of different opinions. But hiſtory and obſervation will inform us, that elections of every kind (in the preſent ſtate of human nature) are too frequently brought about by influence, partiality, and artifice: and, even where the caſe is otherwiſe, theſe practices will be often ſuſpected, and as conſtantly charged upon the ſucceſsful, by a ſplenetic diſappointed minority. This is an evil to which all ſocieties are liable; as well thoſe of a private and domeſtic kind, as the great community of the public, which regulates and includes the reſt. But in the former there is this advantage; that ſuch ſuſpicions, if falſe, proceed no farther than jealouſies and murmurs, which time will effectually ſuppreſs; and, if true, the injuſtice may be remedied by legal means, by an appeal to thoſe tribunals to which every member of ſociety has (by becoming ſuch) virtually engaged to ſubmit. Whereas, in the great and independent ſociety, which every nation compoſes, there is no ſuperior to reſort to but the law of nature; no method to redreſs the infringements of that law, but the actual exertion of private force. As therefore between two nations, complaining of mutual injuries, the quarrel can only be decided by the law of arms; ſo in one and the ſame nation, when the fundamental principles of their common union are ſuppoſed to be invaded, and more eſpecially when the appointment of their chief magiſtrate is alleged to be unduly made, the only tribunal to which the complainants can appeal is that of the God of battels, the only proceſs by which the appeal can be carried on is that of a civil and inteſtine war. An hereditary ſucceſſion to the crown is therefore now eſtabliſhed, in this and moſt other countries, in order to prevent that periodical bloodſhed and miſery, which the hiſtory of antient imperial Rome, and the more modern experience of Poland and Germany, may ſhew us are the conſequences of elective kingdoms.
2. But, ſecondly, as to the particular mode of inheritance, it in general correſponds with the feodal path of deſcents, chalked out by the common law in the ſucceſſion to landed eſtates; yet with one or two material exceptions. Like them, the crown will
