary, by the conſtitution of things, that power ſhould be a check to power.
London, Feb. 24.
On Saturday laſt came on Dr. Dodd’s trial, for forgery, at the old Bailey. He came to the bar, leaning on the arm of the Rev. Mr. Butler; pale, weak, and in an univerſal tremor, he excited the compaſſion of the whole court. Lord Cheſterfield was preſent, and examined. The evidence was clear, and Mr. Juſtice Willes, in ſumming it up, made uſe of every merciful obſervation in his power. The jury withdrew, and in ten minutes returned. The verdict being demanded, Mr. Elliot, the foreman, was a few moments unable to ſpeak; tears prevented his utterance; but he was obliged at length to pronounce the fatal word! The reſt of the jury were equally diſtreſsed, and the wretched convict ſunk down, until ſupported by his friends. At this awful melancholy period; while a thouſand hearts bled, one infernal ſpirit, in the left hand gallery, rejoicing in human miſery, clapt his impious hands! General indignation ſoon checked his inhuman joy, and the ſavage was obliged to depart, followed by the abuſe of the whole aſſembly. In the evening the jury preſented a petition recommending the doctor to the royal mercy; it was received with great ſatisfaction, and backed by the Aldermen Sir Charles Aſgili, Woodbridge, Plomer, and Newnham, who all applauded their humanity.
May 10. Yeſterday the Rev. Dr. Dodd was, by an order of court, conducted alone to the bar, to receive ſentence of death, for the forgery of which he was convicted laſt ſeſſion. The Rev. Mr. Butler, Dr. Cogan, Mr. Buckſtone, Mr. Hatcher, Mr. Denham, and Mr. Hawes, attended the unfortunate divine to the door of the dock, from whence he could ſcarcely advance, on account of extreme weakneſs:—being aſked, as uſual, why ſentence of death ſhould not be pronounced,—he pauſed for a few moments, and then addreſſed the court in the following manner:
My Lord,
“I now ſtand before you, a dreadful example of human infirmity. I entered upon life with all the flattering expectations of a young man, whoſe birth and education entitled him to hope for content; I taught the truth of the goſpel with the pure zeal of a chriſtian, and have the happineſs to reflect, that by liſtening to my doctrine, ſome have been preſerved from ſin, and ſome have been called to repentance;—yet, while I preached virtue to others, I could not avoid the moment of my own confuſion, in which temptation came upon me in the full bulk. I will not however preſume to oppoſe, or counterbalance; I will not extenuate, but by declaring that I did not intend to defraud. I have fallen from fortune and reputation to extreme poverty and contempt; my name fills ballads in the public ſtreets, the ſport of the thoughtleſs and inhuman. It may however appear ſtrange, that amidſt this accumulated miſery, I ſtill wiſh to live; I wiſh to atone for the enormity of my tranſgreſſion by exemplary repentance. I do not mingle with the heathen principle, ſo as not to fear the approach of death; I confeſs I dread the ſtruggles of a violent death, and I wiſh alſo to atone for the reflection I have brought upon the clergy; beſides, my Lord, I find myſelf but ill prepared for that awful moment. The dreadful gloom of a priſon is but badly ſuited to repentance; let not then a little life be refuſed me in return for thirty years, ſpent in purity, and in ſuch acts of charity and benevolence as poſſibly came within my reach. Recommend me, my lord, in your report, to the royal mercy, and let my remaining puniſhment be left to that judge whoſe mercy is equal to his wrath.”—During this short
