so much indebted--that the prayer of the petition was
granted. A motion was carried by which the half-pay of naval officers
was increased by the addition of two shillings a day.

SUBSCRIPTION TO THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES.

This subject again occupied the attention of parliament in this session.
A bill, more generally conceived than the last, was brought into the
commons for the relief of Protestant Dissenters. Upon this occasion the
Wesleyan methodists, now a numerous and powerful body, made common cause
with the church, and denounced any change or innovation in the Act of
Toleration, as dangerous. Petitions were sent up to parliament by them
against the relief prayed for by the dissenting body, although they
were, in point of fact, themselves dissenters. Burke supported the bill,
and his eloquence and powerful reasoning had a great effect upon the
house. But his exertions this time were scarcely needed, for Lord North
himself, and other ministers gave the bill their warmest support, and
it passed the commons by large majorities. In the house of lords, it was
strongly opposed, and rejected by a majority of 102 against 29. In the
debate upon it, the bill was defended by the Earl of Chatham, who in his
speech did not even spare the right reverend bench. In the debate, Dr.
Drummond, Archbishop of York, had called the dissenting ministers
"men of close ambition." In reply to this, Chatham observed:--"Whoever
brought such a charge against them defamed them. The dissenting
ministers are represented as men of close ambition. They are so in some
respects. Their ambition is to keep close to the college of fishermen,
not of cardinals; and to the doctrine of the inspired apostles, not
to the decrees of interested and aspiring bishops. They contend for a
spiritual creed and a spiritual worship: we have a Calvinistic creed,
a Popish liturgy, and an Arminian clergy." At a later period of the
session a motion was made in the commons by Sir William Meredith, for
abolishing the subscription to the thirty-nine articles at the time of
matriculation, but this was rejected.

DEBATES ON EAST INDIA MEASURES.

During the recess, the East India directors reduced their dividend to
six per cent. This palliative, however, was of no avail, and they were
obliged to pass a vote for applying to government for the loan of one
million and a half to relieve them from their pecuniary difficulties.
A petition to this effect was presented to