Note 57 — PART I. SUPPLEMENTAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE Nature and Value of Civil Liberty and Free Government.
Reading edition
Dr. Priestly, in his Essay on the first principles of Government, makes a distinction between civil Liberty and political Liberty; the former of which he defines to be “the power which the members of a state ought to enjoy over their actions;” and the latter, “their power of arriving at public offices, or, at least, of having votes in the nomination of those who fill them.”—This distinction forms a very proper subdivision of the liberty of the citizen here mentioned; and it may be accommodated to all I have said on this subject, by only giving some less general name to that which Dr. Priestly calls civil Liberty.