because there is sufficient reason to believe, | mitted to impose teachers upon parishes with that the founders themselves would have dis- which they are often little or not at all connectpensed with them. as subversive of their owned, some limitation of the patron's choice may designs.

CHAPTER XXII.

SUBSCRIPTION TO ARTICLES OF
RELIGION.

SUBSCRIPTION to articles of religion, though no more than a declaration of the subscriber's assent, may properly enough be considered in connexion with the subject of oaths, because it is governed by the same rule of interpretation: Which rule is the animus imponentis. The inquiry, therefore, concerning subscrip. tion, will be, quis imposuit, et quo animo ?

The bishop who receives the subscription, is not the imposer, any more than the crier of a court, who administers the oath to the jury and witnesses, is the person that imposes it; nor, consequently, is the private opinion or interpretation of the bishop of any signification to the subscriber, one way or other.

be necessary to prevent unedifying contentions

between neighbouring teachers, or between the teachers and their respective congregations. But this danger, if it exist, may be provided against with equal effect, by converting the articles of faith into articles of peace.

CHAPTER XXIII.

WILLS.

THE fundamental question upon this subject is, whether Wills are of natural or of adventitious right? that is, whether the right of directing the disposition of property after his death belongs to a man in a state of nature, and by the law of nature, or whether it be giv. en him entirely by the positive regulations of the country he lives in ?

The immediate produce of each man's personal labour, as the tools, weapons, and utensils, which he manufactures, the tent or hut The compilers of the Thirty-nine Articles that he builds, and perhaps the flocks and herds are not to be considered as the imposers of sub-which he breeds and rears, are as much his scription, any more than the framer or drawer up of a law is the person that enacts it.

The legislature of the 13th Eliz. is the imposer, whose intention the subscriber is bound to satisfy.

own as the labour was which he employed upon them, that is, are his property naturally and absolutely; and consequently he may give or leave them to whom he pleases, there being nothing to limit the continuance of his right, or to restrain the alienation of it.

foundation.

They who contend, that nothing less can justify subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles, But every other species of property, especialthan the actual belief of each and every separ-ly property in land, stands upon a different ate proposition contained in them, must suppose, that the legislature expected the consent of ten thousand men, and that in perpetual succession, not to one controverted proposition, but to many hundreds. It is difficult to conceive how this could be expected by any, who observed the incurable diversity of human opinion upon all subjects short of demonstration. If the authors of the law did not intend this, what did they intend ?

They intended to exclude from offices in the church,

1. All abettors of popery:

2. Anabaptists; who were at that time a powerful party on the Continent.

We have seen, in the Chapter upon Property, that, in a state of nature, a man's right to a particular spot of ground arises from his using it and his wanting it; consequently ceases with the use and want: so that at his death the estate reverts to the community, without any regard to the last owner's will, or even any preference of his family, further than as they become the first occupiers after him, and succeed to the same want and use.

position of it for a million of ages after him; which is absurd.

Moreover, as natural rights cannot, like rights created by act of parliament, expire at the end of a certain number of years; if the testator have a right, by the law of nature, to 3. The puritans; who were hostile to an dispose of his property one moment after his episcopal constitution: and in general the mem-death, he has the same right to direct the disbers of such leading sects or foreign establishments as threatened to overthrow our own. Whoever finds himself comprehended within these descriptions, ought not to subscribe. Nor can a subscriber to the Articles take advantage of any latitude which our rule may seem to allow, who is not first convinced that he is truly and substantially satisfying the intention of the legislature.

The ancient apprehensions of mankind upon the subject were conformable to this account of it: for, wills have been introduced into most countries by a positive act of the state; as by the Laws of Solon into Greece; by the Twelve Tables into Rome; and that not till after a considerable progress had been made in legisDuring the present state of ecclesiastical pa-lation, and in the economy of civil life. Ta. tronage, in which private individuals are per- citus relates, that amongst the Germans they

MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.
were disallowed; and what is more remarkable, | estates, unless authenticated in the precise
in this country, since the Conquest, lands could manner which the statute describes. Had tes-
not be devised by will, till within little more tamentary dispositions been founded in any
than two hundred years ago, when this privi-natural right, independent of positive consti-
lege was restored to the subject, by an act of tutions, I should have thought differently of
parliament, in the latter end of the reign of this question: for then I should have consi-
Henry the Eighth.

No doubt, many beneficial purposes are at-
tained by extending the owner's power over
his property beyond his life, and beyond his na-
tural right. It invites to industry; it encou.
rages marriage; it secures the dutifulness and
dependency of children: but a limit must be
assigned to the duration of this power. The
utmost extent to which, in any case, entails
are allowed by the laws of England to operate,
is during the lives in existence at the death of
the testator, and one-and-twenty years beyond
these after which, there are ways and means
of setting them aside.

to enforce the right of the devisee, than as extinguishing or working any alteration in the dered the law rather as refusing its assistance right itself.

case, where no consideration of pity to distress, of duty to a parent, or of gratitude to a beneAnd after all, I should choose to propose a factor, interfered with the general rule of justice.

of our fortune (except the case of lineal kindred, which is different) arises either from the The regard due to kindred in the disposal respect we owe to the presumed intention of From the consideration that wills are the tunes, or from the expectations which we have the ancestor from whom we received our forcreatures of the municipal law which gives encouraged. The intention of the ancestor is them their efficacy, may be deduced a determi-presumed with greater certainty, as well as nation of the question, whether the intention of entitled to more respect, the fewer degrees he the testator in an informal will be binding up- is removed from us; which makes the differon the conscience of those, who, by operation ence in the different degrees of kindred. For of law, succeed to his estate. will, I mean a will void in law for want of some intention and desire, that the inheritance which By an informal instance, it may be presumed to be a father's requisite formality, though no doubt be enter- he leaves, after it has served the turn and getained of its meaning or authenticity: as, sup. neration of one son, should remain a provision pose a man make his will, devising his free- for the families of his other children, equally old estate to his sister's son, and the will be related and dear to him as the oldest. Whoattested by two only, instead of three, sub-ever, therefore, without cause, gives away his scribing witnesses; would the brother's son, who is heir at law to the testator, be bound in conscience to resign his claim to the estate, out of deference to his uncle's intention? or, on the contrary, would not the devisee under the will be bound, upon discovery of this flaw in it, to surrender the estate, suppose he had gained possession of it, to the heir at law?

patrimony from his brother's or sister's family, is guilty not so much of an injury to them, as of ingratitude to his parent. The deference due from the possessor of a fortune to the presumed desire of his ancestor, will also vary with this circumstance: whether the ancestor earned the fortune by his personal industry, Generally speaking, the heir at law is not transmitted the inheritance which he received. bound by the intention of the testator: for the acquired it by accidental successes, or only intention can signify nothing, unless the per-self, and he has done nothing to excite expecson intending have a right to govern the de- tation, but rather has refrained from those Where a man's fortune is acquired by himscent of the estate. That is the first question. particular attentions which tend to cherish exNow this right the testator can only derive from the law of the land: but the law confers the right upon certain conditions, with which conditions he has not complied; therefore, the testator can lay no claim to the power which he pretends to exercise, as he hath not entitled himself to the benefit of that law, by virtue of which alone the estate ought to attend his disposal. Consequently, the devisee under the will, viding for our poor relations, in preference There is always, however, a reason for prowho, by concealing this flaw in it, keeps posses- to others who may be equally necessitous, sion of the estate, is in the situation of any other which is, that if we do not, no one else will; person who avails himself of his neighbour's mankind, by an established consent, leaving ignorance to detain from him his property. The the reduced branches of good families to the will is so much waste paper, from the defect bounty of their wealthy alliances. of right in the person who made it. Nor is this catching at an expression of law to per- omission, where it is attended with the followvert the substantial design of it: for I appre- ing effects: where it leaves daughters, or The not making a will, is a very culpable hend it to be the deliberate mind of the legisla- younger children, at the mercy of the oldest ture, that no will should take effect upon real son; where it distributes a personal fortune

pectation, he is perfectly disengaged from the force of the above reasons, and at liberty to leave his fortune to his friends, to charitable or public purposes, or to whom he will: the same blood, proximity of blood, and the like, are merely modes of speech, implying nothing real, nor any obligation of themselves.

equally amongst the children, although there some flagrant absurdities; such as, that an be no equality in their exigencies or situations; estate shall in no wise go to the brother or where it leaves an opening for litigation; or sister of the half blood, though it came to the lastly, and principally, where it defrauds cre- deceased from the common parent; that it ditors; for, by a defect in our laws, which has shall go to the remotest relation the intestate been long and strangely overlooked, real estates has in the world, rather than to his own father or are not subject to the payment of debts by mother; or even be forfeited for want of an simple contract, unless made so by will; al- heir, though both parents survive; that the though credit is, in fact, generally given to the most distant paternal relation shall be prefer. possession of such estates: he, therefore, who red to an uncle, or own cousin, by the mother's neglects to make the necessary appointments side, notwithstanding the estate was purchased for the payment of his debts, as far as his ef- and acquired by the intestate himself. fects extend, sins, as it has been justly said, in his grave; and if he omits this on purpose to defeat the demands of his creditors, he dies with a deliberate fraud in his heart.

Anciently, when any one died without a will, the bishop of the diocese took possession of his personal fortune, in order to dispose of it for the benefit of his soul, that is, to pious or charitable uses. It became necessary, therefore, that the bishop should be satisfied of the authenticity of the will, when there was any, before he resigned the right which he had to take possession of the dead man's fortune in case of intestacy. In this way wills, and controversies relating to wills, came within the cognisance of ecclesiastical courts; under the jurisdiction of which, wills of personals (the) only wills that were made formerly) still continue, though in truth, no more now-a-days connected with religion, than any other instruments of conveyance. This is a peculiarity in the English laws.

Land not being so divisible as money, may be a reason for making a difference in the course of inheritance: but there ought to be no difference but what is founded upon thet reason. The Roman law made none.

BOOK III.

PART II.

INDETERMINATE.

Succession to intestates must be regulated by OF relative DUTIES WHICH ARE positive rules of law, there being no principle of natural justice whereby to ascertain the pro. portion of the different claimants: not to men. tion that the claim itself, especially of collateral kindred, seems to have little foundation in the law of nature.

These regulations should be guided by the duty and presumed inclination of the deceased, so far as these considerations can be consulted by general rules. The statutes of Charles the Second, commonly called the Statutes of Distribution, which adopt the rule of the Roman law in the distribution of personals, are sufficiently equitable. They assign one-third to the widow, and two-thirds to the children; in case of no children, one half to the widow, and the other half to the next of kin; where neither widow nor lineal descendants survive, the whole to the next of kin, and to be equally divided amongst kindred of equal degree, without distinction of whole blood and half blood, or of consanguinity by the father's or mother's side.

CHAPTER I.

CHARITY.

I USE the term Charity neither in the common sense of bounty to the poor, nor in St. Paul's sense of benevolence to all mankind: but I apply it at present, in a sense more commodious to my purpose, to signify the promoting the happiness of our inferiors.

Charity, in this sense, I take to be the principal province of virtue and religion: for, whilst worldly prudence will direct our behaviour towards our superiors, and politeness towards our equals, there is little beside the consideration of duty, or an habitual humanity which comes into the place of consideration, to produce a proper conduct towards those who are beneath us, and dependant upon us.

The descent of real estates, of houses, that is, and land, having been settled in more remote and in ruder times, is less reasonable.moting the happiness of our inferiors. There never can be much to complain of in a rule which every person may avoid, by so easy a provision as that of making his will: otherise, our law in this respect is chargeable with

There are three principal methods of pro

J. By the treatment of our domestics and dependants.

2. By professional assistance.
3. By pecuniary bounty.

CHAPTER II.

CHARITY.

1

ment from the mere love and wantonness of domination.

2. To insult our servants by harsh, scornful, or opprobrious language.

3. To refuse them any harmless pleasures: And, by the same principle, are also forbidden causeless or immoderate anger, habitual

THE TREATMENT OF OUR DOMESTICS AND peevishness, and groundless suspicion.

DEPENDANTS.

A PARTY of friends setting out together upon a journey, soon find it to be the best for all sides, that while they are upon the road, one of the company should wait upon the rest; another ride forward to seek out lodging and entertainment; a third carry the portmanteau; a fourth take charge of the horses; a fifth bear the purse, conduct and direct the route; not forgetting, however, that, as they were equal and independent when they set out, so they are all to return to a level again at their journey's end. The same regard and respect; the same forbearance, lenity, and reserve in using their service; the same mildness in delivering commands; the same study to make their journey comfortable and pleasant, which he whose lot it was to direct the rest, would in common decency think himself bound to observe towards them; ought we to show to those who, in the casting of the parts of human society, happen to be placed within our power, or to depend up

on us.

CHAPTER III.

SLAVERY.

THE prohibitions of the last chapter extend to the treatment of slaves, being founded upon a principle independent of the contract between masters and servants.

I define slavery to be "an obligation to la bour for the benefit of the master, without the contract or consent of the servant."

This obligation may arise, consistently with the law of nature, from three causes : 1. From crimes. 2. From captivity. 3. From debt.

In the first case, the continuance of the slavery, as of any other punishment, ought to be proportioned to the crime; in the second and third cases, it ought to cease, as soon as the demand of the injured nation, or private creditor, is satisfied.

Another reflection of a like tendency with the former is, that our obligation to them is much greater than theirs to us. It is a mis- The slave-trade upon the coast of Africa is take to suppose, that the rich man maintains not excused by these principles. When slaves his servants, tradesmen, tenants, and labour-in that country are brought to market, no ers the truth is, they maintain him. It is their industry which supplies his table, furnishes his wardrobe, builds his houses, adorns his equipage, provides his amusements. It is not the estate, but the labour employed upon it, that pays his rent. All that he does, is to distribute what others produce; which is the least part of the business.

questions, I believe, are asked about the origin or justice of the vendor's title. It may be presumed, therefore, that this title is not always, if it be ever, founded in any of the causesabove assigned,

But defect of right in the first purchase is the least crime with which this traffic is chargeable. The natives are excited to war and mutual depredation, for the sake of supplying their contracts, or furnishing the market with slaves. With this the wickedness begins. The

Nor do I perceive any foundation for an opinion, which is often handed round in genteel company, that good usage is thrown away upon low and ordinary minds; that they are in-slaves, torn away from parents, wives, children, sensible of kindness, and incapable of gratitude. If by "low and ordinary minds" are meant the minds of men in low and ordinary stations, they seem to be affected by benefits in the same way that all others are, and to be no less ready to requite them: and it would be a very unaccountable law of nature if it were otherwise.

Whatever uneasiness we occasion to our domestics, which neither promotes our service, nor answers the just ends of punishment, is manifestly wrong; were it only upon the general principle of diminishing the sum of human happiness.

from their friends and companions, their fields
and flocks, their home and country, are tran-
sported to the European settlements in Ame-
rica, with no other accommodation on ship-
board than what is provided for brutes. This
is the second stage of cruelty; from which the
miserable exiles are delivered, only to be placed,
and that for life, in subjection to a dominion
and system of laws, the most merciless and
tyrannical that ever were tolerated upon the
face of the earth; and from all that can be
learned by the accounts of the people upon the
spot, the inordinate authority which the plan-
tation-laws confer upon the slave-holder is ex-
ercised, by the English slave-holder especially,

By which rule we are forbidden,
1. To enjoin unnecessary labour or confme-with rigour and brutality.

But necessity is pretended; the name under| which every enormity is attempted to be justified. And, after all, what is the necessity? It has never been proved that the land could not be cultivated there, as it is here, by hired servants. It is said that it could not be cultivated with quite the same conveniency and cheapness, as by the labour of slaves: by which means, a pound of sugar, which the planter now sells for sixpence, could not be afforded under sixpence-halfpenny;-and this is the necessity.

CHAPTER IV.

CHARITY.

PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE.

THIS kind of beneficence is chiefly to be expected from members of the legislature, magistrates, medical, legal, and sacerdotal professions.

1. The care of the poor ought to be the principal object of all laws; for this plain rea son, that the rich are able to take care of themselves.

The great revolution which has taken place in the Western world, may probably conduce (and who knows but that it was designed ?) to accelerate the fall of this abominable tyranny: and now that this contest, and the passions Much has been, and more might be, done which attend it, are no more, there may suc- by the laws of this country, towards the relief ceed perhaps a season for reflecting, whether of the impotent, and the protection and ena legislature which had so long lent its assist-couragement of the industrious poor. Whoance to the support of an institution replete with human misery, was fit to be trusted with an empire the most extensive that ever obtained in any age or quarter of the world.

ever applies himself to collect observations upon the state and operation of the poor-laws, and to contrive remedies for the imperfections and abuses which he observes, and digests these Slavery was a part of the civil constitution remedies into acts of parliament; and conducts of most countries, when Christianity appear- them, by argument or influence, through the ed; yet no passage is to be found in the Chris- two branches of the legislature, or communitian Scriptures, by which it is condemned or cates his ideas to those who are more likely to prohibited. This is true; for Christianity, so- carry them into effect; deserves well of a class liciting admission into all nations of the world, of the community so numerous, that their hapabstained, as behoved it, from intermeddling piness forms a principal part of the whole. The with the civil institutions of any. But does it study and activity thus employed, is charity, follow, from the silence of Scripture concern-in the most meritorious sense of the word. ing them, that all the civil institutions which then prevailed were right? or that the bad should not be exchanged for better?

2. The application of parochial relief is intrusted, in the first instance, to overseers and contractors, who have an interest in opposition Besides this, the discharging of slaves from to that of the poor, inasmuch as whatever they all obligation to obey their masters, which is allow them comes in part out of their own pocthe consequence of pronouncing slavery to be ket. For this reason, the law has deposited unlawful, would have had no better effect than with justices of the peace a power of superinten. to let loose one half of mankind upon the other. dence and control; and the judicious interposiSlaves would have been tempted to embrace a tion of this power is a most useful exertion of religion, which asserted their right to freedom; charity, and oft-times within the ability of those masters would hardly have been persuaded to who have no other way of serving their genconsent to claims founded upon such authori-eration. A country gentleman of very modety; the most calamitous of all contests, a bel-rate education, and who has little to spare from lum servile, might probably have ensued, to the his fortune, by learning so much of the poorreproach, if not the extinction, of the Chris-law as is to be found in Dr. Burn's Justice,

tian name.

The truth is, the emancipation of slaves should be gradual, and be carried on by provisions of law, and under the protection of civil government. Christianity can only operate as an alterative. By the mild diffusion of its light and influence, the minds of men are insensibly prepared to perceive and correct the enormities, which folly, or wickedness, or accident, have introduced into their public establishments. In this way the Greek and Roman slavery, and since these, the feudal tyranny, has declined before it. And we trust that, as the knowledge and authority of the same religion advance in the world, they will banish hat remains of this odious institution.

and by furnishing himself with a knowledge of the prices of labour and provision, so as to be able to estimate the exigencies of a family, and what is to be expected from their industry, may, in this way, place out the one talent committed to him, to great account.

3. Of all private professions, that of medi. cine puts it in a man's power to do the most good at the least expense. Health, which is precious to all, is to the poor invaluable: and their complaints, as agues, rheumatisms, &c. are often such as yield to medicine. And, with respect to the expense, drugs at first hand cost little, and advice costs nothing, where it is only bestowed upon those who could not af ford to pay for it.

F