uch wickedness; that the Court of Saint
Germains and the Court of Versailles would have remained profoundly
silent; that no Irish exile, no English malecontent, would have uttered
a murmur; that not a word of invective or sarcasm on so inviting a
subject would have been found in the whole compass of the Jacobite
literature; and that it would have been reserved for politicians of the
nineteenth century to discover that a treaty made in the seventeenth
century had, a few weeks after it had been signed, been outrageously
violated in the sight of all Europe? [152]

On the same day on which the Commons read for the first time the bill
which subjected Ireland to the absolute dominion of the Protestant
minority, they took into consideration another matter of high
importance. Throughout the country, but especially in the capital,
in the seaports and in the manufacturing towns, the minds of men were
greatly excited on the subject of the trade with the East Indies; a
fierce paper war had during some time been raging; and several grave
questions, both constitutional and commercial, had been raised, which
the legislature only could decide.

It has often been repeated, and ought never to be forgotten, that our
polity differs widely from those politics which have, during the last
eighty years, been methodically constructed, digested into articles, and
ratified by constituent assemblies. It grew up in a rude age. It is not
to be found entire in any formal instrument. All along the line which
separates the functions of the prince from those of the legislator there
was long a disputed territory. Encroachments were perpetually committed,
and, if not very outrageous, were often tolerated. Trespass, merely as
trespass, was commonly suffered to pass unresented. It was only when the
trespass produced some positive damage that the aggrieved party stood on
his right, and demanded that the frontier should be set out by metes
and bounds, and that the landmarks should thenceforward be punctiliously
respected.

Many of those points which had occasioned the most violent disputes
between our Sovereigns and their Parliaments had been finally decided by
the Bill of Rights. But one question, scarcely less important than
any of the questions which had been set at rest for ever, was still
undetermined. Indeed, that question was never, as far as can now be
ascertained, even mentioned in the Convention. The King had undoubtedly,
by the ancient laws of t