Vox Populi, Vox Dei

Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a Whig tract of 1709, titled after a Latin phrase meaning "the voice of the people is the voice of God". It was expanded in 1710 and later reprintings as The Judgment of whole Kingdoms and Nations: Concerning the Rights, Power, and Prerogative of Kings, and the Rights, Privileges, and Properties of the People. The author is unknown but was probably either Robert Ferguson or Thomas Harrison.^[1]^[2] There is no evidence for the persistent attribution to Daniel Defoe or John Somers as authors.

^ William Gibson. Enlightenment Prelate: Benjamin Hoadly, 1676-1761, 2004, p.90. "Hoadly's assize sermons had a strong influence, and provided the foundation for Whigs like Thomas Harrison, the probable author of the 1709 tract Vox Populi Vox Dei: or True Maxims of Government, which was reprinted eight times in the first .."
^ J. P. Kenyon. Revolution Principles: The Politics of Party 1689-1720, 1990, p.209. "The author of Vox Populi Vox Dei is unknown. Some nineteenth-century bibliographers gave the honour to Somers, others to Defoe, but neither attribution is very plausible. ...It was signed 'R. F.', and there seems no reason to challenge the accepted attribution to Robert Ferguson. But long before 1709 Ferguson had turned Jacobite, and it is unlikely that he turned back. As for Political Aphorisms, this was signed ...Thomas Harrison"

[1] William Gibson. Enlightenment Prelate: Benjamin Hoadly, 1676-1761, 2004, p.90. "Hoadly's assize sermons had a strong influence, and provided the foundation for Whigs like Thomas Harrison, the probable author of the 1709 tract Vox Populi Vox Dei: or True Maxims of Government, which was reprinted eight times in the first .."

[2] J. P. Kenyon. Revolution Principles: The Politics of Party 1689-1720, 1990, p.209. "The author of Vox Populi Vox Dei is unknown. Some nineteenth-century bibliographers gave the honour to Somers, others to Defoe, but neither attribution is very plausible. ...It was signed 'R. F.', and there seems no reason to challenge the accepted attribution to Robert Ferguson. But long before 1709 Ferguson had turned Jacobite, and it is unlikely that he turned back. As for Political Aphorisms, this was signed ...Thomas Harrison"

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