DISPUTES ABOUT THE MUSCOVITE AMBASSADOR COMPROMISED.

The laws having been found insufficient to punish capitally the authors of the insult offered to the Muscovite ambassador, a bill was brought into the house of commons for preserving the privileges of ambassadors and other foreign ministers; and passed through both houses, as did another, to prevent the laying of wagers relating to the public, a practice which had been carried to a degree of infatuation; and by which many unwary persons fell a sacrifice to crafty adventurers. On the fourteenth day of March, the commons voted the sum of one hundred and three thousand, two hundred and three pounds, for the relief of the inhabitants of Nevis and St. Christopher’s, who had suffered by the late invasion; and on the twenty-first day of April, the parliament was prorogued. The Muscovite ambassador continued to write expostulatory letters to Mr. Secretary Boyle, who at last owned that the laws of the kingdom did not admit of such punishment as he demanded. An information was tried in the court of king’s bench for her majesty against Thomas Morton, laceman, and thirteen other persons concerned in the insult, of which they were found guilty; and the special matter of the privileges of ambassadors was to be argued next term before the judges. Meanwhile, the queen, by way of satisfaction to the czar, condescended to make solemn excuses by her ambassador; to repair Matueof’s honour by a letter, and indemnify him for all his costs and damages: concessions with which the czar and his ambassador declared themselves well satisfied. The convocation had been summoned, chosen, and returned with a new parliament; but as the old spirit was supposed to prevail in the lower house, the queen, by writ to the archbishop, ordered him. to prorogue it from time to time, until the session of parliament was finished.

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