ng to him their gratitude for the deliverance which
he, under God, had wrought for the nation, and in directing that the
thirty-first of January should be observed as a day of thanksgiving for
that deliverance. [642]

Thus far no difference of opinion had appeared: but both sides were
preparing for the conflict. The Tories were strong in the Upper House,
and weak in the Lower; and they knew that, at such a conjuncture, the
House which should be the first to come to a resolution would have a
great advantage over the other. There was not the least chance that
the Commons would send up to the Lords a vote in favour of the plan
of Regency: but, if such a vote were sent down from the Lords to the
Commons, it was not absolutely impossible that many even of the Whig
representatives of the people might be disposed to acquiesce rather than
take the grave responsibility of causing discord and delay at a crisis
which required union and expedition. The Commons had determined that, on
Monday the twenty-eighth of January, they would take into consideration
the state of the nation. The Tory Lords therefore proposed, on Friday
the twenty-fifth, to enter instantly on the great business for which
they had been called together. But their motives were clearly discerned
and their tactics frustrated by Halifax, who, ever since his return
from Hungerford, had seen that the settlement of the government could be
effected on Whig principles only, and who had therefore, for the time,
allied himself closely with the Whigs. Devonshire moved that Tuesday the
twenty-ninth should be the day. "By that time," he said with more truth
than discretion, "we may have some lights from below which may be useful
for our guidance." His motion was carried; but his language was severely
censured by some of his brother peers as derogatory to their order.
[643]

On the twenty-eighth the Commons resolved themselves into a committee of
the whole House. A member who had, more than thirty years before, been
one of Cromwell's Lords, Richard Hampden, son of the illustrious leader
of the Roundheads, and father of the unhappy man who had, by large
bribes and degrading submissions, narrowly escaped with life from the
vengeance of James, was placed in the chair, and the great debate began.

It was soon evident that an overwhelming majority considered James as no
longer King. Gilbert Dolben, son of the late Archbishop of York, was the
first who declared himself to be of that