Locke

Second Treatise Of Government SECOND TREATISE OF GOVERNMENT by JOHN LOCKE Digitized by Dave Gowan John Locke’s "Second Treatise of Government" was published in 1690. The complete unabridged text has been republished several times in edited commentaries. This is based on the paperback book, "John Locke Second Treatise of Government", Edited, with an Introduction, By C.B. McPherson, HackettPublishing Company, Indianapolis and Cambridge, 1980. None of the McPherson edition is included in the Etext; only the original words contained in the 1690 Locke text is included. The 1690 edition text is free of copyright. This text is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN, posted to Wiretap 1 Jul 94. TWO TREATISES OF GOVERNMENT BY IOHN LOCKE SALUS POPULI SUPREMA LEX ESTO LONDON PRINTED MDCLXXXVIIII REPRINTED, THESIXTH TIME, BY A. MILLAR, H. WOODFALL, 1. WHISTON AND B. WHITE, 1. RI-

VINGTON, L. DAVIS AND WIN, STON, T. HAWES CLARKE

C. REYMERS, R. BALDAND COLLINS; W. IOHN-

W. OWEN, 1. B.

RICHARDSON, S. CROWDER, LAW, C. RIVINGTON, E.

LONGMAN,

DILLY,

R. WITHY, C. AND R. WARE, S, BAKER,

T. PAYNE, A. SHUCKBURGH, 1. HINXMAN MDCCLXIIII

TWO

TREATISES OF GOVERNMENT.

IN THE FORMER THEFALSE PRINCIPLES AND ROBERT LOWERS FOUNDATION OF SIR AND HIS FOLAND

FILMER ARE

DETECTED

OVERTHROWN. THE LATTER IS AN ESSAY CON1

CERNING EXTENT

THE AND

TRUE END OF

ORIGINAL CIVIL

GOVERNMENT. 1764 EDITOR’S NOTE The present Edition of this Book has not only been collated with the first three Editions, which were published during the Author’s Life, but also has the Advantage ofhis last Corrections and Improvements, from a Copy delivered by him to Mr. Peter Coste, communicated to the Editor, and now lodged in Christ College, Cambridge. PREFACE Reader, thou hast here the beginning and end of a discourse concerning government; what fate has otherwise disposed of the papers that should have filled up the middle, and were more than all the rest, it is not worth while to tellthee. These, which remain, I hope are sufficient to establish the throne of our great restorer, our present King William; to make good his title, in the consent of the people, which being the only one of all lawful governments, he has more fully and clearly, than any prince in Christendom; and to justify to the world the people of England, whose love of their just and natural rights, with theirresolution to preserve them, saved the nation when it was on the very brink of slavery and ruin. If these papers have that evidence, I flatter myself is to be found in them, there will be no great miss of those which are lost, and my reader may be satisfied without them: for I imagine, I shall have neither the time, nor inclination to repeat my pains, and fill up the wanting part of my answer, bytracing Sir Robert again, through all the windings and obscurities, which are to be met with in the several branches of his wonderful system. The king, and body of the nation, have since so thoroughly confuted his Hypothesis, that I suppose no body hereafter will have either the confidence to appear against our common safety, and be again an advocate for slavery; or the weakness to be deceived withcontradictions dressed up in a popular stile, and well-turned periods: for if any one will be at the pains, himself, in those parts, which are here untouched, to strip Sir Robert’s discourses of the flourish of doubtful expressions, and endeavour to reduce his words to direct, positive, intelligible propositions, and then compare them one with another, he will quickly be satisfied, there was neverso much glib nonsense put together in well-sounding English. If he think it not worth while to examine his works all thro’, let him make an experiment in that part, where he treats of usurpation; and let him try, whether he can, with all his skill, make Sir Robert intelligible, and consistent with himself, or common sense. I should not speak so plainly of a gentleman, long since past answering,...