circumstance of government, not even the succession
of the crown, from so full and decisive a jurisdiction. Even express
declarations have, in this particular, been made of parliamentary
authority: instances have occurred where it has been exerted; and though
prudential reasons may justly be alleged, why such innovations should
not be attempted but on extraordinary occasions, the power and right
are forever vested in the community. But if any occasion can be deemed
extraordinary, if any emergence can require unusual expedients, it is
the present; when the heir to the crown has renounced the religion
of the state, and has zealously embraced a faith totally hostile and
incompatible. A prince of that communion can never put trust in a people
so prejudiced against him: the people must be equally diffident of such
a prince: foreign and destructive alliances will seem to one the only
protection of his throne: perpetual jealousy, opposition, faction, even
insurrections will be employed by the other as the sole securities for
their liberty and religion. Though theological principles, when set
in opposition to passions, have often small influence on mankind in
general, still less on princes, yet when they become symbols of faction,
and marks of party distinctions, they concur with one of the strongest
passions in the human frame, and are then capable of carrying men to
the greatest extremities. Notwithstanding the better judgment and milder
disposition of the king, how much has the influence of the duke already
disturbed the tenor of government! how often engaged the nation into
measures totally destructive of their foreign interests and honor,
of their domestic repose and tranquillity! The more the absurdity and
incredibility of the Popish plot are insisted on, the stronger reason it
affords for the exclusion of the duke; since the universal belief of it
discovers the extreme antipathy of the nation to his religion, and the
utter impossibility of ever bringing them to acquiesce peaceably under
the dominion of such a sovereign. The prince, finding himself in so
perilous a situation, must seek for security by desperate remedies, and
by totally subduing the privileges of a nation, which had betrayed such
hostile dispositions towards himself, and towards every thing which
he deems the most sacred. It is in vain to propose limitations and
expedients. Whatever share of authority is left in the duke's hands,
will be employed to the dest