74.In the House of Commons itself,is it by the opulent and independent Country gentlemen that the chief business of the House is transacted,or by aspiring,and perhaps needy Courtiers?The man who would persevere in the toil of Government,without any other reward than the favour of the people,is certainly the man for the people to make choice of.But such men are at best but rare.Were it not for those children of Corruption we have been speaking of,the business of the state,I doubt,would stagnate.
75.It is what he says of Theology with respect to the SciencesV.Augm.Scient.L.VIII.c.III,p.97.
76.V.supra.
77.Which is done without any sort of ceremony,the quantities marked in the step with the negative sign,being as so many fluents,which are at a maximum,or a minimum,just as happens to be most convenient.
78.V.supra,par.7.
79.One thing in the paragraph we are considering is observable;it is the concluding sentence,in which he brings together the ideas of law and will.Here then,in the tail of a digression,becomes nearer in fact,though without being aware of it,to the giving a just and precise idea of a law,than in any part of the definition itself from whence he is digressing.If,instead of saying that a law is a will,he had called it the expression of a will,and that sort of expression of a will which goes by the name of a command,his definition would,so far as this goes,have been clear as well as right.As it is,it is neither the one nor the other.But of this more,if at all,in another place.The definition of law is a matter of too much nicety and importance to be dispatched in a note.
80.I Comm.p.47.
81.1Comm.p.48,supra,ch.II.par.11.
82.Another passage or two there is which might seem to glance the same way:but these I pass over as less material,after those which we have seen.
83.I Comm.p.42.
84.It is that of murder.In the word here chosen there lurks a fallacy which makes the proposition the more dangerous as it is the more plausible.It is too important to be altogether past over:
at the same time that a slight hint of it,in this place,is all that can be given.Murder is killing under certain circumstances.Is the human law then to be allowed to define,in dernier resort,what shall be those circumstances,or is it not?If yes,the case of a `human law allowing or enjoining us to commit it,'is a case that is not so much as supposable:if no,adieu to all human laws:to the fire with our Statutes at large,our Reports,our Institutes,and all that we have hitherto been used to call our law books;our law books,the only law books we can be safe in trusting to,are Puffendorf and the Bible.
85.According to our Author,indeed,it should be to no purpose to make any separate mention of the two laws;since the Divine Law,he tells us,is but `a part of'that of Nature.[1Comm.p.42.]Of consequence,with respect to that part,at least,which is common to both,to be contrary to the one,is,of course,to be contrary to the other.
86.This is what there would be occasion to shew more at large in examining some former parts of this section.
87.Ch.I.
88.See Ch.V.par.7.
89.This respects the case where one state has,upon terms,submitted itself to the government of another:or where the governing bodies of a number of states agree to take directions in certain specified cases,from some body or other that is distinct from all of them:
consisting of members,for instance,appointed out of each.
90.Notwithstanding what has been said,it would be in vain to dissemble,but that,upon occasion,an appeal of this sort may very well answer,and has,indeed,in general,a tendency to answer,in some sort,the purposes of those who espouse,or profess to espouse,the interests of the people.A public and authorized debate on the propriety of the law is by this means brought on.The artillery of the tongue is played off against the law,under cover of the law itself.An opportunity is gained of impressing sentiments unfavourable to it,upon a numerous and attentive audience.As to any other effects from such an appeal,let us believe that in the instances in which we have seen it made,it is the certainty of miscarriage that has been the encouragement to the attempt.
91.V.supra,par.26.
92.V.supra,ch.1.par.13.
93.V.supra,par.22.
94.In Great Britain,for instance,suppose it were deemed necessary to make an alteration in the Act of Union.If in an article stipulated in favour of England,there need be no difficulty;so that there were a majority for the alteration among the English members,without reckoning the Scotch.The only difficulty would be with respect to an article stipulated in favour of Scotland;on account,to wit,of the small number of the Scotch members,in comparison with the English.In such a case,it would be highly expedient,to say no more,for the sake of preserving the public faith,and to avoid irritating the body of the nation,to take some method for making the establishment of the new law,depend upon their sentiments.
