Not unfrequently associations, temporary or permanent, have been formed, to carry elections, defray their expenses, or pay counsel at disputed elections. We shall find a more convenient place to consider all these strictly political associations, after having spoken of the subject of parties. At this opportunity we shall consider associations in a moral point, and such as exist in the regular state of society, when government is in full operation, and neither anarchy nor revolution demand peculiar protection. Finally, we may mention those societies, which preserve some religious, moral, or other mystery. In the early stages of society it can be easily imagined that the ignorance and vehement superstition of the whole people at large, should make it necessary to make of some great religious truth, for instance, the belief in one God, perhaps introduced from some distant and more advanced region, a mystery, for fear that if not kept as such it would soon be entirely eradicated. So likewise may certain scientific truths, militating with the common belief, be exposed to total extirpation by fanaticism, if not kept within a circle of initiated persons; but it seems that knowledge and religion with the white race have become so diffused that no such mysteries are any longer necessary, and that we are thus likewise spared the dangers to which these societies must always expose themselves as well as others.

(1) The general insecurity as well as religious spirit produced innumerable fraternities and associations, sometimes of a purely devotional character, at others for the purpose of public utility and safety, yet connected with religious traits. Such were, for instance, the fratres pontifices, or bridge-brethern in the south of France, from the 13th to the 15th centuries, for the building and supporting of bridges, roads, ferries, hospices, and their safety and police. They degenerated and were abolished by Pope Julius II.

(2) Trevor, William III., vol. ii, p. 291.

(3) See, for instance, Prescott, History of Ferdinand and Isabella, Introduction.

XXXVI. The law must determine what are lawful combinations and associations, and what are not, but there are many, which the law cannot and ought not to prohibit, and which nevertheless are either dangerous or injurious, and ought therefore to be avoided by the conscientious citizen. The law of all countries says in general, that every combination is unlawful which interferes with the just and fair rights of others or society, but political ethics demand that we should avoid not only all associations which interfere directly with the rights of others, or in a manner that it may be cognizable by law, but also those which have a tendency indirectly to do so, or which, in the nature of things, lead to that indirect persecution, which, although not cognizable by law, may nevertheless be very oppressive.

The first rule then is that we should inquire, Does the association directly or indirectly abridge the free exercise of any fair right of those members of society who do not belong to it? Those associations will in general be the most harmless which have a simple clearly defined object, openly stated; and especially if they are for mutual industrial interest or the promotion of arts or sciences only. But when the moral conduct becomes the object of associations, it must be remembered that they easily superinduce a spirit of exclusiveness, of supposed superiority, of indirect injury to others, by promoting the members of the association only, in the various ways of social and mutual dependence, and of hypocrisy in some, who, seeing that they are in need of the aid of such association for worldly purposes, accommodate themselves outwardly to it. Nor must it be forgotten that no moral phenomenon is more common, than that the more compact an association becomes the more its members are apt, be it by the common esprit de corps, or an erroneous feeling of honor, to value the interest of the association higher than any other, and sometimes, as has but too frequently happened, to end in adopting a moral code or standard of their own, to be judged of only by the promotion of the interests of that association. In a free country there is this additional danger, that such associations once formed, and having obtained a strong hold upon the affections and sympathies of its members, most easily become channels and vessels of political agitations and dissensions. Politics, however, in themselves, have at all times been so interesting to all members of free states, that they alone, without any additional aid, have a sufficient tendency to create divisions and separations, frequently disturbing the plain and easy intercourse of society. Nor can it be denied that experience amply proves, that politics, whenever mixed up with extraneous matters, become injurious, and may easily end in fanaticism of one sort or another. Morality is a general obligation, and every individual ought to promote it as much as in him lies, and keep himself as much untrammeled respecting all moral action as possible. Speaking in a general way, specific pledges will not easily improve the state of society at large, which is promoted by general improvement, instruction, and general diffusion of morality. Yet it cannot be denied that there is a great moral power in mutually countenancing one another by association, and vices may have become so general, or have obtained such strong hold upon society at large that the individual, such as most men naturally are, will be too weak or frail to make a bold stand against them. Suppose, for instance, that the vice of gaming has become so general, in some or all classes, that it actually has infused itself into the whole intercourse of society, and that a man, who should make a bold stand against it, would not only be derided, but actually cut off, in a great measure, from that intercourse, which is nevertheless necessary for him. Such a state of things has existed. Even then I believe it is far more thoroughly beneficial for society, in most cases, for the individual to take his stand boldly, and prevail on others to join his endeavors, and promote their common views, than to form a specific society for that purpose. The operation may be at first slower, but it will be safer and more radical, without exposing us to the inconveniences or dangers indicated before. Dissension, hypocricy, pride, the error of seeking the essence of virtue and distinction of goodness in a few definite outward actions only, and indirect oppression are evils, carefully to be avoided. Still it will be admitted that cases of extremity make here as every where exceptions. Intemperance was or is to this day a national calamity in our country. Innumerable other vices and crimes as well as great misery arise out of it. Temperance societies have had, in many parts of our country, a beneficial effect. Yet even a society with so simple an object has led in some instances to dissension and indirect oppression. It is safe to say then, that all associations, formed for the avowed purpose of regulating the moral conduct of its members, upon pledges, should be resorted to by way of exception only. We might otherwise dissolve society into numberless associations of a similar kind, and coercion and violence instead of freedom of conscience would be the consequence.

XXXVII. A species of association, which has lately acquired great importance, requires to be mentioned here in particular; I mean the trades' unions, or those associations of mechanics, which have for their purposes the regulation of wages and time of labor, as well as the turns in which the members of the union shall find employment, or the proportion in which the employment of the unskilled shall stand to the skilled.

In former times there existed all over Europe corporations or guilds of mechanics, with monopolies and political privileges. They were necessary for the protection of the humble burgher and infant industry against an unruly aristocracy, as well, as in some cases for the transmission of knowledge and skill. Moreover, it was the prominent feature of the times, that every mass of men, in any way whatever associated, was also incorporated. Without them the cities would never have performed their high service in the promotion of civilisation, and the acknowledgment of the burgher's rights. The various trades were separated by these guilds, but within them the employer and employed had a common interest. The French revolution abolished these corporations, which in turn had, in many cases, become oppressive in the highest degree. Many other countries, for instance Prussia, followed the example, and, in England, their political influence was totally sunk by