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 x

How Government, especially Monarchical, is acquired

I.Consent of the Subject free or forced. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 7.Although the Consent of the Subject is a Thing to be required in Constituting of every lawful Government, yet it is not50 always obtain’d the same way. For as it is sometimes seen, that a Prince ascends the Throne with the voluntary Acclamations of the People; so sometimes he makes himself a King by his Army, and brings a People to consent by military Force.

II.Of Conquest. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 7. §3.Which latter Method of acquiring a Government is called Conquest; it happening, as often as a victorious Prince, having Fortune on his Side and a just Cause, reduces a People by his Arms to such Extremities, as to compel them to receive him for their Sovereign. And the Reason of this Title is derived, not only from the Conqueror’s Clemency in saving the Lives of all those whom, in Strictness of War, he was at Liberty to destroy, and instead thereof laying only a lesser Inconvenience upon them; but likewise from hence, That, when a Prince will choose to go to War with one that he has injured, rather than he will condescend to satisfie him in a just and equal Manner; * He is to be presum’d to cast himself upon the Fortune of War, with this Intention, that he does beforehand tacitly consent to accept of any Conditions whatsoever shall befal him in the Event.

III.Election. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 7. §6.As for the voluntary Consent of the People, a Government is acquired by it, when in an Election the People, either in order to their Settlement, or at any Time after, do nominate such a One, to bear that Office, as they believe is capable of it. Who, upon Presentation of their Pleasure to him, accepting it, and also receiving their Promises of Allegiance, thereby actually enters upon the Possession of the Government.

IV.An Interregnum. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 7. §7.But betwixt this Election of a new Prince and the Death of the former, there uses in Monarchies that are already fix’d and settled, to intervene an Interregnum; which signifies an imperfect Kind of State, where the People keep together merely by Virtue of their Original Compact: Only that this is much strengthned by the common Name and Love of their Country, and the Settlement of most of their Fortunes there; whereby all good Men are obliged to preserve the Peace with one another, and study to restore their fallen Government again as soon as they can. Yet to prevent the Mischiefs which are apt to arise in an Interregnum, it is very convenient the Law should provide Administrators, to manage the publick Affairs during the Vacancy of the Crown.

V.Succession. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 7. §11.Now though, as is said, in some Monarchies, as every King dies, they proceed again to a New Election: yet in others, the Crown is conferr’d upon Conditions to descend to certain Persons successively, (without any intervening Election) for all Time to come. The Right to which Succession may either be determined by the Order of the Prince, or the Order of the People.

VI.Devisable when L. N. N. l. 7. c. 6. §16.When Princes hold their Crowns in the Manner of a Patrimony, they have the Liberty of disposing of the Succession as themselves please. And their declared Order therein, especially if their Kingdoms are of their own Founding or Acquiring, shall carry the same Force with the last Testament of any private Man. They may divide, if they please, their Kingdom amongst all their Children, not so much as excepting the Daughters. * They may, if they think fit, make an Adoptive, or their Natural Son, their Heir, or one that is not in the least a-kin to them.

VII.Succession upon an Intestate.And when such an Absolute Monarch as this dies, without leaving Order for the Succession, it is to be presumed he did not thereby intend the Kingdom should expire with himself; but first, That it should devolve to his Children (before all others) because of the natural Affection of Parents to them: Then, That the same Monarchical Government should continue, which he recommended by his own Example. That the Kingdom be kept undivided, as one Realm; because any Division thereof must give Occasion to great Troubles, both among the Subjects and the Royal Family. That the Elder reign before the Younger, and the Male before the Female in the same Line: ^† And, lastly, That in Default of Issue, the Crown shall devolve upon the next in Blood.

VIII.Succession in the People. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 7. §11.But in those Monarchies, whose Constitution, from the very Beginning, was founded upon the voluntary Choice of the People, there the Order of Succession must have an Original Dependance upon the Will of the same People. For if, together with the Crown, they did confer upon the Prince the Right of appointing his Successor; whosoever shall be nominated to the Succession by him, will have all the Right to injoy it. If they did not confer it upon the Prince, it is to be understood as reserved to themselves: Who, if they pleased, might make the Crown Hereditary to their Prince’s Family; either prescribing the Order of Succession to be like other ordinary Inheritances, so far as can consist with the Publick Good; or set the same under any peculiar necessary Limitations.

IX.Of Hereditary Kingdoms. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 7. §12.When a People have barely conferr’d upon their King an Hereditary Right, without any thing farther express’d; tho’ ’tis true, it may seem to be intended, that the Crown shall pass to the Heirs in the same common Order of Descent as private Inheritances do; yet the Publick Good requires, That the Sense of such a Publick Act shall be taken under some Restrictions, notwithstanding their not being particularly express’d. As,

• 1. It is supposed, That the Kingdom shall continue inseparable, as one Realm.
• 2. That the Succession shall go to the Descendants of the first Prince of the Line. Excluding,
• 3. Illegitimate and Adopted Children, with all that are not born according to the Laws of the Realm.
• 4. That the Heirs Male be preferr’d before the Female in the same Line, tho’ their Inferiors in Age. And,
• 5. That each Prince esteem his Succession, not as the Gift of his Predecessor, but as the Bounty of the People.

X.A Lineal Succession. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 7. §13.Now, because after a long Descent of Princes, there may easily arise Controversies almost inextricable, about the Person of the Royal Family, who approaches nearest in Kindred to the Prince deceased; therefore, for Prevention of such, in many Kingdoms they have introduced a Lineal Succession, of this Nature; That as every one descends from the Father of the Stem Royal,51 they compose, as it were, a perpendicular Line; from whence they succeed to the Crown, according to the Priority of that Line to others: And tho’, perhaps, the nearest of Kin to the Prince last deceased, may stand in a New Line, different from that of His; Yet there is no passing out of the Old Line thither, ’till Death has exhausted the same.

XI.By the Father’s side, or the Mother’s.The Series of Succession most regardable, are those Two, deduced from the several Families of the Father and the Mother; the Relation whereof is distinguish’d in the Civil Law by the Names of Cognation and Agnation. The First, called also the Castilian Law, does not exclude the Women, but only postpones them to Males in the same Line; for it recurs to them in the Case of the other’s Default. But by the Second, which is sometimes styl’d the French or Salick Law, both the Women and all their Issue, even Males, are excluded for ever.

XII.Differences about Succession how to be determined.When, in a Patrimonial Kingdom, there arises a Dispute concerning the Succession, the most adviseable Way to determine it, is, To put it to the Arbitration of some of the Royal Family; And where the Succession originally depended upon the Consent of the People, there their Declaration upon the Matter, will take away the Doubt.

[50.]The editors of the 1716/35 edition omitted the negative.

[*] Grotius de Jure Belli & Pacis, lib. 3. cap. 8.

[*] Grotius de Jure Belli & Pacis, Lib. 2. Cap. 7. §12, &c.

[†] Grotius de Jure Belli & Pacis, l. 2. c. 7. §12, &c.

[51.]The royal stock or lineage.