FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   >>  
hould be the just fruits of the policy which Machiavel praises in Caesar Borgia. The conduct followed by Philip the Second, King of Spain, _was adapted to unite all Europe against him_; and it was from just reasons that Henry the Great formed the design of humbling a power _formidable by its forces and pernicious by its maxims_."--Book II. ch. iv. Sec. 53. "Let us apply to the unjust what we have said above (Sec. 53) of a mischievous or maleficent nation. If there be any that makes an open profession _of trampling justice under foot, of despising and violating the right of others_,[39] whenever it finds an opportunity, _the interest of human society will authorize all others to unite in order to humble and chastise it_. We do not here forget the maxim established in our preliminaries, that it does not belong to nations to usurp the power of being judges of each other. In particular cases, liable to the least doubt, it ought to be supposed that each of the parties may have some right; and the injustice of that which has committed the injury may proceed from error, and not from a general contempt of justice. _But if, by constant maxims, and by a continued conduct_, one nation shows that it has evidently this pernicious disposition, and that it considers no right as sacred, the safety of the human race requires that it should be suppressed. To form and support an unjust pretension is to do an injury _not only to him who is interested in this pretension, but to mock at justice in general, and to injure all nations_."--Ibid. ch. v. Sec. 70. [Sidenote: To succor against tyranny.] [Sidenote: Case of English Revolution.] [Sidenote: An odious tyrant.] [Sidenote: Rebellious people.] [Sidenote: Case of civil war.] [Sidenote: Sovereign and his people, when distinct powers.] "If the prince, attacking the fundamental laws, gives his subjects a legal right to resist him, if tyranny, _becoming insupportable_, obliges the nation to rise in their defence, every foreign power has a right to succor an oppressed people who implore their assistance. The English justly complained of James the Second. _The nobility and the most distinguished patriots_ resolved to put a check on his enterprises, which manifestly tended to overthrow the Constitution and to destroy the liberties and the religion of the people, _and therefore applied for assistance to the United Provinces_. The authority of the Prince of Orange had, doubtless, an
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   >>  



Top keywords:
Sidenote
 

people

 

nation

 

justice

 

unjust

 

maxims

 

English

 
succor
 

nations

 

pernicious


tyranny

 

assistance

 

pretension

 

general

 

Second

 
conduct
 

injury

 
odious
 
Sovereign
 

sacred


Rebellious

 

safety

 

tyrant

 

suppressed

 

interested

 

injure

 

requires

 
support
 
Revolution
 
defence

tended

 

manifestly

 

overthrow

 
Constitution
 

destroy

 

enterprises

 
patriots
 
resolved
 

liberties

 

religion


Prince

 

Orange

 
doubtless
 

authority

 

Provinces

 

applied

 

United

 

distinguished

 

subjects

 

resist