the want of government in a nation, where no supreme authority is lodged either in the prince or other rulers; but the people live at large, and all things are in confusion. The word is derived from the Greek privative α, and ἀρχή, command, principality. Anarchy is supposed to have reigned after the deluge, before the foundation of monarchies. We still find it obtain in several parts, particularly of Africa and America.

Anarchy is also applied to certain troublesome and disorderly periods, even in governments otherwise regular. In England, the period between the death of Cromwell and King Charles's restoration is commonly represented as anarchy. Every month produced a new scheme or form of government. Enthusiasts talked of nothing but annulling all the laws, abolishing all writings, records, and registers, and bringing all men to the primitive level. No modern nation was more subject to anarchies than Poland; where every interval between the death of one king and the election of another was a scene of great disorder, so that it was a proverb among that people, Poland is governed by confusion. The Jewish history presents numerous instances of anarchies in that state, usually denoted by this phrase, that in those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes; which is a just picture of anarchy.