Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/61

Rh light upon it. There are, however, two points of view, in which it particularly imports your Majesty to consider, the late proceedings of the house of commons. By depriving a subject of his birthright, they have attributed to their own vote an authority equal to an act of the whole legislature; and tho' perhaps, not with the same motives, have strictly followed the example of the long parliament, which first declared the regal office useless, and soon after, with as little ceremony, dissolved the house of lords. The same pretended power, which robs an English subject of his birth-right, may rob an English King of his Crown. In another view, the resolution of the house of commons, apparently not so dangerous to your Majesty, is still more alarming to your people. Not contented with divesting one man of his right, they have arbitrarily conveyed that right to another. They have set aside a return as illegal, without daring to censure those officers, who were particularly apprized of Mr. Wilkes's incapacity, not only by the declaration of the house, but expressly by the writ directed to them, and who, nevertheless returned him as duly elected. They have