He could not, like those who had ruled before him, pass an Act in the spring and violate it in the summer.

He had, by assenting to the Bill of Rights, solemnly renounced the dispensing power; and he was restrained, by prudence as well as by conscience and honour, from breaking the compact under which he held his crown.

A law might be personally offensive to him; it might appear to him to be pernicious to his people; but, as soon as he had passed it, it was, in his eyes, a sacred thing.

He had therefore a motive, which preceding Kings had not, for pausing before he passed such a law.

They gave their word readily, because they had no scruple about breaking it.