Hampden appeared at the bar, and put the resolution of the Commons into the hands of Halifax.

The Upper House then resolved itself into a committee; and Danby took the chair.

The discussion was soon interrupted by the reappearance of Hampden with another message.

The House resumed and was informed that the Commons had just voted it inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant nation to be governed by a Popish King.
To this resolution, irreconcilable as it obviously was with the doctrine of indefeasible hereditary right, the Peers gave an immediate and unanimous assent.

The principle which was thus affirmed has always, down to our own time, been held sacred by all Protestant statesmen, and has never been considered by any reasonable Roman Catholic as objectionable.
If, indeed, our sovereigns were, like the Presidents of the United States, mere civil functionaries, it would not be easy to vindicate such a restriction.