with a pretext under
which the foulest of all judicial murders had been perpetrated. With
such an example on record, who could affirm that, if mere talk were
made a substantive treason, the most loyal subject would be safe? These
arguments produced so great an effect that in the committee amendments
were introduced which greatly mitigated the severity of the bill. But
the clause which made it high treason in a member of Parliament to
propose the exclusion of a prince of the blood seems to have raised no
debate, and was retained. That clause was indeed altogether unimportant,
except as a proof of the ignorance and inexperience of the hotheaded
Royalists who thronged the House of Commons. Had they learned the first
rudiments of legislation, they would have known that the enactment
to which they attached so much value would be superfluous while the
Parliament was disposed to maintain the order of succession, and would
be repealed as soon as there was a Parliament bent on changing the order
of succession. [372]

The bill, as amended, was passed and carried up to the Lords, but
did not become law. The King had obtained from the Parliament all the
pecuniary assistance that he could expect; and he conceived that, while
rebellion was actually raging, the loyal nobility and gentry would be
of more use in their counties than at Westminster. He therefore hurried
their deliberations to a close, and, on the second of July, dismissed
them. On the same day the royal assent was given to a law reviving that
censorship of the press which had terminated in 1679. This object was
affected by a few words at the end of a miscellaneous statute which
continued several expiring acts. The courtiers did not think that they
had gained a triumph. The Whigs did not utter a murmur. Neither in the
Lords nor in the Commons was there any division, or even, as far as
can now be learned, any debate on a question which would, in our age,
convulse the whole frame of society. In truth, the change was slight and
almost imperceptible; for, since the detection of the Rye House plot,
the liberty of unlicensed printing had existed only in name. During many
months scarcely one Whig pamphlet had been published except by stealth;
and by stealth such pamphlets might be published still. [373]

The Houses then rose. They were not prorogued, but only adjourned,
in order that, when they should reassemble, they might take up their
business in the exact state in which the