they were upheld. (See Observations on the Star Chamber, and other Summary Tribunals, in the Minutes of Lord Somers' Speech on the Bill for Abolishing the Privy Council of Scotland, Hardw. St. Papers, Vol. II. p. 473. On the Court at York, Rushworth, Vol. II. p. 158, Life of Clarendon, 4 Inst. c. 49. On the Court of the Marches, Bacon's Works, Vol. IV. Concerning Cromwell's High Court of Justice. The References in Grey's Hudibras, Part II. Canto 2. 1. 325, Harris's Life of Cromwell, p. 449, "Cromwell's New Slaughterhouse," Walker on Independency, Part III. On the Ecclesiastical Commission of James II, Clarke's Stuart Papers, Vol. II. p. 88. et seq. Lord Lonsdale's Memoirs, Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham's Works, a Letter stating the Ground for his consenting to sit as a Member of the High Commission. Sir R. Atkyns's Tracts. Cases of Magdalene College, and Cambridge University, St. Tr.)

CHAP. XXXVII.

SAINT Thomas, in the book which he addresses to the king of Cyprus (de regimine principum) says, that a king is given for the sake of the kingdom, and not a kingdom for the sake of the king." Consequently all kingly power ought to be aplied for, and to center in the good of the Kingdom or State: which, in effect, consists in the defence of the subject from the incursions of other nations, and in the protection of their lives and properties from injuries and violence as to one another. A king who cannot come up to this character, is to be looked upon as weak: but if, through his own passions, poverty, or want of economy, he be in so distressed a condition, that he cannot keep his hands off from seizing on his subjects' property; by means whereof he so impoverishes them, that their estates are not sufficient to maintain both in how much a more impotent despicable condition may we justly reckon such a prince to be, than if he were barely unable to defend them against the injuries of others? Such a prince, indeed, is not only to be called weak, but weakness itself; and is far from being a proper head of a free people, whilst he labours under such pressures and obligations. On the other hand, he may well be esteemed a free and powerful prince, who can protect his subjects, against a foreign force as against one another: their properties are safe with respect to their neighbours

and fellow-citizens, not liable to the oppression or depredation of any one: not even though the prince himself should have passions and occasions of his own to gratify: for who can be more powerful or free than that prince who cannot only bring others within due bounds, but can also get the better of his own passions? which that prince can, and always does, who governs his people in the political way. So that experience sufficiently shews you, my Prince, that those ancestors of yours, who were so much set upon abolishing the political form of government, had they been able to have compassed it, would not only have been disappointed of their aim and wish of enlarging their power thereby; but would, by this means, have exposed both themselves and the whole kingdom to far greater mischief and more eminent danger. Nevertheless, what we have shewn from the experience of the ill effects of a despotic government, which may seem to check and lessen the power of an absolute prince, do in reality rather proceed from a want of due care, and from misbehaviour, than from any defect in that law by which he governs. And therefore the regal power or dignity itself is not hereby lessened: since the power, whether of an absolute prince, or of one limited by laws (as I have evidently shewn in the aforesaid Treatise of the Law of Nature) is equal. But, that the power of an absolute prince is attended with much more difficulty in the exercise of it, and with less security both to king and people, the foregoing observations do, I think, sufficiently demonstrate. So that a wise prince would not wish to change the political form of government for an absolute: and for the same reason it is, that St. Thomas is supposed to wish, that all the kingdoms and nations of the world were governed in the political way".

a

A very perverse use is made of some passages in this chapter by Sir John Davies, in his Treatise on Impositions.

He

He observes, that the King of England, according to Fortescue, has equal power with other monarchs, and thence infers that he has a right to lay impositions on his subjects, in the same manner that they do. It was usual in the time of King James, to attempt to support the arbitrary measures of the Government, by arguments drawn from the prerogatives of foreign princes. In Sir W. Temple's Memoirs, is related a curious conversation, relative to the subject in the text, between King Charles the Second and Gonovelt the French Ambassador, in which the latter gives it as his opinion, conformably to the sentiments of Fortescue, "that a King of England who will be the man of his people, is the greatest King in the world, but if he would be any thing more, he is nothing at all."

CHAP. XXXVIII.

Prince. You will, I hope, excuse it, my Chancellor, that while I have been proposing my doubts and queries, I have obliged you to digresss so far from the main point. What you have explained by the way, has been very instructive, though it may have a little taken you off from your principal design; I now earnestly desire you, forthwith to proceed; and, as you at first set out and promised me, that you would please to declare some other cases, in the decision whereof the Laws of England, and the Civil Law of Nations observe a different method of procedure.