Chapter the tenth.
Of the PEOPLE, whether ALIENS,
DENIZENS, or NATIVES.
HAVING, in the eight preceding chapters, treated of perſons as they ſtand in the public relations of magiſtrates, I now proceed to conſider ſuch perſons as fall under the denomination of the people. And herein all the inferior and ſubordinate magiſtrates, treated of in the laſt chapter, are included.
The firſt and moſt obvious diviſion of the people is into aliens and natural-born ſubjects. Natural-born ſubjects are ſuch as are born within the dominions of the crown of England, that is, within the ligeance, or, as it is generally called, the allegiance of the king; and aliens, ſuch as are born out of it. Allegiance is the tie, or ligamen, which binds the ſubject to the king, in return for that protection which the king affords the ſubject. The thing itſelf, or ſubſtantial part of it, is founded in reaſon and the nature of government; the name and the form are derived to us from our Gothic anceſtors. Under the feudal ſyſtem, every owner of lands held them in ſubjection to ſome ſuperior or lord, from whom or whoſe anceſtors the tenant or vaſal had received them: and there was a mutual truſt or confidence ſubſiſting between the lord and vaſal, that the lord should protect the vaſal in the enjoyment of the territory he had granted him, and, on the
