dividual; and a nation has, at all times, an inherent, indefeafible, right to abolish any form of government that it finds inconvenient, and to eftablish fuch as accords with its intereft, difpofition and happiness.

The romantic and barbarous diftinction of men into kings and fubjects-though it may fuit the dif pofition of courtiers, cannot that of citizens-and is exploded by the principles upon which governments are now founded. Every citizen is a member of the fovereignty, and, as fuch, can acknowledge no perfonal fubjection, and his obedience can be only to the laws.

When men think of what government is, they muft neceffarily fuppofe it to poffefs a knowledge of all the objects and matters upon which its authority is to be exercised. In this view of government, the republican fyftem, as established under two recent revolutions, operates to embrace the whole of a nation; and, the knowledge neceffary to all the parts is to be found in the centre, which the parts, by representation, form; but the old governments are on a construction that excludes knowledge as well as happiness. Government by monks, who know nothing of the world beyond the walls of a con vent, is as confiftent as the government by kings.

What were formerly called revolutions, were little more than a change of perfons—or an alteration of local circumftances. They rofe and fell

like things of course, and had nothing in their existence or their fate, that could influence beyond the spot that produced them. But what we now fee in the world, from the particular revolutions which have taken place, area renovation of the natural order of things-a system of principles as univerfal as truth and the existence of man, and combining moral with political happiness, and na tional profperity.

ift. Men are born and always continue to be free, and equal in refpect of their rights. Civil diftinctions, therefore, can be founded only on public utility.

2d. The end of all political affociations is, the prefervation of the natural and imprefcriptible rights of man-and thefe rights are-LIBERTY-PROPERTY—SECURITY-and RESISTANCE

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3d. The nation is, effentially, the fource of all fovereignty—nor can any individual, or any body of men, be entitled to any authority which is not exprefsly derived from it.

In these principles there is nothing to throw a nation into confufion by inflaming ambition. They are calculated to call forth wifdom and abilities, and to exercise them for the public good, and not for the aggrandizement of particular defcriptions of men or families.

Monarchical fovereignty-the enemy of man

kind, and the source of mifery, is abolished—and fovereignty itself is reftored to its natural and original place the nation. Were this the cafe throughout Europe, the cause of wars would be taken away.

It is attributed to Henry the IVth of France, a man of an enlarged and benevolent heart, that he proposed, about the year 1610, a plan for abolish. ing war in Europe. The plan confifted in conftituting an European congrefs, or pacific republic, by the appointment of delegates from the feveral nations, who were to act as a court of arbitration, in any difputes that might arife between nation and nation. To conceive a caufe why fuch a plan has not been adopted; and that, instead of a congrefs for the purpose of preventing a war, it has been called only to terminate a war, after a fruitlefs expence of feveral years, it will be neceffary to confider the intereft of governments as a diftin&t intereft to that of nations.

Whatever is the caufe of taxes to a nation, becomes alfo the means of revenue to a government. Every war terminates with an addition of taxes, and, consequently, with an addition of revenue; and, in any event of war, in the manner they are now commenced and concluded, the power and intereft of governments are increased. War, therefore, from its productiveness, as it easily furnishes the pretence of neceffity for taxes and appointments to places and offices, becomes a principal

part

part of the fyftem of the old governments; and to establish any new mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to nations, would be, to take, from fuch governments, the most lucrative of its branches.

The frivolous matters upon which war is made, fhew the difpofition and avidity of governments to uphold the system of war, and betray the motives upon which they act. Why are not republics. plunged into war, but because the nature of their government does not admit of an intereft diftin&t from that of the nation.

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As war is the system of government on the old construction, the animofity which nations reciprocally entertain is, nothing more than what the policy of their governments excites, to keep up the fpirit of the fyftem. Each government accufes the other of perfidy, intrigue, and ambition, as a means of heating the imagination of their refpective nations, and incenfing them to hoftilities.Man is not the enemy of man, but through the fyftem of government. Inftead, therefore, of exclaiming against the ambition of kings, the excla-' mation should be directed against the principle of fuch governments; and, instead of feeking to reform the individual, the wifdom of the nation fhould apply itself to reform the fyftem.

Whether the forms and maxims of governments which are ftill in practice, were adapted to the condition

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condition of the world, at the period they were established, is not, in this cafe, the question. The older they are, the lefs correfpondence can they have with the present state of things. Time, and change of circumftances and opinions, have the fame progreffive effect, in rendering modes of government obfolete, as they have upon cuftoms and manners. Agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and the tranquil arts, by which the prosperity of nations, is best promoted, requires a different fyftem of government, and a different fpecies of knowledge, to direct its operations, than what might have been required in the former condition of the world.

It is not difficult to perceive, from the enlightened state of mankind, that hereditary governments are verging to their decline, and that revolutions on the broad basis of national fovereignty, and government by representation, are making their way in Europe, it would be an act of wif dom to anticipate their approach, and produce revolutions by reafon and accommodation, rather than commit them to the iffue of convulfions.

From what we now fee, nothing of reform, in the political world, ought to be held improbable. It is an age of revolutions, in which every thing may be looked for. The intrigues of courts, by which the fyftem of war is kept up, may provoke a confederation of nations to abolish it: and an Eu

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