ABSTRACT
The Act of March 1649 abolishing the office of king confirmed that monarchy is 'dangerous to the liberty, safety, and public interest of the people', and added that in England the effect of the prerogative has been 'to oppress and impoverish and enslave the subject'. Having raised the question, however, Isaiah Berlin confidently answers that no such third concept of liberty can be coherently entertained. To speak of dependence as lack of liberty, he writes, would be to confound freedom with other concepts in a manner at once misleading and confused. Stating his grounds for this conclusion, Berlin goes on to enunciate his most general claim about the concept of liberty. When he discusses negative liberty, he gives an account closely resembling the analysis that, according to MacCallum and his numerous followers, must be given of any claim about freedom if it is to be intelligible.
