commons, that the court was afraid to disoblige them by an impeachment, and took great pains to mitigate the duke's resentment. This nobleman was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland, and Rooke was admitted into the privy council. A motion, however, being made in the house of lords, that the admiral's instructions and journals relating to the last expedition might be examined, a committee was appointed for that purpose, and prepared an unfavourable report: but it was rejected by a majority of the house; and they voted, that sir George Rooke had done his duty, pursuant to the councils of war, like a brave officer, to the honour of the British nation.

§ XXIII. On the twenty-first day of November, the queen sent a message to the house of commons by Mr. Secretary Hedges, recommending further provision for the prince her husband, in case he should survive her. This message being considered, Mr. Howe moved, that the yearly sum of one hundred thousand pounds should be settled on the prince, in case he should survive her majesty. No opposition was made to the proposal: but warm debates were excited by a clause in the bill, exempting the prince from that part of the act of succession by which strangers, though naturalized, were rendered incapable of holding employments. This clause related only to those who should be naturalized in a future reign; and indeed was calculated as a restriction upon the house of Hanover. Many members argued against the clause of exemption, because it seemed to imply, from employments in the next reign, though already possessed of the right of natural born subjects, a consequence plainly contradictory to the meaning of the act. Others opposed it, because the lords had already resolved by a vote, that they would never pass any bill sent up from the commons, to which a clause foreign to the bill should be tacked; and this clause they affirmed to be a tack, as an incapacity to hold employments was a circumstance altogether distinct from a set

tlement in money. The queen expressed uncommon

eagerness in behalf of this bill; and the court influence was managed so successfully, that it passed through both houses, though not without an obstinate opposition, and a formal protest by seven-and-twenty peers.

§ XXIV. The earl of Marlborough, arriving in England about the latter end of November, received the thanks of the commons for his great and signal services, which were so acceptable to the queen, that she created him a duke, gratified him with a pension of five thousand pounds upon the revenue of the postoffice, during his natural life; and, in a message to the commons, expressed a desire that they would find some method to settle it on the heirs male of his body. This intimation was productive of warm debates, during which sir Christopher Musgrave observed, that he would not derogate from the duke's eminent services; but he affirmed his grace had been very well paid for them, by the profitable employments which he and his dutchess enjoyed. The duke, understanding that the commons were heated by the subject, begged her majesty would rather forego her gracious message in his behalf, than create any uneasiness on his account, which might embarrass her affairs and be of ill consequence to the public. Then she sent another message to the house, signifying, that the duke of Marlborough had declined her interposition. Notwithstanding this declaration, the commons in a body presented an address, acknowledging the eminent services of the duke of Marlborough, yet expressing their apprehension of making a precedent to alienate the revenue of the crown, which had been so much reduced by the exorbitant grants of the late reign, and so lately settled and secured by her majesty's unparalleled grace and goodness. The queen was satisfied with their apology; but their refusal in all probability helped to alienate the duke from the tories, with whom he had been hitherto connected.

XXV. In the beginning of January, the queen gave the house of commons to understand that the states general had pressed her to augment her forces, as the only means to render ineffectual the great and early preparations of the enemy. The commons immediately resolved, that ten thousand men should be hired, as an augmentation of the forces to act in conjunction with the allies: but on condition that an immediate stop should be put to all commerce and correspondence with France and Spain on the part of the states general. The lords presented an address to the queen on the same subject, and to the same VOL. I. Fff

effect; and she owned that the condition was absolutely necessary for the good of the whole alliance. The Dutch, even after the declaration of war, had carried on a traffic with the French; and, at this very juncture, Lewis found it impossible to make remittances of money to the elector of Bavaria in Germany, and to his forces in Italy, except through the channel of English, Dutch, and Geneva merchants. The states general, though shocked at the imperious manner in which the parliament of England prescribed their conduct, complied with the demand without hesitation, and published a prohibition of all commerce with the subjects of France and Spain.

XXVI. The commons of this parliament had nothing more at heart than a bill against occasional conformity. The tories affected to distinguish themselves as the only true friends to the church and monarchy; and they hated the dissenters with a mixture of spiritual and political disgust. They looked upon these last as an intruding sect, which constituted great part of the whig faction that • extorted such immense sums of money from the nation in the late reign, and involved it in pernicious engagements, from whence it had no prospect of deliverance. They considered them as encroaching schismatics that disgraced and endangered the hierarchy; and those of their own communion who recommended moderation, they branded with the epithets of lukewarm christians, betrayers, and apostates. They now resolved to approve themselves zealous sons of the church, by seizing the first opportunity that was in their power to distress the dissenters. In order to pave the way to this persecution, sermons were preached, and pamphlets were printed, to blacken the character of the sect, and inflame the popular resentment against them. On the fourth day of November, Mr. Bromley, Mr. St. John, and Mr. Annesley, were ordered by the house of commons to bring in a bill for preventing occasional conformity. In the preamble, all persecution for conscience' sake was condemned: nevertheless, it enacted, that all those who had taken the sacrament and test for offices of trust, or the magistracy of corporations, and afterwards frequented any meeting of dissenters, should be disabled from holding their employments, pay a

fine of one hundred pounds, and five pounds for every day in which they continued to act in their employments after having been at any such meeting: they were also rendered incapable of holding any other employment, till after one whole year's conformity; and, upon a relapse, the penalties and time of incapacity were doubled. The promoters of the bill alleged, that an established religion and national church were absolutely necessary, when so many impious men pretended to inspiration, and deluded such numbers of the people that the most effectual way to preserve this national church, would be the maintenance of the civil power in the hands of those who expressed their regard to the church in their principles and practice: that the parliament, by the corporation and test acts, thought they had raised a sufficient barrier to the hierarchy, never imagining that a set of men would rise up, whose consciences would be too tender to obey the laws, but hardened enough to break them: that, as the last reign began with an act in favour of dissenters, so the commons were desirous that in the beginning of her majesty's auspicious government, an act should pass in favour of the church of England; that this bill did not intrench on the act of toleration, or de-1 prive the dissenters of any privileges they enjoyed by law, or add any thing to the legal rights of the church of England: that occasional conformity was an evasion of the law, by which the dissenters might insinuate themselves into the management of all corporations: that a separation from the church, to which a man's conscience will allow him occasionally to conform, is a mere schism, which in itself was sinful, without the superaddition of a temporal law to make it an offence: that the toleration was intended only for the ease of tender consciences, and not to give a license for occasional conformity: that conforming and nonconforming were contradictions; for nothing but a firm persuasion that the terms of communion required are sinful and unlawful could justify the one; and this plainly condemns the other. The members who opposed the bill argued, that the dissenters were generally well affected to the present constitution: that to bring any real hardship upon them, or give rise to jealousies and fears at such a juncture, might be attended with dangereous con

sequences that the toleration had greatly contributed to the security and reputation of the church, and plainly proved, that liberty of conscience and gentle measures were the most effectual means for increasing the votaries of the church, and diminishing the number of dissenters} that the dissenters could not be termed schismatics without bringing a heavy charge upon the church of England, which had not only tolerated such schism, but even allowed communion with the reformed churches abroad: that the penalties of this bill were more severe than those which the laws imposed on papists, for assisting at the most solemn act of their religion: in a word, that toleration and tenderness had been always productive of peace and union, whereas persecution had never failed to excite disorder, and extend superstition. Many alterations and mitigations were proposed, without effect. In the course of the debates, the dissenters were mentioned and reviled with great acrimony; and the bill passed the lower house by virtue of a considerable majority,

XXVII. The lords, apprehensive that the commons would tack it to some money bill, voted, that the annexing any clause to a money bill was contrary to the constitution of the English government, and the usage of parliament. The bill met with a very warm opposition in the upper house, where a considerable portion of the whig interest still remained, These members believed that the intention of the bill was to model corporations, so as to eject all those who would not vote in elections for the tories, Some imagined this was a preparatory step towards a repeal of the toleration; and others concluded that the promoters of the bill designed to raise such disturbances at home, as would discourage the allies abroad, and render the prosecution of the war impracticable. The majority of the bishops, and among these Burnet of Sarum, objected against it on the principles of moderation, and from motives of conscience. Nevertheless, as the court supported this measure with its whole power and influence, the bill made its way through the house, though not without alterations and amendments, which were rejected by the commons. The lower house pretended, that the lords had no right to alter any fines and penalties that the commons should fix in bills