" For when their
successors, managing the government with different thoughts, would
draw the actions of those good rulers into precedent and make them the
standard of their prerogative- as if what had been done only for the
good of the people was a right in them to do for the harm of the
people, if they so pleased- it has often occasioned contest, and
sometimes public disorders, before the people could recover their
original right and get that to be declared not to be prerogative which
truly was never so; since it is impossible anybody in the society
should ever have a right to do the people harm, though it be very
possible and reasonable that the people should not go about to set any
bounds to the prerogative of those kings or rulers who themselves
transgressed not the bounds of the public good. For "prerogative is
nothing but the power of doing public good without a rule."
167. The power of calling parliaments in England, as to precise
time, place, and duration, is certainly a prerogative of the king, but
still with this trust, that it shall be made use of for the good of
the nation as the exigencies of the times and variety of occasion
shall require.
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