The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
11. Furthermore, seeing it is impossible that any one man that hath
such sovereign power, can be able, in person, to hear and determine
all controversies, to be present at all deliberations concerning
common good, and to execute and perform all those common actions
that belong thereunto, whereby there will be necessity of
magistrates and ministers of public affairs; it is consequent, that
the appointment, nomination, and limitation of the same be
understood, as an inseparable part of the same sovereignty, to which
the sum of all judicature, and execution, hath been already annexed.
[Sidenote: Sovereign power includeth impunity.]
12. And forasmuch, as the right to use the forces of every
particular member, is transferred from themselves, to their
sovereign, a man will easily fall upon this conclusion of himself,
that to sovereign power, whatsoever it doth, there belongeth
impunity.
[Sidenote: A supposed commonwealth where laws are made first, and
the commonwealth after.]
13. The sum of these rights of sovereignty; namely, the absolute use
of the sword in peace and war, the making and abrogating of laws,
_supreme judicature, and decision_, in all debates judicial and
deliberative, the nomination of all magistrates and ministers, with
other rights contained in the same, make the sovereign power no less
absolute in the commonwealth, than before commonwealth every man was
absolute in himself, to do, or not to do, what he thought good;
which men, that have not had the experience of that miserable
estate, to which men are reduced by long war, think so hard a
condition, that they cannot easily acknowledge such covenants, and
subjection on their parts, as are here set down, to have been ever
necessary to their peace. And therefore some have imagined, that a
commonwealth may be constituted in such manner, as the sovereign
power may be so limited, and moderated, as they shall think fit
themselves. For example: they suppose a multitude of men to have
agreed upon certain articles, which they presently call laws,
declaring how they will be governed, and that done, to agree further
upon some man, or number of men, to see the same articles performed,
and put in execution; and to enable him, or them, thereunto, they
allot unto them a provision limited, as of certain lands, taxes,
penalties, and the like, than which, if mispent, they shall have no
more, without a new consent of the same men that allowed the former.
And thus they think they have made a commonwealth, in which it is
unlawful for any private man to make use of his own sword for his
security; wherein they deceive themselves.
[Sidenote: The same refelled.]