The Declaration of Right, presented to the Prince of Orange in 1688 and later enacted as the English Bill of Rights, appears in the Federalist argument as a historical example of rights secured against royal prerogative. Its significance lies in the contrast the essay draws between a settlement framed as a compact between ruler and subjects and a constitution professedly established by the people themselves.

Historical Setting and Form

The essay groups the Declaration of Right with earlier instruments that it describes as stipulations between kings and their subjects: the barons obtained Magna Carta from King John, later princes confirmed it, and Charles I assented to the Petition of Right. In 1688, the Lords and Commons presented the Declaration of Right to the Prince of Orange; it was subsequently given statutory form as the English Bill of Rights.

In this account, such documents abridge prerogative in favor of privilege by reserving rights against a ruler. Their form reflects a political relationship in which subjects seek protections from the prince. The essay invokes that history not to deny the importance of those instruments, but to establish the particular historical meaning it assigns to bills of rights.

The Argument from Popular Authority

The comparison turns on the source of political authority. The essay argues that the inherited model of a rights declaration has no direct application, in its original sense, to a constitution founded on the power of the people and carried out by their immediate representatives and servants. Under that premise, the people surrender nothing and retain their rights; particular reservations against a prince are therefore not required on the same basis.

The essay contrasts the older pattern of rights secured from a sovereign with the proposed Constitution’s appeal to the people as its authors. Its opening declaration, “WE, THE PEOPLE of the United States,” is presented as a more fundamental recognition of popular rights than a catalogue of maxims. The reasoning depends on the distinction between authority delegated by the people and prerogative held by a ruler: representatives remain agents of the people rather than a superior power from which the people must reclaim reserved privileges.

Place in the Rights Debate

The Declaration of Right forms part of a broader response to objections that the proposed Constitution lacks a bill of rights. The essay distinguishes the historical origins of bills of rights from the functions of a constitution designed to regulate national political interests. It argues that a detailed inventory of personal and private concerns is less suited to such a national framework than to a constitution governing those concerns comprehensively.

The historical example thus supports a conceptual contrast, not a claim that enumerated rights are unimportant. The essay treats popular authorship as the basis for its argument that a separate list of reservations is not essential, while also maintaining that constitutional limits and protections matter. The Declaration of Right helps define the tradition being distinguished: a set of protections won from royal power, rather than a declaration grounded in popular sovereignty.