FORMATION OF ENGLISH CONSTITUTION B99 promise is not violated. King and subjects have be- come accustomed to regard their rights and duties in a totally different light The king does not assume that he is invested with a power superior to the will of his people; he knows that he is bound to his sub- jects by a formal contract; the subjects have promised to obey him only within the limits provided for in the contract, and just as long as he himself observes the terms of the contracts; if he fails in that particular, the subjects are released from their promise; if he would constrain them, they have the right to resist him by force and to take another king. Parliament represents the nation, and speaks in its name; the king must take into consideration the wishes of the Parliament. PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Formation of Parliamentary Government — The kings who succeeded each other in England after the revolution of 1688 found themselves in a difficult posi- tion. The Stuarts, James II. and his descendants, continued to call themselves Kings of England; a large party, composed chiefly of the Irish, the Scotch High- landers, and many English noblemen, still looked upon them as the only legitimate kings, and regarded the new kings as nothing but usurpers. Three times the Jacobites took arms to re-establish the Stuarts, 1689, 1715, 1745. The kings, in order to defend themselves against the attacks of the Jacobites, needed the sup- port of the Whigs, who controlled Parliament; but, unlike the Tories, the Whigs had no personal affec-