BILL AGAINST ATHEISM.

During the infatuation produced by this infamous scheme, luxury, vice, and profligacy, increased to a shocking degree of extravagance. The adventurers, intoxicated by their imaginary wealth, pampered themselves with the rarest dainties, and the most expensive wines that could be imported; they purchased the most sumptuous furniture, equipage, and apparel, though without taste or discernment; they indulged their criminal passions to the most scandalous excess; their discourse was the language of pride, insolence, and the most ridiculous ostentation; they affected to scoff at religion and morality, and even to set heaven at defiance. The earl of Nottingham complained in the house of lords of the growth of atheism, profaneness, and immorality; and a bill was brought in for suppressing blasphemy and profaneness. It contained several articles seemingly calculated to restrain the liberty granted to nonconformists by the laws of the last session: for that reason it met with violent opposition. It was supported by the archbishop of Canterbury, the earl of Nottingham, lords Bathurst and Trevor, the bishops of London, Winchester, and Litchfield and Coventry. One of these said, he verily believed the present calamity occasioned by the South-Sea project, was a judgment of God on the blasphemy and profaneness of the nation. Lord Onslow replied, “That noble peer must then be a great sinner, for he has lost considerably by the South-Sea scheme.” The duke of Wharton, who had rendered himself famous by his wit and profligacy, said he was not insensible of the common opinion of the town concerning himself, and gladly seized this opportunity of vindicating his character, by declaring he was far from being a patron of blasphemy, or an enemy to religion. On the other hand, he could not but oppose the bill, because he conceived it to be repugnant to the holy scripture. Then pulling an old family bible from his pocket, he quoted several passages from the epistles of St. Peter and St. Paul; concluding with a desire that the bill might be thrown out. The earl of Peterborough declared, that though he was for a parliamentary king, yet he did not desire to have a parliamentary God, or a parliamentary religion; and, should the house declare for one of this kind, he would go to Rome and endeavour to be chosen a cardinal; for he had rather sit in a conclave than with their lordships upon those terms. After a vehement debate, the bill was postponed to a long day, by a considerable majority. The season was far advanced before the supplies were granted; and at length they were not voted with that cheerfulness and good humour which the majority had hitherto manifested on such occasions. On the sixteenth day of June, the king sent a message to the house of commons, importing, that he had agreed to pay a subsidy to the crown of Sweden, and he hoped they would enable him to make good his engagements. The leaders of the opposition took fire at this intimation. They desired to know whether this subsidy, amounting to seventy-two thousand pounds, was to be paid to Sweden over and above the expense of maintaining a strong squadron in the Baltic? Lord Molesworth observed, that, by our late conduct, we were become the allies of the whole world, and the bubbles of all our allies: for we were obliged to pay them well for their assistance. He affirmed that the treaties which had been made with Sweden at different times, were inconsistent and contradictory; that our late engagements with that crown were contrary to the treaties subsisting with Denmark, and directly opposite to the measures formerly concerted with the czar of Muscovy. He said, that in order to engage the czar to yield what he had gained in the course of the war, the king of Prussia ought to give up Stetin, and the elector of Hanover restore Bremen and Verden; that, after all, England had no business to intermeddle with the affairs of the empire; that we reaped little or no advantage by our trade to the Baltic, but that of procuring naval stores; he owned that hemp was a very necessary commodity, particularly at this juncture; but he insisted that if due encouragement were given to some of our plantations in America, we might be supplied from thence at a much cheaper rate than from Sweden and Norway. Notwithstanding these arguments, the Swedish supply was granted; and, in about three weeks, their complaisance was put to another proof. They were given to understand, by a second message, that the debts of the civil list amounted to five hundred and fifty thousand pounds; and his majesty hoped they would empower him to raise that sum upon the revenue, as he proposed it should be replaced in the civil list, and reimbursed by a deduction from the salaries and wages of all officers, as well as from the pensions and other payments from the crown. A bill was prepared for this purpose, though not without warm opposition; and, at the same time, an act passed for a general pardon. On the tenth day of August, the king closed the session with a speech, in which he expressed his concern for the sufferings of the innocent, and a just indignation against the guilty, with respect to the South-Sea scheme. These professions were judged necessary to clear his own character, which had incurred the suspicion of some people, who whispered that he was not altogether free from connexions with the projectors of that design; that the emperor had, at his desire, refused to deliver up Knight; and that he favoured the directors and their accomplices.