In the famous law of the 3d of Charles I. called the Petition of Right, the parliament says to the king,
Your subjects have inherited this freedom,claiming their franchises not on abstract principles "as the rights of men," but as the rights of Englishmen, and as a patrimony derived from their forefathers. Selden, and the other profoundly learned men, who drew this pe|tition of right, were as well acquainted, at least, with all the general theories concerning the "rights of men," as any of the discoursers in our pulpits, or on your tribune; full as well as Dr. Price, or as the Abbé Seyes. But, for rea|sons worthy of that practical wisdom which su|perseded their theoretic science, they preferred this positive, recorded, hereditary title to all which can be dear to the man and the citizen, to that vague speculative right, which exposed their sure inheritance to be scrambled for and torn to pieces by every wild litigious spirit.
The same policy pervades all the laws which have since been made for the preservation of our liberties. In the 1st of William and Mary, in the famous statute, called the Declaration of Right, the two houses utter not a syllable of
a right to frame a government for themselves.You will see, that their whole care was to secure the religion, laws, and liberties, that had been long possessed, and had been lately endangered.
Taking* 1.1 into their most serious consideration the best means for making such an establishment,
