have a right to take away any of his younger brothers portions? or that a rich man, who poffeffed a whole country, fhould from thence have a right to feize, when he pleased, the cottage and garden of his poor neighbour? The being rightfully poffeffed of great power and riches, exceedingly beyond the greatest part of the fons of Adam, is fo far from being an excufe, much lefs a reafon, for rapine and oppreffion, which the endamaging another without authority is, that it is a great aggravation of it: for the exceeding the bounds of authority is no more a right in a great, than in a petty officer; no more juftifiable in a king than a constable; but is fo much the worfe in him, in that he has more truft put in him, has already a much greater fhare than the reft of his brethren, and is supposed, from the advantages of his education, employment, and counsellors, to be more knowing in the measures of right and wrong.

§. 203. May the commands then of a prince be opposed? may he be refifted as often as any one fhall find himself aggrieved, and but imagine he has not right done him? This will unhinge and overturn all polities, and, instead of government and order, leave nothing but anarchy and confufion.

§. 204. To this I anfwer, that force is to be opposed to nothing, but to unjust and unlawful force; whoever makes any oppofition

in

in any other cafe, draws on himself a juft condemnation both from God and man; and fo no fuch danger or confufion will follow, as is often fuggefted: for,

§. 205. Firf, As, in fome countries, the person of the prince by the law is facred; and fo, whatever he commands or does, his perfon is ftill free from all queftion or violence, not liable to force, or any judicial cenfure or condemnation. But yet oppofition may be made to the illegal acts of any inferior officer, or other commiffioned by him; unless he will, by actually putting himself into a ftate of war with his people, diffolve the government, and leave them to that defence which belongs to every one in the ftate of mature: for of fuch things who can tell what the end will be? and a neighbour kingdom has thewed the world an odd example. In all other cafes the facredness of the perfon exempts him from all inconveniencies, whereby he is fecure, whilst the government stands, from all violence and harm whatsoever; than which there cannot be a wifer conftitution: for the harm he can do in his own person not being likely to happen often, nor to extend itself far; nor being able by his fingle strength to fubvert the laws, nor opprefs the body of the people, fhould any prince have so much weakness, and ill nature as to be willing to do it, the inconveniency of fome particular mischiefs, that may happen sometimes, when

a heady prince comes to the throne, are well recompenfed by the peace of the public, and fecurity of the government, in the person of the chief magiftrate, thus fet out of the reach of danger: it being fafer for the body,' that fome few private men fhould be fometimes in danger to fuffer, than that the head of the republic fhould be easily, and upon flight occafions, expofed.

§. 206. Secondly, But this privilege, belonging only to the king's perfon, hinders not, but they may be queftioned, opposed, and refifted, who ufe unjuft force, though they pretend a commiffion from him, which the law authorizes not; as is plain in the case of him that has the king's writ to arrest a man, which is a full commiffion from the king; and yet he that has it cannot break open a man's houfe to do it, nor execute this command of the king upon certain days, nor in certain places, though this commiffion have no fuch exception in it; but they are the limitations of the law, which if any one tranfgrefs, the king's commiffion excuses him not: for the king's authority being given him only by the law, he cannot impower any one to act against the law, or justify him, by his commiffion, in fo doing; the commiffion, or command of any magiftrate, where he has no authority, being as void and infignificant, as that of any private man; the difference between the one and the other,

4

being

being that the magiftrate has some authority fo far, and to fuch ends, and the private man has none at all for it is not the commiffion, but the authority, that gives the right of acting; and against the laws there can be no authority. But, notwithstanding fuch refiftance, the king's perfon and authority are ftill both fecured, and fo no danger to governor or government.

§. 207. Thirdly, Suppofing a government wherein the perfon of the chief magistrate is not thus facred; yet this doctrine of the lawfulness of refifting all unlawful exercises of his power, will not upon every flight occafion indanger him, or imbroil the government for where the injured party may be relieved, and his damages repaired by appeal to the law, there can be no pretence for force, which is only to be used where a man is intercepted from appealing to the law: for nothing is to be accounted hoftile force, but where it leaves not the remedy of fuch an appeal; and it is fuch force alone, that puts him that ufes it into a state of war, and makes it lawful to refift him. A man with a sword in his hand demands my purse in the high-way, when perhaps I have not twelve pence in my pocket: this man I may lawfully kill. To another I deliver 100l. to hold only whilft I alight, which he refufes to restore me, when I am got up again, but draws his fword to defend the poffeffion of it

by

.

by force, if I endeavour to retake it. The mifchief this man does me is a hundred, or poffibly a thousand times more than the other perhaps intended me (whom I killed before he really did me any); and yet I might lawfully kill the one, and cannot fo much as hurt the other lawfully. The reason whereof is plain; because the one ufing force, which threatened my life, I could not have time to appeal to the law to secure it: and when it was gone, it was too late to appeal. The law could not restore life to my dead carcafs: the lofs was irreparable; which to prevent, the law of nature gave me a right to deftroy him, who had put himfelf into a state of war with me, and threatened my destruction. But in the other cafe, my life not being in danger, I may have the benefit of appealing to the law, and have reparation for my fool. that way.

§. 208. Fourthly, But if the unlawful acts done by the magiftrate be maintained (by the power he has got), and the remedy which is due by law, be by the fame power obftructed; yet the right of refifting, even in fuch manifeft acts of tyranny, will not fuddenly, or on flight occafions, disturb the government: for if it reach no farther than fome private men's cafes, though they have a right to defend themselves, and to recover by force what by unlawful force is taken from them; yet the right to do fo will not eafily engage

them