THE INTERREGNUM.

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reverence for the past. The Estates of the Realm deliberated CII X p -in the old halls and according to the old rules. Powle was 1688 .conducted to his chair between his mover and his seconderwith the accustomed forms. The Serjeant with his macebrought up the messengers of the Lords to the table of theCommons; and the three obeisances were duly made. Theconference was held with all the antique ceremonial. Onone side of the table, in the Painted Chamber, the managersof the Lords sate covered and robed in ermine and gold. Themanagers of the Commons stood bareheaded on the otherside. The speeches present an almost ludicrous contrast tothe revolutionary oratory of every other country. Both theEnglish parties agreed in treating with solemn respect theancient constitutional traditions of the state. The only ques-tion was, in what sense those traditions were to be under-stood. The assertors of liberty said not a word about thenatural equality of men and the inalienable sovereignty of thepeople, about Harmodius orTimoleon, Brutus the elder orBrutus the younger. When they were told that, by the Eng-lish law, the crown, at the moment of a demise, must descendto the next heir, they answered that, by the English law, aliving man could have no heir. When they were told thatthere was no precedent for declaring the throne vacant, theyproduced from among the records in the Tower a roll ofparchment, near three hundred years old, on which, inquaint characters and barbarous Latin, it was recorded thatthe Estates of the Realm had declared vacant the throne of aperfidious and tyrannical Plantagenet. When at length thedispute had been accommodated, the new sovereigns wereproclaimed with the old pageantry. All the fantastic pompof heraldry was there, Clarencieux and Norroy, Portcullisand Rouge Dragon, the trumpets, the banners, the grotesquecoats embroidered with lions and lilies. The title of Kingof France, assumed by the conqueror of Cressy, was notomitted in the royal style. To us, who have lived in the year1848, it may seem almost an abuse of terms to call a pro-ceeding, conducted with so much deliberation, with so much