fon and heir king Charles the first should be told by those infamous judges, who pronounced his unparalleled sentence, that he was an elective prince; elected by his people, and therefore accountable to them, in his own proper perfon, for his conduct. The confufion, inftability, and madness, which followed the fatal catastrophe of that pious and unfortunate prince, will be a standing argument in favour of hereditary monarchy to all future ages; as they proved at last to the then deluded people: who, in order to recover that peace and happiness which for twenty years together they had lost, in a folemn parliamentary convention of the ftates restored the right heir of the crown. And in the proclamation for that purpose, which was drawn up and attended by both houses, they declared," that, according to their duty and allegi"ance, they did heartily, joyfully, and unanimoufly ac"knowlege and proclaim, that immediately upon the de"cease of our late fovereign lord king Charles, the imperial "crown of these realms did by inherent birthright and law"ful and undoubted fucceffion defcend and come to his most "excellent majefty Charles the fecond, as being lineally, just"ly, and lawfully, next heir of the blood royal of this realm: " and thereunto they most humbly and faithfully did fubmit "and oblige themselves, their heirs, and pofterity for ever."

THUS I think it clearly appears, from the highest authority this nation is acquainted with, that the crown of England hath been ever an hereditary crown; though fubject to limitations by parliament. The remainder of this chapter will confift principally of those inftances, wherein the parliament has afferted or exercifed this right of altering and limiting the fucceffion; a right which, we have feen, was before exercised and afferted in the reigns of Henry IV, Henry VII, Henry VIII, queen Mary, and queen Elizabeth.

THE first inftance, in point of time, is the famous bill of exclufion, which raifed fuch a ferment in the latter end of the reign of king Charles the fecond. It is well known that the purport of this bill was to have fet afide the king's brother x Com. Journ. 8 May 1660..

and prefumptive heir, the duke of York, from the fucceffion, on the score of his being a papist; that it paffed the house of commons, but was rejected by the lords; the king having alfo declared beforehand, that he never would be brought to confent to it. And from this tranfaction we may collect two things: 1. That the crown was univerfally acknowleged to be hereditary; and the inheritance indefeafible unless by parliament: elfe it had been needlefs to prefer fuch a bill. 2. That the parliament had a power to have defeated the inheritance: elfe fuch a bill had been ineffectual. The commons acknowleged the hereditary right then fubfifting; and the lords did not difpute the power, but merely the propriety, of an exclufion. However, as the bill took no effect, king James the second fucceeded to the throne of his ancestors; and might have enjoyed it during the remainder of his life, but for his own infatuated conduct, which (with other concurring circumstances) brought on the revolution in 1688.

THE true ground and principle, upon which that memorable event proceeded, was an entirely new cafe in politics, which had never before happened in our history; the abdication of the reigning monarch, and the vacancy of the throne thereupon. It was not a defeazance of the right of fucceffion, and a new limitation of the crown, by the king and both houses of parliament: it was the act of the nation alone, upon a conviction that there was no king in being. For in a full affembly of the lords and commons, met in a convention upon the fuppofition of this vacancy, both houfes came to this refolution; "that king James the fecond, having endeavour"ed to fubvert the conftitution of the kingdom, by breaking the original contract between king and people; and, "by the advice of jefuits and other wicked persons, having "violated the fundamental laws; and having withdrawn "himself out of this kingdom; has abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant." Thus ended

y Com. Journ. 7 Feb. 1688.

O 2

at

at once, by this fudden and unexpected vacancy of the throne, the old line of fucceffion; which from the conquest had lafted above fix hundred years, and from the union of the heptarchy in king Egbert almost nine hundred. The facts themfelves thus appealed to, the king's endeavour to subvert the conftitution by breaking the original contract, his violation of the fundamental laws, and his withdrawing himself out of the kingdom, were evident and notorious: and the confequences drawn from these facts (namely, that they amounted to an abdication of the government; which abdication did not affect only the person of the king himself, but also all his heirs, and rendered the throne abfolutely and completely vacant) it belonged to our ancestors to determine. For, whenever a question arifes between the fociety at large and any magistrate vested with powers originally delegated by that fociety, it must be decided by the voice of the fociety itself: there is not upon earth any other tribunal to refort to. And that thefe confequences were fairly deduced from these facts, our ancestors have folemnly determined, in a full parliamentáry convention reprefenting the whole fociety. The reafons upon which they decided may be found at large in the parliamentary proceedings of the times; and may be matter of instructive amusement for us to contemplate, as a speculative point of history. But care must be taken not to carry this inquiry farther, than merely for inftruction or amusement. The idea, that the confciences of pofterity were concerned in the rectitude of their ancestors' decifions, gave birth to those dangerous political herefies, which so long diftracted the state, but at length are all happily extinguished. I therefore rather chufe to confider this great political meafure upon the folid footing of authority, than to reason in it's favour from it's juftice, moderation, and expedience: becaufe that might imply a right of diffenting or revolting from it, in cafe we should think it to have been unjust, oppreffive, or inexpedient. Whereas, our ancestors having most indifputably a competent jurifdiction to decide this great and important queftion, and having in fact decided it, it is now be

come

come our duty at this distance of time to acquiefce in their determination; being born under that establishment which was built upon this foundation, and obliged by every tie, religious as well as civil, to maintain it.

BUT, while we reft this fundamental tranfaction, in point of authority, upon grounds the least liable to cavil, we are bound both in justice and gratitude to add, that it was conducted with a temper and moderation which naturally arose from it's equity; that, however it might in fome refpects go beyond the letter of our antient laws, (the reafon of which will more fully appear hereafter 2) it was agreeable to the spirit of our conftitution, and the rights of human nature; and that though in other points (owing to the peculiar circumftances of things and persons) it was not altogether fo perfect as might have been wished, yet from thence a new aera commenced, in which the bounds of prerogative and liberty have been better defined, the principles of government more thoroughly examined and understood, and the rights of the subject more explicitly guarded by legal provisions, than in any other period of the English hiftory. In particular it is worthy obfervation that the convention, in this their judgment, avoided with great wisdom the wild extremes into which the vifionary theories of fome zealous republicans would have led them. They held that this mifconduct of king James amounted to an endeavour to fubvert the conftitution; and not to an actual fubverfion, or total diffolution, of the government, according to the principles of Mr. Locke 2: which would have reduced the fociety almost to a state of nature; would have levelled all diftinctions of honour, rank, offices, and property; would have annihilated the fovereign power, and in confequence have repealed all pofitive laws; and would have left the people at liberty to have erected a new system of ftate upon a new foundation of polity. They therefore very prudently voted it to amount to no more than an abdication of the government, and a confequent vacancy of the throne;

z See chap. 7.

a on Cov. p. 2. c. 19.

03

whereby

whereby the government was allowed to fubfift, though the executive magistrate was gone, and the kingly office to remain, though king James was no longer king. And thus the conftitution was kept entire; which upon every found principle of government must otherwife have fallen to pieces, had fo principal and constituent a part as the royal authority been abolished, or even fufpended.

THIS fingle poftulatum, the vacancy of the throne, being once established, the reft that was then done followed almost of course. For, if the throne be at any time vacant, (which may happen by other means befides that of abdication; as if all the blood royal íhould fail, without any successor appointed by parliament ;) if, I fay, a vacancy by any means whatfoever fhould happen, the right of difpofing of this vacancy feems naturally to refult to the lords and commons, the truftees and representatives of the nation, For there are no other hands in which it can fo properly be intrusted; and there is a neceffity of it's being intrusted somewhere, elfe the whole frame of government must be diffolved and perish. The lords and commons having therefore determined this main fundamental article, that there was a vacancy of the throne, they proceeded to fill up that vacancy in fuch manner as they judged the moft proper, And this was done by their declaration of 12 February 1688, in the following manner: "that "William and Mary, prince and princefs of Orange, be, " and be declared king and queen, to hold the crown and "royal dignity during their lives, and the life of the furvi"vor of them; and that the fole and full exercise of the "regal power be only in, and executed by, the faid prince "of Orange, in the names of the faid prince and princess, 66 during their joint lives: and after their deceases the faid "crown and royal dignity to be to the heirs of the body of "the faid princefs; and for default of fuch iffue to the "princefs Anne of Denmark and the heirs of her body; and "for default of fuch iflue to the heirs of the body of the faid "prince of Orange."

b Law of forfeit. 118, 119.

e Com. Journ. 12 Feb. 1688.

PERHAPS,