without effecting any reconciliation: all attempts made with this view failed, and, soon after, the act of uniformity gave every possible advantage to the episcopacy. Notwithstanding the great bias of the king towards his Catholic subjects, the celebrated test act of 1679* was also passed, excluding them from all civil preferment and from parliament. This measure bore with equal hardship upon the non-conformists; but the extreme prejudices of the high-church party against them refused all relief, and defeated every effort at comprehension. Early, however, in the reign of William and Mary, the toleration act was passed, which contemplated the exemption of their majesty's protestant subjects from the penalties of certain laws. "There is a tradition," says Lord King, "that the terms of the toleration act were negotiated by Locke himself; and the fact is in some degree confirmed by an expression in one of his letters to Limborch. We know, however, that he was dissatisfied with the terms then granted, and that he considered them most inadequate and insufficient." Yet it was the happy precursor of others which have removed certain disabilities on account of religion;-such as the 53 of George III. for the benefit of the Unitarians, and that of the late king for the benefit of the Catholics. Although in communion with the church of England, Locke wrote an elaborate defence of nonconformity in answer to Stillingfleet; it was however never published.

"As to the law of the land," he observes, "it can never be judged a sin not to obey the law of the land commanding to join in communion with the Church of England, till it be proved that the civil magistrate hath a power to command and determine what Church I shall be of; and therefore, all the specious names, established constitution, settled Church, running through all the Doctor's sermons, and on which he seems to lay so much stress, signify nothing, till it be evident the civil magistrate has that power. It is a part of my liberty as a Christian and as a man, to choose of what church or religious society I will be of, as most conducing to the salvation of my soul, of which I alone am judge, and over which the magistrate has no power at all; for if he can command me of what church to be, it is plain it follows that he can command me of what religion to be, which, though nobody dares say in direct words, yet they do in effect affirm, who say it is my duty to be of the Church of England, because the law of the land enjoins it." Lord King, vol. ii. pp. 214, 215.

Upon the passage of the Toleration Act, Locke addressed his first Letter on Toleration in Latin to his friend Limborch. He laments the miseries which the English nation had endured in regard to religion, not only from the partialities of the governinent, but also from the narrow and sectarian views which influenced every class of religionists. The distemper, he declares, needs more generous remedies than declarations of indulgence

or acts of comprehension; nothing but absolute liberty, just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty, would suffice. The sentiments to which he gives utterance are worthy of all admiration:-that our fealty to God depends upon our opinion of what will be most acceptable to him, and that this is an act which no individual can prescribe to another. What mortal, indeed, shall dictate to his fellows otherwise than as their judgments may determine, in a matter extrinsic of civil society, of a human institution which cannot control our interests in another world? and is it not the extreme of tyranny to force one to a way of worship which his own bosom does not and will not sanction, and which he may even think is displeasing to that Being to whom he offers his adorations?-to compel him to submit his spiritual concerns to others under the pains and penalties of civil disfranchisement?

A censorship of the press also, a measure of great political im. portance, was established during the reign of Charles. The li censing act as it was called, was passed in 1662, for two years, and continued in force with a small remission, by several re-enactments, till 1694, when it was suffered to expire by its own limitation. It will be remembered by many of our readers that it was during this censorship that the puerile objection of treason was made against the simile of the sun eclipsed in the first book of Paradise Lost, by the archbishop of Canterbury, or by that dignitary's official. The observations of Locke upon the objectionable parts of this act are given in the volumes before us; the following extract from them places the matter in its true light, and shows how fully the writer apprehends the principle which is the foundation of the practice among ourselves.*

The propriety of leaving the correction of the licentiousness of the press to the common law remedy, was however insisted upon in a most noble strain by Milton, in his well known speech to the Parliament of England. The whole passage is replete with eloquence and strongly impressed with his genius. "I deny not" he exclaims, "but it is of the greatest concernment in the Church and Commonwealth to have a vigilant eye how books demean themselves, as well as men; and thereafter to confine, imprison, and do sharpest justice on them as malefactors: for books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve, as in a vial, the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know that they are as livingly and as vigorously productive as those fabulous dragon's teeth; and being sown up and down may chance to spring up around men. And yet on the other hand, unless wariness be used, as good almost a man as kill a good book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature; God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, imbalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life." Areopagitica, Milton's works, vol. i. pp. 142, 143.

"S2. Heretical, seditious, schismatical, or offensive books, wherein any thing contrary to Christian faith, or the doctrine or discipline of the Church of England, is asserted; or which may tend to the scandal of religion, or the church, or the government, or governors of the church, state, or of any corporation, or particular person, are prohibited to be printed, imported, published, or sold.

"I know not why a man should not have liberty to print whatever he would speak; and to be answerable for the one, just as he is for the other, if he transgresses the law in either. But gagging a man, for fear he should talk heresy or sedition, has no other ground than such as will make gyves necessary, for fear a man should use violence if his hands were free, and must at last end in the imprisonment of all who you will suspect may be guilty of treason or misdemeanor. To prevent men being undiscovered for what they print, you may prohibit any book to be printed, published, or sold, without the printer's or bookseller's name, under great penalties, whatever be in it. And then let the printer or bookseller, whose name is to it, be answerable* for whatever is against law in it, as if he were the author, unless he can produce the person he had it from, which is all the restraint ought to be upon printing." Lord King, vol. i. pp. 375, 376, 377,

In the same year with the publication of his first letter on Toleration, appeared his two treatises on government. The favourite author of the advocates of despotism at that day was Sir Robert Filmer, who has in his Patriarcha and other works, vindicated the patriarchal scheme of government, as the original and most suitable form. "As kingly power" says Filmer, "is by the law of God, so hath it no inferior power to limit it. The father of a family is governed by no other law than his own will, not by the laws and wills of his sons and servants." The absurdities of this system seem scarcely worthy of reply at this day; Locke, however, felt that how miserable soever such principles were, they then required serious refutation on account of their prevalence and boasted authority. He accordingly exposes the sophisms of Filmer with the skill of a master, always powerfully, and frequently with bitter and caustic satire. He contends in his main argument, that the power of a magistrate bears no relation to that of a father over his children, of a husband over his wife, of a master over his servant, or of a lord over his slave: and that we may arrive at a distinct idea of this difference, if we will consider all these relations as centering in one person. tt The true source of power is to be placed in the people, for whose benefit all government is instituted.

Although Locke distinctly maintains the derivation and termination of all political power from and in the governed, he has fallen into a dangerous error, which is the more to be deprecated,

While on this subject, we would commend to the reader's perusal, if he have not already perused it, the admirable article, in many respects, of Mr. Mills, in the supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

*This is now the law.

+ Patriarcha, or the Natural power of the Kings asserted. p. 81. ++ See, Of Civil Government. Book II. c. 1.

as it is entirely repugnant to the doctrine of improvement in government, and as it seems to militate against his own principles. He lays down the broad proposition that the power which every individual gave society when he entered into it, cannot again revert to the individuals as long as the society continues; and hence concludes that when the society has placed the legislative power for instance, in any body of individuals, to continue in them and their successors, such power can never return to the people during the continuance of that government;-a doctrine, at once subversive of the right of revolution, and liable to the greatest abuse. It will, too, grate harshly upon the ear of our readers, as altogether hostile to their preconceived opinions of the origin and nature of civil government. Locke seems to have adopted this view from an over anxiety to preserve harmony, and compose the minds of his countrymen, during the changing times in which he wrote. His wish that William should be considered simply as a Restorer, would indicate that he deemed the Stuart family as abusers of their power, and the change of government as only a restoration to its just operation-and to this circumstance his doctrine of government seems to have been adapted.

But the treatise on Civil Government is remarkable for the justness of many of its economical views. The author has analyzed the nature of labour and its operation upon the value of products, with a discrimination and correctness that no other writer previous to Smith has exhibited.

Hobbes, indeed, in this as in many other points, seems strangely enough to have anticipated Locke; and but for his slavish principles, which were so utterly opposed to the liberal views of the latter, there would seem to be good ground of suspicion that Locke was greatly indebted to the philosopher of Malmesbury. The Leviathan, Hobbes' great work, was published about forty years previous to the Essays on Government, and presents us with some hints which sufficiently show that its author anticipated the modern doctrine of the effects of industry upon the value of products.

*

But Locke first gave the evolution of this principle, and in a manner peculiarly his own-clear, full and practical. "It is labour, indeed," he says, "that puts the difference of value on every thing; and let any one consider what the difference is between an acre, etc., etc." He illustrates this position by tracing the course of the ordinary articles of sustenance through the several stages, before they are applied to use: and very strikingly

*See Chap. 24 of Leviathan.

See Civil Government. Book II. § 40, et seq.

observes: "It would be a strange catalogue of things that in-. dustry provided, etc., etc." (as at end of §. 43. Book II.) In this manner did Locke fully anticipate the grounds upon which the political economy of the present day is founded.

In his Considerations of the lowering of interest and raising the value of money, he takes a sound and philosophical view of the question-whether the rate of interest of money can be regulated by law? This is one of the questions of state policy, upon which there seems to be little difference of opinion among theoretical writers, but which has been differently exhibited in the practice of governments. Locke, Montesquieu, Smith, Hume, Bentham, and the later economists generally, have advocated a liberal principle in regard to it; it seems, however, that statutory regulations to protect the poor or unfortunate borrower are necessary, at least in the same degree as other contracts and transactions among individuals are supervised by municipal laws. In stating the natural law which regulates the rate of interest, Locke has incidentally fallen into an error which a more complete analysis would have detected. He lays it down that the want of money alone regulates its price; that with an increase of the supply of money, the rate of interest will diminish, and that with a diminution it will increase. † The fallacy consists in this, that it is not the quantity of capital alone that regulates the price, but the rate of profits which the borrower may receive from his investments; it is its worth to him in disposable capital. In other words, it is the demand co-operating with the supply of this capital that regulates the natural rate of interest.

An erroneous assumption of some importance occurs in this work. "Taxes," he says, "however contrived and out of whose hands soever immediately taken, do, in a country where their great fund is in land, for the most part terminate upon land." This is evidently inconsistent with his own principles as conveyed in the passage quoted above from his treatise on government; for, if the foundation of value be labour, taxes must legitimately fall upon the productions of industry in whatever form they may appear, and not exclusively upon land.

These imperfections do not, however, render the many useful and practical observations which are here found, less valuable in themselves. His supplementary tract on the same subject, †† written at the request of Lord Keeper Somers, also possesses great merit. In consequence of the extensive frauds practised on the coin, and the embarrassing state of the finances, the government became alarmed, and Mr. Lowndes and others advised a

Published in 1691.

+ Locke's Works, vol. iv. p. 7, et alt.

†† Further Considerations concerning Raising the value of Money.