Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/67

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§. 2.
Laws in general.
51

ſelected for their piety, their birth, their wiſdom, their valour, or their property; and, thirdly, the houſe of commons, freely choſen by the people from among themſelves, which makes it a kind of democracy; as this aggregate body, actuated by different ſprings, and attentive to different intereſts, compoſes the Britiſh parliament, and has the ſupreme diſpoſal of every thing; there can no inconvenience be attempted by either of the three branches, but will be withſtood by one of the other two; each branch being armed with a negative power, ſufficient to repel any innovation which it ſhall think inexpedient or dangerous.

Here then is lodged the ſovereignty of the Britiſh conſtitution; and lodged as beneficially as is poſſible for ſociety. For in no other ſhape could we be ſo certain of finding the three great qualities of government ſo well and ſo happily united. If the ſupreme power were lodged in any one of the three branches ſeparately, we muſt be expoſed to the inconveniences of either abſolute monarchy, ariſtocracy, or democracy; and ſo want two of the three principal ingredients of good polity, either virtue, wiſdom, or power. If it were lodged in any two of the branches; for instance, in the king and houſe of lords, our laws might be providently made, and well executed, but they might not always have the good of the people in view: if lodged in the king and commons, we ſhould want that circumſpection and mediatory caution, which the wiſdom of the peers is to afford: if the ſupreme rights of legiſlature were lodged in the two houſes only, and the king had no negative upon their proceedings, they might be tempted to encroach upon the royal prerogative, or perhaps to aboliſh the kingly office, and thereby weaken (if not totally deſtroy) the ſtrength of the executive power. But the conſtitutional government of this iſland is ſo admirably tempered and compounded, that nothing can endanger or hurt it, but deſtroying the equilibrium of power between one branch of the legiſlature and the reſt. For if ever it ſhould happen that the independence of any one of the three ſhould be loſt, or that it ſhould become ſubſervient to the views of either of the other two, there would

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