[28]
The ministry, however, had a decided majority in both Houses, and the
bill became and remains the law of the land, though fourteen peers,
including one bishop, entered a protest against it on nine different
grounds, one of which condemned it as "an extension of the royal
prerogative for which the great majority of the judges found no
authority;" while another, with something of prophetic sagacity, urged
that the bill "was pregnant with civil discord and confusion, and had a
natural tendency to produce a disputed title to the crown."
It may be doubted whether the circumstances which had induced George
III. to demand such a power as that with which the bill invested him
justified its enactment. He was already the father of a family so
numerous as to render it highly improbable that either of his brothers
or any of their children would ever come to the throne; while, as a
previously existing law barred any prince or princess who might marry a
Roman Catholic from the succession, the additional restraint imposed by
the new statute practically limited their choice to an inconveniently
small number of foreign royal houses, many of which, to say the least,
are not superior in importance or purity of blood to many of our own
nobles.
Nor can it be said to have been successful in accomplishing his
Majesty's object.
Pages:
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99