The Impeachment of the House of BrunswickBradlaugh, Charles
History
The Impeachment of the House of Brunswick
Bradlaugh, Charles
Great Britain -- History -- 1714-1837; Hanover, House of
was declared to have all the authority of Parliament--ergo. Parliament
has admittedly the right to deprive a living King of his Crown, and to
treat a Prince of Wales as having no claim to the succession.
In point of fact two of the clauses of the Act of Settlement were
repealed in the reign of Queen Anne, and a third clause was repealed
early in the reign of George I., showing that this particular statute
has never been considered immutable or irrepealable. It is right to add
that the clauses repealed were only of consequence to the nation, and
that their repeal was no injury to the Crown. The unbounded right of
the supreme Legislature to enlarge its own powers was contended for
and admitted in 1716, when the duration of Parliament was extended
four years, a triennial Parliament declaring itself and all future
Parliaments septennial. Furthermore, it has been held to be sedition to
deny the complete authority of the Irish Parliament to put an end to its
own existence.
It has been admitted to be within the jurisdiction of Parliament to give
electoral privileges to citizens theretofore unenfranchised; Parliament
claims the unquestioned right to disfranchise persons, hitherto
electors, for misconduct in the exercise of electoral rights, and in
its pleasure to remove and annul any electoral disability. The right of
Parliament to decrease or increase the number of representatives for
any borough has never been disputed, and its authority to decrease the
number of Peers sitting and voting in the House of Lords was recognized
in passing the Irish Church Disestablishment Bill, by which several
Bishops were summarily ejected from amongst the Peers. It is now
submitted that Parliament possesses no Legislative right but what it
derives from the people, and that the people are under no irrevocable
contract or obligation to continue any member of the House of Brunswick
on the throne. In order to show that this is not a solitary opinion, the
following Parlimentary _dicta_ are given:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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