It must be remembered that the chief elements of welfare are above government. All the kindly affections which make the chief bonds of society are to be cultivated by good government, but cannot be forced by any law, either positive or prohibitive. Individual character in all its proportions is individual growth, which can be fostered but not forced. All the catalogue of virtues is made up of elements of character, not one of which can be made by force. So government of every grade fosters the highest welfare of individuals by sustaining virtuous motives and restraining vicious ones, or rather by encouraging right action in its enjoyment of welfare and restraining wrong action by deprivation of welfare. Government, therefore, is best when its aims are distinctly confined to universal welfare. The distinctly personal wants can be best provided for by affording the best conditions for free exercise of individual powers. Governments can never wisely do favors for a class, since such favors weaken the power of government for promoting general welfare. What government does for any it needs to do for all. What it does for all it must secure to each in fair proportion. In any effort to extend the range of governmental action this natural limit of universal welfare for individuals must be considered.
_Ends of government._--In this view of the reasons for organized government and its natural limits, certain universal wants can be clearly perceived. Most obvious is protection against external foes, personal or material. This universal need, in the presence of personal enemies, is so plain as to make the crime of treason notorious. The internal peace of society is just as evidently a universal necessity, and so any infringement upon the order of society, as agreed upon either by express statute or by the common law of established precedent, is punished as a crime against all. Personal violence, even in the shape of private vengeance for wrong done, is a menace to internal order, and so a crime against the whole organization. The mutual dependence of each upon all and all upon each in every-day transactions enforces the interest of the organization in personal contracts, and makes the government a partner with every right-doer against every wrong-doer in all attempts at fraud or abuse of power of every kind. This guardianship of personal freedom makes necessary the bulk of criminal law and most of the machinery of courts. The arbitration of disputes between interested parties is a natural sequence of the effort to prevent violence. Government does not and cannot right wrongs; it barely saves a remnant of good to the individual wronged, and furnishes a warning to others against future wrong.