The Sun.
London, England, 1810-12-06 00:00:00

were ,necessary to Vrep'l-i'e The tcfsy 'Lis 'rettitt.
Such was the ceridua of tire very same Houses of
Parliament, who, 'within a few .months afterwards,
pass:d, in concurrence with the King, the Act in
quesLian, declaratory of- •a principle which i 7; now
alleged as precluding us fromahe free consideration
of the measures necessary in out. present situation.
I cannot but think That we shall best expound this:
law by adhering to the construNiun of those by.
whom it was made ; and that we are at liberty to
exerjse, as they did, QUI' best discretion and,judg.•
went in the behalf of our country, under the
ir-
cuinstanees of a necessity,'at least as' strong as that
under which they acted:
" At the mernor,ible. zra of the qevolutiOn, this
statute was' still in hid 'force and 'vigour, not eon-
sidered as an obs,)lete law, but as one passed not
many years before, and founded on the,expenenee
of misfortunes still freSh ict the recollection of the
nation. But if the Convention Parliament ba3 then
admitted its operation,, as applying to, the circunt-
starlets 'Litter which they inet, it must have Stopped
their de!iberatjons in the very outset, and must have
raised au insupei able obstacle to those measures to
which alone we are indebted for the preservation of
our rights. Or even if 'they had thought: them-
selves at liberty to declare the forfeiture of their
Sovereign as an-existing. 66) arising' from no a6l of
their's, but from .hiS iniscorkbia, h t it be considered
what, under the letter of the statute, Must knive
been their subsequect proceedings. They must
hate acknowlialgea that the Crown had tlrt renpon
inTmadiately de ended to. the next heir of King"
James`; and that without the Sanetion and concur-
rence of, their new Sovereign no. measure could
.le-• I
gaily be taken by the two Houses of Parliament.
Instead of this, they feet fhemselVes warranted by
the necessity of the -case., first to set aside the abdi-
cated King; next) ;to disinherit his son, whet her
real or pretended, the illeBitimacy of whose birth,
however strongly asserted, had not only not beets
proved, but ...as not even inquired into by them;
and lastly, in the settlement of the Government to
introdwie a new o,der'of succession, disregarding
the stricl line ''l descent, even in, the t,ersons of the
itVo next Protestant heirs. What is their whic

can be a more diiect or manif:st ekere:se "of kgisla-
tive authorny, than each of these several steps ?
Toe transferring by law the obedience of a whole
people from the S9vereign to whom, they had
sworn allegiance—the .superseding his immediate
heirs, on whom the right to_ tat allegiance descend:-
ed according to the fundaMental inAitutions of the
Monarchy—the changing' the 'established order of

succession to the Throne in the existing cixorn-
stances—and the imposing'new conditions and li-
mitations on the subsequent descent of an hereditary
Crown. This whole transaction, produ&•tive of such
happy cocsequences, appears to me to be Unques-
tionably not only an ad of legislation, but an ad of
the highest legislative authority. Justified by the
necessity of the times, and therefore supported by
the concurrence
sand approbation of the best and
wisest men, to whom we owe the preservation of
our liberties.