knew, would
be exposed to such insuperable difficulties: that no man could have a
juster or deeper sense of the princess's merit than he was impressed
with; but he would rather remain a private person, than enjoy a crown
which must depend on the will or life of another: and that they must
therefore make account, if they were inclined to either of these two
plans of settlement, that it would be totally out of his power to
assist them in carrying it into execution: his affairs abroad were too
important to be abandoned for so precarious a dignity, or even to allow
him so much leisure as would be requisite to introduce order into their
disjointed government.

These views of the prince were seconded by the princess herself; who, as
she possessed many virtues, was a most obsequious wife to a husband who,
in the judgment of the generality of her sex, would have appeared so
little attractive and amiable. All considerations were neglected, when
they came in competition with what she deemed her duty to the prince.
When Danby and others of her partisans wrote her an account of their
schemes and proceedings, she expressed great displeasure; and even
transmitted their letters to her husband, as a sacrifice to conjugal
fidelity. The princess Anne also concurred in the same plan for the
public settlement; and being promised an ample revenue, was content to
be postponed in the succession to the crown. And as the title of her
infant brother was, in the present establishment, entirely neglected,
she might, on the whole, deem herself, in point of interest, a gainer by
this revolution.

The chief parties, therefore, being agreed, the convention passed a
bill, in which they settled the crown on the prince and princess of
Orange, the sole administration to remain in the prince: the princess of
Denmark to succeed after the death of the prince and princess of Orange;
her posterity after those of the princess, but before those of the
prince by any other wife. The convention annexed to this settlement of
the crown a declaration of rights, where all the points which had of
late years been disputed between the king and people, were finally
determined; and the powers of royal prerogative were more narrowly
circumscribed and more exactly defined, than in any former period of the
English government.

Thus have we seen, through the course of four reigns, a continual
struggle maintained between the crown and the people: privilege and
prerogative we