and never come to an end of what has been moved. One says, in the Saxon time, the people were much puzzled. One king made one law, and another king another.' Another drives at a new Magna Charta. The former Parliaments cared not which way they run, so Pensions were paid. The management of the Militia was an abominable thing. Many speak, in coffee-houses and better places, of fine things for you to do, that you may do nothing but spend your health, and be in confusion. Take care of over-loading your horse, not to undertake too many things. I would go only to things obvious and apparent, and not into particulars too much.

more it makes way for the Popish interest. Popery is the fear of the nation, and all that have voted against Popery may fear Popery. But now we begin to forget it. Formerly it was thought impossible that Popery should come in, and that the Tests would keep it out. But how can we bring to pass all these Proposals, before he is king? We cannot; and when he is king, perhaps he will not pass these into laws. To stand talking, and making laws, and in the mean time have no government at all! they hope better things from our actions abroad, and a better foundation of the Protestant interest. The Prince's Declaration is the cause of your coming hither, that the kingdom may be established, and the laws and government secured from being subverted again. If we stand talking here, we shall do as strange things as those who prevailed by arms in the late times; and, not coming to a Settlement, it ended in their own destruction, and never came into any settled government; so the authority of the king swept away all at last. We lately had a bill of Exclusion; it was talked of so long, that both parties suffered, one formerly, the other since. A law you cannot make till you have a king. The thing you go upon is not practicable. One gentleman is of opinion to take away all laws since this king came to 'the crown;' another to make a new Magna Charta ;' If you sit till all these motions are considered, we may think to make our peace with king James as well as we can, and go home.

Lord Falkland. We must not only change hands, but things; not only take care that we have a king and prince over us, but for the future, that he may not govern ill. Some, perhaps, are dissatisfied with the power, some with the army. is for the people's sake we do all, that posterity may never be in danger of Popery and Arbitrary Power.

Mr. Sacheverell. Since God hath put this opportunity into our hands, all the world will laugh at us, if we make a half settlement. As the case stands, no man can tell that what he has is his own. Unless you look backward how men have been imprisoned, fined, severely dealt with; the same may happen to other gentlemen. We must look a great way backward. I cannot find three laws, from 20 years upwards, that deserve to be continued. In the great joy of the king's return, the parliament overshot themselves so much, and to redress a few Grievances they got so much Money, that they could live without you; pensions were agreed for so much in the hundred for all they gave; Warrants of Commitments, Arins taken from persons, &c. They were ill-affected to the government, because they endeavoured to chase persons they liked not. You may look back a great way; but secure this house, that `parliaments be duly chosen, and not kicked out at pleasure; which never could have been done, without such an extravagant Revenue that they might never stand in need of parliaments. Secure the Right of Elections, and the Legislative Power.

Mr. Pollexfen. First make a Settlement of the Laws, that they may be asserted, and those must all be consulted by lords and commons, and then settle the crown. Every man sees the nature of this proposition; if this be to confound you, it is a dreadful proposition: I am as much for amendment of the government as any man, and for repressing the exorbitances of it; but the way you are in will not settle the government, but restore king James again. If but a noise of this goes beyond sea, that you are making laws to bind your prince, it will tend to confusion. The greatest enemy you have cannot advise better. One kingdom so ne already, and this is in confusion. Some of the Clergy are for one thing, some for another; I think they scarce know what they would have: and the more we divide, the

Mr. Garroway. I would not draw this debate out at length; somewhat must be done : a great many things have been named by several persons to be redressed. I hope we do not go about to sit here till all be done. All we can do for the present is, to represent to the Prince that these things may be done, and, under some short Heads, to present the Prince with what you would have done to give security to the government; and let an Oath be administered to him; and in a few days you may come to your end.

Mr. Seymour. We shall suffer by our doing more than by reason of not doing at all. Will you think fit to leave the dispensing power unquestioned in Westminster-Hall? Though the clock do not strike twelve at once, must it not strike at all? Will you do nothing, because you cannot do all? Will you let men go in the same practices they have formerly? Will you establish the Crown, and not secure yourselves? What care I for what is done abroad, if we must be slaves in England, in this or in that man's power? If people are drunk and rude below, as was complained of, must that stop proceedings in parliament ?

Sir Thomas Lee. I find there is a difference in the committee, how to word the question. I know not how to propose words to reach every man's sense. If you put it so general, how our Liberties have been invaded, perhaps a few days will state it. There was an opinion, formerly, of the long robe that must be

exploded, That the king may raise what Army he pleases, if he pay them.? That is the support of slavery, when there is other support to the king than the people's affections to their prince.

Col. Birch. I am as much afraid of losing time as any body: whereas disorders of the Army in Ireland are spoken of, they will be still worse, unless provision be made to keep us from Slavery and Popery. I differ from what gentlemen say, as to the time it will take you up. I think it will not take you a day's time, when you have filled the Vacancy of the Throne. Prepare what you would have repealed, and present it. As to the Fast moved for, I know not what we should fast for. I will not call to-morrow Sunday, (January 30.) for I do not find it called so in books: I would sit to-morrow, and I hope to make an end tomorrow. There is a Tax called Hearth-money; take that away, and the Prince will have ten times more safety than in all his Army; and that may be in one line.

Sir Christ. Musgrave. In justification of your Vote yesterday, to declare your Grievances, you are to declare wherein king James 2. has broken the laws, and whom you have You must have pat by the government. wheels, before you can put the cart upon them. In the first place, put the question, "That you will proceed in asserting the Rights and Liberties of the nation; and that you will appoint a Committee to bring in general Heads, of such things as are absolutely necessary for securing the Laws and Liberties of the nation." A Committee was appointed accordingly. Thanks voted to the Clergy, Army, and Navy.} The commons resolved, nem. con. "That the Thanks of this house be given to the Clergy of the Church of England, who have preached and written against Popery, and refused to read, in their Churches, the late king's Declaration for Toleration, in opposition to the preva-tended Dispensing Power, claimed in the reign of the late king James 2. and have opposed the late illegal Ecclesiastical Commission."

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Mr. Hampden, jun.* You are, by order, to consider the State of the Nation. Though you have voted, that king James has abdicated the crown, you have not done all; we are still free, and not tied by Oaths. The time presses hard, on many accounts; and to rise without doing more than filling the Throne that is cant, is not for the safety of the people. It is necessary to declare the Constitution and Rule of the government. In the late Convention, there was a Vote passed, That the Government was in king, lords, and commons.' I move that the Journal may be inspected. You have voted, That king James has violated the Constitution of the nation,' call the chief governor what you will.

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but unless you preserve your government, your
Without your
papers cannot protect you.
sword, how will you be secured from the dan-
gers from Ireland, and the mutiny of the Ar-
my? All may be lost, whilst you are consi-
dering.

Sir Rd. Temple. We here represent all the nation. Place the government in some person, and then provide for the rest.

Mr. Harbord. You have an infallible security for the administration of the government: all the Revenue is in your own hands, which fell with the last king, and you may keep that back. Can he whom you place on the throne support the government without the Revenue? Can he do good or harm without it? It is sonable that you should be redressed by laws;

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Proceedings in the H. of Lords on the Vote of Vacancy.] On receiving the Vote from the commons declaring the Throne vacant, the house of lords resolved into a committee of the whole house, of which the earl of Danby was rea-chairman. The first motion that was made, was, Not to agree with the Commons, That the Throne was vacant,' but only first to suppose it, for the present, leaving it to be farther examined afterwards, in order to cut short several other questions, by determining this first, Whether the Throne being vacant, it ought to be filled up by a Regent or a King? This question was debated with great learning, much skill, and no little warmth: among the orators, the earl of Nottingham brought many arguments from the English history to support his opinion for a Regency with the regal power, leaving the title and dignity on king James; adding a fresh instance from Portugal, where Don Pedro had only the title of a Regent conferred upon him, while his deposed brother was alive. This Speech is said to have had so great an influence upon the house, that it would have been followed by the majority, had it not been strenuously opposed by the marquis of Halifax and the earl of Danby, who by their

"Grandson of him who had pleaded the cause of England in the point of Ship-money, with king Charles 1. His father was a very eminent man, and zealous in the Exclusion. He was a young man of great parts, and one of the learnedest gentlemen I have ever known, for he was a critic both in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He was a man of great heat and vivacity, but too unequal in his temper."

Resolved, nem. con. "That the Thanks of this house be given to the Officers, Soldiers, and Mariners, in the Army and Fleet, for having testified their steady adherence to the Protestant Religion, and being instrumental in delivering this kingdom from Popery and Slavery; and also to all such who have appeared in arms for that purpose."

Barnet.

He was tried at the court of King's Bench in 1683, for a conspiracy to disturb the peace of the realm, and fined 40,000l. the most extravagant fine that had been ever set for a misdemeanor in that court. He was afterwards, on king James's accession, tried for bigh treason at the Old Bailey, for the same offence, and condemned, but his life was saved. He afterwards cut his own throat.

great skill laid open the inextricable difficulties | ried in the negative by five voices. The next attending that proposal. So that the question day their lordships agreed to communicate being put to the vote, 51 were for a king, and their Resolutions to the house of commons; 49 only for a regent; namely, the dukes of but before they rose, the marquisses of Hallifax Somerset, Ormond, Southampton, Grafton, and Winchester, the earls of Danby and DeBeaufort and Northumberland; the earls of vonshire, the lord Delamere and others, to the Kent, Pembroke, Clarendon, Rochester, Cra. number of 40, entered their Protestations ven, Westmoreland, Scarsdale, Chesterfield, against the Vote of the day before, namely, Litchfield, Yarmouth and Lindsey; viscount That the Throne was not vacant." Weymouth, the lords Coventry, Brook, Leigh, Ferras, Maynard, Chandois, Jermin, Arundel of Trevise, Dartmouth, Godolphin, Griffin, and five more; the archbishop of York, the bishops of Norwich, Winchester, Ely, St. Asaph, Bath and Wells, Peterborough, Chichester, Rochester, St. Davids, Oxford, Gloucester and Lincoln. The earls of Huntingdon and Mulgrave did not appear in the house; and the lord Churchill likewise kept at home upon some indisposition. The archbishop of Canterbury was also absent; and indeed the prejudices conceived against a deposing power, as an art and act of Popery, had made so great an impression upon the minds of the clergy, that no bishops came into the opinion of filling up the Throne, except the bishops of London and Bristol. However, the party for a king was soon after strengthened by four dukes who came over to them, viz. the dukes of Ormond, Southampton, Grafton and Nor-speedily settled on the Throne, by whose couthumberland. On the next day, Jan. 30, the rage, conduct and reputation, this nation and lords proceeded farther upon the Grand Vote the Protestant Religion may be defended from of the other house, and put this question, our enemies at home and abroad; and that Whether or no there was an Original Con- Ireland, now in a bleeding and deplorable contract between king and people? Which Ques-dition, may be rescued from its miseries, and tion occasioned many warm disputes; not a these kingdoms settled on a lasting foundation few maintaining, that kings held their crowns in Peace and Liberty."-Whereupon, his highby divine right; which others vehemently de-ness the Prince being informed of the ill connied, asserting, That all power originally be- sequences and scandal of this way of prolonged to the community, and to the king only ceeding, caused the following Order to be made by mutual compact. Thereupon the house and published to suppress it: "By the Lordbeing divided, 53 were for the last position, Mayor, &c. Whereas his highness the Prince and 46 only for the negative; by which it ap- of Orange has been pleased to signify to me peared, that the party that were for a Regency this day, that divers persons (pretending thembegan to lose ground. The next Question selves to be citizens of London) in a tumulwas, Whether king James had broke that tuous and disorderly manner have lately disOriginal Contract?" but this being so manifest, turbed the present Convention of the lords it was soon carried in the affirmative. On the and commons at Westminster, upon pretence next day, their lordships took into consi- of petitioning; it being regular and usual for deration the word Abdicated; and con- the citizens of this city, that are under the cluded that Deserted' was more proper. apprehension of any Grievance, to make their They next examined the word Vacant' and application to myself, and the Court of Alderput this Question, Whether king James hav-men: therefore, with the advice of my brethren, the aldermen of this city, these are to require you, that you command within your ward, that they forbear any tumultuous disturbance, or assembly, as they will answer the contrary at their utmost peril."*

A tumultuous Petition set on foot.] Feb. 1. While these matters were warmly debated in the Convention and the town, and all men still in suspense which way they would be determined, this day some zealous persons set on foot the following Petition, and endeavoured to get it subscribed by the multitude indifferently, going to all public places to solicit men's hands: "To the lords spiritual and temporal assembled in the grand Convention, the humble Petition of great numbers of citizens, and other inhabitants of the cities of London and Westminster. Whereas, we are in a deep sense of the danger of delays, and perplexed debates about settling the Government, at this time vacant, by reason whereof the necessary ends of government cannot be duly administered, we humbly desire that his most illustrious highness the Prince of Orange, and his royal consort the Princess, may be

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ing broke that Original Contract between him and his people, and deserted the government, whether the throne was thereby vacant?' This question was debated with more heat and contention than any of the former, and upon a division, one party, who maintained it as a maxim of our law, That the king never dies,' and therefore, that the Throne can never be vacant,' carried the negative of the question by 11 voices. From this, some peers presently inferred, that the crown was devolved upon the next heir; and moved that the Prince and Princess of Orange should be declared king and queen, which was also car

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Feb. 2. Their lordships sent a Message to the commons, to acquaint them, That they had considered of their Vote of the 28th of January last, to which they concurred, with these two Amendments; first, instead of the word Abdicated,' they would have Deserted' be put in; and next, these words, And that the Throne is thereby vacant,' to be left out. * Echard.

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Debate in the Commons on the Lord's Amend- | ment of the Word 'Abdicated.'] Sir Rd. Temple. You have considered the word abdicated' as the only proper word. As for deserted,' I appeal whether it is a proper conclusion to the premises. The lords have left out the whole conclusion in the matter. They have agreed 'that king James has subverted the Constitution of the government, has violated the original contract, and has withdrawn himself, &c. Consider whether this be a proper conclusion. By doing these acts, he has most plainly, abdicated the government;' by the premises plainly, by subverting the constitution, he will govern by an arbitrary power, though sworn to rule according to original contract. The hour he does it, it is a renunciation of the government. Hottoman, and all approved authors, call this Abdicating the Government.' Henry 6. upon fear of the earl of Warwick, went out of the kingdom, and left it; and, that, by all the Judges, was judged 'a Demise.' I desire you will not agree with the lords.

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Mr. Hampden. The dispute with the lords is about a word changed. It is your word now, the word of the house, and I was ever of opinion the most proper word. Forsaken, forfeited,' and other words, were mentioned here; but, I think, abdicating' was in request among the Romans. When a parent abdicated' his child, he gave him no mainteDance: though the child never forsook the father, yet if he deserved it, he was abdicated.' If you say such things have been done as violating the original contract, &c. is not SelfAbdication' more than desertion? If it comes to be disputed, you will then see the value of the word. Should you say, king James has deserted, is gone from Rochester, and may come again, for doing a thing, justly to be abdicated, the question is, whether you will retain or change your word; agree or not agree with the lords.

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Sir Tho. Clarges. This is a great business before you; all tends to the settlement of the sation. Union is so necessary at this time, that I hope we shall agree with the lords in the Amendments. Desertion' seems more proper than Abdication,' which is not so needful nor proper. "As for precedents, it must be voluntary. That of Charles 5 and the queen of Sweden, tant-amount to that of Alphonso king of Portugal; his government was destructive to his people. Edw. 2. committed all manner of irregularities and oppressions, by the advice of wicked counsellors, to subvert all the laws of the nation. In Riley's Collections of Records, the parliament at Bristol, upon report that the king had forsaken the kingdom, (decessit regno as the words of the Record are, bad left the kingdom,) by unanimous consent, elected the duke of Aquitain Custos regni. Therefore I move to agree with the lords in the word Desertion.'

Mr. Finch. I would agree with the lords, for those very reasons offered against it. The

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departure of Edw. 4. out of the kingdom was
judged a Demise.' If you say king James
deserted the kingdom, the question is still en-
tire; whether he did abdicate' or 'desert,' is
not material. There is good reason why you
should agree with the lords; and I take
desert' to be the more proper
word : I am
sure it is most proper to agree with the lords.
But whether deserted' or 'abdicated,' I
would not differ with the lords; for the
consequence is entire to you, and you may
agree.

Sir Rd. Temple. I am mis-recited, and therefore desire to be rectified. I did not say 'that king James deserted the kingdom,' but the government. His renunciation is by something done by fact, not by solemn instrument.

Lord Falkland. If this Vote be grounded merely upon the king's leaving the kingdom, he may come again, and resume the government. But Abdication' relates to breaking your laws; and though the lords stand by the premises, yet they desert the conclusion, in leaving out the Throne vacant.' I would therefore not agree with the lords.

Mr. Dolben. The precedent I cited the other day, and inferred my opinion upon was, that Edw. 4.'s withdrawing himself from the kingdom and the government, was a demise, and it was so judged by the opinion of all the Judges; and from all considerations together, you pronounced it an Abdication' in king James. But barely a Demise,' and 'a withdrawing,' without the consideration of all the breaches he had made in the government, the house did not call it, but the word Abdication.' I would agree with the lords if I could agree with ourselves, and our own senses, first. The lords have so far concurred with your Vote, That king James has broken the original contract betwixt the king and people.' The premises must agree with the conclusion; ours is the more proper inference, and we must stand by it.

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Sir Robert Sawyer. Authors that write of Abdication' say, to desert' is to abdicate.' All that the lords mean by Abdication,' you mean by Desertion.'

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Sir Rob. Howard. Desertion' is a Latin word, and Abdication' is another. If there be no more intended by the lords than the word, then the king has only deserted the government, and the Throne is not vacant; and the king may have the help of a Regency. They are both Latin words alike, and both English: Abdication' arises from vacated.' If it be not so, the lords have made room for their last Amendment, That the Throne is not vacated.'

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Mr. Tipping. The lords are of opinion that the throne is full, but they tell you not who is in the throne. I am sorry to hear of a great number that would bring the king back again; how pernicious that would be to all good Protestants, you may easily judge. I am sure it will be of ill consequence to join the Prince of Orange with him in the throne. But I believe