11.2. 2. Different Significations of the word Liberty.
There is no word
that admits of more various significations, and has made more varied
impressions on the human mind, than that of Liberty. Some have taken it
as a means of deposing a person on whom they had conferred a tyrannical
authority; others for the power of choosing a superior whom they are
obliged to obey; others for the right of bearing arms, and of being
thereby enabled to use violence; others, in fine, for the privilege of
being governed by a native of their own country, or by their own
laws.
[1]
A certain nation for a long time thought liberty consisted in
the privilege of wearing a long beard.
[2]
Some have annexed this name to
one form of government exclusive of others: those who had a republican
taste applied it to this species of polity; those who liked a
monarchical state gave it to monarchy.
[3]
Thus they have all applied the
name of liberty to the government most suitable to their own customs and
inclinations: and as in republics the people have not so constant and so
present a view of the causes of their misery, and as the magistrates
seem to act only in conformity to the laws, hence liberty is generally
said to reside in republics, and to be banished from monarchies. In
fine, as in democracies the people seem to act almost as they please,
this sort of government has been deemed the most free, and the power of
the people has been confounded with their liberty.
Footnotes
[1]
"I have copied," says Cicero, "Scævola's edict, which permits the
Greeks to terminate their difference among themselves according to their
own laws; this makes them consider themselves a free people."
[2]
The Russians could not bear that Czar Peter should make them cut
it off.
[3]
The Cappadocians refused the condition of a republican state,
which was offered them by the Romans.
