Secondly This Expedient was not absolutely Necessary for the Administration of Justice might have proceeded Regularly without any such Deputation by Virtue of those Commissions which the Popish Judges and Justices of the Peace had already from the King. This I shall prove § 22. 1. From a parallel Instance King Charles the I. took a Journy into Scotland in 41. during the Session of Parliament at Westminster where though he appointed Five Lords to sign Bills in his Name The Continuation of Bak. Chron. yet the Judges and Justices Acted by vertue of their former Commissions without any new Authority from any Representatives of His Majesty Now Scotland is as much a distinct Kingdom from England as France and France as much His Majesties Dominions as Scotland And therefore if Commissions will hold in the King's Absence in one Place why not in the other § 23. Secondly The present Judges met in January last at Westminster to dispatch some Business in order to keep the Term but were forbidden to proceed by the Prince of Orange's Secretary So that it is plain it was the Opinion of these Reverend Judges that their Commissions from His Majesty were still in Force But in the next place § 24. If His Majesty had deputed any Persons to Represent him in Parliament this Method would have been attended with new and insuperable Difficulties For § 25. 1. If they had been Limited they would not have given Satisfaction For it being impossible to foresee the Business and Votes of a Parliament at a distance If they had been restrained to certain Points in all probability they would have wanted Power to have passed all the Bills and and so their Deputation would not have Answered the Desire of the Houses and the greatest part of their Grievances might have been counted unredressed If it 's said that the Parliament might have requested an Enlargement of their Commission from His Majesty To this I Answer That the Convention may send to His Majesty for an Expedient now if they please And I hope they will for I hear his Majesty has been so gracious as to send to them But 2. If these Commissioners were unlimited it would be in their Power to do a great many things prejudicial to the Crown In such a Case they might alter the Monarchy into a Commonwealth or Sign the Deposing of his Majesty if such Bills should happen to be offered And though there may be many Persons of Honour and Conscience enough to lodge such a Trust with Yet in regard his Majesty has been lately mistaken in some of whose Fidelity he had so great and Assurance he has small encouragement to be over confideing for the Future Indeed no Wise Prince will Trust so vast a Concern as a Kingdom with the Honesty of another especially when many of his Subjects are disaffected and in a Ferment So that nothing can be more unreasonable than to expect such Plenipotentiary and Absolute Commissioners § 26. 3. I shall prove in the last place That we have no Grounds either from the Laws of the Realm or from those of Nature to pronounce the Throne void upon such a Retreat of a Prince as we have before us 1. To begin with the Laws of the Realm which are either Acts of Parliament or those we call Common Laws Now there is no Statute so much as pretended to support this Deserting Doctrine and if there was it 's certain no such can be produced Indeed a Prince must be very weary of Governing and void of the common Inclinations of Mankind who would sign a Bill of this Nature and give his Subjects such a dangerous Advantage against himself and his Posterity Neither has this Opinion any better Countenance from Common Law For Common Law is nothing but Antient Usage and Immemorial Custom Now Custom supposes Precedents and Parallel Cases But it 's granted of all Hands That the Crown of England was never judged to be Demifed by the withdrawing of the Prince before now And therefore it follows by undeniable Consequence that this Opinion can have no Foundation in the Common Law because there is not so much as one Ruled Case to prove it by Nay our Laws are not only silent in the maintenance of this Paradox but against it as I shall make good by Two Precedents § 27. 1. From the Case of Edward the IV. who having not sufficient Force to Encounter the Earl of Warick who had raised an Army for King Henry was obliged to fly the Kingdom but that he deputed any Persons to Represent him our Histories don't give us the least Intimation Neither was it Objected at his return that he had Abdicated the Government by omitting to Constitute a Regent Neither is it material to Object that all Disputes of this Nature were over-ruled by his Victorous Army For if it had been the known Law of this Realm that a Prince had ipso facto forfeited his Crown by going beyond Sea without leaving a Deputation though his Departure should happen to be Involuntary If this I say had been the Law of the Kingdom it would not only have been a great advantage to Henry the VI. and made the Nation ring of it of which there is altum Silentium but we may be well assured King Edward would not have conferr'd Honour worn the Crown and taken the State and Authority of the King upon him till he had been Re-Established by Parliaments But that he did Exercise all Acts of Soveraignty before the calling of a Parliament appears from Daniel Stow and Baker And when the Parliament was Convened those who had taken up Arms against him were found Guilty of Treason and his Adherents were restored to Blood and Estate Daniel But there was no Confirmation or Resisting or his Title which is a Demonstration there was no need of it and that this Abdicating Doctrine was perfectly unknown to that Age. § 28. 2. To come nearer our own Times what Seals or Commissioners did Charles the II. leave behind him after Worcester Fight And yet I beleive no Mortal ever urged this as an Argument against his Restauration If it be Answered that there was much more danger in this case than in that before us To this I reply that if we Examine the matter more narrowly we shall find the disparity very inconsiderable For was there not a numerous Army of Foreigners and Subjects in the Field against his present Majesty at his retiring What Power or Authority or so much as Liberty was there left him And I am afraid that at that time he had fewer Friends to stand by him than his Brother after that unfortunate Battle in 51. § 29. And since this pretended Dereliction has no manner of Protection from the Constitution it has no other refuge but the Laws of Nature to fly to but a very little Storming will serve to drive it from this last Retrenchment § 30. For the Law of Nature is nothing but the Reason of the
us to the Ruin of Europe The King of England saith the Prince of Orange in his Declaration have given the greatest credit to those Counsellors who have overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of his Realms And subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liherties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and indirect ways but in open and undisguised manner §. 2 Pag. 10. § 17. he informs us That both he and his dearest and most entirely beloved Consort the Princess have endeavoured to signifie in terms full of respect to the King the just and deep regret which all these proceedings have given us c. But those evil Counsellors have put such ill Constructions on these our good intentions that they have endeavoured to alienate the King more and more from us as if we had designed to disturb the peace and happiness of the Kingdom Sect. 19. To crown all there are great and violent presumptions inducing us to believe that these evil Counsellors in order to the carrying on their ill designs and to the gaining to themselves the more time for the effecting of them for the encouraging of their Complices and for the discouraging of all good Subjects they have published that the Queen have brought forth a Son tho there have appeared both during the Queens pretended bigness and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and visible Grounds of suspicion that not only we our selves but all the good Subjects of those Kingdoms do vehemently suspect that the Pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the world that many both doubted of the Queens bigness and of the Birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfie them or to put an end to their Doubts Things being in this state He resolved to go over to England Sect. 21. and to carry with him sufficient force to defend him from the violence of those evil Counsellors and then he declares that this Expedition was intended for no other design but to have a free and lawful Parliament assembled as soon as is possible Sect. 25. To the end that all the violences and disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a Free and Legal Parliament to which he would also refer the Enquiry into the Birth of the Pretended Prince of Wales and all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession Now if all this is true which no English man can deny then had the Prince of Orange the justest cause that ever man had to do what he did and the King of England was bound in justice to have Summoned a Parliament and to have referr'd the things in question to them there being no other competent Judg on Earth of the things in dispute but if he would not suffer a Parliament to meet then the Sword must determine the Question between them for they were both Soveraign Princes and had no Superior over them to decide it The King accordingly referr'd it to the Sword for he refused to the last to suffer a Parliament to meet till the Invasion was over and the Prince had no reason to take his word for it The Protestants of England had no reason to fight against this Prince who came to right their Cause and offered to refer all to a Parliament of English Nobility and Gentry and the Papists alone were not able to resist the Prince's Army especially after many of the King's Army were gone over to the Prince so that the King was at last forced to call a Parliament in the manner I have set forth and he promised both the Nation and the Prince the Parliament should meet and act freely but before this was possible to be brought about without any cause given or alledged he disbanded his Army sent away the Queen the Child and the Seals and then followed them himself leaving the Nation in Anarchy and confusion Now I will refer this to the World whether this absence was not voluntary unforced and criminal after he had thus passed his word For supposing he had stayed on the Princes terms and the Parliament had met no Act could have passed without his own consent and if any thing had been required that had not been just and legal if then he had withdrawn his case would have been more justifiable and perhaps he should have found enough to have defended it and so needed not to have withdrawn The Story of the French League and the Prince of Wales are not passed so over tho they are postponed but we may hear more of them in due time tho when all is done there will be no reason to expect that all the Prate of this populous Town should be proved to be true it will be sufficient if his now Majesty justifie his own Publick Declarations which I believe no man doubts but he can and has done the Three Estates having in their Declaration subscribed to the truth of all the main parts of his The King being thus gone some way or other must be taken to bring us again to a settlement and that of a Convention of the Three Estates was taken as least liable to Exception and Mistake but then he tells us Sect. 2. That the Necessity alledged for their justification is either of their own making or of their own submitting to which is the same thing and therefore ought not to be pleaded in justification of their Proceedings Now this is not True The King would never have left his people if he had not first lost their hearts by the things charged upon his Counsellors nor then neither if he had not first resolved never to do them right against those Counsellors because he had reason to believe this would have satisfied them so that his late Majesty was not driven out of his Dominions by his Enemies as he stiled them but by his pretended Friends who put him upon doing ill things and then would not suffer him to Redress them Well but If he had been invited back upon Honourable Terms they needed not have had recourse to these singular Methods Why how does he know that The King had Honourable Terms offered him before he went and they would not stop him from going and if they had sent more Honourable Terms after him who can tell whether he would have accepted or have stood to them He had passed his Word before that a Parliament should meet yet he Burnt the Writs and withdrew Well but however our Author is resolved the late Kings withdrawing himself is no resigning of his Crown or discharging of his Subjects of their Allegiance In order to which he undertakes to shew that his late Majesty before his withdrawing had sufficient Grounds to make him apprehensive of danger and therefore it cannot be call'd an Abdication 2. That the leaving any representative behind him
Grievances which the Majority of the three Estates should have judged necessary to be redress'd would have signified as little so that whatever the difficulties or distrusts of the King were at that time he saw he must yield the point after he had strugled as long as was possible and now when he had now passed his Word it was too late to revoke it and therefore there was that necessity added to the other of holding one Now Sr. if we had yielded this point there had been an End of the English Liberties for ever If he had yielded it what inconvenience could have followed which did not certainly attend his Desertion of us but if he had stayed he might in all probability have saved his main Stake and have regained the Affections of his people again and so have ended his Days in Honour and Peace in his own Palace and amongst his good Subjects At least there was so great a probability of all this that no man but he would have taken the other way Nor he neither if he had suffered this Question to have been debated in his Privy Council and had heard what all sides could have said for it Sect. 21. He tells us this expedient the appointing of a representative was not absolutely necessary for the Administration of Justice might have proceeded regularly without any such Deputation by virtue of those Commissions which the Judges and Justices of the Peace had already from the King. So that here was no need of Seals or Commissioners tho the Nation was imbroiled to that heigth that no body durst have undertaken this dangerous Charge as he tells us the Section before and the King was gone Thus men loose themselves when they meddle with what they do not understand The Tumults which arose that very day in London and spread themselves with the news of the Kings withdrawing all over the Nation do sufficiently confute this airy Notion And at this time both the Judges and Justices of the Peace were at almost as Low an Ebb of Authority and Credit with the People as their Master by reason of the many unqualified men which had been imployed and the things they had done contrary to Law he could not but know how the late Lord Chancellor Sir Roger Lestrange and many others were treated by the People and yet he tells us the Administration of Justice might have proceeded regularly yes we might have lived without any King Magistrates or Execution of Justice at all if all men would have been quiet and minded their own business Section 22 We have a whimsey of a Journey of Charles the first into Scotland and that five Lords were appointed by him to sign bills in his Name but the Judges and Justices acted by virtue of their former Commissions without any new Authority from these Representatives of his Majesty Now to what end is all this why to prove that Commissions will hold tho the King is absent Who ever doubted this for without this had been allowed he could have had no representative But I thought he would have given us an instance of a King that had Stole out of his Kingdom and had left no body to have supplied his place which Charles I. did and yet after he was gone no body knew whether to return no body knew when his people had been Governed by his Judges and Justices of the Peace and then this should have been an Example for England Henry the 3d. of France was first King of Poland and hearing of his brothers Death stole away without Leaving any Deputy But then the Kingdom of Poland call'd a Dyet and Judged it an Abdication and proceeded to the Election of a New King as if he had been Dead The Instances of this nature must be very rare but who ever heard of a Prince that withdrew himself from his people or was forced away and yet no body was put in his place Certainly James the 2d foresaw what would follow and in some sort consented to it rather than to the setting of a Parliament § 26. He undertakes to prove in the last place that we have no Grounds either from the Laws of the Realm or from those of Nature to pronounce the Throne void upon such a retreat of a Prince as we have before us This is bold and very peremptory considering there had then a Vote passed for it in the Lower house of the Convention And that this Gentleman is a Clergy-man and knows very little of the Laws of England There is said he no Statute so much as pretended to support this Deserting Doctrine he might have better called it this right of providing for our selves when we had no body to take care off us There is no Statute to enable us to meet and chose a new King if the whole Royal Line should happen to be extinct yet this may very probably happen at one time or another What shall we therefore continue in a State of Anarchy for ever Neither has it any foundation in common Law For common Law is nothing but Ancient usage and Immemorial Custom Now Custom Supposeth Precedents and Parallel Cases But it is granted on all hands that the Crown of England was never judged to be demised by the withdrawing of the Prince before Such a withdrawing as this I believe never happened in England before nor ever will again and it is Stupendioutly wonderful that it happened now There was nothing asked of the King but what he ought to have granted freely viz the calling of a Free and Lawful Parliament which he said he was resolved to have had tho the Prince had not entered England and so soon as he was retired he would hold such a Parliament then he came further and promised to hold a Parliament the 15th of January and sent thee Noble-men to the Prince to adjust the Preliminaries who had as good an Answer as they could expect but before it was possible the late King should know what it would be whilest all men rested secure under the Expectation of that meeting The King for Reasons wholly unknown to us burns the Writs sends away the Seals withdraws himself and disbands his Army Now if he can find a case Parallel to this in the History of the whole world Erit mihi Magnus Apollo Nay saith he our Laws are not only silent in the maintenance of this Paradox but against it as I shall make good by two Instances The first of these is that of Edward the Fourth who was forced to fly without leaving any representative yet returned and regained the Crown King Edward was surprized under pretence of a Treaty and sent Prisoner to Warwick Castle and made his escape out of Custody after this Henry the Sixth was again Crowned and Edward the Fourth declared a Traytor in Parliament and an Usurper of the Crown and all his Estate confiscated and the like Judgment passed against all his Adherents and all the Statutes made by him were revoked
being now Assembled in a full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like case have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties declare That the pretended power of suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without consent of Parliament is illegal That the pretended power of Dispensing with Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised of late is illegal That the Commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like nature are illegal and pernicious That Levying of Money to or for the use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative without Grant of Parliament for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be Granted is illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are illegal That the raising or keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be by consent of Parliament is against Law. That the Subjects being Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their condition and as allowed by Law. That the Election of Members of Parliament ought to be Free. That the freedom of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be required nor Excessive Fines imposed nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly Impannel'd and return'd and Jurors which pass upon men in Trials for High Treason ought to be Freeholders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular persons before Conviction are illegal and void And that for Redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthing and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do claim demand and insist upon all and singular the Premises as their undoubted Rights and Liberties and that no Declarations Judgments Doings or Proceedings to the prejudice of the people in any of the said Premises ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into consequence or example To which demand of their Rights they are particularly encouraged by the Declaration of his Highness the Prince of Orange as being the only means for obtaining a full redress and remedy therein Having therefore an intire confidence that his said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanced by him and will still preserve them from the violation of their Rights which they have here asserted and from all other attempts upon their Religion Rights and Liberties The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminster do resolve That William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange be and be declared King and Queen of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to them the said Prince and Princess during their Lives and the Life of the Survivor of them and that the sole and full exercise of the Regal power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their joynt Lives and after their Deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Princess and for default of such Issue to the Princess Anne of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body and for default of such Issue to the Heirs of the Body of the said Prince of Orange And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do pray the said Prince and Princess of Orange to accept the same accordingly And that the Oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all persons of whom the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy might be required by Law instead of them and that the said Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy be abrogated I A. B. Do sincerely Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear true Allegiance to Their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY So help me God. I A. B. Do Swear That I do from my heart Abhor Detest and Abjure as Impious and Heretical this Damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope or any Authority of the See of Rome may be Deposed or Murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do Delare that no Forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminece or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm So help me God. Jo. Brown Clericus Parliamentorum The same day this Delaration bears Date Her Royal Highness the Princess of Orange arrived in the River of Thames in the Afternoon and was received with all the Hearty Demonstrations and Expressions of Joy by the City that are usual on such Occasions The 13th of February The Lords and Commons Ordered the following Proclamation to be published and made WHereas It hath pleased Allmighty God in his Great Mercy to this Kingdom to Vouchsafe us a Miraculous Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our Preservation is Due next under GOD to the Resolution and Conduct of His Highness the Prince of ORANGE whom GOD hath Chosen to be the Glorious Instrument of such an Inestimable Happiness to us and our Posterity And being Highly Sensible and Fully Perswaded of the Great and Eminent Vertues of Her Highness the Princess of ORANGE whose Zeal for the Protestant Religion will no doubt bring a Blessing along with Her upon this Nation And Whereas the Lords and Commons now Assembled at Westminster have made a Declaration and Presented the same to the said Prince and Princess of ORANGE and therein Desired Them to Accept the Crown who have Accepted the same accordingly We therefore the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons together with the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and others of the Commons of this Realm do with full Consent Publish and Proclaim according to the said Declaration WILLIAM and MARY Prince and Princess of ORANGE to be KING and QUEEN of England France and Ireland with all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging Who are Accordingly so to be Owned Deemed and Taken by All the People of the aforesaid Realms and Dominions who are from henceforward bound to acknowledg and pay unto them All Faith and True Allegiance Beseeching GOD by whom Kings Reign to Bless King WILLIAM and Queen MARY with Long and Happy Years to Riegn over us GOD Save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY John Brown Clericus Parliamentorum The 15th of February The Lords and Commons Ordered That His Majesties most Gracious Answer this day be added to the Engrossed Declaration in Parchment to be
some other Country § 7. And since his Majesty had sufficient reasons to withdraw these can be no pretence for an Abdication For we are to observe that to Abdicate an Office always supposes the Consent of him who Quits it That this is the signification of the Word Abdico appears from Tully Salust and Livie to which I shall only add the Learned Grotius De Jure Belli c. Libr. 1. Cap. 4. Sect. 9. Where he makes Abdicating the Government and plainly Giving it up to be Terms of the same importance § 8. And to prevent unreasonable Cavils he adds that a Neglect or Omission in the Administration of Government is by no means to be Interpretated a Renunciation of it We have but two Instances with us which looks like an Abdication since the Conquest which are in the Reign of Edward II. and Richard II. both which were unjustly Deposed by their Subjects However they did not renounce their Allegiance and declare the Throne void till they had a formal Resignation under the Hands of both those unfortunate Princes And hence it appears how unlucky our Enquirer is at citing the Laws For pag. 12. He tells us That since these Two Princes have been judged in Parliament for their Male Administration and since these Judgments have never been vacated by any subsequent Parliaments these Proceedings are part of our Law. From hence I observe § 9. 1. That our Author contradicts himself For here he owns that Male Administration is sufficient to warrant Deposition and Resistance But in his Enquiry into the Measures of Submission c. For both these Papers are generally supposed to come from the same Hand Pag. 5. Par. 14. He is much kinder to the Crown for there he asserts That it is not Lawful to resist the King upon any pretence of Ill Administration and that nothing less than subverting the Fundamentals of Government will justifie an Opposition Now I am much mistaken if Deposing of Kings is not Resisting them with a Witness But besides his self Contradiction the case is not to his purpose For § 10. 1. These Parliaments were called in Tumultuous times when the Subjects were so hardy as to put their Kings under Confinement Now if it is against the Constitution of Parliaments to Menace the Two Houses out of their Liberty of Voting freely then certainly Kings ought not to be overawed by Armies and Prisons These Parliaments therefore are very improper to make Precedents of § 11. 2. Those Princes were wrought upon so far as to resign their Crowns which each of them did though unwillingly Let this Enquirer produce such a Resignation from His Majesty and he says something § 12. 3. He is much mistaken in saying these Judgments as he calls them have not been vacated by subsequent Praliaments For all those subsequent Parliaments which declare it Unlawful to take up Arms against the King do by necessary implication condemn these Deposing Precedents for it 's impossible for Subjects to Depose their Princes without Resisting them § 13. 2. By Act of Parliament the First of Edw. 4. yet remaining at large upon the Parliament Rolls and for the greater part recited verbatim in the Pleadings in Baggett's Case in the Year Books Trin. Term. 9. Edw. 4. The Title of Edw. 4. by Descent and Inheritance and is set forth very particularly And that upon the Decease of Rich. 2. the Crown by Law Custom and Conscience Descended and Belonged to Edmund Earl of March under whom King Edw. 4. claimed § 14. It is likewise further declared That Hen. 4. against Law Conscience and Custom of the Realm of England Usurped upon the Crown and Lordship thereof and Hen. 5. and Hen. 6. occupied the said Realm by Unrighteous Intrusion and Vsurpation and no otherwise § 15. And in 39. Hen. 6. Rot. Parl. when Richard Plantagenet Duke of York laid claim to the Crown as belonging to him by right of Succession it was § 16. 1. Objected in behalf of Hen. 6. that Hen. 4. took the Crown upon him as next Heir in Blood to Hen. 3. not as Conqueror § 17. To this it was Answered That the pretence of Right as next Heir to Hen. 3. was false and only made use of as a Cloak to shadow the violent Usurpations of Hen. 4. § 18. 2. It was Objected against the Duke of York That the Crown was by Act of Parliament Entailed upon Hen. 4. and the Heirs of his Body from whom King Hen. 6. did Lineally Descend The which Act say they as it is in the Record is of Authority to defeat any manner of Title To which the Duke of York replied That if Hen. 4. might have obtained and enjoyed the Crowns of England and France by Title of Inheritance Descent or Succession he neither needed nor would have desired or made them to be granted to him in such wise as they be by the said Act the which takes no Place nor is of any Force or Effect against him that is right Inheritor of the said Crowns as it accordeth with Gods Laws and all Natural Laws Which Claim and Answer of the Duke of York is expressly acknowledged and recognized by this Parliament to be Cotton's Abridgment Fol. 665 666. § 19. From these Recognitions it plainly follows 1. That the Succession cannot be interrupted by an Act of Parliament especially when the Royal Assent is given by a King De Facto and not De Jure 2. The Act 9. of Edw. 4. by declaring the Crown to Descend upon Edmund Earl of March by the Decease of Rich. 2. does evidently imply that the said Richard was rightful King during his Life and consequently that his Deposition was Null and Unlawful If it 's demanded Why his Majesty did not leave Seals and Commissioners to supply his Absence This Question brings me to the Second Point viz. to shew That the leaving sufficient Representatives was impracticable at this Juncture For 1. When the Nation was so much embroiled and the King's Interest reduced to such an unfortunate Ebb It would have been very difficult if not impossible to have found Persons who would have undertaken such a dangerous Charge That Man must have had a Resolution of an extraordinary Size who would venture upon Representing a Prince who had been so much disrepected in his own Person whose Authority had been set aside and his Ambassador clapt up at Windsor when he carried not only an inoffensive but an obliging Letter But granting such a Representation had been ingaged in the Commissions must either have extended to the Calling of Parliaments or not if not they would neither have been Satisfactory nor absolutely necessary Not Satisfactory For the want of a Parliament was that which was accounted the great Grievance of the Nation as appears from the Prince of Orange's Declaration Where he says expresly That his Expedition is intended for no other Design but to have a Free and Lawful Parliament assembled as soon as is possible Declar. P. 12. § 21.