The Prince accepted on December 18th the trust offered him, and made special reference to the disorders in Ireland, which more than ever rendered a settled government necessary. Considering the difficulties in which English statesmen were placed, this step of entrusting the actual government to William, while as yet destitute of Parliamentary and legal sanction, was undoubtedly the wisest, as it was the only safe course to adopt. It was better to call a Convention and proceed by regular and legitimate steps, than to make William immediately king. CHAP. II. vention. His ac ceptance. the Grand Upon the appointed day, January 22nd, 1689, according Meeting of to the old style, the Grand Convention met at West- Convenminster, under circumstances of lively expectation both for tion. England and Europe. The members separated into two Houses, and proceeded to their choice of Speakers. The Marquis of Halifax was chosen by the Lords, and Mr. Powle by the Commons. the Prince. The Prince of Orange did not open the sittings, not Address to having as yet any constitutional status, but he sent a letter to this free assembly of the nation, pointing out the necessity for securing at once a happy and lasting settlement, alike in the interests of England as in those of the Protestants of Europe. After some discussion, an address of both Houses was agreed upon describing the Prince, under God, as the glorious instrument for freeing the kingdom from Popery and arbitrary power, and thanking him for the great care he had taken in administering the affairs of the kingdom. They begged him to continue his administration until further application should be made to him by the Convention, which his Highness agreed to do. of the Then began the debates on the state of the nation. On Position January 28th, upon the suggestion of Sir Edward Sey- Crown. mour, the Speaker left the chair, and the House went into a grand committee of the whole House, in order to secure a full, free, and uninterrupted discussion. Mr. Gilbert Dolben, an able lawyer, and son to the late Archbishop of York, opened the discussion by a remark The Convention. By CHAP. II. able speech, in which he gave it as his opinion that the crown was demised, and that James II. was no longer King of England. He laid it down as an undoubted proposition that "when the King does withdraw himself from the administration of the government, without any provision to support the commonwealth, when, on the contrary, he stops the use of the Great Seal by taking it away with him, this amounts to what the law calls demise-id est, a cession." The meaning of the word "demise," he urged, was demissio, laying down, whether actually relinquishing the government, or passively by death, in either of which cases it was a demise. withdrawing his person, the King made a parenthesis in the government; and by withdrawing the seal the Chancery ceased, and no justice could be obtained. Mr. Dolben then argued from James's letter to Lord Feversham, in which he stated his intention of following the Queen to France, that the King's withdrawal had been voluntary; and he appealed to Littleton (temp. Edward IV.), "the oracle of the law," to prove that this withdrawal was equivalent to a surrender of the crown. He therefore recommended the Convention to declare that James II. had voluntarily demised the James's sition. crown. Such a view was very debatable, and it was open to self-depo- the objection that it circumscribed the right of Parliament merely to a recognition of the new prince while it was not known who that new prince might be. This did not satisfy Sir Richard Temple (nephew of Sir William, the diplomatist), who declared that the King had endeavoured to destroy the government of the nation in Parliament, and to overthrow the Constitution. He was no better than a tyrant, and had practically forfeited his right to the crown. Serjeant Maynard observed that the question was, not whether they could depose the King, but whether he had not deposed himself. Sir George Treby brought common-sense into the discussion when he said, We found the throne vacant, and are to supply that defect; we found it so we did not make it so." 66 vention. Somers, the eminent lawyer, afterwards the great CHAP. I. Lord Somers, spoke during the debate. He was of The Conopinion that the King's going to a foreign sovereign and Various casting himself into his hands absolved the people from views their allegiance. Finch, another celebrated lawyer, who thereon. had been removed from the Solicitor-generalship in 1686, said that, while King James's acts were in no way justifiable, yet difficulties would arise if they declared that he had made a total renunciation of the kingdom. They could not transform the hereditary monarchy into an elective realm, and no one could dare to say that a bad administration involved a forfeiture of the crown itself. Sir Robert Howard, on the other hand, a champion of the popular liberties, openly asserted the vacancy of the throne and the breach of the original contract by a continued series of illegal acts throughout the whole of James's reign. vacant. From the constitutional point of view the situation The Throne was a perplexing one. Theoretically the kingship could declared not cease; yet practically there was no king. The main difficulty was to reconcile the views of those who held the Divine right with the views of those who placed the supreme power in the people. In order to reconcile the various conflicting ideas, the Convention passed a resolution declaring the throne vacant in these words: "That King James II., having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of the kingdom by breaking the original contract between King and people, and, by the advice of This distinguished man was born at Worcester in 1652. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and was called to the bar of the Middle Temple. He became an able and eloquent pleader, and in 1683 was one of the counsel for Pilkington, Lord Grey, and others who had caused a riot in London, and in 1688 for the Seven Bishops. He was returned to the Convention Parliament for Worcester. Historians and his contemporaries generally, represent him as a most incorrupt lawyer, as a perfectly honest statesman, a master of oratory, a genius of the finest taste, and a patriot of the noblest and most extensive views-" a man who dispensed blessings by his life and planned them for posterity." vention. CHAP. II. Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the The Con- fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, has abdicted the government, and that the throne is thereby become vacant." The former part of this resolution satisfied the Whigs, who justified their revolt on the ground of the King's misconduct; and the latter part eased the consciences of the Tories by asserting that James's withdrawal involved his abdication also. Sugges settlement. A further debate ensued on the 29th, and a resolution. tions for a was carried "That it hath been found by experience to be inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a Popish prince.” The throne being now vacant, there was but one way to fill it. Wharton the younger said from his place, "Consider of it a thousand years, and you cannot cast your eyes upon persons so well fitted to fill it as the Prince and Princess of Orange." Lord Falkland and others urged, they had suffered so much in the past that the Prince could not take it ill if they secured themselves in future against arbitrary government. As in the previous debate, Sir Richard Temple again pointed the way to a safe settlement. He called upon the members to secure their liberties, and indicated under three heads what he considered to be essentially necessary: (1) Parliament must not be encroached upon by the King or his Ministers, while the military power must depend on the votes of Parliament; (2) Westminster Hall must be filled with judges who were not slaves to the King's prerogative; (3) the coronation oath must be taken upon entrance to the government, for "as we are sworn to our kings, so must they be sworn to protect us." Under such securities they could pursue the ends of the Prince's declaration. The rational religion and liberties. It was resolved "That before the committee proceed to fill the throne, now vacant, they will proceed to secure our religion, laws, and liberties." Serjeant Maynard agreed with this vote, but warned the committee against endeavouring to do too much. Some even spoke of a new Magna Carta. Mr. Hampden, grandson of the patriot, thought time pressed, and to rise without doing more than merely fill the throne was not for the safety of the people. The Convention gradually widened its operations, and one of its first acts was to pass a vote of thanks to the clergy and to the army and navy. While the Commons were thus deliberating, the Lords, forming themselves into a grand committee, with Danby as chairman, debated the question of the vacancy in the Crown, without first formally declaring, with the Lower House, that the throne was vacated. The discussion was noticeable for the skill and learning displayed, as well as for its warmth. The Earl of Nottingham advocated a regency with the regal power, leaving the title and dignity with King James. The peers would have followed the Earl but for the strenuous opposition of Halifax and Danby, who, with much power of argument, exposed the inextricable difficulties of such a course. On the vote being taken, 51 were for a king, and 49 only for a regent. The minority comprised many able men, however, and of the bishops only two, London and Bristol, were in favour of filling up the throne. The prelates were anxious to reconcile the claims of legitimate right with the exigencies of the moment, and therefore favoured the regency of the Prince of Orange, leaving the nominal possession of the crown with James. CHAP. II. The Con vention. The Lords and the Crown. throne vacant? The party for a king was soon strengthened by the Was the accession of four dukes: Ormonde, Southampton, Grafton, and Northumberland; and on January 30th the House came to a decision, by 53 votes to 46, that all power originally belonged to the community, and to the King only by mutual compact. The next question, "whether James had broken the original compact," was soon carried in the affirmative. Their lordships then voted the word "deserted" instead of "abdicated," and on the question of the vacancy of the throne coming up, a very heated debate took place. It was affirmed by a majority of eleven voices that, as the king never dies, the throne could never be vacated. Inferring from this |