In the feudal times, it was not uncommon, even among subjects, for the lowest offices to be held by considerable persons,--persons as unfit by their incapacity as improper from their rank to occupy such employments.
Burke reflects on the absurdity of unqualified individuals holding significant positions in feudal times.
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But the king of Great Britain obeys no other person; all other persons are individually, and collectively too, under him, and owe to him a legal obedience.
Unquestionably there was at the Revolution, in the person of King William, a small and a temporary deviation from the strict order of a regular hereditary succession; but it is against all genuine principles of jurisprudence to draw a…
If kings who did not owe their crown to the choice of their people had no title to make laws, what will become of the statute De tallagio non concedendo? of the Petition of Right? of the act of Habeas Corpus?
This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.
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