ence in every
department of the public service; and the peers very reluctantly gave
way. They at the same time added a clause empowering the King to bestow
pecuniary allowances out of the forfeited benefices on a few nonjuring
clergymen. The number of clergymen thus favoured was not to exceed
twelve. The allowance was not to exceed one third of the income
forfeited. Some zealous Whigs were unwilling to grant even this
indulgence: but the Commons were content with the victory which they had
won, and justly thought that it would be ungracious to refuse so slight
a concession. [99]

These debates were interrupted, during a short time, by the festivities
and solemnities of the Coronation. When the day fixed for that great
ceremony drew near, the House of Commons resolved itself into a
committee for the purpose of settling the form of words in which our
Sovereigns were thenceforward to enter into covenant with the nation.
All parties were agreed as to the propriety of requiring the King to
swear that, in temporal matters, he would govern according to law, and
would execute justice in mercy. But about the terms of the oath which
related to the spiritual institutions of the realm there was much
debate. Should the chief magistrate promise simply to maintain the
Protestant religion established by law, or should he promise to maintain
that religion as it should be hereafter established by law? The majority
preferred the former phrase. The latter phrase was preferred by those
Whigs who were for a Comprehension. But it was universally admitted that
the two phrases really meant the same thing, and that the oath, however
it might be worded, would bind the Sovereign in his executive capacity
only. This was indeed evident from the very nature of the transaction.
Any compact may be annulled by the free consent of the party who alone
is entitled to claim the performance. It was never doubted by the most
rigid casuist that a debtor, who has bound himself under the most
awful imprecations to pay a debt, may lawfully withhold payment if the
creditor is willing to cancel the obligation. And it is equally clear
that no assurance, exacted from a King by the Estates of his kingdom,
can bind him to refuse compliance with what may at a future time be the
wish of those Estates.

A bill was drawn up in conformity with the resolutions of the Committee,
and was rapidly passed through every stage. After the third reading, a
foolish man stood up to p