house resolved to address the king, that copies of both treaties of partition, together with all the powers and instructions for negotiating those treaties, should be laid before them. The copies were accordingly produced, and the lords sent down to the commons two papers, containing the powers granted to the earls of Portland and Jersey, for signing both treaties of partition. The house afterwards ordered, that Mr. secretary Vernon should lay before them all the letters which had passed between the earl of Portland and him, in relation to those treaties; and he thought proper to obey their command. Nothing could be more scandalously partial than the conduct of the commons on this occasion. They resolved to screen the earl of Jersey, sir Joseph Williamson, and Mr. Vernon, who had been as deeply concerned as any others in that transaction; and pointed all their vengeance against the earls of Portland and Orford, and the lords Somers and Halifax. Some of the members even tamper

ed with Kidd, who was now a prisoner in Newgate, to accuse lord Somers as having encouraged him in his piracy. He was brought to the bar of the house, and examined: but he declared that he had never spoke to lord Somers; and that he had no order from those concerned in the ship, but that of pursuing his voyage against the pirates in Madagascar. Finding him unfit for their purpose, they left him to the course of law; and he was hanged, with some of his accomplices.

§ LI. Lord Somers, understanding that he was accused in the house of commons of having consented to the partition treaty, desired that he might be admitted and heard in his own defence. His request being granted, he told the house, that when he received the king's letter concerning the partition treaty, with an order to send over the necessary powers in the most secret manner, he thought it would have been taking too much upon him to put a stop to a treaty of such consequence, when the life of the king of Spain was so precarious; for, had the king died before the treaty was finished, and he been blamed for delaying the necessary powers, he could not have justified his own conduct, since the king's letter was really a warrant that, nevertheless, he had written a letter to his majesty, objecting to several particulars in the treaty, and proposing other VOL. I.

Y y

articles which he thought were for the interest of his country that he thought himself bound to put the great seal to the treaty when it was concluded that as a privy counsellor, he had offered his best advice, and as chancellor, executed his office according to his duty. After he had withdrawn, his justification gave rise to a long debate, which ended in a resolution carried by a majority of seven voices, That John lord Somers, by advising his majesty to conclude the treaty of partition, whereby large territories of the Spanish monarchy were to be delivered up to France, was guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor. Votes to the same effect were passed against Edward earl of Orford, and Charles lord Halifax; and all three were impeached at the bar of the upper house. But the commons knowing that those impeachments would produce nothing in the house of lords, where the opposite interest predominated, they resolved to proceed against the accused noblemen in a more expeditious and effectual way of branding their reputation. They voted and presented an address to the king, desiring he would remove them from his counsels and presence for ever, as advisers of a treaty so pernicious to the trade and welfare of England. They concluded, by repeating their assurance, that they would always stand by and support his majesty to the utmost of their power, against all his enemies both at home and abroad. The king in his answer, artfully overlooked the first part of the remonstrance. He thanked them for their repeated assurances; and told them he would employ none in his service but such as should be thought most likely to improve that mutual trust and confidence between him and his people, which was so necessary at that conjuncture, both for their own security and the preservation of their allies.

LII. The lords, incensed at this step of the commons, which they considered as an insult upon their tribunal, and a violation of common justice, drew up and delivered a counter address, humbly beseeching his majesty, that he would not pass any censure upon the accused lords until they should be tried on the impeachments, and judgments be given according to the usage of parliament. The king was so perplexed by these opposite representations, that he knew not well what course to follow. He made no reply

to the counter address; but allowed the names of the impeached lords to remain in the council books. The commons having carried their point, which was to stigmatize those noblemen, and prevent their being employed for the future, suffered the impeachments to be neglected, until they themselves moved for trial. On the fifth day of May the house of lords sent a message to the commons, importing, that no articles had as yet been exhibited against the noblemen whom they had impeached. The charge was immediately drawn up against the earl of Orford: him they accused of having received exorbitant grants from the crown of having been concerned with Kidd the pirate: of having committed abuses in managing and victualling the fleet, when it lay on the coast of Spain: and lastly, of having advised the partition treaty. The earl in his own defence declared, that he had received no grant from the king, except a very distant reversion, and a present of ten thousand pounds, after he had defeated the. French at La Hogue that in Kidd's affair he had acted legally, and with a good intention towards the public, though to his own loss; that his accounts with regard to the fleet which he commanded had been examined and passed; yet he was ready to wave the advantage, and justify himself in every particular; and he absolutely denied that he had given any advice concerning the treaty of partition. Lord Somers was accused of having set the seals to the powers, and afterwards to the treaties: of having accepted some grants: of having been an accomplice with Kidd; and of having some guilt of partial and dilatory proceedings in chancery. He answered every article in the charge; but no replication was made by the commons, either to him or to the earl of Orford. When the commons were stimulated by another message from the peers, relating to the impeachments of the earl of Portland and lord Halifax, they declined exhibiting articles against the former, on pretence of respect for his majesty; but on the fourteenth of June the charge against Halifax was sent up to the lords. was taxed with possessing a grant in Ireland, without paying the produce of it, according to the law lately enacted concerning those grants: with enjoying another grant out of the forest of Deane, to the waste of the tim

He

ber and the prejudice of the navy: with having held places that were incompatible, by being at the same time commissioner of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer; and with having advised the two treaties of partition. He answered, that his grant in Ireland was of debts and sums of money, and within the act concerning confiscated estates; that all he had ever received from it did not exceed four hundred pounds, which, if he was bound to repay, a common action would lie against him; but every man was not to be impeached who did not discharge his debts at the very day of payment. He observed, that as his grant in the forest of Deane extended to weedings only, it could occasion no waste of timber, nor prejudice to the navy: that the auditor's place was held by another person, until he obtained the king's leave to withdraw from the treasury: that he never saw the first treaty of partition, nor was his advice asked upon the subject: that he had never heard of the second but once before it was concluded: and then he spoke his sentiments freely on the subject. This ' answer, like the others, would have been neglected by the commons, whose aim was now to evade the trials, had not the lords pressed them by messages to expedite the articles. They even appointed a day for Orford's trial, and signified their resolution to the commons. These desired that a committee of both houses should be named for settling preliminaries, one of which was, that the lord to be tried should not sit as a peer; and the other imported, that those lords impeached for the same matter should not vote in the trial of each other. They likewise desired, that lord Somers should be first tried. The lords made no objection to this last demand; but they rejected the proposal of a committee consisting of both houses, alleging, that the commons were parties, and had no title to sit in equality with the judges, or to settle matters relating to the trial: that this was a demand contrary to the principles of law and rules of justice, and never practised in any court or nation. The lords, indeed, had yielded to this expedient in the popish plot, because it was a case of treason, in which the king's life and safety of the kingdom were concerned, while the people were jealous of the court, and the whole nation was in a ferment; but at present the times

were quiet, and the charge amounted to nothing more than misdemeanors; therefore, the lords could not assent to such a proposal as was derogatory from their jurisdiction. Neither would they agree to the preliminaries; but, on the twelfth day of June, resolved, That no peer impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, should, upon his trial, be without the bar: and, That no peer impeached could be precluded from voting on any occasion, except in his own trial, Divers messages passed between the two houses; the commons still insisting upon a committee to settle preliminaries: at length the dispute was brought to a free conference.

§ LIII. Meanwhile, the king going to the house of peers gave the royal assent to the bill of succession. In this speech he expressed his warm acknowledgments for their repeated assurances of supporting him in such alliances as should be most proper for the preservation of the liberty of Europe, and for the security of England and the states general. He observed, that the season of the year was advanced; that the posture of affairs absolutely required his presence abroad: and he recommended despatch of public business, especially of those matters which were of the greatest importance. The commons thanked him in an address for having approved of their proceedings: they declared they would support him in such alliances as he should think fit to make in conjunction with the emperor and the states general, for the peace of Europe, and reducing the exorbitant power of France. Then they resumed their dispute with the upper house. In the free conference, lord Haversham happened to tax the commons with partiality, in impeaching some lords, and screening others who were equally guilty of the same misdemeanors. Sir Christopher Musgrave and the managers for the commons immediately withdrew: this unguarded sally being reported to the house, they immediately resolved, that John lord Haversham had uttered most scandalous reproaches and false expressions, highly reflecting upon the honour and justice of the house of commons, tending to a breach in the good correspondence between the two houses, and to the interruption of the public justice of the nation: That the said lord Haversham should be charged before the lords for