crown, expectant on the death of king William and queen Anne without iſſue, was ſettled by ſtatute 12 & 13 W. III. c. 2. And at the ſame time it was enacted, that whoſoever ſhould hereafter come to the poſſeſſion of the crown ſhould join in the communion of the church of England as by law eſtabliſhed.
This is the laſt limitation of the crown that has been made by parliament: and theſe ſeveral actual limitations, from the time of Henry IV to the preſent, do clearly prove the power of the king and parliament to new-model or alter the ſucceſſion. And indeed it is now again made highly penal to diſpute it: for by the ſtatute 6 Ann. c. 7. it is enacted, that if any perſon maliciouſly, adviſedly, and directly, ſhall maintain by writing or printing, that the kings of this realm with the authority of parliament are not able to make laws to bind the crown and the deſcent thereof, he ſhall be guilty of high treaſon; or if he maintains the ſame by only preaching, teaching, or adviſed ſpeaking, he ſhall incur the penalties of a praemunire.
The princeſs Sophia dying before queen Anne, the inheritance thus limited deſcended on her ſon and heir king George the firſt; and, having on the death of the queen taken effect in his perſon, from him it deſcended to his late majeſty king George the ſecond; and from him to his grandſon and heir, our preſent gracious ſovereign, king George the third.
Hence it is eaſy to collect, that the title to the crown is at preſent hereditary, though not quite ſo abſolutely hereditary as formerly; and the common ſtock or anceſtor, from whom the deſcent muſt be derived, is alſo different. Formerly the common ſtock was king Egbert; then William the conqueror; afterwards in James the firſt’s time the two common ſtocks united, and ſo continued till the vacancy of the throne in 1688: now it is the princeſs Sophia, in whom the inheritance was veſted by the new king and parliament. Formerly the deſcent was abſolute, and the crown went to the next heir without any reſtriction: but now,
