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A L 1. 



tenant or vad'al. But wlien the ackiiowlcdpfmcnl was niHilo 

 u) the fiiptrior lord liinil'tlf, wlu) was va(l'al to no man, it 

 was no longer called the oath of fealty, but the oath of 

 allegiance ; and therein the tenant fwore to hear faith to his 

 lovercign lord, in oppolition to all men, without any laving 

 la- exeeption ; " contra onines homines fidelitatcm fecit." 

 Land held by this exalted fpecics of fealty was called 

 " Fcudumlirrltim," a lit gc fee, the vafTals "homines ligei," or 

 liege men ; and the fovereign their " doniinns ligius," or liege 

 lord. And when fuvereign princes diij homage to each other 

 lor lands held under their relpec^ive fovcrcignties, a dillinftion 

 was always made between ym,;^/(> homage, which was only 

 an acknowledgment of tenure, and AV^v homage, which in- 

 cluded the fealty before mentioned, and the ferviccs confe- 

 qnent upon it. Thus, when our Edward III. in 1329, 

 did liomage to Philip VI. of France, for his ducal domi- 

 nions on that continent, it was warmly difputed of what 

 fpecics the lunr.age was to be, whether AV/c or fimpk ho- 

 mage. But with us in England, it becoming a fettled prin- 

 ciple of tenure, that all lands in the kingdom are holden of 

 the king as their lovereign or lord paramount, no oath but 

 that of fealty could be taken to ir.ferior lords, and the oath 

 of allegiance was necefTarily confined to the perfon of the 

 king alone. By an eafy analogy the term of allegiance rt-as 

 foon brought to fignify all other engagements, which are 

 due from fubjeCls to their prince, as well as thofe duties 

 which were luiiply and merely territorial. And the oath of 

 allegiance, as adniinillercd fur nj/wards of 600 years, con- 

 tained a promife " to be true and faithful to the king and 

 •' his heirs, and truth and faith to bear of life and limb, and 

 " terrene honour, and not to know or hear of any ill or da- 

 " mage intended him, without defending liim therefrom." 

 At the revolution, the terms of this oath being thought to 

 favour too much the notion of non-refiltanee, the prefent 

 foiTTi was introduced by the convention parliament, vliich 

 is more general and indeterminate than the former ; the 

 , fubjeCt only pnnnifing " that he will be faithful and bear 

 " true allegiance to the king," without mentioning " his 

 lieirs," or ipecifying in the leall wherein that allegiance 

 confilts. Accordingly, the convention of cllates haviu':; of- 

 fered the crown to the prince and princefs of Orange, who 

 accepted it, the old oaths of allegiance inipofed by the 

 llat. I Eliz. and 3 James I. were abrogated ; and a new 

 oath was drawn up to be taken by all the fubjcfls of Eng- 

 land, on penalty of being deprived of all employments, civil, 

 military, and ccclefiallieal. The form of the oath of alle- 

 giance by I Geo. ilat. ii. c. 13. is " I, y1. B. do fineerely 

 " promife and fwear, that I will be faithful, and bear true 

 " allegiance to his majelly king George. So help nie 

 " God." This oath may be tendered to all perfons above 

 the age of 12 years, whether natives, deni/cns, or aliens, 

 either in the court-lect of the manor, or in the flicriff's 

 tourn, which is the court-leet of t'ac county. See Pr^.mu- 

 NIRE. The quakers are exempted from taking the oath 

 of allegiance ; and, in lieu thereof, are only enjoined a de- 

 claration of fidelity, 8 Geo. c. vi. The oath of allegiance, 

 taken by the people to the king, is only the counterpart 

 to the coronation oath, taken by tlie king to the people ; 

 and, as fuch, jiartakes of the nature of a covenant : that 

 is, is conditional, and ccafes on a violation of the contract 

 by the prince : at leafl this is the doftrine of fome of the 

 chief advocates ior the revolution. The anti-revolutioncrs, 

 on the contrary, held the oath (.f allegiance to be abfolute 

 and unconditional. Archdeacon Paley, in his illullration 

 of this oath, obferves, that it excludes all intenti<m to fup- 

 port the claims or pretcnfions of any other perfon or perfons 

 to the crown and government, than llie reigning ioveriign; 

 Vol. I. 



arid alio all delign, at the time, of attempting to depol'c 

 the reigning prince, ior any realon whatever; and that it 

 forbids the taking \ip of arms againll the reigning prince, 

 with views of private advancement, or from motive,, of pti- 

 fonal refentment or dillikt. On tiie other hand, this oath 

 permits relitlance to the king, when iiis ill-behaviour or 

 imbecility is fuch, as to make rcfillance beneficial to the 

 community ; nor does it require obedience to fuch ccin- 

 mands of the king as are unauthoriled by the law, or tliat 

 wt fliould continue our allegiance to the king, after he 

 is aftuallv and abfolutelv depofed, driven into exile, carried 

 away captive, or otherwife rendered incapable of excrcifiujj 

 the regal office, whether by his fault or without it. 



Beiides this exprefs engagement, the law alio holds, that 

 there is an implied, original and virtual allegiance, owing 

 trom every fubjetl to his fovercign, antecedently to any ex- 

 prefs promife ; and althotigh the fubjecl never fworc any 

 faith or allegiance in form. For as the king, by the very 

 defcent of the crown, is fully invellcd with all the rights, 

 and bound to all the duties of fovereignty, before his coro- 

 nation ; fo the fubjedt is bound to his prince by an intrinfic 

 allegiance, before the fuperindudtion of thofe out\vard bonds 

 of oath, homage and fealty, which were oiilv inllituted to 

 remind the fuhj( ft of his previous duty, and for the better 

 fecuring its pci-forn.ance. The formal profeflion, therefore, 

 or oath of fubjeition, is nothing more than a declaration in 

 words of what was before implied in law. 



Allegiance, both exprefs and implied, is however didin- 

 guilhed by the law into natiu-al and local; the former being 

 alfo perpi lual, and the latter temporarv. Natural allegiance is 

 hichasis due froniall men born within the king'sdominions im- 

 mediately upon their birth ; for innncdiately upon their birth, 

 they are under the king's protetlion ; at a time too, when 

 (during their infancy) they are incapable of protecting them- 

 fclvcs. Natural allegiance, therefore, is a debt of gratitude, 

 which cannot be forfeited, cancelled or altered, iiy any change 

 of time, place orcircumllance,nor by any thing but the united 

 concurrence of the legillature. An Englifliman who removes 

 to France, or to China, owes the fame allegiance to the king 

 of England there as at home, and 20 years hence as well as 

 now. For it is a principle of univerlal law, that the natural 

 born fubjeft of one prince camiot by any aft of his own, no, 

 not by iwearing allegiance to another, put ofl or difcharge 

 his natural allegiance to the former; for this natural alle- 

 giance was intrinfic and primitive, and antecedent to thtr 

 other, and cannot be divellcd without the concurrent aCt of 

 that prince to whom it was firit due. 



Local allegiance is Inch as is due trom an alien, or (Iran- 

 ger born, for fo long time as he continues within the king's 

 dominion and jn'otcftiiui ; and it ccafes the inflant (uch llran- 

 ger transfers himfelf from this kingdom to another. Natu- 

 ral allegiance is, therefore, perpetual, and local, temporary 

 only ; and that for this reafoii, evidently founded upon the 

 nature of government, that allegiance is a debt due from 

 the fubjeft, upon an imphed contraft with the prince, that 

 fo long as the one afTinds proteftion, fo long the other will 

 demean himfelf faithfully. As therefore the prince is always 

 under a conllant tie to proteft his natural born fubjefts at 

 all times, and in all countries, for this reafon their allegiance 

 due to him is equally univerlal and permanent. But, on the 

 other hand, as the prince affords his proteftion to an alien, 

 only during his refidence in this realm, the :dlegiancc of an 

 alien is confined, in point of time, to the duration of fuch his 

 refidence ; and, in point of locality, to the dominions of the 

 Brilifli empire. Blackllone's Com. book i. eh. 10. vol. i. 



^f/i — 371. 8vo. P;iley's Principles of Moral and Pohtie-al 



Philolojihy. 



book iii. eh. 18. vol. 

 4U 



p. 203- 



-207. 8vo. 



ALLE- 



