Strona 862 z 2651

To restrain private people, it may be said, from receiving in

payment the promissory notes of a banker for any sum, whether

great or small, when they themselves are willing to receive them;

or, to restrain a banker from issuing such notes, when all his

neighbours are willing to accept of them, is a manifest violation

of that natural liberty, which it is the proper business of law

not to infringe, but to support. Such regulations may, no doubt,

be considered as in some respect a violation of natural liberty.

But those exertions of the natural liberty of a few individuals,

which might endanger the security of the whole society, are, and

ought to be, restrained by the laws of all governments; of the

most free, as well as or the most despotical. The obligation of

building party walls, in order to prevent the communication of

fire, is a violation of natural liberty, exactly of the same kind

with the regulations of the banking trade which are here

proposed.