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follows” (says he) “from the very nature and constitution of a depndent state: dependence being very little else but an obligation to confrom to the will or law of that superior person or state [1]"upon
- ↑ The Irish do not pretend to deny a legal Dependence on the superior State of England, for they acknowledge that the Sovereignty of their Island is inseparabiy annexed to the Crown of England, of which, I believe, I have already quoted some examples : but, when Dependence is defined (in the manner Judge Blackstone represents it) as " an Obligation to conform to the Will or Law of the superior Person or State," &c, it ceases to be a legal Dependence, according to the common Law and Constitution of England, though the learned Judge is certainly right enough, if he will be pleased to confine his Definition of Dependence to those Countries where the civil Law prevails, as in France or Prussia for instance; because, in such despotic Realms, the oppressed People seem, indeed, to acknowledge " an Obligation to conform to the Will or Law of the superior Person or State; and the learned Commentator, if he meant to refer to the Laws of such enslaved People as these mull certainly be allowed to have delivered his meaning in the most expressive and judicious terms that he could possilbly have chosen for such a purpose ; for, inspeaking of "the Will" of "that superior Person or State" to which he supposes "an Obligation to conform," &c. he mentions it as a synonimous term to
