THEY PASS AN ACT FOR ERECTING A TRADING COMPANY.

The committee of trade, in pursuance of the powers granted by the king to his commissioner, prepared an act for establishing a company trading to Africa and the Indies, empowering them to plant colonies, hold cities, towns, or forts, in places uninhabited, or in others with the consent of the natives; vesting them with an exclusive right, and an exemption for one-and-twenty years from all duties and impositions. This act was likewise confirmed by letters patent under the great seal, directed by the parliament, without any further warrant from the crown. Paterson, the projector, had contrived the scheme of a settlement upon the isthmus of Darien, in such a manner as to carry on a trade in the South Sea as well as in the Atlantic; nay, even to extend it as far as the East Indies: a great number of London merchants, allured by the prospect of gain, were eager to engage in such a company, exempted from all manner of imposition and restriction. The Scottish parliament likewise passed an act in favour of the episcopal clergy, decreeing, That those who should enter into such engagements to the king as were by law required, might continue in their benefices under his majesty’s protection, without being subject to the power of presbytery. Seventy of the most noted ministers of that persuasion took the benefit of this indulgence. Another law was enacted, for raising nine thousand men yearly to recruit the Scottish regiments abroad; and an act for erecting a public bank; then the parliament was adjourned to the seventh day of November.