"The branches of the revenue, formerly granted for the support of the civil government, are so far encumbered and alienated, that the produce of the funds which remain and have been granted to me, will fall much short of what was at first designed for maintaining the honour and dignity of the crown; and since it is my happiness, as I am confident you will think it yours, to see a prince of Wales, who may, in due time, succeed me on the throne, and to see him blessed with many children, the best and most valuable pledges of our care and concern for your prosperity, this must occasion an expense to which the nation has not of many years been accustomed, but such as surely no man will grudge; and, therefore, I do not doubt but you will think of it with that affection which I have reason to hope from you.

"My lords and gentlemen:-The eyes of all Europe are upon you waiting the issue of this first session. Let no unhappy division of parties, here at home, divert you from pursuing the common interest of your country. Let no wicked insinuations disquiet the minds of my subjects. The established constitution in church and state shall be the rule of my government; the happiness, ease, and prosperity of my people shall be the chief care of my life. Those who assist me in carrying on these measures, I shall always esteem my best friends; and I doubt not but that I shall be able, with your assistance, to disappoint the designs of those who would deprive me of that blessing, which I most value, the affections of my people."

This was certainly a very extraordinary speech, and, taken in connexion with the instructions given to members of parliament by their constituents, a specimen of which we have already given, proves that the country in general had a most decided feeling of hostility towards the late ministry, and laboured under a deep sense of disgrace and impending ruin accruing from their measures. The address, which, though violently debated, was carried by a great majority, showed that the feeling of the parliament was in perfect unison with that of the country. After thanking his majesty for his most gracious speech, his kind assurance that the constitution should be the alone rule of his government, and his tender

concern for the loss to the nation of so many splendid achievements by an illtimed and insecure peace; they go on to say, that they met together with hearts deeply sensible of the divine goodness that had brought his majesty with safety, and at a juncture so critical, to the throne of his ancestors. They express their wonder, that a pretender to his crown should be allowed to reside so near to his dominions; and while they admit that trade is rendered impracticable in its most valuable branches, they assure his majesty that nothing shall be wanting on their part to retrieve it; and they doubt not, but that his majesty, "assisted by this parliament, zealous for his government, and the safety and honour of their country, will be able to secure what is due to us by treaty, ease our debts, preserve public credit, restore trade, extinguish the very hope of the pretender, and recover the reputation of the kingdom in foreign parts, the loss of which, they hope to convince the world by their actions, is not to be imputed to the nation in general." In expressing the same sentiments, the commons were still more explicit. They profess "the utmost astonishment to find, that any conditions of the late peace, essential to the security and trade of Great Britain, should not yet be duly executed, and that care was not taken to form such alliances as might have rendered the peace not precarious. And as no care shall be wanting in your loyal commons to inquire into these fatal miscarriages, so we entirely rely upon your majesty's wisdom to enter into such alliances as you shall judge necessary to preserve the peace of Europe; and we faithfully promise to enable your majesty to make good all such engagements. It is with just resentment we observe that the pretender still resides in Lorrain, and that he has the presumption, by declarations from thence, to stir up your majesty's subjects to rebellion. But that which raises the utmost indignation of your commons is, that it appears therein, that his hopes were built upon the measures that had been taken for some time past in Great Britain. It shall be our business to trace out those measures whereon he placed his hopes, and to bring the authors of them to condign punishment." In the course of the debate upon this address in the commons, "Mr. Stanhope assured the house, that notwith

standing all the endeavours which had been used to prevent a discovery of the late mismanagements, by conveying away several papers from the secretary's office, yet the government had sufficient evidence left, to prove the late ministry the most corrupt that ever sat at the helm. That those matters would be laid before the house, and that it would appear, that a certain English general [Ormond] had acted in concert with, if not received orders from marshal Villars."*

The late ministry had hitherto treated public opinion as of very little consequence, and carried themselves with a great deal of apparent unconcern. It was now, however, evident that a serious inquiry into their conduct was intended, and the most criminal began to look out for secure hiding places. Bolingbroke, aware of the return of Prior from Paris, and, no doubt, of the evidence which it was in his power to give, escaped to Dover in the disguise of a servant, where he embarked for France, and arrived the same day at Calais. He immediately joined the court of the pretender, was soon after attainted, lost his honours and an estate of two thousand pounds a year, and was an exile for several years.+ Oxford was shortly after impeached and sent to the tower. The duke of Ormond was also impeached, but, like Bolingbroke, fled to the pretender, in whose behalf his military genius was exerted with as little effect as it had formerly been for the British nation. These matters, however, do not come within the limits of this history, the space allotted to which, would be insufficient for giving a clear and discriminating view of them. After all the attempts that have been made to elucidate this portion of British history, it remains a greatly unknown, but rich field for exercising the patience, and displaying the judgment and penetration of some future historian.

While the parliament was thus labouring to correct former mismanagements, and to bring the peculators of the public

• Annals of King George, p. 369.

The loss to the family was repaired in 1716, by his father, Sir Henry St.. John, being created viscount St. John and baron of Battersea. Mr. St. John received, after a while, his majesty's pardon, and, in 1725, an act of parlia ment was passed, enabling him to inherit his father's honours and estates. Memoirs of the Life and Ministerial Conduct of Lord Bolingbroke.

to justice, the tories had again recourse to their old and favourite system of mobbing, which they now carried to a greater height than upon any former occasion. Saturday the twenty-eighth of May, being the anniversary of his majesty's birth-day, was selected by the party for commencing a series of riotous proceedings probably without example in the history of civilized kingdoms, proceedings that regarded neither life nor property, and trampled equally upon the humble individual, and upon the associated community. Some gentlemen attached to the constitution in and about Oxford, having met in honour of the day, a malicious report was circulated that it was their intention to burn in effigy, the late queen, the duke of Ormond, lord Bolingbroke, the Pope, Dr. Sacheveral, and the devil together; which, absurd and ridiculous as it was, had the effect of converting the inhabitants of that celebrated seat of science into one vast mob, by which the whigs were instantly driven into hiding-places, the presbyterian meetinghouse pulled down, a bonfire made of the windows, pulpit, and pews, and Mr. Roby, the minister, burnt in effigy; after which, they kept running about the streets like so many madmen, during the night searching for whigs, vociferating "an Ormond, an Ormond, a Bolingbroke, a Bolingbroke, down with the Roundheads, no Constitution, no Hanover, a new Restoration!" The night following being the anniversary of the restoration of Charles II., they assembled again, and, that the presbyterians might not have the honour of being the alone objects of their detestation, demolished the meeting-houses of the baptists and the quakers.

On the tenth of June, the anniversary of the birth of the chevalier, the Jacobites in London showed the most determined attachment to the cause, by observing it as a day of the highest solemnity. All their windows were illuminated, and they had a mob sufficiently numerous, and sufficiently audacious to break all the windows that were not illuminated, not even excepting those of the lord mayor. Passing through Smithfield, this infuriated rabble burnt a print of king William, roaring out at the same time, "High church and the duke of Ormond," and, as there was not a force at hand to suppress them, they rolled along, committing every species of

mischief, till they reached Cheapside, where they were met and quelled by the constables, and an assemblage of respectable citizens who had come forward to assist them. Thirty of the rioters were here secured and committed to prison. One Bournois, a professed French schoolmaster, but in reality, a popish priest, was, the same evening, apprehended in the act of publicly denying the king's right to the crown, for which he was tried, sentenced, and publicly whipped with so much severity as, in a few days, to occasion his death. This tenth of June, indeed, seems to have brought the mobbing system to perfection, and during the remainder of this and great part of the following month, dissenters from the church of England of all descriptions, papists alone excepted, were persecuted with the most unrelenting ferocity, their persons wantonly insulted, their meeting houses thrown down, and their dwelling houses rifled. In many places it became necessary to call out the militia, who were often unable to repress the mischief, which raged with unabated violence till the twentieth of July, when the parliament passed the famous riot act, which, vigorously executed, put an end to the evil, and to the lives of a number of the misguided rioters at the same time.*

The following is a copy of this celebrated act, which, as it is still the law of the land, deserves to be known by every individual, especially in cities where the inhabitants may be very simply and very thoughtlessly brought within its terrific grasp.

"An Act for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies, and for the more speedy and effectual punishing the rioters.

"Whereas, of late, many rebellious riots and tumults have been in diverse parts of this kingdom, to the disturbance of the public peace, and endangering of his majesty's person and government; and the same are yet continued and fomented by persons disaffected to his majesty, presuming so to do, for that the punishments provided by the laws now in being, are not adequate to such heinous offences: And by such rioters his majesty and his administration have been most maliciously and falsely traduced, with an intent to raise divisions, and to alienate the affections of the people from his majesty; therefore, for the preventing and suppressing of such riots and tumults, and for the more speedy and effectual punishing the offenders therein, be it enacted by the king's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and of the commons in this present parliament