438

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

X.

168S.

The De-clarationof Bight.

sovereigns to the throne, the claim of the English nation to its•ancient franchises, so that the King might hold his crown,and the people their privileges, by one and the same titledeed. The latter object would require a whole volume ofelaborate statutes. The former object might be attained in aday; the latter, scarcely in five years. As to the former ob-ject, all parties were agreed: as to the latter, there were in-numerable varieties of opinion. No member of either Housewould hesitate for a moment to vote that the King could notlevy taxes without the consent of Parliament: but it would behardly possible to frame any new law of procedure in cases ofhigh treason which would not give rise to long debate, and becondemned by some persons as unjust to the prisoner, and byothers as unjust to the crown. The business of an extraordi-nary convention of the Estates of the Realm was not to do theordinary work of Parliaments, to regulate the fees of mastersin Chancery, and to provide against the exactions of gaugers,but to put right the great machine of government. When thishad been done, it would be time to inquire what improvementour institutions needed: nor would anything be risked bydelay; for no sovereign who reigned merely by the choice ofthe nation could long refuse his assent to any improvementwhich the nation, speaking through its representatives, de-manded.

On these grounds the Commons wisely determined to post-pone all reforms till the ancient constitution of the kingdomshould have been restored in all its parts, and forthwith to fillthe throne without imposing on William and Mary any otherobligation than that of governing according to the existinglaws of England. In order that the questions which had been,in dispute between the Stuarts and the nation might neveragain be stirred, it was determined that the instrument bywhich the Prince and Princess of Orange were called to thethrone, and by which the order of succession was settled,should set forth, in the most distinct and solemn manner, thefundamental principles of the constitution. This instrument,known by the name of the Declaration of Right, was preparedby a committee, of which Somers was chairman. The fact