Algernon Sidney

Discourses

Concerning Government

by Algernon Sidney

Manus haec inimica tyrannis
Einse petit placidam cum liberate quietem.
(This hand, enemy to tyrants,
By the sword seeks calm peacefulness with liberty.)

Published 1698


CONTENTS

HTML Version Text Version [Foreword by Jon Roland]

Image [Larger Portrait of Algernon Sidney]

Image [Title Page of 1698 Edition]]

HTML Version [Patriarcha, by Robert Filmer]

CHAPTER ONE

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 1. Introduction

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 2. The common notions of Liberty are not from School Divines, but from Nature.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 3. Implicit Faith belongs to Fools, and Truth is comprehended by examining Principles.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 4. The Rights of particular Nations cannot subsist, if General Principles contrary to them are received as true.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 5. To depend upon the Will of a Man is Slavery.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 6. God leaves to man the choice of Forms in Government; and those who constitute one Form, may abrogate it.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 7. Abraham and the Patriarchs were not Kings.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 8. Nimrod was the f irst King, during the life of Cush, Ham, Shem, and Noah.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 9. The Power of a Father belongs only to a Father.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 10. Such as enter into Society, must in some degree diminish their Liberty.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 11. No Man comes to command many, unless by Consent or by Force.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 12. The pretended paternal Right is divisible or indivisible: if divisible, 'tis extinguished; if indivisible, universal.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 13. There was no shadow of a paternal Kingdom amongst the Hebrews, nor precept for it.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 14. If the paternal Right had included Dominion, and was to be transferred to a single Heir, it must perish if he were not known; and could be applied to no other person.

HTML Version Text Version [SECTION 15.]

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 16. The Ancients chose those to be Kings, who excelled in the Virtues that are most beneficial to Civil Societies.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 17. God having given the Government of the World to no one Man, nor declared how it should be divided, left it to the Will of Man.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 18. If a right of Dominion were esteemed Hereditary according to the Law of Nature, a multitude of destructive and inextricable Controversies would thereupon arise.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 19. Kings cannot confer the Right of Father upon Princes, nor Princes upon Kings.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 20. All just Magistratical Power is from the People.

CHAPTER TWO

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 1. That 'tis natural for Nations to govern, or to chuse Governors; and that Virtue only gives a natural preference of one man above another, or reason why one should be chosen rather than another.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 2. Every Man that hath Children, hath the right of a Father, and is capable of preferment in a Society composed of many.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 3. Government is not instituted for the good of the Governor, but of the Governed; and Power is not an Advantage, but a Burden.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 4. The Paternal Right devolves to, and is inherited by all the Children.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 5. Freemen join together, and frame greater or lesser Societies, and give such Forms to them as best please themselves.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 6. They who have a right of chusing a King, have the right of making a King.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 7. The Laws of every Nation are the measure of Magistratical Power.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 8. There is no natural propensity in Man or Beast to Monarchy.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 9. The Government instituted by God over the Israelites was Aristocratical.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 10. Aristotle was not simply for Monarchy, or against Popular Government, but approved or disapproved of either according to circumstances.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 11. Liberty produceth Virtue, Order and Stability: Slavery is accompanied with Vice, Weakness and Misery.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 12. The Glory, Virtue, and Power of the Romans, began and ended with their Liberty.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 13. There is no disorder or prejudice in changing the name or number of Magistrates, whilst the root and principle of their Power continues entire.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 14. No Sedition was hurtful to Rome, til through their Prosperity some men gained a Power above the Laws.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 15. The Empire of Rome perpetually decay'd when it fell into the hands of one Man.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 16. The best Governments of the World have been composed of Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 17. Good Governments admit of Changes in the Superstructures, whilst the Foundations remain unchangeable.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 18. Xenophon in blaming the Disorders of Democracies, favours Aristocracies, not Monarchies.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 19. That Corruption and Venality which is natural to Courts, is seldom found in Popular Governments.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 20. Man's natural love to Liberty is temper'd by Reason which originally is his Nature.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 21. Mixed and Popular Governments preserve Peace, and manage Wars better than Absolute Monarchies.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 22. Commonwealths seek Peace or War, according to the Variety of their Constitutions.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 23. That is the best Government, which best provides for War

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 24. Popular Governments are less subject to Civil Disorders than Monarchies; manage them more ably, and more easily recover out of them.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 25. Courts are more subject to Venality and Corruption than Popular Governments.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 26. Civil Tumults and Wars are not the greatest Evils that befall Nations.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 27. The Mischiefs and Cruelties proceeding from Tyranny are greater than any that can come from Popular or mixed Governments.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 28. Men living under Popular or Mix'd Governments, are more careful of the publick Good, than in Absolute Monarchies.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 29. There is no assurance that the Distempers of a State shall be cured by the Wisdom of a Prince.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 30. A Monarchy cannot be well regulated, unless the Powers of the Monarch are limited by Law.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 31. The Liberties of Nations are from God and Nature, not from Kings.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 32. The Contracts made between Magistrates, and the Nations that created them, were real, solemn, and obligtory.

CHAPTER THREE

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 1. Kings not being fathers of their People, nor excelling all others in Virtue, can have no other just Power than what the Laws give; nor any title to the privileges of the Lord's Anointed.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 2 . The Kings of Israel and Judah were under a Law not safely to be transgress'd.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 3. Samuel did not describe to the Israelites the glory of a free Monarchy; but the Evils the People should suffer, that he might divert them from desiring a King.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 4. No People can be obliged to suffer from their Kings what they have not a right to do.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 5. The Mischiefs suffer'd from wicked Kings are such as render it both reasonable and just for all Nations that have virtue and Power, to exert both in repelling them.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 6. 'Tis not good for such Nations as will have Kings, to suffer them to be glorious, powerful, or abounding in Riches.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 7. When the Israelites asked for such a King as the Nations about them had, they asked for a Tyrant tho they did not call him so.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 8. Under the name of Tribute no more is understood than what the Law of each Nation gives to the Supreme Magistrate for the defraying of publick Charges; to which the customs of the Romans, or sufferings of the Jews have no relation.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 9. Our own Laws confirm to us the enjoyment of our native Rights.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 10. The words of St. Paul enjoining obedience to higher Powers, favour all sorts of Governments no less than Monarchy.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 11. That which is not just, is not Law; and that which is not Law ought not to be obeyed.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 12. The Right and Power of a Magistrate depends upon his Institution, not upon his Name.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 13. Laws were made to direct and instruct Magistrates, and if they will not be directed, to restrain them.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 14. Laws are not made by Kings, not because they are busied in greater matters than doing Justice, but because Nations will be governed by Rule, and not Arbitrarily.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 15. A general presumption that Kings will govern well, is not a sufficient security to the People.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 16. The observation of the Laws of Nature is absurdly expected from Tyrants, who set themselves up against all Laws: and be that subjects Kings to no other Law than what is common to Tyrants destroys their being.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 17. Kings cannot be the Interpreters of the Oaths they take.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 18. The next in blood to deceased Kings cannot generally be said to be Kings till they are crowned.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 19. The greatest Enemy of a just Magistrate is he who endeavours to invalidate the Contract between him and the People, or to corrupt their Manners.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 20. Unjust Commands are not to be obey'd, and no man is obliged to suffer for not obeying such as are against Law.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 21. It cannot be for the good of the People that the Magistrate have a power above the Law: And he is not a Magistrate who has not his power by Law.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 22. The rigour of the Law is to be temper'd by men of known integrity and judgment, and not by the Prince, who may be ignorant or vicious.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 23. Aristotle proves, that no man is to be entrusted with an absolute power, by showing that no one knows how to execute it, but such a man as is not to be found.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 24. The power of Augustus Caesar was not given, but usurped.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 25. The Regal Power was not the first in this Nation; nor necessarily to be continued, tho it had been the first.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 26. Tho the King may be entrusted with the power of chusing Judges, yet that by which they act is from the Law.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 27. Magna Charta was not the Original, but a Declaration of the English Liberties. The King's Power is not restrained, but created by that and other Laws: and the Nation that made them can only correct the defects of them.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 28. The English Nation has always been governed by itself or its Representatives.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 29. The King was never Master of the Soil.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 30. Henry the First was King of England by as good a Title as any of his Predecessors or Successors.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 31. Free Nations have a right of meeting, when and where they please, unless they deprive themselves of it.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 32. The powers of Kings are so various according to the Constitutions of several States, that no consequence can be drawn to the prejudice or advantage of any one, merely from the name.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 33. The Liberty of a People is the gift of God and Nature.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 34. No Veneration paid, or Honor conferr'd upon a just and lawful Magistrate, can diminish the Liberty of a Nation.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 35. The Authority given by our Law to the Acts performed by a King de facto, detract nothing from the people's right of creating whom they please.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 36. The general revolt of a Nation cannot be called a Rebellion.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 37. The English Government was not ill constituted, the defects more lately observed proceeding from the change of manners, and corruption of the times.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 38. The Power of calling and dissolving Parliaments is not simply in the King. The variety of Customs in chusing Parliament men, and the Errors a people may commit, neither prove that Kings are or ought to be Absolute.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 39. Those Kings only are heads of the People, who are good, wise, and seek to advance no Interest but that of the Publick.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 40. Good Laws prescribe easy and safe Remedies against the Evils proceeding from the vices or infirmities of the Magistrate; and when they fail, they must be supplied.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 41. The People for whom and by whom the Magistrate is created, can only judge whether he rightly perform his Office or not.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 42. The Person that wears the Crown cannot determine the Affairs which the Law refers to the King.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 43. Proclamations are not Laws.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 44. No People that is not free can substitute Delegates.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 45. The Legislative Power is always Arbitrary, and not to be trusted in the hands of any who are not bound to obey the Laws they make.

HTML Version Text Version SECTION 46. The coercive power of the Law proceeds from the Authority of Parliament.

INDEX


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