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LIBERTY. 



LIBERTY. 



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free that he became a citizen, though positive law, as among the 

 Romans, might limit the degree in which he thereby obtained citizen- 

 ship. [CITIZEN.] Slavery may and did exist in many states of 

 antiquity which were under monarchical or tyrannical rule ; but he 

 who was the slave of an individual in any such state, and obtained his 

 freedom, did not thereby become a citizen, but was merely released 

 I'mm the duty that he owed to his master: he still owed together 

 with others the duty of perfect obedience to an individual monarch or 

 tyrant. 



The words liberty and freedom, as political terms, have always been 

 used to express a condition of a people in which they are to some 

 degree at least secured against the arbitrary rule of an individual or of 

 a small number of persons; and the word slavery, in its political 

 sense, is applied to nations in which the mass of the people have not 

 reasonable security for their lives and property against the capricious 

 rule of one man or of a number of persons who form a small minority 

 of the whole. 



That which is really meant by political freedom and liberty is 

 nothing more than a form of government which shall in some degree 

 at least secure to the people the enjoyment of life and of their property 

 against the tyranny of one man or of a few. Freedom and liberty then 

 are terms which can only be applied to constitutional governments 

 TITUTION], and to republics, in the proper sense of that term. 

 There is no political liberty or freedom under any other form of 

 government, though under a monarchy, when the administration is 

 good, there may be in many respects more personal freedom than there 

 is in a pure democracy. But the essential quality by which political 

 liberty or freedom is distinguished is simply this : the sovereign 

 power is not in the hands of one or of a small minority, but it is 

 either distributed among the whole community or a considerable part 

 of it. 



Political liberty does not exist in gome civilised nations in Europe : 

 in France, for instance. Political liberty does not exist in Russia. In 

 some countries where it does not exist, it is the general opinion that 

 its existence would be a benefit to the whole nation. In other countries 

 the mass of the people are still in such a condition that political liberty 

 could not exist, for political liberty, as already stated, means that the 

 sovereign power must be in the hands of a large number, and they 

 must possess intelligence enough to enable them to exercise and keep 

 the power ; but there are nations where the mass of the people are too 

 ignorant to exercise or keep any political power. 



A nation which strives for its liberty strives for a popular form of 

 mnent, whether it be a constitutional kingly form or a democracy. 

 But liberty is a specious word, often ill understood ; and many who 

 have cried out for liberty have either not considered exactly what it is 

 they want, or they have supposed that liberty would free them from 

 many evils which they consider to be peculiar to a state of political 

 slavery. It is now generally admitted, that in those states where a 

 large part of the population have equal political knowledge with the 

 ho direct administration, the general interests are best served 

 by this large number participating in the government. Political 

 liberty, then, to some extent or degree, is, in many countries, neces- 

 sary for securing the advantages of good administration. But there 

 are many evils incident to states, which are not due to the want of 

 political liberty ; and ,it is therefore a matter of importance for those 

 who would make changes in government to consider whether the 

 evils of which they complain are owing to a want of political liberty 

 or to other causes. 



The notion of political liberty has been based upon the analogy 

 already pointed out between Political Liberty and Personal Liberty ; 

 which is a false analogy, though an historical one. Man, it has been 

 assumed, U naturally free. No man is naturally or by nature another 

 man's slave. As no man, it is said, is naturally a slave, so all mankind 

 have naturally a right to political liberty, and just government, it is 

 said, arises from the consent of the governed. 



On these assumptions rests the American Declaration of Indepen- 

 dence : " We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are 

 created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 

 'liible rights"; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 

 happiness ; that to secure these rights governments are instituted 

 among men, deriving their joint powers from the consent of the 

 governed," Ac. 



In this passage Liberty seems to mean the personal status, which is 

 opposed to slavery ; and it is on the assumption of the equality by 

 birth and the endowment of all men with certain inalienable rights, 

 that this instrument would found the American title to Political 

 Liberty. It involves the dt>ctrine of the social contract, and assumes, 

 as an historical fact, an origin of governments by consent of the 

 governed. It was also promulgated in a country in which a very large 

 number of persons were then slaves, and in which a large number still 

 arc slaves. 



If theories of government are to be tested by historical facts, it 

 would be consistent with such facts to say, that men are not created 

 ; that they have not been endowed with liberty, for a large part 

 of them have always been slaves ; and that governments have been 

 constituted without the consent of the governed. These are real 

 facts : those assumptions are untruths. 



Political liberty reste on no such sorry basis as the Declaration of 



Independence places it on. That nation which can obtain it and 

 maintain it is in a better condition than if it wsre politically a slave 

 even to the wisest of masters ; and when it is able to obtain and 

 maintain that liberty, it is right, or in other words it is for the 

 general interest, that a nation should, by force if necessary, alter that 

 form of government which is political slavery. 



That liberty promises to be most stable which is the growth of long 

 time and the result of a perpetual struggle between a master and his 

 slaves, in which the master has not ceased to be master all at once, 

 but has always lost something in the contest. 



That which is of sudden growth or is the offspring of Revolution, 

 is often premature, and always insecure ; for liberty so acquired may 

 only be a step from a state of political slavery to a more wretched 

 state ; it may be a step from a state of slavery, mild and tolerable, to 

 an anarchy, which of all things is most intolerable. 



The words Liberty and Equality often go together, and each of 

 them in so doubtful a sense that one hardly knows what to make of 

 them. Liberty is often used, apparently without people considering 

 what they really mean, in the sense of freedom from restraint. But 

 this kind of Liberty is inconsistent with Political Liberty properly 

 understood ; and all men's liberty of action is and must be restrained 

 by positive laws in every well-ordered community. Every law that 

 forbids any act directly or by implication abridges Liberty, and such 

 abridgement is always a universal benefit when the law which so 

 abridges liberty only abridges it in eases where it is useful to all that 

 it should be abridged, and where the law is so framed as to accomplish 

 that object. Equality, in its unlimited sense, can no more exist in any 

 state than perfect individual liberty ; for if each man is left to 

 exercise his industry in the best way that he can, without interfering 

 directly with the industry of others, some will be richer, and happier, 

 and wiser than others. The only Equality that can be approached to 

 in a well-ordered state is that Equality which is the result of a good 

 polity, which polity, so far as it is consistent with the universal good, 

 secures alike to every individual in the State the free enjoyment of his 

 industry, wealth, and talents, imposes restraint on all alike, and makes 

 all alike bear the burden of taxation and of the services due to the 

 State. Further, it gives to as large a number as it can, consistently 

 with the universal interest, an equal share in the sovereign power ; 

 but no polity that has ever yet been framed has ever given an equal 

 share in the sovereign power to all the members of a community : 

 such an Equality is impossible. 



The Declaration of Rights published by the French National 

 Assembly in 1791 contains the words ."free," "equal," "rights," 

 " liberty," and many others, all used in a manner as remote from 

 precision as the most confused understanding could suggest. This 

 strange sample of nonsense has been examined and dissected by 

 Bentham in his ' Anarchical Fallacies.' 



The word Liberties is often used to express those particular con- 

 stitutional principles or fundamental laws by which the political liberty 

 of a nation is secured. If the British parliament should attempt to 

 abolish the Trial by Jury in all oases, or the Habeas Corpus, such an 

 attempt would be called an attack on the liberties of Englishmen. 



Liberty is also used in reference to the religious institutions of a 

 state. Liberty of conscience properly implies that neither is coercion 

 exercised upon, nor inducements offered to, nor disabilities imposed 

 upon, the form of faith of any of the members of the state ; but 

 generally in effect it is much more restricted, and the unimpeded 

 exercise of the peculiar form of worship is all that is understood. 



LIBERTY. The general nature of a liberty, as a portion of the 

 royal prerogative in the hands of a subject, has been already described. 

 [FRANCHISE.] Liberties were at first chiefly granted to monastic and 

 other religious establishments, in ease of the consciences of the royal 

 grantors, or in testimony of their devotion to the Church ; and most of 

 those now in existence are derived from an ecclesiastical source. 

 They were afterwards granted as means of strengthening municipal 

 corporations. 



Though all liberties emanate from the prerogative, a distinction ia 

 usually made between such liberties as have been actually exercised by 

 the crown before the grant to the subject, and such as (being merely 

 latent in the crown) are said to be created de novo upon their being 

 granted. The former, when by escheat, forfeiture, or otherwise, they 

 come again to the crown, are extinguished by merging in the general 

 prerogative, and cannot afterwards be regranted as existing franchises : 

 the latter still have continuance for the benefit of the crown or of any 

 subsequent grantee. To the former class belong such privileges as the 

 right to have the goods of felons, &c., waifs, estrays, and wreck, arising 

 within the lands of the grantee ; to the latter, the return of writs, the 

 right of holding fairs and markets and taking the tolls, the right of 

 holding a hundred-court or a court-leet, the privileges of having a free- 

 warren [WARREN ; PARK], and the like ; and in such cases the 

 franchises, even whilst in the king's hands, are exempt from the juris- 

 diction of the ordinary officers of the crown, and are administered by 

 bailiffs or other special officers, as when in the hands of a subject. 



The fines paid to the crown for grants or confirmations of liberties 

 are shown by Madox to have formed no inconsiderable part of the 

 royal revenue. In his ' History of the Exchequer,' he quotes the par- 

 ticulars of about 200 liberties, granted principally by King John. The 

 following may serve as a specimen of the terms upon which the parties 



