inherent authority in
legislation, as such, is, of course, equally an imposture. If
legislation be consistent with natural justice, and the natural or
intrinsic obligation of the contract of government, it is obligatory: if
not, not.]

[Footnote 2: The mass of men are so much accustomed to regard law as an
arbitrary command of those who administer political power, that the idea
of its being a _natural_, fixed, and immutable principle, may perhaps
want some other support than that of the reasoning already given, to
commend it to their adoption. I therefore give them the following
corroborations from sources of the highest authority.

"Jurisprudence is the science of what is just and unjust."--_Justinian._

"The primary and principal objects of the law are rights and
wrongs."--_Blackstone._

"Justice is the constant and perpetual disposition to render to every
man his due."--_Justinian._

"The precepts of the law are to live honestly; to hurt no one; to give
to every one his due."--_Justinian & Blackstone._

"LAW. The rule and bond of men's actions; or it is a rule for the well
governing of civil society, to give to every man that which doth belong
to him."--_Jacob's Law Dictionary._

"Laws are arbitrary or positive, and natural; the last of which are
essentially just and good, and bind every where, and in all places where
they are observed.* * * * Those which are natural laws, are from God;
but those which are arbitrary, are properly human and positive
institutions."--_Selden on Fortescue, C. 17, also Jacob's Law
Dictionary._

"The law of nature is that which God, at man's creation, infused into
him, for his preservation and direction; and this is an eternal law, and
may not be changed."--_2 Shep. Abr. 356, also Jac. Law Dict._

"All laws derive their force from the law of nature; and those which do
not, are accounted as no laws."--_Fortescue. Jac. Law Dict._

"No law will make a construction to do wrong; and there are some things
which the law favors, and some it dislikes; it favoreth those things
that come from the order of nature."--_1 Inst. 183, 197.--Jac. Law
Dict._

"Of law no less can be acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of
God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth
do her homage; the least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not
exempted from her power."--_Hooker._

"This law of nature being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God
himself, is of cours