1829.] The Dangers of England and Ireland. 231 
Protestants give their helping hand to it. But I hope God will preserve 
the Protestant religion, and this nation!” Signed, “ William Russel.” 
Such was the language of a whig, when whigs were men of honour ; 
and of a Russel; when the name had not been prostituted to the lowest 
mixture with the most vulgar faction. ey 
James II., a papist, abolished the oath of supremacy and the several 
tests appointed to keep papists out of public trust ; he received the 
popish bishops at court in their robes, he carried on a negociation with 
the Court of Rome, and he placed the government of Ireland in hands 
devoted to the papists. His course was short: he was driven. from his 
throne by the united and indignant resolution of his people. 
The first act of William, which is the corner-stone of the constitution 
of 1688, (1. W. and M. ce. 1.) declares that “ In all future parliaments 
the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and the declaration required by 
(30. Car. 2.) for ‘disabling papists from sitting in parliament,’ shall be 
taken and subscribed by every member of both Houses.” The penalty for 
sitting without having so sworn, being 500/. The next step was to exclude 
them from the throne. By the ninth section of the Bill of Rights, 
(1 W. and M. st. 2. c. 2.) it is declared, “ That all and every person 
who is, or shall be reconciled to, or shall hold communion with the see 
of Rome, or shall profess the popish religion, or shall marry a papist, 
shall be excluded, and be for ever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy 
the crown and government of this realm and Ireland. And in all such 
cases, the people are absolved of their allegiance, and the crown shall 
descend tothe person or persons being Protestants, who should have 
inherited the same in case the persons so reconciled were dead.” 
By the tenth section of the same Bill, every king and queen of Eng- 
land, is required on the first day of the meeting of the first parliament, 
next after their accession, sitting on the throne in the house of peers, 
in the presence of the lords and commons, or at their coronation, to 
subscribe and audibly repeat the “ declaration ” required of the members 
of both Houses by the last mentioned act. By the Coronation Oath 
established at the same period (1 W. and M. c. 6.) the monarch is 
sworn, “ To maintain to the utmost of his power the laws of God, the 
true profession of the gospel, and rH ProresrANT REFORMED RELI- 
‘GION, AS ESTABLISHED BY LAW.” And secondly, “ To preserve unto 
the bishops and the clergy of the realm, and the churches committed to 
their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do, or shall apper- 
tain to them.” 
Nothing in human obligation can be clearer than that the construction 
of this oath was not intended to be left to the new version of any future 
monarch ; nor its validity to the caprice of a vote of parliament. The 
_men who tendered the oath to William, had given the throne to him and 
his successors, on the principle, that by this change of the dynasty they 
‘secured themselves and their descendants for ever from the. possi- 
ty of being the slaves of a porish government. They must have 
mown the many adventitious circumstances that might influence a 
_ parliamentary majority ; and itis a mere contradiction to common sense 
suppose that they had expelled a king, encountered the most formi- 
ble personal risks, and provoked’ battle with the whole of popish 
urope, simply to impose an oath, which half-a-dozen voices more or 
3 might at any moment turn into a nursery tale. 
The oath is obviously distinguished into two parts. The former 
dging the monarch to maintain “the laws of God, the true profession 
