214. First, That when such a single person, or prince,
sets up his own arbitrary will in place of the laws, which are
the will of the society, declarad by the legislative, then the
legislative is changed: for that being in effect the legislative,
whose rules and laws are put in execution, and required to be
obeyed; when other laws are set up, and other rules pretended,
and inforced, than what the legislative, constituted by the
society, have enacted, it is plain that the legislative is
changed. Whoever introduces new laws, not being thereunto
authorized by the fundamental appointment of the society, or
subverts the old, disowns and overturns the power by which they
were made, and so sets up a new legislative.
Sec. 215. Secondly, When the prince hinders the legislative
from assembling in its due time, or from acting freely, pursuant
to those ends for which it was constituted, the legislative is
altered: for it is not a certain number of men, no, nor their
meeting, unless they have also freedom of debating, and leisure
of perfecting, what is for the good of the society, wherein the
legislative consists: when these are taken away or altered, so as
to deprive the society of the due exercise of their power, the
legislative is truly altered; for it is not names that constitute
governments, but the use and exercise of those powers that were
intended to accompany them; so that he, who takes away the
freedom, or hinders the acting of the legislative in its due
seasons, in effect takes away the legislative, and puts an end to
the government,
Sec.
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