ther elucidated, and made clear beyond all diſpute, from a ſhort hiſtorical view of the ſucceſſions to the crown of England, the doctrines of our antient lawyers, and the ſeveral acts of parliament that have from time to time been made, to create, to declare, to confirm, to limit, or to bar, the hereditary title to the throne. And in the purſuit of this enquiry we ſhall find, that from the days of Egbert, the firſt ſole monarch of this kingdom, even to the preſent, the four cardinal maxims above-mentioned have ever been held the conſtitutional canons of ſucceſſion. It is true, this ſucceſſion, through fraud, or force, or ſometimes through neceſſity, when in hoſtile times the crown deſcended on a minor or the like, has been very frequently ſuſpended; but has always at laſt returned back into the old hereditary chanel, though ſometimes a very conſiderable period has intervened. And, even in thoſe inſtances where the ſucceſſion has been violated, the crown has ever been looked upon as hereditary in the wearer of it. Of which the uſurpers themſelves were ſo ſenſible, that they for the moſt part endeavoured to vamp up ſome feeble ſhew of a title by deſcent, in order to amuſe the people, while they gained the poſſeſſion of the kingdom. And, when poſſeſſion was once gained, they considered it as the purchaſe or acquiſition of a new eſtate of inheritance, and tranſmitted or endeavoured to tranſmit it to their own poſterity, by a kind of hereditary right of uſurpation.
King Egbert about the year 800, found himſelf in poſſeſſion of the throne of the weſt Saxons, by a long and undiſturbed deſcent from his anceſtors of above three hundred years. How his anceſtors acquired their title, whether by force, by fraud, by contract, or by election, it matters not much to enquire; and is indeed a point of ſuch high antiquity, as muſt render all enquiries at beſt but plauſible gueſſes. His right muſt be ſuppoſed indiſputably good, becauſe we know no better. The other kingdoms of the heptarchy he acquired, ſome by conſent, but moſt by a voluntary ſubmiſſion. And it is an eſtabliſhed maxim in civil polity, and the law of nations, that when one country is united to another in ſuch a manner, as that one keeps it’s government
