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Untitled Article
France , as it is now in our own country . Mirabeau saw , very clearly , the evils of the commonly received notion of the inviolability of foundations , whatever their object , or however unsuitable they might have become to the n $ e or the intelligence of the time .
He saw that a government , meaning always by government the true representation of the national will , must inherently possess the right to alter , to abrogate , to suppress the distribution of its own pecuniary and physical means , as well as to change the spirit of its legislation , or the mode of its executive . And this fact all
see . plainly enough , while it only is made to bear on a single law } or a slight change . No one thinks of disputing the right of one parliament to alter the acts of a former . It is not supposed that the legacy of opinion left by one set of men is to exercise any other influence over their successors than such as its inherent truth makes necessary ; but there still remain an immense number of persons who are filled with a superstitious dread at the thought of making the best use of the property of a community , because
that property once belonged to individuals holding certain notions of usefulness : so that with such , improvement is a question not of principles of justice , or of expediency even , but a problem of the least change which can be made to satisfy the demand for reformation . How impossible that any man , or set of men , could judge of the mode of employing their wealth most advantageously for the uses of a community , which should exist some six or eight centuries after their death ! Had a conscientious catholic of
Mary ' s time bequeathed the income of a large estate to raise the piles which then periodically blazed in Smithfield , the vile intention would long since have been scouted . The most determined defender of the sacredness of the designs of a founder would smile at such an instance . Yet the instance is a possible one ; and if there exist a single indefensible case , the principle is virtually accorded , and the adhesion to the spirit of wills must
become , as it should be in every individual instance , a question of general utility . The license allowed in the testamentary distribution of property is continually producing the most mischievous effects . Many years will not pass , we think , before this subject will be one of general consideration . Neither in the material , nor in the moral constitution of things does there exist anything which is not in its nature liable to change .
We have no power to realise by our imagination the idea , changeless . It is a terra which can only be justly used in a comparative sense . How unwise then is the attempt to set bounds to the progress of after times , by willing that the application of any portion of property shall be changeless ! A nation must always retain the right to dispose of its own possessions for its own benefit ; and this benefit is subverted by the existence of any corporation , which , constantly increasing in wealth , and pro- * portionably in influence , has an interest in the state , directly
Untitled Article
Mirabeau * 8 Letted duting his Residence in England . 60 $
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1832, page 605, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1820/page/29/
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