Note 60 — PART I. SUPPLEMENTAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE Nature and Value of Civil Liberty and Free Government.
Reading edition
It has been commonly reckoned, that it is the end of civil government and civil laws to protect the property and rights of men; but, according to this writer, civil government and civil laws create property and rights. It follows therefore, that, antecedently to civil laws, men could have no property or rights; and that civil governors, being the makers of civil laws, it is a contradiction to suppose, that mankind can have any property or rights which are valid against the claims of their governors. See Three Letters to Dr. Price, p. 21, &c. And Remarks on the principal Acts of the 13th Parliament of Great-Britain, p. 58, &c. and p. 191.