LIEBER'S MANUAL OF POLITICAL ETHICS.

THE author of this volume is a German scholar, whose youthful enthusiasm in the cause of liberty procured hint a public lodginr, in Dresden. On his discharge from prison, he went to Greeet? where the Revolutionary war was then waging ; and returned Italy without glory or satisfitction, and something worse than no. thing as regarded means. Turned adrift at Ancona, he yearned for the " Eternal City," and smuggled himself to Rome without a passport. The kindness of Nis:Bunn, the Roman historian, rescued the enthusiast front Ids difficulties ; and when his polities subse- quently got him into trouble at Berlin, he procured his release. The friendship of NiEntua even followed hint into exile ; and his services did not cease till LIEBEtt ObthillCa the Professorship of History and Political Economy in South Carolina College, where, besides discharging the duties of' his office, he lets found time to edite the Eneye/opredia finiericana, and to produce a variety of works on a variety of subjects. Of these, the voltam before us is the most important in its aim and the most original in its views, if it has not so much attraction for the general reader as his Stranger in Amerien or the Reminkcences Niebuhr.

The first volume, or as the author prefers to call it, as being complete in itself, the first " part " of Political Ethics, consists two books. In the first book, Professor Lunnin discusses the nature and origin of' Ethics ; ‘vhich, in opposition to LOCKE, he considers innate—as innate, for example, as the faculties of sight and hearing, the germs of which, thoi01 requiring tunic and exer- cise to develop, are evidently born with us. The main argu- ment by which Mr. Lamm: endeavours to maintain his theory is, that we find in every nation or tribe an original conscious- ness of right and wrong : not a definite and congruous sense of particular actions being right or wrong, but that there are some things which ought or which onE,,ht not to be done, apart from their utility; and this, he holds, is not discoverable by reason.

'The subtlest idtellcet, the most vigorous mind, unaided by ally thing else, cannot arrive at any other ititu with regard to an action them that of exix- diency, fitness, correctness, respecting the choice of' itnains for the ,kjeet mu view. Yet we thud with all men, the very lowm or most harharoie: not eN- cepted, a feeling of " tic onyht" or " he envlit not," entirely independent of tho expedient.y or judiciousness of one action ; in a word, we tind the moral element in the human soul, the consciousness of right and wrong, not of a part;ealar right or lvrong, but simply that there are netime3 which can be colic:high!, and others which are wrong i!,d.Tendently of their expediency iNeilla,r perience, nor revelation, nor any thing else, could have given, or can have a substitute for this original consciousness of ooyht or ought not—of right or

wrong. * ° a

" Suppose, however, as well a3 you can, you had no feeling whatever of or wrong, what cmild possibl.; prevent yon from stealing any thing of wicell you nro in want ; and if convinced, uu iiiSOMC cases %Olt 111.41 might he, tiutt detection of the theft itself i3 impossible, that the mliide will never bm: 1111.:■1: EXperienee ask what experience ? External experienee—for ii tane,., that thefts are generally discovered ? Our experience may lead us to the very contrar.y. IVy may be a lawyer, and by experience have become convince,' that the greater namber of tlieffs remain undiscovered and unpunished. Or that we know by experienue, femn ast:rving others or ourselves, that doing wrong does not afferd lasting plensnm ? Then, I ask, what pleasure, external or internal ? -If external he meant, the assertion is unfounded; for many men live a most comfortable life to the end of their days with means fraudulently or criminally acquired. If intanal phasure be meant, it is only another expres• sion for the plens.lre or applan.3e uc .1;TI independently of the expediency of oar action, which is time very thingI insist upon, Or heeause we know by expe- rience that no one wil prosper upon fraud? This is unsound again. Peop!e, families, dynastks, many successive generations, have prospered upon fraud and crime; every day's exl:crience, as well as history, prove the fact."

Facts exist, however, sufficient to throw a doubt upon this pro- position in its fullest extent. When navigators have first discovered a savage people, they have s..-ymetimes found them thieves, without apparent sense of' shame or compunction, laughing when then' thefts were discovered, and not appearing to attach any feeling of discredit to detection. They may have had a sense of right or wrong among thenr4elves; but, if this could not have been priori discovored IJV reason, it might by experience—experience not of detection a rtrtieular case, but of the general injury which must arise to society front a permission of every one to do what " seemed good in his own eyes." The argument derived from the fact that the miiIbrmity of' moral rules is greater than their dis- agreement, especially amone.st civilized people, proves but little in itself, from tint w;if,rr ity traceable in the nature of things. Life, the conjugal relati:m, children, property, and desires, au as universal as the existence of mankind ; and can only be affected in certain essential rays, however these modes may differ with the varying conditions of society. Accordingly, we find that municipal law, or what is almost as potent, the law of' opinion, is constantly changing with the changes or society—that is, as expe- rience decides. The instanees adduced by Mr. LIEBER, of the judicial cannibalism of' the Battas of Sumatra, who try IL criminal and eat him, of' the piracy prevalent in the early states of society, and of the laws established amongst congre- gations of outlaws, are not decisive of the ease. To eat it man, Bata fitshion, after judicial sentence, is a mode of bar- barism ; the trial, or rather the violation of' the social rule which induced the trial, may have been prompted in the outset by expe-

,

rience ofitho niecessity■ofTlaw. r Th d flesi.afErli amongst the Greciad kid Scandinavian Pirates, may imeeteen Prbinpted by esperienee of their advantage or necessity, in lieu; of an ienate sense, just as their piracies were prompted by an experience of 'their advantage, and an utter disregard of righteand wrong. ..The, Buccaneers in strictness oar no case in point ; because they were originally all members of some civilized country, and often of a profession where ristid discipline prevailed, before they became Buc- caneers. Some instances ef individual mutinies. or of bad charac- ters thrown together without restraint, rather tell agaiaet 3Ir. JA,„,at's view; for gross outrage and anarehy *have prevailed at first, till operience pr,,red. 'Ow a...cc,sild of Lou. So far as the few recorded eases throw any light upon the sultject, the general feeling

seems to be, " thh: tr-, go r n no one will he safe ; " and hence

rules are establiahod, by t 11%! 12.(o...,..r of the InajOrity. the eJto r• ..frpcii. But this i.ecnis less an instinc;ive sselse than a selfish ledeming upon conzeetuences: all.-sr all, may be the perfection of reason." We have thrown out thr:-,e reinarl-ts. not as conclusive against Mr. Luantu's idea of an innate or instinetive nirtral sentwhieh, if a mistaken, is yet a lophite alla elevated. vio...; of our nature,— but in order to shox that s•euctille...:.: may be ul-ger.1 against it. In- deed, the length to whi.,11 the ,wgenieet exteeeis. end the ingenious manner i whieh it is oftsn use., :e....•eet us fr, el entering i',,rther upon this abetruse sulject, Leel,;:i. V :1 verdict of n.tt

proven." And in a practical st ? Ii every society, the site:Hest, the :Host crhinnat. ice fiad a souse Of right or wrory,-01' ()lig:A..11(a "

DOC :Hatter 1.:,rtaiiy \VI.:■..LIKT this inoral sense eate—or O console:A to the Mitttre ,,!!. 'Clitt it litro2(.1. 1.1[Ical him wherever be exiets with oth:e.: In ,rr:-.ver of adaptation

verVin, extending, and retiniii,.;, with the- exte:Lsion, and

refinement of huriaat societ:-. In a ir.c.:.,sure, Linn iat

admits this, when, I,aving decided that :lain has an inalienable moral character, and cannot by hi., own e.ritsr..1,t or the iirree of

others become a inrn-inoral rt—erts that etTerience is requisite in mane eases to deeitle Ii wint:

The sece.nd book treats It the St•Ae. : and, if not displaying greater ability then the ties:. if. is ■‘: 1 he higher and More salit:tiat- tory character. Ill Linnti:Cs view. I:ara :s impe:ted to unite in so- ciety by his ph:,e:!eal and inter,. etea I us tere.—shewo.

in the conjugal and neternal rerit:,:e for their fulfil- ment a longer and cdr.ser cornd.rabru than exi:-rts at-Aconr: brutes : and this feeling or ncrc-,sity is tin-yard( tl :•1:•! ,,ievelopcd by the fla,alty of speech. The t:rst ;rroduct of man', nat LII I, the "Abilig,- WiooSe ellart,eteristiC i4.0Ve ; the next is characteristic is jtntice. This society coastitutes the State: which does not originate, ns teeny authors, -1.0t-e:: eted Holmes for example, have a3seniett. :a " eellipact," Cr es 011ierS Sdit:pused, in mc tii,:cO- VtIy 1 UC pent genie:, but arises I'Net the nature of man.

Stets., is natural, neees:eire. There is an ab- solute neeessity cit n.an's sot-L-ty. and of itis being protected therein ;" and the power tie w iI iI fees., thit nucessit Y over all

outward relations- is the true •ve:s.n :s; . tld; view, the distinction bete-ein the neterel clmr,....tor of society—the

;rid the artiiieiel aneeter et* ;he " eevernment." is deer mid

stemg. The ri,;:it lnf the Stat,:. in :dr:, ir,rgo is only herniated by the nature of things. 'is[IC :Mother titre:L.—a easuls to nn end; destreetiLle, re, peese, with the N tr.til or wants of the seekee.; which a ';cr kIn ing its ori.eiu

taking its character a theeerel e:resuestanees of time aild events, and not ceL, meee or pr.: notratred

upon ti l'!!..

people, which best :Ay:lin:es their inte;-.... Sr.11. tire p,.ri:cular id.rms of governuent. like partiealar i,r

at pleasure regulated by ,i 14 v' Ii. as the rights of' im.li.,iattat law ; though the change of one, or resistant..e to the eel,er, is a 'latter of expe- diency. For CNalttplu--

4, We hare seen how important an of...1 that tit.. fondly is ;

a man L.,: a right to he ; !!!!!!1 with itt his sia.;Til I...lotions. WhO '1.4 tit ore Co c!....risher, hot-rino guladittit r Cul ehil.ifen. if no: Om !..rent...? .1 (;reek. io.: - 2 n ( 0.1;1; . ttf tds (i:: . '!(!!!!!!..! • i! 1.t(i. en a totIl site had II II' 111- !!!,. lte L.A.; lied in his ; as 1,as the !!!!,;-. ,:,!, to !!, !!!!!do years to ot:e of ids rarea,rh, ia,te h.rr, al.. right to (lefetal

;a4Vnit:ta.as,:atnply,...aS ..Mr. 1.01MR. the "real rights of man;" sena ;Uhl; EA hp :does, that tbrats of government are a queS- ti,M-Of .exp'edieuey." But the origin of society, and the (Bs-

thietioo between the eternal "stater and the perishable "go- vernment, was never fie, definitely and so plainly laid down. Equally useful is the uniformity with which the principle, drawn from:WE:roux, "that we must seek for the nature of a thing in its healthy and net its depraved condition," is applied and enforced; the natural character of the man, of the social state and of govern- ments, being sought in their most advanced condition, and not in absolute barbarism, or among savages scarcely raised above the brute.'

The reader will of course understand that this notice merely comprises a brief outline of the general views of Political Ethics. To enter into the details, or even the subdivisiens of the work, would require a volume. A few extracts, however, may give a glimpse of the variety of subjects discussed, and an idea of Mr. .LEIVER'S manner of discussing them.

akr1oN.I1,1; pnonmerv. • Why. it bas been asked, should man he allowed. to appropriate more thrm is

net essery. for Ids support ? We ask, 'Mutt support is. meant monintn.,. big of is hunger by shooting a deer or plucking ctiidti Is he allowed to shoot several (leer and dry the meat thr the winter? Is he not allowed to cultivate a tree which shall give hint fruit tiw certainty, so tlitit he may not he 12xpastt. again to hungo• the pain of which he knows already ? 3lay he not culiivate a patch of I:1 4th hare corn for his children? If lie has slain a buck I,, smisf.... los hilapn, is lie allowed to appmpriate the shin to himself and call it his own ? If the inanstrions fisherman sails to the batik Of Ner.fOltIldialld I o aprorirrirrie to hint:Tlf the unapprolwiated codfish. lirts III 11,3 right to catch as malty as he thinks lie and his chiltireti shall want for Cite whole year ? But they eisiet live upon codfish :11,1115: inay he not take so many co.hisli as to exclum:o. part uf them for other food, fmt clothing? Dues family .1 ,!it include I he sending of his cliildren to seh..01 ? Af•o,. he 1,01 catch some to save the money he may obtain for it, that. Fliiiithl he peri,li at sea, Lis tt ice and children may out stiller flami want or beeotne luti.den to others: Wlare does the meaning of support stop ? Why s!iould it apply to the satisfying of physical wants ouly ? The le are wants far higher thoo thee. the x■:.121: Oi \VC 4,1Lnt iIICllflLttI2tet1 propaty ; without it, no ease; willant ease, no leisure' without leisure, no earliest and perseverim; poosoit of knowledge, Ito high degree of national civilizatiOn. alreaAy lays it down as the basis of high 'Civilization to be.free and. hare leisure.

OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNIPOTENCE OF JAW.

If.you leave y our home to take an airing, you may walk in security on the

side-wa:k of the street, because you know that 110 rider will disturb you. Who or what preveuts the people on horseback from making use of that part of the public mad? The law; or, if they were to disregard it, certain officers,—that 1-t, into. hivested with atitliority likewise hy the law, who have been charged to enforce this among ether laws. This law then protects von. You promo' further, and had these words on the sign-board of a bridge, " Keep to the right,- as the law directs," addressed to those who guide a vehicle. It iS a law which commands something. You may pass all- orchard with inviting fruits; the fence surrounding it might be easily scaled, and you feel an urgent impulse to slake your thirst with the juicy apples before you; yet you must not do it. Were you follow- the dictates of y.our desires, though most natural and ner- feetlyianucent, the law would punish you; because it protects the orchard as the property of some one else. The 17..tw is made already, and thus it warns yott. A deerepid and poor. mall is preventel by certairt ottiver§t front asking those persons who show by their dress that they live in ease, to give him from their superfluity that whicit he is unalde to obtain by his own exertions; he is taken to a house designated by the tutu- ill S home tiur those persons who Can- not earn their living. You sail on flip vast ocean, at a- great distance front all society ; a man-of-war, perhaps belonging to a diiferent nation, thousands of

miles from your own, bids you to lie to and show your colours. oiliecr romes on board your vessel, asking for you.: papers, and requesting you to go with hint on board. his own. If you refu,0 to comply with his rerptest, you. ex- pos,: 4 ■11.1VSeir tO vexatious, perhaps to danger. It is the law of yvor land, Lilt ihat observed. inottly; ',allot's, which (Adige.: vou to tirovide yourselt

with thOSI2 palleTS 11114 tO lirtHillUC theu ! moler these circumstances. In a foreign port, a consul of your 11%111 21;11[2,11 advises, :led 0 liee.t be, protects you. The law dh.ects hint to do so. You Fee an indiyidAal depliving another Of his lift., violently nail consi,h.rately ; yet nobody at I:mks tlle one who MU:it or too' es the other doomed to die, because the law has deeidell that he shoohl die in this manner ; it is :1.11 eXeCitti011. Tile hos establishes schools and obliges prirents to send their childron to them, The law io,t.ists a poor man to obtain his dues from a rich one ; and 11,51111 it yro- teets the rich 60 that the poor shall have no more than their due. A smoit. individtril says the harshest thiod:s of those io power, yet no one molests beeattse the law has sIll that he 111:ty (hi r.0; mtmuit again, (lit Fe 11,2 laWS vt-hicIt all or marl,: :in or declare miprofitahle, itay, even cratl. and yet thvy at,.' obeyed unaided by physicial force. The law has built 114:tways, united rivers, severed mountains ; it till(es a..,,ty property for tit: puutihe henetit, and protects it ; Sends expeditititi, bas finiiiiicti libraries and ce1Irretirars of works cif art ; admais :not b-antitios. Ti,e law talo.s i're thr.t the increlimit measures with a true yard stiA ; mid tills him hi II lilt money he must pay his debts : it condemns unwholoitonte food. pi.ottroits your Lavin,: rhall 011C 1(11111..511e!,7 111111101 11111:111*;:illy, if' y,ttir °eruption disturb: or annoys others, obliges you (!i; times to take ;,1, arm,. 2,1 others, it prev5at: .vott front OSillj th:•111 to ave:q....ot the most sigdal idjo..tice and at others, again, it permits to use them. What then is this 1.1w, itivis'ible, yet seen in its effects everywhere? * ' Which acetunietnies nto wherever I In:1y go, penetrates into all relations of men to men, to animals and * " it civil society be made fin the advantage of 01:111, all the advantages Ihr %Odell it is made become his right. It is an institution of beneficence; and law itself is only hellaCellee aetil.r by a rule. Melt 1131'0:1 light to liN.• liv thili rule. Thvy have a right to jo.:Iiet.; as between their fellows, whether their fellows are in politin function or in ordinary occupation. They have a thine, and what is most remarkable, is never intermitted or suspended, but continues to act and every day creates new rules and regulations for man's conduct and his vatious relations ; and with unceasing and inexhaustible energy seizes upon every new condition amen or things that may spring up ?

PUBLIC OPINION.

I understand by public opinion the sense and sentiment of the community, necessarily irresistible, showing its sovereign power everywhere. It is this public opinion which gives sense to the letter and life to the law; tvithout it the written law is a mere husk. It i; the eggregate opinion of the nmernhem of the state, as it has been ihrmel by practieal liti2; it is the common senso of the community, including public Inenvledg, and necessarily influenced by the taste and genius of the community. How i‘; it formed? It is formed as the opinion of any society is for eed. whieh must always consist of leaders, superior men, men of talents, or well-intbened men, who had an opportunity to see or inform themselves, and less.gifted men, or less informed persons, time acquies- cing or trusting ones. Not that the leaders preserie with absolute power ; they only either Fonounce clearly what ha5 been indistinctly felt by many, or they start a new idea, which, in being received by the acquiescing ones, hams to accommodate and modify itself to the existing circumstances. The leaders themselves are under the strongest influence of that sense and sentiment of the community, for {loin early chiellmool they live in the same relotions with the others. Public opinion is not only an opinion pronounced epen ;onn: subject, but it is likewise that which deity and hourly interprets laws, carries them along or stops their operation, which ma'ees it possible to have any written laws, and wilimut Achichi any time wisest law might be made to mean nonsense. It is that which makes it possible to prescribe and observe forms, without their becoming a daily hindrance of the most necessary procedures and actions ; it is that mighty power which abrogates the most positive laws, and gives vast ex- tent to the impotently narrow limits of others ; according to Nvhich, a monarch ever so absolute in theory cannot do a thousand things, and according- to which a limited inagstrnte may dare a thonsand things : which renders inno- cent what was most obnoxious, and makes, at times, useless the best-intended - measures, protecting sometimes even crime.

POWER AND FLATTERY.

Power, it will bc rememtned, has an inherent tendency to absorb, increase. extend ; and interested. men will always be found in almedance to help aleng this tendency, because it is pleasing to power to increase. Every prince, used in the above sense, finds hi; enurtier. Ilephlics are not freer from base courtiers than monarchs. The power holder finds always ready instruments ; and we ought early to learn how to guard against the -flattering insinuations of those who live in the wake of power. Power loves to be flattered ; the came flat- teries are ever repeated. The Turkish conquerors, the Solimans, Mustaphas, Mahmouds, loved to hear their fury compared to the ire of God anti the light- nings of the heavens ; and we have seen already how the revenge oF the French people in the first rcvointion was complacently or cumminly comparel to vast natural phomomena. Demagogues are but courtiers, though the court-dress of the one may consist in the soiled handkerchief of a Marat, thee ef the other iii silk and hair-powder. The iiing uf F1471Ce w.s told in 1827, "Tim. royal ab- solute power exists by naturni rieht. Every engagement against this right is void. Thus the prince is not obliged to kohl his oath ; " and in America the

people of 'a large state were lately urgently advised to .Reae. 1 I

a solemn enanye- ment, because they, the majority, had sovereign prover. -When Napeleel: was at the summit of his power, the Archbishop of Paris wrote to his BisleTs in a pastoral letter—" Servants of the altars, let us seectify our womTh hasten to surpass them by one word, in saying, he (Napoleon) is tin man of the rinht band of God." And one of time Presidents of the United States (General Jackson) was told in a pamphlet, that he was the aetual repiaaent e- thin and minima:out of the spirit of the American people, the personification of American democracy, that ms, of the American nation. Considering the systematic completeness with which the subject is handled, and the manner in whirls the accidents of things are put aside and the essentials aimed at, if not always reaehed, Politi- cal Ethics may be classed amongst the best treatises on govern- ment since the days of ARISTOTLE. The fruit of extensive reading, of much reflection, and if not of a good deal of practical experience in government, yet of that kind of experience possessed by " the man for wisdom's various arts renowned," after his wanderings front clime to clime, Political Etli;cs may be recommended as an excel- lent commentary on the character of different forms of government, as well as for its able exposition of the characteristic difference con- cerning the " state," in the opinion of ancient and of modern times. It is also entitled to some distinction as a literary curiosity—time production of a German writing in English, often with time ease and fluency of a native, not only in style but in the manner of thinking : occasionally, however, his mother tongue has given, not a constraint to his words, but a peculiarity—an awkwardness—to his compo- sition. It is not to be inferred from this praise that we agree with Mr. LIEBER in every opinion he advances, or that time book is free from considerable literary defects. He is sometimes diffuse, sometimes pedantic, and often overlays his definitions with such a cloud of words, and such an air of mysticism, that his language is jargon, and might so ofl'end the reader as to induce him to lay down the book. Though setting himself strongly against time unreasoning violence of American Democracy, we trace in some aids examples a disposition to flatter the American people. And although he denounces international literary piracy, as on a par with the rob- beries of the Northmen or of the ancient Greeks, he seems to have no objection to receive the goods ; for we notice that his references are to piratical American editions, where such exist.