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  England; Part 2

England; Part 2

Moreover, as the result of the Revolution, two Acts were passed, the one at the beginning of William and Mary's and the other at the end of William's reign, which limited the power of the Crown. The Declaration or Bill of Rights, which was drawn up and passed through Parliament in 1689, completed the work which Magna Carta had begun. Its clauses may be briefly summarized. First, William and Mary were declared to be king and queen, and the succession to the throne was settled upon their children, and, failing them, upon James's other daughter, Anne; and a clause was added that no person who was a Roman Catholic or who married a Roman Catholic could succeed to the throne (It has been calculated that this clause has taken away the eventual claims to the suc­cession of nearly sixty persons). Secondly, it declared to be illegal: (a) the "pretended power" of the Crown to suspend laws; (b) the power of dispensing with laws "as it hath been exercised of late" by the Crown; (c) the existence of the Court of High Commission and similar courts; (d) the maintenance of a standing army-the army was, however, authorized by another Bill, called the Mutiny Bill, which had to be re-passed every year (It is now replaced by the Army (Annual) Act.). Thirdly, Parliament was to be freely elected, to have freedom of speech and to meet frequently, and there was to be no taxation without its consent. Fourthly, excessive fines were not to be imposed, and subjects might petition the king.

The second measure was the Act of Settlement, passed in 1701. The first question to be arranged was that of the succession, for William and Mary were childless and all the children of the Princess Anne had died (Of her numerous children all died in infancy, except the Duke of Gloucester, who died in 1700 when nearly eleven years of age. He appears to have been a promising boy, and eight months before his death he celebrated Queen Elizabeth's birthday in high spirits, "firing all his guns and making great rejoicing "). The Protestant representative of the House of Stuart who had the best claim was Sophia, the granddaughter of James I (her mother was Elizabeth who married the Elector Palatine) and the wife of the Elector of Hanover. The crown was accordingly settled upon "the most excellent Princess Sophia, and the heirs of her body, being Protestants ". With regard to the other clauses in the Act of Settlement, some were inserted because of William's personal unpopularity and because of the jealousy felt with regard to his foreign policy at that time. Thus the monarch was not to leave the kingdom without the consent of Parliament, and England was not to be obliged to engage in wars for the foreign possessions of the Crown. But these articles were soon modified or repealed. Other clauses are, however, of permanent importance. Judges were to hold office, not at the king's pleasure, but quamdiu se bene gesserint-as long as they behaved themselves -and hence were no longer under the king's influence. No pardon by the Crown could be pleaded to an impeachment by the House of Commons -a clause which finally established the responsibility of the king's ministers for all acts of state.

Chronology
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