Discourses on government - 1805 Author:Algernon Sidney Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: confer a just and legal powerxupon them ; which our author rejecting, he does, as far as in him lies, prove them all to be usurpers and tyrants. SECTION VI. ... more » THEY JVHO HAVE A RIGHT OF CHOOSING A KING, HAVE THE RIGHT OF MAKING A KING. Though the right of magistrates do essentially depend upon the consent of those they govern, it is hardly worth our pains to examine, " whether the silent acceptation of a governor by part of the people be an argument of their concurring in the election of him; or by the same reason the tacit consent of the whole commonwealth may be maintained:" for when the question is concerning right, fraudulent surmises are of no value ; much less will it from thence follow, " that a prince commanding by succession, conquest, or usurpation, may be said to be elected by the people ;" for evident marts of dissent are often given: some declare their hatred ; others murmur more privately; many oppose the governor or government, and succeed according to the measure of their strength, virtue, or fortune. Many would resist, but cannot; and it were ridiculous to say, that the inhabitants of Greece, the kingdom of Naples, or dutchy of Tuscany, do tacitlyassent to the government of the Great Turk, king of Spain, or duke of Florence; when nothing is more certain than that those miserable nations abhor the tyrannies they are under; and if they were not mastered by a power that is much too great for them, they would soon free themselves. And those who are under such governments do no more assent to them, though they may be silent, than a man approves of being robbed, when, without saying a word, he delivers his purse to a thief that he knows to be too strong for him. It is not therefore the bare sufferance of a government when a disgust is declared, nor a silent sub...« less