ase of any rupture, he made them a new speech. After warning
them, that a neglect of this opportunity would never be retrieved, he
added these words: "I did promise you the fullest satisfaction which
your hearts could wish, for the security of the Protestant religion, and
to concur with you in any remedies which might consist with preserving
the succession of the crown in its due and legal course of descent. I do
again, with the same reservations, renew the same promises to you: and
being thus ready on my part to do all that can reasonably be expected
from me, I should be glad to know from you, as soon as may be, how far I
shall be assisted by you, and what it is you desire from me."

The most reasonable objection against the limitations proposed by the
king, is, that they introduced too considerable an innovation in the
government, and almost totally annihilated the power of the future
monarch. But considering the present disposition of the commons and
their leaders, we may fairly presume, that this objection would have
small weight with them, and that their disgust against the court would
rather incline them to diminish than support regal authority. They still
hoped, from the king's urgent necessities and his usual facility, that
he would throw himself wholly into their hands; and that thus, without
waiting for the accession of the duke, they might immediately render
themselves absolute masters of the government. The commons, therefore,
besides insisting still on the exclusion, proceeded to bring in bills of
an important, and some of them of an alarming nature: one to renew the
triennial act, which had been so inadvertently repealed in the beginning
of the reign; a second to make the office of judge during good behavior;
a third to declare the levying of money without consent of parliament to
be high treason; a fourth to order an association for the safety of
his majesty's person, for defence of the Protestant religion, for
the preservation of the Protestant subjects against all invasions and
opposition whatsoever, and for preventing the duke of York, or any
Papist, from succeeding to the crown. The memory of the covenant was too
recent for men to overlook the consequences of such an association; and
the king, who was particularly conversant in Davila, could not fail
of recollecting a memorable foreign instance, to fortify this domestic
experience.

The commons also passed many votes, which, though they had not
the a