y of Spain to the house of Austria. On
the fifteenth day of November, the queen gave the royal assent to an act
for exhibiting a bill to naturalize the princess Sophia, and the issue
of her body.

These measures being taken, the sixth day of December was appointed for
inquiring into those dangers to which the tories affirmed the church was
exposed; and the queen attended in person, to hear the debates on this
interesting subject. The earl of Eochester compared the expressions in
the queen's speech at the beginning of the session, to the law enacted
in the reign of Charles II. denouncing the penalties of treason against
those who should call the king a papist; for which reason, he said, he
always thought him of that persuasion. He affirmed that the church's
danger arose from the act of security in Scotland, the absence of the
successor to the crown, and the practice of occasional conformity. He
was answered by lord Halifax, who, by way of recrimination, observed
that king Charles II. was a Roman-catholic, at least his brother
declared him a papist after his death; that his brother and successor
was a known Roman-catholic, yet the church thought herself secure; and
those patriots who stood up in its defence were discountenanced and
punished: nay, when the successor ascended the throne, and the church
was apparently in the most imminent danger by the high commission court
and otherwise, the nation was then indeed generally alarmed; and every
body knew who sat in that court, and entered deeply into the measures
which were then pursued. Compton, bishop of London, declared that
the church was in danger, from profaneness, irreligion, and the
licentiousness of the press. He complained, that sermons were preached
wherein rebellion was countenanced, and resistance to the higher powers
encouraged. He alluded to a sermon preached before the lord mayor by Mr.
Hoadly, now bishop of Winchester. Burnet of Sarum said, the bishop of
London was the last man who ought to complain of that sermon; for if
the doctrine it contained was not good, he did not know what defence his
lordship could make for his appearing in arms at Nottingham. He affirmed
the church would be always subject to profaneness and irreligion, but
that they were not now so flagrant as they usually had been; he said
the society set up for reformation in London and other cities, had
contributed considerably to the suppression of vice; he was sure the
corporation for propagat