494 0» ^^^ Foundation of Civil Government. 



more efpecially if the flighteft intimation be 

 given that this may be the confequence. Nor 

 is it at all incumbent on thofe who are the objedls 

 of exerted authority to prove that no luch autho- 

 rity equitably exiits ; for it is indifputable that 

 no man is bound to prove a negative. Experi- 

 ence moreover fliews the liability to abufe of 

 entrufted authority, and the confequent propriety 

 of infifting on this condition. 



VIII. For the fame reafon, wherever the re- 

 nunciation of a right on the part of the governed, 

 is claimed by the governors as neceffary to 

 the ends of fociety, it is incumbent on the 

 latter (more efpecially if required) to point 

 cut clearly the neceflity alledged. Exerted au- 

 thority, where the propriety "demanded is not 

 fhewn, is the fame as if it were improperly (f. e. 

 tyrannically) exerted. De non apparentibus et non 

 exijlentibus eadem eft ratio. « 



IX. Nor can the renunciation of any right 

 be demanded of one individual which may not 

 be equally required of every other individual 

 of the community, otherwife fociety will be 

 benefitted at the expence of an aft of injuftice; 

 for it ought to be prefumed that every member 

 of a community enters into it upon equal terms 

 with the reft, there being no reafon in the na- 

 ture of the thing, why fome Ihould be fuppofed 



■ to join voluntarily in a fociety under peculiar 



difadvantages. 



