fettling the fucceffion of the crown." You will observe, that thefe rights and this fucceffion are declared in one body, and bound indiffolubly together.

A few years after this period, a fecond opportunity offered for afferting a right of election to the crown. On the profpect of a total failure of iffue from King William, and from the Princefs, afterwards Queen Anne, the confideration of the fettlement of the crown, and of a further fecurity for the liberties of the people, again came before the legislature. Did they this fecond time make any provifion for legalizing the crown on the fpurious Revolution principles of the Old Jewry? No. They followed the principles which prevailed in the Declaration of Right; indicating with more precifion the perfons who were to inherit in the Proteftant line. This act alfo incorporated, by the fame policy, our liberties, and an hereditary fucceffion in the fame act. Instead of a right to choose our own governors, they declared that the fucceffion in that line (the proteftant line drawn from James the First) was abfolutely neceffary" for the peace, quiet, and fecurity of the "realm," and that it was equally urgent on them "to maintain a certainty in the fuccefion thereof, "to which the fubjects may fafely have re"courfe for their protection." Both thefe acts, in which are heard the unerring, unambiguous oracles of Revolution policy, instead of countenancing the delufive, gypfey predictions of

a

right to choose our governors," prove to

a demonftration

a demonstration how totally adverse the wisdom of the nation was from turning a cafe of nèceffity into a rule of law.

Unquestionably there was at the Revolution, in the person of King William, a fmall and a temporary deviation from the flrict order of a regular hereditary fucceffion; but it is against all genuine principles of jurifprudence to draw a principle from a law made in a special cafe, and regarding an individual perfon. Privilegium non tranfit in exemplum. If ever there was a time favourable for eftablishing the principle, that a king of popular choice was the only legal king, without all doubt it was at the Revolution. Its not being done at that time is a proof that the nation was of opinion it ought not to be done at any time. There is no perfon fo completely ignorant of our hiftory, as not to know, that the majority in parliament of both parties were fo little disposed to any thing refembling that principle, that at firft they were determined to place the vacant crown, not on the head of the prince of Orange, but on that of his wife Mary, daughter of King James, the eldest born of the iffue of that king, which they acknowledged as undoubtedly his. It would be to repeat a very trite ftory, to recall to your memory all thofe circumftances which demonftrated that their accepting King William was not properly a choice; but, to all those who did not wish, in effect to recall King James, or to deluge their country in blood, and again to bring their religion, laws,

and liberties into the peril they had juft efcaped, it was an act of neceffity, in the ftricteft moral fenfe in which neceffity can be taken.

In the very act, in which for a time, and in a fingle cafe, parliament departed from the ftri&t order of inheritance, in favour of a prince, who, though not next, was however very near in the line of fucceffion, it is curious to obferve how Lord Somers, who drew the bill called the Declaration of Right, has comported himfelf on that delicate occafion. It is curious to obferve with what addrefs this temporary folution of continuity is kept from the eye; whilst all that could be found in this act of neceffity to countenance the idea of an hereditary fucceffion is brought forward, and foftered, and made the most of, by this great man, and by the legislature who followed him. Quitting the dry, imperative style of an act of parliament, he makes the lords and commons fall to a pious, legiflative ejaculation, and declare, that they confider it " as a marvellous providence, "and merciful goodness of God to this nation,

to preferve their faid majefties royal perfons, "most happily to reign over us on the throne of "their ancestors, for which, from the bottom of "their hearts, they return their humbleft thanks "and praifes."-The legislature plainly had in view the act of recognition of the first of Queen Elizabeth, Chap. 3d, and of that of James the First, Chap. 1ft, both acts frongly declaratory of the inheritable nature of the crown; and in many

parts

parts they follow, with a nearly literal

precifion, the words and even the form of thankf giving, which is found in these old declaratory ftatutes.

The two houfes, in the act of king William, did not thank God that they had found a fair opportunity to affert a right to choose their own governors, much lefs to make an election the only lawful title to the crown. Their having been in a condition to avoid the very appearance of it, as much as poffible, was by them confidered as a providential efcape. They threw a politic, well-wrought veil over every circumftance tending to weaken the rights, which in the meliorated order of fucceffion they meant to perpetuate; or which might furnish a precedent for any future departure from what they had then fettled for ever. Accordingly, that they might not relax the nerves of their monarchy, and that they might preferve a clofe conformity to the practice of their ancestors, as it appeared in the declaratory statutes of queen Mary* and queen Elizabeth, in the next clause they vest, by recognition, in their majesties, all the legal prerogatives of the crown, declaring, "that in them they are most "fully, rightfully, and intirely invested, incorpo<< rated, united, and annexed.” In the claufe which follows, for preventing questions, by reafon of any pretended titles to the crown, they declare (obferving alfo in this the traditionary * Mary, Seff, 3. ch. 1.

language,

language, along with the traditionary policy of the nation, and repeating as from a rubric the Janguage of the preceding acts of Elizabeth and James) that on the preferving" a certainty in the "SUCCESSION thereof, the unity, peace, and tranquillity of this nation doth, under God, wholly « depend."

"

They knew that a doubtful title of fucceffion would but too much refemble an election; and that an election would be utterly deftructive of the unity, peace, and tranquillity of this na"tion," which they thought to be confiderations of fome moment. To provide for these objects, and therefore to exclude for ever the Old Jewry doctrine of "a right to choose our own

governors," they follow with a claufe, containing a moft folemn pledge, taken from the preceding act of Queen Elizabeth, as folemn a pledge as ever was or can be given in favour of an hereditary fucceffion, and as folemn a renunciation as could be made of the principles by this fociety imputed to them. "The lords "fpiritual and temporal, and commons, do, "in the name of all, the people aforefaid, moft "humbly and faithfully fubmit themselves, their "beirs and pofterities for ever; and do faith

fully promife, that they will ftand to, main"tain, and defend their faid majefties, and "alfo the limitation of the crown, herein fpecified and contained, to the utmoft of their powers," &c. &c.

Sa