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4. If there fhould happen any uncommon injury, or infringement of the rights before-mentioned, which the ordinary course of law is too defective to reach, there ftill remains a fourth fubordinate right, appertaining to every individual, namely, the right of petitioning the king, or either houfe of parliament, for the redress of grievances. In Ruffia we are told that the czar Peter established a law, that no fubject might petition the throne, till he had first petitioned two different ministers of ftate. In cafe he obtained justice from neither, he might then present a third petition to the prince; but upon pain of death, if found to be in the wrong. The confequence of which was, that no one dared to offer fuch third petition; and grievances feldom falling under the notice of the fovereign, he had little opportunity to redress them. The restrictions, for fome there are, which are laid upon petitioning in England, are of a nature extremely different; and while they promote the spirit of peace, they are no check upon that of liberty. Care only must be taken, left, under the pretence of petitioning, the fubject be guilty of any riot or tumult; as happened in the opening of the memorable parliament in 1640: and, to prevent this, it is provided by the ftatute 13 Car. II. ft. 1. c. 5. that no petition to the king, or either house of parliament, for any alteration in church or state, shall be signed by above twenty persons, unless the matter thereof be approved by three juftices of the peace, or the major part of the grand jury, in the country; and in Lon-. don by the lord mayor, aldermen, and common council: nor shall any petition be presented by more than ten perfons at a time. But, under these regulations, it is declared by the ftatute W. & M. ft. 2. c. 2. that the fubject hath a right to petition; and that all commitments and prosecutions for fuch petitioning are illegal.

5. THE fifth and last auxiliary right of the fubject, that I shall at present mention, is that of having arms for their defence, fuitable to their condition and degree, and fuch as are

y Montefq. Sp. L. xii. 26.

allowed

allowed by law. Which is alfo declared by the fame statute 1 W. & M. ft. 2. c. 2. and it is indeed a public allowance under due reftrictions, of the natural right of refiftance and felf-prefervation, when the fanctions of fociety and laws are found infufficient to restrain the violence of oppreffion.

In these feveral articles confift the rights, or, as they are frequently termed, the liberties of Englifhmen: liberties, more generally talked of, than thoroughly understood; and yet highly neceffary to be perfectly known and considered by every man of rank or property, left his ignorance of the points whereon they are founded should hurry him into fac tion and licentiousness on the one hand, or a pufillanimous indifference and criminal fubmiffion on the other. And we have seen that these rights confift, primarily, in the free enjoyment of perfonal fecurity, of perfonal liberty, and of private property. So long as thefe remain inviolate, the fubject is perfectly free; for every species of compulsive tyranny and oppreffion must act in opposition to one or other of these rights, having no other object upon which it can poffibly be employed. To preferve thefe from violation, it is neceffary that the conftitution of parliament be fupported in it's full vigour; and limits, certainly known, be fet to the royal prerogative. And, lastly, to vindicate these rights, when actu ally violated or attacked, the subjects of England are entitled, in the first place, to the regular administration and free courfe of justice in the courts of law; next, to the right of petitioning the king and parliament for redrefs of grievances; and, laftly, to the right of having and ufing arms for felfprefervation and defence. And all these rights and liberties it is our birthright to enjoy entire; unless where the laws of our country have laid them under neceffary restraints. Reftraints in themselves fo gentle and moderate, as will appear upon farther inquiry, that no man of fenfe or probity would wish to see them flackened. For all of us have it in our choice to do every thing that a good man would defire to do; and are restrained from nothing, but what would be pernicious either to ourfelves or our fellow-citizens. So that this review

of

of our fituation may fully juftify the obfervation of a learned French author, who indeed generally both thought and wrote in the Ipirit of genuine freedom; and who hath not fcrupled to profefs, even in the very bofom of his native country, that the English is the only nation in the world, where political or civil liberty is the direct end of it's conftitution. Recommending therefore to the ftudent in our laws a farther and more accurate search into this extenfive and important title, I fhall clofe my remarks upon it with the expiring with of the famous father Paul to his country, "ESTO PERPETUA!"

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OF

CHAPTER THE SECOND.

THE PARLIAMENT.

W

E are next to treat of the rights and duties of perfons, as they are members of fociety, and stand in various relations to cach other. These relations are either public or private and we will firft confider those that are public.

THE most univerfal public relation, by which men are connected together, is that of government; namely, as governors and governed, or, in other words, as magistrates and people. Of magiftrates fome alfo are fupreme, in whom the fovereign power of the ftate refides; others are fubordinate, deriving all their authority from the fupreme magistrate, accountable to him for their conduct, and acting in an inferior fecondary sphere.

In all tyrannical governments the fupreme magiftracy, or the right of both making and of enforcing the laws, is vested in one and the fame man, or one and the fame body of men; and wherever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty. The magiftrate may enact tyrannical laws, and execute them in a tyrannical manner, fince he is poffeffed, in quality of dispenser of justice, with all the power which he as legiflator thinks proper to give himself. But, where the legislative and executive authority are in distinct hands, the former will take care not to entrust the latter with To large a power, as may tend to the fubverfion of it's own independence, and therewith of the liberty of the fubje&t. With us therefore in England this fupreme power is divided into

two branches; the one legislative, to wit, the parliament, confisting of king, lords, and commons; the other executive, confifting of the king alone. It will be the business of this chapter to confider the British parliament; in which the legiflative power, and (of courfe) the fupreme and abfolute authority of the state, is vefted by our conftitution.

A

THE original or firft inftitution of parliaments is one of thofe matters which lie fo far hidden in the dark ages of antiquity, that the tracing of it out is a thing equally difficult and uncertain. The word, parliament, itself (parlement or colloquium, as fome of our hiftorians tranflate it) is comparatively of modern date; derived from the French, and fignifying an affembly that met and conferred together. It was first applied to general affemblies of the ftates under Louis VII in France, about the middle of the twelfth century. But it is certain that, long before the introduction of the Norman language into England, all matters of importance were debated and fettled in the great councils of the realm. practice, which feems to have been univerfal among the northern nations, particularly the Germans; and carried by them into all the countries of Europe, which they overran at the diffolution of the Roman empire. Relics of which conftitution, under various modifications and changes, are ftill to be met with in the diets of Poland, Germany, and Sweden, and the assembly of the estates in France: for what is there now called the parliament is only the fupreme court of justice, consisting of the peers, certain dignified ecclefiaftics and judges; which neither is in practice, nor is fuppofed to be in theory, a general council of the realm.

WITH us in England this general council hath been held immemorially, under the feveral names of michel-fynoth or great council, michel-gemote or great meeting, and more fre

a Mod. Un. Hift. xxiii. 307. The first mention of it in our ftatute law is in the preamble to the ftatute of Westm. 1. 3 Edw. 1. A. D. 1272.

b De minoribus rebus principes confultant, de majoribus omnes. Tac. de mor.

K 2

Germ. C. II.

Thefe were affembled for the laft time, A. D. 1561. (See Whitelocke of parl. c. 72. or according to Robertson, A. D. 1614. (Hift. Cha. V. i. 369.)

quently

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