A
man with a sword in his hand demands my purse on the highway, when
perhaps I have not 12d. in my pocket. This man I may lawfully kill. To
another I deliver L100 to hold only whilst I alight, which he
refuses to restore me when I am got up again, but draws his sword to
defend the possession of it by force. I endeavour to retake it. The
mischief this man does me is a hundred, or possibly a thousand times
more than the other perhaps intended me (whom I killed before he
really did me any); and yet I might lawfully kill the one and cannot
so much as hurt the other lawfully. The reason whereof is plain;
because the one using force which threatened my life, I could not have
time to appeal to the law to secure it, and when it was gone it was
too late to appeal. The law could not restore life to my dead carcass.
The loss was irreparable; which to prevent the law of Nature gave me a
right to destroy him who had put himself into a state of war with me
and threatened my destruction. But in the other case, my life not
being in danger, I might have the benefit of appealing to the law, and
have reparation for my L100 that way.
208. Fourthly. But if the unlawful acts done by the magistrate be
maintained (by the power he has got), and the remedy, which is due
by law, be by the same power obstructed, yet the right of resisting,
even in such manifest acts of tyranny, will not suddenly, or on slight
occasions, disturb the government.
Pages:
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196