- ing to the duties of his post, is, in a very high degree, criminal,
both in the eye of God and man.
It is, therefore, the certain and apparent duty of those that are in authority, to take care that the people may rejoice, and diligently to inquire, what is to be considered,
Secondly: By what means the happiness of the people may be most effectually promoted.
In political, as well as natural disorders, the greater errour of those who commonly undertake, either cure or preservation, is, that they rest in second causes, without extending their search to the remote and original sources of evil. They, therefore, obviate the immediate evil, but leave the destructive principle to operate again; and have their work for ever to begin, like the husbandman who mows down the heads of noisome weeds, instead of pulling up the roots.
The only uniform and perpetual cause of publick happiness is publick virtue. The effects of all other things which are considered as advantages, will be found casual and transitory. Without virtue nothing can be securely possessed, or properly enjoyed.
In a country like ours, the great demand, which is for ever repeated to our governours, is for the security of property, the confirmation of liberty, and the extension of commerce. All this we have obtained, and all this we possess, in a degree which, perhaps, was never granted to any other people. Yet we still find something wanting to our happiness, and turn ourselves round on all sides, with perpetual restlessness, to find that remedy for our evils which neither power nor policy can afford.
That established property and inviolable freedom are the greatest of political felicities, no man can be supposed likely to deny. To depend on the will of another, to labour for that, of which arbitrary power can prohibit the enjoyment, is the state to which want of reason has subjected the brute. To be happy we must know our own rights; and we must know them to be safe.
