Ij6 on the constiiutiotu '^^'g. 8'.. 



In looking back, to the history of past times, we 

 find that the earliest form of government that can be 

 traced is the regal : and the royal authority in the 

 Asiatic dominions, in general, seems to have been> 

 subject to few restraints. As far as their history 

 can be traced, the decrees of the prince constituted 

 the law of the land. Despotism appears to have been. 

 congenial to these climates. And it has there taken 

 such firm root as still to prevail in that fine country. 

 Human nature, of course, appears in Asia only in a 

 degraded state. The faculties of the mind seem not 

 to have been there ever fully developed. Their vi- 

 cious system of government reprefses every noble 

 exertion ; and we there look in vain for that energe- 

 tic ardour which conscious independence can alone, 

 inspire. 



From Asia, we have good reason ta believe that 

 Europe was originally peopled. And the colonies^ 

 which migrated from thence naturally introduced 

 the same form of government they had experienced, 

 at home. In this way we find that the earliest states 

 in Europe, that occur in history, were subjected to 

 xegal authority : but by degrees the people becoming 

 sensible of the abuses to which power gave rise 

 among them,, endeavoured to vindicate their rights,, 

 by not only destroying the tyrants, but also by sub- 

 jecting those who were intrusted with sovereiga 

 sway, to'various restraints,, with a view to prevent: 

 those evils which unlimited power in the sovereign 

 had engendered. To circumstances of this sort we 

 axe to attribute, the origin of what, has been called the. 



