ftranger. Tithes are a tax not only upon industry, but upon that induftry which feeds mankind; upon that fpecies of exertion, which it is the aim of all wife laws to cherish and promote; and to uphold and excite which, compofes, as we have feen, the main benefit that the community receives from the whole fyftem of trade, and the fuccefs of commerce. And together with the more general inconveniency that attends the exaction of tithes, there is this additional evil, in the mode at least according to which they are collected at prefent, that they operate as a bounty upon pafturage. The burthen of the tax falls with its chief, if not with its whole weight, upon tillage; that is to fay, upon that precife mode of cultivation, which, as hath been shown above, it is the business of the ftate to relieve and remunerate, in preference to every other. No measure of fuch extenfive concern appears to me fo practicable, nor any single alteration fo beneficial, as the converfion of tithes into corn rents. This commutation, I am convinced, might be fo adjusted, as to fecure to the tithe-holder a complete and perpetual equivalent for his intereft, and to leave to induftry its full operation and entire reward.

CHAP. XII.

OF WAR, AND OF MILITARY ESTABLISHMENTS.

B

ECAUSE the Chriftian fcriptures describe wars,

as what they are, as crimes or judgments, fome have been led to believe that it is unlawful for a Chriftian to bear arms. But it fhould be remembered, that it may be neceffary for individuals to

unite

unite their force, and, for this end, to refign themfelves to the direction of a common will; and yet it may be true, that that will is often actuated by criminal motives, and often determined to deftructive purposes. Hence, although the origin of wars be afcribed in fcripture to the operation of lawless and malignant paffions; and though war itself be enumerated amongst the foreft calamities with which a land can be vifited, the profeffion of a foldier is no where forbidden or condemned. When the foldiers demanded of John the Baptift what they should do, he faid unto them, " do violence to no man, "neither accuse any falfely, and be content with your wages." In which answer we do not find that in order to prepare themselves for the reception of the kingdom of God, it was required of foldiers to relinquish their profeffion, but only that they fhould beware of the vices, of which that profeffion was accufed. The precept which follows, be con

tent with your wages," fuppofed them to continue in their fituation. It was of a Roman centurion that Chrift pronounced that memorable eulogy, "I have not found fo great faith, no not in Ifrael," The first S gentile convert who was received into the Chriftian church, and to whom the gospel was imparted by the immediate and especial direction of Heaven, held the fame ftation: and in the history of this tranfaction, we discover not the smallest intimation, that Cornelius, upon becoming a Chriftian, quitted the service of the Roman legion, that his profeffion was objected to, or his continuance in it confidered as, in any wife, inconfiftent with his new character.

In applying the principles of morality to the af fairs of nations, the difficulty which meets us arifes from hence," that the particular confequence, "fometimes, appears to exceed the value of the general rule." In this circumftance is founded the

66

*James iv. 1. Luke iii. 14. Luke vii. 9. § A&s x. 1.

only

only diftinction that exists between the cafe of independent flates, and of independent individuals. In the tranfactions of private perfons, no advantage, that refults from the breach of a general law of jus tice, can compenfate to the public for the violation of the law in the concerns of empire, this may fometimes be doubted. Thus, that the faith of promifes ought to be maintained, as far as is lawful, and as far as was intended by the parties, whatever inconveniency either of them may fuffer by his fidelity, in the intercourfe of private life is feldom difputed; because it is evident to almost every man who reflects upon the fubject, that the common happinefs gains more by the prefervation of the rule, than it could do by the removal of the inconveniency. But when the adherence to a public treaty would enflave a whole people, would block up seas, rivers, or harbours, depopulate cities, condemn fertile regions to eternal defolation, cut off a country from its fources of provifion, or deprive it of those commercial advantages, to which its climate, produce, or fituation naturally entitle it; the magnitude of the particular evil induces us to call in queftion the obligation of the general rule.

Moral philofophy furnishes no precife solution to these doubts. She cannot pronounce that any rule of morality is fo rigid as to bend to no exceptions; nor, on the other hand, can fhe comprise these exceptions within any previous description. She confeffes that the obligation of every law depends upon its ultimate utility; that this utility having a finite and determinate value, fituations may be feigned, and confequently may poffibly arife, in which the general tendency is outweighed by the enormity of the particular mifchief: but the recalls, at the fame time, to the confideration of the inquirer, the almoft ineftimable importance, as of other general rules of relative juftice, fo especially of national and perfonal fidelity; the unfeen, if not unbounded extent of the mifchief, which must fol

low

low from the want of it; the danger of leaving it to the sufferer to decide upon the comparison of particular and general confequences, and the still greater danger of fuch decifions being drawn into future precedents. If treaties, for instance, be no longer binding than whilft they are convenient, or until the inconveniency afcend to a certain point, which point must be fixed by the judgment, or rather by the feelings of the complaining party; or if fuch an opinion, after being authorized by a few examples, come at length to prevail; one and almoft the only method of averting or clofing the calamities of war, of either preventing, or putting a ftop to the destruction of mankind, is loft to the world for ever. We do not say that no evil can exceed this, nor any poffible advantage compenfate it; but we say that a lofs, which affects all, will scarcely be made up to the common stock of human happiness, by any benefit that can be procured to a fingle nation, which, however refpectable when compared with any other fingle nation, bears an inconfiderable proportion to the whole. These, however, are the principles upon which the calculation is to be formed. It is enough, in this place, to remark the cause which produces the hesitation that we fometimes feel, in applying rules of personal probity to the conduct of nations.

As between individuals it is found impoffible to ascertain every duty by an immediate reference to public utility, not only becaufe fuch reference is oftentimes too remote for the direction of private consciences, but because a multitude of cafes arife, in which it is indifferent to the general intereft by what rule men act, though it be abfolutely neceffary that they act by fome conftant and known rule or other; and as for these reasons certain pofitive conftitutions are wont to be established, in every fociety, which when established, become as obligatory as the original principles of natural justice themselves; fo, likewife, it is between independent communities. Toge

ther

In

ther with thofe maxims of universal equity which are common to states and to individuals, and by which the rights and conduct of the one as well as of the other ought to be adjusted, when they fall within the fcope and application of fuch maxims; there exifts allo amongst fovereigns a fyftem of artificial jurifprudence, under the name of the law of nations. this code are found the rules which determine the right to vacant or newly discovered countries; those which relate to the protection of fugitives, the privileges of ambaffadors, the condition and duties of neutrality, the immunities of neutral fhips, ports, and coafts, the distance from shore to which these immunities extend, the diftinction between free and contraband goods, and a variety of fubjects of the fame kind. Concerning which examples, and indeed the principal part of what is called the jus gentium, it may be obferved, that the rules derive their moral force, by which I mean the regard that ought to be paid to them by the confciences of fovereigns, not from their internal reasonableness or justice, for many of them are perfectly arbitrary; nor yet from the authority by which they were eftablished, for the greater part have grown infenfibly into ufage, without any public compact, formal acknowledgment, or even known original; but fimply from the fact of their being established, and the general duty of conforming to established rules upon questions, and between parties, where nothing but pofitive regulations can prevent difputes, and where difputes are followed by fuch deftructive confequences. The first of the inftances, which we have juft now enumerated, may be selected for the illuftration of this remark. The nations of Europe confider the fovereignty of newly discovered countries as belonging to the prince or state whose subject makes the difcovery; and, in pursuance of this rule, it is ufual for a navigator who falls upon an unknown fhore, to take poffeffion of it, in the name of his fovereign at home, by erecting his ftandard, or

displaying