Page:A Declaration of the People's Natural Right to a Share in the Legislature (1775) (IA declarationofpeo00shar).djvu/26

 oral Sovereign, without supposing, at the same time, some reciprocal obligation or duty to subsist between them; which is nothing else but the implication of a mutual Covenant: and, indeed, the formalities of every Coronation sufficiently indicate and warrant such an implication; and the infringements made by Monarchs on such implied Covenants have, in all ages, been occasionally punished by the expulsion and destruction of the Tyrants themselves, of which most nations have, at same time or other, afforded an example.

Nevertheless, the learned Baron seems to have neglected these necessary confederations; for he asserts, that the distinction between a Compact, or Covenant, and a Law, is obvious. “For a Compact (says he) “is a Promise, but a Law is a Command. In Compacts the form of speaking is, I will do so and so; but in Law the form runs, do thou so, after an imperative manner.” Book I, c. 6. §. 2. p. 47.

He had before been speaking of democratical Governments, and had remarked, not only that the ancients “frequently apply to Laws the name of common Agreements,” but also, that “the Laws”