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laws of the country may derive title from them, fubjeft 

 to the conditions which the ftate has impofed on the en- 

 joyment ; but reverting to the ftate if thofe conditions 

 are not obferved, or if there ceafe to be perfons who can 

 derive title from the original grantees according to the 

 eftabliftied law. Other parts of the territory, appro- 

 priated to the public ufe for roads and other purpofes, 

 remain, unqueftionably, to every purpofe, the property 

 of the ftate ; and other parts, appropriated neither to any 

 individual nor to any general ufe, remain alfo the pro- 

 perty of the ftate. The hiftory of every country, perhaps, 

 affords numerous illuftrations of this doclrine. Among 

 the Saxons in England, if the principle had been wanting 

 to their German anceftors (which hiftory, and particularly 

 the admirable fketch of German manners and cuftoms 

 given by Tacitus, proves not to have been the cafe) it 

 muft inftantly have occurred, that what was obtained by 

 the arms of all was the property of all ; and that no in- 

 dividual could juftly claim a (hare of the conqueft but 

 fubjeft to the public right. The principle is at this mo- 

 ment daily illuftrated in the example of the ftates of North 

 America, where the unappropriated land is emphatically 

 ftiled the land of the ftate within whofe boundary it lies, 

 and is fubjeft to the difpofition of the ftate. 



In England the king is the fole reprefentattve of the 

 ftate ; the Englifh government being a pure monarchy, tho 

 a limited, not an abfolute monarchy. All the powers of 

 government are centered in the crown, legiflative as well 

 as executive ; but to be excrcifed only within the bounds 

 and under the controul which the conftitution has efta- 

 bliftied. It is this purity of the monarchy which has given 

 to the Englifti government the folidity and force of an 

 abfolute monarchy, while the controul impofed upon it 

 cnfures to the people the full blefling of political and civil 



y 4 liberty. 



