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If such be the case, he
cannot be blamed, if he acts on the sense of that incapacity; he cannot
be blamed, if, in the most arduous and critical questions which can
possibly arise, and which affect to the quick the vital parts of our
Constitution, he takes the side which leans most to safety and
settlement; that he is resolved not "to be wise beyond what is written"
in the legislative record and practice; that, when doubts arise on them,
he endeavors to interpret one statute by another, and to reconcile them
all to established, recognized morals, and to the general, ancient,
known policy of the laws of England. Two things are equally evident: the
first is, that the legislature possesses the power of regulating the
succession of the crown; the second, that in the exercise of that right
it has uniformly acted as if under the _restraints_ which the author has
stated. That author makes what the ancients call _mos majorum_ not
indeed his sole, but certainly his principal rule of policy, to guide
his judgment in whatever regards our laws.


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