[168] Burnet, 13; Ralph, 138, 194. Some of the lawyers endeavoured to persuade the house that the revenue having been granted to James for his life, devolved to William during the natural life of the former; a technical subtlety against the spirit of the grant. Somers seems not to have come into this; but it is hard to collect the sense of speeches from Grey's memoranda. _Parl. Hist._ 139. It is not to be understood that the tories universally were in favour of a grant for life, and the whigs against it. But as the latter were the majority, it was in their power, speaking of them as a party, to have carried the measure. [169] _Parl. Hist._ 187. [170] _Parl. Hist._ 193. [171] _Parl. Hist._ iv. 1359. [172] Hatsell's _Precedents_, iii. 80 _et alibi_; Hargrave's _Juridical Arguments_, i. 394. [173] 1 W. & M. sess. 2, c. 2. This was intended as a provisional act "for the preventing all disputes and questions, concerning the collecting, levying, and assuring the public revenue due and payable in the reigns of the late kings Charles II. and James II., whilst the better settling the same is under the consideration of the present parliament." [174] 2 W. & M. c. 3. As a mark of respect, no doubt, to the king and queen, it was provided that, if both should die, the successor should only enjoy this revenue of excise till December 1683. In the debate on this subject in the new parliament, the tories, except Seymour, were for settling the revenue during the king's life; but many whigs spoke on the other side. _Parl. Hist._ 552. The latter justly urged that the amount of the revenue ought to be well known before they proceed to settle it for an indefinite time. The tories, at that time, had great hopes of the king's favour, and took this method of securing it. [175] Burnet, 35. [176] See the _Somers Tracts_, but still more the collection of _State Tracts_ in the time of William III., in three volumes folio. These are almost entirely on the whig side; and many of them, as I have intimated in the text, lean so far toward republicanism as to assert the original sovereignty of the people in very strong terms, and to propose various changes in the constitution, such as a greater equality in the representation. But I have not observed any one which recommends, even covertly, the abolition of hereditary monarchy.