Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/19



HESE Remarks are obvious; and clear to every Man possessed of the common Degrees of Understanding. Let us now consider, "What are the permanent Foundations of civil Liberty:" That is, in other Words, "What are the effectual Means by which every Member of Society may be uniformly sway'd, impelled, or induced, to sacrifice his private Desires or Appetites, to the Welfare of the Public."—This is a Subject, which deserves a particular Elucidation, because in our own Country, and our own Times, it seems to have been much and dangerously mistaken.

It hath been affirmed as a first Principle by certain Writers, and hath been artfully or weakly suggested by others, "that the