Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/208

192 , as thoe of either Solomon or Ahab; and yet David lew the ons of his predeceor, and Jehu his predeceor himelf. And when our kings have the ame warrant as they had, whether it be to it upon the throne of their fathers, or to detroy the houe of the preceding overeign, they will then, and not before, poes the crown of England by a right like theirs, immediately derived from heaven. The hereditary right, which the laws of England acknowlege, owes it’s origin to the founders of our contitution, and to them only. It has no relation to, nor depends upon, the civil laws of the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, or any other nation upon earth: the municipal laws of one ociety having no connexion with, or influence upon, the fundamental polity of another. The founders of our Englih monarchy might perhaps, if they had thought proper, have made it an elective monarchy: but they rather choe, and upon good reaon, to etablih originally a ucceion by inheritance. This has been acquieced in by general conent; and ripened by degrees into common law: the very ame title that every private man has to his own etate. Lands are not naturally decendible any more than thrones: but the law has thought proper, for the benefit and peace of the public, to etablih hereditary ucceion in one as well as the other.

mut be owned, an elective monarchy eems to be the mot obvious, and bet uited of any to the rational principles of government, and the freedom of human nature: and accordingly we find from hitory that, in the infancy and firt rudiments of almot every tate, the leader, chief magitrate, or prince, hath uually been elective. And, if the individuals who compoe that tate could always continue true to firt principles, uninfluenced by paion or prejudice, unaailed by corruption, and unawed by violence, elective ucceion were as much to be deired in a kingdom, as in other inferior communities. The bet, the wiet, and the bravet man would then be ure of receiving that crown, which his endowments have merited; and the ene of an unbiaed majority would be dutifully acquieced in by the few who were of