380

HISTOBY OF ENGLAND.

chap. f ew hours, an assembly which would be regarded by the— nation with a large portion of the respect due to a Parliament.One Chamber might be formed of the numerous Lords Spiri-tual and Temporal who were then in London, and another ofold members of the House of Commons and of the magistratesof the City. The scheme was ingenious, and was promptlyexecuted. The Peers were summoned to St. James’s on thetwenty-first of December. About seventy attended. ThePrince requested them to consider the state of the country,and to lay before him the result of their deliberations. Shortlyafter appeared a notice inviting all gentlemen who had sate inthe House of Commons during the reign of Charles the Se-cond to attend His Highness on the morning of the twenty-sixth. The Aldermen of London were also summoned;and the Common Council was requested to send a deputa-tion.*

It has often been asked, in a reproachful tone, why theinvitation was not extended to the members of the Parliamentwhich had been dissolved in the preceding year. The answeris obvious. One of the chief grievances of which the nationcomplained was the manner in which that Parliament had beenelected. The majority of the burgesses had been returnedby constituent bodies remodelled in a manner which was ge-nerally regarded as illegal, and which the Prince had, in hisDeclaration, condemned. James himself had, just beforehis downfall, consented to restore the old municipal fran-chises. It would surely have been the height of inconsistencyin William, after taking up arms for the purpose of vindi-cating the invaded charters of corporations, to recognise per-sons chosen in defiance of those charters as the legitimaterepresentatives of the towns of England.

On Saturday the twenty-second the Lords met in theirown house. That day was employed in settling the order ofproceeding. A clerk was appointed: and, as no confidencecould be placed in any of the twelve Judges, some serjeantsand barristers of great note were requested to attend, for the

* History of the Desertion; Clarendon’s Diary, Dec. 21. 1688; Burnet,i. 803. and Onslow’s note.