This the managers for the Commons considered as having gained their
cause, as their having obtained _the whole_ of what they contended for.
They congratulated themselves and the nation on a civil victory as
glorious and as honorable as any that had obtained in arms during that
reign of triumphs.
Sir Joseph Jekyl, in his reply to Harcourt, and the other great men who
conducted the cause for the Tory side, spoke in the following memorable
terms, distinctly stating the whole of what the Whig House of Commons
contended for, in the name of all their constituents.
* * * * *
_Sir Joseph Jekyl._
[Sidenote: Necessity creates an exception, and the Revolution a case of
necessity, the utmost extent of the demand of the Commons.]
"My Lords, the concessions" (the concessions of Sacheverell's counsel)
"are these: That _necessity_ creates an _exception_ to the general rule
of submission to the prince; that such exception is understood or
implied in the laws that require such submission; and that _the case of
the Revolution was a case of necessity._
"These are concessions _so ample_, and do so _fully_ answer the drift of
the Commons in this article, and are to _the utmost extent of their
meaning in it_, that I can't forbear congratulating them upon this
success of their impeachment,--that in full Parliament, this erroneous
doctrine of _unlimited_ non-resistance is given up and disclaimed. And
may it not, in after ages, be an addition to the glories of this bright
reign, that so many of those who are honored with being in her Majesty's
service have been at your Lordships' bar thus successfully contending
for the _national_ rights of her people, and proving they are not
precarious or remediless?
"But to return to these concessions: I must appeal to your Lordships,
whether they are not a _total departure_ from the Doctor's answer."
* * * * *
I now proceed to show that the Whig managers for the Commons meant to
preserve the government on a firm foundation, by asserting the perpetual
validity of the settlement then made, and its coercive power upon
posterity. I mean to show that they gave no sort of countenance to any
doctrine tending to impress the _people_ (taken separately from the
legislature, which includes the crown) with an idea that _they_ had
acquired a moral or civil competence to alter, without breach of the
original compact on the part of the king,
|