feveral Commoners, (by name recited), et aliorum fidelium, and of others his faithful people. And, in the twenty-firft claufe of the faid charter, he covenants, that, "for having the common council of the

kingdom to affefs aids, he will cause "the lords fpiritual and temporal to be "fummoned by his writs; and moreover, "that he will cause the principal Com"moners, or thofe who held from him "in chief, to be generally fummoned to "faid parliaments by his fheriffs and "bailiffs."

In the faid affemblies, however, the concourfe became fo great and diforderly, and the contefts frequently fo high between the feveral eftates, in affertion of their refpective prerogatives and privileges; that they judged it more expedient to fit apart, and feparately to exercife the offices of their respective departments.

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As there is no man or fet of men, no clafs or corporation, no village, or city, throughout the kingdom, that is not reprefented by thefe their delegates in liament; this great body-politic, or reprefentative of the nation, confifts, like the body-natural, of a head and several members, which, being endowed with different powers for the exercife of different offices, are yet connected by one main and common intereft, and actuated by ONE LIFE OF

1....

Z 3

SPIRIT

SPIRIT OF PUBLIC REASON, called the

LAWS.

In all fteps of national import, the king is to be conducted by the direction of the parliament, his great national council; a council, on whom it is equally incumbent to confult for the king with whom they are connected, and for the people by whom they are delegated, and whom they reprefent. Thus the king is, conftitutionally, to be guided by the fenfe of the parliament; and the parliament alike is, conflitutionally, to be guided by the general fenfe of the people. The two eftates in parliament are the conftituents of the king; and the people, mediately or immediately, are the conftituents of the two eftates in parliament.

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Now, while the three eftates act diftinctly, within their respective departments, they affect and are reciprocally affected by each other. This action and reaction produces that general and syste matic controul which, like CONSCIENCE, pervades and fuperintends the whole, checking and prohibiting evil from every part of the conftitution. And, from this confinement of every part to the rule of RIGHT REASON, ariseth the great LAW OF

LIBERTY TO ALL.

For inftance: the king has the fole prerogative of making war, &c. But then

then the means are in the hands of the people, and their reprefentatives.

Again: to the king is committed the whole executive power. But then the minifters of that power are accountable to a tribunal, from which a criminal has no appeal or deliverance to look for.

Again: to the king is committed the cognifance of all caufes. But, fhould his judges or jufticiaries pervert the rule of righteoufnefs, an inquifition, impeachment, and trial impends, from whofe judgment the judges cannot be exempted..

Again: the king hath a negative upon. all bills, whereby his own prerogatives are guarded from invafion. But, fhould he refufe the royal affent to bills tending to the general good of the fubject, the Com mons can also with-hold their bills of affeffment, or annex the rejected bills to their bill of aids; and they never failed to pafs in fuch agreeable company.

Laftly to the king is committed the right of calling the two eftates to parlia ment. But fhould he refufe fo to call them, fuch a refufal would be deemed "an abdication of the conflitution;" and no one need be told, at this day, that "an "abdication of the conftitution is AN 66 ABDICATION OF THE THRONE."

Thus, while the king acts in confent with the parliament. and his people, he

is limitlefs, irrefiftible, omnipotent upon earth; he is the free wielder of all the powers of a free and noble people, a king throned over all the kings of the children of men. But, fhould he attempt to break bounds, fhould he caft for independence; he finds himself hedged in and ftraitened on every fide; he finds himself abandoned by all his powers, and juftly left to a flate of utter impotence and inaction.

Hence is imputed to the fovereign head, in the conftitution of Great Britain, the high and divine attribute, THE KING CAN DO NO WRONG; for he is fo circumfcribed from the poffibility of tranfgreffion, that no wrong can be permitted to any king in the conftitution..

While the king is thus controuled by the lords and the commons; while the lords are thus controuled by the commons and the king; and while the commons are thus controuled by the other two eftates, from attempting any thing to the prejudice of the general welfare; the three eftates may be aptly compared to three pillars, divided below at equi-diftant angles, but united and fupported at top, merely by the bearing of each pillar against the others. Take but any one of these pillars away, and the other two muit inevitably tumble. But, while all act on each other, all are equally counteracted, and,

thereby

thereby affirm and establish the general frame.

How deplorable then would it be, should this elaborate ftructure of our happy con ftitution, within the fhort period of a thousand years hence, poffibly in half the time, fall a prey to effeminacy, pufilanimity, venality, and seduction; like fome ancient oak, the lord of the foreft, to a pack of vile worms that lay gnawing at the root; or like Egypt, be contemptibly deftroyed" by lice and locufts!"

Should the morals of our conftituents ever come to be debauched; confent, which is the falt of liberty, would then. be corrupted, and no falt might be found. wherewith it could be seasoned. Those who are inwardly the fervants of fin, must be outwardly the fervants of influence. Each man would then be as. the Trojan horfe of old, and carry the enemies of his country within his bofom. Our own appetites would then induce us to betray our own interefts; and statepolicy would feize us by the hand of our lufts, and lead us " a willing facrifice to 66 our own perdition."

Should it ever come to pafs, that corruption, like a dark and low hung mist, should spread from man to man, and cover these lands: fhould a general diffolution of

manners