§. 73. This is no small tie to the obedience of children; and there being
always annexed to the enjoyment of land a submission to the government of the
country of which that land is a part, it has been commonly supposed that a
father could oblige his posterity to that government of which he himself was a
subject, that his compact held them; whereas, it being only a necessary
condition annexed to the land which is under that government, reaches only
those who will take it on that condition, and so is no natural tie or
engagement, but a voluntary submission; for every man's children being, by
Nature, as free as himself or any of his ancestors ever were, may, whilst they
are in that freedom, choose what society they will join themselves to, what
commonwealth they will put themselves under. But if they will enjoy the
inheritance of their ancestors, they must take it on the same terms their
ancestors had it, and submit to all the conditions annexed to such a
possession. By this power, indeed, fathers oblige their children to obedience
to themselves even when they are past minority, and most commonly, too, subject
them to this or that political power. But neither of these by any peculiar
right of fatherhood, but by the reward they have in their hands to enforce and
recompense such a compliance, and is no more power than what a Frenchman has
over an Englishman, who, by the hopes of an estate he will leave him, will
certainly have a strong tie on his obedience; and if when it is left him, he
will enjoy it, he must certainly take it upon the conditions annexed to the
possession of land in that country where it lies, whether it be France or
England.
