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Untitled Article
Hients that will lead the young and inexperienced to reflection , on those topics in which , as members of society , and subjects of- a Government , they are closely interested ?
Mrs . Lee ' s kssay is not written in the close and abstract style of metaphysical reasoning , but is intended raiher as a popular illustration of the principles on which government is founded . Th > se who wish for an able and at , the
same time a concise account of this subject managed on the former mode will do well to turn to a small work entitled t 6 Propositions respecting the Foundation of Civil Government , b y Thomas Cooper , Esq , ' * which was published , we believe about 20 years ago .
In treating of the liberty of the press , Mrs . Lee combats the idea of those who object to * the encouragement and dispersion of knowledge among the lower classes of society ., as militating against that entire submission to the will of the
Supreme Being which has been considered as the chief constituent of religion . — " A desire t > be tree * ( say these reasoners , ) occasioned the fall of man from happiness and the favour of heaven . " To which our author replies :
" Disobedience to a-divine command expressly given , and the establishment of rights which human beings pos-e ^ s in common , and which .. re considered only with reference to one another , appear to be founded on principles whofly distinct . The i > tate of man before and after the iall may be presumed by all who give credit
to the testimony ot lYIoses to have been very different ; at the former period a theocracy of the purest kind may be up-^ posed to have existed . At the latteit period a mingled form ot goyernnu' / tt necessarily arose , supported by the ^ on . ent of the people , and depending on human 'will . Still , however , the Vvisdoni of legialators secured privilege to mankind ,
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of which they could not , without ^ violence and injustice ^ be deprived ; the i ^ t . create of numbers on the earth , added ta the imperfections of mankind , g : ave rise to laws , but those laws were at first evidently framed for mutual security and
happiness ; Tvere they founded on any other principles , they must necessarily be unjust and tyrannical ; but if founded on those principles , the deeper they ar £ investigated the more firmly will they be established . "
In treating , chap . xvii . " Of the Dignity of the Plebeian Character /* and shewing the necessity of respecting . the men . to whom a state owes its formation and support , and of ' affording them the means of instruction as well as of subsistence , Mrs . Lve observes , that little confidence can in general be placed in tnose who exist in a state of extreme ignorance and poverty , for their submission being the result of necessity , ceases when that sole and powerful principle no longer operates on their minds .
< c The impolicy , ( adds our author , ) as well as inju- 'tice of urging the lower classes ^ by mismanagement or ill usage , to commit , crimes , and then punishing " them severely for the very excesses into which they have been driven , must be
obviou ... Is it not more rational to make theni responsible members of the commonwealth , by affording means of . iniprovemeiit , distributing blessings , and promoting emulation among them ? It is d . sirabte that each individual in a free state should f ^ el himself interested in the honour and prosperity oii his countryhe should be ready to oppose its enemies on a principle of self-defence , as well as on a principle of duty . Numerous instances might be adduced of great and popmous nations among the ancients , which fell into the hands of enemies , merely from want of attachment in the ^ bubabitants . r l he success of the Rornaris la ^ iiirtSfc th e combined forces of t ^ heirven § - m > es may , in several instapceb be alrno-st wholly attributed to the attachment p £ the soldiers ; and that attachment was the oSffkpring of a . government which , generaUy apea&ingj'termed * to nurse » uhc
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Reviews- ~ Mfs . Lee ' s Essay on Government . 359
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1809, page 339, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1737/page/37/
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