THE INTERREGNUM.

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hearts of Englishmen during four hundred years. That, chap.without the consent of the representatives of the nation, no 1688ilegislative act could be passed, no tax imposed, no regularsoldiery kept up, that no man could be imprisoned, even fora day, by the arbitrary will of the sovereign, that no tool ofpower could plead the royal command as a justification forviolating any right of the humblest subject, were held, bothby Whigs and Tories, to be fundamental laws of the realm.

A realm of which these were the fundamental laws stood in noneed of a new constitution.

But, though a new constitution was not needed, it wasplain that changes were required. The misgovernment of theStuarts, and the troubles which that misgovernment had pro-duced, sufficiently proved that there was somewhere a defectin our polity; and that defect it was the duty of the Conven-tion to discover and to supply.

Some questions of great moment were still open to dispute.

Our constitution had begun to exist in times when statesmenwere not much accustomed to frame exact definitions. Ano-malies, therefore, inconsistent with its principles and dan-gerous to its very existence, had sprung up almost imper-ceptibly, and, not having, during many years, caused anyserious inconvenience, had gradually acquired the force ofprescription. The remedy for these evils was to assert therights of the people in such language as should terminate allcontroversy, and to declare that no precedent could justifyany violation of those rights.

When this had been done it would be impossible for ourrulers to misunderstand the law: but, unless something morewere done, it was by no means improbable that they mightviolate it. Unhappily the Church had long taught the nationthat hereditary monarchy, alone among our institutions, wasdivine and inviolable; that the right of the House of Com-mons to a share in the legislative power was a right merelyhuman, but that the right of the King to the obedience of hispeople was from above; that the Great Charter was a statutewhich might be repealed by those who had made it, hut thatthe rule which called the princes of the blood royal to the