Of Tyranny

From John Locke´s "Of Civil Government"

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As usurpation in the exercise of power which another has a right to , so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to. And this is making use of the power any one has in his hands, not for the good use of those who are under it, but for his own private separate advantage -when the governor, however entitled, makes not the law, but his will, the rule, and his commands and actions are not directed to the preservation of the properties of his people, but the satisfaction of his own ambition, revenge, covetousness, or any other irregular passion.

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Wherever law ends tyranny begins, if the law be transgressed to another´s harm. And whosoever in authority exceeds the power given him by the law, and makes use of the force he has under his command to compass (1) that upon the subject which the law allows not, ceases in that to be a magistrate (2) and, acting without authority, may be opposed as any other man who by force invades the right of another. This is acknowledged in subordinate magistrates. He that has authority to seize my person in the street may be opposed as a thief and a robber if he endeavors to break into my house to execute a writ, notwithstanding that I know he has such a warrant and such a legal authority as will impower him to arrest me abroad. And why this should not hold in the highest as well as in the most inferior magistrate, I would gladly be informed. Is it reasonable that the eldest brother, because he has the greatest part of his father´s estate, should thereby have a right to take away any of his younger brother´s portions? Or that a rich man who possessed a whole country should from thence have a right to seize, when he pleased, the cottage and garden of his poor neighbor? The being rightfully possessed of great power and riches, exceedingly beyond the greatest part of the sons of Adam, is so far from being an excuse, much less a reason, for rapine (3) and opression, which the endamaging another without authority is, that it is a great aggravation of it; for the exceeding the bounds of authority is no more a right in a great than in a petty officer, no more justifiable in a king than a constable; (4) but is so much worse in him that he has more trust put in him, has already a muc greater share than the rest of his brethren , and is supposed, from the advantages of his education, employment, and counsellors, to be more knowing in the measures of right and wrong.

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Notes:

(1) Enforce.

(2) A legitimate official.

(3) Plunder, pillage.

(4) A minor official, empowered to make arrests.