ited until they
are successful in the accomplishment of any particular object, to which
they are directed, they constitute the only legitimate law of that case,
and judicial tribunals can take cognizance of no other.

And it makes no difference, on this principle, whether this combination
of will and power be found in a single individual, or in a community of
an hundred millions of individuals.--The numbers concerned do not alter
the rule--otherwise law would be the result of numbers, instead of
"supreme power." It is therefore sufficient to comply with this
definition, that the power be equal to the accomplishment of the object.
And the will and power of one man are therefore as competent to make the
law relative to any acts which he is able to execute, as the will and
power of millions of men are to make the law relative to any acts which
they are able to accomplish.

On this principle, then--that mere will and power are competent to
establish the law that is to govern an act, without reference to the
justice or injustice of the act itself, the will and power of any single
individual to commit theft, would be sufficient to make theft lawful, as
lawful as is any other act of injustice, which the will and power of
communities, or large bodies of men, may be united to accomplish. And
judicial tribunals are as much bound to recognize, as lawful, any act of
injustice or crime, which the will and power of a single individual may
have succeeded in accomplishing, as they are to recognize as lawful any
act of injustice, which large and organized bodies of men, self-styled
governments, may accomplish.

But, perhaps it will be said that the soundness of this definition
depends upon the use of the word "state"--and that it therefore makes a
distinction between "the supreme power of _a state_," over a particular
act, and the power of an individual over the same act.

But this addition of the word "state," in reality leaves the definition
just where it would have been without it. For what is "a state?" It is
just what, and only what, the will and power of individuals may
arbitrarily establish.

There is nothing _fixed_ in the nature, character or boundaries of "a
state." Will and power may alter them at pleasure. The will and power of
Nicholas, and that will and power, which he has concentrated around, or
rather within himself, establishes all Russia, both in Europe and Asia,
as "a state." By the same rule, the will and power