l6o on the constitution, -^t^g- 8. 



ought to be supported ? Whenever we depart from 

 them, fliould we, through ignorance or inadvertency- 

 dp so, we wifh to be instantly abandoned by all the 

 world. He who sets us right in such a case will be 

 deemed our best friend. We contend not for vic- 

 tory : the welfare of our country, an4 the happi- 

 nefs of her people, are the objects we have in view, 

 and the sole end of all our struggles. 



It is worthy of remark, that experience in modern 

 times fliould have proved, that the peaceful security 

 to the subject w^as best to be obtained by a procedure 

 directly the reverse of what the ancients seemed to 

 think constituted the very efsence of freedom ; and 

 that the same experience fhould have proved that it 

 was even best to be obtained by a procedure that 

 reason, unaided by experience, would in all cases 

 pronounce to be preposterous and absurd. After 

 long experiencing the multiplied evils that proceed- 

 ed from the frequent elections of the first magistrate, 

 they came, at last, universally, in every country in 

 Europe, to confer upon him that authority ybr life. 

 Contrary to what might have been expected by rea- 

 soning a priori on this subject, it was soon found that 

 this alteration tended very much to augment the 

 public security, when accompanied with some other 

 salutary regulations that experience enabled them 

 also "jradually to discover. Nor did they stop here : 

 the same experience enabled them to discover that 

 the benefits that were derived from rendering the 

 chief magistracy hereditary in one family, rather than 

 eleciive,were also great and unequivocal. Thence ithas 

 happened that as the benefits resulting from personal 



