ObservationSy etc., chap. i
34. An Essay y etc., sect. I, p. 9. Cette définition de la liberté politique est reprise par Bentham.
35. Ibid., sect. II. — Sur cet adage de Pope, voir les appréciations de Hume (essay III), et, beaucoup plus tard, de Bentham (Bowring, vol. X, p. 532) : « One of the most foolish couplets that was ever written — if written with knowledge ; for Pope was merely the satellite of Bolingbroke. » Mais, vers 1776, Bentham était moins disposé à condamner Tadage de Pope.
36. Disoourses concerning Govcnnnent, chap. II, sect. i : It must be confessed, that wliilst he (Plato) sceks what is good for a people, and to convince them by reason that it is so, he takes it for granted, that they hâve a liberty of chusing that which appears to be best to t1\em. — Chap. m, sect. XIV : In a popular assembly, no man judges for himself^ otherwise, than as bis good is compreliended in that of the public : nothing hurts him, but what is prcjudicial to the commonwealth : such amongst them as may hâve received private injuries, are so far only considered by others, as their suflerings may hâve influence upon the public : if they be few, and the matters not great, others will not suffcr their quiet to be disturbed by them ; if they are many and grievous, the tyranny thereby appears to be so cruel, that the nation eannot subsist, unless it be corrected orsuppressed. — Chap. III, sect. xli : It is commonly said, that no man ought tobejudgeofhis own case... Nevertheless I am not afraid to say that naturally and properly a man is tliejudge of hisown concernments. No one is or can be deprived of tins privilège, unless by his own consent^ and for the good of that society into which he enters.
37. Treatise, BookllI, Part II, sect. VIII (vol. II, p. 305) : So faram I from ttiinking with somc philosophers, that men are utterly incapable of Society without government, that I assert the first rudiments ofgovernment to arise from quarrcls, not among men of the same society, but among those of différent societics. — Ibid., p. 306 : The state of society without government is one of the most natural states of men, and must subsist with theconjunction of many families, and long after the first génération.— Les lois fondamentales de la justice sont, dit encore Hume, « antécédent to government », nécessaires môme dans cequUl appelle « a small uncultivated society without government ». Quant à Priestley, partisan du libéralisme commercial, il demande que Ton diminue autant que possible le nombre des attributions du gouvernement. V. An Eisay^ etc., p. 5Î, sect. III, Civil liberty. — Civil liberty hasbeen greatly impaired byan abuse of the maxim, that the joint understanding of ail the mcmbers of a state, properly collected, must be préférable to that of individuals ; and consequently that the more the cases are, in which mankind are governed by thisunited reason of the wholc of the community, so much the better ; whereas, in truth, the greater partof human actions are of such a nature, that more inconvenience would foUow from their being fixed by laws, than from their being left to every man's arbitrary will. — Il continue cependant à identifier société et gouvernement^ sect. I, p. 3 : « The great instrument in the hand of divine providence of this progress of the species towards perfection, is society, and ooosequentiy government. »
38. Common Sensé. — Les brillants développements de Burke (Works, vol. I, pp. 10-11) dans la réfutation par Tabsurde du système de Bolingbroke qu'il intitule Vindication of SaturcU Socic/y,. peuvent avoir, contre les intentions de Tauteur, inspiré les démocrates. « The mind of man itsclf is too active and restless a principle ever to settle on the true point of quiet. It discovers every day some craving want in a body, which rcally wants but little. It every day invents some new artificial rule to guide that nature whicli, if left to itself, were the best and surest guide. It finds out imaginary beings prescribing imaginary laws; and then, it raises imaginary terrors to support a belief in the beings, and an obédience to the laws... The body, or as some love to call it, oar inferior nature, is wiser in its own plain way, and attends its own business more directiy than the mind with ail its boasted subtilty... The mutual desires of the sexes uniting their bodics and their affections, and the children which were the results of thèse intercourses, introduced first the notion of society, and taught its conveniences. This society, founded in natural appetites and instincts, and not in any positive institution, I shall call natural society. Thus nature went and succeeded ; but man would go farther. The great error of our nature is, not to know where lo stop, not to be satisfied with any reasonable acquirement ; not to compound with our condition ; but to lose ail we hâve gained by an insatiable pursuit after more. Man founda considérable advantagc by this union of
354 NOTES. (Pp. 238-239)
inany persons to form onc family ; he thcrcfore judges that he wonld find his account proporlionably io an union of many familles into one body politic. And as nature lias foi'mt'd no bond of union to hold theui together, he supplied this defect by laws. — This is political society. And hence the sourcil of what are usually called slates, civil societies, or governments ; into somc form of which, more extended or reslrained, ail mankind bave gradually fallen.
39. Fragm. on Gov., chap. II, § xxxiv (Bowring, vol. I, p. 276).
40. Il est curieux de remarquer que certaines objections faites par Hume à la ttièse du contrat originel portent contre la thèse de l'identité oatunille des intérêts ou du moins conti-e certains postulats psychologiques de cette thèse. V. Essay XII, of the Original contract (éd. Green, vol. i, p. 451) : a Can wc seriously say, that a poor peasant orartizan has a free choice to leave his couutry, when he knows no foreign language or manners and lives irom day to day, by the small wagcs which he acquires? \\e niay as well assert, that a mau, by rcmaining in a vessel, freely consents to the dominion of the master though he was carried on board >vhile asieep, and must leap into the océan, and pcrish, the moment he Icaves her ». On reconnaît une objection courante au prétendu a libéralisme» des théoriciens du laissez-faire. Il est intéressant d'observerqu'Adam Smith reprend cette objection de Hume dans son Cours de Glasgow. — Kt encore {Ibid.j p. 450. — Cf. vol. Il, p. 197) : « Were ail men possessed of so pcrfcct an understanding, as always to know their own intercst, no form of government had ever been submittcd to, but what wasestablished on consent, and was fuUy canvassed by every mcmbcr of the society i». Mais c'est encore une dés conditions d'application du principe de Tidentité désintérêts, que tous les individus soient supposés « doués d'un entendi'.'nent assez parfait pour toujours connaître leurs propres intérêts ».
41. The Législative RighUi etc., § 27 : It is... extremely fortunate for us, that making our parliamcnts annual and our représentation equalf can neither of thcm in any sensé, nor withnit a direct falsehood, be stiled innovations. Both of them were the ancient praclice of the constitution. But parliaments of a longer duralion, and that partial représentation of the Gommons we now exporience, when first introduced by Kingcrafi and court policy, and througlit the supineness of the Gommons, were innovations the more destructive, as they wer.? not gi-eatly suspected of danger. That supineness in the Gommons brought on a relaxation ; and relaxation engendered those impurities which, at first, madeonly a slight and secret impression on the health of the constitution; tiien became perceptible and visibly impaircd its strengthand beauty ; but at length, hâve reduced it to a rotten carcass. I trust, however, that it is not incurable, — et The People's Barrier against uudac Influence and CorruiUionj chap. ii : In our ancient parliamcnts, ail the commons were repi*esented ; their élections were annualj or more frequent; and it was in the constitution of parliamenUi
(Pp. 239-â44) J^OTES. 355
that they assembled and sat at certainty for time and place besides being at the occasional call of the crown for extraordinary business.
42. De sorte que la thèse du contrat originel est susceptible d^une interprétation conservatrice : v. Burke, Refleclions on the French Revotutiotit p. 75 : AU the reformations we hâve hitherto made, hâve proceeded upon the principle of référence to antiquity ; and I hope, nay I am porsuaded, that ail those which possibly may be made hereafter, will be carefuUy foruicd upon analogical précèdent, authority, and example.
— Cf. Ed. Rev. mars 1817. .
