ZlS on the constitution. -^^S- 22. 



to venerate that branch of our kglslatore, as that 

 part of it which approaches the nearest to its origi- 

 nal. We cannot forget thai when the foundations of 

 this constitution were laid, every free-man in the 

 state, was, by birth, an undoubted legislator for the 

 country. Hereditary legislation is, therefore, so far 

 from being an innovation in our constitution, that it 

 may be considered a-j the oldest, and ihs most un- 

 doubted fundamental part of it ; and that part to which 

 it owes its permanence and stability. When, in- 

 deed, a great majority of these hereditary legisla- 

 tors found it convenieiTt, from a change of circum- 

 stances, voluntarily to relinquifli their privilege of 

 legislating, a new mode of supplying that deficiency, 

 and of guarding against the power of a domineering 

 aristocracy, became necefsary to be adopted. It was 

 this arrangement, which went to compel the people 

 of smaller property, much against their wills indeed, 

 still to retain a fhare in the legislature, that at length 

 produced that mixed form of government we now 

 enjoy, which pofsefses the advantages of all the forms 

 of government adopted by the ancients, without the 

 inconveniencies to which these were severally sub- 

 jected. We venerate this system, and we would al- 

 most adore the wisdom that formed it, could we flatter 

 ourselvee with the idea that chance had not, at the be- 

 ginning, had a considerable fhare in the formation of 

 it. Without entering into this discufsion, our ob- 

 ject is, by a retrospective view, to examine that sys- 

 tem, and to correct such abuses, as by imperceptible 

 degrees have jegun to prevail, and, acquiring strength 

 by a, continuation of habit, threaten at length, if not 



