BILL FOR RECOGNISING THEIR MAJESTIES.

The commons, in compliance with his request, voted a supply of twelve hundred thousand pounds, one million of that sum to be raised by a clause of credit in the revenue bills; but he could not prevail upon them to settle the revenue for life. They granted, however, the hereditary excise for that term, but the customs for four years only. They considered this short term as the best security the kingdom could have for frequent parliaments; though this precaution was not at all agreeable to their sovereign. A poll-bill was likewise passed, other supplies were granted, and both parties seemed to court his majesty by advancing money on those funds of credit. The whigs, however, had another battery in reserve. They produced, in the upper house, a bill for recognising their majesties as the rightful and lawful sovereign of these realms, and for declaring all the acts of the last parliament to be good and valid. The tories were now reduced to a very perplexed situation. They could not oppose the bill without hazarding the interest they had so lately acquired, nor assent to it without solemnly renouncing their former arguments and distinctions. They made no great objections to the first part, and even proposed to enact, That those should be deemed good laws for the time to come; but they refused to declare them valid for that which was past. After a long debate, the bill was committed; yet the whigs lost their majority on the report; nevertheless, the bill was recovered, and passed with some alteration in the words; in consequence of a nervous spirited protest, signed Bolton, Macclesfield, Stamford, Newport, Bedford, Her bert, Suffolk, Monmouth, Delamere, and Oxford. The whole interest of the court was thrown into the scale with this bill, before it would preponderate against the tories; the chiefs of whom, with the earl of Nottingham at their head, protested in their turn. The same party in the house of commons were determined upon a vigorous opposition; and in the mean time some trifling objections were made, that it might be committed for amendment; but their design was prematurely discovered by one of their faction, who chanced to question the legality of the convention, as it was not summoned by the king’s writ. This insinuation was answered by Somers the solicitor general, who observed, that if it was not a legal parliament, they who were then met, and who had taken the oaths enacted by that parliament, were guilty of high treason; the laws repealed by it were still in force: it was their duty therefore to return to king James; and all concerned in collecting and paying the money levied by the acts of that parliament were highly criminal. The tories were so struck with these arguments that the bill passed without further opposition, and immediately received the royal assent. Thus the settlement was confirmed by those very people who had so loudly exclaimed against it as illegal; but the whigs, with all their management, would not have gained their point had not the court been interested in the dispute.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

ANOTHER VIOLENT CONTEST.

There was another violent contest between the two parties, on the import of a bill requiring all subjects in office to abjure king James on pain of imprisonment. Though the clergy were at first exempted from this test, the main body of the tories opposed it with great vehemence; while the whigs, under countenance of the ministry, supported it with equal vigour. It produced long and violent debates; and the two factions seemed pretty equally balanced. At length the tories represented to the king that a great deal of precious time would be lost in fruitless altercation; that those who declared against the bill would grow sullen and intractable, so as to oppose every other motion that might be made for the king’s service; that, in case of its being carried, his majesty must fall again into the hands of the whigs, who would renew their former practices against the prerogative; and many individuals, who were now either well affected to him, or at least neutral, would become Jacobites from resentment. These suggestions had such weight with king William, that he sent an intimation to the commons, desiring they would drop the debate and proceed to matters that were more pressing. The whigs in general were disgusted at this interposition; and the earl of Shrewsbury, who had interested himself warmly in behalf of the bill, resented it so deeply that he insisted on resigning his office of secretary of state. The king, who revered his talents and integrity, employed Dr. Tillotson and others, who were supposed to have credit with the earl, to dissuade him from quitting his employment; but he continued deaf to all their remonstrances, and would not even comply with the request of his majesty, who pressed him to keep the seals until he should return from Ireland. Long debates were likewise managed in the house of lords upon the bill of abjuration, or rather an oath of special fidelity to William, in opposition to James. The tories professed themselves willing to enter into a negative engagement against the late king and his adherents; but they opposed the oath of abjuration with all their might: and the house was so equally divided that neither side was willing to hazard a decision, so that all the fruit of their debates was a prolongation of the session.