30

HISTOBY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XI.

1689 .

was laid on the table of the Lords, and rapidly passed by them.In the Commons the debates were warm. The House resolveditself into a Committee; and so great was the excitement that,when the authority of the Speaker was withdrawn, it was hardlypossible to preserve order. Sharp personalities were exchanged.The phrase, “hear him,” a phrase which had originally beenused only to silence irregular noises, and to remind membersof the duty of attending to the discussion, had, during someyears, been gradually becoming what it now is; that is to say,a cry indicative, according to the tone, of admiration, ac-quiescence, indignation, or derision. On this occasion, theWhigs vociferated “Hear, hear,” so tumultuously that theTories complained of unfair usage. Seymour, the leader of theminority, declared that there could be no freedom of debatewhile such clamour was tolerated. Some old Whig memberswere provoked into reminding him that the same clamour hadoccasionally been heard when he presided, and had not thenbeen repressed. Yet, eager and angry as both sides were, thespeeches on both sides indicated that profound reverence forlaw and prescription which has long been characteristic of Eng-lishmen, and which, though it runs sometimes into pedantryand sometimes into superstition, is not without its advantages.Even at that momentous crisis, when the nation was still in theferment of a revolution, our public men talked long andseriously about all the circumstances of the deposition ofEdward the Second and of the deposition of'Ilichard theSecond, and anxiously inquired whether the assembly which,with Archbishop Lanfranc at its head, set aside Itobert ofNormandy, and put William ltufus on the throne, did or didnot afterwards continue to act as the legislature of the realm.Much was said about the history of writs; much about theetymology of the word Parliament. It is remarkable, that theorator who took the most statesmanlike view of the subject was