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A Fourth Dialogue Concerning Liberty

CONTAINING AN EXPOSITION OF THE FALSITY OF THE FIRST AND LEADING PRINCIPLES OF THE PRESENT REVOLUTIONISTS IN EUROPE


By Jackson Barwis, Esq.


Il est vrai que, dans les Democraties, le Peuple paroit faire ce qu’il veut; mais la Liberte Politique ne consiste point a faire ce quel l’on veut. –– Dans un Etat, c’est-a-dire, dans une Societe ou il y a des Loix, la Liberte ne peut consister qua’a pouvier faire ce que l’on doit vouloir, & a n’etre point contrait de faire ce que l’on ne dout pas vouloir.

It is true that in democracies the people seem to act as they please; but political liberty does not consist in an unlimited freedom. In governments, that is, in societies directed by laws, liberty can consist only in the power of doing what we ought to will, and in not being constrained to do what we ought not to will.

MONTESQUIEU, Tome I, p. 255


LONDON Printed by T. Spilsbury and Son, No. 57, Snow-Hill, For J. Debrett, Piccadilly; J. Sewell, Cornhill; and Scatcherd and Whitaker, Ave-Maria Lane MDCCXCIII (1793)

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