1689-1702. WILLIAM III. unless a positive act of participation could be proved, or that he has committed himself by seal or signature, there is no law by which articles of impeachment could be drawn against him for sitting as a "cabinet minister," and he would not be responsible as a privy councillor, because the mere fact of belonging to a body, would not be sufficient to assume a guilty responsibility". The sixth article originated from the continued corruption of parliament. Exclusion from consequence of employment. "Act of Security." Acceptance of office under the crown. Respecting the sixth article, it originated from the continued corruption of parliament, the reigning administration stifling the "patriotism" of its opponents by official appointments, and by bribes, which were taken from the "secret service money";" and if these means had not been adopted, it is very questionable whether William would have been enabled to have maintained his position. The opposition were desirous of reducing this influence, and the first instance of exclusion from the House of Commons, in consequence of employment, occurs in 1694, when, on the formation of a new board of revenue, for managing the stamp duties, its members were disqualified from having seats in the House":-and by Stat. 11 & 12 William III. c. 2, s. 150, a similar disability was extended to the commissioners, and some other officers of excise. It was soon perceived that the clause excluding all official personages from the House, was highly impracticable; and a repeal of the article took place in 1706, the commons being still determined to preserve the principle of limitation as to the number of placemen that should be capacitated. The House of Commons introduced into the "Act of Security" a clause enumerating various persons who should be eligible to parliament; the principal officers of state, the commissioners of treasury and admiralty, and a limited number of other placemen; this was successfully objected to by the lords, but two most important provisions were established, FIRST, that every member of the House of Commons, accepting an office under the crown, except a higher commission in the army, shall vacate his seat, and a new writ shall issue. 5 11 Somers' Tracts, 276. 6 5 Parl. Hist. 807, 840, 841, 881, 900, 911, 933. Com. Journ. March 12, 1694-5. 73 Hallam's Const. Hist. 257, 258. 1689-1702. of members of parliament. SECONDLY, persons holding offices created since the 25th of WILLIAM III. October, 1705, were incapacitated from being elected, or reelected members of parliament. They excluded at the same Non-eligibility. time all such as held pensions during the pleasure of the crown; and, to check the multiplication of placemen, enacted, that no greater number of commissioners should be appointed to execute any office, than had been employed in its execution at some time before that parliament®. It is impossible to question the policy of these enactments, for, as Algernon Sidney observes, "Men are naturally propense to corruption; and if he, whose will and interest it is to corrupt them, be furnished with the means, he will never fail to do it. Power, honours, riches, and the pleasures that attend them, are the baits by which men are drawn to prefer a personal interest before the public good; and the number of those who covet them is so great, that he who abounds in them will be able to gain so many to his service as shall be sufficient to subdue the rest. It is hard to find a tyranny in the world that has not been introduced in this way:"-in truth, he who has tasted the sweets of dishonest and clandestine lucre would, in the words of the poet, be no more capable afterwards of abstaining from it, than a dog from his greasy offal. The Act of Settlement secured the independence of the judges by law, and confirmed their salaries; and no judge can be dismissed from office, except in consequence of a conviction for some offence, or the address of both Houses of parliament; by which salutary enactment the judges are rendered independent of the crown. Men are natucorruption. rally prone to Independence of cured by the Act of Settlement. the judges se "Pretender. ' Louis XIV. having acknowledged the son of James as king Attainder of the of England, the most unequivocal renunciation of hereditary right, and support of the principles of the Revolution, became requisite; accordingly, the pretended king was attainted of high treason1o. It was made high treason to correspond with him, or remit money for his service; and an oath was required to be taken, not only by all civil officers, but by all 8 Stat. 4 Anne, c. 8; 6 Anne, c. 7. 9 Although the commissions of William appointing the judges, were quamdiu se bene gesserint," yet he refused his assent, in 1692, to a bill that had passed both Houses, securing the independence of the judges by law, and confirming their salaries:-because, as Burnet (p. 86) says, it was represented to the king by some of the judges themselves, that it was not fit they should be out of all dependance on the court. 10 Stat. 13 William III. c. 3. WILLIAM III. ecclesiastics, members of the universities, and schoolmasters, tion. The non-jurors. The deposed prelates consi dered as the lawful bishops of At the Revolution, the oath of allegiance differed from that which had been in use for six hundred years, the subject being only required, that "he would be faithful and bear true allegiance to the king," without mentioning "his heirs,” or specifying in what that allegiance consisted. Eight bishops", about four hundred of the other clergy, for which they were very justly deposed, and the dissenting congregations, refused to transfer their allegiance from James II., upon the ground that he remained their lawful sovereign, notwithstanding the enactments of the legislature, and from whence arose the denomination of non-jurors. The non-jurors considered the deposed prelates as the lawful bishops of their respective sees, and the new prelates as intruders. The former proceeded to found a new episcopal their respective church, differing in some religious tenets and rites from the Anglican church; but this faction, although numerous at first, very soon dwindled into contempt and oblivion'. sees. This was a wicked attempt by men, who were far from being considered the most eminent for their learning and capacities, to set up the sacerdotal order above all civil power, and whose subsequent conduct was that of disloyal subjects. This schism might, from the strength of the presbyterians and papists, have destroyed the supremacy of the English Catholic church, by creating in it two distinct parties, and The authority by without the sacrifice of any religious principle:-because the authority by which every bishop or priest acts, is one which is derived by succession from the apostles, each succeeding generation communicating to the next the authority under which they themselves had been acting: and the division of the country into dioceses and parishes is a civil which every bishop or priest which is derived, 11 Stat. 13 William III. c. 6. 12 The ancient oath contained a promise "to be true and faithful to the king and his heirs, and truth and faith to bear, of life, limb, and terrene honour, and not to know or hear of any ill or damage intended, without defending him therefrom." 13 The non-juring bishops were Sancroft ; Lloyd, Norwich; Turner, Ely; Frampton, Gloucester; White, Peterborough; Kenn, Bath and Wells. These were ejected. Lake of Chichester, and Thomas of Worcester, had died in the mean time. 1 D'Oyley's Sancroft, 447. 2 Short's Church Hist. 370. 14 3 Butler's Hist. Rom. Cath. 134. 1689-1702. arrangement which regulates the place where the individual WILLIAM III. shall exercise his ministry, but the civil power neither confers the ministerial authority, nor can alter it. When, therefore, the civil authority deprived these nonjuring bishops of their temporal jurisdictions, it could not divest them of the sacred office to which they had been called 1; and thus the temporal and spiritual authorities were in opposition, and, if the people had not experienced the wretchedness of republican and church tyranny, a civil war would have been the fatal result. The Church of England became, at the Revolution, an authorized and paid establishment, supported by government, but rendered incapable of persecution;-and its duties are to guard the spiritual concerns of the nation, by making us know our relative duties to God and our neighbour. 4. Municipal Institutions. The Church of orized and pai establishment. thorized and paid the Convention Parliament. The letters issued by the Convention Parliament, contained Letters issued by a clause which was not in the resolutions of the House, nor in the address to the Prince of Orange, "that the elections should be made by such persons only, as, according to the ancient laws and customs, of right, ought to choose members for parliament;" and the direction of the letters was, "To the chief magistrate, or such others who had right to make return of members, according to the ancient usage, before the seizure or surrender of charters, made in the time of Charles II." The professions of the Prince of Orange, that the burgesses Confirmation of of England should return again to their ancient prescriptions municipal abuse. and charters, united with the patriotism of the Convention Parliament, naturally begat hopes that all traces of the violent and unconstitutional acts relative to borough rights, which had arisen in the preceding reigns, would have been effaced,— so far from it, they received the stamp of legislative confirmation; and it is from the abuses that so arose, and were so confirmed, that the nation have, until the "Reform Act" and the "Municipal Corporation Act," so bitterly complained. "select bodies." A considerable body of the landed proprietors, and other Protection of equally influential persons in cities and boroughs, preferred incurring positive, but known abuses, rather than incur the 15 2 Short's Church Hist. 373, 374. 1689-1702. The friends of pure constitutional liberty have never been in office. WILLIAM III. peril of uncertain change for the amelioration of such abuses: the Whigs coincided in supporting such opinions, because their chief strength consisted in the protection of the select bodies, and the usurped rights of the non-residents; therefore the constitutional franchises of the nation were sacrificed to selfishness, and for the retention of power to a political party; in truth, it is a remarkable circumstance, that the "friends of pure constitutional liberty" have never been in office,-for although all parties have been in power, all their measures have had only one tendency, viz., to retain office, and keep their opponents out, with the smallest possible loss of influence to themselves and so it was in Rome,-even in the senate, Octavius had a party, Antony had a party, but the commonwealth had none; in fact, the war-whoop of "patriotism" is in the political, like" charity" in the religious system,-a cloak to hide a multitude of sins. William III. granted the smallest number of charters of any William III. granted the smallest number of charters of of his predecessors, from the time of King John. They did not, as appears from the Patent Rolls, exceed fourteen in any of his prede- number, viz., Fowey, London, Ludlow, Nottingham, Plympton, Warwick, Colchester, Dunwich, Malmsbury, Eye, Hereford, Rumsey, Tewkesbury, and Deal. cessors. The case of Poole. The first case in which the Convention Parliament had an opportunity of exemplifying the sincerity of their patriotism, was that of "Poole ;" and the essential question was, who were the burgesses?-whether the right of election was in the mayor and burgesses only, or in the mayor, burgesses, and commonalty who paid scot and lot. The committee was composed of the following constitutional lawyers and statesmen, viz., Sir Richard Onslow, Sir George Treby, Colonel Sidney, Mr. Windham, Sir Robert Sawyer, Mr. Pollexfen, Mr. Godolphin, Mr. Hampden, Major Wildman, Mr. St. John, and many others equally distinguished; and the result of their investigation was, the affirming the The effect of the elective franchise "in the mayor, burgesses, and commonalty paying scot and lot;" but the House itself, which had not inspected a single document, or heard the testimony of a single witness without condescending to afford a constitutional or plausible reason for disturbing the decision, but having only in view their political intrigues, to further which they were interested in supporting select bodies and non-residents, negatived the decision of the committee, and affirmed the right in decision. |