Correspondence

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 117, 31 March 1892, Page 3

Correspondence

The Relation -which State and Subject HOLD TO BACH OTHEB ANJ> THEIR Mutual Obligations. TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAIU Sir— Since you have kindly given pubKcation to my previous letters, may I beg the further indulgence of allowing me to pursue my argument? As it is important, however, in continuing it, to point out the exact relation that exists betwixt the State and the Subject, and their responsibilities to each other, and also to show that I am propounding new theories, and am not a dreamer, I will, with your permission, cite a passage from Blackstone, the original exponent of British law, bearing on the matter. Blackstone (book I, chap. 10) says :— " Allegiance is the tie or legumen which binds tbe subject to the king in return for that protection which the king affords the subject. Natural allegiance is such 5.3 is due from all men born within the knig's dominions immediately upon their birth, 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, then, is a debt of gratitude which cannot be forfeited, cancelled, or altered by any change of time, place, or circumstance." So decides Coke and all lawyers. Such is the decision of Paley and all civilians, and thus say all the diyines. It is on such authorities as these that I base my argument, so, if I drenin (as I have been told I do) they have dreamed also. But have the courts of justice dreamed when in upholding such decision they have from time to time tried snbjecta as rebels and traitors for withdrawing snch allegiance from the king, and when proved guilty of the offence have in hundreds of instances made the punishment that of death ? So that as al - legiance to the sovereign is imperative upon the subject, so is protection to the subject imperative upon the State. I now cite another authority from Blackstone (book 11, chap. 7) : " Sir Henry Spehuan defines a feud or fee to be the right which the vassal or tenant hath in lands to use the same and take the profits thereof to him and his heirs, rendering to the lord his due services; the mere allodial property in the soil always remaining in the lord. This allodial property no subject has it being a received and. now undeniable principle in the law that all the lands in England are holden mediately or immediately of the king. The king, therefore, only hath ahsoluium ft directum domhiium, but all subjects' lands are in the nature oifeodnm or of fee." I am, &c, S. Knight.