The authority of Parliament, as the great council of the nation, would be interposed, not to confer but to declare the right.

The mode of proceeding should be that in a short time his Royal Highness should signify his intention to act by directing a meeting of the Privy Council, when he should declare his intention to take upon himself the care of the state, and should at the same time signify his desire to have the advice of Parliament, and order it by proclamation to meet early for the despatch of business....

It is of vast importance in the outset that he should appear to act entirely of himself, and, in the conferences he must necessarily have, not to consult, but to listen and direct." The entire paper is given by Lord Campbell ("Lives of the Chancellors," c.

clxx.).] [Footnote 117: Hume's account of this transaction is, that the Duke "desired that it might be recorded in Parliament that this authority was conferred on him from their own free motion, without any application on his part; ...

and he required that all the powers of his office should be specified and defined by Parliament."] [Footnote 118: "Parliamentary History," xxvii., 803--speech of Mr.
Hardinge, one of the Welsh judges, and M.P.for Old Sarum.] [Footnote 119: I take this report, or abstract, of Lord Camden's speech from the "Lives of the Chancellors," c.