C H AIXXI.IS8-.

192 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

disorders: And that scarcely an instance occurredin history, especially in the English history, wherea disputed title had not, in the issue, been attendedwith much greater ills, than all those, which thepeople had sought to shun, by departing from thelineal successor.

The leaders of the whig-party, on the otherhand, asserted, that, if there were any ill in theprecedent, that ill would result as much fromestablishing a regent , as from dethroning oneking, and appointing his successor; nor wouldthe one expedient, if wantonly and rashly em-braced by the people, be less the source of publicconvulsions than the other : That if the lawsgave no express permission to depose the sove-reign , neither did they authorize resisting hisauthority , or separating the power from thetitle: That a regent was unknown, except wherethe king , by reason os his tender age or hisinfirmities, was incapable of a will; and in thatcafe, his will was supposed to be involved inthat of the regent: That it would be the heightof absurdity to try a man for acting upon a com-mission, received from a prince , whom we our-selves acknowledge to be the lawful sovereign ;and no jury would decide so contrary both tolaw and common sense, as to condemn such apretended criminal : That even the prospect ofbeing delivered from this monstrous inconveniencewas, in the present situation of a hairs, moredistant than that of putting an end to a disputedsuccession: That allowing the young prince to

be