LETTER XLVIII.--TO JOHN NORVELL, June 11, 1807

TO JOHN NORVELL.

Washington, June 11, 1807.

Sir,

Your letter of May the 9th has been duly received. The subjects it
proposes would require time and space for even moderate developement. My
occupations limit me to a very short notice of them. I think there does
not exist a good elementary work on the organization of society
into civil government: I mean a work which presents in one full
and comprehensive view the system of principles on which such an
organization should be founded, according to the rights of nature. For
want of a single work of that character, I should recommend Locke
on Government, Sidney, Priestley's Essay on the First Principles of
Government, Chipman's Principles of Government, and the Federalist.
Adding, perhaps, Beccaria on Crimes and Punishments, because of the
demonstrative manner in which he has treated that branch of the subject.
If your views of political inquiry go further, to the subjects of money
and commerce, Smith's Wealth of Nations is the best book to be read,
unless Say's Political Economy can be had, which treats the same
subjects on the same principles, but in a shorter compass, and more
lucid manner. But I believe this work has not been translated into our
language.

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. But as we
have employed some of the best materials of the British constitution in