HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



205 



In opposition to this reasoning,. 

 Lord Guildford was decidedly of 

 opinion, that no expediency 

 could be alleged against the posi- 

 tive tenor of the law. A strong 

 example had been given in the last 

 century, of the backwardness even 

 of a wicked administration to run 

 counter to the sense of the people, 

 by introducinganarmy of foreigners 

 into the kingdom. This was the 

 ministry of James II. However 

 violently intent on the accom- 

 plishment of his designs, that mo- 

 iia'"ch did not dare to accept of the 

 assistance offered him by his friend 

 and abettor Lewis XIV. of France; 

 and chose rather to incur the risk 

 of not succeeding in his projects, 

 than to offend his people by a 

 measure which he was conscious 

 would lay him open to their uni- 

 versal odium. The bill of indem- 

 nity recommended to ministers, 

 shewed how little disposed the na- 

 tion was to censure them for what 

 they had done ; but was no less a 

 proof how unacceptable the prin- 

 ciple of empowering the crown to 

 admit a foreign force was to the 

 sense of the nation. Messages 

 from the crown were no justifica- 

 tion of ministerial measures. The 

 words of Lord Coke, on a similar 

 occasion, might pertinently be 

 quoted on the present: " the King's 

 message was gracious j but what 

 iays the law of the land ?" 



A rgumcnts of the same import as 

 those already specified, were urged 

 by other Lords, on each side of tlie 

 question. But the issue of the 

 debate was, that the bill of indem- 

 nity proposed by Lord Albemarle, 

 was negatived by seventy-seven 

 against twelve. 



This rejection of a bill which . 

 SDuld not have affected the repu- 



tation of ministers, nor diminished 

 the influence of the crown, was 

 greatly censured by numbers, who 

 wished that government, while 

 engaged in so serious a business as 

 the contest with France, would 

 have laid aside all needless tena- 

 ciousness of its authority, and 

 yielded to the ideas of the general- 

 ity, especially as thty extended us 

 farther than to require the genuine 

 principles of the constitution to be 

 acknowledged. It was said, an 

 abridgement of the royal preroga- 

 tive was undoubtedly in the con- 

 templation of that party which had 

 imbibed .the doctrines imported 

 from France among its neigh- 

 bours j but this party was so greatly 

 outnumbered by tliose who ad- 

 hered to the established govern- 

 ment, that no danger could have 

 accrued from indulging these reite- 

 rated desires, that ministers would 

 refrain from all appearance of 

 haughtiness, obstinacy, and love of 

 power, and trust more than they 

 seemed disposed to do, to the good- 

 will and readiness of the public to 

 support and carry them through 

 the arduous task of putting a stop 

 to the progress of the ancient 

 enemy of the British nation. 



The strength and inveteracy 

 of that formidable enemy were 

 now daily encreasing ; and it re- 

 quired the utmost efforts of com- 

 bined Europe to meet him in the 

 field. The empire of the sea was 

 that object which he strenuously 

 sought, aboveall others, tocompass ; 

 certain that if he succeeded, the 

 world itself would be at his com- 

 mand. Full of this mighty pro- 

 ject, his efforts were exerted in 

 every maritime town and province 

 of France, to collect a sufficient 

 number of seamen to man the 



fleet 



