framed by retaining so much of the old oath as exclusively affected Roman Catholics. Thus the Parliament of 1688, at the same time, and by the same Act, that they extended to the throne the principle of exclusion, deliberately confirmed the existing laws, disqualifying from the Legislature, and other places of influence, all who "entertain scruples" of renouncing obedience to the jurisdiction or authority of " a foreign prince, prelate, state, or potentate, within this realm." By incorporating, in one and the same resolution, these important provisions, affecting the sovereign and the subject, they stamped them both with the same authority. By declaring that this resolution was the result of " their most serious consideration, as to the best means of attaining such an establishment as that their religion, laws, and liberties, might not again be in danger of being subverted," they gave it the highest sanction in their power. Finally, by annexing this resolution to the solemu instrument to be tendered to the Prince and Princess of Orange, as comprising the conditions upon which the new settlement of the Crown was to be made, they rendered the maintenance of the provisions they had resolved upon necessary to the performance of those conditions, and a fundamental article of the compact.

The Declaration of Rights was tendered, with the Crown, (as we find it recorded in the Act

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by which it became law,) to the Prince and Princess of Orange, on the 13th of February, 1688,- Upon which their said Majesties did accept the Crown and royal dignity of the kingdoms of England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, according to the resolution and desire of the said Lords and Commons, contained in the said Declaration."

The Declaration was accordingly passed into a law, under the title of "An Act, declaring the rights and liberties of the subject, and settling the succession of the Crown,"* commonly called, "The Bill of Rights," in the preamble to which it is entirely recited. By the first enactment of this Act,† the Legislature confirmed the Declaration of Rights in every part, in terms so absolute and clear, that it appears inconceivable how any person succeeding to the Crown, by virtue of that settlement, can be supposed not to be bound as much by one clause or provision of it as another. Now, in pursuance of the premises, the said Lords, spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, for the ratifying, confirming and establishing the said Declaration, and the articles, clauses, matters, and things therein contained, by the force of a law, made in due form, by authority of Parliament, do pray that it may be declared and enacted, &c., That

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*First of William and Mary. Sess. 2. cap. 2.
+ Section 6.

all and singular, the rights and liberties asserted and claimed, in the said Declaration, are the true undoubted rights and liberties; and, That all and every the particulars aforesaid," (not merely, be it observed, the said rights and liberties,) "shall be firmly and strictly holden and observed, as they are expressed in the said Declaration; and all officers and ministers, whatsoever, shall serve their Majesties, and their successors, according to the same in all times to come."

Thus far the Bill of Rights regards the Subject, respecting whom it has a twofold operation-it defines his civil rights, and it prescribes on behalf of the State the terms upon which he shall be admitted to political power: Which terms are, that with an acknowledgment of temporal allegiance to his natural Sovereign, must be joined an absolute denial of ecclesiastical or spiritual allegiance to any foreign power or authority. The Bill of Rights next (sec. 9) regards the Sovereign, and institutes those provisions to which we have already adverted, for securing an exclusively Protestant succession to the throne. The whole is summed up in the enacting clause (sec. 11) in these remarkable terms: All which their Majesties are contented and pleased shall be declared, enacted, and established, by authority of this present Parliament, and shall stand, remain, and be the law of this realm for ever: And the same are, by

their said Majesties, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords, spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same declared, enacted, and established accordingly."

Not contented with confirming "all and every the particulars" of the Declaration of Rights, the Legislature proceeded, by distinct and special enactments, to carry into complete effect the resolutions expressed in it, in order "to make" (such is the language of the Act) effectual provision for the settlement of the religion, laws, and liberties of this kingdom, so that the same, for the future, might not be in danger again of being subverted."

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In the Act by which the Crown was happily settled upon the House of Hanover,* the same anxiety is evinced to bind every future sovereign to maintain the established Constitution, in Church and State, by the preservation of the "effectual provision" made for that purpose. In the confirmatory clause with which this important statute concludes, it is solemnly declared, ' "That all the laws and statutes of this realm, for securing the established religion, and the rights and liberties of the people thereof, and all other laws and statutes of the same now in force, are, by his Majesty, by and with the advice and

* Twelfth and Thirteenth of William III. cap. 2.

consent of the Lords, spiritual and temporal, and Commons, and by authority of the same, ratified and confirmed.”

To this brief notice of the compact of the Revolution, it will be sufficient to add one observation. The strong terms used in the establishment of these provisions with reference to the permanency of them, afford no ground to charge the Legislators of 1688 with entertaining the absurd design of attempting to give by words an immutability to their institutions, of which, in the nature of things, those institutions were not susceptible. Their language is to be taken with reference to the remarkable circumstances under which it was used, and to the subject to which it was applied. They well knew that they could not, indeed, by the employment of the most solemn and emphatic terms, stay the hand of innovation in after times. But they could, and they did, thereby render the enactments comprised, expressly or by implication, within the articles of that compact, fundamental Laws of the Constitution. Future Legislators might adopt principles opposed to those upon which they acted; future Sovereigns might reign by another tenure than that which they instituted; but it was for them to mark in indelible characters upon the records of the Revolution, a warning which should go down with their institutions to posterity:-that, should any of