Note 10 — Chapter VI

There are but two ways in which a sovereign can, while alive, and compos mentis, become divested of his regal attributes and authority—by abdication and by deposition; and it is impossible to define abdication satisfactorily by any form of words which does not involve the idea of a voluntary act. Even if a voluntary abandonment or "desertion of the Government" amounted to abdication, it would not help the case. James's flight from England in 1688 was no more voluntary than the flight of his brother, then king de jure, after Worcester in 1651. Both flights were taken under what was or was conceived to be force majeure.