Guy Mannering.

GUY I1JANNERING. 193
ment. Wise men say, that we resign to civil society our
natural rights of self-defence, only on condition that the
ordinances of law should protect us. Where the price
cannot be paid, the resignation becomes void. For instance, no one supposes that I am not entitled to defend
my purse and person against a highwayman, as much as
if I were a wild Indian, who owns neither law nor magistracy. The question of resistance, or submission, must
be determined by my means and situation. But, if,
armed and equal in force, I submit to injustice and violence from any man, high or low, I presume it will hardly
be attributed to religious or moral feeling in me, or in any
one but a quaker. An aggression on my honour seems
to me much the same. The insult, however trifling in
itself, is one of much deeper consequence to all views in
life than any wrong which can be inflicted by a depredator on the highway, and to redress the injured party is
much less in the power of public jurisprudence, or rather
it is entirely beyond its reach. If any man chooses to
rob Arthur MAIervyn of the contents of his purse, supposing the said Arthur has not means of defence, or the
skill and courage to use them, the assizes at Lancaster or
Carlisle will do him justice by tucking up the robber:Yet who will say I am bound to wait for this justice, and
submit to being plundered in the first instance, if I have
myself the means and spirit to protect my own property?
But if an affront is offered to me, submission under which
is to tarnish my character for ever with men of honour,
and for which the twelve Judges of England, with the
Chancellor to boot, can afford me no redress, by what rule
of law or reason am I to be deterred from protecting what
ought to be, and is, so infinitely dearer to every man of
honour than his whole fortune? Of the religious views
VOL. IlI. 13