By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates, for humbly petitioning to be excused from concurring to the said assumed power," &c.

On a comparison of this preamble with the history of the reign of this base and bigoted prince, it will be found, that all the illegal proceedings mentioned in it, had immediate relation to his design of re-establishing the Roman Catholic religion. Of these, the dispensing with laws was the most dangerous, as the exercise of such a power would, of course, at once render the monarch absolutely despotic. Odious as such a power, however employed, must be to a free people, it was rendered still more so in this case, (as an impartial and enlightened commentator on our Constitution has remarked,) by being made the instrument of the subversion of the Protestant religion. "James the Second not only usurped to himself a right to dispense with the laws, but, moreover, sought to convert that destructive pretension to the destruction of those very laws which were held most dear by the nation, by endeavouring to abolish a religion, for which they had suffered the greatest calamities, in order to establish on its ruins a mode of faith, which repeated acts of the Legislature had proscribed, and proscribed, not because it tended to establish in England the doctrines of transubstantiation and

purgatory, doctrines in themselves of no political moment, but because the unlimited power of the Sovereign had always been made one of its principal tenets."*

Having thus, in the preamble to the Declaration of Rights, specified the acts by which James the Second had violated his contract with his people; the convention next declared,† that they had assembled, " in order to such an establishment, that their religion, laws, and liberties, might not again be in danger of being subverted."

So powerful were the motives by which the legislators of 1688 declared themselves to be actuated, and which induced them, in order to give durability to the peculiar institutions of their country, to have recourse to what we are told, by certain legislators of our day, were temporary expedients!"

66

SECTION V.

THE ACTS OF THE LEGISLATURE.

WE have hitherto referred to the Declarations of the Legislators of the Revolution. We will

* De Lolme on the Constitution. Book I. chap. 3.
+ Section 1.

now briefly consider their Acts, so far as they relate to the present question ;—Whether or not any discrepancy appear between these, the candid inquirer will have no difficulty in deciding for himself. In the transactions of the Revolution, will, it is conceived, be found ample grounds upon which the Legislature of that day may be vindicated from the imputation of having been guided, with respect to the exclusion of the Roman Catholics from power, by a narrow and vindictive policy. An imputation, which (to serve a present purpose) has been both openly and impliedly cast upon it by those who, on this occasion, "desire to be thought to understand the principles of the Revolution of 1688 better than those by whom it was brought about, ,"* though on other occasions, they are in the habit of appealing, in support of their own notions, to the provisions of that Legislature, as manifesting the highest degree of wisdom, moderation, and foresight.

The principal acts of this Legislature were the confirmation of those laws which, James the Second had violated, for the purpose of reestablishing the Romish religion;—the exclusion of Roman Catholics from the Crown, the re-modelling of the oaths to be taken as qualifications for office, the Toleration Act, and the Act for establishing the Coronation Oath. * Burke on the French Revolution.

The circumstance of all these important measures having been carried into effect almost simultaneously, renders it necessary to pay some regard to all, in order to form a correct judgment of the legislative intention of any. This is particularly necessary in considering how the duty imposed by the Coronation Oath upon the Sovereign, with respect to the national religion, is to be discharged; that duty being, as will hereafter be shewn, to maintain and act up to the principles of the Revolution, as laid down in these several provisions. Though distinct in their office, they were all passed in the same spirit, and were, doubtless, intended to conduce to the same grand and permanent object, the security of the British Constitution, and the preservation of the peace of the country in future times on the subject of religion. "The Revolution," says De Lolme, "was terminated by a series of public acts, in which no interests, but those of the people at large, were considered and provided for ;-no clause, even the most indirect, was inserted, either to gratify the present ambition, or favour the future views of those who were personally concerned in bringing those acts to a conclusion."* To do this subject justice, an able pen is required, and a greater scope than the present occasion affords; but the sources of

* De Lolme on the Constitution. Book II. chap. 15.

information are open to all. The first, position to which it is conceived an investigation of the acts of the Revolution would lead, is, that-the principle of excluding Roman Catholics from the executive and legislative departments of the State, did not originate in the exigencies of that period, nor were the restrictions upon the influence of their religion designed to have a temporary operation.

The exclusion of Roman Catholics from the throne, could then, as now, only be justified with any consistency upon one principle. The Bill of Rights,* in asserting, "that it had been found by experience, that it is inconsistent with the safety of this Protestant kingdom, to be governed by a Popish Prince, or by any King or Queen marrying a Papist," perfectly accords with that prophetic address of the House of Commons, to Charles the Second,† in which they declared, "as the issue of their most deliberate thoughts and consultations, that for the Papists to have their hopes continued, that a prince of that religion should succeed to the throne of these kingdoms, was utterly inconsistent with the preservation of the Protestant religion, and the prosperity, peace, and welfare of the Protestant subjects." The emphatic language employed by Lord Shaftesbury,

First of William and Mary. Stat. 2. cap. 2.

+ 20th of December, 1680. vide 2. Rapin, 718.