The Laws That Form Political Liberty, As Relative To The Subject on Superphysics

The Liberty of the Citizen

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Relative to the constitution, political liberty arises from a distribution of the 3 powers.

Relative to the citizen, political liberty is in security.

The constitution might be free, but the subject not.
The citizen might be free, but not the constitution.

When the constitution is free by right and not in fact, the citizen will be free in fact, and not by right.

The Four Kinds of Crimes

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

LIBERTY is perfected when:

criminal laws derive each punishment from the nature of the crime.
there are then no arbitrary decisions
the punishment does not flow from the capriciousness of the legislator, but from the very nature of the thing
man uses no violence to man

There are four sorts of crimes:

The Crime against Nature (masturbation, sodomy and bestiality)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Religion, morality, and civil government equally condemn crimes against nature.

Thoughts and Indiscreet Speeches

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

MARSYAS dreamt that he had cut Dionysius’s throat.

Dionysius put him to death, pretending that he would never have dreamt of such a thing by night if he had not thought of it by day.

How Dangerous Being Too Severe in punishing the Crime of High-Treason

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

AS soon as a republic has compassed the destruction of those who wanted to subvert it, there should be an end of terrors, punishments, and even of rewards.

Great punishments, and consequently grea: t changes, cannot take place without investing some citizens with an exorbi: tant power. It is therefore more adviseable, in this case, to exceed in lenity, than in severity; to banish but few, rather than many; and to leave them their estates, instead of making a vast number of confiscations. Under pretence of avenging the republic’s cause, the avengers would establish tyranny.

Things that strike at Liberty in Monarchies

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

LIBERTY often has been weakened in monar chies by a thing of the least use in the world to the prince. This is the naming of commissioners to try a private person.

The Manner of governing in Monarchies

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

THE royal authority is a spring that should move with the greatest freedom and ease.

The Chinese boast of one of their emperors, who governed like the heavens; that is, by his example.