MEETING OF THE CONVOCATION.

The commissioners, notwithstanding this secession, proceeded to debate with moderation on the abuses of which the dissenters had complained, and corrected every article that seemed liable to any just objection; but the opposite party employed all their art and industry to inflame the minds of the people. The two universities declared against all alterations, and those who promoted them. The king himself was branded as an enemy to the hierarchy; and they bestirred themselves so successfully in the election of members for the convocation, that they procured a very considerable majority. At their first meeting the friends of the comprehension scheme proposed Dr. Tillotson, clerk of the closet to his majesty, as prolocutor; but the other party carried it in favour of Dr. Jane, who was counted the most violent churchman in the whole Assembly. In a Latin speech to the bishop of London as president, he, in the name of the lower house, asserted that the liturgy of England needed no amendment, and concluded with the old declaration of the barons, “Nolumus leges Angliæ mutari. We will not suffer the laws of England to be changed.” The bishop, in his reply, exhorted them to moderation, charity, and indulgence towards their brethren the dissenters, and to make such abatements in things indifferent as might serve to open a door of salvation to multitudes of straying christians. His injunctions, however, produced no favourable effect; the lower house seemed to be animated by a spirit of opposition. Next day the president prorogued them, on pretence that the royal commission, by which they were to act, was defective for want of being sealed, and that a prorogation was necessary until that sanction should be obtained. In this interval means were used to mollify their non-compliant tempers, but all endeavours proved ineffectual. When they met again, the earl of Nottingham delivered the king’s commission to both houses, with a speech of his own, and a message from his majesty, importing that he had summoned them out of a pious zeal to do every thing that might tend to the best establishment of the church of England, which should always enjoy his favour and protection. He exhorted them to lay aside all prejudice, and consider calmly and impartially whatever should be proposed: he assured them he would offer nothing but what should be for the honour, peace, and advantage of the protestant religion in general, and particularly of the church of England.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.