504 On the Foundation Qf Civil Government. 



houfeholders paying (as the term is in England) 

 fcot and lot. 



Notwithftanding however I incline upon the 

 whole to the propriety of fuch an exclufion as 

 here propofed, I ftill think the fubjeft requires 

 more difcuflion than has yet been given it ; and 

 that to make the exclufion itfelf equitable, no 

 punifhment ought to be enjoined involving the 

 clafs excluded, which every other individual would 

 not be equally fubjed to, for the fame crime : 

 and alfo that no regulations ought to be made 

 refpeding the individuals of the clafs thus ex- 

 cluded, and thofe of any other, which in their 

 operation would not be equally beneficial to 

 both ; and laftly, that free egrefs out of the 

 community fhould be allowed to all thofe who are 

 difinclined to (lay in it ; in which cafe perhaps 

 an implied confent may fairly be prefumed on 

 the part of thofe who voluntarily remain. 



XXVII. This laft condition is indeed con- 

 trary to a maxim (I believe) univerfal among 

 municipal lawyers, viz. that *«^ the natural born 

 " fubjefl of a Itate is under an obligation to 

 *' perpetual allegiance" — a maxim (already no- 

 ticed in Prop. I. and) beyond all doubt abfurd 

 and tyrannical — abfurd in as much as all civil 

 fociety is founded on compad, and no compad 

 can be valid iinlefs between parties able and 

 ■willing to contradj but the mere fortuitous cir- 

 cumftance of being born here or there in this 



ftate 



