their youth or infancy. In this inftance certainly the ftate does not prefume a compact. Also if the fubject be bound only by his own confent, and if the voluntary abiding in the country be the proof and intimation of that confent, by what arguments should we defend the right, which fovereigns univerfally affume, of prohibiting, when they please, the departure of their subjects out of the realm ?

Again, when it is contended that the taking and holding poffeffion of land amounts to an acknowledgment of the fovereign, and a virtual promife of allegiance to his laws, it is neceffary to the validity of the argument to prove, that the inhabitants, who firft compofed and con-. ftituted the ftate, collectively poffeffed a right to the foil of the country-a right to parcel it out to whom they pleased, and to annex to the donation what conditions they thought fit. How came they by this right? An agreement amongst themfelves would not confer it: that could only adjust what already belonged to them. A fociety of men vote themfelves to be the owners of a region of the world;-does that vote, unaccompanied especially with any culture, inclosure, or proper act of occupation, make it theirs? does it entitle them to exclude others from it,

or

or to dictate the conditions upon which it shall be enjoyed? Yet this original collective right and ownership is the foundation of all the reafoning by which the duty of allegiance is inferred from the poffeffion of land.

The theory of government which affirms the existence and the obligation of a focial compact, would, after all, merit little difcuffion, and, however groundless and unneceffary, fhould receive no oppofition from us, did it not appear to lead to conclufions unfavourable to the improvement, and to the peace, of human fociety.

ift. Upon the fuppofition that government was firft erected by, and that it derives all its juft authority from, refolutions entered into by a convention of the people, it is capable of being prefumed, that many points were fettled by that convention, anterior to the eftablishment of the fubfifting legiflature, and which the legislature, confequently, has no right to alter, or interfere with. These points are called the fundamentals of the conftitution; and as it is impoffible to determine how many, or what they are, the fuggefting of any fuch, ferves extremely to em→ barrass the deliberations of the legislature, and affords a dangerous pretence for difputing the authority of the laws. It was this fort of reafon.

ing (fo far as reasoning of any kind was employed in the queftion) that produced in this nation the doubt, which fo much agitated the minds of men in the reign of the fecond Charles, whether an Act of Parliament could of right alter or limit the fucceffion of the Crown.

2dly. If it be by virtue of a compact, that the subject owes obedience to civil government, it will follow, that he ought to abide by the form of government which he finds established, be it ever fo abfurd, or inconvenient. He is bound by his bargain. It is not permitted to any man to retreat from his engagement, merely because he finds the performance disadvantageous, or because he has an opportunity of entering into a better. This law of contracts is univerfal and to call the relation between the fovereign and the fubjects a contract, yet not to apply to it the rules, or allow of the effects of a contract, is an arbitrary use of names, and an unsteadiness in reasoning, which can teach nothing. Refistance to the encroachments of the fupreme magiftrate may be juftified upon this principle; recourse to arms, for the purpose of bringing about an amendment of the conftitution, never can. No form of No form of government contains a provision for its own diffolution; and

few

few governors will confent to the extinction, or even to any abridgement, of their own power. It does not therefore appear, how defpotic governments can ever, in confiftency with the obligation of the fubject, be changed or mitigated. Defpotifm is the conftitution of many states: and whilst a defpotic prince exacts from his fubjects the most rigorous fervitude, according to this account, he is only holding them to their agreement. A people may vindicate, by force, the rights which the conftitution has left them; but every attempt to narrow the prerogative of the crown, by new limitations, and in oppofition to the will of the reigning prince, whatever opportunities may invite, or fuccefs follow it, muft be condemned as an infraction of the compact between the fovereign and the fubject.

3dly. Every violation of the compact on the part of the governor releafes the fubject from his allegiance, and diffolves the government. I do not perceive how we can avoid this confequence, if we found the duty of allegiance upon compact, and confefs any analogy between the focial compact and other contracts. In private contracts, the violation and non-performance of the conditions, by one of the parties, vacates the obligation of the other. Now the terms and

articles

articles of the focial compact being no where extant or expreffed; the rights and offices of the adminiftrator of an empire being fo many and various; the imaginary and controverted line of his prerogative being fo liable to be overstepped in one part or other of it: the pofition, that every fuch tranfgreffion amounts to a forfeiture of the government, and confequently authorizes the people to withdraw their obedience and provide for themselves by a new fettlement, would endanger the stability of every political fabric in the world, and has in fact always fupplied the difaffected with a topic of feditious declamation. If occafions have arifen, in which this plea has been resorted to with juftice and fuccefs, they have been occafions in which a revolution was defenfible upon other and plainer principles. The plea itself is at all times captious and unfafe.

Wherefore, rejecting the intervention of a compact, as unfounded in its principle, and dangerous in the application, we affign for the only ground of the fubject's obligation, THE WILL OF GOD, AS COLLECTED FROM EXPE

DIENCY.

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