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• Introduction
• De Lolme’s Life and Early Writings
• The Constitution of England
• Later Writings
• Editions of the Constitution of England
• A Note On the Text
• Acknowledgments
• The Constitution of England
• To the King.
• Book I
• Chapter I: Causes of the Liberty of the English Nation.—reasons of the Difference Between the Government of England, and That of France.—in England, the Great Power of the Crown, Under the Norman Kings, Created an Union Between the Nobility and the People
• Chapter II: A Second Advantage England Had Over France:—it Formed One Undivided State.
• Chapter III: The Subject Continued.
• Chapter IV: Of the Legislative Power.
• Chapter V: Of the Executive Power.
• Chapter VI: The Boundaries Which the Constitution Has Set to the Royal Prerogative.
• Chapter VII: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chapter VIII: New Restrictions.
• Chapter IX: Of Private Liberty, Or the Liberty of Individuals.
• Chapter X 1: On the Law In Regard to Civil Matters, That Is Observed In England.
• Chapter Xi 1: The Subject Continued. the Courts of Equity.
• Chapter XII: Of Criminal Justice.
• Chapter XIII: The Subject Continued.
• Chapter XIV: The Subject Concluded.—laws Relative to Imprisonment.
• Book Ii
• Chapter I: Some Advantages Peculiar to the English Constitution. 1. The Unity of the Executive Power.
• Chapter II: The Subject Concluded.—the Executive Power Is More Easily Confined When It Is One.
• Chapter III: A Second Peculiarity.—the Division of the Legislative Power.
• Chapter IV: A Third Advantage Peculiar to the English Government. the Business of Proposing Laws, Lodged In the Hands of the People.
• Chapter V: In Which an Inquiry Is Made, Whether It Would Be an Advantage to Public Liberty, That the Laws Should Be Enacted By the Votes of the People At Large.
• Chapter VI: Advantages That Accrue to the People From Appointing Representatives.
• Chapter VII: The Subject Continued—the Advantages That Accrue to the People From Their Appointing Representatives, Are Very Inconsiderable, Unless They Also Entirely Trust Their Legislative Authority to Them.
• Chapter VIII: The Subject Concluded.—effects That Have Resulted, In the English Government, From the People’s Power Being Completely Delegated to Their Representatives.
• Chapter IX: A Farther Disadvantage of Republican Governments.—the People Are Necessarily Betrayed By Those In Whom They Trust.
• Chapter X: Fundamental Difference Between the English Government, and the Governments Just Described.—in England All Executive Authority Is Placed Out of the Hands of Those In Whom the People Trust. Usefulness of the Power of the Crown.
• Chapter XI: The Powers Which the People Themselves Exercise.—the Election of Members of Parliament.
• Chapter XII: The Subject Continued.—liberty of the Press.
• Chapter XIII: The Subject Continued.
• Chapter XIV: Right of Resistance.
• Chapter Xv 1: Proofs Drawn From Facts, of the Truth of the Principles Laid Down In the Present Work.—1. the Peculiar Manner In Which Revolutions Have Always Been Concluded In England.
• Chapter Xvi 1: Second Difference—the Manner After Which the Laws For the Liberty of the Subject Are Executed In England.
• Chapter Xvii 1: A More Inward View of the English Government Than Has Hitherto Been Offered to the Reader In the Course of This Work.—very Essential Differences Between the English Monarchy, As a Monarchy, and All Those With Which We Are Acquainted.
• Chapter XVIII: How Far the Examples of Nations Who Have Lost Their Liberty, Are Applicable to England.
• Chapter Xix 1: A Few Additional Thoughts On the Attempts That At Particular Times May Be Made to Abridge the Power of the Crown, and On Some of the Dangers By Which Such Attempts May Be Attended.
• Chapter Xx 1: A Few Additional Observations On the Right of Taxation Which Is Lodged In the Hands of the Representatives of the People. What Kind of Danger This Right May Be Exposed To.
• Chapter XXI: Conclusion.—a Few Words On the Nature of the Divisions That Take Place In England.
• Guide to Further Reading
• Bibliography
• De Lolme’s Principal Publications
• Works Cited By De Lolme
• Classical Sources
• Modern Sources

Editions of The Constitution of England

For the preparation of this edition, Åsa Söderman completed a detailed survey of the principal English editions of The Constitution of England published in De Lolme’s lifetime. Her research revealed for the first time the extensive changes to the text De Lolme made in the ten-year period from 1775 to 1784.

De Lolme’s study was first published as Constitution de l’Angleterre ou État du gouvernement anglais comparé avec la forme républicaine et avec les autres monarchies de l’Europe in Amsterdam in 1771. Later French-language editions appeared in Amsterdam (1774, 1778), London (1785), Geneva (1787, 1788, 1789, 1790), Breslau (1791), and Paris (1819, 1822).

The original 1775 English edition, published in London as The Constitution of England; or, an Account of the English Government; in which it is compared with the Republican Form of Government and occasionally with the Other Monarchies in Europe, comprised more than a translation of the earlier French version. De Lolme reorganized some of the chapter divisions and introduced three substantial chapters to book 2 (chapters 15–17). These additions extended the treatment of England’s constitutional development and legal system and reinforced De Lolme’s central thesis concerning the many beneficial consequences of the crown’s monopoly of executive power.

Three further editions of the English text were published in London during De Lolme’s lifetime (1777, 1781, and 1784), along with pirate printings in Dublin (1776 and 1777). These publications became the vehicle through which De Lolme further revised and expanded his discussion. Major changes to the later French editions (Geneva, 1788, and Breslau, 1791), for example, included translations and insertions of the new material added previously to the English editions. De Lolme updated his study in a variety of ways, responding critically to recent political events, such as the restoration of royal absolutism in Sweden in 1772 (book 2, chapter 17, p. 258, note c) and the French military intervention in Geneva in 1782 (book 2, chapter 5, pp. 174–75, note a), and to important recent publications, such as Adam Smith’s 1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (book 2, chapter 17, pp. 288–89). He was especially diligent in refining the language of the text. No section of the book was overlooked in the effort to clarify the argument through changes of expression and wording.

In addition to these frequent and often minor alterations, De Lolme introduced major revisions to the third (1781) and fourth (1784) editions. He added the dedication and advertisement, as well as two new chapters to book 1 (chapters 10–11), two new chapters to book 2 (chapters 19–20), and substantial new material to book 2, chapter 17 (pp. 267–74). The new chapters in book 1 added significant detail to the treatment of England’s legal institutions. The additions to book 2 greatly extended De Lolme’s contrast between the nature of the monarchic power under the English constitution and the more typical examples of monarchy in continental Europe. (The new chapter 19, for example, largely incorporated material from De Lolme’s 1772 publication A Parallel between the English Constitution and the former Government of Sweden; containing some observations on the late Revolution in that kingdom and Examination of the causes that secure us against both Aristocracy and Absolute Monarchy.) At the same time, these additions rendered the work more repetitive and much less tightly ordered. As De Lolme candidly reported, the new chapters of book 1 on English law “proved much longer than I intended at first” (chapter 11, p. 114), and the unexpected swelling of book 2, chapter 17, had been so great “as almost to make it a kind of a separate Book by itself” (advertisement postscript, p. 16). The 1784 version of De Lolme’s text was used in the subsequent and numerous editions of The Constitution of England published in the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries.

In addition to the French and English editions, German translations were published in Amsterdam (1772), Leipzig (1776, 1848), and Altona [Hamburg] (1819). A Spanish translation was published in Ovieda in 1812.

David Lieberman

A NOTE ON THE TEXT

This edition of The Constitution of England presents the 1784 version of De Lolme’s text. My principal aim as editor has been to make the work more accessible to a modern reader by clarifying the many (now obscure) historical episodes, political institutions, and practices, and by identifying the classical and modern authorities De Lolme invoked. Editorial annotations to De Lolme’s main text appear as numbered footnotes. Annotations to De Lolme’s original notes are enclosed in double square brackets inserted into the body of the note. Page breaks in the 1784 edition are indicated by the use of angle brackets. (For example, page 112 begins after .) In checking and translating De Lolme’s quotations from classical sources, I have consulted, where available, editions in the Loeb Classical Library. I have been aided by the translations in William Hughes Hughes’s edition of The Constitution of England (London, 1834).

Like many early modern writers, De Lolme was casual in his references to other authors, often trusting memory. Furthermore, he relied on versions of texts that have since been superseded. I have not tried to correct De Lolme’s citations and instead have only noted those instances where the quotations in his text involve significant variation from an original source. Obvious typographical errors in the text have been silently corrected.

Before 1752, England retained the Julian (or “Old Style”) calendar, in which the New Year is taken to begin on March 25. I have adjusted dates so that the New Year starts on January 1. This is awkward when dealing with events relating to the Glorious Revolution, which to contemporaries occurred in 1688 and to moderns in 1689. To deal with these few episodes, I have used the inelegant formula: 1688/89.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My greatest debt is to Knud Haakonssen, who first proposed that this volume be included in the series under his general editorship and who thereafter remained a frequent and much-needed source of guidance, patience, and support. Åsa Söderman’s detailed and exacting survey of the principal early editions of The Constitution of England, discussed more fully in the editorial introduction, provided the critical starting point for the preparation of this edition. Michael Sletcher showed fine generosity in sharing his discovery of a previously unreported publication by De Lolme, also detailed above.

I imposed on the expertise of many friends and scholars to elucidate particular references in De Lolme’s text and am delighted to acknowledge the help of Thomas Brady, Jan deVries, Eliga Gould, Lindsay Farmer, Richard Kagan, Ernest Metzger, Carlos Noreña, James Oldham, and Richard Whatmore. Several graduate students at the Boalt Hall School of Law provided skillful research assistance: Benjamin Bechstedt, Brad Bryan, Tucker Culbertson, and, above all, Pablo Rueda Saiz, whose dedication and contributions were invaluable. As on past occasions, I have benefited from the wonderful resources and staff of several libraries at the University of California at Berkeley: the Bancroft Library, the Robbins Collection, and the Garret W. McEnerney Law Library. I am especially grateful for the expertise and many kindnesses of the Law Library’s associate director, Marci Hoffman.

THE CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND

THE

CONSTITUTION

OF

ENGLAND,

OR

AN ACCOUNT

OF THE

ENGLISH GOVERNMENT;

In which it is compared, both with the Republican Form of Government, and the other Monarchies in Europe.

By J. L. DE LOLME, Advocate,

Member of the Council of the Two Hundred in the Republic of Geneva.

THE FOURTH EDITION,

Corrected and Enlarged.

Ponderibus librata suis.———

Ovid. Met. L. I. 13.1

LONDON,

Printed for G. Robinson, N^o 25, Paternoster-Row; and J. Murray, N^o 32, Fleet-street.

mdcclxxxiv.

[1. ]“Poised by its own weight,” Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) Metamorphoses, bk. 1.13.