carty of the same persuasion was made library keeper; and the whole foundation was changed into a catholic seminary. When bishoprics and benefices in the gift of the crown. became vacant, the king ordered the profits to be lodged in the exchequer, and suffered the cures to be totally neglected. The revenues were chiefly employed in the maintenance of Romish bishops and priests, who grew so insolent under this indulgence, that in several places they forcibly seized the protestant churches. When complaint was made of this outrage, the king promised to do justice to the injured; and in some places actually ordered the churches to be restored: but the popish clergy refused to comply with this order, alleging that in spirituals they owed obedience to no earthly power but the holy see; and James found himself unable to protect his protestant subjects against a powerful body which he durst not disoblige. Some ships appearing in the bay of Dublin, a proclamation was issued, forbidding the protestants to assemble in any place of worship, or elsewhere, on pain of death. By a second they were commanded to bring in their arms, on pain of being treated as rebels and traitors. Luttrel, governor of Dublin, published an ordinance by beat of drum, requiring the farmers to bring in their corn for his majesty's horses within a certain day, otherwise he would order them to be hanged before their own doors. Brigadier Sarsfield commanded all protestants of a certain district to retire to the distance of ten miles from their habitations, on pain of death; and, in order to keep up the credit of the brass money, the same penalty was denounced, in a proclamation, against any person who should give more than one pound eighteen shillings for a guinea.

§ XLII. All the revenues of Ireland, and all the schemes contrived to bolster up the credit of the base coin, would have proved insufficient to support the expenses of the war, had not James received occasional supplies from the French monarch. After the return of the fleet which had conveyed him to Ireland, Lewis sent another strong squadron, commanded by Chateau Renault, as a convoy to some transports laden with arms, ammunition, and a large sum of money for the use of king James. Before they sailed from Brest, king William, being informed of their

destination, detached admiral Herbert from Spithead with twelve ships of the line, one fireship, and four tenders, in order to intercept the enemy. He was driven by stress of weather into Milfordhaven, from whence he steered his course to Kinsale, on the supposition that the French fleet had sailed from Brest; and that in all probability he should fall in with them on the coast of Ireland. On the first

day of May he discovered them at anchor in Bantrey bay, and stood in to engage them, though they were greatly superior to him in number. They no sooner perceived him at daybreak, than they weighed, stood out to windward, formed their line, bore down, and began the action, which was maintained for two hours with equal valour on both sides, though the English fleet sustained considerable damage from the superior fire of the enemy. Herbert tacked several times, in hope of gaining the weathergage; but the French admiral kept his wind with uncommon skill and perseverance, At length the English squadron stood off to sea, and maintained a running fight till five in the afternoon, when Chateau Renault tacked about, and returned into the bay, content with the honour he had gained. The loss of men was inconsiderable on both sides; and, where the odds were so great, the victor could not reap much glory, Herbert retired to the isles of Scilly, where he expected a reinforcement; but being disappointed in this expectation, he returned to Portsmouth in very ill humour, with which his officers and men were infected, The common sailors still retained some attachment to James, who had formerly been a favourite among them; and the officers complained that they had been sent upon this service with a force so much inferior to that of the enemy. King William, in order to appease their discontent, made an excursion to Portsmouth, where he dined with the admiral on board the ship Elizabeth, declared his intention of creating him an earl, in consideration of his good conduct and services, conferred the honour of knighthood on the captains Ashby and Shovel, and bestowed a donation of ten shillings on every private sailor,

§ XLIII, The parliament of England thought it incumbent upon them, not only to raise supplies for the Burnet. Beresby. King. Balcarres. De la Fayette. Voltaire,

maintenance of the war in which the nation was involved, but also to do justice with respect to those who had been injured by illegal or oppressive sentences in the late reigns. The attainders of lord Russel, Algernon Sidney, alderman Cornish, and lady Lisle, were now reversed. A committee of privileges were appointed by the lords to examine the case of the earl of Devonshire, who in the late reign had been fined thirty thousand pounds, for assaulting colonel Culpepper in the presence chamber. They reported that the court of king's bench, in overruling the earl's plea of privilege of parliament, had committed a manifest breach of privilege that the fine was excessive and exorbitant, against the great charter, the common right of the subject, and the law of the realm. The sentence pronounced upon Samuel Johnson, chaplain to lord Russel, in consequence of which he had been degraded, fined, scourged, and set in the pillory, was now annulled, and the commons recommended him to his majesty for some ecclesiastical preferment. He received one thousand pounds in money with a pension of three hundred pounds for his own life and that of his son, who was moreover gratified with a place of one hundred pounds a year: but the father never obtained any ecclesiastical benefice. Titus Oates seized this opportunity of petitioning the house of lords for a reversal of the judgment given against him on his being convicted of perjury. The opinions of all the judges and counsel at the bar were heard on this subject, and a bill of reversal passed the commons: but the peers having inserted some amendments and a proviso, a conference was demanded, and violent heats ensued. Oates, however, was released from confinement; and the lords, with the consent of the commons, recommended him to his majesty for a pardon, which he obtained, together with a comfortable pension. The committee appointed to inquire into the cases of the state prisoners, found sir Robert Wright, late lord chief justice, to have been concerned in the cruelties committed in the west after the insurrection of Monmouth; as also one of the ecclesiastical commissioners, and guilty of manifold enormities. Death had by this time delivered Jefferies from the resentment of the nation. Graham and Burton had acted as solicitors in the illegal prosecutions carried on

against those who opposed the court in the reign of Charles II; these were now reported guilty of having been instrumental in taking away the lives and estates of those who had suffered the loss of either under colour of law for eight years last past; of having, by malicious indictments, informations, and prosecutions of quo warranto, endeavoured the subversion of the protestant religion, and the government of the realm; and of having wasted many thousand pounds of the public revenue in the course of their infamous practices.

§ XLIV. Nor did the misconduct of the present ministry escape the animadversion of the parliament. The lords having addressed the king to put the Isle of Wight, Jersey, Guernsey, Scilly, Dover castle, and the other fortresses of the kingdom, in a posture of defence, and to disarm the papists, empowered a committee to inquire into the miscarriages in Ireland, which were generally imputed to the neglect of the marquises of Caermarthen and Halifax. They presented an address to the king, desiring the minute book of the committee for Irish affairs might be put into their hands: but his majesty declining gratifying them in this particular: then the commons voted, that those persons who had advised the king to delay this satisfaction were enemies to the kingdom. William, alarmed at this resolution, allowed them to inspect the book, in which they found very little for their purpose. The house resolved that an address should be presented to his majesty, declaring, that the succour of Ireland had been retarded by the unnecessary delays; that the transports prepared were not sufficient to convey the forces to that kingdom; and that several ships had been taken by the enemy, for want of proper convoy. At the same time the question was put, whether or not they should address the king against the marquis of Halifax : but it was carried in the negative by a small majority. Before this period, Howe, vicechamberlain to the queen, had moved for an address against such counsellors as had been impeached in parliament, and betrayed the liberties of the nation.--This motion was levelled at Caermarthen and Halifax, the first of whom had been formerly impeached of high treason under the title of earl

of Danby; and the other was charged with all the misconduct of the present administration. Warm debates ensued, and in all probability the motion would have been carried in the affirmative, had not those who spoke warmly in behalf of it suddenly cooled in the course of the dispute. Some letters from king James to his partisans being intercepted, and containing some hints of an intended invasion, Mr. Hambden chairman of the committee of the whole house, enlarged upon the imminent danger to which the kingdom was exposed, and moved for a further supply to his majesty. In this unexpected motion, he was not seconded by one member. The house, however, having taken the letters into consideration, resolved to draw up an address to the king, desiring him to secure and disarm all papists of note; and they brought in a bill for attainting several persons in rebellion against their majesties: but it was not finished during this session.

The

§ XLV. Another bill being prepared in the house of lords, enjoining the subjects to wear the woollen manufacture at certain seasons of the year, a petition was presented against it by the silk weavers of London and Canterbury, assembled in a tumultuous manner at Westminster. lords refused their petition, because this was an unusual manner of application. They were persuaded to return to their respective places of abode: precautions were taken against a second riot; and the bill was unanimously rejected in the upper house. This parliament passed an act, vesting in the two universities the presentations belonging to papists: those of the southern counties being given to Oxford; and those of the northern to Cambridge, on certain specified conditions. Courts of conscience were erected at Bristol, Gloucester, and Newcastle; and that of the marches of Wales was abolished, as an intolerable oppres

The protestant clergymen, who had been forced to leave their benefices in Ireland, were rendered cas pable of holding any living in England, without forfeiting their title to their former preferment, with the proviso that they should resign their English benefices when restored to those they had been obliged to relinquish. The statute of Henry IV. against multiplying gold and silver was now repealed: the subjects were