t_, is the
_happiness_ of the people; because they gave the supremacy to him
alone, who had been conspicuous for the splendour of his abilities, or
the integrity of his life: that the power of the multitude being
directed by the _wisdom_ and _justice_ of the prince, they
might experience the most effectual protection from injury, the highest
advantages of society, the greatest possible _happiness_.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 042: The author has lately read a work, intitled Paley's Moral
and Political Philosophy, which, in this one respect, favours those
which have been hinted at, as it denies that government was a contract.
"No social compact was ever made in fact,"--"it is to suppose it
possible to call savages out of caves and deserts, to deliberate upon
topicks, which the experience and studies, and the refinements of civil
life alone suggest. Therefore no government in the universe begun from
this original." But there are no grounds for so absurd a supposition;
for government, and of course the social compact, does not appear to
have been introduced at the time, when families coming out of their
caves and deserts, or, in other words, quitting their former
_dissociated_ state, joined themselves together. They had lived a
considerable time in _society_, like the Lybians and Gaetulians
before-mentioned, and had felt many of the disadvantages of a want of
discipline and laws, before government was introduced at all. The author
of this Essay, before he took into consideration the origin of
government, was determined, in a matter of such importance, to be
biassed by no opinion whatever, and much less to indulge himself in
speculation. He was determined solely to adhere to fact, and, by looking
into the accounts left us of those governments which were in their
infancy, and, of course in the least complicated state, to attempt to
discover their foundation: he cannot say therefore, that upon a very
minute perusal of the excellent work before quoted, he has been so far
convinced, as to retract in the least from his sentiments on this head,
and to give up maxims, which are drawn from historical facts, for those,
which are the result of speculation. He may observe here, that whether
government was a _contract_ or not, it will not affect the
reasoning of the present Essay; since where ever the contract is
afterwards mentioned, it is inferred only that its object was "the
_happin