civil society were fully established. By the expulsion of a king who had violated his oath, the doctrine of resistance, that ultimate resource of an oppressed people, was confirmed beyond a doubt. By the exclusion given to a family hereditarily despotic, it was finally determined that nations are not the property of kings. The principles of passive obedience, the divine and indefeasible right of kings,—in a word, the whole scaffolding of false and superstitious notions, by which the royal authority had till then been supported, fell to the ground; and in the room of it were substituted the more solid and durable foundations of the love of order, and a sense of the necessity of civil government among mankind.

CHAPTER IV.

Of the Legislative Power.

IN almost all the states of Europe, the will of the prince holds the place of law; and custom has so confounded the matter of right with the matter of fact, that their lawyers generally represent the legislative authority as essentially attached

to the character of king; and the plenitude of his power seems to them necessarily to flow from the very definition of his title.

The English, placed in more favourable circumstances, have judged differently: they could not believe that the destiny of mankind ought to depend on a play of words, and on scholastic subtilties; they have therefore annexed no other idea to the word king, or roy, a word known also to their laws, than that which the Latins annexed to the word rer, and the northern nations to cyning.

In limiting therefore the power of their king, they have acted more consistently with the etymology of the word; they have acted also more consistently with reason, in not leaving the laws to the disposal of the person who is already invested with the public power of the state, that is, of the person who lies under the greatest and most important temptations to set himself above them.

The basis of the English constitution, the capital principle on which all others depend, is, that the legislative power belongs to parliament alone; that is to say, the power of establishing laws, and of abrogating, changing, or explaining them.

The constituent parts of parliament are, the

king, the house of lords, and the house of com

mons.

The house of commons, otherwise the assembly of the representatives of the nation, is composed of the deputies of the different counties, each of which sends two; of the deputies of certain towns, of which London (including Westminster and Southwark) sends eightother towns, two or one; and of the deputies of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, each of which sends two.

Lastly, since the act of union, Scotland sends forty-five deputies; who, added to those just mentioned, make up the whole number five hundred and fifty-eight*. Those deputies, though separately elected, do not solely represent the town or county that sends them, as is the case with the deputies of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, or of the Swiss Cantons; but, when they are once admitted, they represent the whole body of the nation.

*By the incorporative union with Ireland, which took place at the beginning of the year 1801, one hundred members were added to the lower house; so that this assembly now consists of six hundred and fifty-eight individuals, who represent the very numerous body of the commons of the united kingdom of Great-Britain and Ireland. EDIT.

The qualifications required for being a member of the house of commons are, for representing a county, to be born a subject of Great Britain, and to be possessed of a landed estate of six hundred pounds a year; and of three hundred, for representing a town or borough.

The qualifications required for being an elector in a county are, to be possessed, in that county, of a freehold of forty shillings a year*. With regard to electors in towns or boroughs, they must be freemen of them;-a word which now signifies certain qualifications expressed in the particular charters.

When the king has determined to assemble a parliament, he sends an order for that purpose to the lord-chancellor; who, after receiving the same, sends a writ, under the great seal of England, to the sheriff of every county, directing him to take the necessary steps for the election of members for the county, and the towns and boroughs contained in it. Three days after the reception of the writ, the sheriff must, in his turn, send his precept to the magistrates of the towns and boroughs, to order them to make their

* This freehold must have been possessed by the elector one whole year at least before the time of election, except it has devolved to him by inheritance, by marriage, by a last will, or by promotion to an office.

election within eight days after the receipt of the precept, giving four days' notice of the same. And the sheriff himself must proceed to the election for the county, not sooner than ten days after the receipt of the writ, nor later than sixteen.

The principal precautions, taken by the law, to ensure the freedom of elections, are, that any candidate, who, after the date of the writ, or even after the vacancy, shall have given entertainments to the electors of a place, or to any of them, in order to his being elected, shall be incapable of serving for that place in parliament*; and that if any person gives or promises to give, any money, employment, or reward, to a voter, in order to influence his vote, he, as well as the voter himself, shall be condemned to pay a fine of five hundred pounds, and for ever disqualified to vote, and hold any office in a corporation,—

*This incapacitation is ordered by an act of the seventh year of king William III.; but, as the terms of that statute did not sufficiently preclude the allowance of large sums for the conveyance of voters to the place of election, and for their sustenance during the poll, a bill was brought forward in the year 1806, reducing those charges within reasonable limits, according to the true intent and spirit of the former act. This bill, however, was not honored with the approbation of the house of peers, who were either unconvinced of it's general necessity, or of the expediency of it's particular provisions. EDIT.