Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/129

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But your Majesty, or your Governors, have carried this power” beyond every limit knownor provided for by the laws. After dis- solving one House of Representatives, they have refused to call another, so that, for a great length of time, the legislature provid- ed by the laws, has been-out of existence. From the nature of things, every society must, at all times, possess within itself the sovereign powers of legislation. ‘The feelings of human nature revolt against the supposition of a state so situated, as that it may not, in any emergency, provide against dangers which, perhaps, threaten immediate run. While those bodies are in existence to whom the people have delegated the powers of legislation, they alone possess, and may exercise, those powers. But when they are dissolved, by the loppmg off one or more of their branches, the power reverts to the people, who may use it to unlimited ex- tent, either assembling together in person, sending deputies, or in any other way they may think proper. We forbear to trace con- sequences further ; the dangers are conspicuous with which this practice is replete.

That we shall, at this time also, take notice of an error in the nature of our land holdings, which crept in at a very early period of our settlement. The introduction of the Feudal tenures into the kingdom of England, though antient, is well enough under- stood to set this matter in a proper light. In the earlier ages of the Saxon settlement, feudal holdings were certainly altogether unknown, and very few, if any, had been introduced at the time of the Norman conquest. Our Saxon ancestors held their lands, as they did their personal property, in absolute dominion, disen- cumbered with any superior, answering nearly to the nature of those possessions which the Feudalists term Allodial. William the Norman, first introduced that system generally. ‘The lands which had belonged to those who fell in the battle of Hastings, and in the subsequent insurrections of his reign, formed a consi- derable proportion of the lands of the whole kingdom. ‘These he granted out, subject to feudal duties, as did he also those of a great number of his new subjects, who, by persuasions or threats, were induced to surrender them for that purpose. But still, much was left in the hands of his Saxon subjects, held of no superior, and not subject to feudal conditions. ‘These, therefore, by ex- press laws, enacted to render uniform the system of military de- fence, were made liable to the same military duties as if they had been feuds: and the Norman lawyers soon found means to sad- dle them, also, with all the other feudal burthens. But still they had not been surrendered to the King, they were not derived from his grant, and therefore they were not holden of him. A general

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