of the owner of an
acre of ground, may establish that acre as a state, and make his will
and power, for the time being, supreme and lawful within it.

The will and power, also, that established "a state" yesterday, may be
overcome to-day by an adverse will and power, that shall abolish that
state, and incorporate it into another, over which this latter will and
power shall to-day be "supreme." And this latter will and power may also
to-morrow be overcome by still another will and power mightier than
they.

"A state," then, is nothing fixed, permanent or certain in its nature.
It is simply the boundaries, within which any single combination or
concentration of will and power, are efficient, or irresistible, _for
the time being_.

This is the only true definition that can be given of "a state." It is
merely an arbitrary name given to the territorial limits of power. And
if such be its true character, then it would follow, that the
boundaries, though but two feet square, within which the will and power
of a single individual are, _for the time being_, supreme, or
irresistible, are, for all _legal_ purposes, "a state"--and his will and
power constitute, for the time being, the law within those limits; and
his acts are, therefore, for the time being, as necessarily lawful,
without respect to their intrinsic justice or injustice, as are the acts
of larger bodies of men, within those limits where their will and power
are supreme and irresistible.

If, then, law really be, what this definition would make it, merely "a
rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power of a state"--it
would follow, as a necessary consequence, that law is synonymous merely
with will and force, wherever they are combined and in successful
operation, for the present moment.

Under this definition, law offers no permanent guaranty for the safety,
liberty, rights or happiness of any one. It licenses all possible crime,
violence and wrong, both by governments and individuals. The definition
was obviously invented by, and is suited merely to gloss over the
purposes of, arbitrary power. We are therefore compelled to reject it;
and to seek another, that shall make law less capricious, less
uncertain, less arbitrary, more just, more safe to the rights of all,
more permanent. And if we seek another, where shall we find it, unless
we adopt the one first given, viz. _that law is the rule, principle,
obligation or requirement of natural justice_?