Mere locality does not constitute a body politic. Had Cade and his
gang got possession of London, they would not have been the lord mayor,
aldermen, and common council. The body politic of France existed in the
majesty of its throne, in the dignity of its nobility, in the honour
of its gentry, in the sanctity of its clergy, in the reverence of its
magistracy, in the weight and consideration due to its landed property
in the several bailliages, in the respect due to its moveable substance
represented by the corporations of the kingdom. All these particular
moleculae united form the great mass of what is truly the body politic
in all countries. They are so many deposits and receptacles of justice;
because they can only exist by justice. Nation is a moral essence, not a
geographical arrangement, or a denomination of the nomenclator. France,
though out of her territorial possession, exists; because the sole
possible claimant, I mean the proprietary, and the government to which
the proprietary adheres, exists, and claims. God forbid, that if you
were expelled from your house by ruffians and assassins, that I should
call the material walls, doors, and windows of--, the ancient and
honourable family of--. Am I to transfer to the intruders, who, not
content to turn you out naked to the world, would rob you of your very
name, all the esteem and respect I owe to you? The regicides in France
are not France. France is out of her bounds, but the kingdom is the
same.