This
power is and ever was inherent in the supreme sovereignty, and was not,
as the political divines vainly talk, acquired by the Revolution. It is
declared in the old statute of Queen Elizabeth. Such a power must reside
in the complete sovereignty of every kingdom; and it is in fact
exercised in all of them. But this right of _competence_ in the
legislature, not in the people, is by the legislature itself to be
exercised with _sound discretion_: that is to say, it is to be exercised
or not, in conformity to the fundamental principles of this government,
to the rules of moral obligation, and to the faith of pacts, either
contained in the nature of the transaction or entered into by the body
corporate of the kingdom,--which body in juridical construction never
dies, and in fact never loses its members at once by death.
Whether this doctrine is reconcilable to the modern philosophy of
government I believe the author neither knows nor cares, as he has
little respect for any of that sort of philosophy. This may be because
his capacity and knowledge do not reach to it.
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