An address was presented requesting him not to grant to Portland an extensive territory in North Wales.

But it is to be observed that, though in this address a strong opinion was expressed that the grant would be mischievous, the Commons did not deny, and must therefore be considered as having admitted, that it would be perfectly legal.

The King, however, yielded; and Portland was forced to content himself with ten or twelve manors scattered over various counties from Cumberland to Sussex.
It seems, therefore, clear that our princes were, by the law of the land, competent to do what they would with their hereditary estates.
It is perfectly true that the law was defective, and that the profusion with which mansions, abbeys, chaces, warrens, beds of ore, whole streets, whole market towns, had been bestowed on courtiers was greatly to be lamented.

Nothing could have been more proper than to pass a prospective statute tying up in strict entail the little which still remained of the Crown property.

But to annul by a retrospective statute patents, which in Westminster Hall were held to be legally valid, would have been simply robbery.