family hereditarily defpotic, it was finally determined, that Nations are not the property of Kings. The principles of Paffive Obedience, the Divine and indefeafible Right of Kings, in a word, the whole fcaffolding of falfe and fuperftitious notions by which the Royal authority had till then been fupported, fell to the ground, and in the room of it were fubftituted the more folid and durable foundations of the love of order, and a sense of the neceffity of civil government among Mankind,

CHAPTER III.

Of the Legislative Power.

N almoft all the States of Europe, the will

IN

of the Prince holds the place of law; and cuftom has fo confounded the matter of right with the matter of fact, that their Lawyers generally reprefent the legiflative authority as effentially attached to the character of King; and the plenitude of his power feems to them neceffarily 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 fcholaftic fubtilties; 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 Rex, and the northern Nations to that of Cyning.

In limiting therefore the power of their King, they have acted more confiftently with the etymology of the word; they have acted alfo more confiftently with reason, in not leaving the laws to the difpofal 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 fet himself above them.

The basis of the English Conftitution, the capital principle on which all others depend, is that the Legislative power belongs to Parliament alone; that is to fay, the power of eftablishing laws, and of abrogating, changing, or explaining them.

The conftituent parts of Parliament are the King, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons.

The Houfe of Commons, otherwife the Af

fembly of the Reprefentatives of the Nation, is compofed of the Deputies of the different Counties, each of which fends two; of the Deputies of certain Towns, of which London, including Westminster and Southwark, fends eight, other Towns, two or one; and of the Deputies of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, each of which fends two.

Laftly, fince the Act of Union, Scotland fends forty-five Deputies; who, added to thofe juft mentioned, make up the whole number of five hundred and fifty-eight. Those Deputies, though feparately elected, do not folely reprefent the Town or County that fends them, as is the cafe with the Deputies of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, or of the Swifs Cantons; but, when they are once admitted, they reprefent the whole body of the Nation.

The qualifications required for being a Member of the House of Commons are, for reprefenting a County, to be born a fubject of Great Britain, and to be poffeffed of a landed eftate of fix hundred pounds a year; and of three hundred, for reprefenting a Town, or Borough.

The qualifications required for being an elector in a County, are to be poffeffed, in that County, of a Freehold of forty fhillings

a year (a). With regard to electors in Towns or Boroughs, they must be Freemen of them, a word which now fignifies certain qualifications expreffed in the particular Charters.

When the King has determined to affemble a Parliament, he fends an order for that purpose to the Lord Chancellor, who, after receiving the fame, fends a writ under the great feal of England to the Sheriff of every County, directing him to take the neceffary 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 muft, in his turn, fend his precept to the Magiftrates of the Towns and Boroughs, to order them to make their election within eight days after the reception of the precept, giving four days notice of the fame. And the Sheriff himself muft proceed to the election for the County, not fooner than ten days after the receipt of the writ, nor later than fixteen.

The principal precautions taken by the law, to infure the freedom of elections, are,

(a) This Freehold must have been poffeffed 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,

that any Candidate, who after the date of the writ, or even after the vacancy, fhall have given entertainments to the electors of a place, or to any of them, in order to his being elected, fhall be incapable of ferving for that place in Parliament. That if any perfon gives, or promises to give any money, employment, or reward, to any voter, in order to influence his vote, he, as well as the voter himself, fhall be condemned to pay a fine of five hundred pounds, and for ever difqualified to vote and hold any office in any corporation; the faculty however being referved to both, of procuring their indemnity for their own offence, by discovering fome other offender of the fame kind.

It has been moreover eftablished that no Lord of Parliament, or Lord Lieutenant of a County, has any right to interfere in the elestions of members; that any officer of the excife, cuftoms, &c. who fhall presume to intermeddle in elections, by influencing any voter to give or withhold his vote, fhall forfeit one hundred pounds, and be difabled to hold any office. Laftly, all foldiers quartered in a place where an election is to be made, muft move from it, at least one day before the election, to the distance of two miles or more, and re