Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/164

126 Harrington ays, "Government de jure, or according to ancient prudence, is an art, whereby a civil ociety of men is intituted and preerved upon the foundation of common interet; or, to follow Aritotle and Livy, it is an empire of laws and not of men. And government, to define it according to modern prudence, or de facto, is an art, by which ome man, or ome few men, ubject a city or a nation, and rule it according to his or their private interet; which, becaue the laws in uch caes are made according to the interet of a man, or a few families, may be aid to be the empire of men and not of laws."

Harrington, Politicater, cene 2, agrees, that law proceeds from the will of man, whether a monarch or people; and that this will mut have a mover; and that this mover is interet: but the interet of the people is one thing—it is the public interet; and where the public interet governs, it is a government of laws, and not of men: the interet of a king, or of a party, is another thing—it is a private interet; and where private interet governs, it is a government of men, and not of laws. If, in England, there has ever been any uch thing as a government of laws, was it not magna charta? and have not our kings broken magna charta thirty times? Did the law govern when the law was broken? or was that a government of men? On the contrary, hath not magna charta been as often repaired by the people? and, the law being o retored, was it not a government of laws, and not of men? Why have our kings, in o many tatutes and oaths, engaged themelves to govern by law, if there were not in kings a capacity of governing otherwie? It is true, that laws are neither made