her he will be wise or not. It has
not, I mean, my Lords, insisted upon it as a constitutional point,
which, I conceive it ought to have done; for I pledge myself to your
Lordships to prove, and that with _true patriotic boldness_, that he has
_no choice in the matter_. This bill, my Lords, which I shall bring in,
will be to declare, that the constitution, according to the true intent
and meaning thereof, does not invest the King with this choice; our
ancestors were too wise to do that; and, in order to prevent any doubts
that might otherwise arise, I shall prepare, my Lords, an enacting
clause, to fix the wisdom of Kings by act of Parliament; and then, my
Lords our Constitution will be the wonder of the world!

"Wisdom, my lords, is the one thing needful: but that there may be no
mistake in this matter, and that we may proceed consistently with the
true wisdom of the constitution, I shall propose a _certain criterion_
whereby the _exact quantity of wisdom_ necessary for a King may be
known. [Here should be a cry of, Hear him! Hear him!]

"It is recorded, my Lords, in the Statutes at Large of the Jews, 'a
book, my Lords, which I have not read, and whose purport I know only by
report,' _but perhaps the bench of Bishops can recollect something about
it_, that Saul gave the most convincing proofs of royal wisdom before
he was made a King, _for he was sent to seek his father's asses and he
could not find them_.

"Here, my Lords, we have, most happily for us, a case in point: This
precedent ought to be established by act of Parliament; and every King,
before he be crowned, should be sent to seek his father's asses, and
if he cannot find them, he shall be declared wise enough to be King,
according to the true meaning of our excellent constitution. All,
therefore, my Lords, that will be necessary to be done by the enacting
clause that I shall bring in, will be to invest the King beforehand with
the quantity of wisdom necessary for this purpose, lest he should happen
not to possess it; and this, my Lords, we can do without making use of
any of our own.

"We further read, my Lords, in the said Statutes at Large of the
Jews, that Samuel, who certainly was as mad as any Man-of-Rights-Man
now-a-days (hear him! hear him!), was highly displeased, and even
exasperated, at the proposal of the Jews to have a King, and he warned
them against it with all that assurance and impudence of which he was
master. I have been, my Lords, at th