(government) is to protect individuals in
the enjoyment of those absolute rights, which were vested in them by the
immutable laws of nature; but which could not be preserved in peace
without that mutual assistance and intercourse, which is gained by the
institution of friendly and social communities. Hence it follows, that
the first and primary end of human laws is to maintain and regulate
these absolute rights of individuals. Such rights as are social and
relative result from, and are posterior to, the formation of states and
societies; so that to maintain and regulate these, is clearly a
subsequent consideration. And therefore the principal view of human laws
is, or ought always to be, to explain, protect, and enforce such rights
as are absolute; which, in themselves, are few and simple: and then such
rights as are relative, which, arising from a variety of connexions,
will be far more numerous and more complicated. These will take up a
greater space in any code of laws, and hence may appear to be more
attended to, though in reality they are not, than the rights of the
former kind."--_Blackstone, Vol. 1, p. 124._

"The absolute rights of man, considered as a free agent, endowed with
discernment to know good from evil, and with power of choosing those
measures which appear to him most desirable, are usually summed up in
one general appellation, and denominated the natural liberty of mankind.
This natural liberty consists properly in a power of acting as one
thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the law of
nature, being a right inherent in us by birth, and one of the gifts of
God to man at his creation, when he endowed him with the faculty of free
will."--_Blackstone, Vol. 1, p. 125._

"Moral or natural liberty, (in the words of Burlamaqui, ch. 3, s. 15,)
is the right, which nature gives to all mankind of disposing of their
persons and property after the manner they judge most consonant to their
happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits of the law of
nature, and that they do not any way abuse it to the prejudice of any
other men."--_Christian's note, Blackstone, Vol. 1, p. 126._

All the foregoing definitions of law, rights and natural liberty,
although some of them are expressed in somewhat vague and indefinite
terms, nevertheless recognize the primary idea, that law is a fixed
principle, resulting from men's natural rights; and that therefore the
acknowledgment and security of the