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ON THE RISE, PROGRESS, ETC.state of nature are free and equal, he allots to every one adegree of power over his neighbour sufficient to punish thetransgressors of the natural law, and thus to maintain its authority.This view of the state of nature reduces it to a conditionin which men are under no government but that of reason.Such a condition may certainly be imagined, but until menlearn to shake off the passions, which at present hold a divided sway with reason, and become wholly devoted to thelatter, it can never be realized. While if it were, we mayask what necessity there would then be for any governmentat all ?That it would be necessary, however, Locke declares,and that because where every man isjudge in his own cause,it is impossible that he should act without being prejudicedbyhis own interest.The most important advantage which resulted from theinquiries of Locke, was the assertion of universal freedomand equalityas the birthright of mankind, in opposition tothe tenets of Filmer and his followers with respect to thedependence, and even slavery, which they held to emanatefrom the paternal authority. Locke therefore was the firstwho advanced the doctrine of the natural rights of man, inas far as these are maintained by personal freedom, and thesecurity of property, which he was at much more pains todefine and establish than any of his predecessors had been.As Locke made the state of civil society to proceed fromthat of nature, by the act of surrender, according to whichevery man resigned his individual right of punishing theviolators of the natural law into the hands of a public andacknowledged officer ;it follows, of course, that the constituents of a state should be all free men, and that personalfreedom should be an essential condition of the union.Locke, however, was not content with this, for the wholetenor of his work is directed to show that the British constitution is strictlyin conformity with the general principlesof government, and therefore a just and reasonable form.He thus introduces, beyond the personal freedom on whichhe_openly msists, the condition of political freedom, or participation in the legislature. The origin of a state presupposes the voluntary agreement of all those who are to become members of it ;these, by uniting themselves, -form a