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The Virginia Gazette
Richmond, Williamsburg, Richmond County, Virginia
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A Scotchman warns that the King's assent to the Quebec Bill would violate his coronation oath, breaking the compact with the people and absolving subjects from allegiance, potentially justifying rebellion against a perjured monarch.
Merged-components note: The second component is the signature to the preceding letter to the editor; merged for coherence as a single logical unit.
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WILL follow the Quebec Bill to the Throne, as I would the Framer of it to a Scaffold. I have told the King, that if he assents to the Bill he will break his Coronation Oath; and a Breach of an Oath, whether in a King or a Peasant, I call Perjury. The English Government is founded on an Agreement mutually entered into by the King and People. The King swears, that the established Laws and Customs of the Realm shall be the Rule of his Conduct, and that he will govern, in every Respect, according to them. The People take an Oath of Allegiance, but it is conditional: They are bound to obey no longer than the Sovereign adheres to the Terms of his Oath: for it would be absurd to suppose the People fettered down to a Promise after the first Magistrate has thought himself at Liberty to part with the most solemn Engagements. I therefore repeat it, that the Moment a King of England shall perjure himself that Instant are his Subjects absolved from their Allegiance; the Compact is broken; the Government founded on that Compact is dissolved.
It is no Excuse, at the Bar of Reason, to allege that the Prince was ill advised; for, after repeated Warnings, who but an obstinate Semblance of Majesty would persist in the Wrong? It is of no Consequence to the People whether a King perjures himself at the Instigation of Bute, Mansfield, Jeffries, or the Devil; he who is so wicked as to violate his Oath, at the Instigation of Knaves, is too weak to be trusted with the Rights of honest Men.
I have only, then, one Question to ask of the People; it is this, if ever they should be so unhappy as to live under a perjured Prince, whether they would not sooner see another Scaffold erected at Whitehall than another Coronation in Westminster Abbey? If I know any Thing of the Spirit of Englishmen, the Scaffold would be crowded with Heroes, the Abbey with Children, for the Sake of the Farce; whilst thus would run the general Shout of the People, Off with the Head that pays no Regard to the Sacredness of an Oath.
A SCOTCHMAN.
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Letter to Editor Details
Author
A Scotchman.
Recipient
To The People.
Main Argument
assenting to the quebec bill would constitute perjury by the king, breaking the mutual oath-based compact with the people, absolving subjects from allegiance and dissolving the government, justifying resistance against such a prince.
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