to be erected. If in any case the laws of any civil community should interfere with this, they so far become null and void, being superseded by a higher obligation. The rules of action prescribed by the authority of the governing power of a particular political community are generally termed the civil or municipal law of that state, though the term civil, from civis, is often exclusively applied to the Roman law; and the term municipal, strictly speaking, denotes the particular customs of one single municipium, or free town; it is, however, frequently applied to any one state or nation, which is governed by the same laws. And in this general sense civil and municipal law mean the same thing. The definition of this law is the following: It is a rule of action prescribed by the Supreme Power in a state, enforced by the sanction of human penalties. The subject of civil law is every human action to which such fixed public regulations can be applied, as would introduce fewer inconveniences, than would

flow from its being left to every man's arbitrary will. As all power is liable to be 'abused, and as mankind are too fond of exerting it when they have it, forgetting that power and right are different things, and that no man, or body of men, can have a right to do what is wrong, it is possible that in the best regulated states laws may be too numerous, and may be extended to cases in which the good of society did not require their interposition. This observation may, perhaps, be applied to many laws which are made in some of the states in Europe respecting Religion, and Trade, and Commerce. In all cases, however, where they do not interfere with the Law of God, they must be submitted to until they are repealed by the same authority which enacted them. It is requisite to the essence of a law that it be made by the Supreme Power. Sovereignty and legislature are indeed convertible terms, and one cannot subsist without the other,

This will naturally lead us into an inquiry concerning the nature of civil Government its various forms, and what form is best calculated to secure the happiness of a state; for it is a principle admitted by all who have directed their attention to this subject, that the happiness of the People is the end of all Government, and in every inquiry of this kind we must keep our eye steadily fixed on this rule, "Salus Reipublicæ suprema lex esto."

The subject of Government has employed the pens of some of the first writers that the world has produced. Several great Philosophers and Philanthropists have exerted their abilities to invent such schemes of civil policy as might best secure the rights and promote the welfare and happiness of mankind. But most of these schemes, however plausible in theory they may appear, have been found, either incapable of being

reduced to practice, or, in fact, not productive of those good effects which at first view they seemed calculated to pro

mote.

The principal sources of error in this respect, seem to be the two following. Some of those who have laid down plans of civil power, have considered mankind, not as what they really are, but as what they could wish them to be, and others have written with minds prejudiced in favour of some particular system, the inconveniences of which their partiality would not suffer them sufficiently to attend to.

It is the design of the remainder of this, and a future lecture, to collect into one short and comprehensive view, the peculiar advantages and disadvantages of the several simple forms of civil Government, whence it will be more easy to discover which of them, or rather what particular combination of them, is best adapt

ed to answer the great end of all political society, the Good of the People.

But before we consider what form of Government is best calculated for the happiness of a People, it is proper that we enquire a little into the necessity there is for Government in general: and this will appear manifest from taking a slight view of the inconveniences attending a State of Liberty, or as it is often, though improperly called, a State of Nature.

Before any kind of Government, except the parental, had taken place in the world, all men, being upon an equality, and every person having a right to judge of the injuries which he had received, and to punish the offenders himself, it may reasonably be expected, that continual disorder, confusion, and strife, would subsist among mankind. It is true the Law of Nature is a just, benevolent, and reasonable rule of action; but in the interpretation of it,