The sovereignty is, under God, in
the nation and the title and the possession are inseparable. The
title of the Palaeologi to the Roman Empire of the East, of the
king of Sicily, the king of Sardinia, or the king of Spain--for
they are all claimants--to the kingdom of Jerusalem founded by
Godfrey and his crusaders, of the Stuarts to the thrones of
England, Ireland, and Scotland, or of the Bourbons to the throne
of France, are vacated and not worth the parchment on which they
are engrossed. The contrary opinion, so generally entertained,
belongs to barbarism, not to civilization. It is in modern
society a relic of feudalism, which places the state in the
government, and makes the government a private estate--a private,
and not a public right--a right to govern the public, not a right
to govern held from or by the public.
The proprietor may be dispossessed in fact of his estate by
violence, by illegal or unjust means, without losing his right,
and another may usurp it, occupy it, and possess it in fact
without acquiring any right or legal title to it. The man who
holds the legal title has the right to oust him and re-enter upon
his estate whenever able to do so. Here, in the economical
order, the fact and the right are distinguishable, and the actual
occupant may be required to show his title-deeds. Holding
sovereignty to be a private estate, the feudal lawyers very
properly distinguish between governments de facto and governments
de jure, and argue very logically that violent dispossession of a
prince does not invalidate his title.
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