Note 32 — A DISCOURSE concerning the LAWS and GOVERNMENT of ENGLAND.

“She loved not to be tied, but would be knit unto her people. Of 13 parliaments called during her reign, not one became abortive by unkindness; and yet not any one of them passed without subsidy granted by the people, but one wherein none was desired. And sometimes the aid was so liberal, that she refused the one half, and thanked the people for the remnant; a courtesy that rang loud abroad, to the shame of other princes. She never altered, continued, repealed, nor explained any law, otherwise than by act of parliament, whereof there are multitudes of examples in the statutes of her reign.” Nat. Bacon, Discourse on the laws and government of England, part 2.

I do not mean to say, that Elizabeth, and the princes who preceded her, never acted against the spirit of our government. Her reign, and those of many of her predecessors, were doubtless stained with bold exertions of authority. But bold exertions of authority must not be interpreted to infer despotism in our government. We must separate the personal qualities of princes, and the principles of the constitution. The government of England, and the administrations of its chief magistrates, are very different things.