The propagators of this political gospel are in hopes their abstract principle (their principle that a popular choice is necessary to the legal ex|istence of the sovereign magistracy) would be overlooked whilst the king of Great Britain was not affected by it. In the mean time the ears of their congregations would be gradually habi|tuated to it, as if it were a first principle admit|ted without dispute. For the present it would only operate as a theory, pickled in the preserv|ing juices of pulpit eloquence, and laid by for future use. Condo et compono quae mox depromere possim. By this policy, whilst our government is soothed with a reservation in its favour, to which it has no claim, the security, which it has in common with all governments, so far as opi|nion is security, is taken away.
Thus these politicians proceed, whilst little no|tice is taken of their doctrines; but when they come to be examined upon the plain meaning of their words and the direct tendency of their doctrines, then equivocations and slippery con|structions come into play. When they say the king owes his crown to the choice of his peo|ple, and is therefore the only lawful sovereign in the world, they will perhaps tell us they mean to say no more than that some of the king's predecessors have been called to the throne by some sort of choice; and therefore he owes his crown to the choice of his people. Thus, by a miserable subterfuge, they hope to render their proposition safe, by rendering it
