was born before DRUSUS: or the younger, becaufe he was adopted after the birth of his brother? Ought the right of the elder to be regarded in a nation, where he had no advantage in the fucceffion of private families? Ought the ROMAN empire at that time to be deemed hereditary, because of two examples; or ought it, even fo early, to be regarded as belonging to the ftronger or to the prefent poffeffor, as being founded on fo recent an ufurpation? COMMODUS mounted the throne after a pretty long fucceffion of excellent emperors, who had acquired their title, not by birth, or public election, but by the fictitious rite of adoption. That bloody debauchee being murdered by a confpiracy fuddenly formed between his wench and her gallant, who happened at that time to be Prætorian Præfect; these immediately deliberated about choosing a mafter to human kind, to fpeak in the style of those ages; and they caft their eyes on PERTINAX. Before the tyrant's death was known, the Præfect went fecretly to that fenator, who, on the appearance of the foldiers, imagined that his execution had been ordered by COMMODUS. He was immediately faluted emperor by the officer and his attendants; cheerfully proclaimed by the populace; unwillingly fubmitted to by the guards; formally recognized by the fenate; and paffively received by the provinces and armies of the empire. The difcontent of the Prætorian bands broke out in a fudden fedition, which occafioned the murder of that excellent prince: And the world being now without a mafter and without government, the guards thought proper to fet the empire formally to fale. JULIAN, the purchafer, was proclaimed by the foldiers, recognized by the fenate, and submitted to by the people; and must alfo alfo have been fubmitted to by the provinces, had not the envy of the legions begotten oppofition and refiftance. PESCENNIUS NIGER in SYRIA elected himself emperor, gained the tumultuary confent of his army, and was attended with the fecret good-will of the fenate and people of ROME. ALBINUS in BRITAIN found an equal right to fet up his claim; but SEVERUS, who governed PANNONIA, prevailed in the end above both of them. That able politician and warrior, finding his own birth and dignity too much inferior to the imperial crown, profeffed, at first, an intention only of revenging the death of PERTINAX. He marched as general into ITALY; defeated JULIAN; and without our being able to fix any precife commencement even of the foldiers' confent, he was from neceffity acknowledged emperor by the fenate and people; and fully established in his violent authority by fubduing NIGER and ALBINUS *. Inter hæc Gordianus CÆSAR (fays CAPITOLINUS, speaking of another period) fublatus a militibus. Imperator eft appellatus, quia non erat alius in præfenti. It is to be remarked, that GORDIAN was a boy of fourteen years of age. Frequent inftances of a like nature occur in the hiftory of the emperors; in that of ALEXANDER'S fucceffors; and of many other countries: Nor can any thing be more unhappy than a defpotic government of this kind; where the fucceffion is disjointed and irregular, and muft be determined, on every vacancy, by force or election. In a free government, the matter is often unavoidable, and is alfo much lefs dangerous. The interefts of liberty may there frequently lead the people, in their own de * HERODIAN, lib. ii, fence, fence, to alter the fucceffion of the crown. And the conftitution, being compounded of parts, may ftill maintain a fufficient ftability, by refting on the aristocratical or democratical members, though the monarchical be altered, from time to time, in order to accommodate it to the former. In an abfolute government, when there is no legal prince, who has a title to the throne, it may safely be determined to belong to the first occupant. Inftances of this kind are but too frequent, especially in the eaftern monarchies. When any race of princes expires, the will or destination of the laft fovereign will be regarded as a title. Thus the edict of LEWIS the XIV th, who called the baftard princes to the fucceffion in cafe of the failure of all the legitimate princes, would, in fuch an event, have some authority *. Thus the will of CHARLES the Second difpofed of the whole SPANISH monarchy. The ceffion of the ancient proprietor, efpecially when joined to conqueft, is likewife deemed a good title. The general obligation, which binds us to government, is the intereft and neceffities of fociety; and this obligation is very ftrong. The determination of it to this or that particular prince or form of government is frequently more uncertain and dubious. Prefent poffeffion has confiderable authority in these cafes, and greater than in private property; because of the diforders which attend all revolutions and changes of government. We fhall only obferve, before we conclude, that, though an appeal to general opinion may juftly, in the fpeculative sciences of metaphyfics, natural philofophy, or aftronomy, be deemed unfair and inconclufive, yet * See NOTE [TT]. 1 in all queftions with regard to mórals, as well as criticifm, there is really no other ftandard, by which any controverfy can ever be decided. And nothing is a clearer proof, that a theory of this kind is erroneous, than to find, that it leads to paradoxes, repugnant to the common fentiments of mankind, and to the practice and opinion of all nations and all ages. The doctrine, which founds all lawful government on an original contract, or confent of the people, is plainly of this kind; nor has the most noted of its partizans, in profecution of it, fcrupled to affirm, that abfolute monarchy is inconfiftent with civil fociety, and fo can be no form of civil government at all*; and that the fupreme power in a state cannot take from any man, by taxes and impofitions, any part of his property, without his own confent or that of his representatives †• What authority any moral reafoning can have, which leads into opinions, fo wide of the general practice of mankind, in every place but this fingle kingdom, it is easy to determine. The only paffage I meet with in antiquity, where the obligation of obedience to government is afcribed to a promife, is in PLATO's Crito: where SOCRATES refuses to escape from prifon, because he had tacitly promised to obey the laws. Thus he builds a tory confequence of paffive obedience, on a whig foundation of the original contract. New discoveries are not to be expected in these matters. If scarce any man, till very lately, ever imagined that government was founded on compact, it is cer * See Lock E on Government, chap. vii. § 90. ↑ Id. chap. xi. § 138, 139, 140. tain, |