Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/187

Rh men, whoſe numbers are not fixed by any other law. They continued for ſome time to require the pretence of a majority of their whole number, to paſs an act. But the Britiſh parliament fixes its own quorum: our former aſſemblies fixed their own quorum: and one precedent in favor of power is ſtronger than an hundred againſt it. The houſe of delegates therefore have lately voted that, during the preſent dangerous invaſion, forty members ſhall be a houſe to proceed to buſineſs. They have been moved to this by the fear of not being able to collect a houſe. But this danger could not authorize them to call that a houſe which was none: and if they may fix it at one number, they may at another, till it loſes its fundamental character of being a repreſentive body. As this vote expires with the preſent invaſion, it is probable the former rule will be permitted to revive: becauſe at preſent no ill is meant. The power however of fixing their own quorum has been avowed, and a precedent ſet. From forty it may be reduced to four, and from four to one: from a houſe to a committee to a chairman or ſpeaker, and thus an oligarchy be ſubſtituted under forms ſuppoſed to be regular. ‘Omina mala exempla ex bonis orta ſunt: ſed ubi imperium ad ignaros aunt minus bonus pervenit, novum illud exemplum ab dignis et idoneis ad indignos et non idoneos fertur.’ When therefore it is conſidered, that there is no legal obſtacle to the aſſumption by the aſſembly of all the powers legiſlative, executive, and judiciary, and that theſe may come to the hands of the ſmalleſt rag of delegation, ſurely the people will ſay, and