"Of the Liberty of the Press" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hume David)

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Copyright 1995, James Fieser ([email protected]). See end note for
details on copyright and editing conventions. This is a working draft;
please report errors.[1]

Editor's note: "Of the Liberty of the Press" appeared in 1741 in
Volume one of Hume's Essays, Moral and Political. The text file here
is based on the 1777 edition of Hume's Essays and Treatises on Several
Subjects. Spelling and punctuation have not been modernized.

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Of the Liberty of the Press

NOTHING is more apt to surprize a foreigner, than the extreme
liberty, which we enjoy in this country, of communicating
whatever we please to the public, and of openly censuring
every measure, entered into by the king or his ministers. If
the administration resolve upon war, it is affirmed, that,
either wilfully or ignorantly, they mistake the interests of
the nation, and that peace, in the present situation of
affairs, is infinitely preferable. If the passion of the
ministers lie towards peace, our political writers breathe
nothing but war and devastation, and represent to pacific
conduct of the government as mean and pusillanimous. As this
liberty is not indulged in any other government, either
republican or monarchical; in HOLLAND and VENICE, more than in
FRANCE or SPAIN; it may very naturally give occasion to a
question, How it happens that GREAT BRITAIN alone enjoys this
peculiar privilege?

The reason, why the laws indulge us in such a liberty seems to
be derived from our mixed form of government, which is neither
wholly monarchical, nor wholly republican. It will be found,
if I mistake not, a true observation in politics, that the two
extremes in government, liberty and slavery, commonly approach
nearest to each other; and that, as you depart from the
extremes, and mix a little of monarchy with liberty, the
government becomes always the more free; and on the other
hand, when you mix a little of liberty with monarchy, the yoke
becomes always the more grievous and intolerable. In a
government, such as that of FRANCE, which is absolute, and
where law, custom, and religion concur, all of them, to make
the people fully satisfied with their condition, the monarch
cannot entertain any jealousy against his subjects, and
therefore is apt to indulge them in great liberties both of
speech and action. IN a government altogether republican, such