* * * * *

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 042:  The author has lately read a work, intitled Paley’s Moral and Political Philosophy, which, in this one respect, favours those which have been hinted at, as it denies that government was a contract.  “No social compact was ever made in fact,”—­“it is to suppose it possible to call savages out of caves and deserts, to deliberate upon topicks, which the experience and studies, and the refinements of civil life alone suggest.  Therefore no government in the universe begun from this original.”  But there are no grounds for so absurd a supposition; for government, and of course the social compact, does not appear to have been introduced at the time, when families coming out of their caves and deserts, or, in other words, quitting their former dissociated state, joined themselves together.  They had lived a considerable time in society, like the Lybians and Gaetulians before-mentioned, and had felt many of the disadvantages of a want of discipline and laws, before government was introduced at all.  The author of this Essay, before he took into consideration the origin of government, was determined, in a matter of such importance, to be biassed by no opinion whatever, and much less to indulge himself in speculation.  He was determined solely to adhere to fact, and, by looking into the accounts left us of those governments which were in their infancy, and, of course in the least complicated state, to attempt to discover their foundation:  he cannot say therefore, that upon a very minute perusal of the excellent work before quoted, he has been so far convinced, as to retract in the least from his sentiments on this head, and to give up maxims, which are drawn from historical facts, for those, which are the result of speculation.  He may observe here, that whether government was a contract or not, it will not affect the reasoning of the present Essay; since where ever the contract is afterwards mentioned, it is inferred only that its object was “the happiness of the people,” which is confessedly the end of government.  Notwithstanding this, he is under the necessity of inserting this little note, though he almost feels himself ungrateful in contradicting a work, which has afforded him so much entertainment.]

* * * * *

CHAP.  IV.

Having now collected the materials that are necessary for the prosecution of our design, we shall immediately enter upon the discussion.

If any man had originally been endued with power, as with other faculties, so that the rest of mankind had discovered in themselves an innate necessity of obeying this particular person; it is evident that he and his descendants, from the superiority of their nature, would have had a claim upon men for obedience, and a natural right to command:  but as the right to empire is adventitious; as all were originally free; as nature made every man’s body and mind his own; it is evident that no just man can be consigned to slavery, without his own consent.