[Ads-l] Antedating of "Checks and Balances"

[Shapiro, Fred]

checks and balances (OED 1787)

1701 John Toland The Art of Governing by Partys 31 (Eighteenth Century Collections Online)

England is under a free Government, whose Supreme Legislative Power is lodg'd in the King, Lords, and Commons, ... they are a mutual check and balance on one another's Oversights or Enchroachments.

Fred Shapiro

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