After many hard struggles between the Whigs headed by Shrewsbury and the Tories headed by Caermarthen, it was so much mutilated that it retained little more than its name, and did not seem to those who had introduced it to be worth any further contest, [615] The discomfiture of the Whigs was completed by a communication from the King.

Caermarthen appeared in the House of Lords bearing in his hand a parchment signed by William.

It was an Act of Grace for political offences.
Between an Act of Grace originating with the Sovereign and an Act of Indemnity originating with the Estates of the Realm there are some remarkable distinctions.

An Act of Indemnity passes through all the stages through which other laws pass, and may, during its progress, be amended by either House.

An Act of Grace is received with peculiar marks of respect, is read only once by the Lords and once by the Commons, and must be either rejected altogether or accepted as it stands, [616] William had not ventured to submit such an Act to the preceding Parliament.