What the "_Magna Charta_" and "_Petition of Right_" had
asserted in a general way, was now by the "_Bill of Rights_,"
established by specific enactments, which one after another declared
what the King should and what he should not do. One of these Acts
touched the very central nerve of English freedom.

If _religion_ and _money_ are the two important factors in
the life of a nation, it is _money_ upon which its life from day
to day depends! A Government can exist without money about as long as a
man without air! So the act which gave to the House of Commons
exclusive power to grant supplies, and also to determine to what use
they shall be applied, transferred the real authority to the people,
whose will the Commons express.

The struggle between the Crown and Parliament ends with this, and the
theory of Pym is vindicated. The Sovereign and the House of Lords from
that time could no more take money from the Treasury of England, than
from that of France. Henceforth there can be no differences between
King and people. _They must be friends._ A Ministry which forfeits
the friendship of the Commons, cannot stand an hour, and supplies will
stop until they are again in accord. In other words, the Government of
England had become a Government _of the people_.

William regarded these enactments as evidence of a lack of confidence
in him. Conscious of his own magnanimous aims, of his power and his
purpose to serve England as she had not been served before, he felt
hurt and wounded at fetters which had not been placed upon such Kings
as Charles I. and his sons. We wonder that a man so exalted and so
superior, did not see that it was for future England that these laws
were framed, for a time when perhaps a Prince not generous, and noble,