ny notice of the petition, on the
ground that the Congress was a self-constituted body, with no claim to
authority or recognition, and one which had already sanctioned the
taking up arms against the King.--_History of England_, vi., 93, 95,
105.]

[Footnote 53: It is probable, however, that the greater part of the
Hanoverian soldiers were Protestants.]

[Footnote 54: Lord Campbell, who, in his "Life of Lord Bathurst,"
asserts that the legality of the measure turns upon the just
construction of the Act of Settlement, adduces Thurlow's language on
this subject as "a proof that he considered that he had the privilege
which has been practised by other Attorney-generals and Chancellors too,
in debate, of laying down for law what best suited his purpose at the
moment." It does not seem quite certain that the noble and learned
biographer has not more than once in these biographies allowed himself a
similar license in the description of questions of party politics.]

[Footnote 55: In the debates on the subject it was stated that the
number of Hanoverians quartered in the two fortresses was nineteen
hundred, and the number of British troops left in them was two thousand.
Moreover, as has been already remarked, though Lord Shelburne spoke of
arming Roman Catholics, it is probable that the Hanoverians were mostly
Protestants.]

[Footnote 56: The Preliminary or Provisional Articles, as they were
called, of which the Definitive Treaty was but a copy, were signed at
Paris, November 30, 1782, during Lord Shelburne's administration. But
the Definitive Treaty was not signed till the 3d of September of the
following year, under the Coalition Ministry, which was turned out a few
weeks afterward.]

[Footnote 57: We shall see in a subsequent chapter that even in this
reign of George III. Pitt laid down the true principles of our
legislation for the colonies in his bill for the better government of
Canada.]

[Footnote 58: An admirably reasoned passage on the influence of the
crown, especially in the reigns of the two first Hanoverian Kings, will
be found in Hallam, "Constitutional History," c. xvi., vol. iii., p.
392, ed. 1832.]

[Footnote 59: The "Parliamentary History" shows that he had brought
forward the same motion before 1780; since Lord Nugent, who replied to
him, said "the same motion had been made for some years past, and had
been silently decided on." From which it seems that it was never
discussed at any length till May