1874, April 28. Hon! Chas, Fimminer, Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1841, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York. INTRODUCTION. BY REV. A. POTTER, D.D. HAVING been requested by the author and his publishers to introduce this volume with a few prefatory remarks, I take pleasure in complying with the request, but without any hope that I shall be able to add either to the interest or the utility of Essays proceeding from one so well known and so justly distinguished as Mr. Lieber. Studious men, who are accustomed to investigate the nature and foundation of our rights, are well aware that the theory of property, as unfolded by some of the greatest writers of modern times, is incomplete. By some, as Hobbes, for instance, property is represented as a gift or grant from the government, and as held, therefore, subject, of right and without reserve, to its disposal. Grotius and Puffendorf supposed that they |