The smaller landed proprietors being thus stripped of their power in the administration of justice; that superior order of proprietors, or nobles, who presided in these ancient courts of justice were afterwards deprived of their power also in the administration of the law, and some of the higher order of these law-men, were appointed by the king as pecuniary judges, to administer justice to his subjects in their stead: all the landlords in the kingdom were then compelled to bow their necks, and receive that yoke which the Pope with the King's assistance, imposed upon them, and which, it has been already shown, all the inhabitants of these three united kingdoms, still continue to wear.

The landholders of the kingdom having been thus deprived of their natural power in the government of the country, it is obvious, that that divine system of government which the Almighty had established in England, by Alfred the Great, was nearly, if not completely overturned; and we find from the history of England, that, from that period, it became arbitrary and oppressive to all orders of men in the state, and continued to be so until the time of the Revolution in the year 1688.

As these pecuniary judges were all appointed

by the king, and held their offices during his will and pleasure only, they naturally became his instruments for enforcing his own arbitrary. will upon the people as a law. Of this Judge Jeffries, in the reign of James the Second, infamous example.

We have no certain knowledge at what period it was, that the Pope was enabled to introduce the head of that society of lawyers which he had established in the kingdom, into the high court of parliament, under the title of the Lord Chancellor of England. But it is exceedingly obvious that he did, by that means, obtain the same absolute power in the administration of the law, so long as he supported the king in the exercise of his arbitrary government, that he had before obtained over the consciences of men, in matters of religion.

Having shown the constitution of that natural government which the Almighty himself established in England during the reign of Alfred the Great; the power with which the landholders of the kingdom were invested under that divine system of government; the means by which they were deprived of that power; and having also shown the arbitrary dominion, which the judges in the courts of law have thereby acquired over

all orders of men in the state, and the grievous oppression which they are thereby made to suf fer it now remains for the different orders of landed proprietors in the kingdom, to determine for themselves, whether they will, or will not continue to wear this disgraceful yoke of slavery. If they shall unanimously determine to become free, and resume that power which their ancestors possessed in the government of the country during the reign of Alfred the Great, it is exceedingly obvious that no power on earth can prevent them.

But whether they shall be disposed to listen to the truth, and thereby become free, or shut their ears and continue under bondage; I call heaven and earth, and their own consciences to. witness against them, that the things which I have told them are true.

That the Spirit of God may enlighten the minds of all the inhabitants of these kingdoms, in the perfect knowledge of truth and freedom; that they may become his instruments for diffusing this knowledge of truth and freedom over all the earth; that the kingdom of God, and his righteous law, may be soon perfectly established, and faithfully inforced, in this kingdom; and that our beloved Sovereign and his

posterity may become thereby entitled to inherit the throne of these dominions, until time shall be no more, is the sincere prayer of

THE AUTHOR

PROSPECTUS

OF THE

PROPOSED INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF

GOVERNMENT AND LAW.

Which is at present nearly ready for the Press.

THIS Inquiry will consist of two parts :

First, an inquiry into that system which the Creator established at the beginning, for the government of the natural world; and,

Secondly, an inquiry into the system which he then also established for the government of the moral world. The first part will contain,

First, an inquiry into the nature of these principles, or spiritual agents, which the Creator has been pleased to employ and which he still continues to employ as his ministers, for the execution of his will, in the formation, preservation, and reproduction of all material bodies.*

Secondly, an inquiry into the plan upon which all nature is formed.