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laws of the country may derive title from them, fubje£l 

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

 joyment ; but reverting to the flate if thofe conditions 

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

 derive title from the original grantees according to the 

 eftablifhed law. Other parts of the territory, appro- 

 priated to the public ufc for roads and other purpofes, 

 remain, unqueftionably, to every purpofe, the property 

 of the (late ; 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 dodrine. 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 occured, that what was obtained by 

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

 dividual could juftly claim a fhare 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 

 {tiled the land of the ftate within whofe boundary it lies, 

 and is fubjedl to the difpofition of the ftate. 



In England the king is the fole reprefentative of the 

 ftate ; the Englifti government being ti pure monarchy, tho 

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

 government arc centered in the crown, legiflative as well 

 as executive \ but to be exercifed 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 tiie folidity and force of an 

 abfolute monarchy, while the controul impofed upon it 

 cnfures to the people the full blcfting of political and civil 



liberty. 



