But,  if  he  will  first  carefully  read  the  whole  of  these  ele-
mentary discussions,  he  can  then  investigate,  in  the  usual  methods,
a  particular  topic  with  effect.
1  Stat.  Crimes,  §  6,  7,  76,  82,  88, 114,  and  many  other  places.
254


CHAP.  XXXn.j      PKOTECTION  TO  GOVEENMENT.  §  452


CHAPTER  XXXII.
PROTECTION     TO     THE     GOVERNMENT     IN     ITS    EXISTENCE,    AU-
THOEITY,   AND  FITNCTIONS.
§  450.  People  and  Government  inseparable.  — ^It  was  a  cardinal
doctrine  with  our  English  ancestors,  that  the  king  was  for  the
people,  and '  their  interests  and  his  were  inseparable.  Much
more,  in  our  country,  where,  in  a  higher  sense,  the  government
is  of  the  people,  a  part  of  whom  it  is,  are  they  and  the  govern-
ment one  in  interest.  Indeed,  neither  can  exist  without  the
other.    Hence  —

§  451.  Protection  to  Government.  —  There  is  nothing  SO  directly
and  certainly  injurious  to  the  whole  people  as  an  act  against  |  the
existence  of  the  government,  or  its  authority,  or  impeding  any  of
its  functions.  Nothing,  therefore,  is  more  clearly  indictablejthan
such  an  act,  even  a  minute  one,  if  not  too  trivial  ^  for  the  law's
notice.  Yet  plain  and  undisputed  as  this  proposition  is,  there
are,  apparently  within  it,  acts  which  occupy  disputable  ground,
others  which  were  once  indictable  but  are  not  now,  and  still
others  which  are  indictable  now,  yet  formerly  they  were  not.
For  the  conditions  of  society,  the  views  of  mankind,  and  the
positive  enactments  change  in  some  degree  from  age  to  age,
though  in  the  main  they  are  in  all  ages  the  same.
