Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/163

Rh let me beg your patience while we look into ome of them.

Aritotle ays, that "a government where the laws alone hould prevail, would be the kingdom of God." This indeed hows that this great philoopher had much admiration of uch a government: but is not the aertion that Mr, Turgot condemns, viz. that liberty conits in being ubject to the laws only.

Aritotle ays too, in another place, "Order is law, and it is more proper that law hould govern, than any one of the citizens: upon the ame principle, if it is advantageous to place the upreme power in ome particular perons, they hould be appointed to be only guardians, and the ervants of the laws." Thee too are very jut entiments, but not a formal definition of liberty.

Livy too peaks of happy, properous, and glorious times, when "Imperia legum potentiora fuerunt quam hominum." But he no where ays that liberty conits in being ubject only to the legum imperio.

Sidney ays, "No edition was hurtful to Rome, until, through their properity, ome men gained a power above the laws."

In another place he tells us too, from Livy, that ome, whoe ambition and avarice were impatient of retraint, complained that "leges rem urdam ee, inexorabilem, alubriorem inopi quam potenti."

And in another, that "no government was thought to be well contituted, unles the laws prevailed againt the commands of men." But he has no where defined liberty to be ubjection to the laws only. Harrington