[Ads-l] "balancing and checking", circa 1735; a bracketed antedating for OED2 1787--?

[Joel Berson]

“We see there the mere process of government, all in perfection, each independent of the other, and balancing and checking the other two parts: the king to execute the laws and preserve the peace; the council of the best men in the province; the last part, with free and frequent elections of the assembly, the democratic part, to make the laws as representatives of the people.”


circa 1735, James Alexander.  Quoted in Henry Noble MacCracken, Prologue to Independence: The Trials of James Alexander,American, 1715--1756  (New York: James H.Heineman, 1964), page 76.  MacCracken cites "NYPL, Cosby Papers, No. 30" (p. 147, note for p. 76).


check, int. and n.1, sense 10.e, "checks and balances", a bracketed antedating of 1787--?

Joel

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