"vor of them; and that the fole and full exercise of the

regal power be only in, and executed by, the faid prince "of Orange, in the names of the faid prince and princess, "during their joint lives: and after their deceases the faid “crown and royal dignity to be to the heirs of the body of "the faid princefs; and for default of fuch iffue to the "princess Anne of Denmark and the heirs of her body; and "for default of fuch ifue to the heirs of the body of the faid "prince of Orange."

PERHAPS, upon the principles before established, the convention might (if they pleased) have vested the regal dignity in a family entirely new, and strangers to the royal blood: but they were too well acquainted with the benefits of hereditary fucceffion, and the influence which it has by custom over the minds of the people, to depart any farther from the antient line than temporary neceffity and felf-prefervation required. They therefore fettled the crown, firft on king William and queen Mary, king James's eldeft daughter, for their joint lives: then on the furvivor of them; and then on the iffue of queen Mary: upon failure of such iffue, it was limited to the princefs Anne, king James's fecond daughter, and her iffue; and lastly, on failure of that to the issue of king William, who was the grandfon of Charles the firft, and nephew as well as fon-in-law of king James the fecond, being the fon of Mary his eldest fifter. This fettlement included all the proteftant pofterity of king Charles I, except fuch other iffue as king James might at any time have, which was totally omitted through fear of a popish fucceffion. And this order of fucceffion took effect accordingly.

THESE three princes therefore, king William, queen Mary, and queen Anne, did not take the crown by hereditary right or defcent, but by way of donation or purchase, as the lawyers call it; by which they mean any method of acquiring an eftate otherwife than by defcent. The new fettlement did not merely confift in excluding king James, and the perfon pretended to be prince of Wales, and then fuffer

ing the crown to defcend in the old hereditary channel: for the ufual course of defcent was in fome inftances broken through; and yet the convention ftill kept it in their eye, and paid a great, though not total, regard to it. Let us fee how the fucceffion would have ftood, if no abdication had happened, and king James had left no other iffue than his two daughters queen Mary and queen Anne. It would have stood thus: queen Mary and her iffue; queen Anne and her issue king William and his iffue. But we may remember, that queen Mary was only nominally queen, jointly with her husband king William, who alone had the regal power; and king William was perfonally preferred to queen Anne, though his iffue was poftponed to hers. Clearly therefore these princes were fucceffively in poffeffion of the crown by a title different from the ufual courfe of defcent.

;

It was towards the end of king William's reign, when all hopes of any furviving iffue from any of thefe princes died with the duke of Glocefter, that the king and parliament thought it neceffary again to exert their power of limiting and appointing the fucceffion, in order to prevent another vacancy of the throne; which must have enfued upon their deaths, as no farther provision was made at the revolution, than for the iffue of queen Mary, queen Anne, and king William. The parliament had previoufly by the ftatute of 1 W. & M. ft. 2. c. 2. enacted, that every perfon who should be reconciled to, or hold communion with, the fee of Rome, fhould profefs the popish religion, or should marry a papist, should be excluded and for ever incapable to inherit, poffefs, or enjoy the crown; and that in fuch cafe the people fhould be abfolved from their allegiance, and the crown fhould defcend to fuch perfons, being proteftants, as would have inherited the fame, in cafe the perfon fo reconciled, holding communion, profeffing, or marrying, were naturally dead. Το act therefore confiftently with themselves, and at the fame time pay as much regard to the old hereditary line as their for- [216] mer refolutions would admit, they turned their eyes on the princefs Sophia, electress and dutchefs dowager of Hanover,

the

the most accomplished princefs of her age. For, upon the impending extinction of the protestant pofterity of Charles the first, the old law of regal descent directed them to recur to the defcendants of James the first; and the princess Sophia, being the youngest daughter of Elizabeth queen of Bohemia, who was the daughter of James the firft, was the nearest of the antient blood royal, who was not incapacitated by profeffing the popish religion. On her therefore, and the heirs of her body, being proteftants, the remainder of the crown, expectant on the death of king William and queen Anne without iffue, was fettled by statute 12 and 13 W. III. c. 2. And at the fame time it was enacted, that whofoever fhould hereafter come to the poffeffion of the crown fhould join in the communion of the church of England as by law eftablished.

THIS is the last limitation of the crown that has been made by parliament: and these several actual limitations, from the time of Henry IV to the prefent, do clearly prove the power of the king and parliament to new-model or alter the fucceffion. And indeed it is now again made highly penal to difpute it for by the ftatute 6 Ann. c. 7. it is enacted, that if any perfon maliciously, advisedly, and directly, fhall maintain, by writing or printing, that the kings of this realm with the authority of parliament are not able to make laws to bind the crown and the descent thereof, he fhali be guilty of high treafon; or if he maintains the fame by only preaching, teaching, or advised speaking, he fhall incur the penalties of a praemunire.

THE princefs Sophia dying before queen Anne, the inheritance thus limited defcended on her fon and heir king George the first; and, having on the death of the queen taken effect in his perfon, from him it defcended to his late majesty king George the fecond; and from him to his grandfon and heir, our prefent gracious fovereign, king George the third.

c Sandford in his genealogical hiftory, published A. D. 1677, fpeaking (page 535) of the princeffes Elizabeth, Louisa, and Sophia, daughters of the

queen of Bohemia, fays, the firft was reputed the most learned, the fecond the greatest artist, and the last one of the most accomplished ladies in Europe.

HENCE

HENCE it is easy to collect, that the title to the crown is at present hereditary, though not quite fo abfolutely hereditary as formerly: and the common stock or ancestor, from whom the defcent must be derived, is alfo different. Formerly the common stock was king Egbert; then William the conqueror; afterwards in James the firft's time the two common stocks united, and fo continued till the vacancy of the throne in 1688 now it is the princefs Sophia, in whom the inheritance was vefted by the new king and parliament. Formerly the defcent was abfolute, and the crown went to the next heir without any restriction: but now, upon the new settlement, the inheritance is conditional; being limited to fuch heirs only, of the body of the princefs Sophia, as are proteftant members of the church of England, and are married. to none but proteftants..

AND in this due medium confifts, I apprehend, the true conftitutional notion of the right of fucceffion to the imperial crown of thefe kingdoms. The extremes, between which it fteers, are each of them equally deftructive of thofe ends for which focieties were formed and are kept on foot. Where the magiftrate, upon every fucceffion, is elected by the people, and may by the exprefs provifion of the laws be deposed (if not punished) by his fubjects, this may found like the perfection of liberty, and look well enough when delineated on paper; but in practice will be ever productive of tumult, contention, and anarchy. And, on the other hand, divine indefeasible hereditary right, when coupled with the doctrine of unlimited paffive obedience, is furely of all conftitutions the moft thoroughly flavish and dreadful. But when such an hereditary right, as our laws have created and vefted in the royal ftock, is closely intervoven with thofe liberties, which, we have seen in a former chapter, are equally the inheritance of the fubject; this union will form a conftitution, in theory the most beautiful of any, in practice the most approved, and, I truft, in duration the most permanent. It was the duty of an expounder of our laws to lay this conftitution before the ftudent in it's true and genuine light: it is the duty of every good Englishman to underftand, to revere, to defend it.

CHAPTER THE FOURTH.

OF THE KING'S ROYAL FAMILY.

TH

HE firft and most confiderable branch of the king's royal family, regarded by the laws of England, is the queen.

THE queen of England is either queen regent, queen confort, or queen dowager. The queen regent, regnant, or fo vereign, is fhe who holds the crown in her own right; as the first (and perhaps the fecond) queen Mary, queen Elizabeth, and queen Anne; and fuch a one has the fame powers, prerogatives, rights, dignities, and duties, as if she had been a king. This was observed in the entrance of the last chapter, and is exprefsly declared by statute 1 Mar. I. ft. 3. c. 1. (1). But the queen confort is the wife of the reigning king; and fhe, by virtue of her marriage, is participant of divers prerogatives above other women.

a Finch. L. 86.

(1) Mary being the firft queen that had fat upon the English throne, this ftatute was paffed, as it declares, for "the exun"guishment of the doubt and folly of malicious and ignorant "perfons," who might be induced to think that a queen could not exercife all the prerogatives of a king.