rinciples destructive of the constitution and established religion: and
he would probably leave a son liable to the same insuperable objection:
that if the whole line were cut off by law, the people would in time
forget or neglect their claim; an advantage which could not be hoped
for while the administration was conducted in their name, and while they
were still acknowledged to possess the legal title: and that a nation
thus perpetually governed by regents or protectors, approached much
nearer to a republic, than one subject to monarchs whose hereditary
regular succession, as well as present authority, was fixed and
appointed by the people.

This question was agitated with great zeal by the opposite parties in
the house of peers. The chief speakers among the tories were Clarendon,
Rochester, and Nottingham; among the whigs, Halifax and Danby. The
question was carried for a king by two voices only, fifty-one against
forty-nine. All the prelates, except two, the bishops of London
and Bristol, voted for a regent. The primate, a disinterested but
pusillanimous man, kept at a distance both from the prince's court and
from parliament.

The house of peers proceeded next to examine piecemeal the votes sent
up to them by the commons. They debated, "Whether there were an original
contract between king and people?" and the affirmative was carried by
fifty-three against forty-six: a proof that the tories were already
losing ground. The next question was, "Whether King James had broken
that original contract?" and, after a slight opposition, the affirmative
prevailed. The lords proceeded to take into consideration the word
abdicated; and it was carried that deserted was more proper. The
concluding question was, "Whether King James having broken the original
contract, and deserted the government, the throne was thereby vacant?"
This question was debated with more heat and contention than any of the
former; and upon a division, the tories prevailed by eleven voices, and
it was carried to omit the last article with regard to the vacancy of
the throne. The vote was sent back to the commons with these amendments.

The earl of Danby had entertained the project of bestowing the crown
solely upon the princess of Orange, and of admitting her as hereditary
legal successor to King James[*] passing by the infant prince, as
illegitimate or supposititious. His change of party in the last question
gave the tories so considerable a majority in t