Note 168 — Chapter XV · ON THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III.

Burnet, 13; Ralph, 138, 194. Some of the lawyers endeavoured to persuade the house that the revenue having been granted to James for his life, devolved to William during the natural life of the former; a technical subtlety against the spirit of the grant. Somers seems not to have come into this; but it is hard to collect the sense of speeches from Grey's memoranda. Parl. Hist. 139. It is not to be understood that the tories universally were in favour of a grant for life, and the whigs against it. But as the latter were the majority, it was in their power, speaking of them as a party, to have carried the measure.