Mirft, It is plain in that Cafe King Richard the Second had abfolutely religned, renounced, or (call it what you pleafe) abdicated in Writing under his own Hand. What is done then? After that, the Parliament being then fitting, they did not think it fufficient to go upon, because that Writ- · ing might be the effect of Fear, and fo, not voluntary; thereupon they proceed to a formal depofition upon Articles, and then comes in the Claim of Henry IV.

• After all this, was not this an Election? He indeed faith, that he was the next Heir, and claimed it by descent from Henry the Third; yet he that was really the next Heir did not appear, which was the Earl of March; fo that Henry the Fourth claimed it as his indubitable Right, being the next Heir that then appeared.

But, Gentlemen, I pray confider what followed upon it; all the Kings that were thus taken in (we say elected, bur the Election was not of God's Approbation) fcarce paffed any one Year in any of their Reigns, without being difturbed in the Poffeffion.

Yet, I fay, he himself did not care to owe the Crown to the Election, but claimed it as his Right. And it was a plaufible Pretence, and kept him and his Son (though not without interruption) upon the Throne. But in the time of his Grandfon Henry the Sixth, there was an utter overthrow of all his Title and Poffeffion too: For if you look into the Parliament Roll, I Edward the Fourth, the Proceedings againft King Richard the Second, as well as the rest of the Acts during the Ufurpation (as that Record rightly calls it) are annulled, repealed, revoked, reverfed, and all the Words imaginable used and put in, to fet thofe Proceedings afide as illegal, unjuft and unrighteous. And, pray what was the Reafon? That Act deduceth down the Pedigree of the Royal Line, from Henry the Third to Richard the Second, who died without Iffue, and then Henry the Fourth (faith the Act) ufurped; but that the Earl of March, upon the death of Richard the Second, and confequently Edward the Fourth from him, was undoubted King, by Confcience, by Nature, by Cuftom, and by Law.

The Record is to be feen at length, as well as that 1 Henry IV; and being a latter Act, is of more Authority. And after all this, (I pray confider it well) the right Line is restored, and the Ufurpation condemned and repealed.

Befides, Gentlemen, I hope you will take into your Confideration, what will become of the Kingdom of Scotland if they should differ from us in this Point, and go another way to work; then will that be a divided Kingdom from ours again. You cannot but remember how much trouble

1688-9.

it always gave our Ancestors, while it continued a divided Anno 4 Jac. II, Kingdom; and if we fhould go out of the Line, and invert the Succeffion in any point at all, I fear you will find a Difagreement there, and then very dangerous Consequences may enfue.'

My Lords, the Proceeding and Expreffions of the Sir Robert Houfe of Commons in this Vote are fully warranted by the Howard, Precedent that hath been cited, and are fuch as wherein there has been no Interruption of the Government according to the Conftitution.

The late King hath, by your Lordfhips Conceffion, done all those things, which amount to an Abdication of the Government, and the Throne's being thereby Vacant: And had your Lordfhips concurred with us, the Kingdom had long ere this been fettled, and every body had peaceably followed their own Bufinefs. Nay, had your Lordships been pleased to exprefs your felves clearly, and not had a mind to fpeak ambiguoufly of it, we had faved all this Trouble, and been at an end of Difputing.

Truly, my Lords, this Record that hath been mentioned of Henry the IVth, I will not fay is not a Precedent of Election, for the Arch-Bishop ftood up, and looked round on all fides, and asked the Lords and Commons, whether they would have him to be King; and they afferted, (as the words of the Roll are) that he should reign over them. And fo it is done at every Coronation.

As to his Claim, they did not fo much mind that, for they knew that he claimed by Defcent and Inheritance, when there was a known Perfon that had a Title before him.

For, that which a noble Lord fpoke of touching the public Acts that have been done fince the King left us, I may very well fay, we think them legally done; and we do not doubt but that Power which brought in another Line then, upon the Vacancy of the Throne by the Lefion of Richard the Second, is ftill, according to the Conftitution, refiding in the Lords and Commons, and is legally fufficient to fupply the Vacancy that now is.

That noble Lord indeed faid, that your Lordships might not only, with the Commons, advife the Prince of Orange to take upon him the Adminiftration, and join with us in the other things; but that you might have done it of yourselves, as being, in the absence of the King, the great Council of the Nation.

My Lords, I fhall not fay much to that Point, your Lordships Honours and Privileges are great, and your Councils very worthy of all Reverence and Respect.

TOME II.

I i

• But

Anno 4 Jac. II.

1688-9.

But I would ask this Queftion of any noble Lord that is here, Whether had there been an Heir, to whom the Crown had quietly defcended in the Line of Succeffion, and this Heir certainly known, your Lordships would have affembled without his calling, or would have either adminiftred the Government yourselves, or advised the Prince of Orange to have taken it upon him? I doubt you have been (pardon me for faying it) all guilty of High Treafon, by the Laws of England, if a known Succeffor were in poffeffion of the Throne, as he must be if the Throne were not Vacant.

From thence, my Lords, your Lordships fee where the Difficulty lies in this Matter, and whence it arifeth, because you would not agree the Throne to be Vacant, when we know of none that poffefs it.

We know fome fuch thing hath been pretended to as an Heir-Male, of which there are different Opinions, and in the mean time we are without a Government; and must we ftay till the truth of the Matter be found out? What fhall we do to preserve our Constitution, while we are without a fafe or legal Authority to act under the fame, according to that Conftitution; and in a little time it will, perhaps, through the distraction of our Conftitution, be utterly irremediable?

I do not deny, but that your Lordships have very great Hardships to conflict with in fuch a cafe; but who is the occafion of them?

'We all do know the Monarchy is hereditary; but how, or what shall we do to find out the Succeffor in the right Line?

You think it will be a difficult thing to go upon the Examination who is Heir; perhaps it will be more difficult to refolve in this cafe, than it might be in another: For though heretofore there have been Abdications and Vacancies, it has been where the King has been of the fame Religion of the established Worship of the Nation; and amongst those that pretended to the Succeffion, the feveral Claimers have been Perfons born and bred up in that Religion that was established by Law; or it may be there hath been a Child in the Womb, at the time of the Vacancy.

But then, my Lords, there would not be much difficul ty to examine, who should inherit, or what were fit to be done. I confefs, I fay, there are difficulties of all fides, or elfe your Lordships fure would have spoke out before now: And if you had been clear in it yourselves, you would have let the Commons and the World have known it. But it not being clear, muft we always remain thus ? Ufe what words you will, fill up, nominate, or elect, it is

the

the thing we are to take care of, and it is high time it wère Anno 4 Jac. 11. 1688-9

done.

My Lords, there is no fuch Confequence to be drawn from this Vote, as an Intention or a Likelihood of altering the courfe of the Government, fo as to make it elective; the Throne hath all along defcended, in an hereditary Succeffion; the main Conftitution hath been preferved.

The Precedent of Henry the Fourth is not like that of Elections in other Countries; and I am forry there should be any occafion for what is necessary to be done now.

But when fuch Difficulties are upon the Nation, that we cannot extricate our felves out of, by fixing who is the lineal Succeffor, your Lordships, I hope, will give us leave to remember Salus populi eft fuprema Lex.

And if neither you nor we can do any thing in this Cafe, then we, who are met under the notion of an Affembly or Convention of the States, have met to no purpose; for after we have voted our felves to be without a Government, (which looks as if fomething were really intended as to a Settlement) all presently finks, and we are as much in the dark as we were before.

And, my Lords, I pray give me leave to fay one thing more: Your Lordships fay, you will never make a Prece dent of Election, or take upon you to alter the Succeffion.

With your Lordships favour, the Settlement of the Conftitution is the main thing we are to look after. If you provide for the Supply of the defect there, that point of the Succeffion will, without all queftion, in the fame Method, and at the fame Time, be furely provided for.

But, my Lords, you will do well to confider: Have not you your felves already limited the very Succeffion, and cut off fome that might have a lineal Right? Have you not concurred with us in our Vote, That it is inconfiftent with our Religion and our Laws to have a Papift to reign over us? Mult we not come then to an Election, if the next. Heir be a Papift? Nay, fuppofe there were no Proteftant Heir at all to be found, would not your Lordships then break the Line?

But your Lordships Vote is inconfiftent; you do fuppofse a Cafe of the greatest Confequence that can be, may happen; and if that fhould happen to be our Cafe, that the whole Proteftant Line should fail, would not that neceffitate: an Election, or elfe we muft fubmit to that which were inconfiftent with our Religion and our Laws?

If your Lordships then, in fuch a cafe, muft break through the Succeffion, I think the Nation has reafon to expect you should take care to fupply the prefent Defect, where the Succeffion is uncertain.

Anno 4 Jac. II.

1688-9.

Earl of Rembroke.

Earl of Claren • don.

Sir Richard

Temple.

My Lords, if this fhould not be agreed unto, what will be the Confequence? We that used, and juftly, to boast of living under the best of Governments, must be left without any one; for, your Lordships, it feems, cannot agree with us to fupply and fill up this Gap in it, or tell us who is the Succeffor: And we must not do it ourselves by Election; which is the only way left us to provide for our Settlement.

Truly, my Lords, upon the whole, I cannot tell what Condition we fhall be in, or what we can do farther; but we 'must even part, and break up in Confusion, and fo leave the Nation to extricate itself, as well as it can, out of this Diftraction. But then, at whofe Door that will lie, I must leave to your Lordships own Thoughts,'

'We have indeed paffed fuch a Vote, as that Gentleman fays, against a Popish Prince's reigning over us; but I fhould think that amounts to no more than a Refolution, that by a Law to be made we will take care of it in Parliament: Therefore I think that which we aim at, and that which the Conftitution of our Government does require, is, to put things in a legal Method: And, in order to it, I would have the legal Succeffor declared and proclaimed, and then a Parliament fummoned in that Prince's Name, and the whole Matter fettled there.

An Act made by a King de facto, is void as to a King de jure; therefore I would have the Conftitution preferved, and would defire, that all that is done in this Matter may be again done in Parliament,'

Sir Robert Howard was pleafed to fay, That By the fame Method that the Throne now fhould be filled, by the fame the Succeffor fhould be declared, and the right Line fettled. Is not that declaring the Crown to be elective?

Suppofe you fay nothing but fill the Throne, is it not to take away the right Line of Inheritance? And, will not fuch a Succeffor claim it for his Pofterity?

Truly, I think, if the right Line be declared in the fame Way that the Succeffor is, then we take upon us to difpofe of the Inheritance of the Crown abfolutely; which, I think, by all the Law I ever read or could hear of among us, is out of our Power; and, that neither Houfe, nor both Houfes together, have Power to do any thing relating to the Succeffion, but by Act of Parliament; which the two Houfes by themselves cannot make.'

I think we are now going too far in this Matter; the queftion before us is only, Whether there be a Vacancy in the Throne? After we have done with that, I do not fee how this will preclude the Confideration of any Claim to the Suc ceffion.

• Your