Jean Louis Delolme citations

Jean Louis Delolme, né en 1740 à Genève, mort le 16 juillet 1806 à Seewen, est un juriste et essayiste originaire de Genève.

Il exerça la profession d'avocat dans sa patrie, puis dut s'exiler après la publication de son pamphlet Examen de trois parts de droit, ses opinions démocratiques ayant offensé les autorités de la ville . Il voyagea pour étudier la constitution de divers États, et se fixa en Angleterre, composant des écrits politiques ou écrivant dans les journaux.

Dans sa Constitution de l'Angleterre, publiée à Amsterdam en 1771, Delolme exprime des idées très proches de Montesquieu. Wikipedia

✵ 1740 – 16. juillet 1806

“What then is Liberty? Liberty, I would answer, so far as it is possible for it to exist in a Society of Beings whose interests are almost perpetually opposed to each other, consists in this, that, every Man, while he respects the persons of others, and allows them quietly to enjoy the produce of their industry, be certain himself likewise to enjoy the produce of his own industry, and that his person be also secure. But to contribute by one’s suffrage to procure these advantages to the Community,—to have a share in establishing that order, that general arrangement of things, by means of which an individual, lost as it were in the croud, is effectually protected,—to lay down the rules to be observed by those who, being invested with a considerable power, are charged with the defence of individuals, and provide that they should never transgress them,—these are functions, are acts of Government, but not constituent parts of Liberty.”

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Jean-Louis de Lolme

The Constitution of England (1784), Ch. 5 : In which an Inquiry is made, whether it would be an Advantage to public Liberty, that the Laws should be enacted by the Votes of the People at large.