did the hereditary system begin?
Let a man but ask himself this question, and he will find that he cannot
satisfy himself with an answer.

The right which any man or any family had to set itself up at first to
govern a nation, and to establish itself hereditarily, was no other than
the right which Robespierre had to do the same thing in France. If he
had none, they had none. If they had any, he had as much; for it is
impossible to discover superiority of right in any family, by virtue of
which hereditary government could begin. The Capets, the Guelphs,
the Robespierres, the Marats, are all on the same standing as to the
question of right. It belongs exclusively to none.

It is one step towards liberty, to perceive that hereditary government
could not begin as an exclusive right in any family. The next point
will be, whether, having once begun, it could grow into a right by the
influence of time.

This would be supposing an absurdity; for either it is putting time in
the place of principle, or making it superior to principle; whereas time
has no more connection with, or influence upon principle, than principle
has upon time. The wrong which began a thousand years ago, is as much a
wrong as if it began to-day; and the right which originates to-day, is
as much a right as if it had the sanction of a thousand years. Time with
respect to principles is an eternal now: it has no operation upon them:
it changes nothing of their nature and qualities. But what have we to
do with a thousand years? Our life-time is but a short portion of that
period, and if we find the wrong in existence as soon as we begin to
live, that is the point of time at which it begins to us; and our right
to resist it is the same as if it never existed before.

As hereditary government could not begin as a natural right in any
family, nor derive after its commencement any right from time, we have
only to examine whether there exist in a nation a right to set it up,
and establish it by what is called law, as has been done in England. I
answer NO; and that any law or any constitution made for that purpose is
an act of treason against the right of every minor in the nation, at the
time it is made, and against the rights of all succeeding generations.
I shall speak upon each of those cases. First, of the minor at the time
such law is made. Secondly, of the generations that are to follow.

A nation, in a collective sense, comprehends all the individuals of