own legislative authority. But let them recollect, that their country can only be truly aggrandised by removing every obstruction to industry, virtue, and happiness; and that every effort to obtain these ends by counteracting the established order of nature is worse than useless.

Besides, it ought to be remarked, that political institutions, when injurious, produce evils which cannot be removed by the removal of the institutions. Perhaps, they have given the impetus of the national mind a direction in which it will continue to move for ages, though that direction may be hostile to the interest of the people they probably have given rise to prejudices which can only be effaced by a length of time and many counteracting principles. In such circumstances, even an enlightened legislator, whose first passion is the love of human kind, may have the deepest cause to regret, that he lives in an age when his benevolent exertions must be limited by the ignorance, folly, and corruption of his predecessors. "A "scheme, however happily imagined, may, by "the obstacles which oppose, by the difference "of the genius and character of the people, by "the force of those laws they have adopted, and "by long custom, which, as it were, stamps a seal 66 upon them, become alike chimerical and im"practicable. Time only, and long experience,

can bring remedies to the defects in the cus"toms of a state whose form is already deter"mined."*

These remarks are illustrated and confirmed by a survey of the history of Europe. It is not my object, however, to enter into detail on this particular; indeed, without any such details, all will agree as to the truth of the following observations by professor Stewart, which in one sentence expresses all that I wish to advance on this head. Of occasional evils, (or evils over which the bulk of mankind have no controul,) he says, that "no inconsiderable part

may be traced to the obstacles, which human

institutions oppose to the order of things "recommended by nature." ." It is elsewhere observed by the same author, that "the parti"cular form, which the political union happens, "in the case of any community to assume, deter"mines many of the most important circum"stances in the character of the people, and many of those opinions and habits which "affect the happiness of private life."t

The blessings which are enjoyed under a liberal system of government, are so forcibly described by Brydone in the following passage, that I cannot deny myself the pleasure of quoting it. He is contrasting the wretched condi*Sully's Memoirs, v. ii. p. 40.

† Outlines of Moral Philosophy.

*

tion of Sicily, formerly the granary of the Roman empire, and still, as it merely regards the soil, the finest country in the world, with that of Switzerland, the most mountainous of Europe. "What a contrast is there betwixt this and the "little uncouth country of Switzerland!--To be sure, the dreadful consequences of oppression "can never be set in a more striking opposition

66

to the blessings and charms of liberty. Swit "zerland, the very excrescence of Europe, where "nature seems to have thrown out all her cold "and stagnating humours; full of lakes, marshes, "and woods, and surrounded by immense rocks, "and everlasting mountains of ice, the barren, "but sacred, ramparts of liberty. Switzerland,

6.6

enjoying every blessing, where every blessing "seems to have been denied; whilst Sicily, "covered by the most luxuriant hand of nature; "where heaven seems to have showered down "its richest blessings with the utmost prodi

66

gality, groans under the most abject poverty, "and with a pale and wan visage, starves in "the midst of plenty. It is liberty alone that "works this standing miracle. Under her "plastic hands the mountains sink, the lakes

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are drained, and these rocks, these marshes, "these woods, become so many sources of "wealth and pleasure.

* Brydone's Tour through Sicily and Malta, v. ii. p. 35.

(2.) The state of a nation with regard either to its deterioration or improvement, depends also on its religion. If that be full of bigotry and intolerance; if its genius be hostile to the pro-. gress of knowledge, there can be no question but it will form the best security to corrupt rulers, and a most powerful impediment to the civil liberty and general happiness of the subject. Religious prejudices are of all others the worst, because they are the most inveterate; and you may as soon attempt to stop the torrent in its headlong course, as instantaneously to change the bias of a nation, when that bias owes its existence to the influence of a narrow and degrading superstition.

It is true, it sometimes fortunately happens, that such a superstition is not very intimately associated with the concerns of life, and, therefore, has less power on the progress of human affairs. When, however, it interferes with the prerogative of the magistrate; when it presumes to dictate to the sovereign and the senate of the people; when its leading maxim is that ignorance and incapacity form the security of the multitude; and when it proscribes as heretics, and punishes as infidels, all who do not adhere to its dogmas, then, indeed, it produces the most baneful effects of the most baneful superstition. And it is difficult to say, what

greater curse heaven in its wrath can inflict on mortals: it takes away the power as well as the inclination of noble and liberal exertion; it destroys some of the most important sources of human happiness; and unlike the tempest which lowers and darkens only to produce a more brilliant sunshine, it spreads a cloud of night over the land, which the brightest rays of genius may long attempt in vain to penetrate, and the clearer light of revelation be scarcely able to remove.

How unlike the rational, and mild, and beneficial, and ennobling religion which nature approves, and which God prescribes. This is

the religion of peace, and joy, and righteousness, of mercy, and forgiveness; possessing nothing gloomy or forbidding, but all mildness, and gentleness, and love:-destitute of all local peculiarities, of expensive rites, of unmeaning ceremonies, it has no temple, no altar; it comes like heaven's fairest gift, forcing itself on the attention of none, refusing violence in every instance for its support, but freely offering its benefits to all. How opposed to all the disgusting pomp and bigotry, and cruelty of superstition.

The influence which this religion exerts on civil liberty and national prosperity may be indirect, but it is powerfully efficient. It makes the people more thoughtful and less turbulent,