, than as any Hieroglyphic of the Freedom of
Grecian, Roman,
or
Gothic
Commonwealths. And yet the Time may come when even in
Britain,
a Minister may arise who shall have the Art and Address to bribe and corrupt a Majority of the Legislature with the Money of their Constituents. He will thereby be enabled to take the Lead at the Head of the Representatives of the Nation. When,
All shall follow him in implicit and orderly Procession, Each duely and decently attending the Posteriors of him who immediately precedes in the Arrangement.
Now,
Harry,
let us return to the great Object first proposed, an Object in which you are most intimately concerned; and which, I trust, you will invariably assert and support, even the Liberties and Claims of the Meanest of your Countrymen.
SALUS POPULI � PUBLIC SAFETY � SECURITY TO THE PERSONS AND PROPERTIES OF THE PEOPLE; constitutes the Whole of
England
's Polity. Her Empire is IMPERIUM LEGUM, the Sway of Law; it is the Dispensation of Beneficence, of equal Right to All; and this Empire rises supreme over King, Lords, and Commoners, and is appointed to rule the Rulers, to the End of Time.
Other States, before now, have been compounded like Ours, of
Prince, Peers, and People,
the
One, Few, and Many
united. But the Error and Failure of their Constitution was this: The PEOPLE, who are the FOUNTAIN OF ALL POWER, either retained, in their own Hands, an Authority which they never were qualified to wield; or deputed it to Trustees without Account; without a provident Resource or due Reserve of Potency, when
Those entrusted with Government should be found to betray.
The People of
England,
on the contrary, claim no Authority in Government; neither in the framing, administration, or execution of the Laws, by which they consent to be governed. They are themselves imaged and as it were epitomised, in their three several Estates. The King represents their Majesty; the Lords their Nobility; and the Commons, more immediately, their legislative Power. The Constitution is the Inheritance of them and their Posterity; and theirs is the Right and Duty, at all Times, to watch over, assert, and reclaim it. Wherefore, as you find in History, when Any of the three Estates have usurped upon the Others; even when All of them together have dared to violate the Frame of this salutary Constitution; the People, to whom it belongs, have never failed, as on the other Day's Revolution, to restore and reinstate it.
England
's three
