gentlemen minifters will produce folid, convincing, and des monftrative reafons, to fhew all the world, and the Portuguese nation in particular, what we think fill more impoffible, and that is, evidently to prove that men may fee without light or eyes; and that they may obferve the law of God, and follow the doctrine of Jefus Chrift, without the leaft knowledge of the facred books, wherein this doctrine is divinely depofited.

Truth is the daughter of God, and fhould be the guide for all mortals; all men living cannot deny or refute what is contained in this petition; for this reafon we make it public, defiring that all Europe may have knowledge of our just requests, hoping, that our fuperiors will attend to us with the justice they owe to God, themfelves, their own nation, and all the univerfe. Lisbon, 25 April, 1768.

FROM ALGERNON SIDNEY'S DISCOURSES ON GOVERNMENT Quarto Edition, page 214.

"TH

HESE men have neither will nor knowledge to do good, as foon as they come to be in power juftice is perverted, the public treafures exhaufted,new projects invented to raife more; and the prince's wants daily increafing, through their ignorance, negligence or deceit, there is no end of their devices and tricks to gain fupplies. To this end, fwarms of fpies, informers, and falfe witneffes, are fent out to circumvent the richeft, and most eminent men: the tribunals are filled with court parafites, of profligate confciences, fortunes and reputation, that no man may efcape who is brought before them. If crimes are wanting, the diligence of well-chosen officers and profecutors, with the favour of the judges, fupply all defects; the law is made a fnare; virtue fuppreffed, vice tomented, and in a fhort time, honesty and knavery, fobriety and lewdness, virtue and vice, became badges of the feveral factions; and every man's converfation and manners, fhewing to what party he is addicted, the prince who makes himfelf head of the worst, must favour them to overthrow the best, which is fo ftreight a way to an univerfal ruin, that no ftate can prevent it, unless that course be interrupted. And whoever would know whether any particular prince defires to encrease or destroy the bodies and goods of his fubjects, muft examine whether his government be fuch as renders him grateful or odious to them; and whether he do pursue the public intereft, or for the advancement of his own authority fet up one in himself contrary to that of his people; which can never befall a popular government; and confequently, no mifchief equal to it can be produced by any fuch, unlefs fomething can be imagined worfe than corruption and destruction.”

For the POLITICAL REGISTER: American confiderations on the nature and extent of the British Parliamentary power.

Written and printed at Philadelphia in the Year 1768. Thofe laws therefore that I call leges fcriptæ, or fuch as are ufually called ftatute laws, which are originally re*duced into writing, before they are enace, or receive any "binding power; every fuch law being formerly made, as

it were, an indenture t ipartite, between the king, the lords, and the commons; for without the concurrent con**fent of all these three parts no fuch law is or can be made." Hale's hift. of the common law.

T feems to me the distinguishing characteristic of the Englifh conftitution that no freeman fhall be reftrained in the exercise of his natural liberty, or, in the ufe of his acquired property but by thofe regulations to which he has really or virtually fubfcribed. Laws which are the refult of fuch a rational and well-digefted compact, may bear hard upon fome, but they cannot, with propriety, be complained of by any; fince every precaution which the wit of man could devife, was neceffarily employed for the benefit of the whole united body, after a due attention to the separate intereft of each. The lords and commons, with the approbation of the crown, agree to regulate their trade by well-placed restrictions, and fettle the establishment of their manufactures in fuch a manner as fhall be moft conductive to the public good. In all thefe difpofing and reftraining laws the intereft of the whole community is confulted, and the spirit of the conftitution preferved inviolate.

But, when the lords and commons of England, by formal compact with the crown, attempt to bind thofe, who can by no means be confidered as parties to their agreement, they difcard thofe noble principles to which they owe the enjoy ment of all that is valuable in life, and introduce power in the place of reafon to fupport a fyftem which has its foundation in partial, not in univerfal god. For, can any thing be more evidently partial, or more inconfiftent with the prin ciples of common juftice, than that the lords and commons of England should give and grant to his Majesty any sum which they may think proper, to be levied, by any mode which they may pleafe to devife, upon his American fubjects, perhaps

**WHAT PROPERTY HAVE THEY IN THAT WHICH ANO-
THER MAY, BY RIGHT, TAKE WHEN HE PLEASES, TO
HIMSELF?"
LOCKE on Government.
VOL. III.

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perhaps for the payment of a fubfidy to fome Prince of the Empire for the defence of his majefty's electoral dominions? If the abfurdity and injuftice of fuch a procedure is to be difcovered by every eye, we fhall not be long before we clearly perceive, through all the mifts of ingenious fophiftry, that, upon the indifpenfable principles of their own conftitution, the lords and commons of England can no more covenant with the crown for the limiting and reftraining our natural liberty than they can agree to give and grant the most valuable of our property to be difpofed of for their own private purposes.

The more I confider this maxim, which I have taken from my Lord C. Juftice Hale, the more fenfible am I of its weight and importance. To perceive its full force, it will be neceffary to look back to the first dawn of freedom, when the good people of England, would no longer fubmit to have their liberty and property arbitrarily difpofed of by the royal fiat. Conscious of their own importance, they, at firft, only claimed a privilege of recommending by petition, fuch measures as they might conceive neceffary for the public good. In this humble form did the spirit of liberty first appear, while the power of the crown continued for ages almoft unlimited in its extent, and uncontrouled in its operation. But, when an attention to the true interefts of the nation, eftablished their manufactures and extended their commerce, the common people readily fhook off their fervile dependance upon their lords, and gladly embraced an opportunity of acquiring that affluence of riches which was the firmeft foundation of their future liberty. Thofe, whofe fituation had lately been that of the most abject vaffalage, now fuddenly found themselves raised, by their own induftry, to the poffeffion of wealth and independence. Proud of fuch valuable and important acquiitions, they only waited for that information, which was the child of time and experience, to direct their fteps in the purfuit of measures which were to establish the moft folid fecurity for that liberty and property which they had fo lately acquired.

Before science extended her happy influence over thisrifing nation, their progress in the paths of liberty was but flow and irregular, interrupted by events which they were too short fighted to forefee, and obftructed by revolutions which no human prudence could prevent. But, when their acquifition of knowledge, from a careful examination of the past, enabled them not only to regulate the prefent, but even to penetrate into the remote regions of future contingency, every revolving year furnished them with fome opportunity to improve

1

prove and enlarge their system of liberty. With every affiftance which human wifdom could beftow, fupported by the experience of ages, they have at laft fixed the foundation of their freedom upon fuch principles as will for ever stand the teft of the most critical examination. Careful to guard those bleffings for which they had fo industriously laboured, they eftablished this as a fundamental maxim-that no new regulation could be framed, nor any old law abrogated but by the general confent of the nation. Such a consent as must be evidenced by a majority of votes in the different eftates of the kingdom-the lords in their proper perfons affenting, while the sense of the common people is known from the voices of their representatives. Can any thing less than infinite wifdom elaborate a fyftem more perfect than that which fo effectually fecures the happiness of every individual-which admits no law as obligatory but upon those who are expressly parties, or have actually fubfcribed to the obligation?

If thefe be as they certainly are, the well digefted principles of the English conftitution, with what appearance of reafon can the warmest zealot for the fuperiority of Great-Britain alfert that the legislative power of parliament is fovereign and Supreme?

Shall the freemen of New-York be reduced to a state of fubordination, and deprived of those invaluable privileges enjoyed by the inhabitants of that city, which has given a name to their province, because they are unfortunately placed a thoufand leagues further from the prefence of their fovereign; and, instead of preferring their petitions immediately to the royal ear, can only apply to his deputy for a redress of their grievances, and for the framing fuch regulations as the infant ftate of the colony may require? This would be heightening the misfortune of their fituation by the moft flagrant injuftice.

When the emigrants from Great-Britain crolled the Atlantic to fettle the defarts of America, they brought with them the spirit of the English government. They brought with them the fame duties to their fovereign which the freemen of England at that time acknowledged; and they very naturally fuppofed, that, under his direction, they fhould be allowed to make fuch regulations as might answer the purposes of their emigration. Ever mindful of their duty and allegiance to their Prince, they cannot eafily conceive that they left their brethren the freemen of England vefted with a fovereign fupreme power to restrain their natural Liberty, or to difpofe of their acquired

Oo 2

↑ De plus, le droit de proprietè n'etant que de convention, et d'infti

acquired property. Removed at an immenfe diftance from the feat of government, they could no longer join the national council; but, as the very spirit of the English conftitution required it, they naturally applied to their Prince for fuch protection and affiftance, as might raife them to an equality with their brethren of England; from whom they only requefted their friendly patronage, during the weakness of their infant state.

The formula of their government once fettled in fome meafure to their fatisfaction, with the concurrence of those officers appointed by the crown, the inhabitants of these new fettlements, ever faithfully preferving in their memory the principies of that happy government which they had just quitted, totally disclaiin all + fubordination to, and dependence upon the two inferior eftates of their mother country. Without the power without the inclination to difturb the tranquility of thoie to whom they stand so nearly related, they with to promote an amicable intercourfe, founded upon reciprocal intereft;without allowing or fubmitting to any laws, but those which they themselves have made, by regular agreement with the deputy of the Crown properly authorized for that purpose. To fuppofe the British parliament to be vefted with a fovereign and fupreme legislative power over the colonies, is advancing a fuppofition inconfiftent with the principles of their own conftitution; and to affert the neceffity of fubordination from the nature of our fituation, without attempting to prove that neceffity, is really treating an affair of the utmost importance with

tution humaine, tout homme peut, a fon grè difpofer de ce qu'il poffede: Mais il n'en eft pas de meme des dons effentiels de la nature, tels que la vie et la liberte, dont il permis a chacun de jouir, et dont il est au moins douteux qu'on ait droit de fe depouiller. ROUSSEAU.

Mais quand on pounoit aliener fa libertè comme fes biens, la differ ence Jeroit tres grande pour les enfans, qui ne jouiffent des biens du pere que par tranfmiffion de fon droit, au lieu que la libertè etant un don qu'ils tiennent de la nature en qualitè d'hommes, leurs parens n'ont aucun droit de les en depouiller.

ibid.

A fubordination not only incompatible with the principles of the English conftitution, but even not to be reconciled to the law of nature if we admit as juft the following definition.

"On commence par rechercher les regles, don't pour L'Utilitè com"mune il feroit a propos que les hommes convinent entre eux; & puis donne le nom de loi naturelle a la collection de ces regles fans autre "preuve que la bien qu'on trouve qui refulteroit de leur pratique "univerfelle."

on

ROUSSEAU.