A. No Man can have Hereditary Right by the Title of King, for there are Kingdoms Elective; feveral Kingdoms have different Customs and Laws in determining the Succeffions of their Monarchs; thofe of Britain and France are different, and both from the Cuftoms of fome other Monarchies; therefore there can be no Right of Succeffion but by the Laws of the Land, and accordingly by the Act of Settlement his prefent Majefty King George the Second has an Hereditary Right in himfelf and lineal Defcendants, fubject to the Lmitations of the Law, a more authentick Deed, for Hereditary Right, than can be produced by any .Prince in the World.

Q. Is not then the King above the Laws?

A. By no means: For the Intention of Government being the Security of the Lives, Liberties, and Properties, of the Members of the Community, they never can be fuppofed by the Law of Nature, to give an Arbitrary Power over their Perfons and Estates. King, is a Title, which tranflated into feveral Languages, fignifies a Magiftrate with as many different Degrees of Power, as there are Kingdoms in the World, and he can have no Power but what is given him by Law; yea, even the Supreme or Legislative Power, is bound by the Rules of Equity, to govern by Laws enacted, and publifhed in due Form; for what is not Legal is Arbitrary.

Q. How comes it that those who endeavour to deftroy the Authority and Independance of any of the Branches of the Legislature, fubvert the Conftitu

tion ?

A. By the fundamental Laws of the Conftitution, the free and impartial Consent of each of the

three

three Members is neceffary to the Being of a Law, therefore if the Confent of any of the Three is wilfully omitted, or obtain❜d by Terror or Corruption, the Legiflature is violated; and inftead of three there may be really and effectually but one Branch of the Legiflature.

Q. Can thou illuftrate this by any Example.

A. The Royal Authority and that of the Houfe of Peers were both deftroyed by the House of Commons, and by a small Part of That, in the late Civil War fo that the very Form of Government was annihilated.

Q. Can you give me an Inftance where the Form of Government may be kept, and yet the Constitution destroyed ?

A. Yes. The Forms of the Free Government of Rome, were preferved under the Arbitrary Government of the Emperors: There was a Senate, Confuls, and Tribunes of the People; as one might fay King, Lords, and Commons, and yet the Government under the Emperors was always Defpotick, and often Tyrannical; and indeed the Worst of all Governments is Tyranny fanctify'd by the Appearance of Law.

Q. By what Means fell that great People inte this State of Slavery?

A. I have read the Roman Hiftory, and by what I can judge, it was by Faction, Corruption, and Standing Armies.

Q. All That might happen to Romans; but did ever any Parliament of this Nation give up the Liberty of the People?

A. Yes: A Pack'd Parliament in Richard the Second's Time, eftablifhed by a Law, the King's Arbitrary Power, and with Leave to name a Commiffion with Parliamentary Authority. Par

liaments

liaments in Henry the Eighth's Time were Slaves to his Paffions, and One gave the King a Legislative Authority. And there are many Inftances of Parliaments making dangerous Steps towards the Deftruction of the Liberty of the People.

Q. Who were the English Monarchs who were most indulgent to the Liberties of the People?

A. The great King Alfred, who declar'd, That the English Nation was as free, as the Thoughts of Man. The glorious Monarchs, Edward the Firft, Edward the Third, and Henry the Fifth, who would not let his People fwear to him till he had an Opportunity of swearing to them, at his Coronation. And the Immortal Queen Elizabeth, who declar'd it by Law, High Treafon, during her. Life, and a Premunire afterwards, to deny the Power of Parliament in limiting and binding the Defcept or Inheritance of the Crown, or the Claim to it.

2. When were thofe flavish Maxims of Hereditary Indefeazable Right and Prerogative, fuperior to Law, first introduced?

A. In the Time of James the First; who by endeavouring to establish them, laid the Founda-. tion of all the Miferies which have fince happened to his Family; and it is the greatest Security to the prefent Branch of it, that fuch Doctrines which fow the Seeds of Jealousy between the King and his People, are by the prefent Establishment quite exploded.

Q. What do'st thou learn from thofe Hiftories?

A. That a King of this Realm, in the full Poffeffion of the Affections of his People is greater than any Arbitrary Prince, and that the Nation can never be effectually undone but by a wicked Parliament; and lastly, to be thankful to God that under our present most gracious King our

Con

Conftitution is preferv'd entire, tho' at the fame time there are many Circumftances which call Loudly for Vigilance.

Q. What are those?

A. Such as have been the Fore-runners and Cau fes of the Lofs of Liberty in other Countries, Decay of Virtue, and Publick Spirit, Luxury and Extravagance in Expence, Venality and Corruption, in private and publick Affairs.

Q. How comes there to be a Decay of Publick Spirit, when there is more than ufual a Defire to ferve The Publick?

A. If a Defire to live upon the Publick, be a Publick Spirit, there is enough of it at this Time, when Extravagance makes People crave more, and the Adminiftration of a Publick Revenue (perhaps treble what it was before the Revolution) enables the Crown to give more than formerly.

Q. What do'st thou fear from this?

A. That fuch as ferve the Crown for Reward, may in Time facrifice the Intereft of the Country to their Wants; that Greedinefs of publick Money may produce a flavifh Complaifance as long as the Crown can pay; and Mutiny when it cartnot; and in general, that Motives of Self-Intereft will prove an improper and weak Foundation for our Duty to our King and Country.

Q. I much rejoice to fee a Perfon of your Knowledge and Publick Spirit; therefore I ask you what is the Sum and Substance of the Virtue of a good Citizen?

4. The Love of our Country comprehends in it the Virtues of a good Citizen, as the Love of God those of a good Christian: It is the Love not only of One, but of Millions of Neighbours; not only of our Neighbours now living, but of them

and

and of their Pofterity. It is an Inftinct as well as Duty of Nature; the very Soil from which as from a common Mother, Mankind are nourish'd and the last common Repository of their dead Bodies, has been reputed amongst human Creatures, as a Bond of Union; Jofeph comfortel himself with his dying Breath, reflecting that his Bones should reft amongst his Bretheren. I read of one Themistocles who, tho' he had been banished from Greece and Hofpitality, and receiv'd in Perfia, ordered his Corps to be carried back and buried by fealth in his own Country. All Nations fink and rife in proportion as this Virtue prevails. When I read the Roman Hiftory I am tranfported with Joy, and a profound Reverence for thofe Worthies who facrificed their Lives, and what was perhaps dearer to them, to the Love of their Country. Nor is our own Country deftitute of Examples of fuch Heroick Virtue, of which some have tranfmitted the glorious Fruits to their Pofterity; and fuch as have fail'd of that, have attain'd to a glorious Immortality, and advanc'd the Temporal Felicity of Generations paft and to come. The Love of our Country is both a Moral and Religious Duty.

Q. How do'st thou prove That?

A. The Love which we owe to all Mankind, is not only allow'd but enjoin'd, in greater Degrees to particular Societies, whereof we are Members, as Nations, Neighbours, Kindred, Families, and Children: There are many Precepts of the Examples in Scripture enforcing this Duty of the Love of our Country; and holy Men of Old, as they were endowed with a religious, feem'd proportionably fill'd with a Publick Spirit; the Old Teftament is full of fuch Examples: This was the fhining Virtue of Mofes, and of all the Captains, Princes, and Prophets