The revolution alone, which soon succeeded, happily put an end to all these disputes: by means of it, a more uniform edifice was at last erected: the monstrous inconsistence, so visible between the ancient Gothic parts of the fabric and the recent plans of liberty, was fully corrected; and, to their mutual felicity, King and people were finally taught to know their proper boundaries.[*] * It is remarkable, that the convention, summoned by the prince of Orange, did not, even when they had the making of their own terms in the declaration of rights, venture to condemn the dispensing power in general, which had been uniformly exercised by the former kings of England.

They only condemned it so far, as it had been assumed and exercised of late, without being able to tell wherein the difference lay.

But in the bill of rights, which passed about a twelvemonth after the parliament took care to secure themselves more effectually against a branch of prerogative incompatible with all legal liberty and limitations; and they excluded, in positive terms, all dispensing power in the crown.

Yet even then the house of lords rejected that clause of the bill which condemned the exercise of this power in former kings, and obliged the commons to rest content with abolishing it for the future.

There needs no other proof of the irregular nature of the old English government, than the existence of such a prerogative, always exercised and never questioned, till the acquisition of real liberty discovered, at last, the danger of it.