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    upon th « rririst remote posterity * against their will . The living vail never submit theriisfelres to the tyranny of the dead . Happily , though self-conceited legislators may say to their own handiwork esto perpetua , it is out of their power to make it so . As soon as it ceases to be thought worth preserving , it will cease to be preserved . But this they may do ; they may render it impossible to make the most necessary Alteration without perjury : which is much the same thing as to establish perjury by law .

    If it be of importance that there should be sacrecmess in oaths , or in any solemn engagements , legislators should beware of compelling or tempting men to bind themselves not to do , what it may possibly be the dictate of their duty to do . Cases must occasionally occur of incompatible obligation * ; cases in which , whatever course we adopt , we unavoidably violate some moral duty , or we should rather say , some general rule , of which the observance is important to morality . But to all cofiacientious persons , except those of the strongest intellect or } the itiost decided character , such an alternative is extremely distressing : ; and it is under cover of these extreme

    cases , lying exactly on the boundary between guilt and exalted virtue , that laxity of principle most commonly creeps in . It is of the utmost moment to the maintenance of a high standard of moral sentiment among the mass , that such cases of what may be termed justifiable immorality should rarely occur , and when they do occur , should not be forced forward into public notice and discussion . We are persuaded that the applause lavished upon Brutus and Timoleon , whether merited ot not , has had a strong tendency

    to create indulgence for private crimes when supposed to be committed from public motives . Infidelity to engagements is far more likely to propagate itself by example than assassination . How much , then , have those to answer for , who arbitrarily create , in the most extensive sphere of publicity , a conflict of duties , of which this is sure to be the result ! who compromise the sanctity of the most binding of promises , by exacting it where its observance may possibly be a breach of obligations still more sacred ! For there is no

    limit to the baneful consequences which an institution may produce , if it be not altered , when all other things are altering around it . And the framers of the oaths have so contrived matters , that be these consequences what they will , there shall be no means of averting them without a previous perjury . Is it a trifle to have made it unavoidable , that , in a contingency which is not improbable , which in a given lapse of time is virtually certain , it shall be the study , not of bad men , but of the best and most pure-minded , to

    reconcile themselves to the intentional evasion of a solemn promise ? to preach to the mass of mankind that oaths are not binding ? to invent artful contrivances for slipping their heads out of the yokeof a posiiive engagement ? Such is the morality inculcated both with precept and example , by the organs of the political Church of England . Sir K . H . Inglis avers , that human society is built upon oaths . It is built upori oaths , and in order to strengthen the foundations , men are to be placed in such a situation , that , in

    a contingency not unlikely to occur , they mrtst perforce disregard either their oaths or their country ' s good ; and that , in proportion to their attachment to duty and ardour lor the public weal , will be their efforts to vanquish their own reluctance to peritiry ! The real enemies of public morals , and weakeners of the ties which hold mankind together , are such teachers . It is impossible even to conceive the existence of a healthy and vigorous morality , until the reign of such men and of such doctrines is over . *

    15 th March . The Tracks * Uuions . —Tht' Times , ' tins morning , lias an * Since this was written ihe Duke of feiciunonri tit « ^ obtained a Committee of &e House of Lords t 6 inquire what oaths it may 1 m « expedient to abolish , with re ference especiall y to fnromlssory oaths . This is rational and commendable . A butter coin ttiofteemttit could not b * made ffrari by expunging all the promissory oaths , which the tnifliftterial Bill ifclatiri * to Irish Tithes is full tit .

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    246 Notes oft Iht Newspapers .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1834, page 246, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2632/page/14/