THE EMPEROR RESENTS THE TREATY OF SEVILLE.

On the fifteenth day of May, the king went to the house of peers and closed the session. In his speech he expressed his joy, that, notwithstanding all the clamours which were raised, the parliament had approved of those matters which, he said, could not fail to inspire all mankind with a just detestation of those incendiaries, who, by scandalous libels, laboured to alienate the affections of his people; to fill their minds with groundless jealousies and unjust complaints, in dishonour of him and his government, and in defiance of the sense of both houses of parliament.*

* In the course of the session the commons passed a bill for
making more effectual the laws in being, for disabling
persons from being chosen members of parliament who enjoyed
any pension during pleasure, or for any number of years, or
any offices holden in trust for them, by obliging all
persons hereafter to be chosen to serve the commons in
parliament to take the oath therein mentioned. In all
probability this bill would not have made its way through
the house of commons, had not the minister been well assured
it would stick with the upper house, where it was rejected
at the second reading, though not without violent
opposition.

The emperor was so much incensed at the insult offered him in the treaty of Seville, with respect to the garrisons of Tuscany and Parma, that he prohibited the subjects of Great Britain from trading in his dominions: he began to make preparations for war, and actually detached bodies of troops to Italy with such despatch as had been very seldom exerted by the house of Austria. Yet the article of which he complained was not so much a real injury as an affront put upon the head of the empire; for eventual succession to those Italian duchies had been secured to the infant, Don Carlos, by the quadruple alliance; and all that the emperor required was, that this prince should receive the investiture of them as fiefs of the empire.