igOl-2 TRANSACTIONS. 89 



Althou£?-h Hichard was induced to resign the t'rown, and Henry of Lancaster had 

 laid claim to it, the deposition, the vacancy of the throne, and the 'subsequent election 

 of Henry, are each recorded in the most distinct terms in the official entry on the roll^ 

 of Parliament. 



And SO passed away the claim of Richard II to legal and 

 political sinlessness. 



If you ask me why I pass over the case of Charles I, it is 

 not because I regard that unfortunate monarch as a martyr, 

 but because I look upon those who imbrued their hands in 

 his blood as guilty of regicide. " The indictment, the nom- 

 ination of a judicial commission, the condemnation of the 

 King," says so impartial and learned an authority as Gneist, 

 (i) "is the gravest act of violence in the whole of English 

 constitutional history — an act which can only occur once in 

 the history of a European nation." 



With history to countenance them, the Conven- 

 tion Parliament of 1688-9 ^^^^^ ^^^^ hesitation in declaring that 

 James II "had broken the original contract between King 

 and people" by violating the ftindamental laws and abdicating 

 the Government ; nor did they fail to follow up such dec- 

 laration with a pronouncement that the throne had thereby 

 become vacant. I shall not weary you with a review of the 

 facts of this momentous event in our constitutional history, 

 because I am sure Macaulay's glowing recital of them has not 

 yet failed to irradiate your memories. Suffice it for me to 

 avow the firm conviction that while the Kevolution of 1688 

 appa,rently resulted in a mere transfer of the executive 

 supremacy of the realm of England from a monarch deposed 

 to a monarch newly chosen, it was in leality a formal and 

 final resumption by the people, through their representatives 

 in the Convention Parliament, of their ancient heritage, the 

 whole and entire supreme power in the State. The Declar- 

 ation of Right may be said to have been the symbol of a 

 constitutional 'reversion to type' — to use the language of 

 Biology — a getting back, so to speak, from the pseudo-genus 

 of Norman, Tudor and Stuart times to the true genius of the 



(I) Const. Hist, of Eiig. 2nd ed. ii, p. 255. 



