[Footnote 17: No one doubted that this choice had been made under the
influence of Lord Bute, and was designed for the preservation of that
influence.--Lord Stanhope, _History of England_, v., 41.]

[Footnote 18: In his speech in the House of Lords on the Regency Bill of
1840, the Duke of Sussex stated that George III. had nominated the Queen
as Regent in the first instance, and, in the event of her death, the
Princess Dowager.]

[Footnote 19: "Lives of the Chancellors," c. cxli.]

[Footnote 20: It appears from these dates that it was not yet understood
that Parliament could not be prorogued for a longer period than forty
days.]

[Footnote 21: These words occur in a speech attributed to Lord
Mansfield. There is no detailed account of the debates on this subject
in either House. All that exists in the "Parliamentary History" is a
very brief abstract of the discussion in the Commons, and a document
occupying above sixty pages of the same work (pp. 251-314), entitled "A
Speech on behalf of the Constitution against the Suspending and
Dispensing Prerogative," etc., with a foot-note explaining that "this
speech was supposed to be penned by Lord Mansfield, but was, in fact,
written by Mr. Macintosh, assisted by Lord Temple and Lord Lyttleton."
It certainly seems to contain internal evidence that it was not written
by any lawyer, from the sneers at and denunciations of lawyers which it
contains, as a class of men who "have often appeared to be the worst
guardians of the constitution, and too frequently the wickedest enemies
to, and most treacherous betrayers of, the liberties of their country."
But, by whomsoever it was "penned" and published, the arguments which it