is people according to
law. _Nec regibus infinita aut libera potestas_, was the constitution
of our German ancestors on the continent[b]. And this is not only
consonant to the principles of nature, of liberty, of reason, and of
society, but has always been esteemed an express part of the common
law of England, even when prerogative was at the highest. "The king,"
saith Bracton[c], who wrote under Henry III, "ought not to be subject
to man, but to God, and to the law; for the law maketh the king. Let
the king therefore render to the law, what the law has invested in him
with regard to others; dominion, and power: for he is not truly king,
where will and pleasure rules, and not the law." And again[d]; "the
king also hath a superior, namely God, and also the law, by which he
was made a king." Thus Bracton: and Fortescue also[e], having first
well distinguished between a monarchy absolutely and despotically
regal, which is introduced by conquest and violence, and a political
or civil monarchy, which arises from mutual consent; (of which last
species he asserts the government of England to be) immediately lays
it down as a principle, that "the king of England must rule his people
according to the decrees of the laws thereof: insomuch that he is
bound by an oath at his coronation to the observance and keeping of
his own laws." But, to obviate all doubts and difficulties concerning
this matter, it is expressly declared by statute 12 & 13 W. III. c. 2.
that "the laws of England are the birthright of the people thereof;
and all the kings and queens who shall ascend the throne of this realm
ought to administer the government of the same according to the said
laws; and all their officers and ministers ought to serve them
respectively according to the same: and therefore all the laws and
statutes of this realm, for securing the established religion, and the
rights and liberties of the people thereof, and all other laws and
statutes of the same now in force, are by his majesty, by and with the
advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and commons,
and by authority of the same, ratified and confirmed accordingly."

[Footnote b: _Tac. de M.G._ _c._ 7.]

[Footnote c: _l._ 1. _c._ 8.]

[Footnote d: _l._ 2. _c._ 16. Sec. 3.]

[Footnote e: _c._ 9. & 34.]

AND, as to the terms of the original contract between king and people,
these I apprehend to be now couched in the coronation oath, which by
the statute 1 W. & M. st. 1