PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

CZ'L'i/ Liberty.
they possessed against any attempts of the crown to
harrass its subjects, by oppressive and useless exertions,
of prerogative. The loss of this security we denom.
inate the loss of liberty. They have changed not
their laws, but tht>ir legislature; not their enjoyment,
but their safety; not their present burthens,.
but their prospect~ of future grievanc{'s: and thid
we pronounce a change from the condition of free ..
men to tllat of slaves. In like manner, in our own
cuuntry, the act of parliament, in the reign of Henry
the Eighth, which gave to the king's '. roclamation the
force oflavl, h?s properly been called a complete and
formal surrender of the liberty of the nation; and
would have been so, although no proclamation were
issued in pursuance of these new powers, or none but
what was recommended by the highest wisdom and
utility. The security was gone. Were it probab!e~
that the welfare and accommodation of toe people
would be as studio1)sIy, and as providently consult.
ed in the edicts of a despotic prince, as by the resolutions
of a popular assembly, then would an absolute
form of government be no less free than the purest
democracy. The different degree of care and knowedge
of the public interest which may reasonably be
expected from the different form and composition of
the legblature, constitutes the distinction, in re~pect
of liberty, as well between these two extremes, as between
all the intermediate modifications of civil government.
The definitions . which have been framed . of civil
liberty, and which have become the subject of much
unnecessary altercation, are mo~t of them adapted to
this idea. Thus one po~itical writer makes the very
essence of the subject'~ liberty to consist in his being
governed by no Jaws bat those to which he hath ar··
tually consented; anOther is satisfied with an indi.
rect and virtual con~ent, another again places civil
liberty in the separation of the leS';islative and execu~
tive o~ces of government; another in the being
governed by law, that is, by known, prec.onstituted~
in.flexible IVies of actiqn and adjudication; a fifth ir-