nherited
the same, in case the person so reconciled, holding communion,
professing, or marrying, were naturally dead. To act therefore
consistently with themselves, and at the same time pay as much regard
to the old hereditary line as their former resolutions would admit,
they turned their eyes on the princess Sophia, electress and duchess
dowager of Hanover, the most accomplished princess of her age[c]. For,
upon the impending extinction of the protestant posterity of Charles
the first, the old law of regal descent directed them to recur to the
descendants of James the first; and the princess Sophia, being the
daughter of Elizabeth queen of Bohemia, who was the youngest daughter
of James the first, was the nearest of the antient blood royal, who
was not incapacitated by professing the popish religion. On her
therefore, and the heirs of her body, being protestants, the remainder
of the crown, expectant on the death of king William and queen Anne
without issue, was settled by statute 12 & 13 W. III. c. 2. And at the
same time it was enacted, that whosoever should hereafter come to the
possession of the crown, should join in the communion of the church of
England as by law established.

[Footnote c: Sandford, in his genealogical history, published _A.D._
1677, speaking (page 535) of the princesses Elizabeth, Louisa, and
Sophia, daughters of the queen of Bohemia, says, the first was reputed
the most learned, the second the greatest artist, and the last one of
the most accomplished ladies in Europe.]

THIS is the last limitation of the crown that has been made by
parliament: and these several actual limitations, from the time of
Henry IV to the present, do clearly prove the power of the king and
parliament to new-model or alter the succession. And indeed it is now
again made highly penal to dispute it: for by the statute 6 Ann. c. 7.
it is enacted, that if any person maliciously, advisedly, and
directly, shall maintain by writing or printing, that the kings of
this realm with the authority of parliament are not able to make laws
to bind the crown and the descent thereof, he shall be guilty of high
treason; or if he maintains the same by only preaching, teaching, or
advised speaking, he shall incur the penalties of a praemunire.

THE princess Sophia dying before queen Anne, the inheritance thus
limited descended on her son and heir king George the first; and,
having on the death of the queen taken effect in his person, fr