csMi apprehensions of justice. Thus, that which was, at first, a great empire with legislative unity, would speedily be transformed into a confederacy of lesser republics, with a general congress or Amphictyonic council, answering the purpose of a point of co- operation upon extraordinary occasions. The ideas of a great empire, and legislative unity, are plainly the barbarous remains of the days of military heroism. In proportion as political power is brought home to the citizens, and simplified into something of the nature of parish regulation, the danger of misunderstanding and rivalship will be nearly annihilated. In proportion as the science of government is divested of its present mysterious ap- pearances, social truth will become obvious, and the districts pliant and flexible to the dictates of reason.
A third consequence, sufficiently memorable, from the same principle, is the gradual extinction of law. A great assembly, collected from the different provinces of an extensive territory, and constituted the sole legislator of those by whom the territory is inhabited, immediately conjures up to itself an idea of the vast multitude of laws, that are necessary for regulating the concerns of tliose whom it represents. A large city, impelled by tire prin- OF CONSTITUTIONS. > 141 ciples of commercial jealousy, is not slow to digest the volume of its by-laws and exclusive privileges. But tlie inhabitants of a small parish, living with some degree of that simplicity which best con-esponds to the real nature and wants of a human being, ■would soon be led to suspect that general laws were unnecessary, and would adjudge the causes that came before them, not accord- ing to certain axioms previously written, but according to the circumstances and demand of each particular cause. It was pro- per that this consequence should be mentioned in this place. The benefits that will arise from the abolition of law, will come to be considered in detail in the following book.* The principal objection, that is usually made to the idea of confederacy, considered as the substitute of legislative unity, is. " the possibility that arises, of the members of the confederacy, detaching themselves from the support of the public cause." To give this objection every advantage, let us suppose, " that the seat of the confederacy, like France, is placed in the midst of surrounding nations, and that the governments of these nations are anxious, by every means of artifice and violence, to suppress the insolent spirit of liberty that has started up among this neigh- bour people." It is to be believed that, even under these circum- stances, the danger is more imaginary, than real. The national assembly, being precluded, by the supposition, from the use of force against the malcontent districts, is obliged to confine itself to expostulation; and it is sufficiently observable, that our powers of expostulation are tenfold increased, the moment our hopes are confined to expostulation alone. They have to display, with the utmost perspicuity and simplicity, the benefits of independence; to convince the public at large, that all they intend, is to enable every district, and, as far as possible, every individual, to pursue immolested its own ideas of propriety; and that, under their auspices, there shall be no tyranny, no arbitrary punishments, such as proceed from the jealousy of coimcils and courts, no exactions, almost no taxation. Some ideas respecting this last subject will speedily occur.f It is not possible but that, in a country rescued from the inveterate evils of despotism, the love of liberty should be considerably diffused. The adherents there- fore of the public cause, will be many: the malcontents few. If a small number of districts were so far blinded, as to be willing to surrender themselves to oppression and slavery, it is probable they would soon repent. Their desertion would inspire the more enlightened and courageous with additional energy. It would be a fascinating spectacle, to see the champions of the general welfare eagerly declaring, that they desired none but willing supporters. It is not possible that so magnanimous a principle, should not con- tribute more to the advantage, than the injury of their cause.
142 OF NATIONAL EDUCATION.
CHAP. VIII.
OF NATIONAL EDUCATION, Arguments in its favour. — Answer. — 1, It produces permanence of opin- ion. — Nature of prejudice and judgment described. — 2, It requires uniformity of operation. — 3, It is the mirror and tool of national government. — The right of punishing, not founded in the previous function of instructing, A MODE in which government has been accustomed to interfere, for the purpose of influencing opinion, is, by the superintendence it has, in a greater or less degree, exerted, in the article of educa- tion. It is worthy of observation, that the idea of this superin- tendence, has obtained the countenance of several of the zealous advocates of political reform. The question relative to its pro- priety or impropriety, is entitled, on that account, to the more deliberate examination.
The arguments in its favour have been already anticipated. *' Can it be justifiable in those persons, who are appointed to the functions of magistracy, and whose duty it is to consult for the public welfare, to neglect the cultivation of the infant mind, and to suffer its future excellence or depravity to be at the disposal of fortune? Is it possible for patriotism and the love of the public to be made the characteristic of a whole people, in any other way so successfully, as by rendering the early communication of these virtues a national concern? If the education of our youth be •entirely confided to the prudence of their parents, or the acci- -dental benevolence of private individuals, will it not be a neces- .:Sary consequence, that some will be educated to virtue, others to ^ice, and others again entirely neglected?" To these considera- tions it has been added, " That the maxim which has prevailed in the majority of civilised countries, that ignorance of the law is 310 apology for the breach of it, is in the highest degree iniqui- tous; and that government cannot justly punish us for our crimes "When committed, unless it have forewarned us against their com- mission, which cannot be adequately done without something of the nature of public education."
The propriety or impropriety of any project for this purpose, must be determined by the general consideration of its beneficial or injurious tendency. If the exertions of the magistrate in "behalf of any system of instruction, will stand the test, as con- ducive to the public service, undoubtedly he cannot be justified in neglecting them. If, on the contrary, they conduce to injury, it is wrong and unjustifiable that they should be made.
The injuries that result from a system of national education, are, in the first place, that all public establishments include in them the idea of permanence. They endeavour, it may be, to secure and to diflFuse whatever of advantageous to society is already known, but they forget mat more remains to be known. If they realised the OF NATIONAL EDUCATION. 143 most substantial benefits at the time of their introduction, they must inevitably become less and less useful as they increased in duration. But to describe them as useless, is a very feeble ex- pression of their demerits. They actively restrain the flights of mind, and fix it in the belief of exploded errors. It has frequently been observed of universities, and extensive establishments for the purpose of education, that the knowledge taught there, is a century behind the knowledge, which exists among the unshackled and unprejudiced members of the same political community. The moment any scheme of proceeding gains a permanent esta- blishment, it becomes impressed, as one of its characteristic features, with an aversion to change. Some violent concussion may oblige its conductors to change an old system of philosophy for a system less obsolete; and they are then as pertinaciously attached to this second doctrine, as they were to the first. Real intellectual improvement demands, that mind should, as speedily as possible, be advanced to tlie height of knowledge already exist- ing among the enlightened members of the community, and start from thence in the pursuit of further acquisitions. But public education has always expended its energies in the support of prejudice; it teaches its pupils, not the fortitude that shall bring every proposition to the test of examination, but the art of vindi- cating such tenets as may chance to be established. We study Aristotle, or Thomas Aquinas, or Bellarmine, or chief justice Coke, not that we may detect their errors, but that our minds may be fully impregnated with their absurdities. This feature Tuns through every species of public establishment; and, even in the petty institution of Sunday schools, the chief lessons that are taught, are a superstitious veneration for the church of England, and to bow to every man in a handsome coat. All this is directly contrary to the true interests of mankind. All tliis must be unlearned, before we can begin to be wise.
It is the characteristic of mind to be capable of improvement. An individual surrenders the best attribute of man, the moment he resolves to adhere to certain fixed principles, for reasons not now present to his mind, but which formerly were.* The instant in which he shuts upon himself the career of enquiry, is the instant of his intellectual decease. He is no longer a man; he is the ghost of departed man. There can be no scheme more egregiously stamped with folly, than that of separating a tenet from the evidence upon which its validity depends. If I cease from the habit of being able to recal this evidence, my belief is no longer a perception, but a prejudice: it may influence me like a prejudice; but cannot animate me like a real appre- hension of truth. The difierence between the man thus guicL'W|» and the man that keeps his mind perpetually alive, i* the difierence between cowardice and fortitude. The n\*n who is, in the best sense, an intellectual being, delights, to. lecol- 144 OF NATIONAL EDUCATION.
lect the reasons that have convinced him, to repeat them to others, that they may produce conviction in them, and stand more dis- tinct and explicit in his own mind; and he adds to this a willing- ness to examine objections, because he takes no pride in consistent error. The man who is not capable of this salutary exercise to what valuable purpose can he be employed? Hence it appears,, that no vice can be more destructive, than that which teaches lis to regard any judgment as final, and not open to review. The same principle that applies to individuals, applies to communities. There is no proposition, at present apprehended to be true, so valuable, as to justify the introduction of an establishment for the purpose of inculcating it on mankind. Refer them to reading, to conversation, to meditation; but teach them neither creeds nor catechisms, either moral or political.
Secondly, the idea of national education, is founded in an in- attention to the nature of mind. Whatever each man does for himself, is done well; whatever his neighbours or his country undertake to do for him, is done ill. It is our wisdom to incite men to act for themselves, not to retain them in a state of per- petual pupillage. He that learns, because he desires to learn, will listen to the instructions he receives, and apprehend their meaning. He that teaches, because he desires to teach, will dis- charge his occupation with enthusiasm and energy. But the moment political institution undertakes to assign to every man his place, the functions of all will be discharged with supineness and indifference. Universities and expensive establishments have long been remarked for formal dulness. Civil policy has given me the power to appropriate my estate to certain theoreti- cal purposes; but it is an idle presumption to think I can entail my views, as I can entail my forttme- Remove those obstacles, which prevent men from seeing, and which restrain them from pur- suing their real advantage; but do not absurdly undertake to relieve them from the activity which this pursuit requires. What I earn, ■what I acquire only because I desire to acquire it, I estimate at its true value; but what is thrust upon me, may make me indolent, but cannot make me respectable. It is an extreme folly to endeav- our to secure to others, independently of exertion on their part, the means of being happy. — This whole proposition of a national education, is founded upon a supposition which has been repeat- edly refuted in this work, but which has recurred upon us in a thousand forms, that unpatronised truth is inadequate to the pur- pose of enlightening mankind.
Thirdly, the project of a national education ought uniformly to be discouraged, on account of its obvious alliance with na- tional government. This is an alliance of a more formidable nature, than the old and much contested alliance of church and state. Before we put so powerful a machine under the direction of so ambiguous an agent, it behoves us to consider well what it is that we do. Government will not fail to employ it, to strengthen its hands, and perpetuate its institutions. If we could even sup- OP NATIONAL EDUCATION. 14.5 pose the agents of government not to propose to themselves an object, which -will be apt to appear in tlieir eyes, not merely innocent, but meritorious; the evil would not the less happen. Their views as institutors of a system of education, will not fail to be analogous to their views in their political capacity: the data upon which their conduct as statesmen, is vindicated, will be the data upon which their instructions are founded. It is not true that our youth ought to be instructed to venerate the constitution, however excellent; they should be led to venerate truth; and the constitution only so far as it corresponds with their uninfluenced deductions of truth. Had the scheme of a national education been adopted when despotism was most triumphant, it is not to be believed that it could have for ever stifled the voice of truth. But it would have been the most formidable and profound contrivance for that purpose, that imagination can suggest. Still, in the coun- tries where liberty chiefly prevails, it is reasonably to be assumed that there are important errors, and a national education has the most direct tendency to perpetuate those errors, and to form all minds upon one model.
It is not easy to say whetlier the remark, " that government cannot justly punish offenders, xmless it have previously informed them what is virtue and what is offence," be entitled to a separate answer. It is to be hoped that mankind will never have to learn so important a lesson, through so incompetent a channel. Govern- ment may reasonably and equitably presume, that men who live in society, know that enormous crimes are injurious to the public weal, without its being necessary to announce them as such, by. laws, to be proclaimed by heralds, or expounded by cm-ates. It has been alleged, that " mere reason may teach me not to strike my neighbour; but will never forbid my sending a sack of wool from England, or printing the French constitution in Spain." This objection leads to the true distinction upon the subject. All real crimes, that can be supposed to be the fit objects of judicial animadversion, are capable of being discerned without the teach- ing of law. All supposed crimes, not capable of being so dis- cerned, are truly and unalterably placed beyond the cognisance of a sound criminal justice. It is true that my own understanding would never have told me that the exportation of wool was a crime: neither do I believe it is a crime, now that a law has been made affirming it to be such. It is a feeble and contemptible palliation of iniquitous punishments, to signify to mankind beforehand that you intend to inflict them. Men of a lofty and generous spirit Avould almost be tempted to exclaim; Destroy us if you please; but do not endeavour, by a national education, to destroy in our understandings the discernment of justice and injustice. The idea of such an education, or even perhaps of the necessity of a written law, would never have occurred, if government and j\irisprudence had never attempted the arbitrary conversion of innocence into guilt.
25. — VOL. n- I.
14t5 OF PENSIONS AND SALARIES.
CHAP. IX.
OF PENSIONS AND SALARIES.
lieasovs by which they are vindicated. — Labpur in its usual acceptation and labour for the public compared. — Immoral effects of the institu- tion of salaries. — Source from wliich they are derived, — Unnecessary for the subsistance of the public functionary —for dignity. — Salaries of inferior officers — may also be supei'seded. — Taxation. — Qualifica^ tions.
An article which deserves the maturest consideration, and by means of which political institution does not fail to produce the most important influence upon opinion, is that of the mode of re- warding public services. The mode, which has obtained in all European countries, is that of pecuniary reward. He who is em- ployed to act in behalf of the public, is recompenced with a salary. He who retires from that employment, is recompensed with a pension. The arguments in support of this system, are well known. It has been remarked, " that indeed it may be credit- able to individuals, to be willing to serve their country witliout a reward; but that it is a becoming pride on the part of the public, to refuse to receive as an alms, that for which they are well able to pay. If one man, animated by the most disinterested motives, be permitted to serve the public upon these terms, another will assume the exterior of disinterestedness, as a step towards the gratification of a sinister ambition. If men be not openly and directly paid for the services they perform, we may rest assured, that they will pay themselves, by Avays a thousand times more in- jurious. He who devotes himself to the public, ought to devote himself entire: he will therefore be injured in his personal for- tune, and ought to be replaced. Add to this, that the serv^ants of the public ought, by their appearance and mode of living, to com- mand respect both from their countrymen, and from foreigners; and that this circumstance will require an expence, for which it is the office of their country to provide."* Before this argument can be sufficiently estimated, it ■wdll be necessary for us to consider the analogy, between labour in its most usual acceptation, and labour for the public service, what are the points in which they resemble, and in which they differ. If I cultivate a field, the produce of which is necessary for my subsistence, this is an innocent and laudable action; the first ob- ject it proposes is my own emolument; and it cannot be unrea- sonable, that that object should be much in my contemplation, while the labour is performing. If I cultivate a field, the produce of which is not necessary to my subsistence, but which I propose to give in barter for a garment, the case becomes different. The * The substance of these arguments may be found in Bmke's Speech oa Economical Eefoim.
OP PENSIONS AND SALARIES. 147 action here does not, properly speaking, begin in myself. Its im- mediate object is to provide ibod for another; and it seems to be, in some degree, a perversion of intellect, that causes me to place in an inferior point of view the inherent quality of the action, and to do that which is, in the first instance, beneficent, from a par tial retrospect to my own advantage. Still the perversion here, at least to our habits of reflecting and judging, does not appear violent. The action differs only in form from that which is direct. I employ that labour in cultivating a field, which must otherwise be employed in manufacturing a garment. The garment I pro- pose to myself as the end of my labour. We are not apt to con- ceive of this species of barter and trade, as greatly injurious to our moral discernment.
But then this is an action, in the slightest degree, indirect. It does not follow, because we are induced to do some actions, im- mediately beneficial to others, from a selfish motive, that we can admit of this, in all instances, with impunity. It does not follow, because we are sometimes inclined to be selfish, that we must never be generous. The love of our neighbour, is the great orna- ment of a moral nature. The perception of truth is the most solid improvement of an intellectual nature. He that sees nothing in the universe deserving of regard but himself, is a consummate stranger to the dictates of general and impartial reason. He that is not influenced in his conduct by the real and inherent nature of things, is rational to no purpose. Admitting that it is venial to do some actions, immediately beneficial to my neighbour, from a partial retrospect to myself, surely there must be other actions in which I ought to forget, or endeavour to forget myself. This duty is most obligatory, in actions most extensive in their conse- quences. If a thousand men are to be benefitted, I ought to recollect that I am only an atom in the comparison, and to reason, accordingly.
These considerations may enable us to decide upon the article of pensions and salaries. Surely it ought not to be the end of a good political institution, to increase our selfishness, instead of suffering it to dwindle and decay. If we pay an ample salary to him who is employed in the public sen-ice, how are we siire that he will not have more regard to the salary than to the public? If we pay a small salary, yet the very existence of such a payment, ■will oblige men to compare the work performed, and the reward bestowed; and all the consequence that will result, will be to drive the best men from the service of their country, a service, first degraded by being paid, and then paid with an ill-timed par- simony. Whether the salary be large or small, if a salary exists, many will desire the ofiice for the sake of its appendage. Func- tions the most extensive in their consequences, will be converted into a trade. How humiliating will it be to the functionary him- self, amidst the complication and subtlety of motives, to doubt whether the salary were not one of his inducements to the accept- ing the office? If he stand acquitted to himself, it is however L 2 148 or PENSIONS AND SALARIES.
still to be regretted, that grounds should be afforded to his coun- trymen, which tempt them to misrepresent his views.
Another consideration of great weight in this instance is, that of the source from which salaries are derived: from the public revenue, from taxes imposed upon the community. The nature of taxation has perhaps seldom been sufficiently considered. By some persons it has been supposed that the superfluities of the community might be collected, and placed under the disposition of the representative or executive power. But this is a gross mistake. The superfluities of the rich are, for the most part, inaccessible to taxation; the burthen falls, almost exclusively, upon the laborious and the poor. All wealth, in a state of civilised society, is the produce of human industry.* To be rich, is merely to possess a patent, entitling one man to dispose of the produce of another man's industry. Taxation therefore can no otherwise fall upon the rich, but so far as it operates to diminish their luxuries. But this it does in a very few instances, and in a very small degree. Its genuine operation is to impose a new portion of labour, upon those whom labour has already plunged deep, in ignorance, degradation, and misery. The higher and governing part of the community, are like the lion who hunted in concert Avith the weaker beasts. The landed proprietor first takes a very disproportionate share of the produce to himself; the capitalist follows, and shows himself equally voracious. Both, these classes, in the form in which they now appear, might, under a difl"erent mode of society, be dispensed with. Taxation comes in next, and lays a new burthen, upon those who are bowed down to the earth already. Who is there, allowed the choice of an alternative, and possessing the spirit of a man, that would chocse to be thus fed, with the hard-earned morsel that, through the medium of taxation, is wrested from the gripe of the peasant?
Too much stress however is not to be laid upon this argument. There is no profession, there is perhaps no mode of life com- patible with liberal and intellectual pursuits, that does not include in it a portion of iniquity. It is one of the evils of a corrupt state of society, that it forces the most enlightened and the most virtuous unwillingly to participate in its injustice. It would be weakness, and not magnanimity, that should teach us to view these things with a microscopical scrupulosity; and to refuse to be useful because no usefulness is pure. The most important objection to emoluments flowing from a public revenue, is built upon their tendency to corrupt the mind of the receiver, and the views of the spectators.
I^et us proceed to consider the extent of tlie difficulty that would result from the abolition of salaries. The majority of per- sons nominated to eminent employments, under any state of mankind approaching f.o the present, will possess a personal fortune adequate to their support. Those selected from a different • Book VIII., Chap. II.
OF PENSIONS AND SALARIES. 149 class, Will probably be selected for extraordinary talents, which will naturally lead to extraordinary resources. It has beea deemed dishonourable to subsist upon private liberality; but this dishonour is produced only by the difficulty of reconciling this mode of subsistence and intellectual independence. It is true that the fortunes of individuals, like public salaries, are merely a patent, empowering them to engi-oss the produce of other men's labour. But large private fortunes cannot cease to exist, till a spirit of sobriety and reflection, hitherto unknown, has been infused into the great mass of mankind. In the mean time tlie possessors of them arc bound to consider of the best mode of disposing of their incomes for the public interest: and it would perhaps be difficult to point out a better than that here alluded to. By this method no new addition would be made to the burthens of the laborious; and the distribution would perhaps produce a better effect, than if it were made in douceurs and prizes to the more ordinary classes of mankind. As to the receiver, he, by the supposition, receives no more than his due; and therefore prejudice alone can represent him as degraded, or imbue him with servility. This source of emolument is free from many of the objections that have been urged against a public stipend. I ought to receive your superfluity as my due, while I am employed in affairs more important than that of earning a sub- sistence; but at the same time to receive it with a total in- difierence to personal advantage, taking only what I deem necessary for the supply of my wants. He that listens to the dictates of justice, and turns a deaf ear to the suggestions of pride, will probably wish that the customs of his country should cast him for support, on the virtue of individuals, rather than on the public revenue. That virtue may be expected, in this, as in all other instances, to increaise, the more it is called into action.