er, has had
no very considerable fluctuation; nor has it risen exceedingly until
within this twelvemonth. Even now, I do not know of one man, woman, or
child that has perished from famine: fewer, if any, I believe, than in
years of plenty, when such a thing may happen by accident. This is owing
to a care and superintendence of the poor, far greater than any I
remember.

The consideration of this ought to bind us all, rich and poor together,
against those wicked writers of the newspapers who would inflame the
poor against their friends, guardians, patrons, and protectors. Not only
very few (I have observed that I know of none, though I live in a place
as poor as most) have actually died of want, but we have seen no traces
of those dreadful exterminating epidemics which, in consequence of
scanty and unwholesome food, in former times not unfrequently wasted
whole nations. Let us be saved from too much wisdom of our own, and we
shall do tolerably well.

It is one of the finest problems in legislation, and what has often
engaged my thoughts whilst I followed that profession,--What the state
ought to take upon itself to direct by the public wisdom, and what it
ought to leave, with as little interference as possible, to individual
discretion. Nothing, certainly, can be laid down on the subject that
will not admit of exceptions,--many permanent, some occasional. But the
clearest line of distinction which I could draw, whilst I had my chalk
to draw any line, was this: that the state ought to confine itself to
what regards the state or the creatures of the state: namely, the
exterior establishment of its religion; its magistracy; its revenue; its
military force by sea and land; the corporations that owe their
existence to its fiat; in a word, to everything that is _truly and
properly_ public,--to the public peace, to the public safety, to the
public order, to the public prosperity. In its preventive police it
ought to be sparing of its efforts, and to employ means, rather few,
unfrequent, and strong, than many, and frequent, and, of course, as
they multiply their puny politic race, and dwindle, small and feeble.
Statesmen who know themselves will, with the dignity which belongs to
wisdom, proceed only in this the superior orb and first mover of their
duty, steadily, vigilantly, severely, courageously: whatever remains
will, in a manner, provide for itself. But as they descend from the
state to a province, from a province to a p