De Lolme on Liberty as equality under the laws (1784)

In his book on The Constitution of England (1784), which the Swiss lawyer admired very much, Jean Louis De Lolme attempted to counter the claims by an increasing number of French and American writers that the right to vote was the key to understanding what liberty was. He warns the supporter of voting that voting for a candidate was only the first step, that one then had to be very wary of what one’s representative did after the election (especially since candidates were notorious for making “false declarations”), that the senior politicians also had their own interests which they might pursue ahead of those of the electorate, that individuals voters often get “lost in the crowd” of all the other voters, and that too often voting ends up “degenerat(ing) to mere form”. True Liberty in De Lolme’s view was an early version of Spencer’s “Law of Equal Liberty”, namely “every Man, while he respects the persons of others, and allows them quietly to enjoy the produce of their industry, (is) certain himself likewise to enjoy the produce of his own industry.”