en long possessed, and had been lately endangered.
"Taking[85] into their most serious consideration the _best_ means for
making such an establishment that their religion, laws, and liberties
might not be in danger of being again subverted," they auspicate all
their proceedings by stating as some of those _best_ means, "in the
_first place_," to do "as their _ancestors in like cases have usually_
done for vindicating their _ancient_ rights and liberties, to
_declare_";--and then they pray the king and queen "that it may be
_declared_ and enacted that _all and singular_ the rights and liberties
_asserted and declared_ are the true _ancient_ and indubitable rights
and liberties of the people of this kingdom."

You will observe, that, from Magna Charta to the Declaration of Right,
it has been the uniform policy of our Constitution to claim and assert
our liberties as an _entailed inheritance_ derived to us from our
forefathers, and to be transmitted to our posterity,--as an estate
specially belonging to the people of this kingdom, without any reference
whatever to any other more general or prior right. By this means our
Constitution preserves an unity in so great a diversity of its parts. We
have an inheritable crown, an inheritable peerage, and a House of
Commons and a people inheriting privileges, franchises, and liberties
from a long line of ancestors.

This policy appears to me to be the result of profound reflection,--or
rather the happy effect of following Nature, which is wisdom without
reflection, and above it. A spirit of innovation is generally the result
of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to
posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. Besides, the
people of England well know that the idea of inheritance furnishes a
sure principle of conservation, and a sure principle of transmission,
without at all excluding a principle of improvement. It leaves
acquisition free; but it secures what it acquires. Whatever advantages
are obtained by a state proceeding on these maxims are locked fast as in
a sort of family settlement, grasped as in a kind of mortmain forever.
By a constitutional policy working after the pattern of Nature, we
receive, we hold, we transmit our government and our privileges, in the
same manner in which we enjoy and transmit our property and our lives.
The institutions of policy, the goods of fortune, the gifts of
Providence, are handed down to us, and from