1, 2.]

[Footnote 57: "And whereas the laws of England are the birthright of the
people thereof." Act of Settlement IV, Stubbs, _Select Charters_, 7th
ed., 1890, p. 531. Birthright = right by birth, the rights, privileges
or possessions to which one is entitled by birth; inheritance, patrimony
(specifically used of the special rights of the first-born). Murray, _A
New English Dictionary on Historical Principles_, _s. h. v._]

[Footnote 58: _Cf._ the instructive work of Dicey, _Introduction to the
Study of the Law of the Constitution_, 3d ed., 1889, pp. 171 _et seq._]

[Footnote 59: "Sie sind objectives, nicht subjectives Recht." Dicey, pp.
184 _et seq._, 193 _et seq._, 223 _et seq._, etc. Dicey treats the whole
doctrine of the rights of liberty in the section "The Rule of Law."
Individual liberty according to him is in England simply the correlative
of only permitting the restriction of the individual through laws.]

[Footnote 60: This is treated in the chapter "Of the Extent of the
Legislative Power," _On Civil Government_, XI.]

[Footnote 61: _Cf._ _On Civil Government_, XI, Sec. 142.]

[Footnote 62: Political liberty is no other than national liberty so far
restrained by human laws (and no farther) as is necessary and expedient
for the general advantage of the public. _Loc. cit._, p. 125 (113).]

[Footnote 63: _Loc. cit._, pp. 141 _et seq._ (127 _et seq._).]

[Footnote 64: _Cf._ _loc. cit._, pp. 127 (114), 144 (130).]

[Footnote 65: L. 32 D. de R.J. Exactly so the kindred doctrines of the
Stoics earlier in Greece had not the least legal success.]

CHAPTER VII.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN THE ANGLO-AMERICAN COLONIES THE SOURCE OF THE IDEA
OF ESTABLISHING BY LAW A UNIVERSAL RIGHT OF MAN.

The democratic idea, upon which the constitution of the Reformed Church
is based, was carried to its logical conclusion in England toward the
end of the sixteenth century, and first of all by Robert Browne and his
followers. They declared the Church, which was identical with the
parish, to be a community of believers who had placed themselves under
obedience to Christ by a compact with God, and they steadfastly
recognized as authoritative only the will of the community at the time
being, that is, the will of the majority.[66] Persecuted in England
Brownism transformed itself on Dutch soil, especially through the
agency of John Robinson, into Congregationalism, in which the earliest
form of the Independent movement made i