in chief of all the militia. They had likewife a court of law, called the fhire-court. Thefe divifions in the land may be termed the fkeleton of the conftitution.

We may confider each fhire as a complete government, furnished with a civil and military power. The expence attending each government of a fhire was merely local, and confined to the fhire, which was fupported by taxes charged upon the people by the fhire-gemot, with the affiftance of certain lands appropriated to that purpose, which was a diftin&t thing from a national expence, and never brought to the national

account.

The kingdoms of the heptarchy were formed by the Saxon leaders, and their followers, upon the fame principles which they used in every other establishment. Let us suppose that one of these kingdoms confifted of five thires: then the chief magiftrates of all the tithings within the five fhires were deputed to compofe this parliament. It must be remembered that there was one chief magistrate in every tithing. The conftituent parts of this legiflative authority confifted of two bodies. of men, which respectively reprefented the inhabitants of the towns, and the inhabitants of the rural parts, or tithings of the kingdom. The majority of voices in this affembly always bound the whole, and determined for any measure that was fuppofed conducive to the good of the whole combined body. Every member of parliament was elected by virtue of his office, which was that of chief magistrate of a town or rural tithing; to this office he was annually elected. Hence the people delegated their power to their parliamentary reprefentatives only for one year; and hence it was not in the power of the king to continue the fame parliament for a longer time.

One of the feven kings of the heptarchy was always chofen generaliffimo over the whole body; and they appointed him a ftanding council of a certain number of deputies from each. state, without whofe advice and concurrence, it is probable, he could not act. Thofe deputies, who compofed this great ftanding council, were appointed to their truft by the joint confent of the king and parliament of the little kingdom from which they were fent. This council was the origin of our houfe of lords.

After the Saxons had made a conqueft of England from the Britons, they began to quarrel among themselves which of the feven kingdoms fhould be the greateft. This dispute they carried on with various fuccefs for many years; till they were, at length, happily united into one kingdom under Alfred, the moft virtuous, and greatest prince that ever filled the English throne.

VOL. XXXI. January, 1771

C

After

After the union of the feven kingdoms a reduction of mem→ bers to ferve in parliament became abfolutely neceffary; because it was impracticable for all the members to attend in one parliament that used to attend in feven, without fuch anarchy and confufion as must counteract the very end of their meeting.

In the new-modelled parliament under Alfred, reprefentatives for the town-tithings were retained, but none for the rural tithings were admitted. Instead of the representatives of the rural tithings two new bodies of men were substituted. The first were the members of the great council of the nation, who, as hath been observed before, attended the generaliffimo under the heptarchy, and were now incorporated as a distinct branch of the parliament, under the monarchy. Shire elections were likewife conftituted for two members to represent a fhire; and every town tithing, or borough, formerly represented by one, fent two members to the general parliament. The great council, or the barons of the realm, were created by the mutual confent of the king and parliament; and the knights of the fhires, and the burgeffes, were elected by every inhabitant of the fhires and towns who payed his shot and bore his lot.

There were three things effential to Saxon policy, which they applied in every cafe where a combined intereft was concerned; and thefe were, a court of council, a court of law, and a chief magiftrate. The fame eftablishment held good in the administration of the government of the whole kingdom; for the high court of parliament was the court of council; the king's court was the court of law; and the king was the chief magiftrate. The only difference betwixt the king and an inferior chief magiftrate was in the circle and duration of their authority; the truft of the one was annual, and confined within the walls of his own city; that of the other was for life, and extended over the whole kingdom.

Thus our Saxon forefathers bade the fairest of any men to obtain a government formed upon the principles of wisdom; and their high sense upon this matter is most emphatically expreffed by the name they gave to their parliament; which, as hath been faid, they called the wittena-gemot, or an affembly of wife men.

We have made this abstract of our author's account of Saxon government, as it is the grand object which he has in view in most of his arguments, and as he thinks it the birth-right of Englishmen, who have always been injured in proportion as it has been violated.

This admirable conftitution received a defperate wound from William of Normandy, of which, in this gentleman's opinion, it is not yet recovered. We shall inform our readers, in his own words, how much we, as well as many other states, have been obliged to priests for political favours.

'Before I proceed to observe the deftruction that was made in the conftitution, or mode of government, by the fatal union of the church with William of Normandy, I must not forget to take notice, that I have not given the clergy a place in the Saxon parliaments; because they were foreign to the original inftitution, and only grafted themselves upon it, after it was established in England. But as they afterwards obtained fo confiderable a share, both in the legislative authority, and the administration of the government, it may not be amifs, to give fome account how they came by it.

The Roman pontiff had already extended his plan of church power, to a great degree; and the nature of the government introduced into Europe, by the northern nations, greatly contributed to his fuccefs. All hiftory is full of the dreadful confequences, that have attended the baneful influence, which every religious hierarchy hath always had, upon the bulk of mankind. And, a government, founded upon the elective power of the people, where their favour was the high road to riches, power, and grandeur, gave a fine opportunity to fuch an artful, defigning fet of men, by their intrigues, and influence, to procure themfelves, or their devotees, to be elected into the chief magiftracy of the towns, and country divifions. By this means they poffeffed themselves, in a great measure, of the legislative authority; and confequently became, in proportion, mafters of the ftate. For whoever is master of the legislative authority, in any state, is undoubt, edly master of that state.

Having thus taken poffeffion, as it were of the mansion, they were not long before they began to plunder it. However, they first established, and fecured, the power of the church, by a variety of laws, made in her favour; and defended them by every ecclefiaftical establishment, that papal cunning could in vent. So that they were now prepared to receive, in the name of the church, all the riches, honours, and power, which they could, by any means, obtain. And what is more, they knew too how to keep them, when they had obe tained them. For, according to their maxim, whatever was given to the church, was given to God; and, therefore, was never afterwards fubject to be taken away, by any earthly power whatever.

his deceafe, rouzed to indignation at this infult on public juf tice; and afking whether you are not afhamed, that when your fathers banished Arithmius the Zelian who brought in gold from Perfia; when they were fcarcely restrained from killing a man connected with the people in the most facred ties, and by public proclamation forbad him to appear in Athens, or in any part of the Athenian territory, yet you are going to crown Demofthenes with a golden crown, who did not bring in gold from Perfia, but received bribes himself, and fill poffeffes them! And can you imagine but that Themiftocles, and thofe who fell at Marathon, and those who died at Platea, and the very fepulchres of our ancestors muft groan if you confer a crown on this man, who confeffedly united with the barbarians against the Greeks?

And, now, bear witnefs for me, Thou Earth, Thou Sun, O Virtue, and Intelligence, and thou, O Erudition, which teacheft us the juft diftinction between vice and goodness, I have ftood up, I have spoken in the caufe of juftice. If I have fupported my profecution with a dignity befitting its importance, I have spoken as my wifhes dictated; if too deficiently, as my abilities admitted. Let what hath now been offered, and what your own thoughts must supply, be duely weighed, and pronounce fuch a fentence as juftice and the interefts of the ftate demand,'

Demofthenes thus concludes his oration. There are two diftinguishing qualities (Athenians !) which the virtuous citizen. fhould ever poffefs. (I fpeak in general terms, as the leaft invidious method of doing juftice to myfelf) a zeal for the honour and pre-eminence of the ftate, in his official conduct; on all occafions, and in all tranfactions, an affection for his country. This nature can beftow. Abilities and fuccefs depend upon another power. And in this affection you find me firm and invariable. Not the folenin demand of my perfon, not the vengeance of the Amphi@yonic council which they denounced against me, not the terror of their threatenings, not the flattery of their promifes, no, nor from the fury of those accurfed wretches, whom they roufed like wild beasts against me, could ever tear this affection from my breast. From first to laft, I have uniformly purfued the juft and virtuous courfe of conduct; affertor of the honours, of the prerogatives, of the glory of my country; ftudious to fupport them, zealous to advance them, my whole being is devoted to this glorious caufe. I was never known to march through the city, with a face of joy and exultation, at the fuccefs of a foreign power; embracing, and announcing the joyful tidings to thofe who, I fuppofed, would tranfinit it to the proper place. I was never known

was by banishing Robert, archbishop of Canterbury, as an incendiary, and fomenter of divifions between the king and his fubjects; and appointing, one Stigand, archbishop in his room. By this they faw, there was only one way to avoid the danger, and preferve, and extend their tyranny over the people; and that was, to destroy the elective power, and establish an arbitrary government, in the flate. This they were fo bold as to attempt, and so happy as to fee effected, by William the Baftard, duke of Normandy; who, in the year one thou fand and fixty-fix, put an end to the Saxon mode of government, which had fubfifted for fix hundred years'

On the death of Edward the Confeffor, the last of the Saxon kings, Harold, an Englishman of great abilities, and virtue, and William the Baftard, duke of Normandy, were competitors for the British crown. Harold's intereft was efpoufed by the people, and William's by the clergy; as they concluded that his tyrannical principles would induce him to make them the inftruments of his defpotifin, and raise them, for that pure pofe, to wealth and dignities. The pontiff of Rome co-ope rated with the English priests in favour of William; he fent him a confecrated standard, a golden Agnus Dei, and one of St. Peter's hairs; and excommunicated every man who should oppose him.

After the fatal and ever-memorable battle of Haftings, fought on the 14th of October, 1066, in which Harold was flain, while the generous friends of liberty were endeavouring to fruftrate the fuccefs of the victor, and fix Edgar Atheling upon the throne of England, the clergy, by their intrigues, brought over the inhabitants of London to the party of the victor, went to Berkhamstead in a body, and there fwore allegiance to him.

Thus William I. obtained the crown of England by the baneful influence of the clergy, not by the power of his fword as they would intimate by giving him the furname of Conqueror. From this time civil and religious tyranny walked hand in hand, two monsters before unknown in England. The fubject was totally deprived of his power of election, and of his property, at the caprice of the tyrant; who, amongst his other arbitrary extravagancies, made the dignitaries of the church members of his great political council.

Our author observes that the nation groaned under this tyranny for 147 years; till the barons, by their bravery and refolution, obtained the Great Charter in the minority of Henry III. He obferves that the acts of the English kings after the Saxon times in favour of the liberty of the subject were very improperly called grants; for that by them they only gave