British Empire.

j 43 THE KING.
juft and constitutional remarks of a late writer, who will be no
iefs the admiration of future ages than he was the wonder and
delight of that which he instructed and adorned.
«« Unquestionably," fays Mr. Burke, « there was at the revolution,
in the perfon of king William, a fmall and a temporary
deviation from the Strict order of a regular hereditary fucceflion
; but it is agaiult all gemiiue principles of jurisprudence
to draw a principle from a law made in a fpecial cafe, and regarding
an individual perfon. Privilegium non trauftt in exan-plttm.
If ever there was a time favourable for ellablifhing the
principle, that a king of popular choice was the only legal king,
without all doubt it was at the revolution. Its not being done
at that time is a proof that the nation was of opinion it ought
not to be done at any time. There is no perfon fo completely
ignorant of our hiftory, as not to know, that the majority in
parliament of both parties were fo little difpofed to any thing
refembling that principle, that at firlt they were determined to
place the vacant crown, not on the head of the prince of
Orange, but on that of his wife Mary, daughter of king Jarnes,
the cldcft born of the ifiue of that king, which they acknowledged
as undoubtedly his. It would be to repeat a very trite
Story, to reca' to yor.r memory a" thofe circumstances which
demonstrated that their accepting king William was not properly
a choice; but to r.!I thofe who did not with, in effect, to
rccal king Jar iec. or to d Ji'ge their country in blood, and again
to bring tlici; religion, L\- s, and liberties into the peril they
had juft efc;r.v*:!, it was an act: of licceffity, in the ftricfteit
moral Senie h: which ::ecef"ty can be taken.
" In the v.ry act, in whlchj for a time, and in a Single cafe,
parliament d -'arced from the ittic!: order of inheritance, in
favour of a prltcc, who, though r.-.>t next, was, however, verv
near in the -lite of fuccefiion, it 'a curious to obferve how lord
Somtrs, who drew the bill called the Declaration of Rights,
has comported himfelf on that delicate occalion. It is curious
to obferve w th what address this temporary Solution of continuity
is kept from the eve ; v/hilit all that could be found in
this act of 1 cceility to countenance the idea ot an hereditary
fuccefiion is brought forward and foltcrcd, and made the molt
of by this greet man, and by the legislature who followed him.
Quitting the dry, imperative ftvle of an act of parliament, he
makes the lords and commons fall to a pious, legislative ejaculation,
and declare that they confidcr it " as a marvellous providence
and merciful goodnefs of God to this nation, to preserve
their Said majeflies' royal perfons, molt happily to reign
over us on the throne of their ancestors, for which, from the
bottom