SIDNEY'S

Discourses on Government.

ON

GOVERNMENT.

BY ALGERNON SIDNEY.

PUBLISHED FROM AN ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT OF THE AUTHOR.

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

AN ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE,

AND

A COPIOUS INDEX.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

New-York:

PRINTED FOR RICHARD LEE,

BY DEARE AND ANDREWS.

1805.

PUBLIC LIBRARY 158999

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. 1899.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER II.

SECT. IV.

THE

HE paternal right devolves to, and is inherited by, the children

PAGE

✓. Freemen join together, and frame greater or
lesser societies, and give such forms to them
as best please themselves

VI. They who have a right of choosing a king, have

the right of making a king

18

VII. The laws of every nation are the measure of

ministerial power .

VIII. There is no natural propensity in man or beast

to monarchy

1x. The government instituted by God over the Is-
raelites was aristocratical

36

44

x. Aristotle was not simply for monarchy, or
against popular governments, but approved or
disapproved of either according to circum-

stances

XI. Liberty produceth virtue, order, and stability;
slavery is accompanied with vice, weakness and
misery

63

78

. 82

XII. The glory, virtue, and power of the Romans, be-
gan and ended with their liberty
. . 100
XIII. There is no disorder or prejudice in changing
the name or number of magistrates, whilst the