Political Liberty, the political liberty of a state is shaped by fundamental laws which establish therein the distribution of the legislative power, the executive power in matters of public law, and the executive power in matters of civil law, so that these three powers are all linked to one another.

The political liberty of a citizen is that tranquility of the mind which arises from the belief that each person has in his security, and for one to have this security, the government must be such that one citizen does not fear another. Good civil law and policy assure this liberty ; it triumphs even more when criminal law determines punishment based on the nature of the crime.

There is in the world a nation that has political liberty as its expressed purpose in its constitution; and if the principles upon which it is founded are solid, its advantages must therein be recognized. On that note, I recall having heard someone tell a true genius from England that Corneille had better illustrated the height of feelings which inspire political liberty than any English poets, in this discourse given by Viriate to Sertorius. [1]

Sertorius, act. IV. sc. vi.

It is not my intent to pronounce that the English currently enjoy the prerogative of which I speak; I am satisfied to agree with M. de Montesquieu, that it is established by their laws, and that after all, this extreme political liberty should not mortify those who have only a moderate amount of it, because the excess of reason is not always desirable, and generally men almost always thrive better in the mean rather than extremes.

1. Pierre Corneille’s tragedy Sertorius was was first performed in Paris in February 1662. Calendrier électronique des spectacles sous l’ancien régime et sous la révolution, “Sertorius,” (accessed September 15, 2009).

2. Corneille, Pierre, Moot Plays of Corneille, trans. Lacy Lockert (Nashville: Venderbilt University Press, 1959), 233.