Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1826-08-15

OF the peace ana conStaDIe, 4. Each ward should
take care their poor; $. OF their own roads;
g. Their own police z. Elect within themselves,
more Jurors to attend the courts of Justice;
8. And here give in ut their folk-house their votes
for all functonaries reserved to their election
Each ward would thus be small republic within
itself, and every in the would thus become
an acting member in the common government,
transac'ng in person, great portion of its rights
and duties, subordinate indeed, but important and
entirely within his competence: the wit Of man
cannot devise more solid basis for free, durable
and well administered republic
" With respect 10 our state and federal govern
ments, do not think their relations correctly
derstood by foreigners. They generally suppose
the former subordinate to the latter; but this is
not the case, they o-o ordinate departments of
one simple integral whole. To the state govern
ments are reserved all legislation and sdminisra-
ton in affairs which concern their own citizens on
ly; and to the federal government is given what
ever concerns foreigners, or the citizens OF other
states. These functions alone being federal, the
one Is the domestic, the other the foreign branch of
the same government; neither having control over
the other, but within its own department There
are one or two exceptions only to this partition OF
power. But, you may ask ii the two departments |
should claim each The subject OF power, where
IS the common umpire 10 decide ultimately between
them In cases OF little importance urgency the
prudence OF both parties will keep them aoof from
/ the questionable ground but if it can neither be
! avoided nor compromised, convention Of the
| states mus, be called, TO ascribe the doubtful pow
er TO that department which they may think hest
| You will perceive by these details, that we have
not so Tar perfected constitutions TO venture
to make them unchangeab.e-- but still, in their
present state, consider them not otherwise
changeable than by the immediate authority Of the
| people, or special election of representatives for
that purpose, expressly. They are till /! en- the
lex legum.
g But can they be made Interchangeable? Can
generation bud another and all Others in sue
cession for ever? / think not. The Creator hath
made the earth for the living, not the dead. Rights
and powers can only belong to persons, not to
| things; not 10 mere matter unendowed with will
the dead are not things. The particles of
matter which comp their bodies make part now
OF the bodies Of other animals, vegetables, or min
erals of thousand forms To what then are at
ached the rights and powers they held while in the
form of man? y generation may bind Itself as
long as its majority continues in life. When that
has disappea ed, another majority is in place, holds
oil The rights and powers their predecessors once
held, and may change their laws and institutions
tn suit themselves; nothing then is unchanged
BILE but the inherent ard unalenabe rights of man.
"l was glad To fnd in your book, formal con-
tradicton, at length, OF the Judiciary usurpaion OF
legislative powers; for such the Judges have u>urp-
Cd, in their repeated decisions that Christianity is
part of the common law. The proof of the contrary
which you have adduced is incontrovertibe, to wit,
that the common law existed while the Anglo-SaY-
| ons were yet Pagans; at q time when they had ne
yer yet heard the names of Christ pronounced or
| knew that such character had existed. But it
| may amuse you TO shew when and 10y what means
, they stole this law in upon In a case oil qusre
impedt, in the r-book, 81 H. 6, 70. 49, (Ii59,)
question made, how far the ecclesiastical law
was to be re-pec ed in common law court? And
Prsot, C. 3, gives his opinion in these words-s a
toll In.r III.
ttJe, conyient a mouse bonner crelence; car Geo
common ley Guels touts leis sont fon-
des; et auxy, sir, nous oblges de conustI e
!eur ley de saint egise; ct sembablement ils sont
obiiees de conustre nose ey ct, sir, 81 poit apper-
er nous que l'evesque ad fsit come un ordinary
tera EN- tie cas-, adonq nous devons aduger boa
ou auterment nemy,' sc. See S. &. Fizh. Abr.
qu. imp. 50, Bro. Abr. gu. imp. 10. Finch in his
first book, C. 3, is the first afterwards who quotes
this case, and Iisstates it thus To such laws of
the Church as have warrant in holy scripture our
law giveth credence, and cites Priscot mis.ransla-
ting aBcien scripture into holy scripture where
as Priscot palpably says 20 such laws as those
OF holy church have n Qatcnt Jcriing IL is proper
for US to give credence; to wit, to their ancient
written laws. This was in 1913, a century and a
half after the dicum OF Prisot. Wingate in 1868,
erecs this false translation into maxim of the
/; common law, copying the words of Finch, but Cit
ing Priso Wngate max. 3, and Sheppard tit
peIlSloh, III 1910, copies the same mlstransla-
ton, quoting the Y B. Finch and Wingate Hale
expresses it in these words, Christianity is parcel
OF the laws of England Ventr. 293, 8 Keb. 6O7,
but quotes authority. BY these echolngs and
re echoings from TO another, il had become 80
established in 1928, that in the case of the King
vs.. Wooston, , Stra. S34, the court would not
suffer it TO be debated, whether to write against
Christianity was punishable in the temporal courts
at common law? Wood therefore, 100, ventures
still 10 vary the phrase, and says, that all bias
phemy and proianeness are offences by the common
law and cites Sra; then Blackstone in 1863,
" SO, repeats the words OF Hale, that Christi
anity is part of the common law oil England Cit
ing Ven;ris and Strange; and finally Lord Mans
field, with little qualification, in Evans's case in
1867 says, that the essential principles of reveal
ed religion parts OF the common law, thus
engulphng Bible, Testament and all, into the COM
mon law, without citing any authority. And thus
lar we find this chain of authorities hanging link
by link one upon another, and all ultimately upon
one and the same hook, and that nistrauslatios
of the words ancien scripture used by Prisot.-
Finch quotes Prsot; Wingate does the same; Shep-
pard quo;es Prisot, Finch and Wingate Hale cites
nobody; the court, IN Woosion's case, cites Hale:
Wood cites Woolsons case; Blackstone quotes
Wool,ton's case, and Hale; and Lord Mansfield,
like Hale, ventures it on his own authority Here
might defy the best read lawyer 10 pro JUICE ano
lher SCRIP OF authority for this judiciarv fyrgeyy;
: and might go on further to sbew how some Of
the Anglo-SaxOn prints nterpolated into the text
OF Allred's laws, the 2eth, 21st, 22d and 2gd
chapters OF Exodus, and the 18th of the Acis of
Apostles, from the 23d to the Goth verses. But
this would lead my pen and your patience too far
Il What conspiracy this between Church and
State Sing T"ntarardra, Rosues all, Rogues
all; sing TantararsIa, Rogues all
4 III adj tn, a. fr.,