VIII. THE HOUSE OF HANOVER.


The first sovereign of the House of Hanover ascended the throne not
by right of descent but by election; the legitimate heir was set
aside, and a distant branch of the family was chosen, and the
succession fixed by act of Parliament; but it is held by jurists
that every Parliament is sovereign and has the power of repealing
any act of any former Parliament. The beneficial rule of some of
the latter monarchs of this family has endeared them to the people,
but the doctrine of reigning by divine right, the favorite idea of
the Stuarts, is nullified, when the monarch ascends the throne by
statute law and not by succession or descent.

The age of chivalry passed away when the Puritans defeated the
Cavaliers. The establishment of standing armies and the creation of
a national debt, went to show that money, not knighthood or
knight's service, gave force to law. The possession of wealth and
of rent gave back to their possessors even larger powers than those
wrested from them by the first Tudor king. The maxim that "what was
attached to the freehold belonged to the freehold," gave the
landlords even greater powers than those held by the sword, and of
which they were despoiled. Though nominally forbidden to take part
in the election of the representatives of the Commons, yet they
virtually had the power, the creation of freehold, the substance
and material of electoral right; and consequently both Houses of
Parliament were essentially landlord, and the laws, for the century
which succeeded the ascension of George I., are marked with the