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ber,) to perfecute his Subjects under the forms of Law; by taking-away the Charter of the City of London; and procuring the Surrenders of the Charters of several other Corporations that fent Members to Parliament, and thereby making the Elections of Members of Parliament lefs free and popular than before; and by over-fevere Punishments, enormous Fines, and Verdicts for exceffive damages, given in civil actions by corrupt Juries, packed by the Sheriffs for the purpose. But in the year 1680, before these odious proceedings took place, the Laws and Conftitution of the Government of England were very little different from what they were afterwards in the years 1689 and 1690, or the first and fecond years of King William's reign. So wifely and moderately did King William and his firft Parliament proceed in the fettlement of the Nation, without introducing any new, or theoretical, improvements of the Government, or any 'changes in the powers of the feveral Judicatories and Orders in the State. The principal Law which the Parliament paffed on this occafion, and to which they required the affent of the Prince and Princess of Orange before they elected them to be King and Queen of England, (in lieu of the King, who had quitted the Government, and retired to France,) is called the Bill, or Declaration of Rights; and contains only a recital of feveral of the illegal Acts done by King James, and the illegal Powers affumed by him, accompanied with a declaration of their illegality, together with a fettlement of the Crown, after the Decease of the Prince and Princess of Orange, on the Heirs of the Body of the faid Princefs; and, in default of fuch heirs, on the Princess Anne, of Denmark, (the fecond daughter of King James,) and the Heirs of her Body ; and, in default

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of fuch Heirs, on the Heirs of the Body of the Prince of Orange, or King William, by any future wife; and, laftly, a provifion that none of the perfons fo appointed to fucceed to the Crown, nor any other perfon whatsoever, fhould be capable of fuch Succeffion, if they either were themselves Papifts, or were married to a Papist, "it having been found by Experience, that it is incon"sistent with the Safety and Welfare of this Protest"ant Kingdom, to be governed by a Popish Prince, or "by any King or Queen, marrying a Papist." And, in general, the Maxims and Opinions fanctioned and confirmed by this Parliament on this great and folemn Occafion, were the fame that had been profeffed and laid-down by the Leading Members of the House of Commons in the year 1680, who contended for the Exclufion of the Duke of York from the Succeffion to the Crown, and which are set forth in the Debates that are here reprinted.

These Debates were first published in the year 1681, in a small duodecimo volume; and they were afterwards published a fecond time in octavo, with the addition of the Debates of the following fhort Parliament holden at Oxford, in the following month of March, 1680-81, which related chiefly to the fame subject of excluding the Duke of York from the fucceffion to the Crown.

This fecond edition of these Debates was published in the year 1716, or the fecond year of King George the First, while there was a Rebellion in the North of England, against that wife and worthy Monarch, in favour of the Popish Pretender to his Crown, the fuppofed Son of King James the Second. It does not appear who was the Publifher of this Second Edition of thefe Debates. But it is plain that he was an approver

prover of the Principles and Opinions maintained in thefe Debates, and a zealous Defender of the Entail of the Crown, which had been made by a second Act of Settlement near the end of King William's reign, on the Proteftant family of the Dukes of Hanover, and that he published thefe Debates a fecond time in that critical feason, with a view to support the right of King George to the Crown, (which was derived from that second Act of Settlement,) against the claim of the Pretender, by again prefenting to the view of the Publick, the excellent arguments that had been used in favour of a fimilar Provifion for the maintenance of the Proteftant Religion, and the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, in that celebrated and courageous Parliament of 1680. And these fentiments he has expreffed very fully in a fpirited and instructive Introduction.

And now, in the year 1807, when a great number of perfons of high rank and large fortunes, and even of distinguished abilities, and who particularly affume to themselves the name of Wbigs, have fo far departed from the fentiments of Lord Russell, and Sir Henry Capel, and Sir William Jones, and the other Whigs of the year 1680, as to look-upon Popery as a very inoffenfive fort of Religion, from which no danger ought to be apprehended by Proteftants, and to think that Members of the Church of Rome ought therefore, not only to be freely tolerated in the exercise of their Religion, however idolatrous, (which toleration very few Proteftants, at this day, are inclined to refuse them), but also to be admitted, equally with Proteftants, to all forts of Offices of Power in the State, both Civil and Military, fo that the Judges of the King's Courts of Law in Westminster-hall, and the Lords Chancellors of of England and Ireland might be Papifts, and even

that

that an Army of Irish Papifts, commanded by a Popish General, (which was the Inftrument with which King James the Second endeavoured to over-turn the whole Conftitution of England both in Church and State,) should be no longer contrary to law;-it feems highly expedient that these excellent Debates should be again brought-forward to the View of the Publick; to the end that the Members of both Houses of Parliament may well confider them, before they give their affent to a measure that is fo contrary to the Principles on which the Revolution in the Year 1688, and the Declaration of Rights then folemnly proclaimed by Parliament, and the A&t of Settlement then made in favour of the Prince and Princefs of Orange, and the second A&t of Settlement of the Crown (made about ten years after,) on the Princefs Sophia, Dutchefs dowager of Hanover, and the Heirs of her Body, (by virtue of which A&t our prefent Sovereign fits upon the Throne) were, all, founded,—and before they, in confequence of fuch affent, follicit his Majefty, (notwithstanding his known difinclination to the Measure,) to give his Royal Affent to an Act, that seems, at least, to have a strong tendency to undermine and weaken his Majesty's Title to the Crown. And it is to answer this useful purpose, that these Debates are here again re-printed from the faid Second Edition of them, in the year 1716, together with the Introduction of the Publifher of that Edition.

THE

THE INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION OF THE SAID DEBATES IN THE YEAR 1716.

So wide has the Deviation of the prefent Age been from the glorious Paths of their Ancestors;-fo violent a Propenfion has appeared in too many, who have made an open Profeffion of the Proteftant Religion, towards reviving the abject and exploded Doctrine of implicit Obedience, and falling-back into the rankeft Superftition and Idolatry; that Popery has broke-in like a Torrent, and all that we have been able to do, for fome Years past, has been just to carry-on a defenfive War against it, whilft the Balance at present is but barely inclining to the Proteftant Side. Such has been the powerful Magick of the Roman Emiffaries; so ftrong has the Operation of their Poyson been upon the Senfes of this poor, deluded, Nation, that we have been driving-on an open Commerce with Rome, bartering our Eafe and Plenty for Want and Barrenness, and the very Dregs of human' Oppreffion; our Birth-rights, for the imperious Dictates of lawless Tyrants; and the mildest Laws in the Universe, for the most infupportable Slavery, (which is Spiritual,) without giving ourselves Time to caft-up the Account, and examine what Loffes we were likely to fuftain by fo unequal an Exchange.

That Rome, and her officious Agents, have been inceffantly at Work for our Destruction, is no Wonder, when we confider ourfelves as the nation that enjoys the boafted Remains of Liberty, and pure Religion, throughout

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