THE INTERREGNUM.

427

and the streets silent, an event had taken place which threw chap.a damp on the public joy. " 168 ' 8 ■

The Peers had repaired from the Abbey to their house, Dcbate inand had resumed the discussion on the state of the nation, the LordsThe last words of the resolution of the Commons were taken questioninto consideration; and it soon became clear that the majority JJ ia elhcrwas not disposed to assent to those words. To near fifty throneLords who held that the regal title still belonged to Jameswere now added seven or eight who held that it had alreadydevolved on Mary. The Whigs, finding themselves outnum-bered, tried to compromise the dispute. They proposed toomit the words which pronounced the throne vacant, andsimply to declare the Prince and Princess King and Queen.

It was manifest that such a declaration implied, though it didnot expressly affirm, all that the Tories were unwilling toconcede. For nobody could pretend that William had suc-ceeded to the regal office by right of birth. To pass a resolu-tion acknowledging him as King was therefore an act ofelection; and how could there be an election without avacancy? The proposition of the Whig Lords was rejected by Majorityfifty-two votes to forty-seven. The question was then .put negative,whether the throne was vacant. The contents were onlyforty-one: the noncontents fifty-five. Of the minority thirty-six protested. * •

During the two following days London was in an unquiet Agitationand anxious state. The Tories began to hope that they might London,be able again to bring forward their favourite plan of Regencywith better success. Perhaps the Prince himself, when hefound that he had no chance of wearing the crown, mightprefer Sancroft’s scheme to Danby’s. It was better doubtlessto be a King than to be a Regent: but it was better to be aRegent than to be a gentleman usher. On the other sidethe lower and fiercer class of Whigs, the old emissaries ofShaftesbury, the old associates of College, began to stir inthe City. Crowds assembled in Palace Yard, and heldthreatening language. Lord Lovelace, who was suspected ofhaving encouraged these assemblages, informed the Peers* Lords’ Journals, Jan. 31.1685.