Page:Common sense - addressed to the inhabitants of America.djvu/22

14 were ubjected to Satan, and in the other to Sovereignty; as our innocence was lot in the firt, and our authority in the lat; and as both diable us from reauming ome former tate and privilege, it unanwerably follows that original in and hereditary ucceion are parallels. Dihonorable rank! inglorious connexion! yet the mot ubtile ophit cannot produce a juter imile.

As to uurpation, no man will be o hardy as to defend it; and that William the Conqueror was an uurper is a fact not to be contradicted. The plain truth is, that the antiquity of Englih Monarchy will not bear looking into.

But it is not o much the aburdity as the evil of hereditary ucceion which concerns mankind. Did it enure a race of good and wie men, it would have the eal of divine authority; but as it opens a door to the foolih, the wicked, and the improper, it hath in it the nature of oppreion. Men who look upon themelves born to reign, and others to obey, oon grow inolent—elected from the ret of mankind, their minds are eaily poioned by importance; and the world they act in differs o materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interets, and when they ucceed in the government are frequently the mot ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.

Another evil which attends hereditary ucceion is, that the throne is ubject to be poeed by a minor at any age; all which time the Regency acting under the cover of a King, have every opportunity and inducement to betray their trut. The ame national misfortune happens when a King, worn out with age and infirmity, enters the lat tage of human weaknes. In both thee caes the public becomes a prey to every micreant, who can tamper uccesfully with the follies either of age or infancy.

The mot plauible plea which hath ever been offered in favour of hereditary ucceion is, that it preerves a nation from civil wars; and were this true, it would be weighty; whereas it is the mot barefaced fality ever impoed upon mankind. The whole hitory of England diowns the fact. Thirty Kings and two minors have reigned in that ditracted kingdom ince the conquet, in which time there have been (including the Revolution) no les than eight civil wars and nineteen rebellions. Wherefore, intead of making for peace, it makes againt it, and detroys the very foundation it eems to tand on.

The contet for Monarchy and Succeion between the houes of York and Lancater laid England in a cene of blood for many years. Twelve pitched battles, beides kirmihes and ieges, were fought between Henry and Edward. Twice was Henry prioner to Edward, who in his turn was prioner to Henry. And o uncertain is the fate of war and the temper of a nation, when nothing but peronal matters are the ground of a quarrel, that Henry was taken in triumph from a prion to a palace, and Edward obliged to fly from a palace to a foreign land: Yet as udden tranitions of temper are eldom lating, Henry