Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/249

Ch. 6.

next to the duties, incumbent on the king by our contitution; in conideration of which duties his dignity and prerogative are etablihed by the laws of the land: it being a maxim in the law, that protection and ubjection are reciprocal. And thee reciprocal duties are what, I apprehend, were meant by the convention in 1688, when they declared that king James had broken the original contract between king and people. But however, as the terms of that original contract were in ome meaure diputed, being alleged to exit principally in theory, and to be only deducible by reaon and the rules of natural law; in which deduction different undertandings might very coniderably differ; it was, after the revolution, judged proper to declare thee duties exprely, and to reduce that contract to a plain certainty. So that, whatever doubts might be formerly raied by weak and crupulous minds about the exitence of uch an original contract, they mut now entirely ceae; epecially with regard to every prince, who hath reigned ince the year 1688.

principal duty of the king is, to govern his people according to law. , was the contitution of our German ancetors on the continent. And this is not only cononant to the principles of nature, of liberty, of Rh