But what have divine laws to do with a purely human affair?
Just think of the absurdity--divine laws universally forbidding the casting off of a usurping yoke! ...

As for human laws, there cannot be any after the prince violates them." He then postulates two origins for government as alone possible.

Either the people has established laws and submitted itself to the prince, or the prince has established laws.

In the first case, the prince is engaged by the very nature of his office to execute the covenants.

In the second case, the laws tend, or do not tend, to the welfare of the people, which is the aim of all government: if they do not, the contract with the prince dissolves of itself, for the people then enters again into its primitive state.
Having thus proved the sovereignty of the people, Buonaparte uses his doctrine to justify Corsican revolt against France, and thus concludes his curious medley: "The Corsicans, following all the laws of justice, have been able to shake off the yoke of the Genoese, and may do the same with that of the French.