ed:
the members of the lower house are the representatives of the people,
expressly chosen to maintain the constitution in church and state, and
sworn to support the rights of the crown, as well as the liberties of
the nation; but though they are elected to maintain, they have no power
to alter, the constitution. When the king forfeits the allegiance of
his subjects, and it becomes necessary to dethrone him, the power of
so doing cannot possibly reside in the representatives who are chosen,
under certain limitations, for the purposes of a legislature which no
longer exists; their power is of course at an end, and they are reduced
to a level with other individuals that constitute the community. The
right of altering the constitution, therefore, or of deviating from the
established practice of inheritance in regard to the succession of the
crown, is inherent in the body of the people; and every individual has
an equal right to his share in the general determination, whether
his opinion be signified _viva voce_, or by a representative whom he
appoints and instructs for that purpose. It may be suggested, that the
prince of Orange was raised to the throne without any convulsion, or
any such difficulties and inconveniencies as we have affirmed to be the
necessary consequences of a measure of that nature. To this remark we
answer, that, since the Revolution, these kingdoms have been divided
and harassed by violent and implacable factions, that eagerly seek
the destruction of each other: that they have been exposed to plots,
conspiracies, insurrections, civil wars, and successive rebellions,
which have not been defeated and quelled without vast effusion of blood,
infinite mischief, calamity, and expense to the nation: that they are
still subjected to all those alarms and dangers which are engendered by
a disputed title to the throne, and the efforts of an artful pretenders
that they are necessarily wedded to the affairs of the continent, and
their interest sacrificed to foreign connexions, from which they can
never be disengaged. Perhaps all these calamities might have been
prevented by the interposition of the prince of Orange. King James,
without forfeiting the crown, might have been laid under such
restrictions that it would not have been in his power to tyrannize
over his subjects, either in spirituals or temporals. The power of the
militia might have been vested in the two houses of parliament, as well
as the nomination of