74 Transactions. 190 1-2 



Now we would have the support of so distinguished an 

 authority as Sir William Markby (i) if we should claim the 

 honour of founding the science of law for John Austin, an 

 Englishman, whose fine work, entitled the Province of Juris- 

 prudence Detej^mined^ forever removed the reproach erstwhile 

 sO frquently flung at the English people by continental 

 writers, namely, that while they were the most law-abiding 

 people in the world they were as ignorant of, and as indiffer- 

 ent to, the philosophy of law as the Hottentots. Thanks 

 mainly to Austin we have the pleasurable assurance that to- 

 day no man of any race may consider himself to have a 

 proficient knowledge of Jurisprudence unless he is familiar 

 with the contributions of Englishmen to the literature of the 

 science. 



Let me now, in the interests of clear understanding, 

 restate my definition of Positive Law before we proceed to 

 examine that branch of it which has to do with the legal 

 perfection of the King of Great Britain and the Dominions 

 beyond Seas, the theme proper of my present observations : — 

 Poiitive Laiv, is the aggregate of the the various limitations 

 which the ■ sovereigfi power in a State imposes upon the 

 natural liberty of its individual members in order to secure 

 the well-being of Society. 



And yet I fear I must pray His Impeccable Majesty to 

 wait in the ante-room of your attention until I make clear to 

 you (ist) what a 'State' is; and (andly) what is generally 

 meant by the 'sovereign power' in a State, 



" He who would enquire into the nature and various 

 kinds of government," says one of the great publicists of the 

 past (2), " must first of all determine ' What is a State ?' " 



When Louis, le (jrand Monarque.^ in the middle of the 

 seventeenth century, delivered himself of the famous mot., 

 Detat c'est moi^ he was only wrong in that he failed to 

 discriminate between the political unit, the State, and 



(1) Eleni. of Law, 2nd Ed. Sec. 12, p. 4. 



(2) Aristotle : Pol., III., 1. 



