thority and consent of the majority; every member of the community having voted either by himself, or by his representative; and confequently every individual is under the most indispensable obligation to pay the taxes fo levied.

SHOULD it be alleged by the Dean, that though, according to Mr. Locke's principles, the members of any community are obliged to obey the laws to which the majority have agreed, yet that they would not be under any fuch obligation without that confent, even that fubterfuge would not avail him; because Mr. Locke maintains, that while men continue in any fociety, they must comply with the laws of it. No body doubts,' he fays, but an ex

prefs confent, of any man entering into any fociety, makes him a perfect member

of that fociety, a fubject of that govern

'ment.

•ment.

The difficulty is, what ought to

be looked upon as a tacit confent, and how far it binds, i. e. how far any one • fhall be looked on to have confented, and thereby fubmitted to any government, where he has made no expreffions of it at all. And to this I fay, that every man that hath any poffeffions, or enjoyment, • of any part of the dominions of any go⚫vernment, doth thereby give his tacit confent, and is as far forth obliged to obedience to the laws of that government, during fuch enjoyment, as any one under • it; whether this his poffeffion be of land, ⚫ to him and his heirs for ever, or a lodg

ing only for a week; or whether it be

barely travelling freely on the highway; and, in effect, it reaches as far as the very

being of any one within the territories of

that government 4,' It is manifest from

24 Book II. ch. viii. §. 119.

D 4

thefe

these paffages, that when the Dean of Glocefter infinuates to his readers, that it

is the doctrine of Mr. Locke, or that it is a neceffary confequence from his doctrine, that individuals are to pay taxes, and to obey the laws, no farther than they please, he is guilty of a very grofs and flagrant misreprefentation.

In another place Dr. Tucker says, that those who have adopted the sentiments of Mr. Locke, • esteem civil government,

even in its best estate, to be a kind of

• unnatural restraint on the native freedom ' of man :—it is an evil, which he must bear, because he cannot help himself; but yet which he is continually endeavouring to shake off, in order to become totally free and independent "'.' Mr. Locke, on the contrary, has declared, that Civil

25 P. 76.

25

govern

government is the proper remedy for the • inconveniencies of the state of nature, which must neceffarily be great, where be judges in their own cafe 26;" that men enter into fociety to preserve their lives, liberties, and fortunes, and

• men may

by stated rules of right and property to 'fecure their peace and quiet?:' and that to avoid thofe inconveniencies which diforder men's properties in the state of nature, men unite into focieties, that they

may have the united strength of the 'whole society to fecure and defend their 'properties, and may have standing rules to bound it, by which every one may know what is his

28

THE Dean also says, 'Let the unpeopled regions of America, thofe vacua loca,

mentioned by Mr. Locke, be the theatre

28

26 §. 13.

27 §. 317..

§. 136.

• for

for exhibiting this curious phænomenon, a Lockian republic! Where all taxes are

to be free gifts, and every man is to obey

no farther, and no otherwise, than he "himself chufes to obey 29." It was never fuppofed by Mr. Locke, or any of his followers, that under any mode of government, even in a republic of the freest kind, in which every man had a vote, that when the majority of the community had agreed to levy a tax, or had enacted a law, that individuals were left to their own choice, whether they would pay the one, or obey the other. But in this grofs kind of misrepresentation does the Dean indulge himself, throughout various parts of his book. Whether this be at all confiftent with candour, or with common justice, I fhall leave Dr. Tucker himself to determine.

29 P. 113.

THE