The Constitution of England

Chapter XIV

214 u c h a p t e r x i v u Right of Resistance. But all those privileges of the People, considered in themselves, are but feeble defences against the real strength of those who govern. All thoseprovisions , all those reciprocal Rights, necessarily suppose that things remain in their legal and settled course: what would then be the resource of the People, if ever the Prince, suddenly freeing himself from all restraint, and throwing himself as it were out of the Constitution, should no longer respect either the person or the property of the subject, and either should make no account of his conventions with his Parliament, or attempt to force it implicitly to submit to his will?—It would be resistance. Without entering here into the discussion of a doctrine which would lead us to enquire into the first principles of Civil Government, consequently engage us in a long disquisition, and with regard to which, besides, persons free from prejudices agree pretty much in their opinions, I shall only observe here (and it will be sufficient for my purpose)thatthequestion has been decided in favour of this doctrine by the Laws of England, and that resistance is looked upon by them as the ultimate and lawful resource against the violences of Power. It was resistance that gave birth to the Great Charter, that lasting foundation of English Liberty; and the excesses of a Power established by force, were also restrained by force (a). It has been by the same means that, (a) Lord Lyttelton says extremely well in his Persian Letters, “If the privileges of the People of England be concessions from the Crown, is not the power of the Crown itself, a concession from the People?” It might be said with equal truth, and somewhat more in point to the subject of this Chapter,—If the privileges of the People be an encroach- chapter xiv 215 at different times, the People have procured the confirmation of the same Charter. Lastly, it has also been the resistance to a King who made no account of his own engagements, that has, in the issue, placed on the Throne the family which is now in possession of it. This is not all; this resource which, till then, had only been an act of force, opposed to other acts of force, was, at that aera, expresly recognized by the Law itself. The Lords and Commons, solemnly assembled,declared, that “King James the Second, having endeavoured to subvert the Constitution of the Kingdom, by breaking the original contract between King and People, and having violated the fundamental laws, and withdrawn himself, had abdicated the Government; and that the Throne was thereby vacant” (a).1 And lest those principles to which the Revolution thus gave a sanction, should, in process of time, become mere arcana of State, exclusively appropriated , and only known, to a certain class of Subjects, the same Act, we have just mentioned, expresly insured to in-dividuals the right of publicly preferring complaints against the abuses of Government, and moreover, of being provided with arms for their own defence. JudgeBlackstone expresses himself in the following terms, in his Commentaries onthe Laws of England. (B. I. Ch. i.) “And lastly, to vindicate those rights, when actually violated orattacked, the subjects of England are entitled, in the first place, to the regular administration and free course of justice in the Courts of law; next, to the right of petitioning the King and Parliament for redress of grievances;and, lastly, to the right of having and using arms for self-preservation and defence.”2 Lastly, this right of opposing violence, in whatever shape, and from ment on the power of Kings, the power itself of Kings was at first an encroachment (no matter whether effected by surprize) on the natural liberty of the people. [[George Lord Lyttleton, Letters from a Persian in England to His Friend at Ispahan (1735), letter 59.]] (a) The Bill of Rights has since given a new sanction to all these principles. 1. De Lolme quotes from the “Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons,” issued on February 13, 1688/89. The Parliamentary Bill of Rights, enacted soon afterward, contained a slightly altered formulation of this claim. 2. William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1:140. 216 book ii whatever quarter, it may come, is so generally acknowledged, that the Courts of...