irectly to the Glorious Revolution: the day when Parliament simply had James arrested and exiled to France. One may suppose that what was most glorious about that revolution is that it was peaceful: not a shot was fired, no one was even injured. (That James later invaded northern Ireland with a French mercenary army is a different issue, most political theorists seem to think.)
Parliament next simply hired William of Orange and his bride-to-be, Princess Mary, as co-monarchs, and arranged the glorious spectacle of their arrival in London, royal wedding, and double coronation. It would next hire George I of the House of Hanover. It was this Parliament, whose authority was absolute, that governed the American colonies. Any law it passed was final; there was then no institution that could declare a law passed by Parliament to be ôunconstitutional.ö The only check on its authority was the will of the voters who elected the members of Parliament. This is a major reason why the American colonists made such an issue of their lack of representation in Parliament. The rhetoric against King George III in the Declaration of Independence is a vestige of British custom; it is Parliament that has committed all the outrageous acts agaainst the co
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