be acted to his prejudice as null and void; and declared his refolution to adhere to his faithful Spaniards as long as there was a man of them that would stand by him. After an interval of a few weeks, Petkum returned with a propofal to resume the negotiations in form : and, at the same time, with a frank and open avowal from his most christian majesty, that it would be impoffible for him to execute the thirty-ninth article of the preliminaries relative to the evacuation of Spain, even if he should fign it. On which their high mightineffes not only refused to refume the negotiations, but wrote letters to the emperor and the diet, and the other powers of the alliance, exhorting them to profecute the war with redoubled vigor.

The parliament met on the 15th of November, 1709; and the neceffity was again inculcated of making fresh efforts against the common enemy, who was faid "to use all their artifices to amufe with falfe appearances and deceitful infinuations of their defire of peace, in hope that from thence means might be found to create divifions or jealoufies among the allies." The war, however, became every day more unpopular in England; and the majority of the nation began loudly to complain, that thanks were year after year returned to the duke of Marlborough for his public fervices; when it became every day more apparent that he was actuated chiefly by private confiderations, and that he invariably oppofed all overtures of conciliation, prompted by the fuggeftions of ambition and of intereft. In order, however, effectually to check and intimidate that rifing fpirit of discontent, evident symptoms of which appeared in every part of the kingdom; and to display the firmness of their attachment to thofe principles in which this once-popular war had originated, the parliament determined to give full scope to their vengeance on an occafion which certainly called for no fuch extraordinary violence of exertion.

On

On the 5th of November, 1709, an obfcure clergyman of the high-church faction, of the name of Sacheverel, preaching at St. Paul's cathedral upon the words of St. Paul, "Perils from falfe brethren," indulged himself in the most virulent defamation and abuse of the present administration and of their measures. The lord-treasurer in particular was fcurrilously attacked by the name of VOLPONE; and divers of the right reverend bench were also inveighed against with much scorn and malignity, as "perfidious prelates and falfe fons of the church," on account of their moderation respecting the diffenters, and their avowed approbation of the Toleration. He afferted in terms the most unqualified the doctrines of paffive obedience and non-refiftance; and pretended that to say the Revolution was inconfiftent with those doctrines was to caft black and odious imputations upon it. He affirmed that the church was violently affailed by her enemies, and faintly defended by those who profeffed themselves her friends. He vehemently urged the neceflity of ftanding up in defence of the church, for which he declared that he founded the trumpet, and exhorted the people "to put on the whole armour of God.” This inflammatory and libellous harangue, being published at the request of the lord mayor, was extravagantly extolled and applauded by the tories, and circulated by them with great industry throughout the kingdom. At the very height of the popular ferment and clamor excited by this extraordinary invective, and which would doubtlefs have foon died away had no public notice been taken of it, a complaint was formally preferred to the houfe of commons, by one of the members of that house, of this fermon, as containing positions contrary to Revolution principles, to the prefent government, and to the proteftant fucceffion. As it was by this means obtruded upon the notice of the house, it was impoffible not to express in some mode their disapprobation of these nefarious and feditious tenets. The wifer members thought it fufficient to order the fermon to

be

be burnt by the hands of the common hangman, and to commit the writer to Newgate during the remainder of the feffion. This, however, was by no means fatisfactory to the majority, who determined to raise this contemptible libeller to the rank of a political delinquent of great confequence and dignity, by a folemn parliamentary impeachment at the bar of the house of lords. No fooner was this abfurd and unaccountable refolution made public, than every poffible artifice was put in practice by the tory faction to inflame the minds of the public, and to represent Sacheverel as the champion and martyr of the church, which the whigs had, as they affirmed, a fixed intent to fubvert; and of which project the impeachment of Sacheverel was only the prelude. Thefe calumnies, however grofs and palpable, were swallowed by the populace with amazing avidity. During the trial, which lafted three weeks, his coach, in paffing between Westminster-hall and the Temple, where he then lodged, was constantly attended by vast multitudes with fhouts and acclamations of applaufe. And great tumults prevailed in the metropolis, where several places of worship licensed under the Act of Toleration were pulled down the houses of many of the most eminent diffenters were plundered, and those of the lord-chancellor, lord Wharton, the bishop of Sarum, &c. were threatened with demolition.

The managers of the house of commons, amongst whom were the celebrated names of KING, STANHOPE and WALPOLE, nevertheless exerted themselves with great courage and ability in support of the prosecution; and divers of the lords, fpiritual as well as temporal, diftinguished themselves by the liberality of their remarks upon this interefting occafion. The earl of Wharton, knowing at the time the queen to be in the house incognita, took the opportunity to obferve," that if the Revolution was not lawful, many in that houfe, and vast numbers out of it, were guilty of bloodshed and treafon; and that the queen herfelf was no legal fovereign,

fovereign, fince the best title she had to the crown was her parliamentary title founded on the Revolution." Dr. Wake, bishop of Lincoln, remarked "that by falfe and injurious infinuations men had been made to believe the church to be in danger, when in reality it enjoyed the most perfect fecurity; but that fuch invectives, if not timely corrected, might kindle fuch heats and animofities as would truly endanger both church and ftate." And Burnet, bishop of Sarum, juftified the principle of refiftance without reserve. He mentioned the conduct of queen Elizabeth, who had affifted the French, the Scots and the Hollanders in refifting their respective fovereigns, and who was fupported in this practice both by her parliaments and her convocations. He obferved, "that king Charles I. had affifted the city of Rochelle; and that Mainwaring had incurred the severest cenfure of parliament for broaching the doctrine of the divine right of kings-that though this became afterwards a fashionable doctrine, yet its most zealous affertors were the first to refift, when actually fuffering under oppreffion. He said, that by inveighing against the Revolution, the Toleration, and the Union, the delinquent at their lordships' bar had arraigned and attacked the queen herfelf; fince her majesty had a distinguished share in the first, had often declared she would maintain the fecond, and that the looked upon the third as the most glorious event of her reign. He affirmed, that this audacious libeller had likewife caft the most scandalous reflections upon her majefty's minifters; and that he had particularly drawn the portrait of a noble peer then present, in colors so lively, and had so plainly pointed him out by a vile and fcurrilous epithet, which he would not repeat, that it was impoflible to mistake in making the application." This unintentional farcafm on the lord-treafurer fomewhat difcompofed the gravity of the house; and, in violation of dignity and decorum, the bifhop was loudly called upon to name him; which in the fervor of his zeal, and in the wanderings of that mental abfence for which he

was

was remarkable, he might perhaps have done, had not the lord-chancellor interpofed, and declared that no peer was obliged to fay more than he himself fhould deem proper. In conclufion, Sacheverel was after high debates found guilty of a misdemeanor, by a majority of 17 voices only -52 to 69; and he was adjudged to be fufpended from preaching for the space of three years, and his fermon ordered to be publicly burned. And to the fame flames was alfo fomewhat whimsically, though very defervedly, committed the famous Decree of the University of Oxford, paffed near thirty years before, afferting the abfolute authority and indefeasible right of princes.

This mild fentence caft an air of ridicule over the whole proceedings, and was confidered as equivalent to an acquittal by the tory faction, who celebrated their triumph by bonfires and illuminations, not only in London, but over the whole kingdom. These rejoicings were fucceeded by numerous addreffes, expreffive of a zealous attachment to the church, and an utter deteftation of all anti-monarchical and republican principles. And in a progrefs which Sacheverel afterwards made into a remote part of the country, he was fumptuously entertained by the university of Oxford, invited to the palaces of different noblemen, received in many towns by the magistrates in their formalities, and generally attended by a numerous escort of horse. In other places the hedges were ornamented with garlands of flowers, the fteeples were covered with ftreamers and flags, and the air every where refounded with the cry of " the Church and Sacheverel." The enthusiasm fpread like a contagion through all ranks and orders of people. Men feemed to fuffer a temporary dereliction of fense and understanding, and the mob and the nation were for a time terms of the fame import. No martyr fuffering in the glorious cause of civil and religious liberty was ever perhaps so much the object of public applause and veneration, as this wretched and fanatical preacher of nonfenfe, impiety, and fedition. Encouraged