he very
attempt of such a free choice a piece of arrogance and impiety? We
find by experience, that it punishes them very freely for what it
calls treason and rebellion, which, it seems, according to this system,
reduces itself to common injustice. If you say, that by dwelling in its
dominions, they in effect consented to the established government; I
answer, that this can only be, where they think the affair depends on
their choice, which few or none, beside those philosophers, have ever
yet imagined. It never was pleaded as an excuse for a rebel, that the
first act he perform d, after he came to years of discretion, was to
levy war against the sovereign of the state; and that while he was a
child he coued not bind himself by his own consent, and having become
a man, showed plainly, by the first act he performed, that he had no
design to impose on himself any obligation to obedience. We find, on
the contrary, that civil laws punish this crime at the same age as any
other, which is criminal, of itself, without our consent; that is, when
the person is come to the full use of reason: Whereas to this crime
they ought in justice to allow some intermediate time, in which a tacit
consent at least might be supposed. To which we may add, that a man
living under an absolute government, would owe it no allegiance; since,
by its very nature, it depends not on consent. But as that is as
natural and common a government as any, it must certainly occasion some
obligation; and it is plain from experience, that men, who are subjected
to it, do always think so. This is a clear proof, that we do not
commonly esteem our allegiance to be derived from our consent or
promise; and a farther proof is, that when our promise is upon any
account expressly engaged, we always distinguish exactly betwixt the two
obligations, and believe the one to add more force to the other, than in
a repetition of the same promise. Where no promise is given, a man
looks not on his faith as broken in private matters, upon account of
rebellion; but keeps those two duties of honour and allegiance perfectly
distinct and separate. As the uniting of them was thought by these
philosophers a very subtile invention, this is a convincing proof, that
it is not a true one; since no man can either give a promise, or be
restrained by its sanction and obligation unknown to himself.

SECT. IX OF THE MEASURES OF ALLEGIANCE

Those political writers, who have had recourse to