INQUIRY INTO MISCARRIAGES BY SEA.

The whigs, before they were glutted with the sacrifice of Fenwick, had determined to let loose their vengeance upon sir George Rooke, who was a leader in the opposite interest. Sir Cloudesley Shovel had been sent with a squadron to look into Brest, where, according to the intelligence which the government had received, the French were employed in preparing for a descent upon England; but this information was false. They were busy in equipping an armament for the West Indies, under the command of M. Pointis, who actually sailed to the coast of New Spain and took the city of Carfehagena. Rooke had been ordered to intercept the Toulon squadron in its way to Brest; but his endeavours miscarried. The commons in a committee of the whole house resolved to inquire why this fleet was not intercepted; Rooke underwent a long examination, and was obliged to produce his journal, orders, and letters. Shovel and Mitchel were likewise examined; but nothing appearing to the prejudice of the admiral, the house thought proper to desist from their prosecution. After they had determined on the fate of Fenwick, they proceeded to enact several laws for regulating the domestic economy of the nation; among others they passed an act for the more effectual relief of creditors in cases of escape, and for preventing abuses in prisons and pretended privileged places. Ever since the reformation certain places in and about the city of London, which had been sanctuaries during the prevalence of the popish religion, afforded asylum to debtors, and were become receptacles of desperate persons who presumed to set the law at defiance. One of these places called White-friars was filled with a crew of ruffians, who every day committed acts of violence and outrage; but this law was so vigorously put in execution that they were obliged to abandon the district, which was soon filled with more creditable inhabitants. On the sixteenth day of April the king closed the session with a short speech, thanking the parliament for the great supplies they had so cheerfully granted, and expressed his satisfaction at the measures they had taken for retrieving the public credit. Before he quitted the kingdom he ventured to produce upon the scene the earl of Sunderland, who had hitherto promoted his councils behind the curtain. That politician was now sworn of the privy council, and gratified with the office of lord-chamberlain, which had been resigned by the earl of Dorset, a nobleman of elegant talents and invincible indolence, severe and poignant in his writings and remarks upon mankind in general, but humane, good-natured, and generous to excess, in his commerce with individuals.