The state, in its essence,
must be moral and just: and it may be so, though a tyrant or usurper
should be accidentally at the head of it. This is a thing to be
lamented: but this notwithstanding, the body of the commonwealth may
remain in all its integrity and be perfectly sound in its composition.
The present case is different. It is not a revolution in government. It
is not the victory of party over party. It is a destruction and
decomposition of the whole society; which never can be made of right by
any faction, however powerful, nor without terrible consequences to all
about it, both in the act and in the example. This pretended republic is
founded in crimes, and exists by wrong and robbery; and wrong and
robbery, far from a title to anything, is war with mankind. To be at
peace with robbery is to be an accomplice with it.
Mere locality does not constitute a body politic. Had Cade and his gang
got possession of London, they would not have been the lord mayor,
aldermen, and common council. The body politic of France existed in the
majesty of its throne, in the dignity of its nobility, in the honor of
its gentry, in the sanctity of its clergy, in the reverence of its
magistracy, in the weight and consideration due to its landed property
in the several bailliages, in the respect due to its movable substance
represented by the corporations of the kingdom. All these particular
_molecules_ united form the great mass of what is truly the body politic
in all countries.
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