XXIV

themselves, discharged of their subjection to their sovereign that sent them, as hath been done by many commonwealths of ancient time, in which case the commonwealth from which they went was called their metropolis or mother, and requires no more of them, than fathers require of the children whom they emancipate and make free from their domestic government, which is honour and friendship; or else they remain united to their metropolis, as were the colonies of the people of Rome; and then they are no commonwealths themselves, but provinces, and parts of the commonwealth that sent them. So that the right of colonies, saving honour and league with their metropolis, dependeth wholly on their license or letters, by which their sovereign authorized them to plant.