what right ſoever they ſubſiſt, there is and muſt be in all of them a ſupreme, irreſiſtible, abſolute, uncontrolled authority, in which the jura ſummi imperii, or the rights of ſovereignty, reſide. And this authority is placed in thoſe hands, wherein (according to the opinion of the founders of ſuch reſpective ſtates, either expreſſly given, or collected from their tacit approbation) the qualities requiſite for ſupremacy, wiſdom, goodneſs, and power, are the moſt likely to be found.
The political writers of antiquity will not allow more than three regular forms of government; the firſt, when the ſovereign power is lodged in an aggregate aſſembly conſiſting of all the members of a community, which is called a democracy; the ſecond, when it is lodged in a council, compoſed of ſelect members, and then it is ſtiled an ariſtocracy; the laſt, when it is entruſted in the hands of a ſingle perſon, and then it takes the name of a monarchy. All other ſpecies of government, they ſay, are either corruptions of, or reducible to, theſe three.
By the ſovereign power, as was before obſerved, is meant the making of laws; for wherever that power reſides, all others muſt conform to, and be directed by it, whatever appearance the outward form and adminiſtration of the government may put on. For it is at any time in the option of the legiſlature to alter that form and adminiſtration by a new edict or rule, and to put the execution of the laws into whatever hands it pleaſes: and all the other powers of the ſtate muſt obey the legiſlative power in the execution of their ſeveral functions, or elſe the conſtitution is at an end.
In a democracy, where the right of making laws reſides in the people at large, public virtue, or goodneſs of intention, is more likely to be found, than either of the other qualities of government. Popular aſſemblies are frequently fooliſh in their contrivance, and weak in their execution; but generally mean to do the thing that is right and juſt, and have always a degree of pa-
