which we are at war;
and, if ours be secure in that land, they shall be secure in ours.
This seems to have been a common rule of equity among all the northern
nations; for we learn from Stiernhook[d], that it was a maxim among
the Goths and Swedes, "_quam legem exteri nobis posuere, eandem illis
ponemus_." But it is somewhat extraordinary, that it should have found
a place in _magna carta_, a mere interior treaty between the king and
his natural-born subjects; which occasions the learned Montesquieu to
remark with a degree of admiration, "that the English have made the
protection of _foreign_ merchants one of the articles of their
_national_ liberty[e]." But indeed it well justifies another
observation which he has made[f], "that the English know better than
any other people upon earth, how to value at the same time these three
great advantages, religion, liberty, and commerce." Very different
from the genius of the Roman people; who in their manners, their
constitution, and even in their laws, treated commerce as a
dishonorable employment, and prohibited the exercise thereof to
persons of birth, or rank, or fortune[g]: and equally different from
the bigotry of the canonists, who looked on trade as inconsistent with
christianity[h], and determined at the council of Melfi, under pope
Urban II, _A.D._ 1090, that it was impossible with a safe conscience
to exercise any traffic, or follow the profession of the law[i].

[Footnote c: _c._ 30.]

[Footnote d: _de jure Sueon._ _l._ 3. _c._ 4.]

[Footnote e: Sp. L. 20. 13.]

[Footnote f: Sp. L. 20. 6.]

[Footnote g: _Nobiliores natalibus, et honorum luce conspicuos, et
patrimonio ditiores, perniciosum urbibus mercimonium exercere
prohibemus._ _C._ 4 63. 3.]

[Footnote h: _Homo mercator vix aut nunquam potest Deo placere: et
ideo nullus Christianus debet esse mercator; aut si voluerit esse,
projiciatur de ecclesia Dei._ _Decret._ 1. 88. 11.]

[Footnote i: _Falsa fit poenitentia [laici] cum penitus ab officio
curiali vel negotiali non recedit, quae sine peccatis agi ulla ratione
non praevalet._ _Act. Concil. apud Baron._ _c._ 16.]

THESE are the principal prerogatives of the king, respecting this
nation's intercourse with foreign nations; in all of which he is
considered as the delegate or representative of his people. But in
domestic affairs he is considered in a great variety of characters,
and from thence there arises an abundant number of other prerogatives.

I. FI