ject
upon which it can possibly be employed. To preserve these from
violation, it is necessary that the constitution of parliaments be
supported in it's full vigor; and limits certainly known, be set to
the royal prerogative. And, lastly, to vindicate these rights, when
actually violated or attacked, the subjects 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 lastly to the right
of having and using 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 necessary
restraints. Restraints in themselves so gentle and moderate, as will
appear upon farther enquiry, that no man of sense or probity would
wish to see them slackened. For all of us have it in our choice to do
every thing that a good man would desire to do; and are restrained
from nothing, but what would be pernicious either to ourselves or our
fellow citizens. So that this review of our situation may fully
justify the observation of a learned French author, who indeed
generally both thought and wrote in the spirit of genuine freedom[x];
and who hath not scrupled to profess, even in the very bosom of his
native country, that the English is the only nation in the world,
where political or civil liberty is the direct end of it's
constitution. Recommending therefore to the student in our laws a
farther and more accurate search into this extensive and important
title, I shall close my remarks upon it with the expiring wish of the
famous father Paul to his country, "ESTO PERPETUA!"

[Footnote x: Montesq. Sp. L. 11. 5.]

CHAPTER THE SECOND.

OF THE PARLIAMENT.

WE are next to treat of the rights and duties of persons, as they are
members of society, and stand in various relations to each other.
These relations are either public or private: and we will first
consider those that are public.

THE most universal public relation, by which men are connected
together, is that of government; namely, as governors and governed,
or, in other words, as magistrates and people. Of magistrates also
some are _supreme_, in whom the sovereign power of the state resides;
others are _subordinate_, deriving all their authority from the
supreme magistrate, accountable to him for their conduct, and actin