N° 88. by theoretical deduction it can be shown may possibly be attended with some general advantage, but which will certainly be very hurtful to some individuals. Dormer is sure to give it his warmest approbation and support. His constant maxim is, that the interest of individuals should never be put in competition with that of the Public. From a steady adherence to this maxim, he thinks nothing of demolishing houses, rooting out inclosures, or dispossessing tenants. I have known him, for the purpose of widening a highway only a few feet, pull down a house by which a widow and a numerous family of children were turned out to the open air.

The same love of public utility attends Dormer when he comes to town. He views with admiration the public works which are going on, and visits with great satisfaction the different improvements. He talks with apparent philanthropy of the rapid progress this country is making, and blesses himself for having lived at a period of so great advancement. He says, shall be his object to contribute as much as a poor individual can to every thing which is of national importance. Actuated by such motives, he is a good subject to government; and one of his favourite tenets is, that the powers that are should be implicitly submitted to. To every

it ever

magistrate, and every person in public office, he pays the most passive obedience; and when once a law is enacted, he is for enforcing it without mitigation, though it should produce the ruin of the most innocent individuals. At a Circuit he constantly waits upon the Judges, values himself on the respect and attention he pays them; and on all occasions is for inflicting rigorous punishments on the persons, convicted of crimes, without paying regard to any alleviating circumstances in their case.

I do not wish to find fault with these, or at least

with all these particulars in Dormer; nor do I mean to say, that he is not sincere, or that his conduct does not proceed from a real concern for the good of the Public. But when I allow this, I allow him all he is entitled to,-That he has a regard for the public interest. This is the whole merit of his character.

But are there not private virtues, are there not private interests and attachments, that are as im portant as necessary to constitute a virtuous character, as a regard for the public interest? And ought general considerations of utility to supersede the attention to every thing else? In the conduct of Dormer they certainly do.

His love for the Public is such, that he pays no attention to his family; the Public engrosses him to such a degree, that he has no time for private friend. ship, or for the exercise of private virtues. His wife and daughters are unattended to at home; and his son, an excellent young man, is despised by him, because he does not like public meetings, and does not chuse to bustle for the good of his country. No one can tell of any charitable deed performed by Dormer; of any person in distress relieved by his generosity. To give this relief would be contrary to his principles, as he holds charity and generosity to be bastard virtues; he says, that if there were no charity there would be no idleness.

By unavoidable misfortunes in trade, a cousin of his of the fairest and best character, was reduced in his circumstances. Dormer was applied to for his name to a subscription for this gentleman's relief and that of his family; but he refused; said he thought it wrong to try to keep them in a genteel style; that the lowest station in society is the most useful; and that, in his opinion, the sons should be bred mecha

I have already said, that I do not mean to deny that Dormer is sincere in what he professes, in having 'the real good of the Public at heart; but yet this admission which I have made must be taken with some allowance. His regard for the Public, the concern which he takes in projects of advancement in agriculture, manufactures, and public works, does not so much proceed from a feeling of the happiness which this advancement will produce, as from a love of theory, of what is calculated to promote that theory, from a fondness for order, and for every thing conspiring to one great and general end. Were his views directed by a concern for the happiness produced by his plans, he would in some cases allow the comfort of individuals to enter into his regards.

A very ingenious philosopher, who possesses a singular power of illustration, joined to an uncommon depth of thinking, in speaking of the reason why utility pleases, has remarked, That the fitness, the happy contrivance of any production of art is often more valued than the very end for which it was iutended; and that the exact adjustment of the means for attaining any conveniency or pleasure, is frequently more regarded than that very conveniency or pleasure, in the attainment of which their whole merit would seem to consist.

When a person,' continues this author, ' come into his chamber, and finds the chairs all standing ir the middle of the room, he is angry with his servant; and rather than see them continue in that disorder, perhaps takes the trouble himself to set them all in their places, with their backs to the wall. The whole propriety of this new situation arises from its superior conveniency in leaving the floor free and disengaged. To attain this conveniency, he voluntarily puts himself to more trouble than all he could have suffered from the want of it, since nothing was more

easy than to have set himself down upon one of them, which is probably what he does when his labour is over. What he wanted, therefore, it seems, was not so much this conveniency, as that arrangement of things which promotes it; yet it is this conveniency which ultimately recommends that arrangement, and bestows upon it the whole of its propriety and beauty.

'A watch, in the same manner, that falls behind above two minutes in a day, is despised by one curious in watches. He sells it perhaps for a couple of guineas, and purchases another at fifty, which will not lose above a minute in a fortnight. The sole use of watches, however, is to tell us what o'clock it is, and to hinder us from breaking any engagement, or suffering any other inconveniency, by our ignorance in that particular point. But the person so nice with regard to this machine, will not always be found either more scrupulously punctual than other men, or more anxiously concerned upon any other account to know precisely what time of day it is. What interests him is not so much the attainment of this piece of knowledge, as the perfection of the machine which serves to attain it.'

The same author afterwards observes, that it is a similar principle which frequently serves to recommend those institutions that tend to promote the public welfare.

For this

Something of this kind may afford the key to Dormer's character. In all his schemes, in all his projects, it is not so much the end which he has in view, as the mode of producing that end. he sacrifices the happiness of individuals; aggregate happiness f a whole society does or interest his mind so much, as the fitness of the many hardships and oppres

measure by which, after
sions, that object may be produced.

nay, the not fill

If the account which is given by my correspondent of Dormer's character be a just one, and I am persuaded by my own observation, that it is not out of nature, several useful lessons may be learned from it. We may be taught the danger of suffering attention to one part of our conduct to swallow up our regard for every other; we may perceive the hazard of allowing notions of public utility to extinguish private virtues. These last are indeed indispensably necessary to constitute the perfection of any charicter, and to all of us, except a very few, are the only virtues within our reach.

It may be told those men, who, like Dormer, arrogate to themselves the praise of public spirit, and look down with contempt on the humbler virtue of such as are occupied in the private concerns of life, that they are not quite so remote from selfishness as they would sometimes have the world to believe. The theories of Dormer are as much his children, as that son and daughter, whom perhaps he will call it virtue to disregard, in his violent attention to the good of his country; and when he canvasses with success at county-meetings for the family of his projects, he feels as much selfish satisfaction, and much more selfish vanity, than if he obtained a pension for his wife, or an appointment for his unfortunate relation. From Dormer's, and other such ostentatious characters, we may learn, that there may be often much pretension to virtue, and even some virtuous conduct, without much humanity, or much virtuous feeling.

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