Wesley Corpus

Did they choose (to go no further) William the Conqueror? Did they choose King Stephen or King John? As to those who regularly succeeded their fathers, the people are out of the question. Did they choose Henry the Fourth, Edward the Fourth, or Henry the Seventh? Who will be so hardy as to affirm it? Did the people of England, or but fifty thousand of them, choose Queen Mary, or Queen Elizabeth, or King James the First? Perhaps you will say, “If the people did not give King Charles the supreme power, at least they took it away.” No; the people of England no more took away his power, than they cut off his head. “Yes; the Parliament did, and they are the people.” No; the Parlia ment did not : The House of Commons is not the Parliament, any more than it is the nation. Neither were those who then sat the House of Commons; no, nor one quarter of them. But, suppose they had been the whole House of Commons, yea, or the whole Parliament, by what rule of logic will you prove that seven or eight hundred persons are the people of England? “Why, they are the delegates of the people; they are chosen by them.” No, not by one half, not by a quarter, not by a tenth part of them: So that the people, in the only proper sense of the word, were innocent of the whole affair. 29. “But you will allow, the people gave the supreme power to King Charles the Second at the Restoration.” I will allow no such thing, unless, by the people, you mean General Monk and ten thousand soldiers. “However, you will not deny that the people gave the power to King William at the Revolution.” I will; the Convention were not the people, neither elected by them: So that still we have not a single instance, in above seven hundred years, of the people of England’s conveying the supreme power either to one or more persons. 30. So much both for reason and matter of fact. But one single consideration will bring the question to a short issue.