The greatest inconvenience attending a disputed title is that it brings us in danger of civil wars and rebellions. What wise man, to avoid this inconvenience, would run directly upon a civil war and rebellion? Not to mention that so long possession, secured by so many laws, must ere this time, in the apprehension of a great part of the nation, have begot a title in the house of Hanover independent of their present possession, so that now we should not, even by a revolution, obtain the end of avoiding a disputed title. No revolution made by national forces will ever be able, without some other great necessity, to abolish our debts and encumbrances, in which the interest of so many persons is concerned. And a revolution made by foreign forces is a conquest—a calamity with which the precarious balance of power threatens us, and which our civil dissensions are likely, above all other circumstances, to bring upon us. NOTES, OF THE PROTESTANT SUCCESSION. [110] It appears from the speeches and proclamations and whole train of King James I.’s actions, as well as his son’s, that they considered the English government as a simple monarchy, and never imagined that any considerable part of their subjects entertained a contrary idea. This made them discover their pretensions without preparing any force to support them, and even without reserve or disguise, which are always employed by those who enter upon any new project, or endeavour to innovate in any government. King James told his Parliament plainly, when they meddled in State affairs, “Ne sutor ultra crepidam.” He used also at his table, in promiscuous companies, to advance his notions in a manner still more undignified, as we may learn from a story told in the life of Mr. Waller, and which that poet used frequently to repeat. When Mr. Waller was young, he had the curiosity to go to court; and he stood in the circle and saw King James dine where, amongst other company, there sat at table two bishops. The King, openly and aloud, proposed this question: “Whether he might not take his subjects’ money, when he had occasion for it, without all this formality of Parliament?” The one bishop readily replied, “God forbid you should not, for you are the breath of our nostrils.” The other bishop declined answering, and said he was not skilled in Parliamentary cases; but upon the King’s urging him, and saying he would admit of no evasion, his lordship replied very pleasantly, “Why, then, I think your Majesty may lawfully take my brother’s money, for he offers it.” In Sir Walter Raleigh’s preface to the _History of the World_ there is this remarkable passage: “Philip II., by strong hand and main force, attempted to make himself not only an absolute monarch over the Netherlands, like unto the kings and sovereigns of England and France, but, Turk-like, to tread under his feet all their natural and fundamental laws, privileges and ancient rights.” Spenser, speaking of some grants of the English kings to the