river, yet I pay my proportion to the maintenance of the said wall
or bank; and if at any time the sea breaks in, the damage is not
laid upon the man in whose land the breach happened, unless it was
by his neglect, but it lies on the whole land, and is called a
"level lot."

Again, I have known it practised in troops of horse, especially when
it was so ordered that the troopers mounted themselves; where every
private trooper has agreed to pay, perhaps, 2d. per diem out of his
pay into a public stock, which stock was employed to remount any of
the troop who by accident should lose his horse.

Again, the sailors' contribution to the Chest at Chatham is another
friendly society, and more might be named.

To argue against the lawfulness of this would be to cry down common
equity as well as charity: for as it is kind that my neighbour
should relieve me if I fall into distress or decay, so it is but
equal he should do so if I agreed to have done the same for him; and
if God Almighty has commanded us to relieve and help one another in
distress, surely it must be commendable to bind ourselves by
agreement to obey that command; nay, it seems to be a project that
we are led to by the divine rule, and has such a latitude in it that
for aught I know, as I said, all the disasters in the world might be
prevented by it, and mankind be secured from all the miseries,
indigences, and distresses that happen in the world. In which I
crave leave to be a little particular.

First general peace might be secured all over the world by it, if
all the powers agreed to suppress him that usurped or encroached