§. 122. But submitting to the laws of any country, living quietly and enjoying
privileges and protection under them, makes not a man a member of that society;
it is only a local protection and homage due to and from all those who, not
being in a state of war, come within the territories belonging to any
government, to all parts whereof the force of its law extends. But this no more
makes a man a member of that society, a perpetual subject of that commonwealth,
than it would make a man a subject to another in whose family he found it
convenient to abide for some time, though, whilst he continued in it, he were
obliged to comply with the laws and submit to the government he found there.
And thus we see that foreigners, by living all their lives under another
government, and enjoying the privileges and protection of it, though they are
bound, even in conscience, to submit to its administration as far forth as any
denizen, yet do not thereby come to be subjects or members of that
commonwealth. Nothing can make any man so but his actually entering into it by
positive engagement and express promise and compact. This is that which, I
think, concerning the beginning of political societies, and that consent which
makes any one a member of any commonwealth.
