ftitution of this Government, it will have answered every purpose for which it was intended.

In the course of thefe Obfervations, as well as in those of the former Volumes, care has been taken to avoid entering at large into the difcuffion of feveral topics, that have engaged great part of the public attention within these last twenty years.

The fhortening the duration of Parliaments-the proper limitation upon the influence of the Crown-the right of the House of Commons to declare the law with refpect to the eligibility of its Members—with feveral ather matters, all offered themfelves, in the progress of this Work, as fubjects, upon which the Editor might have taken an opportunity to enlarge, and to explain the grounds of the opinions, that he had formed upon thefe and other great political questions. But in a work of this fort, intended principally as an Index for those perfons, who wish to obtain a knowledge of the forms and proceedings of Parliament, it did not appear precifely to be the place, where difcuffions of that kind ought to be introduced. It has therefore been thought fufficient to point out only fuch facts as appear to elucidate the general history of this Conftitution; and, as fome

Late

late writers, especially the Compilers of the Parliamentary Hiftory, have taken no little pains to miftate and misapply thofe facts, the attention of the Reader is bere more particularly directed to those instances, where, from the Records of either Haufe of Parliament, or from the more ancient repofitories of the Hiftory of this Kingdom, it is to be collected, that the Government, even in the earliest periods, was founded in the principles of freedom, and has always had for its immediate object the interefts of the Community at large.

From thefe Records, and from the accounts that are tranfmitted to us of thofe Governments, from whence the prefent Conftitution of this country is derived, it will appear, that the fecurity and happiness of the People, as diftinguished from the Crown and the Nobles, bad at all times a confiderable weight and influence in the adminiftration of public affairs.-The protection given, by the laws of our Saxon ancestors, to the perfons and property of every individual—the eftablishment of the trial by Jury-the rights of the Freeholders, in their County Courts, to elect Sheriffs and Coroners—the privilege of chufing Members of the House of Commons-the want of authority in the Crown to impose taxes but with the confent of thofe Members-the

firm and fuccessful oppofition that has been made, at different periods, by the People of this Island, against attempts of the Crown derogatory from their rights and privileges-all evince the truth of these Obfervations, and are hiftorical proofs, that the claims which were made and afferted at the Revolution, were, as they were then declared to be, "the ancient and undoubted rights "and liberties of the People of this kingdom."

Thefe are the principles, and this the information, which are to be acquired from an accurate investigation of the Journals and other Parliamentary Records. It is fufficient for the Editor of this Work to have acted in the humble ftation of pointing out the fources of this knowledge-It remains for those persons, whofe abilities, and rank, and fituation in life, enable them to carry these principles into-effect, to attend, upon every occafion, to the prefervation of the outlines of the Conftitution, and, by a fteady adherence to that happy form of government which they have inherited from their ancestors, to endeavour to tranfmit it facred and inviolate to their pofterity.

COTTON-GARDEN,

Aug. 20, 1784.

CON