1711. fpeedily to pass the accounts; and, in the mean time, we humbly hope your majefty will approve the resolution of your commons, "that fuch of the accomptants, who have ne"glected their duty in profecuting their accounts, ought no "longer to be intrufted with receiving the public money.' From all thefe evil practices, and worfe defigns of fome perfons, who had, by falfe profeffions of love to their country, infinuated themfelves into your royal favour, irreparable mischief had accrued to the public, had not your majesty, in your great wisdom, feasonably discovered the fatal tendency of fuch measures; and, out of your fingular goodness to your people, removed from the adminiftration of affairs, thofe who had fo ill anfwered the favourable opinion your majefty had conceived of them, and in fo many inftances grofly abufed the great truft reposed in them. Your people could, with greater patience, have fuffered the manifold injuries done to themselves, by the frauds and depredations of fuch evil minifters, had not the fame men proceeded to treat your facred perfon with undutifulness and disregard; but as the interefts of your majefty and your people are infeparable, and are, by your majefty and your good fubjects, infeparably purfued, the wrong, which thofe men had done to the public, drew upon them your royal displeasure; and their irreverence towards your majesty justly exposed them to the indignation of your people.

This reprefentation was artfully spread through the nation, by which weaker minds were fo poffeffed, that it was not easy to undeceive them, even by the fulleft and clearest evidences; the nation feemed ftill infatuated beyond the power of conviction.

The parliaOn the 12th of June the queen came to the house of ment is pro- peers, and, having given the royal affent to ten public and feven private bills, made the following fpeech to both houfes:

rogued.

The queen's fpeech to

both houses. Pr. H. C.

My lords and gentlemen,

IT is with great pleasure I tell you, at the end of this feffion, that you have fully made good all the affur"ances you gave me at the beginning of it.

"This I look upon as a further pledge of my subjects “ duty and affection, which is the firmeft fupport of my

"throne.

"I thank you gentlemen of the houfe of commons, in a particular manner for what you have done. You have

"complied

"complied with my defire in granting a supply for building many new churches, and you have not only inabled me "to carry on the war, but have made effectual provifion "for paying those heavy debts, which were almost grown "an infupportable burthen to the public; and this at a time, "when our enemies every were pleased themselves with the "hopes, that the fupplies for the fervice of the current year "could not have been found. You have disappointed

them in all refpects; and by the great fums you have "raised, the greatest ever granted to any prince in one "feffion, you have restored the public credit, which I take "care to preferve by a frugal management.

"The world muft now be fatisfied, that nothing can be 66 too difficult for a parliament, filled with so much zeal for "the true intereft of the nation in church and state.

My lords and gentlemen,

"The fatisfaction I take in the power, with which God "has intrufted me, is to employ it for the protection and "good of all my people, whofe profperity I have as much "at heart, as ever any of my predeceffors had.

"You fee the happy effects of a mutual confidence be"tween me and my fubjects. I fhall look upon any at"tempt to leffen it, as a step towards diffolving my government.

"The temper you have fhewn, will, I hope, convince "thofe, who have the misfortune to differ from our church, that their liberty is not in danger.

"It is needlefs for me to repeat the affurances of my "earnest concern for the fucceffion of the house of Hanover, and of fixed refolution to support and encourage my "the church of England, as by law established.

66

"You are now returning to your several countries; and "I expect from you, that you will further recommend "yourselves to me, by ftuding to promote the public peace "and quiet."

1711.

At the clofe of this fpeech, lord keeper Harcout pro- Burnet.. rogued the parliament to the 10th of July. Thus ended this feffion, and all confidering perfons had a melancholy profpect, when they faw what might be apprehended from the two feffions, that were yet to come of the fame parliament.

CHAP.

of the con

Calamy. Burnet.

CHA P. IV.

Proceedings of the convocation. The queen's licenfe to them. Exceptions to it.Whiston revives arianifm.-Different opinions about the power of the convocation.-A bill for fifty new churches.-The duke of Marlborough takes the field.-Surprises the French lines.-Takes Bouchain.-Affairs in Spain.-King Charles elected emperor. -Affairs in Turkey-And Pomerania.-French expedition to Brafil.-The expedition to Canada. -Remarks on it. A feffion of parliament in Ireland.-The pretender's friends fhew themselves openly in Scotland.-Promotions.-Negotiations of peace.-Prior fent into France.-And Mefnager into England. Seven preliminary articles.-The emperor's circular letter upon them.-The elector of Hanover's memorial. The parliament prorogued-And meets again.Debates about a claufe offered by the earl of Nottingham.-It is agreed to by the lords.-Bill rejected by the commons.— Duke Hamilton's patent examined.-A bill against occafional conformity. The lords addrefs about the peace. The duke of Marlborough turned out of all his employments on pretence of bribery. Twelve new peers made. Prince Eugene comes to England.

1711. THE convocation was opened the 25th of November, the fame day in which the parliament met; and Dr. Proceedings Atterbury, in preference to Dr. Kennet, was chofen prolovocation, cutor by a great majority. The queen fent a letter to the archbishop, dated December 12, in which the fignified her hopes, that the confultations of the clergy might be of use to repress the attempts of perfons of loofe and prophane principles, and prevent the like for the future; and promifed fhe would give them all fitting encouragement, to proceed in the dispatch of fuch bufinefs as properly belonged to them, and grant them fuch powers as fhould be thought requifite for carrying on fo good a work; confiding in them that her royal intentions would not be fruftrated, by unreafonable difputes about unneceffary forms and methods of proceeding. Soon after the queen fent a licenfe by the lord Dartmouth, under the boad-feal, to fit and do bufinefs in as ample a manner as was ever granted fince the reformation. By this licenfe, the queen impowered them to enter upon fuch confultations as the prefent ftate of the church required,

The queen's

license to them.

and

and particularly to confider of fuch matters as she should 1711. lay before them, limiting them to a quorum; that the archbishop, the bishop of London, or the bishop of Bath and Wells, fhould be prefent, and agree to their resolutions: with this license, there was a letter directed to the archbishop, in which the convocation was ordered, to lay before the queen an account of the late exceffive growth of infidelity and herefy among us; and to confider how to redrefs abuses in excommunications; how rural deans might be made more effectual; how terriers might be made and preserved more exactly; and how the abufes in licenses for marriage might be corrected.

cense.

In this whole matter, neither the archbishop nor any of Exceptions the bishops were fo much as confulted with; and fome to the lithings in the license were new: the archbishop was not named the prefident of the convocation, as was usual in former licenses; and, in these, the archbishop's presence and confent alone was made neceffary, except in cafe of fickness, and then the archbishop had named fome bishops to prefide, as his commiffaries: and, in that cafe, the convocation was limited to his commiffaries, which still lodged the prefidentship and the negative with the archbishop: this was according to the primitive pattern, to limit the clergy of a province to do nothing, without the consent of the metropolitan; but it was a thing new and unheardof, to limit. the convocation to any of their own body, who had no deputation from the archbishop. So a report of this being made, by a committee that was appointed to search the records, it was laid before the queen and fhe sent the bifhops a meffage to let them know, that he did not intend that thofe, whom she had named to be of the quorum, should either prefide, or have a negative upon their deliberation, though the contrary was plainly infinuated in the license. The archbishop was fo ill of the gout, that after their first meetings he could come no more: fo was alfo the bishop of London; upon which the bishop of Bath and Wells, feeing how inviduously he was diftinguifhed from his brethren, in which he had not been confulted, pretended ill health, and the convocation was at a fland, till a new license was fent them, in which the bifhops of Winchefter, Bristol, and St. Davids, were added to be of the quorum. The two laft were newly confecrated, and had been in no functions in the church before: fo the queen not only paffed over all the bishops made in king William's reign, but a great many of thofe named by herself, and fet the two laft in a diftination above

all

1711. all their brethren. All this was directed by Atterbury, who had the confidence of the chief minifter; and, because the other bishops had maintained a good correspondence with the former ministry, it was thought fit to put marks of the queen's diftruft upon them, that it might appear, with whom her royal favour and truft was lodged.

for the

queen.

A reprefenThe convocation entered on the confideration of the mattation drawn ters referred to them by the queen and a committee was appointed to draw a representation of the prefent state of the church, and of religion among us; but, after fome heads were agreed on, Atterbury procured, that the drawing of this might be left to him: and he drew up a moft virulent declamation, defaming all the adminiftration from the time of the revolution into this he brought many impious principles and practices, that had been little heard of or known, but were now to be publifhed, if this should be laid before the queen. The lower-house agreed to his draught; but the bishops laid it afide, and ordered another reprefentation to be drawn in more general and more modeft terms. It was not fettled which of these draughts should be made use of, or whether any representation at all fhould be made to the queen for it was known, that the defign in asking one was only to have an afperfion caft, both on the former miniftry and on the former reign. Several provifions were prepared, with relation to the other particulars in the queen's letter: but none of these were agreed to by both houfes (d).

Whifton revives ari

anifm.

An incident happened, which diverted their thoughts to another matter. Mr. Whifton, the mathematical profeffor in Cambridge, a learned man, of a fober and exemplary life, but much addicted to search after paradoxes, endeavoured to revive the Arian herefy, though he pretended to differ from Arius in feveral particulars. He found his notions favoured by the apoftolical constitutions; fo he reckoned them a part, and the chief part of the canon of the fcriptures. For these tenets he was cenfured at Cambridge, and expelled the univerfity: upon that he wrote a vindication. of himself and his doctrine, and dedicated it to the convo

(d) During thefe proceedings died Dr. Aldrich, dean of ChriftChurch in Oxford. He was a polite and learned divine, and a warm ftickler for the church and hereditary right. His zeal,

in thofe refpects, had made him. defcend fo low, as to apply himfelf to the contriving of the hieroglyfical figures of the Oxford almanac, with allusions in favour of the pretender.

cation,