P. 810. Burnet, speaking of Archbishop Sancroft, says:—­He was a poor spirited, and fearful man; and acted a very mean part in all this great transaction.—­Swift. Others think very differently.

P. 811. Burnet, speaking of the proposal to establish a regency, says:—­The much greater part of the House of Lords was for this, and stuck long to it:  And so was about a third part of the House of Commons.  The greatest part of the clergy declared themselves for it.—­Swift. And it was certainly much the best expedient.

Ibid.  Burnet. The third party was made up of those, who thought that there was an original contract between the King and the people of England; by which the kings were bound to defend their people, and to govern them according to law, in lieu of which the people were bound to obey and serve the king.—­Swift. I am of this party, and yet I would have been for a regency.

P. 813. Burnet, it was argued that this scheme of a regency was:—­both more illegal; and more unsafe, than the method they proposed.  The law of England had settled the point of the subject’s security in obeying the king in possession, in the statute made by Henry the Seventh.  So every man knew he was safe under a king, and so would act with zeal and courage.  But all such as should act under a prince-regent, created by this convention, were upon a bottom that had not the necessary forms of law for it.—­Swift. There is something in this argument.

P. 814. Burnet. It was believed, that those of his [King James’s] party, who were looked on as men of conscience, had secret orders from him to act upon this pretence; since otherwise they offered to act clearly in contradiction to their own oaths and principles,—­Swift. This is malice.

Ibid.  Burnet. [Others thought] that in our present circumstances the extremity of affairs, by reason of the late ill government, and by King James’s flying over to the enemy of the nation, rather than submit to reasonable terms, had put the people of England on the necessity of securing themselves upon a legal bottom.—­Swift. This was the best reason.

P. 815. Burnet. There were good authorities brought, by which it appeared, that when a person did a thing upon which his leaving any office ought to follow, he was said to abdicate.  But this was a critical dispute:  And it scarce became the greatness of that assembly, or the importance of the matter.—­Swift. It was a very material point.

P. 815. Burnet. It was urged, that, by the law, the king did never die; but that with the last breath of the dying king the regal authority went to the next heir.—­Swift. This is certainly true.

P. 816. Burnet. An heir was one that came in the room of a person that was dead:  it being a maxim that no man can be the heir of a living man—­Swift. This is sophistry.