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the perfonal liberty of individuals.
perfonal liberty confifts in the power of loco-
motion, of changing fituation, or removing
one's perfon to whatfoever place one's own
inclination may direct, without imprifon-
ment or restraint, unlefs by due course of
law."

property.

* « III. The third abfolute right inhe- of perfonal rent in every Englishman, is that of property; which confifts in the free ufe, enjoyment, and disposal of all his acquifitions, without any control or diminution."

It would exceed my purpofe to enumerate in detail all the particular laws, by which these rights and liberties are preferved and protected. Some are by common law, others by ftatute law: every fubject may know, if he please, in what they confift; for they depend not upon the arbitrary will of a judge, but are permanent, fixed, and unchangeable, unless by act of parliament. The conftitu- Certainty of our tution, powers, and privileges of parliament, and the limitation of the king's prerogative to certain bounds are the general and fundamental grounds for protecting and maintaining inviolate, our three great and primary rights of perfonal fecurity, perfonal liberty,

Blak. Com. b. i. c. i. p. 129.

and

rights.

Our courts of

late.

and private. property. Our immediate and fpecific fecurity for their preservation, is the free and uninterrupted application to courts juftice immacu- of justice, unquestionably the most immaculate, that have ever exifted in any known Rights of jaties. country; and to juries of our peers, whose rights now feem for ever to be unalterably fettled upon the true genuine principles of the English conftitution *.

Prefervation of our rights and

liberties.

"In these several articles confift the rights, or, as they are frequently termed, the liberties of Englishmen; liberties more generally talked of, than thoroughly underftood, and yet highly neceffary to be perfectly known and confidered by every man of rank or property, left his ignorance of the points, whereon they are founded, shall hurry him into faction and licentioufnefs on the one hand, or a pufillanimous indifference and criminal fubmiffion on the other. And we have feen, that thefe rights confift primarily in the free enjoyment of perfonal fecurity, of perfonal liberty, and of private property. So long as these remain inviolate, the fubject is perfectly free; for every fpecies of compul

* Vid. Mr. Erskine's excellent argument upon the Rights of Juries, in the cafe of the Dean of St. Afaph, in B. R. throughout.

† Blak. Com. b. i. c. 1. fub. fin.

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five tyranny and oppreffion must act in oppofition to one or other of these rights, having no other object, upon which it can poffibly be employed. To preferve these from violation it is neceffary, that the constitution of parliaments be fupported in its full vigour, and limits certainly known be set to the royal prerogative. And lastly, to vindicate these rights, when actually violated or attacked, the fubjects of England are entitled in the first place to the regular administration and free course of justice in the courts of law; next to the right of petitioning the king and parliament for redress of grievances; and laftly to the right of having and ufing. arms for self-preservation and defence. And all these rights and liberties it is our birthright to enjoy entire, unless where the laws of our country have laid them under neceffary restraints; reftraints in themselves fo gentle and moderate, as will appear upon farther enquiry, that no man of fenfe or probity would wish to fee them flackened. For all of us have it in our choice to do every thing, that a good man would defire to do; and are reftrained from nothing, but what would be pernicious either to ourselves or our fellow citizens. So that this review of our fituation may fully justify the obfer

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Our duties to magiftrates,

*

vation of a learned French author, who indeed generally both thought and wrote in the spirit of genuine freedom; and who hath not fcrupled to profess, even in the very bofom of his native country, that the English is the only nation in the world, where political or civil liberty is the direct end of its conftitution."

My object hitherto has chiefly been the and theirs to us. inveftigation and discussion of our civil rights; but as thefe rights are in many fenfes relative in respect to the community at large, and the magiftrates appointed by them, fo they neceffarily involve certain relative duties to them, which it will be my remaining task to confider; for, the whole fociety collectively, and each member of it individually, have both rights and duties mutual and reciprocal. The rights of the community are the fubmiffive duties of its members; the rights of the members are the protecting duties of the community.

Mont. Spir. of Laws, 9. 5.

CHAP.

CHAP. XVI.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE:

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T may appear fingular, that I thould attempt to explain and enforce the duties of individuals towards the fociety, by confidering their breach and violation of them. Were this the point, from which I had originally started the fubject, I fhould certainly have pursued another courfe; but as what has been already offered will I hope fatisfy that clafs of my readers, who admit of the obligation to obferve and comply with thefe duties virtutis amore, fo I feel it incumbent upon me to throw this obligation into a new light, for the conviction of those, who cannot otherwife than formidine pæne be induced to fubmit unto it.

Nothing is more true, than that the bafis and whole fuperftructure of our conftitution is formed of true liberty; which consists in the prefervation of order for the protection of fociety, not in the abandoned licentiousness of confufion and anarchy. The liberty of a nation is ever proportioned to the perfection of its government; the perfection of govern

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ment

Reafons for thefe oftences,

confidering

The liberty of a tioned to the energy of its

nation propor

government.

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