The passing of the Bill of Rights in 1689 restored to the monarchy the character which it had lost under the Tudors and the Stuarts.  The right of the people through its representatives to depose the King, to change the order of succession, and to set on the throne whom they would, was now established.  All claim of divine right, or hereditary right independent of the law, was formally put an end to by the election of William and Mary.  Since their day no English sovereign has been able to advance any claim to the crown save a claim which rested on a particular clause in a particular Act of Parliament.  William, Mary, and Anne were sovereigns simply by virtue of the Bill of Rights.  George the First and his successors have been sovereigns solely by virtue of the Act of Settlement.  An English monarch is now as much the creature of an Act of Parliament as the pettiest tax-gatherer in his realm.—­Green’s Short History, p. 673.

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APPENDIX E.

THE FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS OF CONNECTICUT.

1638(9).

The first written constitution that created a government.

Forasmuch as it hath pleased the Allmighty God by the wise disposition of his diuyne pruidence so to Order and dispose of things that we the Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, Harteford and Wethersfield are now cohabiting and dwelling in and vppon the River of Conectecotte and the Lands thereunto adioyneing; And well knowing where a people are gathered togather the word of God requires that to mayntayne the peace and vnion of such a people there should be an orderly and decent Gouerment established according to God, to order and dispose of the affayres of the people at all seasons as occation shall require; doe therefore assotiate and conioyne our selues to be as one Publike State or Comonwelth; and doe, for our selues and our Successors and such as shall be adioyned to vs att any tyme hereafter, enter into Combination and Confederation togather, to mayntayne and p’rsearue the liberty and purity of the gospell of our Lord Jesus w’ch we now p’rfesse, as also the disciplyne of the Churches, w’ch according to the truth of the said gospell is now practised amongst vs; As also in o’r Ciuell Affaires to be guided and gouerned according to such Lawes, Rules, Orders and decrees as shall be made, ordered & decreed, as followeth:—­

1.  It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that there shall be yerely two generall Assemblies or Courts, the one the second thursday in Aprill, the other the second thursday in September, following; the first shall be called the Courte of Election, wherein shall be yerely Chosen from tyme to tyme soe many Magestrats and other publike Officers as shall be found requisitte:  Whereof one to be chosen Gouernour for the yeare ensueing and vntill another be chosen, and noe other Magestrate to be chosen for more than one yeare; p’ruided