ABSTRACT
In the years 1689 and 1690, just after the Revolution of 1688, Locke wrote his two Treatises on Government , of which the second especially is very important in the history of political ideas. Locke begins his second Treatise on Government by saying that, having shown the impossibility of deriving the authority of government from that of a father, he will set forth what he conceives to be the true origin of government. Some parts of Locke's natural law are surprising. For example, he says that captives in a just war are slaves by the law of nature. Property is very prominent in Locke's political philosophy, and is, according to him, the chief reason for the institution of civil government. In Locke's day, the position of the rural labourer was mitigated by the existence of commons, on which he had important rights, which enabled him to raise a considerable part of his food himself.
