what in a greater degree conduces to the public welfare.

After the state has once established a particular system of faith as a national religion, a question will soon occur, concerning the treatment and Still it is right "to obey God rather than man." toleration of those who dissent from it. This Nothing that we have said encroaches upon the question is properly preceded by another, concern- truth of this sacred and undisputed maxim: the ing the right which the civil magistrate possesses right of the magistrate to ordain, and the obligato interfere in matters of religion at all: for, al- tion of the subject to obey, in matters of religion, though this right be acknowledged whilst he is may be very different; and will be so, as often as employed solely in providing means of public in- they flow from opposite apprehensions of the Distruction, it will probably be disputed, (indeed it vine will. In affairs that are properly of a civil naever has been,) when he proceeds to inflict penal- ture, in "the things that are Cæsar's," this differties, to impose restraints or incapacities, on the ac- ence seldom happens. The law authorises the count of religious distinctions. They who admit act which it enjoins; Revelation being either silent no other just original of civil government, than upon the subject, or referring to the laws of the what is founded in some stipulation with its sub-country, or requiring only that men act by some jects, are at liberty to contend that the concerns fixed rule, and that this rule be established by of religion were excepted out of the social com- competent authority. But when human laws inpact; that, in an affair which can only be trans-terpose their direction in matters of religion, by acted between God and a man's own conscience, dictating, for example, the object or the mode of no commission or authority was ever delegated to divine worship; by prohibiting the profession of the civil magistrate, or could indeed be transferred some articles of faith, and by exacting that of others, from the person himself to any other. We, how- they are liable to clash with what private persons ever, who have rejected this theory, because we believe to be already settled by precepts of Revecannot discover any actual contract between the lation; or to contradict what God himself, they state and the people, and because we cannot allow think, hath declared to be true. In this case, on any arbitrary fiction to be made the foundation of whichever side the mistake lies, or whatever plea real rights and of real obligations, find ourselves the state may allege to justify its edict, the subprecluded from this distinction. The reasoning ject can have none to excuse his compliance. The which deduces the authority of civil government same consideration also points out the distinction, from the will of God, and which collects that will as to the authority of the state, between temporals from public expediency alone, binds us to the un- and spirituals. The magistrate is not to be obeyed reserved conclusion, that the jurisdiction of the in temporals more than spirituals, where a repugmagistrate is limited by no consideration but that nancy is perceived between his commands and of general utility in plainer terms, that whatever any credited manifestations of the Divine will; be the subject to be regulated, it is lawful for him but such repugnancies are much less likely to arise to interfere whenever his inteference, in its gene-in one case than the other. ral tendency, appears to be conducive to the com- When we grant that it is lawful for the mamon interest. There is nothing in the nature of gistrate to interfere in religion as often as his inreligion, as such, which exempts it from the au- terference appears to him to conduce, in its general thority of the legislator, when the safety or welfare tendency, to the public happiness; it may be argued, of the community requires his interposition. It from this concession, that since salvation is the has been said, indeed, that religion, pertaining to highest interest of mankind, and since, consequentthe interests of a life to come, lies beyond the pro-ly, to advance that, is to promote the public hapvince of civil government, the office of which is piness in the best way, and in the greatest degree, confined to the affairs of this life. But in reply in which it can be promoted, it follows, that it is to this objection, it may be observed, that when not only the right, but the duty, of every magisthe laws interfere even in religion, they interfere trate invested with supreme power, to enforce upon only with temporals; their effects terminate, their his subjects the reception of that religion which he power operates only upon those rights and in- deems most acceptable to God; and to enforce it terests, which confessedly belong to their disposal. by such methods as may appear most effectual for The acts of the legislature, the edicts of the prince, the end proposed. A popish king, for example, the sentence of the judge, cannot affect my sal who should believe that salvation is not attainable vation: nor do they, without the most absurd out of the precincts of the Romish church, would arrogance, pretend to any such power: but they derive a right from our principles (not to say that may deprive me of liberty, of property, and even he would be bound by them) to employ the power of life itself, on account of my religion; and how- with which the constitution intrusted him, and ever I may complain of the injustice of the sen- which power, in absolute monarchies, commands tence by which I am condemned, I cannot allege, the lives and fortunes of every subject of the empire, that the magistrate has transgressed the boundaries in reducing his people within that communion. We of his jurisdiction; because the property, the lib- confess that this consequence is inferred from the erty, and the life of the subject, may be taken principles we have laid down concerning the founaway by the authority of the laws, for any reason dation of civil authority, not without the resem which, in the judgment of the legislature, renders blance of a regular deduction: we confess also that such a measure necessary to the common welfare. it is a conclusion which it behoves us to dispose of; Moreover, as the precepts of religion may regulate because, if it really follow from our theory of goall the offices of life, or may be so construed as to vernment, the theory itself ought to be given up. extend to all, the exemption of religion from the Now it will be remembered, that the terms of our control of human laws might afford a plea, which proposition are these:-"That it is lawful for the would exclude civil government from every autho-magistrate to interfere in the affairs of religion, rity over the conduct of its subjects. Religious whenever his interference appears to him to conliberty is, like civil liberty, not an immunity from duce, by its general tendency, to the public haprestraint, but the heing restrained by no law, but piness." The clause of" general tendency," when

inquired after; a religion which wants authority, with him wants every thing. Since then this authority appertains, not to the religion which is most commodious,-to the religion which is most sublime and efficacious,--to the religion which suits best with the form, or seems most calculated to uphold the power and stability, of civil government,-but only to that religion which comes from God; we are justified in pronouncing the true religion, by its very truth, and independently of all considerations of tendencies, aptness, or any other internal qualities whatever, to be universally the best.

this rule comes to be applied, will be found a very | By a man who acts with a view to a future judg significant part of the direction. It obliges the ma-ment, the authority of a religion is the first thing gistrate to reflect, not only whether the religion which he wishes to propagate amongst his subjects, be that which will best secure their eternal welfare; not only, whether the methods he employs be likely to effectuate the establishment of that religion; but also upon this farther question: Whether the kind of interference which he is about to exercise, if it were adopted as a common maxim amongst states and princes, or received as a general rule for the conduct of government in matters of religion, would, upon the whole, and in the mass of instances in which his example might be imitated, conduce to the furtherance of human salvation. If the magistrate, for example, should think that, although the application of his power might, in the instance concerning which he deliberates, advance the true religion, and together with it, the happiness of his people, yet that the same engine, in other hands, who might assume the right to use it with the like pretensions of reason and authority that he himself alleges, would more frequently shut out truth, and obstruct the means of salvation; he would be bound by this opinion, still admitting public utility to be the supreme rule of his conduct, to refrain from expedients, which, whatever particular effects he may expect from them, are, in their general operation, dangerous or hurtful. If there be any difficulty in the subject, it arises from that which is the cause of every difficulty in morals;-the competition of particular and general consequences; or, what is the same thing, the submission of one general rule to another rule which is still more general.

From the first proposition follows this inference, that when the state enables its subjects to learn some form of Christianity, by distributing teachers of a religious system throughout the country, and by providing for the maintenance of these teachers at the public expense; that is, in fewer terms, when the laws establish a national religion, they exercise a power and an interference, which are likely, in their general tendency, to promote the interest of mankind; for, even supposing the species of Christianity which the laws patronise to be erroneous and corrupt, yet when the option lies between this religion and no religion at all, (which would be the consequence of leaving the people without any public means of instruction, or any regular celebration of the offices of Christianity,) our proposition teaches us that the former alternative is constantly to be preferred.

But after the right of the magistrate to establish a particular religion has been, upon this principal, admitted; a doubt sometimes presents itself, whether the religion which he ought to establish, be that which he himself professes, or that which he observes to prevail amongst the majority of the people. Now when we consider this question with a view to the formation of a general rule upon the subject, (which view alone can furnish a just solution of the doubt,) it must be assumed to be an equal chance whether of the two religions contain more of truth,—that of the magistrate, or that of the people. The chance then that is left to truth being equal upon both suppositions, the remaining consideration will be, from which arrangement more efficacy can be expected ;-from an order of men appointed to teach the people their own religion, or to convert them to another? In my opinion, the advantage lies on the side of the former scheme; and this opinion, if it be assented to, makes it the duty of the magistrate, in the choice of the religion which he establishes, to consult the faith of the nation, rather than his own.

Bearing then in mind, that it is the general tendency of the measure, or, in other words, the effects which would arise from the measure being generally adopted, that fixes upon it the character of rectitude or injustice; we proceed to inquire what is the degree and the sort of interference of secular laws in matters of religion, which are likely to be beneficial to the public happiness. There are two maxims which will in a great measure regulate our conclusions upon this head. The first is, that any form of Christianity is better than no religion at all: the second, that, of different systems of faith, that is the best which is the truest. The first of these positions will hardly be disputed, when we reflect that every sect and modification of Christianity holds out the happiness and misery of another life, as depending chiefly upon the practice of virtue or of vice in this; and that the distinctions of virtue and vice are nearly the same in all. A person who acts under the impression of these hopes and The case also of dissenters must be determined fears, though combined with many errors and su- by the principles just now stated. Toleration is perstitions, is more likely to advance both the of two kinds;-the allowing to dissenters the unpublic happiness and his own, than one who is molested profession and exercise of their religion, destitute of all expectation of future account. but with an exclusion from offices of trust and The latter proposition is founded in the consider- emolument in the state; which is a partial toleation, that the principal importance of religion ration: and the admitting them, without distincconsists in its influence upon the fate and condi- tion, to all the civil privileges and capacities of tion of a future existence. This influence be- other citizens; which is a complete toleration. longs only to that religion which comes from God. The expediency of toleration, and consequently the A political religion may be framed, which shall right of every citizen to demand it, as far as relates embrace the purposes, and describe the duties of to liberty of conscience, and the claim of being propolitical society perfectly well; but if it be not detected in the free and safe profession of his relilivered by God, what assurance does it afford, that the decisions of the Divine judgment will have any regard to the rules which it contains?

gion, is deducible from the second of those propositions which we have delivered as the grounds of our conclusions upon the subject. That proposi

The justice and expediency of toleration we found primarily in its conduciveness to truth, and in the superior value of truth to that of any other quality which a religion can possess: this is the principal argument; but there are some auxiliary considerations, too important to be omitted. The confining of the subject to the religion of the state, is a needless violation of natural liberty, and is an There are two cases in which test-laws are instance in which constraint is always grievous. wont to be applied, and in which, if in any, they Persecution produces no sincere conviction, nor may be defended. One is, where two or more reany real change of opinion; on the contrary, it ligions are contending for establishment; and vitiates the public morals, by driving men to pre-where there appears no way of putting an end to varication; and commonly ends in a general though secret infidelity, by imposing, under the name of revealed religion, systems of doctrine which men cannot believe, and dare not examine: finally, it disgraces the character, and wounds the reputation of Christianity itself, by making it the author of oppression, cruelty, and bloodshed.

might insinuate themselves into offices of trust and authority, by subscribing political assertions, and yet retain their predilection for the interests of the religious sect to which they continued to belong. By which means, government would sometimes find, though it could not accuse the individual, whom it had received into its service, of disaffection to the civil establishment, yet that, through him, it had communicated the aid and

were hostile to the constitution. These answers, however, we propose rather than defend. The measure certainly cannot be defended at all, except where the suspected union between certain obnoxious principles in politics, and certain tenets in religion, is nearly universal; in which case, it makes little difference to the subscriber, whether the test be religious or political; and the state is somewhat better secured by the one than the other.

upon this principle at all, it ought to be applied in regal governments, to the chief magistrate himself, whose power might otherwise overthrow or change the established religion of the country, in opposition to the will and sentiments of the people. The second case of exleusion, and in which, I think, the measure is more easily vindicated, is that of a country in which some disaffection to the subsisting government happens to be connected with certain religious distinctions. The state un-influence of a powerful station to a party who doubtedly has a right to refuse its power and its confidence to those who seek its destruction. Wherefore, if the generality of any religious sect entertain dispositions hostile to the constitution, and if government have no other way of knowing its enemies than by the religion which they profess, the professors of that religion may justly be excluded from offices of trust and authority. But even here it should be observed, that it is not against the religion that government shuts its doors, but against those political principles, which, The result of our examination of those general however independent they may be of any article tendencies, by which every interference of civil of religious faith, the members of that communion government in matters of religion ought to be tried, are found in fact to hold. Nor would the legisla- is this: "That a comprehensive national religion, tor make religious tenets the test of men's incli-guarded by a few articles of peace and conformity, nations towards the state, if he could discover any together with a legal provision for the clergy of other that was equally certain and notorious. that religion; and with a complete toleration of all Thus, if the members of the Romish church, for dissenters from the established church, without the most part adhere to the interests, or maintain any other limitation or exception, than what arises the right, of a foreign pretender to the crown of from the conjunction of dangerous political dispothese kingdoms; and if there be no way of dis-sitions with certain religious tenets; appears to be, tinguishing those who do from those who do not not only the most just and liberal, but the wisest retain such dangerous prejudices; government is and safest system, which a state can adopt; inwell warranted in fencing out the whole sect from asmuch as it unites the several perfections which situations of trust and power. But even in this a religious constitution ought to aim at :-liberty example, it is not to popery that the laws object, of conscience, with means of instruction; the but to popery as the mark of jacobitism; an equivo-progress of truth, with the peace of society; the cal indeed and fallacious mark, but the best and per-right of private judgment, with the care of the haps the only one, that can be devised. But then public safety." it should be remembered, that as the connexion between popery and jacobitism, which is the sole cause of suspicion and the sole justification of those severe and jealous laws which have been enacted against the professors of that religion, was accidental in its origin, so probably it will be temporary in its duration; and that these restrictions ought not to continue one day longer than some visible danger renders them necessary to the preservation of public tranquillity.

CHAPTER XI.

Of Population and Provision; and of Agricul ture and Commerce, as subservient thereto.

THE final view of all rational politics is, to produce the greatest quantity of happiness in a given tract of country. The riches, strength, and glory of nations; the topics which history celebrates, and which alone almost engage the praises and possess the admiration of mankind; have no value farther than as they contribute to this end. When they interfere with it, they are evils, and not the less real for the splendour that surrounds them.

and passions; nothing really exists or feels but individuals. The happiness of a people is made up of the happiness of single persons; and the quantity of happiness can only be auginented by increasing the number of the percipients, or the pleasure of their perceptions.

After all, it may be asked; Why should not the legislator direct his test against the political principles themselves which he wishes to exclude, rather than encounter them through the medium of religious tenets, the only crime and the only danger of which consist in their presumed al- Secondly: Although we speak of communities liance with the former? Why, for example, as of sentient beings; although we ascribe to should a man be required to renounce transub-them happiness and misery, desires, interests, stantiation, before he be admitted to an office in the state, when it might seem to be sufficient that he abjure the pretender? There are but two answers that can be given to the objection which this question contains: first, that it is not opinions which the laws fear, so much as inclinations; and, that political inclinations are not so easily detected by the affirmation or denial of any abstract proposition in politics, as by the discovery of the religious creed with which they are wont to be united:-secondly, that when men renounce their religion, they commonly quit all connexion with the members of the church which they have left; that church no longer expecting assistance or friendship from them: whereas particular persons

Thirdly Notwithstanding that diversity of condition, especially different degrees of plenty, freedom, and security, greatly vary the quantity of happiness enjoyed by the same number of individuals; and notwithstanding that extreme cases may be found, of human beings so galled by the rigours of slavery, that the increase of numbers is only the amplification of misery; yet, within certain limits, and within those limits

to which civil life is diversified under the tem- | seldom be found to be that which actually checks perate governments that obtain in Europe, it may be affirmed, I think, with certainty, that the quantity of happiness produced in any given district, so far depends upon the number of inhabitants, that, in comparing adjoining periods in the same country, the collective happiness will be nearly in the exact proportion of the numbers; that is, twice the number of inhabitants will produce double the quantity of happiness: in distant periods, and different countries, under great changes or great dissimilitude of civil condition, although the proportion of enjoyment may fall much short of the numbers, yet still any considerable excess of numbers will usually carry with it a preponderation of happiness; that, at least, it may and ought to be assumed, in all political deliberations, that a larger portion of happiness is enjoyed amongst ten persons, possessing the means of healthy subsistence, than can be produced by five persons, under every advantage of power, affluence, and luxury.

From these principles it follows, that the quantity of happiness in a given district, although it is possible it may be increased, the number of inhabitants remaining the same, is chiefly and most naturally affected by alteration of the numbers: that, consequently, the decay of population is the greatest evil that a state can suffer; and the improvement of it, the object which ought, in all countries, to be aimed at, in preference to every other political purpose whatsoever.

the progress of population in any country of the world; because the number of the people have seldom, in any country, arrived at this limit, or even approached to it. The fertility of the ground, in temperate regions, is capable of being improved by cultivation to an extent which is unknown; much, however, beyond the state of improvement in any country in Europe. In our own, which holds almost the first place in the knowledge and encouragement of agriculture, let it only be supposed that every field in England, of the same original quality with those in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, and consequently capable of the same fertility, were, by a like management, made to yield an equal produce; and it may be asserted, I believe with truth, that the quantity of human provision raised in the island would be increased five-fold. The two principles, therefore, upon which population seems primarily to depend, the fecundity of the species, and the capacity of the soil, would in most, perhaps in all countries, enable it to proceed much farther than it has yet advanced. The number of marriageable women, who, in each country, remain unmarried, afford a computation how much the agency of nature in the diffusion of human life is cramped and contracted; and the quantity of waste, neglected, or mismanaged surface, together with a comparison, like the preceding, of the crops raised from the soil in the neighbourhood of populous cities, and under a perfect state of cultivation, with those which lands of equal or superior quality yield in different situations,-will show in what proportion the indigenous productions of the earth are capable of being farther augmented.

The importance of population, and the superiority of it to every other national advantage, are points necessary to be inculcated, and to be understood; inasmuch as false estimates, or fantastic notions, of national grandeur, are per- The fundamental proposition upon the subject petually drawing the attention of statesmen and of population, which must guide every endeavour legislators from the care of this, which is, at all to improve it, and from which every conclusion times, the true and absolute interest of a country: concerning it may be deduced, is this: "Wherever for which reason, we have stated these points the commerce between the sexes is regulated by with unusual formality. We will confess, how-marriage, and a provision for that mode of subever, that a competition can seldom arise between the advancement of population and any measure of sober utility; because, in the ordinary progress of human affairs, whatever, in any way, contributes to make a people happier, tends to render them more numerous.

In the fecundity of the human, as of every other species of animals, nature has provided for an indefinite multiplication. Mankind have increased to their present number from a single pair; the offspring of early marriages, in the ordinary course of procreation, do more than replace the parents: in countries, and under circumstances very favourable to subsistence, the population has been doubled in the space of twenty years; the havoc occasioned by wars, earthquakes, famine, or pestilence, is usually repaired in a short time. These indications sufficiently demonstrate the tendency of nature, in the human species, to a continual increase of its numbers. It becomes, therefore, a question that may reasonably be propounded, what are the causes which confine or check the natural progress of this multiplication? And the answer which first presents itself to the thoughts of the inquirer is, that the population of a country must stop when the country can maintain no more; that is, when the inhabitants are already so numerous as to exhaust all the provision which the soil can be made to produce. This, however, though an insuperable bar, will

sistence, to which each class of the community is accustomed, can be procured with ease and certainty, there the number of the people will increase; and the rapidity, as well as the extent, of the increase, will be proportioned to the degree in which these causes exist."

This proposition we will draw out into the several principles which it contains.

I. First, the proposition asserts the "necessity of confining the intercourse of the sexes to the marriage-union." It is only in the marriage-union that this intercourse is sufficiently prolific. Beside which, family establishments alone are fitted to perpetuate a succession of generations. The offspring of a vague and promiscuous concubinage are not only few, and liable to perish by neglect, but are seldom prepared for, or introduced into situations suited to the raising of families of their own. Hence the advantages of marriages. Now nature, in the constitution of the sexes, has provided a stimulus which will infallibly secure the frequency of marriages, with all their beneficial effects upon the state of population, provided the male part of the species be prohibited from irregular gratifications. This impulse, which is sufficient to surmount almost every impediment to marriage, will operate in proportion to the dif ficulty, expense, danger, or infainy, the sense of guilt, or the fear of punishment, which attend licentious indulgences. Wherefore, in countries in