It may be suggested, that the prince of Orange was raised to the throne without any convulsion, or any such difficulties and inconveniencies as we have affirmed to be the necessary consequences of a measure of that nature.

To this remark we answer, that, since the Revolution, these kingdoms have been divided and harassed by violent and implacable factions, that eagerly seek the destruction of each other: that they have been exposed to plots, conspiracies, insurrections, civil wars, and successive rebellions, which have not been defeated and quelled without vast effusion of blood, infinite mischief, calamity, and expense to the nation: that they are still subjected to all those alarms and dangers which are engendered by a disputed title to the throne, and the efforts of an artful pretenders that they are necessarily wedded to the affairs of the continent, and their interest sacrificed to foreign connexions, from which they can never be disengaged.

Perhaps all these calamities might have been prevented by the interposition of the prince of Orange.

King James, without forfeiting the crown, might have been laid under such restrictions that it would not have been in his power to tyrannize over his subjects, either in spirituals or temporals.

The power of the militia might have been vested in the two houses of parliament, as well as the nomination of persons to fill the great offices of the church and state, and superintend the economy of the administration in the application of the public money; a law might have passed for annual parliaments, and the king might have been deprived of his power to convoke, adjourn, prorogue, and dissolve them at his pleasure.