Book I. THESE are the general heads of the laws relating to the poor, which, by the refolutions of the courts of juftice thereon within a century past, are branched into a great variety (32). And yet, notwithstanding the pains that have been taken about them, they still remain very imperfect, and inadequate to the purposes they are defigned for: a fate, that has generally attended most of our ftatute laws, where they have not the foundation of the common law to build on. When the fhires, the hundreds, and the tithings, were kept in the fame admir able order in which they were difpofed by the great Alfred, there were no perfons idle, confequently none but the impo tent that needed relief: and the ftatute of 43 Eliz. feems entirely founded on the fame principle. But when this excellent scheme was neglected and departed from, we cannot but obferve with concern, what miferable shifts and lame expedients have from time to time been adopted, in order to patch up the flaws occafioned by this neglect. There is not a more neceffary or more certain maxim in the frame and constitution of fociety, than that every individual must contribute his share, in order to the well-being of the community: and furely they must be very deficient in found policy, who fuffer one half of a parish to continue idle, diffolute, and unemployed; and at length are amazed to find, that the induftry of the other half is not able to maintain the whole.

(32) For a full and complete knowledge of this extenfive subject, recourse must be had to Burn's Juftice, and Mr. Conft's valuable edition of Bott, and the reporters there referred to.

CHAPTER THE TENTI

OF THE PEOPLE, WHETHER ALIENS,
DENIZENS, OR NATIVES.

HAVI

AVING, in the eight preceding chapters, treated of perfons as they stand in the public relations of magistrates, I now proceed to confider fuch perfons as fall under the denomination of the people. And herein all the inferior and fubordinate magistrates, treated of in the last chapter, are included.

THE first and most obvious divifion of the people is into aliens and natural-born fubjects. Natural-born fubjects are fuch as are born within the dominions of the crown of England; that is, within the ligeance, or as it is generally called, the allegiance of the king: and aliens, fuch as are born out of it. Allegiance is the tie, or ligamen, which binds the subject to the king, in return for that protection which the king affords the fubject. The thing itself, or substantial part of it, is founded in reafon and the nature of government; the name and the form are derived to us from our Gothic ancestors. Under the feodal fyftem, every owner of lands held them in fubjection to fome fuperior or lord, from whom or whose ancestors the tenant or vafal had received them: and there was a mutual trust or confidence fubfifting between the lord and vafal, that the lord fhould protect the vafal in the enjoyment of the territory he had granted him, and, on the other hand, that the vafal should be faithful to the lord and [367] defend him against all his enemies. This obligation on the part of the vafal was called his fidelitas or fealty; and an oath of fealty was required, by the feodal law, to be taken by all tenants to their landlord, which is couched in almoft

BOOK I. the fame terms as our antient oath of allegiances: except that in the ufual oath of fealty there was frequently a faving or exception of the faith due to a fuperior lord by name, under whom the landlord himfelf was perhaps only a tenant or vafal. But when the acknowlegement was made to the abfolute fuperior himself, who was vafal to no man, it was no longer called the oath of fealty, but the oath of allegi ance; and therein the tenant fwore to bear faith to his fovereign lord, in opposition to all men, without any faving or exception: "contra omnes homines fidelitatem fecit." Land held by this exalted fpecies of fealty was called feudum ligium, a liege fee; the vasals bomines ligii, or liege men; and the fovereign their dominus ligius, or liege lord. And when sovereign princes did homage to each other, for lands held under their refpective fovereigntics, a diftinction was always made. between fimple homage, which was only an acknowlegement: of tenure; and liege hoinage, which included the fealty before-mentioned, and the fervices confequent upon it. Thus when cur Edward III, in 1329, did homage to Philip VI of France, for his ducal dominions on that continent, it was warmly difputed of what fpecies the homage was to be, whether liege or fimple homaged. But with us in England, it becoming a fettled principle of tenure, that all lands in the kingdom are holden of the king as their fovereign and lord paramount, no oath but that of fealty could ever be taken to inferior lords, and the oath of allegiance was neceffarily confined to the perfon of the king alone. By an eafy analogy the term of allegiance was foon brought to fignify all other engagements, which are due from fubjects to their prince, as well as thofe duties which were fimply and merely territoT368rial: And the oath of allegiance, as administered for up

wards of fix hundred years, contained a promise "to be "true and faithful to the king and his heirs, and truth and "faith to bear of life and limb and terrene honour, and "not to know or hear of any ill or damage intended him,

"without defending him therefrom." Upon which fir Matthew Hale makes this remark; that it was fhort and plain, not entangled with long or intricate claufes or declarations, and yet is comprehenfive of the whole duty from the subject to his fovereign. But, at the revolution, the terms of this oath being thought perhaps to favour too much the notion of non-refiftance, the prefent form was introduced by the convention parliament, which is more general and indeterminate than the former; the fubject only promifing" that he will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the "king," without mentioning "his heirs," or fpecifying in the leaft wherein that allegiance confifts. The oath of fupremacy is principally calculated as a renunciation of the pope's pretended authority: and the oath of abjuration, introduced in the reign of king William, very amply fupplies the loose and general texture of the oath of allegiance; it recognizing the right of his majesty, derived under the act of fettlement; engaging to fupport him to the utmost of the juror's power; promifing to disclose all traiterous confpiracies against him; and expressly renouncing any claim of the defcendants of the late pretender, in as clear and explicit terms as the English language can furnish. This oath must be taken by all perfons in any office, truft, or employment; and may be tendered by two juftices of the peace to any perfon, whom they fhall fufpect of difaffection". And the oath of allegiance may be tendered to all perfons above the age of twelve years, whether natives, denizens, or aliens, either in the court-leet of the manor, or in the fheriff's tourn, which is the court-leet of the county.

BUT, befides these express engagements, the law alfo holds that there is an implied, original, and virtual allegiance, owing from every subject to his sovereign, antecedently to any [369] exprefs promise; and although the subject never swore any faith or allegiance in form. For as the king, by the very descent of the crown, is fully invefted with all the rights and bound to all the duties of fovereignty, before his coronation;

fo the fubject is bound to his prince by an intrinfic allegiance, before the fuper-induction of thofe outward bonds of oath, homage, and fealty; which were only instituted to remind the fubject of this his previous duty, and for the better fecuring it's performance. The formal profeffion therefore, or oath of fubjection, is nothing more than a declaration in words of what was before implied in law. Which occafions fir Edward Coke very justly to obferve', that "all fubjects are equally bounden "to their allegiance, as if they had taken the oath; because "it is written by the finger of the law in their hearts, and the taking of the corporal oath is but an outward declaration of the fame." The fanction of an oath, it is true, in cafe of violation of duty, makes the guilt ftill more accumulated, by fuperadding perjury to treason: but it does not increase the civil obligation to loyalty; it only strengthens the focial tie by uniting it with that of religion.

ALLEGIANCE, both exprefs and implied, is however diftinguifhed by the law into two forts or species, the one natural, the other local; the former being alfo perpetual, the latter temporary. Natural allegiance is fuch as is due from all men born within the king's dominions immediately upon their birth". For, immediately upon their birth, they are under the king's protection; at a time too, when (during their infancy) they are incapable of protecting themselves. Natural allegiance is therefore a debt of gratitude; which cannot be forfeited, cancelled, or altered by any change of time, place, or circumftance, nor by any thing but the united concurrence of the legislature". An Englishman who removes to France, or to China, owes the fame allegiance to the king of England there as at home, and twenty years hence as well as now. For it is 370] a principle of univerfal law, that the natural-born subject of one prince cannot by any act of his own, no, not by fwearing allegiance to another, put off or discharge his natural allegiance to the former : for this natural allegiance was intrinsic, and primitive, and antecedent to the other; and cannot be de