The Online Library of Liberty

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• Introduction
• The Whole Duty of Man
• The Author’s Preface
• Book I
• Chapter I: Of Human Actions In General, the Principles Of  ’em, and How to Be Accounted For, Or Imputed
• Chapter II: Of the Rule of Human Actions, Or of Laws In General; and the Different Qualifications of Those Actions
• Chapter III: Of the Law of Nature In General
• Chapter IV: Of the Duty of Man Towards God, Or, Concerning Natural Religion
• Chapter V: Of the Duty of a Man Towards Himself  19
• Chapter VI: Of the Duty of One Man to Another, and First of Doing No Injury to Any Man
• Chapter VII: The Natural Equality of Men to Be Acknowledged
• Chapter VIII: Of the Mutual Duties of Humanity
• Chapter IX: The Duty of Men In Making Contracts
• Chapter X: The Duty of Men In Discourse
• Chapter XI: The Duty of Those Which Take an Oath
• Chapter XII: Duties to Be Observ’d In Acquiring Possession of Things
• Chapter XIII: The Duties Which Naturally Result From Man’s Property In Things
• Chapter XIV: Of the Price and Value of Things
• Chapter XV: Of Those Contracts In Which the Value of Things Is Pre-supposed; and of the Duties Thence Arising
• Chapter XVI: The Several Methods By Which the Obligations Arising From Contracts Are Dissolved
• Chapter XVII: Of Meaning, Or Interpretation
• Book Ii
• Chapter I: Of the Natural State of Men
• Chapter II: Of the Duties of the Married State
• Chapter III: Duty of Parents and Children
• Chapter IV: The Duties of Masters and Servants
• Chapter V: The Impulsive Cause of Constituting Communities 18
• Chapter VI: Of the Internal Frame and Constitution of Any State Or Government
• Chapter VII: Of the Several Parts of Government 38
• Chapter VIII: Of the Several Forms of Government 41
• Chapter IX: The Qualifications of Civil Government 47
• Chapter X: How Government, Especially Monarchical, Is Acquired
• Chapter XI: The Duty of Supreme Governours
• Chapter XII: Of the Special Laws of a Community, Relating to the Civil Government 59
• Chapter XIII: Of the Power of Life and Death
• Chapter XIV: Of Reputation
• Chapter XV: Of the Power of Governours Over the Goods of Their Subjects
• Chapter XVI: Of War and Peace
• Chapter XVII: Of Alliances
• Chapter XVIII: The Duty of Subjects
• Two Discourses and a Commentary By Jean Barbeyrac
• Note On the Translation
• The Judgment of an Anonymous Writer On the Original of This Abridgment With Reflections of the Translator, Intended to Clarify Certain of the Author’s Principles
• Discourse On What Is Permitted By the Laws In Which It Is Shown That What Is Permitted By the Laws Is Not Always Just and Moral
• Discourse On the Benefits Conferred By the Laws In Which It Is Shown That a Good Man Should Not Always Take Advantage of the Benefits Conferred On Him By the Laws

chapter ix

The Qualifications of Civil Government47

I.Supreme Authority L. N. N. l. 7. c. 6.It is always one Prerogative of the Government by which any Community is directed, in every Form of Commonwealth whatsoever, to be invested with the supreme Authority:* Whereby it has the Regulating of all Things according to its own Judgment and Discretion, and acts without Dependence upon any other Person ^† as Superiour, that can pretend to annul or countermand its Orders.

II.Unaccountable. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 6. §2.For the same Reason, a Government so constituted remains unaccountable to all the World; there being no Authority above it to punish it, or to examine whether its Proceedings are right or no.

III.Above the Laws. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 6. §3.And a third Qualification of like Nature with the former, is, That inasmuch as all civil Laws, of human Authority, derive both their Beginning and their Continuance from the Favour of the Government; it is impossible they should directly oblige the very Power that makes them; because the same Power would in Consequence be superiour to it self. Yet it is a happy Prospect, and a singular Advantage to the Laws, when a Prince conforms himself, of his own Pleasure, as Occasion serves, to practise the same Things that he commands his Subjects.

IV.Obedience due to it. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 8.There is also a peculiar Veneration to be paid to the supreme Government under which we live; not only in obeying it in its just Commands, wherein it is a Crime to disobey, but in induring its Severities with the like Patience as the Rigour of some Parents is submitted to by dutiful Children. Wherefore, when a Prince proceeds to offer the most heinous Injuries imaginable to his People, let them rather undergo it, or every one seek his Safety by Flight, than draw their Swords upon the Father of their Country.

V.An absolute Monarchy. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 6. §7.We find, in Monarchies and Aristocracies especially, that the Government is sometime Absolute and sometime Limited. An Absolute Monarch is one, who having no prescrib’d Form of Laws and Statutes perpetually to go by, in the Method of his Administration, proceeds intirely according to his own Will and Pleasure, as the Condition of Affairs and the publick Good in his Judgment seem to require.

VI.A limited Monarchy L. N. N. l. 7. c. 6. §9.But because a single Person may be subject to be mistaken in his Judgment, as well as to be seduced into evil Courses in the Injoyment of so vast a Liberty; it is thought convenient by some States, * to circumscribe the Exercise of this Power within the Limits of certain Laws, which are proposed to the Prince at his Succession to be the future Rule of his Government. And particularly when any extraordinary Concern arises, involving in it the Interest of the whole Kingdom, for which there can be no Provision extant in the Constitution foregoing; They then oblige him to ingage in nothing without the previous Advice and Consent of the People, or their Representatives in Parliament; the better to prevent the Danger of his swerving from the Interest of the Kingdom.48

VII.Right and Manner of holding. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 6. §14.We see likewise a Difference in the Right and Manner of holding some Kingdoms, from what it is in others. For those Princes especially who have acquired Dominions by Conquest, and made a People their own by Force of Arms, can divide, alienate, and transfer their Regalities49 at Pleasure in the manner of a Patrimonial Estate. Others that are advanced by the Voice of the People, tho’ they live in full Possession of the Government during their Reigns, yet have no Pretensions to such a Power. But as they attain’d to the Succession, so they leave it to be determin’d, either by the ancient Custom, or the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom: * For which Reason they are compared by some to Usufructuaries, or Life-Renters.

[47.]Originally: “On the characteristics of civil authority” (De affectionibus imperii civilis). The central attributes of the sovereign authority are that it is supreme, unaccountable, above the law, and venerable.

[*] Grotius de Jure Belli & Pacis, lib. 1. cap. 3. §6, &c.

[†] This Restriction must be carefully observ’d; for tho’ in a limited Monarchy, the Sovereign can’t enact a Law without the Advice and Consent of his People represented in Parliament, yet notwithstanding, this Authority of the People is not equal, much less superiour, to that of the Prince: The Author’s Account of the Nature of supreme Authority is imperfect; it ought to have comprehended distinctly what is equally agreeable to a limited and to an Absolute Sovereignty. [Barbeyrac’s note (I.1, p. 298). In fact, Pufendorf discusses the distinction between absolute and limited sovereignty in sections V and VI. It is indeed difficult to see how a sovereign bound by basic (parliamentary) laws may be considered “supreme,” unless of course monarch and parliament are considered jointly to be the sovereign authority, or unless the monarch is given the sole capacity to judge when he is acting in accordance with these laws.]

[*] Grotius de Jure Belli & Pacis, l. 1. c. 3. §14. &c.

[48.]It remains ambiguous here whether Pufendorf regards the king or “the king in parliament” as sovereign. Note that “Representatives in Parliament” is Tooke’s Anglicization of Pufendorf’s “deputies in assembly” (deputatis in comitia convocatis).

[49.]Royal rights.

[*] Grotius de Jure Belli & Pacis, l. 1. c. 3. §11. & l. 2. c. 7. §12.