taken effect.

"Thefe which remain,

hope, are fufficient to establish the throne of our great restorer, our prefent King William; to make good his title in the consent of the people; which being the only one of all lawful governments, he has more fully and clearly, than any prince in Chriftendom'; and to justify to the world the people of England, whofe love of their juft and natural rights, with their refolution to preserve them, faved the nation." In this fenfe, I profefs to fee little or no difference between the compliment paid to King William by Mr. Locke, a very great philofopher and an old whig, and that paid to King George the Third by Dr. Price, who by many was efteemed a very great philofopher and a modern whig. And it is very certain, that by far the greatest part of the people of England do now believe and maintain, that both his prefent majefty and the late king William became entitled to the fovereignty of this community upon thofe principles, which, from the days of King William have been called revolution principles; not that they were formed, given, or even established by the revolution, but that the revolution was effected by them; fo that the

ment.

Locke's Preface to his Treatife on Civil Govern

M 4

deno

Difcuffion favourable to the

denomination has been borrowed from the effect, and not from the origin or caufe. No fovereign in fact from King Egbert to his prefent majesty, has ever owed his crown to any other, than these identical principles.

It would be very unwarrantable in me to fubmit to this fentiment," that it has been our misfortune, and not the glory of this age, that every thing is to be difcuffed. Wherever mifrecaufe of truth. presentation of truth has exifted, and that mifrepresentation has been attended with pernicious confequences, difcuffion alone can cure the evil. I openly avow this to be the intent of my making this publication; and with this view am I induced to make the most public and unequivocal profeffion of those principles, which have engendered, nurtured, and maturated our conftitution; and which, if strictly adhered to, muft ever preserve it in full vigour, and so perpetuate it to the latest pos terity. I am very far from wishing to draw a veil over the principles, which juftified the alterations in the conftitution of our government at the revolution; for if that great event had never taken place, and any circumftance had provoked the difcuffion of the principles, upon which it was formed, I should

Burke, ubi fupra,

have explained and profeffed them in the fame manner, in which I now do.

As well might it be denied, that a revolution in this kingdom existed in the year 1688, as that very effential alterations were at that time introduced into the conftitution. It is immaterial to the fubject under our prefent confideration, whether thefe alterations were prudent to be made, or whether they could be, or were, recommended by each individual of the community. The effential alterations were two: the firft was, the alteration in the fucceffion of the crown; the fecond was the alteration in the tenure of the crown. As for all the other rights, liberties, and pri vileges, which are commonly faid to have been acquired, fecured, or confirmed unto us at that period by the bill of rights, or otherwise, it appears evident, from the reflections already offered, that nothing more was in fact gained by the people at the revolution, than an exprefs acknowledgment or recognition by the fovereign, that the people were entitled unto, and might for ever enjoy those rights, to which without any fuch acknowledgment or recognition, they ever had an indefeasible title, not coeval and co-equal with, but prior to, the fovereign's title to the crown; for the rights of the people pre

ceded

Alterations in effected by the

the conftitution

revolution.

The rights of

the people prior

to thofe of the

fovereign.

Few writers have fairly reprefented the revolution.

ceded the original compact, upon which fociety was formed; and the rights of the fovereign were granted by the community for their better preservation.

Few writers appear to me to have treated the revolution of 1688 with fair unbiaffed candor. Moft of them feem to have been checked by a delicate timidity from speaking the whole truth, or avowing the real fpirit of the revolution; fome of them appear to have been impelled by a reftlefs difcontented difpofition, to go far beyond the real fpirit of the revolution, by facilitating the means, and inventing neceffities for a repetition of the scene. None of them appear ever to have fufficiently diftinguished between the facts, which occafioned, and the principles, which juftified the revolution.

As to the principles, I hope I have evinced my readers, that they are prior to the conftitution itself, and fully adequate to every purpose of preferving and improving it, as the exigencies of circumftances and the wifhes The facts which of the community may require. The facts, which gave rife to the revolution were fuch, as in all human probability never can again recur in that combination, as to occafion another fuch revolution upon the ftrength of precedent. I fhall therefore confider a гере

occafioned the revolution never again likely

to recur.

repetition of fuch an event, as amongst the moral impoffibilities. In fpeaking with freedom of this great event, I mean not to difplease nor offend thofe, who have viewed and treated it in a light and manner very different from that, in which I fhall take the liberty of representing it.

«The constituent parts of a state are obliged to hold their public faith with each other, and with all thofe, who derive any ferious intereft under their engagements, as much as the whole ftate is bound to keep its faith with separate communities." And this fame great man, fpeaking of the common law and the statute law, fays, " both these defcriptions of law are of the fame force, and are derived from an equal authority, ema- . nating from the common agreement and original compact of the state, communi fponfione reipublicæ, and fuch as are equally binding on king and people too, as long as the terms are observed, and they continue the fame body politic."

Upon the fame principles, upon which the revolution was effected, very important alterations have been formerly made in the

Mr. Burke's Reflections on the Revolution of France, p. 28.

+ Ibidem.

con