degree of plausibility, that " if the convention was in itself an illegal affembly, its acts could not be legalised by giving it the name of a parliament-that the king's writ was as neceffary as his prefence to constitute a legal parliament-that the convention of 1660 was called by the confent, if not by the authority, of the lawful king, and when there was no great seal in being to affix to the writs; notwithstanding which it had never been confidered as a legal parliament, its acts were ratified in a subsequent parliament, and thence they derived their validity. No conftitutional power existing, therefore, by which the convention could be converted into a parliament, they inferred that it must of neceffity be diffolved, and a new parliament summoned." To this reafoning the whigs replied with firmness and fpirit, "that the whole of the proceedings relative to the REVOLUTION NOW accomplished were in a legal sense irregular and anomalous to the established principles of the constitution; but that effentials must not be facrificed to forms. A king had been dethroned, and another ELECTED, and universally acknowledged as a king de facto at least, if not de jure. Was it then more difficult, or lefs conftitutional, to acknowledge a parliament de facto than a king de facto? The effence of a parliament consisted in the meeting and co-operation of the king, lords, and commons, whether convoked by writ or by letter. The prince of Orange not being king at the time of his issuing the letters, was an irrevelant objection; fince he was then the administrator of the executive government. From a retrospective view of English history it was fufficiently apparent, that it was never confidered by our ancestors as fo material how the king, lords and commons came together, as that they were together. During the imprisonment of Edward II. writs were iffued for a parliament in the name of the monarch by the queen and prince of Wales; which, being met, deposed the king, and paffed a great variety of acts remaining in force without any subsequent confirmation. In like manner the parliament which depofed king Richard II. was fummoned by the duke of Lancaster, af

terwards

terwards king Henry IV.; which parliament, fo irregularly convened, paffed divers acts, the legality of which was never queftioned. As to the confirmation of the acts of the convention parliament of 1660 by the fubfequent parliament of 1661-convoked by the king's writ, though perhaps politically expedient in order to satisfy the scrupulofities of fome fceptical theorists, it could proceed neither from neceffity nor propriety; most of the acts paffed in the convention parliament having produced their full effect before the fubfequent parliament began. Where then was the political prudence or advantage of throwing the kingdom into confufion by a new election at so critical a juncture, to the great delay and hindrance of public business? And after all, at their next meeting, as to all the effentials which conftitute a true and lawful parliament, they would gain nothing but what they already poffeffed." These arguments happily prevailed; and the commons agreeing to the bill, the convention was from that time called the parliament : the act commencing from the day on which the crown was accepted by the king and queen.

The 1st of March being appointed for taking the oaths of allegiance and fupremacy, divers of the diffatisfied members, chiefly of the upper house, retired on different pretences into the country. Being at length fummoned to give their attendance, the earls of Clarendon, Litchfield, Exeter, with a few other temporal lords, continued contumacious; and no less than eight of the bishops, including the primate Sancroft, a man of unblemished morals, of great learning and integrity, and of much paffive fortitude-but in his public capacity weak, wavering, and pufillanimous. Though he had joined with the other peers and privy counsellors in inviting the prince of Orange to take the administration of the government upon him, he refused to pay his compliments of congratulation at St. James's on his fubfequent arrival. When the convention met, he came not to take his place among them-refolving to act neither for nor against the interefts of king James: and though he himself refufed the

paths,

oaths, he cautiously avoided taking any steps, by acting or speaking, to deter others from fuch compliance. The example of the bishops was followed by many individuals amongst the inferior clergy, who were in confequence deprived of their benefices; though by far the greater mumber fubmitted to the oaths enjoined, but with fuch limitations and mental reférvations as redounded very little to the honor of their integrity. The recufant prelates* were at first suspended from their epifcopal functions, and it was not till after an interval of more than a year the vacant sees were filled with men of more liberal principles; the new metropolitan Dr. Tillotson, in particular, sustaining a very high character for moderation, wifdom, candor and probity. The deprived archbishop Sancroft retired to a small paternal estate in Norfolk, cultivating, as we are told, his garden with his own hands, and enjoying in peace and privacy the fplendid facrifices he had made at the shrine of rectitude and confcience.

The faction of the non-jurors, and many who had taken the oaths to the government, were quickly discovered by intercepted letters to be engaged in fecret practices against it. The earl of Arran, fir Robert Hamilton and others were committed to the tower, and a bill passed both houses fufpending the habeas corpus act-for the first time fince that famous law, the bulwark of the English conftitution and of the personal liberty of Englishmen, was enacted. A fpirit of mutiny alfo at this period broke out in the army; and the royal Scotch regiment of horse and that of Dumbarton,

* The non-juring bishops were Sancroft, of Canterbury; Turner, of Ely; Lake, of Chichester; Ken, of Bath and Wells; White of Peterbo rough; Lloyd, of Norwich; Thomas, of Worcester; and Frampton, of Gloucefter. The five first of these were of the number of the feven bishops fent to the tower by king James for refusing to promulgate the declaration of indulgence; thus a second time, and within a very short interval, facrificing, though in an ignoble and unworthy caufe, their interest to their fincerity and integrity.

barton, having declared for king James, began their march from South Britain to Scotland; but were purfued by ge-. neral Ginckel, and compelled to furrender at difcretion. This incident gave rife to a bill, now become annual, for punishing mutiny and defertion, forming in its present state a complete military code, under the fanction of which the formidable standing army of Britain is disciplined and governed.

The revenue of the crown fettled upon the late king James for life, was declared by the house of commons to be expired, in contemptuous difregard of the allegations of the courtiers, who pretended that the revenue had devolved to the present king with the crown, as, during the life of king James at least, inseparably annexed to it. By a very just and wise regulation, they established a distinction between the ordinary and extraordinary expenditure of the nation; fettling by a provisional act the fum of 600,000l. upon the crown, to defray the neceffary demands of the civil government, under the appellation of the civil lift; and leaving all the remaining supplies to be voted upon eftimate, and appropriated to specific services, ftated by ministers, and approved by the parliament. This was a political novelty, at which the king was not perfectly pleased; particularly as the civil lift itself was granted, by a caution perhaps too fcrupulous, for fo fhort a term as one year only: and the bold and innovating spirit of the whigs excited in this and other instances some degree of umbrage, not to say refentment, in the breast of the king.*

With

The king declared, "that without a fettled revenue a king was but a pageant;" and upon another occafion he said to bishop Burnet," that he understood the good of a commonwealth as well as of a kingly government, and IT WAS NOT EASY TO DETERMINE WHICH WAS BEST but he was fure the worst of all governments was that of a king without treasure and without power." The late king of Pruffia was more deeply tainted with this political herefy than king William; for he declared himself to Dr. Zimmermann "extremely partial to republics."

With a view to extend his popularity, the monarch fignified, in a meffage to the commons, his readiness to acquiefce in any regulations they should think proper to adopt for the fuppreffion of hearth-money, which he understood to be a grievous impofition on the fubject; and this tax was in the fequel abolished, " in order to erect a lasting monument of his majefty's goodness," to use the words of the act, "in every dwelling-house of the kingdom." But the profpect of this monument, according to the obfervation of the celebrated commentator of the laws of England, was extremely darkened by the fubftitution, in a few years afterwards, of an heavy duty on windows, as an equivalent. to that on hearths; and which is perhaps little less odious or vexatious. In confequence alfo of the king's recommendation, the houfe of commons voted the fum of 600,000l. as a compenfation to the states-general for the expence incurred by them in fitting out the fleet which wafted the prince of Orange to the British fhore. Another very important measure brought forward in the course of the prefent feffion, though not carried into full effect till the succeeding one, was the converfion of the declaration of rights prefented to the king by the two houfes of convention, immediately previous to the offer of the crown, into that memorable law fo frequently referred to, and so justly celebrated, under the appellation of the BILL of RIGHTS.* A clause

of

The declaratory claufes of this famous bill are as follow:-" The lords fpiritual and temporal, and commons, &c. as their ancestors in like cafes have ufually done, for the vindicating their antient rights and privileges, declare

That the pretended power of fufpending laws or the exécution of laws by regal authority without confent of parliament, is illegal.

That the pretended power of difpenfing with laws or the execution of laws by regal authority, as it hath been affumed and exercised of late, is illegal.

That the commiffion for erecting the late court of commiffioners for ecclefiaftical causes, and all other commiffions and courts of the like nature, are illegal and pernicious.

That