common Ancestor on whom the Crown was Entailed otherwise Brothers or Sisters by the half Blood could never Succeed to each other as Queen Mary did to King Edward the VIth I. Well Neighbour I see you have either read Littleton or else been very well instructed in this Law concerning Entails and therefore I will argue this Point no farther with you but if the Throne were not Vacant pray then tell me whom think you the Convention should have immediately Declared King or Queen whether the Titular or pretended Prince of Wales or the Princess of Orange Since only one of these can Claim as Heir by vertue of the Entail you now mentioned F. No doubt but the Prince of Wales would have been the Right Heir could we have been assured of his being really born of the Body of the Queen but since I confess there is a great doubt in most Persons throughout the whole Nation concerning it I must so far agree with you that he could not well be declared King till his Legitimacy were cleared and those just suspicions we lye under to the contrary taken away but then on the other side till this were done I do not see how the Convention could well justifie their placing the Princess of Orange or any Body else in the Throne I. We shall come to that by and by but in the mean time pray observe that here was a great and general doubt who was the next lawful Heir whether the Prince of Wales or the Princess of Orange now in Disputes of this nature in all the hereditary limited Monarchies in Europe the States of the Kingdom have always been the sole Supream Judges of such Controversies and whom they have owned and admitted as next Heirs have always been taken and owned for Lawful Kings both at Home and Abroad as I could shew you from divers Instances not only in England and Scotland but France Spain and Portugal And till this were done the Throne must necessarily remain vacant and all this without making the Crown Elective for what is this vacancy of the Throne but when through the Ignorance of the ordinary Subjects whom to place therein by reason of divers Claims of different Competitors none can be admitted to fill it that is to the exercise of the Kingly Office till these disputes could be decided by their proper Judges viz. the Estates of the Kingdom which is all one as to declare the Throne to be vacant since it must necessarily be so till they were fully satisfied who ought to fill it F. I confess what you have now said carries a great deal of reason with it but how can you justifie the Convention's placing their present Majesties on the Throne without ever so much as examining whether the supposed Prince of Wales were really born of the Body of the Queen or not which in my Opinion ought to have been the first thing to be enquired after whereas I do not find that the Convention nor yet the present Parliament have taken any more notice of him than if there had been no such thing in nature as a Son then born or pretended to be born during the Marriage between the late King and Queen I. If the Convention have done well in declaring the Throne vacant I think I can easily justifie their filling it with their present Majesties and that upon two several Considerations The First is that I suppose the Prince of Orange by his Victory over King Iames sufficiently declared by his flying from Salisbury and disbanding his Army and then quitting the Kingdom if he had done nothing else did thereby lose his Right to the Crown and so consequently to the Peoples Allegiance and the Nation being then free and without any King who had a better Right to be placed in the Throne than the Prince of Orange their Deliverer and besides this in respect of the Nation King Iames as I have already proved having Abdicated or Forfeited his Right to the Crown by his notorious Breach of the Contract above-mentioned and by his wilful persisting in it I look upon the whole Nation at his departure as fully discharged from all Oaths of Allegiance not only to King Iames but to his Heirs likewise and therefore were not obliged to look after this supposed Prince nor to examine his Legitimacy as Heir apparent to the Crown F. I cannot comprehend how this can consist with those Acts of Parliament of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames which oblige all the Subjects of this Realm to take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance to the King or Queen and to their Heirs and Lawful Successors and sure I think nothing less than an Act of Parliament can alter these former Statutes and solemn Declarations concerning the Succession in a Right Line And I suppose you will not say that the Convention who certainly were no Parliament could without the Authority of a Lawful King and Parliament alter the Ancient Laws of Succession since I have heard it is a Maxim in Law that nothing can be undone but by the same Power that made it And therefore in my Opinion the Convention was too quick in Declaring their present Majesties King and Queen before they had examined the Prince of Wales's Title who was commonly reputed and prayed for in all our Churches as Heir Apparent to the Crown I. I confess you have in few words urged all that can well be said against the late Act of the Convention in declaring their present Majesties King and Queen Therefore in Answer to this Objection give me leave in the first place to tell you that you have been misinformed That because the Acts for the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance obliged us to take it to the late King and his Heirs and Lawful Successors that therefore no Person can be such a Lawful Successor unless he Claim in a right Line by descent from the last King since long before these Acts were made by the Ancient Oath of Fidelity at Common Law and which used to be required in all Court-Leets men were as much obliged to the King his Heirs and Successors as they can be by any of these later Oaths and yet no body then doubted before those Acts were made to pay Allegiance to that Person whom the Estates of the Kingdom had solemnly declared to be lawful King or Queen without ever examining whether such Kings or Queens were really and truly next Heirs by Blood or not as I can shew you from divers Examples had I now time for it And there is indeed great reason for their so doing for since all disputes about the right of Succession to the Crown must be decided by some proper Judges or else be left wholly to the Decision of the Sword and since as I said but now in all the limited Kingdoms of Europe the Estates of such Kingdoms have been always appeal'd to by all the contending parties as their only proper Judges of their disputed Titles it is but reason that
not as well suppose a like tacite consent in the Princess of Denmark's not making any Opposition or Protestation against this Act whereby the Crown was settled upon his Majesty during his Life but rather agreeing to it for I have heard that several of her Servants in both Houses did declare that the Princess did not design that her future Right should be any hindrance to the present Settlement Pray therefore tell me why may not King William hold the Crown after the Death of the Queen if she should happen first to die without any Usurpation as well as King Henry the Seventh held it after the Death of his Queen notwithstanding his two Sons Prince Arthur and Henry both lived to be Married before their Father Died and Henry the Eighth was then in his nineteenth or twentieth Year of his Age old enough of conscience to govern himself F. I confess these things were altogether unknown to me before as they are I believe to most of my condition and I give your Worship many thanks for your kind Information But pray Sir resolve me one Question more and I have done Do you think a Man may Lawfully take the new Oath of Allegiance to Their present Majesties notwithstanding King Iames is still alive and do you think I could justifie it in Law should I be called to an account for it if he should again by some unexpected means or other obtain the Throne I. Well Neighbour to satisfie you as to the first of your questions I answer thus I doubt not but you may Lawfully take this Oath since the Parliament have done no more in thus setling the Crown than what many former Parliaments have done before in like Cases whose Proceedings have been still looked upon as good and held unquestioned unto this day as appears by the President of Henry the VIIth I now gave you and upon which Declarations of Parliament who are the only proper Judges who have most Right to the Crown in case of any dispute about it the People of this Kingdom have still thought themselves sufficiently obliged to take such Oaths of Fidelity and Allegiance as the Government thought fit to frame and require of them according to Law But I confess the latter of your questions is somewhat harder to be answered because it depends upon a matter that is farther remote since we cannot tell whether if ever at all King Iames should re-obtain the Throne by what means it may happen for if it should be by the Force either of the Irish or French Nations I doubt not but we should be all made mere Slaves and Vassals without any Law or setled Property but his own Will But if it should be by any Agreement or Composition with him upon his Engagement to Govern according to Law the◠le◠me tell you Not only your self but every other Subject that takes this Oath will have a good Plea in Law for taking it by the Statute of the 11th of Henry the VIIth whereby it is expresly Enacted That every Subject by the duty of his Allegiance is bound to Serve and Assist his Prince and Sovereign Lord at all seasons when need shall require and then follows an Act of Indemnity for all those that shall personally serve the King for the time being in his Wars Which were altogether unreasonable if Allegiance had not been due before to such a King as their Sovereign Lord mentioned in the Preamble and if Allegiance were due to him then certainly an Oath may lawfully be taken to observe it since it is no more than what the Law hath ever required from Subjects to such a King not only by this Statute but at Common Law too as appears by my Lord Cookes Comment on the Statute of Edward the IIId where he asserts not only from the Authority of this Statute but also from the old Year-Books that a King de Facto or for the time being is our Lord the King intended in that Statute and that the other who hath a Right and is out of Possession is not within this Act. So that you see according to this Act of Henry the VIIth as also by the Judgment of the best Lawyers of England whatever Person is once solemnly Crowned King of England and hath been so Recognized by Authority of Pariiament as Their Present Majesties have now been are and ever have been esteemed Lawful and Rightful Kings or Queens though they had no Hereditary Right of Succession as next of Blood as I have proved to you from the instance of King Henry the 4th and 7th and could do also by the Examples of Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth take which you please since they could not both of them succeed as the Legitimate Daughters and Heirs of King Henry the Eighth So that it is plain one or other of these Queens had no better than a Parliamentary Title to the Crown Therefore upon the whole matter whether Their present Majesties are Heirs to the Crown by Lineal Descent is not the Question but whether by the Law of England they are not to all intents and purposes Lawful and Rightful King and Queen so that an Oath of Allegiance may be lawfully taken to them and all men obliged to serve them in all their Wars and other Affairs even against King Iames himself since we cannot serve Two Masters that is owe Allegiance to Two Kings at once F. I cannot deny but what you say seems not only very reasonable but also according to Law but I heard the Squire and the Parson we but now mentioned positively assert That the King and Parliament had no Power to alter the Succession to thē Crown though they would and that therefore this Statute of Henry the Seventh you now mentioned which indemnifies all those that take up Arms in defence of the King for the time being is void First Because made by an Usurper who had no Right to make such a Law in prejudice of the true King or the next Heirs of the Crown but also because as they said it was but a Temporary Act and was to last no longer than during his life and lastly because this Statute hath never been allowed or held for good in any cases of Assisting Usurpers since that time for the Duke of Northumberland was Arraigned and Executed for Treason in the time of Queen Mary because he had Assisted and Taken up Arms on behalf of the Lady Iane Gray who was Proclaimed Queen and Reign'd as such for about a Fortnight and yet tho the Duke Pleaded afterwards that he had Acted nothing but by Order of the Queen and Council for the time being yet this Plea was over-ruled by the Peers who were his Judges and he was Executed notwithstanding Lastly they said That this Statute was implicitly or by consequence Repealed by those Statutes of Queen Elizabeth and King Iemes which appoint the Oaths of Allegiance to be only taken to the King his Heirs and lawful Successors besides a Statute of
A BRIEF ENQUIRY INTO THE Ancient CONSTITUTION AND Government of England As well in respect of the Administration as Succession thereof Set forth by way of Dialogue and fitted for Men of Ordinary Learning and Capacities By a True Lover of his Country LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1695. THE Publisher's PREFACE TO THE READER THERE being many Treatises already Publish'd upon the Subjects handled in this ensuing Discourse you may think it needless to trouble the World with more of this kind but those who think so may be of another Opinion when they have considered not only the Design of this Treatise which is to Abridge into a small Manual what others have writ in many Volumes but also the manner of handling the Matters herein treated of which you will find to differ very much from most of the Books written before upon this Subject some Writers having screwed up the King's Prerogative to so extravagant a height as to place the whole Essential Frame of the Government in the King 's Sole Will and Pleasure not considering the Fundamental Rights and Liberties of a Free-born Nation more than as the forced Concessions of some Weak Princes not otherwise able to appease an Angry People and which they may therefore contract or wholy abrogate as their Power or Opportunities may either dictate or permit Whilst on the other side there are some who have too much debased the Royal Prenogative by placing all Power immediately in the People and supposing the King accountable to their Representatives for every small Miscarriage in Government There is without doubt an Error in both these Extremes since as the King can have no Prerogative which is inconsistent with the Ancient Rights and Liberties of the Subject set down in Magna Charta and other Ancient Statutes which were only declarative of the Common Law of England So likewise if the King be the Supreme Magistrate of the Nation he cannot without a Soloecism in Government be rendred accountable to any Power superior to his own these things considered hath induced the Author to chuse a middle and more moderate Course by preserving to the King all such Prerogatives as are inseparable from the Supreme Executive Power and which are necessary for the Common Safety yet without leaving the King absolutely irresistible in all Cases whatsoever and without a supposed impossibility of his falling from his Royal Dignity in case of the highest Breaches of his Coronation Oath and the utmost Violations of that Usual and Ancient Contract which his Predecessors have so often renewed with the People of this Nation upon their Succession to the Throne For the proving of which the Author hath made use of the best Authorities he could collect either from our ancient Histories Records or Law-Books beginning with the Grounds and Institution of Civil Government in general and ending with that of England in particular And though he hath so far adapted this Discourse for men of ordinary Learning and Capacities as not to stuff the Margin with many Quotations yet he hath not fail'd to put them down where-ever the Niceness or Uncommonness of the Subject might otherwise chance to shock the Understandings of Readers not thoroughly vers'd in things of this Nature Not but that the Author is very well satisfied that even where no Authorities are expresly cited he is able to maintain what he there lays down by Arguments drawn from Law as well as Reason if any man shall think it worth while to call it in question but if he requires larger and fuller Proofs on this Subject he may if he pleases first consult the last Eight Dialogues of a late Treatise called Bibliotheca Politica as also Mr. Atwood ' s Learned Treatise concerning the Antiquity and Justice of an Oath of Abjuration And I hope he may thence receive sufficient satisfaction that the Principles here laid down are founded not only upon right Reason but the ancient Constitution of the English Government This may suffice for the manner of handling this Argument But now to say somewhat more of the ends of publishing this Discourse and they are these First to make every man though of never so common a Capacity understand as well as the Author is able to perform it what is the true ancient and legal Government of this Kingdom 2dly What are the main and most considerable Prerogatives of the Crown And lastly What are the fundamental Rights and Liberties of the People And that these are so far from being contradictory or inconsistent that they rather serve to defend and strengthen each other so that it hath been for the defence and preservation of all these that this wonderful and happy Revolution hath been brought about and Their Present Majesties placed upon the Throne as also to convince those who traduce by the Nick-names of Whigs and Commonwealths-men those that have been in the worst of times the only true Assertors of this ancient limited Monarchy so that if they plead for Resistance in some Cases it is only in those of utmost and absolute necessity and in order to preserve the Original Constitution and to prevent the Head of the Legislative Power from devouring the Body nor can they have any other Notions of Loyalty but their Obedience to the Government establisht and exercised according to Law as the ancient Sense as well as Etymology of that word imports To conclude Whosoever shall think fit to bestow a little money to buy and time to peruse this small Treatise the Publisher hopes he will find the design to be truly English that is sincere and honest that all good Subjects may know how to render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods without blindly sacrificing under the will-worship of a pretended Loyalty the Religion Civil Liberties and Properties of their Country to Caesar's Will as some of late Years have done who made these the darling because most gainful Doctrines as well of the Pulpit as the Bar and the Press A BRIEF ENQUIRY INTO THE Ancient Constitution and Government of England ctc. In a Dialogue between a Justice of Peace and an Understanding Freeholder I. GOOD Morrow Neighbour What brings you hither so early If you want a Warrant I 'll call my Clerk and then hear your Business F. No I assure your Worship the Business I come about is of greater concern and that no less than the Rights and Liberties of the Subject as well as the Power and Prerogative of our Kings which though I heard you Treat of in your late Charge to the Grand Jury last Quarter-Sessions yet since I could not come near enough to hear it distinctly not being of that Jury my self pray give me the substance of that Discourse and I the rather desire it because I have since heard it much censured by some of our Neighbours as savouring of Commonwealth Principles But to save you the labour of a needless repetition I will
therefore used the word Abdicate as that which though it implied both a Renunciation and also a Forfeiture of the Royal Power yet not being commonly so understood made some men only to understand it of the King's Desertion of the Throne by his going away a Notion which because it served a present turn mens heads were then very full of But indeed if this Desertion be closely examined it will not do the business for which it is brought as you have already very well observed F. I confess I never understood the true sence of this word Abdicate before much less the reason why it was made use of therefore commend me to the honest bluntness of the Scotch Convention which as I am informed did not stick to declare That King Iames by subverting the Fundamental Laws of that Kingdom had forfeited the Crown But pray Sir tell me what those Acts or Violations of this Original Contract were which you suppose to cause this tacit Renunciation of the Crown I. As for these I need not go far since they are all plainly expressed in the Convention's late Declaration as striking at the root or very Fundamental Constitution of the Government it self viz. Raising of Money contrary to Law that is without any Act of Parliament as in the late Levying of the Customs Excise and Chimney-Money upon Cottages and Ovens contrary to the several Statutes that conferred them on the Crown 2dly His Assuming a Legislative Power by Dispensing with all Statutes for the Protestant Religion established by Law whereby he at one blow took away above Forty Acts of Parliament and he might at this rate as well have Dispensed with the whole Statute-Book at once by one general Declaration 3dly Raising a Standing Army in time of Peace and putting in Popish Officers contrary to the Statute provided against it for these being but the King 's half Subjects as King Iames the 1st called them in a Speech might be looked upon when in Arms as no better than Enemies to the State so that by thus Arming our Enemies it was in effect a declaring War upon the People since it was abusing the power of the Militia which is intrusted with the King for our Safety and Preservation in our Religion Liberties and Civil Properties and not for the destruction of them all as we found by woful experience must have inevitably befallen us 4thly The Quartering of this standing Army in Private houses contrary to Law and the Petition of Right acknowledged by the late King his Father 5thly His Erecting a new Ecclesiastical Court by Commission contrary to the Statute that took away the High Commission Court 6thly And by the pretended Authority of this Court suspending the Bishop of London from his Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and turning out almost all the Fellows and Scholars of Magdalen Colledge because they would not chuse a President uncapable of being Elected by that Colledge Statutes 7thly By Imprisoning the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Six other Bishops only for Presenting him with an humble Petition not to impose the reading of his Declaration of Toleration upon the Clergy of the Church of England as being contrary to the known Laws of the Kingdom and then Trying them for this as a High Misdemeanor though it was contrary to the Opinion of Two of the then Judges of that Court of Kings-Bench There are also other things of lesser concernment as Packing of Juries and unjust and partial Proceedings in Tryals with excessive Fines and cruel Whippings which because they were done by the Lord Chief Justice Iefferies and the other Judges contrary to Law I leave them to answer for it whereas the instances I have now given were in such grand Violations as were done by the King 's own personal Orders and Directions or else could never have been done at all So that by his willful acting these things and obstinately refusing to let a Free Parliament sit to Settle and Redress them but rather chusing to leave the Realm than he would give way to it when he might have done it I think upon consideration of the whole matter it will appear that the Convention had good and just Reasons for declaring the Throne Vacant since the King had not only broke his first declaration he made in Council to maintain the Church of England as by Law Established and the Liberties and Properties of his Subjects but his own Coronation-Oath besides if he took the same his Predecessors did and if he did not he ought not to receive any benefit by his own default but is certainly bound by the Oaths which his Grandfather King Iames and his Father King Charles took before him F. I confess these seem to be great breaches of the very Fundamentals of our Religion Liberties and Civil Properties if done by the King 's express Order and Directions and if that he afterwards refused to disclaim them and suffer the Authors to be Punished in Parliament as they deserved makes all those faults indeed fall upon the King himself and consequently seem to amount to a Forfeiture of the Royal Dignity according to that Law of Edward the Confessor you have already cited That if the King fail to Protect the Church and Defend his Subjects from Rapine and Oppression the very Name or Title of King shall no more remain to him But pray Sir shew me in the next place how the Convention could justifie their Voting the Throne Vacant for Granting that King Iames had implicitly Abdicated or Renounced all his Right to the Crown by the Actions you have but now recited Yet if this Kingdom as I have always taken it to be is Hereditary and not Elective I cannot conceive how the Throne can ever be Vacant that is void of a Lawful Heir or Successor as long as one of the Blood-Royal either Male or Female is left alive since I have heard it laid down as a Maxim in our Law That the King never dies I. I grant this to be so upon all ordinary Deaths or Demises of a King or Queen as the Lawyers term it But there are great and evident Reasons why it could not be so upon this Civil though not Natural Death of the King as First the natural Person of the late King being still alive none can claim as Heir to him whilst he lives since it is a Maxim as well in our Common as in the Civil Law That no man can be Heir to a Person alive F. I grant this may be so in ordinary Estates of Inheritance in Fee-simple but I take it to be otherwise in Estates Tail for if a Tenant in Tail had become a Monk whilst Monasteries were in being in England the next Heir in Tail might have entered upon the Estate because the entering into a Religious Order was looked upon as a Civil Death now I take the Crown to be in the nature of such an Estate-Tail where the Heir Claims not only as Heir to the last King but to their first or
all private Subjects should submit and acquiesce in their final Judgments since they are all virtually Represented in such Assemblies as the Representative Body of the whole People or Nation Therefore if the Convention of the Estates of England have for divers weighty Reasons thought fit to declare their present Majesties Lawful King and Queen and to place them on the Throne as then vacant by King Iames's Abdication I think all the Subjects of this Kingdom are bound to bear true Allegiance to them and to confirm it by the Oath appointed for that end whenever they shall be lawfully required thereunto F. Well Sir but is not this to alter one part of the Original Contract which those that are against the present Settlement suppose to be the Right of Hereditary Succession to the Crown and that in a right Line So that if the supposed Prince of Wales be lawful Heir to King Iames to place any body else therein seems to render the Crown for the future not Successive but Elective for if it may be bestowed now according to the humor of the present Convention it may be done so again the next Succession and so the right Heirs put by from time to time for the same or some like Reason as now I. That does not at all follow for if you will allow that the Throne was vacant by the Abdication of King Iames and that her present Majesty Queen Mary is lawful Heir if the pretended Prince of Wales were away I will prove to you that the late Convention and present Parliament have done all they could or were obliged to do in this juncture in placing Their present Majesties on the Throne and Recognizing their Title without taking any notice of this pretended Prince of whose Birth whether true or false I shall not now say any thing one way or other nor shall trouble my self to inquire into the Validity of those Suspitions that may render his Birth doubtful to the generality of the Nation And therefore in the first place I desire you only to take Notice that this Child was carried away by his Mother when he was scarce yet six Months Old 2dly That the Midwife and all the chief Witnesses who could Swear any thing concerning the Queen's being really with Child and brought to Bed of him were likewise conveyed at the same time into France F. I grant it but what do you infer from hence I. Why only these two Conclusions 1st That neither the Convention nor Parliament are Obliged to take Notice of the Rights of any Person tho' Heir to the Crown that is out of the Dominions of England if he be no necessary part or Member of Parliament if neither himself nor any Body for him will put in his Claim to the Crown upon the Demise of the King either by Death or Abdication as in the Case now before us there being then a Claim made in the late Convention by his Highness the Prince of Orange on the behalf of his Consort the Princess as Heir apparent to the Crown The Convention were not obliged to look any farther after this supposed Prince or to know what was become of him whether he was Drowned or taken at Sea by Pyrates or he being Dead another put in his place or carried by his Mother into France Since any of these might have happen'd for ought they knew no body appearing to put in any Claim for him or to desire that his Cause might first be heard before he was Excluded 2dly That if such Claim had been made by any body for him yet the Convention could by no means be obliged to do more than lay in their Power or to hear or examine the Validity of this Child's Birth unless the Midwife Nurses and others who were privy to all the Transactions concerning it were likewise present and sent back to give their Testimonies in this Case for if the Convention had proceeded to examine this matter without sufficient evidence they could only have heard it ex parie on but one side and so might have sat long enough before they could have come to any true decision in this matter whilst in the mean time the whole Nation for want of a King were in danger of utter Ruin and Confusion F. But pray Sir why could not the Parliament have sent over Summons to those Witnesses which they say are no further off than France to come and give Testimony in this great Cause before they had proceeded to have declared the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen I. There may be several good Reasons given for it First Because this Child being carried into the Dominions of a Prince who is a declared Enemy of our Religion and Civil Interest of the English Nation he would never have consented to his being sent over to be viewed by those that the Convention should appoint for that purpose without which Inspection the Nation could never have been morally assured that this was the same Child that was carried away since every one knows that Infants of that Age are not easily distinguisht one from another but by those that have been about them from the very time of their Birth Secondly Because his Reputed Parents counting themselves already injured by the Convention in declaring that the King had abdicated the Government and that the Throne was thereby become vacant would never have obeyed any Summons the Convention should have sent over because they looked upon them not to have any Authority at all as not being summon'd nor sitting by vertue of that King's Writs Thirdly Admitting that the French King would have permitted this supposed Prince to have been sent back and that King Iames and his Queen would have obeyed this Summons yet was it not for the safety of the Nation to stay for or rely upon it since before this Question could have been decided great part of this Year had slipt away and we being left without a King to head us nor any Parliament Sitting able to raise Money which cannot be legally done without the King's Authority in Parliament the French King might whilst we were thus quarrelling amongst our selves about a Successor to the Crown have sent over King Iames with a great Fleet and an Army of old Soldiers and so have placed him again in the Throne more Absolute than ever he was before since besides that Legal Right of Succession which I grant he once had he might also have set up a new Right by Conquest over this Kingdom So that all things being seriously considered since the safety of the People ought to be the Supream Law as ever hath been agreed as an undoubted Principle by all wise Nations I think we have done all that could well be done in this Case nor have broken the Hereditary Succession in declaring King William and Queen Mary to be our Lawful King and Queen since if she were Lawful Queen they might also declare him to be King and make it Treason to