mysterious essence, that sacred fire so difficult to be kindled, and which, if it were once extinguished, would perhaps never be lighted again. When the world shall have been again laid waste by conquerors, she will still continue to show mankind, not only the principle that ought to unite them, but, what is of no less importance, the form under which they ought to be united. And the philosopher, when he considers the constant fate of civil societies amongst men, and observes the numerous and powerful causes which seem, as it were, unavoidably to conduct them all to a state of political slavery, will take comfort in seeing that Liberty has at length disclosed her nature and genuine principles, and secured to herself an asylum, against despotism on one hand, and popular licentiousness on the other*. *This work cannot be dismissed without praise by any editor who has a due sense of merit. The author, like an ingenious painter, sees the whole of his subject at one view; exhibits the prominent features in a strong light, without neglecting the inferior parts of the piece; observes the keeping and the perspective, and gives an interesting finish to the strokes of art. His colouring is, perhaps, too high: I do not mean that his style is brilliant ; but his display is, in some respects, too flattering. Occasionally he seems to refine too much, in attributing to art and design what may in a great measure have arisen from chance. But this is the natural effect of that zeal for his subject, and of that respect for our ancestors, which he imbibed in the progress of his work. INDEX. A. AMERICAN Colonies, their claim of voting supplies to 522. Appeal, in case of murder, its effects, and to whom allowed, Arrest, method of, in civil causes, by the English laws, 112, 113. in the English law in that respect, 117. Assemblies, popular, the disadvantages they lie under in Athens, arbitrary proceedings of its magistrates, 274. 111. Author, occasional personal remarks of his, 373, 421, 438, B. Barons, originally in a great measure independent in France, 13. Not so in England, 15. Unite in a com- mon cause with the people, 23, 336, 450. Beauchamp, lord (now marquis of Hertford), procures the Bills, how deliberated upon and framed, 68, 226, 234, 267. Bill of Rights, an account of, 59. Utility of its provisions, 341. Blackstone, judge, quoted, 70, 144, 182, 359, 376. Burnet, bishop, quoted, 363, 464. C. Casar, public speech of his quoted, 378. Censorial power, that established in Rome only a senatorial Censors, in Rome, might remove a man from one tribe into Chancery, court of, its office in regard to the framing of Charles I., sketch of his reign, 48-52. Maintains his ground eleven years against the violent political and re- Charles II., conduct of, 54. Charta, Magna, substance of, 27, 28. Cicero quoted, 123, 141, 263, 266, 275, 351. Civil English laws, divided into unwritten and written law, Civil power in England, how superior to the military, 457, 462. Civil Roman laws, the constant dislike of the English Coke, sir Edward, quoted, 176, 180, 227, 294. Comines, Philip de, quoted, 40. Commons, English, their origin, under Henry III. and Ed- ward. I., 31, 32. How inconsiderable their weight at . 41, 42. How the house is constituted, 62. Vindicate Commonwealths, the people in them apt to be misled by the liberty of the citizens, besides being imperfect, are Conquest, the, is the real æra of the formation of the pre- Constitution, English, the æras of its formation, 8, 40, 58, |