“A Note on Locke's ‘Great Art of Government’” presents a valuable and provocative argument that scholars have hitherto paid insufficient attention to an important ambiguity in John Locke's frustratingly brief account of the “great art of government” in the crucial fifth chapter of the Second Treatise of Government (Locke, 1960: sec. 42, l. 23). However, there is one pivotal point upon which the note's analysis may conceal as much as it reveals, and in order to frame the debate properly it is important to establish clarity about the nature of the possible ambiguity in Locke's description of the goal of the political art being “the increase of lands,” or alternatively the “increase of hands.” Following John Gough's suggestion (Locke, 1966: 23, n. 1), the note maintains that the context of the passage in section 42 of the Second Treatise relating to the “great art of government” favours the use of hands rather than lands (Locke, 1960: sec. 42, ll. 22–23). However, there is strong evidence indicating that the context of this passage is not what the note suggests it is.