e royal succession, with that freedom and regard to truth, yet mixed
with that reverence and respect, which the principles of liberty and
the dignity of the subject require.

THE grand fundamental maxim upon which the _jus coronae_, or right of
succession to the throne of these kingdoms, depends, I take to be
this: "that the crown is, by common law and constitutional custom,
hereditary; and this in a manner peculiar to itself: but that the
right of inheritance may from time to time be changed or limited by
act of parliament; under which limitations the crown still continues
hereditary." And this proposition it will be the business of this
chapter to prove, in all it's branches: first, that the crown is
hereditary; secondly, that it is hereditary in a manner peculiar to
itself; thirdly, that this inheritance is subject to limitation by
parliament; lastly, that when it is so limited, it is hereditary in
the new proprietor.

1. FIRST, it is in general _hereditary_, or descendible to the next
heir, on the death or demise of the last proprietor. All regal
governments must be either hereditary or elective: and, as I believe
there is no instance wherein the crown of England has ever been
asserted to be elective, except by the regicides at the infamous and
unparalleled trial of king Charles I, it must of consequence be
hereditary. Yet while I assert an hereditary, I by no means intend a
_jure divino_, title to the throne. Such a title may be allowed to
have subsisted under the theocratic establishments of the children of
Israel in Palestine: but it never yet subsisted in any other country;
save only so far as kingdoms, like other human fabrics, are subject to
the general and ordinary dispensations of providence. Nor indeed have
a _jure divino_ and an _hereditary_ right any necessary connexion with
each other; as some have very weakly imagined. The titles of David and
Jehu were equally _jure divino_, as those of either Solomon or Ahab;
and yet David slew the sons of his predecessor, and Jehu his
predecessor himself. And when our kings have the same warrant as they
had, whether it be to sit upon the throne of their fathers, or to
destroy the house of the preceding sovereign, they will then, and not
before, possess the crown of England by a right like theirs,
_immediately_ derived from heaven. The hereditary right, which the
laws of England acknowlege, owes it's origin to the founders of our
constitution, and to them only. It ha