Some orators vehemently said that too much time had already been lost, and that the government ought to be settled without the delay of a day.

Society was unquiet: trade was languishing: the English colony in Ireland was in imminent danger of perishing, a foreign war was impending: the exiled King might, in a few weeks, be at Dublin with a French army, and from Dublin he might soon cross to Chester.

Was it not insanity, at such a crisis, to leave the throne unfilled, and, while the very existence of Parliaments was in jeopardy, to waste time in debating whether Parliaments should be prorogued by the sovereign or by themselves?
On the other side it was asked whether the Convention could think that it had fulfilled its mission by merely pulling down one prince and putting up another.

Surely now or never was the time to secure public liberty by such fences as might effectually prevent the encroachments of prerogative.

[670] There was doubtless great weight in what was urged on both sides.