with authority, limited or unlimited, over their lives and fortunes; and, the next moment after his election, to commence a ſuſpicion of him, that ſhall prompt them to watch ail his words, actions, and motions, and diſpoſe them to renounce and puniſh him. They chooſe him, indeed, becauſe they think he knows more, and is better diſpoſed, than the generality, and even than themſelves very often. Indeed the beſt uſe of a repreſentative aſſembly, ariſes from the cordial affection and unreſerved confidence which ſubſiſts between it and the collective body of the people. It is by ſuch a kind and candid intercourſe alone, that the wants and deſires of the people can be made known, on the one hand, or the neceſſities of the public communicated or reconciled to them, on the other. In what did ſuch a confidence in one aſſembly end, in Venice, Geneva, Biſcay, Poland, but an ariſtocracy, and an oligarchy? There is no ſpecial providence for Americans, and their natures are the ſame with others.
LETTER XXVI.
DR. PRICE.
Dear Sir,
TO demonſtrate the neceſſity of two aſſemblies in the legiſlature, as well as of a third branch in it, to defend the executive authority; it may be laid down as a firſt principle, that neither liberty nor juſtice can be ſecured to the individuals of a nation, nor its proſperity pro-
