so fond and so zealous; he owned the desire of power and riches was natural to all men; but that he had learned both from reason and from the gospel, that this desire must be kept within due bounds, and not entrench upon the rights and liberties of their fellow creatures and countrymen. After a long debate, the house agreed to leave out some clauses concerning the test and corporation acts: then the bill was committed, and afterwards passed. In the lower house it met with violent opposition, in spite of which it was carried by the majority.

§ XII. The king on the seventeenth day of December, sent a message to the commons, importing, that all his endeavours to procure redress for the injuries done to his subjects by the king of Spain having proved ineffectual, he had found it necessary to declare war against that monarch. When a motion was made for an address, to assure the king they would cheerfully support him in the prosecution of the war, Mr. Shippen and some other members said, they did not see the necessity of involving the nation in a war, on account of some grievances of which the merchants complained, as these might be amicably redressed. Mr. Stanhope assured the house, that he had presented five-andtwenty memorials to the ministry of Spain on that subject, without success. Mr. Methuen accounted for the dilatory proceedings of the Spanish court in commercial affairs, by xplaining the great variety of regulations in the several provinces and ports of that kingdom. It was suggested, that the ministry paid very little regard to the trade and interest of the nation; inasmuch as it appeared by the answer from a secretary of state to the letter of the marquis de Monteleone, that they would have overlooked the violation of the treaties of commerce, provided Spain had accepted the conditions stipulated in the quadruple alliance; for it was there expressly said, that his majesty, the king of Great Britain, did not seek to aggrandize himself by any new acquisitions, but was rather inclined to sacrifice something of his own to procure the general quiet and tranquillity of Europe. A member observed, that nobody could tell how far that sacrifice would have extended; but cer tainly it was a very uncommon stretch of condescension. This sacrifice was said to be the cession of Gibraltar and

Port Mahon, which the regent of France had offered to the king of Spain, provided he would accede to the quadruple alliance. Horatio Walpole observed, that the disposition of Sicily in favour of the emperor was an infraction of the treaty of Utrecht; and his brother exclaimed against the injustice of attacking the Spanish fleet before a declaration of war. Notwithstanding all these arguments and objections, the majority agreed to the address; and such another was carried in the upper house without a division. The declaration of war against Spain was published with the usual solemnities; but this war was not a favourite of the people, and therefore did not produce those acclamations that were usual on such occasions.

§ XIII. Meanwhile cardinal Alberoni employed all his intrigues, power, and industry, for the gratification of his revenge. He caused new ships to be built, the seaports to be put in a posture of defence; succours to be sent to Sicily, and the proper measures to be taken for the security of Sardinia. He, by means of the prince de Cellamare, the Spanish ambassador at Paris, caballed with the malcontents of that kingdom, who were numerous and powerful. A scheme was actually formed for seizing the regent, and securing the person of the king. The duke of Orleans owed the first intimation of this plot to king George, who gave him to understand, that a conspiracy was formed against his person and government. The regent immediately took measures for watching the conduct of all suspected persons; but the whole intrigue was discovered by accident. The prince de Cellamare intrusted his despatches to the abbé Portocarrero, and to a son of the marquis de Monteleone. These emissaries set out from Paris in a post-chaise, and were overturned. The postillion overheard Portocarrero say, he would not have lost his portmanteau for a hundred thousand pistoles. The man, at his return to Paris, gave notice to the government of what he had observed. The Spaniards, being pursued, were overtaken and seized at Poitiers, with the portmanteau, in which the regent found two letters that made him acquainted with the particulars of the conspiracy. The prince de Cellamare was immediately, conducted to the frontiers; the duke of Maine, the marquis de Pompadour,

the cardinal de Polignac, and many other persons of distinction, were committed to different prisons. The regent declared war against Spain, on the twenty-ninth day of December; and an army of six-and-thirty thousand men began its march towards that kingdom in January, under the command of the duke of Berwick.

XIV. Cardinal Alberoni had likewise formed at scheme in favour of the pretender. The duke of Ormond repairing to Madrid, held conferences with his eminence; and measures were concerted for exciting another insurrection in Great Britain. The chevalier de St. George quitted Urbino by stealth; and embarking at Netteno, landed at Cagliari in March. From thence he took his passage to Roses in Catalonia, and proceeded to Madrid, where he was received with great cordiality, and treated as king of Great Britain. An armament had been equipped of ten ships of war and transports, having on board six thousand regular troops, with arms for twelve thousand men. The command of this fleet was bestowed on the duke of Ormond with the title of captain general of his most catholic majesty. He was provided with declarations in the name of that king, importing, that for many good reasons he had sent part of his land and sea forces into England and Scotland, to act as auxiliaries to king James. His Britannic majesty, having received from the regent of France timely notice of this intended invasion, offered, by proclamation, rewards to those that should apprehend the duke of Ormond, or any gentleman embarked in that expedition. Troops were ordered to assemble in the north, and in the west of England: two thousand men were demanded of the states general: a strong squadron was equipped to oppose the Spanish armament; and the duke of Orleans made a proffer to king George of twenty battalions for his service.

XV. His majesty having communicated to both houses of parliament, the repeated advices he had received touching this projected descent, they promised to support him against all his enemies. They desired he would augment his forces by sea and land; and assured him they would make good the extraordinary expense. Two thousand men were landed from Holland, and six battalions of

Imperialists from the Austrian Netherlands. The duke of Ormond sailed from Cadiz, and proceeded as far as Cape Finisterre, where his fleet was dispersed and disabled by a violent storm, which entirely defeated the purposed expedition. Two frigates, however, arrived in Scotland, with the earls Marischal and Seaforth, the marquis of Tullibardine, some field officers, three hundred Spaniards, and arms for two thousand men. They were joined by a small body of Highlanders, and possessed themselves of Donan Castle. Against these adventurers general Wightman marched with a body of regular troops from Inverness, They had taken possession of the pass at Glenshiel; but, at the approach of the king's forces, retired to the pass at Stratchell, which they resolved to defend. They were. attacked and driven from one eminence to another till night, when the Highlanders dispersed; and next day the Spaniards surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Mareschal, Seaforth, and Tullibardine, with some officers, retired to one of the western isles, in order to wait an opportunity of being conveyed to the continent.

§ XVI. On the last day of February the duke of Somer. set represented in the house of lords, that the number of peers being very much increased, especially since the union of the two kingdoms, it seemed absolutely necessary to take effectual measures for preventing the inconveniences that might attend the creation of a great number of peers, to serve a present purpose: an expedient which had been actually taken in the late reign. He therefore moved that the bill should be brought in, to settle and limit the peerage, in such a manner, that the number of English peers should not be enlarged beyond six above the present number, which, upon failure of male issue, might be supplied by new creations: that instead of the sixteen elective peers from Scotland, twenty-five should be made hereditary on the part of that kingdom; and, that this number, upon failure of the heirs male, should be supplied from the other members of the Scottish peerage. This bill was intended as a restraint upon the prince of Wales, who happened to be at variance with the present ministry. The motion was supported by the duke of Argyle, now lord steward of the household, the earls of Sunderland and Carlisle. It was opposed by the

earl of Oxford, who said, that although he expected nothing from the crown, he would never give his vote for lopping off so valuable a branch of the prerogative, which enabled the king te reward merit and virtuous actions. The debate. was adjourned to the second day of March, when earl. Stanhope delivered a message from the king, intimating, that as they had under consideration the state of the British peerage, he had so much at heart, the settling it upon such a foundation, as might secure the freedom and constitution of parliaments in all future ages, that he was willing his prerogative should not stand in the way of so great and necessary a work. Another violent debate ensued between the two factions. The question here, as in almost every other dispute, was not, Whether the measure proposed was advantageous to the nation? but, Whether the tory or the whig interest should predominate in parliament? Earl Cowper affirmed, that the part of the bill relating to the Scottish peerage, was a manifest violation of the treaty of union, as well as a flagrant piece of injustice, as it would deprive persons of their right, without being heard, and without any pretence or forfeiture on their part. He observed, that the Scottish peers excluded from the number of the twentyfive would be in a worse condition than any other subjects in the kingdom; for they would be neither electing nor elected, neither representing nor represented. These objections were overruled: several resolutions were taken agreeably to the motion; and the judges were ordered to prepare and bring in the bill. This measure alarmed the generality of Scottish peers, as well as many English commoners, who saw in the bill the avenues of dignity and title shut up against them; and they did not fail to exclaim against it, as an encroachment upon the fundamental maxims of the constitution. Treatises were writ and published on both sides of the question: and a national clamour began to arise, when earl Stanhope observed, in the house, that as the bill had raised strange apprehensions, he thought it advisable to postpone the further consideration of it till a more proper opportunity. It was accordingly dropped, and the parliament prorogued on the eighteenth day of April,

e Annals. Corbet. Tindal. Hist. Reg Deb. in Parliam. Lives of the Admirals.