It is in such countries only that the public safety does not require that the sovereign should be trusted with any discretionary power for suppressing even the impertinent wantonness of this licentious liberty.
The first duty of the sovereign, therefore, that of defending the society from the violence and injustice of other independent societies, grows gradually more and more expensive as the society advances in civilization.The military force of the society, which originally cost the sovereign no expense either in time of peace or in time of war, must, in the progress of improvement, first be maintained by him in time of war, and afterwards even in time of peace.
The great change introduced into the art of war by the invention of firearms has enhanced still further both the expense of exercising and disciplining any particular number of soldiers in time of peace, and that of employing them in time of war.Both their arms and their ammunition are become more expensive.Amusket is a more expensive machine than a javelin or a bow and arrows; a cannon or a mortar than a balista or a catapulta.The powder which is spent in a modern review is lost irrecoverably, and occasions a very considerable expense.The javeline and arrows which were thrown or shot in an ancient one could easily be picked up again, and were besides of very little value.The cannon and the mortar are not only much dearer, but much heavier machines than the balista or catapulta, and require a greater expense, not only to prepare them for the field, but to carry them to it.As the superiority of the modern artillery too over that of the ancients is very great, it has become much more difficult, and consequently much more expensive, to fortify a town so as to resist even for a few weeks the attack of that superior artillery.In modern times many different causes contribute to render the defence of the society more expensive.
The unavoidable effects of the natural progress of improvement have, in this respect, been a good deal enhanced by a great revolution in the art of war, to which a mere accident, the invention of gunpowder, seems to have given occasion.
In modern war the great expense of firearms gives an evident advantage to the nation which can best afford that expense, and consequently to an opulent and civilised over a poor and barbarous nation.In ancient times the opulent and civilised found it difficult to defend themselves against the poor and barbarous nations.In modern times the poor and barbarous find it difficult to defend themselves against the opulent and civilised.
The invention of firearms, an invention which at first sight appears to be so pernicious, is certainly favourable both to the permanency and to the extension of civilization.
PART 2
Of the Expense of Justice THE second duty of the sovereign, that of protecting, as far as possible, every member of the society from the injustice or oppression of every other member of it, or the duty of establishing an exact administration of justice, requires, too, very different degrees of expense in the different periods of society.
Among nations of hunters, as there is scarce any property, or at least none that exceeds the value of two or three days'
labour, so there is seldom any established magistrate or any regular administration of justice.Men who have no property can injure one another only in their persons or reputations.But when one man kills, wounds, beats, or defames another, though he to whom the injury is done suffers, he who does it receives no benefit.It is otherwise with the injuries to property.The benefit of the person who does the injury is often equal to the loss of him who suffers it.Envy, malice, or resentment are the only passions which can prompt one man to injure another in his person or reputation.But the greater part of men are not very frequently under the influence of those passions, and the very worst of men are so only occasionally.As their gratification too, how agreeable soever it may be to certain characters, is not attended with any real or permanent advantage, it is in the greater part of men commonly restrained by prudential considerations.Men may live together in society with some tolerable degree of security, though there is no civil magistrate to protect them from the injustice of those passions.But avarice and ambition in the rich, in the poor the hatred of labour and the love of present ease and enjoyment, are the passions which prompt to invade property, passions much more steady in their operation, and much more universal in their influence.Wherever there is great property there is great inequality.For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many.The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions.It is only under the shelter of the civil magistrate that the owner of that valuable property, which is acquired by the labour of many years, or perhaps of many successive generations, can sleep a single night in security.He is at all times surrounded by unknown enemies, whom, though he never provoked, he can never appease, and from whose injustice he can be protected only by the powerful arm of the civil magistrate continually held up to chastise it.The acquisition of valuable and extensive property, therefore, necessarily requires the establishment of civil government.Where there is no property, or at least none that exceeds the value of two or three days'
labour, civil government is not so necessary.
Civil government supposes a certain subordination.But as the necessity of civil government gradually grows up with the acquisition of valuable property, so the principal causes which naturally introduce subordination gradually grow up with the growth of that valuable property.