ABSTRACT
Rights to property and rights to power alike rest ultimately on public utility. David Hume assumes that instances when property rights will have to be set aside in the name of public interest will rarely arise. While lawyers are chiefly concerned with rights, the moral philosopher is chiefly concerned to discover what policies, laws, and institutions will be in the public interest. Hume analysis of morality deals mainly with the artificial virtues, those virtues that maintain civil society. The establishment of constitutions led the republics to a major advance in civilization. Because power could be exercised only by the established process, the republican governments found it necessary to govern by general laws. Much of what Hume writes about the British constitution is intertwined with his political science. In contrast, what he writes about economic policy rests on the institutions of property and contract as a house upon a foundation.
