The Lords at once agreed with the Commons in their vote for a Protestant succession; but about the vote declaring the throne vacant, much discussion arose. Without formally admitting that the throne was vacant—only for the present supposing it to be so—they wished to determine, first, whether supreme power for the present ought to be devolved on a Regent or on a King. This point had been keenly debated by Sancroft and his brethren. He was not present now, but they were; and in the minority of 49 for a Regency against 51 for a King, occur the names of thirteen Prelates, including the Bishop of St. Asaph, who in this matter had not been “wheedled” by Burnet, as Clarendon surmised. Indeed, the prejudice conceived against a deposing power, as a Popish art, had so impressed the minds of the Clergy, that no Bishop approved of filling the throne anew, except the Bishops of London and Bristol.[99] The question raised in an abstract form—whether or no there was an original contract between King and people—involved a controversy touching divine right, which most of the Bishops had maintained. For the principle of a social compact, 53 Peers voted against 46, the Bishops being included amongst the latter. The idea of a contract being adopted, nobody could dispute that James had broken it; but the Peers decided to substitute the words, “deserted the Government,” for the Commons’ phrase, “abdicated the Government;” nor would the majority allow the word vacant to stand, inasmuch as, by a constitutional fiction, the King never dies; and in the present case, so some contended, the Crown legitimately devolved upon the Princess of Orange—the claim of the infant Prince of Wales being given up by all parties. The two Houses were thus at issue on a fundamental point; and the London citizens became alarmed. The dispute found its way into the coffee-houses, into groups walking and lounging in the parks, and into private families, Whigs and Tories debating the problem as a vital one. The people assembled at the doors of the Convention to present petitions for the accession of William and Mary to the throne; they loaded with curses members crossing the threshold, or showered upon them benedictions, according as they believed them to stand affected towards the momentous matter in dispute.[100]
1689.
A conference ensued between the Houses. The Bishop of Ely strenuously argued against using the word abdication, or regarding the throne as vacant; he hoped that Lords and Commons would agree in this, not to break the line of succession, not to make the Crown elective.[101] He wished to save the divine right. By some persons the idea was entertained of making William sole King—an idea which Burnet resisted, heart and soul, in a conversation held with Bentinck, the Prince’s principal friend.[102] Amidst the heats of this debate, the Prince thought it time for him to express his sentiments. It had been proposed, he said, to settle the Government in the hands of a Regent;—that might be a wise project. It had also been suggested that the Princess should succeed to the throne, and that he, by courtesy, might share in her power. Her rights he would not oppose, her virtues he respected. But for himself, he would accept no dignity dependent upon the life of another, or on the will of a woman. Should either of the schemes be adopted, he would return to Holland, satisfied with the consciousness of having endeavoured to serve England, though in vain.[103]
CHARACTER OF THE REVOLUTION.
William’s decision took effect, and the conference ended in dropping what was theoretical, and in coming to a practical resolution—that the Prince and Princess of Orange should be declared King and Queen. The Lords carried this by 62 against 47. Forty of the latter protested, amongst whom were twelve out of the seventeen Bishops present. The five who went with the majority were Compton, Lloyd of St. Asaph, Sprat, Hall, and Crew.[104] Crew, the time-serving Bishop of Durham, had supported James in his obnoxious measures, had fled at the outbreak of the Revolution, had been lurking on the coast for a vessel to convey him abroad, and had returned in time to secure the advantage of supporting the new Sovereign. It has often been said that the Bishops accomplished the Revolution. No doubt the seven imprisoned in the Tower brought on the crisis which terminated in the new settlement, and so far were the authors of the change. Certain of the brethren contributed, in the way I have described, to terminate the despotism of James II., but all the seven decidedly disapproved of the Prince of Orange being constituted King, and two-thirds of the other Bishops agreed with them in this respect.
1689.
The Commons would not unite in the settlement approved by the Lords until they had carefully asserted the fundamental principles upon which they based the Revolution. The Declaration of Right, embodying these principles, having recited the unconstitutional acts of James—his endeavours to extirpate the Protestant religion, and to subvert the laws and liberties of the kingdom—goes on to state that the Prince of Orange had summoned the Convention, which Convention did now specify the ancient liberties of the English people. Amongst them appear the right of petition, freedom of Parliamentary debate, and the duty of the Crown frequently to call together the representatives of the people.[105] William and Mary are then solemnly declared to be King and Queen; the succession is determined to be in the issue of the latter; in default of such issue, in Anne of Denmark and her heirs; in default of her issue, then in the heirs of the King.
CHARACTER OF THE REVOLUTION.
In this Parliamentary transaction two things appear, which have been ever kept in sight under Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman dynasties, namely, hereditary right and popular election. That the crown should pass from a Monarch to one of his own blood had been a fundamental law from the beginning, modified by a choice of the people in any great crisis, when the interests of the nation have been seen to depend upon the succession of one Royal personage rather than another. In 1688, respect was paid to the ancient tradition. In the Bill of Rights the hereditary claim is distinctly set forth. “It is curious to observe with what address this temporary solution of continuity is kept from the eye, whilst all that could be found in this act of necessity to countenance the idea of an hereditary succession is brought forward and fostered and made the most of.” “The Lords and Commons fall to a pious, legislative ejaculation, and declare that they consider it ‘as a marvellous providence, and merciful goodness of God to this nation, to preserve their said Majesties’ royal persons, most happily to reign over us on the throne of their ancestors, for which, from the bottom of their hearts, they return their humblest thanks and praises.’”[106]
But the election of William and Mary, though veiled under a reference to the throne of their ancestors, is really the point upon which their accession hinged. Mary’s accession might, by those who disbelieved that the Prince of Wales was James’ son, be made to depend entirely on natural descent, but the accession of William could not rest on that ground; his election was essential to the legitimacy of his rights. Yet there was no setting aside of any divine laws, no contempt for the teaching of Scripture, as was pretended by nonjurors. When we are told “the powers that be are ordained of God,” those words invest with divine authority all constitutional governments, whether Monarchical or Republican, whether entirely by descent or wholly by election, or partly by one and partly by the other; they do not apply alone to Kings and their eldest sons. To plead nonjuring interpretations of Scripture in England at the Revolution tended to make men slaves, even as to plead them now in America would make men rebels.