On the Civic Relations Author:Henry Holt Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: BOOK I. THE PROTECTION OF RIGHTS. CHAPTER II. OP RIGHTS IN GENERAL. Of the three general functions of government—protecting rights (including protectin... more »g them against a foreign enemy), promoting convenience, and taxing for its own maintenance, protecting rights was evolved first, because, in early societies, before some progress has been made in civilization, there are no conveniences to promote. A result, then, on the body of Law and Political Science evolved even up to our day, is that it deals mainly with rights. The functions of government in promoting the public convenience have been evolved so late in comparison, that they are not nearly so clearly understood; in fact, comparatively little attention was paid to them before the middle of the nineteenth century. 23. Rights Impose First, then, to take the greater field—that "! of rights, let us try to understand the in teresting fact that all rights impose duties—duties on others, and also duties on oneself. They impose duties on others, because a right is, of course, a power justly to demand that somebody shall do something or refrain from doing something; and this doing or refraining on the part of somebody, in response to a right demanded, is of course a duty. Whether the demand and consequent obligation are just, is determined by "the greatest good -0f the greatest number". What that is, and its application is declared not only in all religions, but In [he three kinds by the gen experience of mankind. But the religions differ, and so do the opinions of mankind. Who, then, shall judge? Each nation has its own dominant religion and dominant opinions. In proportion to the advance of a nation, its opinions, religious and secular (which generally correspond pretty closely), are embodied in customs and laws. Of ...« less