ot only regal,
but political. Had it been merely regal, he would have a power to make
what innovations and alterations he pleased in the laws of the kingdom,
impose tallages and other hardships upon the people whether they would
or no, without their consent, which sort of government the civil laws
point out when they declare Quod principi placuit, legis habet vigorem.
But it is much otherwise with a king whose government is political,
because he can neither make any alteration or change in the laws of the
realm without the consent of the subjects, nor burthen them against
their wills with strange impositions, so that a people governed by such
laws as are made by their own consent and approbation enjoy their
properties securely, and without the hazard of being deprived of them,
either by the king or any other. The same things may be effected under
an absolute prince, provided he do not degenerate into the tyrant. Of
such a prince, Aristotle, in the third of his Politics, says, 'It is
better for a city to be governed by a good man than by good laws.' But
because it does not always happen that the person presiding over a
people is so qualified, St. Thomas, in the book which he writ to the
king of Cyprus, De Regimine Principum, wishes that a kingdom could be so
instituted as that the king might not be at liberty to tyrannize over
his people; which only comes to pass in the present case; that is, when
the sovereign power is restrained by political laws. Rejoice, therefore,
my good prince, that such is the law of the kingdom which you are to
inherit, because it will afford, both to yourself and subjects, the
greatest security and satisfaction."[372]

The two great divisions of civil rule, the absolute, or regal as he
calls it, and the political, Fortescue proceeds to deduce from the
several originals of conquest and compact. Concerning the latter he
declares emphatically a truth not always palatable to princes, that such
governments were instituted by the people, and for the people's good;
quoting St. Augustin for a similar definition of a political society.
"As the head of a body natural cannot change its nerves and sinews,
cannot deny to the several parts their proper energy, their due
proportion and aliment of blood; neither can a king, who is the head of
a body politic, change the laws thereof, nor take from the people what
is theirs by right against their consent. Thus you have, sir, the formal
institution of every polit