It was manifest that such a declaration implied, though it did not expressly affirm, all that the Tories were unwilling to concede.
For nobody could pretend that William had succeeded to the regal office by right of birth.

To pass a resolution acknowledging him as King was therefore an act of election; and how could there be an election without a vacancy?
The proposition of the Whig Lords was rejected by fifty-two votes to forty-seven.

The question was then put whether the throne was vacant.

The contents were only forty-one: the noncontents fifty-five.

Of the minority thirty-six protested.