Full Idea
Perfect rights are necessary to the public good, and it makes those miserable whose rights are thus violated; …imperfect rights tend to the improvement and increase of good in a society, but are not necessary to prevent universal misery.
Gist of Idea
The loss of perfect rights causes misery, but the loss of imperfect rights reduces social good
Source
Francis Hutcheson (Treatise 2: Virtue or Moral Good [1725], §VII.VI)
Book Reference
'British Moralists 1650-1800 Vol. 1', ed/tr. Raphael,D.D. [Hackett 1991], p.297
A Reaction
This is a very utilitarian streak in Hutcheson, converting natural law into its tangible outcome in actual happiness or misery. The distinction here is interesting (taken up by Mill), but there is a very blurred borderline.