Mr. Burke talks about what he calls an hereditary crown, as if it
were some production of Nature; or as if, like Time, it had a power to
operate, not only independently, but in spite of man; or as if it were
a thing or a subject universally consented to. Alas! it has none of
those properties, but is the reverse of them all. It is a thing in
imagination, the propriety of which is more than doubted, and the
legality of which in a few years will be denied.
But, to arrange this matter in a clearer view than what general
expression can heads under which (what is called) an hereditary crown,
or more properly speaking, an hereditary succession to the
Government of a Nation, can be considered; which are-
First, The right of a particular Family to establish itself.
Secondly, The right of a Nation to establish a particular Family.
With respect to the first of these heads, that of a Family
establishing itself with hereditary powers on its own authority, and
independent of the consent of a Nation, all men will concur in calling
it despotism; and it would be trespassing on their understanding to
attempt to prove it.
But the second head, that of a Nation establishing a particular
Family with hereditary powers, does not present itself as despotism on
the first reflection; but if men will permit it a second reflection to
take place, and carry that reflection forward but one remove out of
their own persons to that of their offspring, they will then see
that hereditary succession becomes in its consequences the same
despotism to others, which they reprobated for themselves.
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