DUKE OF ORMOND AND LORD BOLINGBROKE ATTAINTED.

On the third day of September, Oxford’s answer was delivered to the house of lords, who transmitted it to the commons. Mr. Walpole, having heard it read, said it contained little more than a repetition of what had been suggested in some pamphlets and papers which had been published in vindication of the late ministry; that it was a false and malicious libel, laying upon his royal mistress the blame of all the pernicious measures he had led her into, against her own honour, and the good of his country; that it was likewise a libel on the proceedings of the commons, since he endeavoured to clear those persons who had already confessed their guilt by flight. After some debate, the house resolved, that the answer of Robert earl of Oxford should be referred to the committee appointed to draw up articles of impeachment, and prepare evidence against the impeached lords; and that the committee should prepare a replication to the answer. This was accordingly prepared and sent up to the lords. Then the committee reported, that Mr. Prior had grossly prevaricated on his examination, and behaved with great contempt of their authority. The duke of Ormond and lord viscount Bolingbroke having omitted to surrender themselves within the limited time, the house of lords ordered the earl-marshal to raze out of the list of peers their names and armorial bearings. Inventories were taken of their personal estates; and the duke’s achievements, as knight of the garter, were taken down from St. George’s chapel at Windsor. A man of candour cannot, without an emotion of grief and indignation, reflect upon the ruin of the noble family of Ormond, in the person of a brave, generous, and humane nobleman, to whom no crime was imputed but that of having obeyed the commands of his sovereign. About this period the royal assent was given to an act for encouraging loyalty in Scotland. By this law the tenant who continued peaceable while his lord took arms in favour of the pretender, was invested with the property of the lands he rented; on the other hand, it was decreed that the lands possessed by any person guilty of high treason should revert to the superior of whom they were held, and be consolidated with the superiority; and that all entails and settlements of estates, since the first day of August, in favour of children, with a fraudulent intent to avoid the punishment of the law due to the offence of high treason, should be null and void. It likewise contained a clause for summoning suspected persons to find bail for their good behaviour, on pain of being denounced rebels. By virtue of this clause all the heads of the jacobite clans, and other suspected persons, were summoned to Edinburgh; and those who did not appear were declared rebels.