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nation: * Summa imperii bellique adminiftrandi communi concilio permiffa eft Caffivellano. Upon this principle, and in exercife of the indefeafable right and power, upon which it is grounded, did our ancestors continue this form of elective monarchy, till they became a province under the Romans; the diffolution then of that government was effected, as Mr. Locke expreffes, "by the inroad of a foreign force making a conqueft upon them. For in that cafe, not being able to maintain and fupport themselves as one entire and independent body, the union belonging to that body, which confifted therein, must neceffarily ceafe." In execution of the fame

Cæfar's Commentaries.

+ Locke of Civil Government, c. xix. p. 227.`

No free exercife of a people's right can be fupposed to exist under the compulfive controul of a foreign enemy. Thus Mr. Locke (ibid, p. 217), " Though governments can originally have no other rife, than that before mentioned, nor polities be founded on any thing, but the consent of the people; yet fuch have been the diforders ambition has filled the world with, that, in the noise of war, which makes fo great a part of the history of mankind, this confent is little taken notice of; and therefore many have mistaken the force of arms for confent of the people, and reckon conquest as one of the originals of government. But conqueft is as far from fetting up any government, as demolishing a houfe is from building a new one in the place; indeed, it often makes way for a new frame of commonwealth, by de

troying

The govern by force of

ment diffolved

arms.

Saxon Heptarchy.

Our monarchy. limited in its original creation.

fame rights and power, when they were left to themselves by their Roman conquerors, did they divide themselves into an heptarchy, or feven diftinct kingdoms, under the Saxons; and when they had experienced the inconveniences of thefe divergent fovereignties, they reconcentered the fupremacy in one monarch, as it has ever fince continued. In this fame fpirit, and in the exercise of these fame rights, did the Saxon conquerors of our British ancestors, *when they had fubdued the Britons, chufe to themselves kings, and required an oath of them to fubmit to the judgment of the law, as much as any of their fubGeneral view jects." So when the Saxons, as mafters of the vanquished Britons, began to look upon themselves as the political community of this ifland, they teftablifhed a form of adminiftration, which limited the prince, and required that public affairs fhould be fettled by affemblies of the chief men of the nation. The privileges of the people were afterwards enlarged by the alterations, which the wife and virtuous Alfred introduced; and this confir

of our govern

ment.

ftroying the former; but, without the confent of the people, can never erect a new one."

* Mirror of Juftice, c. i. fect. 2.

+ Dr. Kippis' Sermon, preached at the Old Jewry, on the 4th Nov. 1788, p. 14.

mation of the mode of trial by juries was one of the noblest advantages ever conferred on human fociety. Nor did the Norman conqueft deftroy our conftitution, though it hindered its operation for a time, and gave occafion to the exercise of much tyranny. On the contrary, the English laws gradually recovered their vigour, and became the basis of the charter of Henry the First; of the celebrated Magna Charta, in the reign of King John; and of other charters. How ftrong a fense Englishmen had of their legal right to liberty, is manifest from the numerous inftances, in which they demanded, that the great charter fhould be folemnly confirmed. Even the feudal policy, however defective it may be justly esteemed, compared with the benefits we now enjoy, was formed on the principles of freedom, with refpect to those perfons, who were poffeffed of landed property. There was, likewife, in that fyftem, a spirit of improvement; fo that it gradually gave way, and naturally brought in a better state of things, as fociety advanced towards perfection." In fhort, to the exercise of these indefeasible rights of the community is to be attributed every legal alteration or improvement of the conftitution and government of

this

this kingdom, fince the establishment of the English monarchy, in the perfon of king Egbert, to the present reign of his majesty King George the Third; the particulars of which we shall proceed to confider.

CHAP.

CHA P. IV.

OF THE CIVIL ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION.

I

Have already obferved, that one of the natural rights, which each individual retains, even independently of the fociety, of which he is a member, is the uninterrupted communication and intercourse of the foul with its Creator; and Mr. Payne fays, that among ft the natural rights, which he retains, are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind; confequently religion is one of those rights.

We need not recur to schoolmen to underftand or admit this univerfal maxim of religion, that our dependance upon our creator binds us indifpenfibly to a grateful acknowledgment of our exiftence, and a fincere and unreserved tender of our minds and hearts, to think and act as he fhall require; for I conclude with all thofe, who are neither atheists nor deifts, that the light and grace, which Almighty God communicates to his creature, in confequence of this offering, are perfonally binding upon the individual, to whom they are communicated, and confequently cannot be controuled by other G human

Choice of our defeafible na turair glit.

religion an in

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