ereto without permission of the sovereign, since
this is a breaking of their covenant with each other. On his part there
is no covenant, so that breach of covenant by him cannot be pleaded as
warranting abrogation of the covenant made. The sovereign cannot do the
subjects injustice because, since he has their authority, what he does
to them is done by their own will; so also they cannot punish him.

Since the sovereign was instituted for peace and defence, he controls
the means to war and peace, and judges of opinions as conducing to peace
or endangering it. He prescribes the rules of property, since in the
state of nature there is no property; he has the right of judicature; of
making war and peace with other commonwealths; of choosing all
counsellors in peace and war; of rewarding and punishing, according to
the law he has made, and of bestowing honour. Nay, if he grants away any
of these powers the grant is null.

The sovereignty may be in one man, or in a limited assembly, or in an
assembly of all--monarchy, aristocracy, democracy; these three forms
only, though when they are misliked they are called other names. In any
case, the power of the sovereign is absolute, whether a monarch or an
assembly. He is the representative of the commonwealth, not deputies who
may be chosen to tender petitions.

The three forms differ not in the power of the sovereign, but in their
advantageousness. In monarchy, the private interest of the sovereign
must coincide with that of the commonwealth as a whole; much more so
than in aristocracy or democracy. An assembly cannot receive counsel
secretly; a monarchy has the benefit of a single will instead of
conflicting wills. There is no government by a mixture of the types,
_e.g._, an elective "king" is not sovereign, but a minister; and within
his province a Roman pro-consul was an absolute monarch. Men submit
themselves to an instituted sovereign, for fear of each other; to an
acquired sovereignty, for fear of the sovereign. Acquired sovereignty or
dominion is either by generation (paternal) or by conquest. A family,
however, does not amount to a commonwealth, unless it be so great that
it may not be subdued but by war. Acquired sovereignty is absolute, for
the same reasons as instituted sovereignty.

_III.--The Natural Commonwealth_

Liberty is absence of impediments to motion. It is consistent with fear,
also with necessity; for a voluntary act is yet necessary as having a
cause