THE LORDS' PROTESTS, FROM IN THE REIGN OF HENRY To which is added, An HISTORICAL ESSAY on the Legislative Power IN TWO VOLVMES.. VOLVME THE FIRST. LONDON: Printed in the Year MDCCLXVII. 226. i. 296. ADVERTISEMENT. Ο F all kinds of Parliamentary Papers, the Protefts of the Houfe of Lords have ever been esteemed the most valuable and interefting. They are particularly fo to thofe young gentlemen who are ftudying the history and constitution of their country; and, in a word, to every one who is defirous of being acquainted with the Proceedings of Parliament, which form the great school of political knowledge. The fubjects of the Protests here offered to the public are of the highest importance to the interefts and freedom of the nation. They present to us a view of the many noble ftruggles, which, from time to time, have been made in defence of conftitutional Liberty; and serve to keep alive, and infpire into the minds of the rifing generation, some of the most exalted fentiments that ever entered into the heart of man. The style, in general, is nervous and animated, and the arguments are the strongest that could poffibly be produced; all which, indeed, is no more than what might naturally be expected, from the diftinguished abilities of thofe, who thus committed their fentiments to writing; that they might be delivered to pofterity, without the poffibility of misrepresentation, in the language as they arofe fpontaneously from the mind; when it was warm and full of vigour, and when the expreffions flowed strong, and pure from the heart.-Nothing, it is hoped, need further be laid to recommend to the public the prefent publication; a publication, it is prefumed, which, to every competent judge, will appear to be a work that fufficiently fpeaks for itfelf. It may be requifite, however, for the fatiffaction a 2 |