The reprefentatives are fo intermixed with the constituents, and the conftituents with the reft of the people, that they cannot, without a partiality too flagrant to be endured, impofe any burthen upon the fubject, in which they do not share themfelves; nor fcarcely can they adopt an advantageous regulation, in which their own interefts will not participate of the advantage.

The proceedings and debates of parliament, and the parliamentary conduct of each reprefentative, are known by the people at large.

The representative is fo far dependent upon the constituent, and political importance upon public favour, that a member of parliament cannot more effectually recommend himself to eminence and advancement in the ftate, than by contriving and patronizing laws of public utility.

When intelligence of the condition, wants, and occafions of the people, is thus collected from every quarter, when fuch a variety of invention, and so many understandings, are fet at work upon the fubject, it may be prefumed, that the most eligible expedient, remedy or im-. provement, will occur to fome one or other:

and

and when a wife counfel, or beneficial regulation is once fuggefted, it may be expected, from the disposition of an affembly so constituted as the British Houfe of Commons is, that it cannot fail of receiving the approbation of a majority.

To prevent thofe deftructive contentions for the fupreme power, which are fure to take place where the members of the ftate do not live under an acknowledged head, and a known rule of fucceffion; to preferve the people in tranquillity at home, by a speedy and vigorous execution of the laws; to protect their interest abroad, by ftrength and energy in military operations, by thofe advantages of decifion, fecrecy, and difpatch, which belong to the refolutions of monarchical councils;-for these purposes, the conftitution has committed the executive government to the adminiftration and limited authority of an hereditary king.

In the defence of the empire; in the maintenance of its power, dignity, and privileges, with foreign nations; in the advancement of its trade by treaties and conventions; and in the providing for the general administration of municipal justice, by a proper choice and appointment of magiftrates, the inclination of the king and of the people usually coincides: in this part, therefore,

4

therefore, of the regal office, the conftitution entrufts the prerogative with ample powers.

The dangers principally to be apprehended from regal government, relate to the two articles taxation and punishment. In every form of government, from which the people are excluded, it is the intereft of the governors to get as much, and of the governed to give as little as they can: the power alfo of punishment, in the hands of an arbitrary prince, oftentimes becomes an engine of extortion, jealoufy, and revenge. Wifely, therefore, hath the British conflitution guarded the fafety of the people, in thefe two points, by the moft ftudious precautions.

Upon that of taxation, every law which, by the remoteft conftruction, may be deemed to levy money upon the property of the fubject, muft originate, that is, muft first be propofed and affented to, in the Houfe of Commons: by which regulation, accompanying the weight which that affembly poffeffes in all its functions, the levying of taxes is almoft exclufively referved to the popular part of the conflitution, who, it is prefumed, will not tax themselves, nor their fellow fubjects, without being first convinced of the neceffity of the aids which they grant.

The

The application alfo of the public fupplies, is watched with the fame circumfpection as the affeffment. Many taxes are annual; the produce of others is mortgaged, or appropriated to fpecific fervices; the expenditure of all of them. is accounted for in the Houfe of Commons; as computations of the charge of the purpofe, for which they are wanted, are previously submitted to the fame tribunal.

In the infliction of punishment, the power of the crown, and of the magiftrate appointed by the crown, is confined by the most precife limitations: the guilt of the offender must be pronounced by twelve men of his own order, indif ferently chofen cut of the county where the offence was committed: the punishment, or the limits to which the punishment may be extended, are afcertained, and affixed to the crime, by laws which knew not the perfon of the cri

minal.

And whereas arbitrary or clandeftine confinement is the injury moft to be dreaded from the ftrong hand of the executive government, because it deprives the prifoner at once of protection and defence, and delivers him into the power, and to the malicious or interested defigus, of his enemies; the conftitution has pro

prac

vided against this danger with double folicitude. The ancient writ of habeas corpus, the habeas corpus act of Charles the Second, and the tice and determinations of our fovereign courts of juftice founded upon these laws, afford a complete remedy for every conceivable cafe of illegal imprisonment *.

Treason being that charge, under colour of which the deftruction of an obnoxious individual is often fought; and government being at all times more immediately a party in the profecution; the law, befide the general care with which it watches over the fafety of the accufed, in this cafe, fenfible of the unequal conteft in which the fubject is engaged, has affifted his

defence

* Upon complaint in writing by, or on behalf of any perfon in confinement, to any of the four courts of Westminster Hall, in term time, or to the Lord Chancellor, or one of the Judges, in the vacation; and upon a probable reafon being fuggefted to question the legality of the detention, a writ is iffued, to the perfon in whofe cuftody the complainant is alleged to be, commanding him within a certain limited and short time to produce the body of the prisoner, and the authority under which he is detained. Upon the return of the writ, ftrict and inftantaneous obedience to which is enforced by very fevere penalties, if no lawful caufe of imprifonment appear, the court or judge, before whom the prisoner is brought, is authorized and bound to discharge him; even though