In the House of Lords it seems to have been admitted that the embargo
was, under all the circumstances, not only desirable, but "indispensably
necessary."[21] But the Opposition in that House, being led by a great
lawyer (Chief-justice Lord Mansfield), took a wider view of the whole
case; and, after denouncing the long prorogation of Parliament as having
been so culpably advised that there was no way left of meeting the
emergency but by an interposition of the royal power, directed the
principal weight of their argument against the doctrine of the existence
of any dispensing power. It was urged that the late Order in Council
could only be justified by "the general proposition that of any, and, if
of any, of every, act of parliament the King, with the advice of the
Privy Council, may suspend the execution and effect whenever his
Majesty, so advised, judges it necessary for the immediate safety of the
people." And this proposition was denounced as utterly inconsistent with
the principles of the Revolution, which had been "nothing but a most
lawless and wicked invasion of the rights of the crown," if such a
dispensing power were really one of the lawful prerogatives of the
sovereign. Reference was made to the powers in more than one instance,
and especially in the case of ship-money claimed and exercised by
Charles I.
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