When the king went to the house of peers on the twentieth day of July, to give the royal assent to this and some other bills, he told both houses that a rebellion was actually begun at home; and that the nation was threatened with an invasion from abroad. He therefore expected that the commons would not leave the kingdom in a defenceless condition, but enable him to take such measures as should be necessary for the public safety. Addresses in the usual style were immediately presented by the parliament, the convocation, the common-council and lieutenancy of London, and the two universities; but that of Oxford was received in the most contemptuous manner; and the deputies were charged with disloyalty, on account of a fray which had happened between some recruiting officers and the scholars of the university. The addresses from the kirk of Scotland, and the dissenting ministers of London and Westminster, met with a much more gracious reception. The parliament forthwith passed a bill, empowering the king to secure suspected persons, and to suspend the habeas-corpus act in that time of danger. A clause was added to a money-bill, offering the reward of one hundred thousand pounds to such as should seize the pretender dead or alive. Sir George Byng was sent to take the command of the fleet. General Earle repaired to his government of Portsmouth; the guards were encamped in Hyde-park; lord Irwin was appointed governor of Hull, in the room of brigadier Sutton, who, together with lord Windsor, the generals Ross, Webb, and Stuart, were dismissed from the service. Orders were given for raising thirteen regiments of dragoons, and eight of infantry; and the trained bands were kept in readiness to suppress tumults. In the midst of these transactions, the commons added six articles to those exhibited against the earl of Oxford. Lord Bolingbroke was impeached at the bar of the house of lords by Mr. Walpole. Bills being brought in to summon him and the duke of Ormond to surrender themselves by the tenth of September, or, in default thereof, to attaint them of high treason, they passed both houses and received the royal assent. On the last day of August, the commons agreed to the articles against the earl of Strafford, which being presented to the house of lords, the earl made a speech in his own vindication. He complained that his papers had been seized in an unprecedented manner. He said, if he had in his letters or discourse dropped any unguarded expressions against some foreign ministers, while he had the honour to represent the crown of Great Britain, he hoped they would not be accounted criminal by a British house of peers; he desired he might be allowed a competent time to answer the articles brought against him, and have duplicates of all the papers which had either been laid before the committee of secrecy, or remained in the hands of government, to be used occasionally in his justification. This request was vehemently opposed by the leaders of the other party, until the earl of Hay represented that, in all civilized nations, all courts of judicature, except the inquisition, allowed the persons arraigned all that was necessary for their justification; and that the house of peers of Great Britain ought not, in this case, to do any thing contrary to that honour and equity for which they were so justly renowned throughout all Europe. This observation made an impression on the house, which resolved that the earl should be indulged with copies of such papers as he might have occasion to use in his defence.