Page:The ethics of Hobbes (IA ethicsofhobbes00hobb).pdf/41
these rights the following may be mentioned: In the first place, he has a right to the loyalty of his subjects, to the extent that no change of authority should be effected without his consent. His subjects may not establish a new covenant among themselves to render obedience to another; because, were one man to dissent from such action, then all others participating in such disobedience would break their covenant with this man, which would be injustice. It would also be injustice to the sovereign, for his sovereignty was given to him by every man implicated in the covenant by which the commonwealth was formed, and, therefore, to depose the sovereign is to take from him "that which is his own." Again, if any one attempting to depose the sovereign were to be killed or punished for such an attempt by the sovereign, this would be merely self-punishment, for previously he has made himself author of the sovereign's action. And since self-punishment is unjust, to depose the sovereign would be unjust from this point of view. In the second place, the sovereign cannot be guilty of a breach of covenant with his subjects, because he has made no covenant with them. The covenant simply exists between his subjects. Hence, "none of his subjects, by any pretence of forfeiture, can be freed from his subjection."[1] In the next place, the sovereign's acts are to be regarded as just, for everything he does was authorized by his subjects when the commonwealth was formed; hence, his actions are really the actions of his subjects.[2] Again, the sovereign may not be put to death or punished in any manner by his subjects. For this would be punishing another for our own actions, inasmuch as the actions of the sovereign are the actions of the subject, by virtue of the covenant by which sovereignty was established.[3] The sovereign has also the right to judge of "the means of peace and defence" of his subjects, "and also of the