Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/221

211 to diſtinction by their virtues, are happy if others can be depreſſed to a level with themſelves, there are a number ſufficient in every great town to maintain one of theſe courts by their ſubſcription. A ſhrewd obſerver once ſaid, that in walking the ſtreets of a ſlippery morning, one might ſee where the good-natured people lived, by the aſhes thrown on the ice before the doors: probably he would have formed a different conjecture of the temper of thoſe whom he might find engaged in ſuch ſubſcriptions.

Of the checks proper to be eſtabliſhed againſt the abuſes of power in thoſe courts.

Hitherto there are none. But ſince ſo much has been written and publiſhed on the federal conſtitution; and the neceſſity of checks, in all other parts of good government, has been ſo clearly and learnedly explained, I find myſelf ſo far enlightened as to ſuſpect ſome check may be proper in this part alſo: but I have been at a loſs to imagine any that may not be conſtrued an infringement of the ſacred liberty of the preſs. At length, however, I think I have found one, that, inſtead of diminiſhing general liberty, ſhall augment it; which is, by reſtoring to the people a ſpecies of liberty of which they have been deprived by our laws, I mean the liberty of the cudgel! In the rude ſtate of ſociety prior to the exiſtence of laws, if one man gave another ill-language, the affronted perſon might return it by a box on the ear; and if repeated, by a good drubbing; and this without offending againſt any law: but now the right of making ſuch returns is denied, and they are puniſhed as breaches of the peace, while the right of abuſing ſeems to remain in full force; the laws made againſt it being rendered ineffectual by the liberty of the preſs.