If no case had occurred since the Revolution of a quarrel between the crown and the House of Commons, the cause is to be sought in the prudence with which every sovereign who had reigned since that event had wielded his constitutional authority.

If George III.

had been wanting in that prudence, it did not follow that he was debarred from the right of appealing to the people.

Any other doctrine would invest the House of Commons, elected for the ordinary business of the state, with a supreme power over every branch of it.

This supreme power must rest somewhere; according to our constitution it rests in the common assent of the realm, signified by the persons duly qualified to elect the members of the House of Commons; and Lord Russell, in thus expounding his ideas on this subject, was undoubtedly expressing the view that ever since the transactions of which we have been speaking has been taken of the point chiefly in dispute.