from every ſubject to his ſovereign, antecedently to any expreſs promiſe; and although the ſubject never ſwore any faith or allegiance in form. For as the king, by the very deſcent of the crown, is fully inverted with all the rights and bound to all the duties of ſovereignty, before his coronation; ſo the ſubject is bound to his prince by an intrinſic allegiance, before the ſuper-induction of thoſe outward bonds of oath, homage, and fealty; which were only inſtituted to remind the ſubject of this his previous duty, and for the better ſecuring it's performance[1]. The formal profeſſion therefore, or oath of ſubjection, is nothing more than a declaration in words of what was before implied in law. Which occaſions ſir Edward Coke very juſtly to obſerve[2], that "all ſubjects are equally bounden to their allegiance, as if they had taken the oath; becauſe it is written by the finger of the law in their hearts, and the taking of the corporal oath is but an outward declaration of the ſame." The ſanction of an oath, it is true, in caſe of violation of duty, makes the guilt ſtill more accumulated, by ſuperadding perjury to treaſon; but it does not encreaſe the civil obligation to loyalty; it only ſtrengthens the ſocial tie by uniting it with that of religion.
Allegiance, both expreſs and implied, is however diſtinguiſhed by the law into two ſorts or ſpecies, the one natural, the other local; the former being alſo perpetual, the latter temporary. Natural allegiance is ſuch as is due from all men born within the king's dominions immediately upon their birth[3]. For, immediately upon their birth, they are under the king's protection; at a time too, when (during their infancy) they are incapable of protecting themſelves. Natural allegiance is therefore a debt of gratitude; which cannot be forfeited, cancelled, or altered, by any change of time, place, or circumſtance, nor by any thing but the united concurrence of the legiſlature[4]. An Engliſhman who removes to France, or to China, owes the ſame allegiance to the king of England there as at home, and twenty years
