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802 u c h a p t e r x i v u Of the Promises, Contracts, and Oaths of those who have the Sovereign Power. I. 1. The Promises, Contracts, and Oaths of Kings, and of others who have a like Sovereign Power, have some particular DifficultiesandQuestions , concerning the Power they have in Regard to the Validity of their own Acts, the Right which their Subjects acquire thereby, and the Obligation they impose on their Successors. As to the first, the Query is, whether the King himself has Power to restore himself to the State he was in before, or to make void his own Contracts, or to absolve himself from his Oath, as in all these Cases he can his Subjects. 1 Bodin thinks I. (1) Bodin’s Words, which our Author has not quoted very exactly, are these “But is not the Prince subject to the Laws of the Land, which he hassworntoobserve? We must distinguish. If the Prince takes an Oath to himself, to observehisownLaws, he is not obliged by those Laws, nor by the Oath taken to himself;for eventheSubject is not bound by the Oath he takes in these Contracts, from which the Law allows him to depart, tho’ they are honest and reasonable. If a Sovereign Prince promises another to observe the Laws made by him or his Predecessors, he is obliged to observe them, if the Interest of the Prince, to whom the Promise is made, be concerned,even though he took no Oath. But if the Prince, to whom the Promise is made, has no Interest in the Affair, neither the Promise nor the Oath can bind the Person promising . The same may be said, when a Promise is made to a Subject by a Sovereign Prince, even before his Election; for in that Case there is no Difference, as several imagine. Not that the Prince is obliged by his own Laws, or those of his Predecessors, but only by the just Agreements and Promises, by him made either with or without an Oath, in the same manner as a private Person would be. And for the same Reasons that a private Person may be released from an unjust and unreasonable Promise, or one that proves too burthensome to him; or in Case he has been circumvented by I. The Opinion of those refuted, who hold that Restitutions to the full which arise from the Civil Law, extend to the Acts of Kings as such; as also that Kings are not obliged by their own Oaths. of those who have sovereign power 803 that where a King is over-reached by Fraud, by Mistake, or by Fear, he may for the same Reasons be restored to his own Rights, and this both in Things that affect and lessen his Royal Prerogatives, and in those that relate to his private Fortune, as any of his Subjects might to theirs. To which he adds, that a King is not obliged by his Oaths, if the Contracts agreed on be such, asmaybe revoked bytheCivilLaw,tho’theContracts be agreeable to Honesty; and that he is not therefore bound, because he has sworn, but as any Man may be bound by just Covenants so far as another is interested in the Execution of them. 2. But we(as wehaveelsewheredistinguished)doherealsodistinguish between the Acts of Kings which they do as Kings, and the private Acts of those Kings. For what they do as Kings, is looked on as done by the whole Nation: But as the Laws made by the whole Body of the People, 2 could have no Power over such Acts, because the Community is not superior to it self; so neither can the Laws of a King. Wherefore RestiFraud , Mistake, Force, or a just Fear, so as to sustain a very considerable Damage; for the same Reasons, a Prince may insist on Restitution in whatever affects the Diminution of his Dignity, if he is a Sovereign Prince. And thus our Maxim holds good, that the Prince is not subject to his own Laws, nor to these of his Predecessors, but only obliged by his just and reasonable Agreements, in which the Subjects in general or in particular are interested. Several Persons mistake in this Case, by confounding the Laws with the Contracts of Princes, which they call Laws, &c.”Hence itisevident that this learned Politician doth not suppose that the Restitution in Integrum, which he grants to a Prince, acting either as a Sovereign...

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