Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/350

 310 § 341. The resolution of the convention of the peers and commons in 1688, which deprived King James the Second of the throne of England, may perhaps be thought by some persons to justify the doctrine of an original compact of government in the sense of those, who deem the constitution of the United States a treaty or league between the states, and resting merely in contract. It is in the following words: "Resolved, that King James the Second, having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of the kingdom by breaking the original contract between king and people; and by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons having violated the fundamental laws, and withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, hath abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby become vacant."

§ 342. It is well known, that, there was a most serious difference of opinion between the house of peers and the house of commons upon the language of this resolution, and especially upon that part, which declared the abdication and vacancy of the throne. In consequence of which a free conference was held by committees of