308 GOVERNMENT, LAWS, [PART Ii r 



" The Laws' of England are the Birthright of 

 " the People of England." The Boroughmon- 

 gers, by giving new powers to Justices of the 

 Peace and Judges, setting aside the trial by 

 Jury in many cases, both of property and per 

 son, even before the present horrible acts; and 

 by a thousand other means, have, by Acts of 

 Parliament, greatly despoiled us of the Law of 

 the Land; but, never have they given us any 

 one good in addition to it. 



413. The Americans have taken special care 

 to prevent the like encroachments on their 

 rights : so that, while they have Courts of Jus 

 tice, Juries, Judges, Sheriffs, and the rest, as 

 we have ; while they have all the good part of 

 the Laws now in force in England, they have 

 none of the bad. They have none of that Sta- 

 tute Law of England, or Act of Parliament 

 Law, which has robbed us of a great part, and 

 the best part of our " Birthright." 



414. It is, as I said before, not my intention 

 to go much into particulars here ; but, I cannot 

 refrain from noticing, that the People of Ame 

 rica, when they come to settle their new go 

 vernments, took special care to draw up specific 

 Constitutions, in which they forbade any of 

 their future law-makers to allow of any Titles 

 of Nobility, any Privileged Class, any Esta 

 blished Church, or, to pass any law to give to 



