This insinuation was answered by Somers the solicitor general, who observed, that if it was not a legal parliament, they who were then met, and who had taken the oaths enacted by that parliament, were guilty of high treason; the laws repealed by it were still in force: it was their duty therefore to return to king James; and all concerned in collecting and paying the money levied by the acts of that parliament were highly criminal.

The tories were so struck with these arguments that the bill passed without further opposition, and immediately received the royal assent.

Thus the settlement was confirmed by those very people who had so loudly exclaimed against it as illegal; but the whigs, with all their management, would not have gained their point had not the court been interested in the dispute.
{WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688--1701.} ANOTHER VIOLENT CONTEST.
There was another violent contest between the two parties, on the import of a bill requiring all subjects in office to abjure king James on pain of imprisonment.

Though the clergy were at first exempted from this test, the main body of the tories opposed it with great vehemence; while the whigs, under countenance of the ministry, supported it with equal vigour.

It produced long and violent debates; and the two factions seemed pretty equally balanced.