h of power, tend so far
to their own security? The same jealousy too of religion, which has
engaged the people to lay these restraints upon the successor, will
extremely lessen the number of his partisans, and make it utterly
impracticable for him, either by force or artifice, to break the fetters
imposed upon him. The king's age and vigorous state of health promise
him a long life; and can it be prudent to tear in pieces the whole
state, in order to provide against a contingency which, it is very
likely, may never happen? No human schemes can secure the public in all
possible, imaginable events; and the bill of exclusion itself however
accurately framed, leaves room for obvious and natural suppositions, to
which it pretends not to provide any remedy. Should the duke have a son
after the king's death must that son, without any default of his own
forfeit his title? or must the princess of Orange descend from the
throne, in order to give place to the lawful successor? But were all
these reasonings false, it still remains to be considered that, in
public deliberations, we seek not the expedient which is best in itself,
but the best of such as are practicable. The king willingly consents
to limitations, and has already offered some which are of the utmost
importance: but he is determined to endure any extremity rather than
allow the right of succession to be invaded. Let us beware of that
factious violence, which leads to demand more than will be granted; lest
we lose the advantage of those beneficial concessions, and leave
the nation, on the king's demise, at the mercy of a zealous prince,
irritated with the ill usage which, he imagines, he has already met
with.

In the house of commons, the reasoning of the exclusionists appeared the
more convincing; and the bill passed by a great majority. It was in the
house of peers that the king expected to oppose it with success. The
court party was there so prevalent, that it was carried only by a
majority of two to pay so much regard to the bill as even to commit
it. When it came to be debated, the contest was violent. Shaftesbury,
Sunderland, and Essex argued for it; Halifax chiefly conducted the
debate against it, and displayed an extent of capacity and a force
of eloquence which had never been surpassed in that assembly. He was
animated, as well by the greatness of the occasion, as by a rivalship
with his uncle Shaftesbury; whom, during that day's debate, he seemed,
in the judg