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JUSTICE is the measuring out to each individual what is his due, according to the inflexible rule of right. Justice is frequently personified, and represented as holding a pair of balanced scales, thus indicating its disposition to estimate things by the true and even standard of right.

Political or civil justice, is the measuring out what a man may claim according to the laws of the land. If the laws are founded in absolute justice, then political or legal justice coincides with absolute justice.

The perception and feeling of justice, is as much a part of man's nature, as his perception of color or feeling of beauty. As there are persons who are idiots, and others who are insane, there may

be individuals so stupid, ignorant, or debased as not to perceive, or but faintly, what justice is, and not to appreciate the obligation of obeying its dictates. But there is no nation at large among whom a sense of justice-a perception of right, and an obligation to follow it-does not exist, and where it does not tend to guide or govern the actions of men.

This intuitive perception of justice, with an attendant conscience, demanding its observance, though innate and natural, may be greatly weakened or dulled by the usages, customs, and habits of society. In proportion as the mind is enlightened, this perception becomes clear and strong; but the fullest exercise of justice, is ensured by adopting the belief and practice of Christianity.

It seems to be a fact that no people have ever practically adopted justice as the basis of government, and the guide of society, except in christian countries. However man may be endowed with the natural perception of justice, he seems to need the ever-illuminating and purifying spirit of Christianity, to keep his mind clear and his heart right.

CHAPTER IX.

Human Rights.

Ir justice is giving to every man his rights, in order to deal justly, we must inquire what the rights of man are. The scripture rule, indeed, is an admirable guide in the practice of life-it tells

us to do to another as we would have another do to us. It is rare indeed that, if an individual will follow this rule, he will do injustice to any one.

But it is still necessary, in the formation of government and the enacting of laws, to ascertain what human rights are, lest they should be infringed or violated; and it is the duty of those who frame laws, to see that these rights are, as far as possible, secured.

The general rights of man are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that is, a man has a right to his life, and the free exercise of his mind; he has a right to his personal liberty, which is freedom to go where he pleases, and act as he pleases; he has a right to pursue happiness in his own way to eat, to drink, to sleep, to speak, read, write, how and when he pleases-provided that, in in all this, he interferes with the rights of no other person. These are the abstract or natural rights of man; and may be limited, or abridged, or taken away, only for the public good.

The basis of human rights is liberty; and this consists in a man's right to himself--to his body, to his mind, and all his faculties, with the power of exercising them in his own way, so far as he does not injure others. The value of liberty, therefore, as a means of obtaining happiness, is beyond price; and accordingly we find that our wise forefathers fought, and bled, and died to obtain it for themselves and their descendants. Still, it will be seen hereafter, that our natural rights or our natural liberty, are abridged by the laws of society, and that a person is bound to give them up, as far as the greatest good of the greatest number, requires.

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LIBERTY is freedom from restraint. In its widest sense, it is the free permission to exercise our powers of body and mind as we please, without hindrance or restraint. This is absolute liberty. According to this, a man might take away another's property or life; or enslave another man; or make him the tool of his pleasures or caprices. According to this, a strong man might use a weak one as he pleased, or the cunning man might cheat or circumvent another, and thus take away his life or property, or make him the slave of his pleasures.

This is liberty without law. Such liberty as this could exist only in theory, for where society has enacted no law, the obligation of justice exists.

A savage is as truly bound by the golden rule, "do to another as you would have another do to you," as a member of civilized society; for even the savage has a sense of right and wrong. Truth and justice are intuitive perceptions and feelings, in every human soul, and conscience enforces their observance. Every human being, therefore, has his absolute liberty abridged, by notions of right and wrong, anterior to the formation of civil gov

ernment.

Practically, absolute liberty would be the harshest kind of tyranny, for it would immediately result in making the weak, the slaves of the strong. Not only would the weak, therefore, be deprived of liberty, but of justice. In this state of things, no man is free, except the strongest man; he alone has power to act as he pleases; all the rest are his slaves: so that a community endeavoring to establish absolute liberty, immediately make all the members but one, the slaves of a master whose might is the rule of right.

Absolute liberty, therefore, as said before, immediately. runs into despotism. It is a thing that can only exist where one man, like Alexander Selkirk, or Robinson Crusoe, is alone upon an island, and "monarch of all he surveys." Absolute liberty, in society, is a practical absurdity—an impossibility.

Natural liberty is freedom from restraint except so far as is imposed by the laws of nature. According to this, a man may speak, act, and think as he pleases, without control; in this sense, it is synonymous with absolute liberty. But it is often applied to a state of society, where restraints do actually exist; as, for instance, among

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