Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/220

206 every diſguiſe it may aſſume,; and knowing it, to defeat its views. In every government on earth is ſome traces of human weakneſs, ſome germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning will diſcover, and wickedneſs inſenſibly open, cultivate and improve. Every government degenerates when truſted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themſelves then are its only ſafe depoſitories. And to render them ſafe their minds muſt be improved to a certain degree. This indeed is not all that is neceſſary, though it be eſſentially neceſſary. An amendment of our conſtitution muſt here come in aid of the public education. The influence over government muſt be ſhared among all the people. If every individual which compoſes their maſs participates of the ultimate authority, the government will be ſafe; becauſe the corrupting the whole maſs will exceed any private reſources of wealth: and public ones cannot be provided but by levies on the people. In this caſe every man would have to pay his own price. The government of Great-Britain has been corrupted, becauſe but one man in ten has a right to vote for members of parliament. The ſellers of the government therefore get nine-tenths of their price clear. It has been thought that corruption is reſtrained by confining the right of ſuffrage to a few of the wealthier of the people: but it would be more effectually reſtrained by an extenſion of that right to ſuch numbers as would bid defiance to the means of corruption.

Laſtly, it is propoſed, by a bill in this reviſal, to begin a public library and gallery, by laying out a certain ſum annually in books, paintings, and ſtatues.