GOVERNMENT. 
but then, in abfoUite monarchies, there is imminent 
danger of his empjoying tliat llrengtii to oppreffiv^e pur- 
pofes. 
Thus thefe three forms of government ha'^e, all of 
them, their feveral perfeilions and imperfections. De¬ 
mocracies are iifiially the beft calculated to direft the 
end of a law, ariftocracies to invent the means by which 
that end fliall be obtained, and monarchies to carry 
thole means into execution. The ancients had no idea 
of any other permanent form o/l government but thefe 
three: for thoueh Cicero declares himfelf of opinion, 
“ ejfe optime conjlilutam rempubticam, qiice cx Iribus gencribus 
tills, regdli, optima, et populari. Jit modice confvj'a," yet Ta¬ 
citus treats this notion of a mixed government, formed 
out of them all, and partaking of the advantages of each, 
as a vifionary fabric, which could never be lalHng or 
fee lire. 
But, happily for Englifimen, The Britifh Conftitu- 
tion has long remained, and it is to be hoped will 
long continue, a Handing exception to the truth of this 
obfervation. For as, with us, the executive power of 
the laws is lodged in a fingle peribn, they have all the 
advantages of ftrength and difpatch, that are to be found 
in the moll abfolute monarchy : and as the legiflature 
of this kingdom is intrufted to three dillindl powers, 
entirely independent of each other; firll the King; fe- 
condly the Lords fpiritual and temporal, which is an 
ariltocratical alfembiy of perfons felefted for their jiiety, 
their birth, their wifdom, their valour, or their pro¬ 
perty ; and tliirdly the Houle of Commons, freely chofen 
by the people front among themfelves, which makes it 
a kind of democracy; as this aggregate body, aiSluated 
by different fprings, and attentive to dilFei'ent interells, 
conipofes the Britilh parliament, and has the fupreme 
difpofal of every thing; there can be no inconvenience 
attempted by either of the three branches, but which 
will be withllood by one of the other two ; each branch 
being armed with a negative power, fufficient to repel 
any innovation which it fliall think inexpedient or dan¬ 
gerous. 
Here then is lodged the Sovereignty of the Britilli 
Conllitution ; and lodged as beneficially as is polTible for 
fociety. For in no other fliape could we be lo certain 
of finding the three great qualities of government fo 
well and lb happily united. If the fupreme power were 
lodged in any of the three branches feparately, we mull 
be expofed to the inconveniences, of either abfolute 
monarchy, ariflocracy, or democracy, and fo want two 
of tite-three principal ingredients of good policy, cither 
virtue, wifdom, or power. If it were lodged in any 
two of the branches ; for inftance in the king and heufe 
of lords, our laws might be providentially made, and 
well executed, but they might not have always the 
good of the people in view : if lodged in the king and 
commons, we lliould want that circumfpedlion and me¬ 
diatory caution which the wifdom of the peers is to 
afford: if the fupreme rights of legiflature were lodged 
in the two houfes only, and the king had no negative 
upon their proceeding, they might be tempted to in- 
croach upon the royal prerogative, or perhaps to abolilh 
the kingly office, and thereby weaken (if not totally de- 
flroy) the ll/^ngth of the executive power. But the 
conllitutional government of this ifland is fo admirably 
tempered and compounded, that nothing can endanger 
or hurt it, but deliroying the equilibrium of power be¬ 
tween one branch of the legiflature and the reft. For if 
ever it Ihould happen that the independence of any one 
of the three Ihould be loft, or that it lliould become 
fubfervient to the views of either of the other two, 
there would foon be an end of our conftitution. i Black- 
Jione’sComm. 48—52. Introd. 
Of tlie Britilh Conllitution, archdeacon Paley has 
given the following analyfis :—By the conftitution of a 
country is meant fo much of its law, as relates to the 
defignation and form of the legiflature; the rights and 
VOL.VIII. No. 541. 
745 
funflions of the feveral parts of the legillative body ; 
the conftruflion, office, and jurifdiclioii, of courts, ol 
juftice. The conftitution is one principal divifton, lec¬ 
tion, or title, of the code of public lavrs ; diftinguiftied 
from tlie reft only by the Inperior importance of the 
lubjedl of which it treats. Therefore the ' is conjlitu- 
tioual and vnconjlitutional, mean legal and gal. The 
dillinction and the ideas, which thefe tern 'enotc, are 
founded in the fame authority with the 1: of the land 
upon any other fubjebl ; and to be afcen.dned by the 
fame inquiries. In Enrtland, the fyllem of public jiirif- 
prudence is made up of acts of parliament, of decifions 
of courts of law, and of immemorial ulages : confe- 
quently, thefe are the principles of which the Englilh 
conftitution itfelf confills; the fources from which all 
our knowledge of its nature and limitations is to be de¬ 
duced, and the authorities to wdiich all appeal ought 
to be made, and by which every conllitutional doubt 
and queftion can alone be decided. This plain and in¬ 
telligible definition is tlie more neceifary to be preferved 
in our tlioughts, as fome writers upon the fubjedt ab- 
furdly confound what is conllitiitionnl, with what is 
expedient; pronouncing forthwith a meafure to be un- 
coiiftitutional, which they adjudge in any relpeft to be 
detrimental or dangerous: wiiilft others again aferibe a 
kind of tranfeendant autliority', or myfterious lanclity, 
to the conftitution, as if it were founded in fome liigher 
original than that which gives force and obligation to 
the o'rdin.ary laws and ftatutes of tlie realm, or were in¬ 
violable on any other account than its intrinlic utility. 
An all of parliament in England can never be uncon- 
ftitutional, in the Uriel and proper acceptation of the 
term; in a lower fenfe it may, viz. when it militates 
againft the fpirit, contradills the analogy, or defeats the 
provilion, of other law's, made to regulate the form of 
government. Even that flagitious abufe of their trull, 
by which a parliament of Henry the Eighth conferred 
upon the king’s proclamation the authority ol law, was 
uiiconftitutional only in this latter fenfe. 
Molt of thofe who treat of the Britilh conftitution, 
conlider it as a fcheme of government formerly planned 
and contrived by our ancellors, in fome certain era of 
our national hiltory, and as fet up in purjuance of Inch 
regular plan and defign. Something of this fort is le- 
cretly fuppofed, or referred to, in the expreflions of 
thofe who fpeak of the “ principle of the conllitution,” 
of bringing back the conftitution to its “ firll princi¬ 
ples,” of relloring it to its-“ original purity,” or “ pri¬ 
mitive model.” Now this appears to be an erroneous 
conception of the fubjedt. No fuch plan was ever 
formed, confequently no fuch firll principles, original 
model, or ftandard, exill. That is, there never was a 
date or pioint of time in our hillory, when the govern¬ 
ment of England was to be fet iip anew, and when it was 
referred to any lingle perfon, or all'embly, or committee, .f 
to frame a charter for the future government of the 
country ; or when a conftitution, fo prepared and di. 
gelled, was by common confent receiv'ed and ellablillied. 
In the time of the civil wars, or rather between the 
death of Charles the Firll and the reftoration of his fon, 
many fuch projefts were publilhed, but none were car¬ 
ried into execution. The magna charta, and the bill 
of rights, were wife and llrenuous efforts to obtain lecu- 
rity againft certain abufes ot regal power, by which the 
fubjedt had been formerly aggrieved; but thefe w'ere, 
either of them, much too partial modifications ot the 
conftitution to give it a new original. The conllitution 
of England, like that of moil countries in Europe, hath 
grown out of occafion and emergency ; from the fluelu- 
ating policy of different ages ; from the contentions, 
I'uccefles, interells, and opportunities, of different orders 
and parties of men in the community. It relembles one 
of thofe old manfions, which inltead of being built all 
at once, after a regular plan, and according to the rules 
of archiieHure at prefent eftablilhed, has been reared in 
5 D different 
