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Show ( 45 ) { 44 ) But of this power of the Confiitution over the legiflative authority Mr. Burke has himfelf given the molt pointed cafe. He fays, " before " this Ac't (that is before the A67: for the partial occafion to this manumifiion. It is the Confli- tution of England, which maintaining liherty, and annihilating fla'very, renders this Aét of Parliament a tahula rafa, a blank parchment, without operation, without force, without effect. " fufpenfion of the Habeas Corpus) every man It is that Con/litution, which ir now refifling the " putting his foot on Englifh ground, every " firanger owing only a local and temporary " allegiance, even aNegro flave, who had been " fold in the Colonies, and under an 1162‘ if " Parliament, became as free as every other " man who breathed the fame air with him." What is it then that, fetting this AG: of‘ Parliament at defiance, manumits the Negro, flave f0 foon as he puts his foot on Englifh ground? Let it not be faid that it is the pure rehellion qfflflr of Parliament agaiiyl it. air of this foggy ifland, that can work thefe wonderful wonders, for thefe are the half- mited. wrtted fayings of lawyers that would be orators, and fit only for the lullahies of nurfes, or the flag/mgr of children. Let it not be faid that the Act is local ; for it is not local. In thort, my idea of this Government, to {peak as a lawyer would do, is, that Parliaments, as I have {aid before, are the truttees of the People, the Corflitution the deed of truf'r, wherein they {land feized to ufi'r only; and thefe am: being named, they cannot depart from them : but for their due performance are accountable to thofe by whofe conveyance the null was made. The right is therefore fiduciary, the power liOr as a mathematician would fay, more in the road of demonf'tration; the Can iz‘zztian is a Circle, the Law: the Raa'ii of that Circle, drawn on its furface with the pen of Parliament, and it is the known quality of a The Aé'c circle, that its radii cannot exceed its circzmzje- alluded to is the 5th of G. II. ch. 27. (but there are many other Aé'ts to the fameefi'eé‘t) rence, whill'c the People, like the c‘aiiiaafles, are and it vef'cs a clear and unconditional property, confined no where, but abfolute every where, in Thefe, I fay, are my ideas of this Government, the owner to his purchafed flave; and yet when country, for this is what I would mean by this owner {hall bring his Have to this country, he {hall lofe his ownerfhip in him; though he hold him under an Aét of Parliament. No: Government, and I hope that they are juft and true; or otherwife, dreadful indeed is the it is neither the one, nor the other, that gives the right to alter the " eflablithed religion of occafion the fixed in the center, and defcribe the circle. that is, of the whole political fyfiem of this profpeét before us! For if Parliaments have |