292

BISTORT OF ENGLAND.

ciup. had, in obedience to his orders, induced Fuller to pledge his^“‘‘ -word for their appearance, and had then absented themselves,and left him exposed to the resentment of the House of Com-mons.* The story had the reception which it deserved, andFuller sank into an obscurity from which he twice or thrice, atlong intervals, again emerged for a moment into infamy.

Close or On the twenty-fourth of February 1692, about an hour aftersion, liiii the Commons had voted Fuller an impostor, they were sum-laining moned to the chamber of the Lords. The King thanked thelies of the Houses for their loyalty and liberality, informed them that herejected. must soon set out for the Continent, and commanded them toadjourn themselves. He gave his assent on that day to manybills, public and private: but when the title of one bill, whichhad passed the Lower House without a single division and theUpper House without a single protest, had been read by theClerk of the Crown, the Clerk of the Parliaments declared, ac-cording to the ancient form, that the King and the Queen■would consider of the matter. Those words had very rarelybeen pronounced before the accession of William. They havebeen pronounced only once since his death. Put by him thepower of putting a Veto on laws -which had been passed by theEstates of the Realm was used on several important occasions.His detractors truly asserted that he rejected a greater numberof important bills than all the Kings of the House of Stuart puttogether, and most absurdly inferred that the sense of theEstates of the Realm was much less respected by him than byhis uncles and his grandfather. A judicious student of historywill have no difficulty in discovering why William repeatedlyexercised a prerogative to which his predecessors very seldomhad recourse, and which his successors have suffered to fallinto utter desuetude.

* Fuller’s Original Letters of the late King James anJ others to hisgreatest Friends in England.