to take it into consideration. Harley observed, that the haste in which the government was settled at the revolution, had prevented the nation from requiring such securities from the future sovereign, as would have prevented much mischief, and he hoped they would not fall into the same error; he therefore moved, that before the person was named, a provision should be made by a committee for the security of the rights and liberties of the people. This proposal being accepted, the resolutions of the committee were laid before the house, on the 12th of March, specifying certain restrictions,* to be ratified by every future sovereign.

* 1. All things relating to the well-governing of this kingdom which are properly cognizable in the privy-council, by the laws and customs of this realm, shall be transacted there, and all resolutions taken thereupon shall be signed by such of the privy council as shall advise and consent to the same. 2. No person born out of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, or Ireland, or the dominions thereunto belonging, or who is not born of English parents beyond the seas, although naturalized or made a denizen, shall be capable to be of the privy council, or a member of either house of parliament, or to enjoy any office or place of trust. 3. No such person shall have any grant of lands, tenements, or hereditaments from the crown to himself, or to any others in trust for him. 4. In case the crown shall hereafter come to any person not being a native of the kingdom of England, this nation shall not be obliged to engage in any war for the defence of any dominions or territories not belonging to the crown of England, without the consent of parliament. 5. Whoever shall hereafter come to the possession of the crown, shall join in communion with the church of England. 6. No pardon under the great seal shall be pleadable to an impeachment in parliament. 7. No person who shall hereafter come to the possession of the crown, shall go out of the dominions of England, Scotland, or Ireland, without the consent of parliament. 8. No person who has an office or place of profit under the king, or receives a pension from the crown, shall be capable of serving as a member of the house of commons. Judges commissions shall be made quam

Burnet, whose reflections on the Tories cannot be admitted without extreme caution, observes, that these limitations were designed to disgust the king, and to raise disputes between the two houses, by which the bill might be lost; and although some of these restrictions were just, and highly beneficial, this observation is fully justified by the subsequent proceedings of the commons. So many delays were still made, that the patience of the Whigs began to be exhausted, and one of their party was going to propose the electress Sophia. Harley could only prevent this measure by bringing on the question. With a view, however, to cast a ridicule on the act of settlement, he employed Sir John Bolles, who was disordered in his senses, to propose the bill. The business was so contrived, that this man thus deranged in his intellects, was, by the forms of the house, appointed one of the committee who were instructed to prepare the bill, was twice placed in the chair, and twice gave in the report. The first reading was postponed to the first of April, the second to the seventh, and it did not finally pass till the fourteenth of May. Thus the act of settlement, which was to secure the religion and constitution of the country, was received with so much coldness and contempt, that several members, during the sitting of the committee, indecently

diu se bene gesserint, and their salaries ascertained and established: But, upon the address of both houses of parliament, it may be lawful to remove them.-Journals of the house of commons.—-Tindal. + Burnet.-Journals.

* Vol. 2. p. 271.

quitted the house, and so many delays were purposely made, that more than three months elapsed, from the day in which it was recommended from the throne till it was sent up to the lords. It passed that house after a slight opposition from the marquis of Normandy. Being carried back to the commons, it was received in a thin house, and several reproachful expressions were uttered against it by some of the members.*

Notwithstanding the ungracious manner in which this measure was promoted, the most zealous Whig cannot deny that the nation is highly indebted to the Tories for one of the limitations in the act of settlement, which the Whigs, with all their ardour for civil and religious liberty would not have ventured to propose, because it was considered by the king as an insult on his conduct and administration. The restriction to which I allude is, that no foreigner, though naturalized, should be a member of the privy council, or of either house of parliament, or should enjoy any office or place of trust, or have any grant of lands from the crown. These necessary precautions, naturally suggested by the experience of those evils to which the nation had been already exposed, in consequence of raising a foreign prince to the throne, proved highly beneficial in preventing, on the accession of George the First, the admission of German denizens into the councils and cabinet of Eng land.

Burnet-Tindal.-Oldmixon.

CHAPTER 3.

1701-1702.

Walpole becomes an active Member of Parliament-Is upon various Committees, and Teller on several important Questions-Supports the Whigs-Seconds the Motion for extending the Oath of Abjuration to ecclesiastical Persons-Death and Character of King William.

ALTHOUGH neither the Journals of the House of Commons, nor any contemporary accounts, nor the traditions of his family, record that Walpole made any specific motion, or spoke in favour of the act of settlement, yet there is no doubt that he joined the Whigs in promoting it.

The Journals prove, that he soon became a very active member. His name appears upon several committees, and in one for privileges and elections, so early as the 13th of February, only three days after the meeting of the parliament in which he first sat. He was particularly attentive to the business which related to the county of Norfolk; and zealously promoted the questions which concerned the trade of Norwich, He made the report from the committee on the bill for erecting hospitals and workhouses in the borough of Lynn, and for better employing and maintaining the poor; and was ordered to carry it up to the house of lords.

He is also mentioned as teller on several important questions which related as well to the trade and revenues of England, as to questions of party. On the 23d of April he was one of the tellers against the bill proposed by the Tories for the better preservation of the Protestant religion, and for preventing the translation of bishops from one see to another. His high veneration for the character of Lord Somers, and his zealous attachment to his party, naturally induced him to oppose the motion for his impeachment, and it is not improbable that he afterwards took a considerable part in his defence. Being young and unexperienced at the period when that question was moved, he gave only a silent vote; but he made a judicious remark, which proved his sagacity: it was, that the zeal of the warmest friends is oftentimes more hurtful to the person whose cause they espouse, than the bitterest accusations of the most inveterate opponents. The able defence spoken by Somers in the house of commons, made so deep an impression, as induced Walpole to be of opinion, that if the question had been immediately put, the prosecution would have been withdrawn. But the accusers of Lord Somers, foreseeing this event, made such inconsistent observations, and used such intemperate expressions, as provoked his friends to reply. According to the account of this debate, given by Walpole, Harcourt began with extremely fallacious, but as plausible remarks, as the subject could admit. Cowper's indignation moved