Query XIII.

complete this ar- gument, they muft go on, and fay further, that effeftual oppofition could not be made to Great-Britain, without eftablifliing a form of government perpetual and unal- terable by the legiflature; which is not true. An oppofition which at fome time or other was to come to an end, could not need a perpetual inftitution to carry- it on: and a government, amendable as its defefts fliould be difcovered, was as likely to make efFeftual refiftance, as one which fhould be unalterably wrong. Be- fides, the aflemblies were as much vefted with all powers requifite for refiftance as the conventions were. If therefore thefe powers included that of modelling the form of government in the one cafe, they did fo in the other. The aflemblies then as well as the conventions may model the government; that is, they may alter the ordinance of government. 2. They urge, that if the convention had meant that this inftrument fliould be alterable, as their other ordinances were, they would have called it an ordinance : but they have called it a conftitiitioUy which ex vi termini means * an aft above the power of the or- dinary legiflature.' I anfwer that conjli- tiitioy conjiitutium, Jlatutitmy lex, are con-