would be sure to find them ready sincerely to join in the support of every important branch of public liberty.

Present or expected personal power, and independence on the laws, being now the consequence of the trust of the people,-wherever they should apply for servants, they would only meet with betrayers. Corrupting, as it were, every thing they should touch, they could confer no favour upon an individual but to destroy his public virtue; and (to repeat the words used in a former chapter) "their raising a man would only be immediately inspiring him with views directly opposite to "their own, and sending him to increase the num"ber of their enemies."

All these considerations strongly point out the very great caution which is necessary to be used in the difficult business of laying new restraints on the governing authority. Let therefore the less informed part of the people, whose zeal requires to be kept up by visible objects, look (if they choose) upon the crown as the only seat of the evils they are exposed to; mistaken notions on their part are less dangerous than political indifference; and they are more easily directed than roused;-but, at the same time, let the more enlightened part of the nation constantly remember, that the constitution only subsists by virtue of a proper equilibrium,-by a discriminating line being drawn between power and liberty.

Made wise by the examples of several other

nation, by those which the history of this very country affords, let the people, in the heat of their struggles in the defence of liberty, always take heed, only to reach, never to overshoot the mark, -only to repress, never to transfer and diffuse power.

Amidst the alarms that may at particular times arise from the really awful authority of the crown, let it, on one hand, be remembered, that even the power of the Tudors was opposed and subdued,and, on the other, let it be looked upon as a fundamental maxim, that, whenever the prospect of personal power and independence on the governing authority shall offer to the view of the members of the legislature, or in general of those men to whom the people must trust, even hope itself is destroyed. The Hollander, in the midst of a storm, though trusting to the experienced strength of the mounds that protect him, shudders, no doubt, at the sight of the foaming element that surrounds him; but they all gave themselves over for lost, when they thought the worm had penetrated into their dykes.*

* Such new forms as may prove destructive of the real substance of a government may be unwarily adopted, in the same manner as the superstitious notions and practices described in my work, entitled Memorials of Human Superstition, may be introduced into a religion, so as entirely to subvert the true spirit of it.

CHAPTER XX.

A few additional Observations on the Right of Taxation, which is lodged in the Hands of the Representatives of the People. What kind of Danger this Right may be exposed to.

THE generality of men, or at least of politicians, seem to consider the right of taxing themselves, enjoyed by the English nation, as being no more than the means of securing their property against the attempts of the crown; while they overlook the nobler and more extensive efficiency of that privilege.

The right to grant subsidies to the crown, possessed by the people of England, is the safeguard of all their other liberties, religious and civil; it is a regular mean conferred on them by the constitution, of influencing the motion of the executive power; and it forms the tie by which the latter is bound to them. In short, this privilege is a sure pledge in their hands, that their sovereign, who can dismiss their representatives at his pleasure, will never entertain thoughts of ruling without the assistance of these.

If, through unforeseen events, the crown could attain to be independent on the people in regard to its supplies, such is the extent of its preroga

tive, that, from that moment, all the means the people possess to vindicate their liberty would be annihilated. They would have no resource left,except indeed that uncertain and calamitous one, of an appeal to the sword; which is no more, after all, than what the most enslaved nations enjoy.

Let us suppose, for instance, that abuses of power should be committed, which, either by their immediate operation, or by the precedent they might establish, should undermine the liberty of the subject. The people, it will be said, would then have their remedy in the legislative power possessed by their representatives. The latter would, at the first opportunity, interfere, and frame such bills as would prevent the like abuses for the future. But here we must observe, that the assent of the sovereign is necessary to make those bills become laws: and if, as we have just now supposed, he had no need of the support of the commons, how could they obtain his assent to laws thus purposely framed to abridge his authority?

Again, let us suppose that, instead of contenting itself with making slow advances to despotism, the executive power, or its minister, should at once openly invade the liberty of the subject. Obnoxious men, printers for instance, or political writers, might be persecuted by military violence, or, to do things with more security, with the forms of law. Then, it will be said, the representatives

of the people would impeach the persons concerned in those measures. Though unable to reach a king who personally can do no wrong, they at least would attack those men who were the immediate instruments of his tyrannical proceedings, and endeavour, by bringing them to condign punishment, to deter future judges or ministers from imitating their conduct. All this I grant; and I will even add, that, circumstanced as the representatives of the people now are, and having to do with a sovereign who can enjoy no dignity without their assistance, it is most likely that their endeavours in the pursuit of such laudable objects would prove successful. But if, on the contrary, the king, as we have supposed, stood in no need of their assistance, and moreover knew that he should never want it, it is impossible to think that he would then suffer himself to remain a tame spectator of their proceedings. The impeachments thus brought by them would immediately prove the signal of their dismission; and the king would make haste, by dissolving them, both to revenge what would then be called the insolence of the commons, and to secure his ministers.

But even those are vain suppositions; the evil would reach much farther; and we may be assured that, if ever the crown should be in a condition to govern without the assistance of the representatives of the people, it would dismiss them for ever, and thus rid itself of an assembly which, continuing to be a clog on its power, would no