ject for this department in the government should be em. CHA P. ployment for men, for zoomen and for children.

CONTRACTS AND LAW S.

152. All focial harmony depends on a ftrict and faithful obfervance of contracts, which form the true bafis of all laws.

VIII.

contracts.

153. The contract between married partners, is the first Marriage and most important, in the order of nature. Marriage is the primary feminary of the individuals, or component parts, of society, of which the contract is the elementary bond; and it ought to be held facred accordingly. Conjugal fidelity, which is ever accompanied with a parental care of children, is much more intimately connected with social felicity, than many perfons in this depraved age appear to believe. Yet it feems to be fufficiently evident, that the man who violates conjugal and family contracts, will not ea fily be brought to perform focial contracts. If he difregard the strong and natural obligations of husband and father, the weaker and more artificial bonds of fociety will fcarcely be able to restrain him within the limits prescribed. by it's laws.

154. The next species of contracts is that which takes Social conplace between individuals not naturally related, as between tracts. mafler and fervant, mafler and apprentice, employer and employed, buyer and feller, &c.

155. In order to promote the tranquillity and increafe of Civil cona new colony, the relation between the fociety at large and tracts. it's governors (that is the directors, chofen by the colonists and subscribers) ought, in every particular, to be fixed and defined by exprefs contract. Nothing ought to be left to the implied confent of the governed, or to the mere will, or

1

VIII.

Political balance.

CHAP. difcretionary power of the governors; for it is easy to fee, that a loose and indeterminate relation would soon give rise to mutual uneafinefs and jealoufy. To dwell on this important subject, at the present juncture, may be a matter of fome delicacy. But as our object is nothing less than the felicity of, perhaps, whole communities, I venture to submit to the confideration of perfons, difpofed to think deeply on this point, a hint which may be found calculated to preserve in a new colony, that equilibrium between governors and people which feems now to be declining in fome civilized communities, and in others to be entirely destroyed-The hint is this: to lay into the scale of the governors (viz. the court of directors) the RIGHTS of propofing and executing; and into the scale of the people, the RIGHTS of deliberating upon and determining, every matter proposed. Propofitions might alfo originate with individuals; but, come from whomsoever they may, they should be fully and publicly canvaffed, before they are fubmitted, by the directors, or colonial governors, to the fubfcribers and colonifts. Propofitions, however, fhould always come before a general meeting, through the organ of the directors who will be best able to place them in a true light, to judge of their general tendency, and of their application to local circumstances, of which the government alone has the means of being extensively informed. The governors (or directors) nevertheless, should not have the right of concealing any propofitions from the subscribers and colonifts, or their proxies, to whom the right of ultimately rejecting or approving them ought to belong.

Laws found

ed on contracts.

156. All order among men in fociety depends entirely upon laws wifely formed, and duly executed, and legislation, as we have just seen, is primarily founded on con

tracts.

VIIL.

tracts. Without laws fo framed and executed, no compre- CHAP. henfive design can be promoted or accomplished; nor can the community exert that united strength which it's subsistence and security indispensably require. Nothing therefore can be more important than due focial fubordination, which depends effentially on the form and organization of it's internal order, and the prompt, impartial and exemplary execution of the laws. Without this, a fociety (if it would deserve the name) would be nothing but a chaos of discordant elements, and destructive passions. But in the fame proportion as vices are prevented or restrained, and evil habits corrected or eradicated, by whole fome laws, the civilization and improvement of the people are promoted, and the defign of the focial union fecured.

157. All laws may be reduced to the following claffes, Laws. viz. judicial, political and economical.

may

158. (1.) Judicial. A community without laws of justice, Judicial. be compared to the body of a man without a head; that is, to fomething fo monftrously and unnaturally defective, that it's existence would imply a contradiction. Accordingly no nation, which is more or lefs civilized, is deftitute of diftinct ideas concerning good and evil; however thofe ideas may be limited and diversified. Nor does there exist any fuch nation which does not endeavour to encourage the free course of moral and focial good, and to prevent or eradicate the oppofite evils; and this in a greater or lefs conformity to the laws of the decalogue, which is the most ancient and univerfal code.

159. (2.) Political, or laws of police. Every community is Political. compofed of individuals in greater or fmaller numbers, and distributed into different claffes or orders, all of which muft, each in his proper sphere, co-operate with the rest, in

order

CHA P. order to give strength, consistency and regularity to the

VIII.

ŒEconomical.

External worship.

whole. For a community without political laws, is like a head without a body, or like some heterogeneous being, that poffeffes neither form nor order.

160. (3.) Economical. These resemble a man's cloaths, for, like them, they may not only be changed, to adapt them to new circumftances; but a fociety without them is like a naked man, exposed to every inclemency of the weather.I need therefore scarcely to add, that a department for the execution of contracts and laws fhould be established in the government or direction.

EXTERNAL WORSHIP.

161. If christianity is to be promoted and encouraged, in a new colony, it seems indispensably necessary that the order which characterizes this divine religion fhould be obferved, in it's outward forms or rites. This order may be reduced to the three following primary articles of external worship, under which all the more minute parts may be comprised.

I. Baptifm, or the first ceremony of introduction into a christian community, ordained by the great Inftitutor of christianity himself.

II. Confirmation, a ceremony performed when a person comes of age, and is thenceforth to be answerable, for his own conduct and actions, to the community.

III. The holy fupper, an ordinance of the greatest importance, on the right and fincere use of which depends entirely the union of every individual with his Creator.

HEALTH.

162. If what has been remarked on the subject of health Health. (in Chap. VI.) has had due weight with the reader, he will see the neceffity of inftituting a diftinct department, in the government or direction, to fuperintend it. This department will have under their inspection,

1. The practice of medicine, in curing internal diseases; and, as this is connected with the mental, as well as the corporeal, powers of man, it includes alfo phyfiology and the

kindred fciences.

II. The practice of furgery, for the external, or the merely mechanical derangements of the human system. It may include midwifery and it's fifter arts.

III. The practice of pharmacy, for the preparation of drugs

and medicines.

CULTIVATION.

of raw ma

163. In addition to what has been remarked on cultiva- Cultivation tion (§. 131 et feq.) it does not seem necessary to add more terials. than that there ought to be in the direction, a department for promoting, in a fyftematic, œconomical and scientific manner, the production of raw materials,

tures to be

164. It is needless to exhaust time in fhowing that, in Colonial every conceivable mode of civilized life, the manufactures manufacfubfervient to food, cloathing, lodging and domestic accom- encouraged. modation, are abfolutely neceffary.-Those articles must either be procured from abroad, or fabricated at home.