, while he was prosecuted for offending against the law, by
those who in common justice ought to be thought the fairest accusers,
and before their lordships, who were justly acknowledged to be the
most impartial judges. In discussing the fourth article, the bishop
of Salisbury spoke with great vehemence against Sacheverel, who, by
inveighing against the revolution, toleration, and union, seemed to
arraign and attack the queen herself; since her majesty had so great a
share in the first, had often declared she would maintain the second,
and that she looked upon the third as the most glorious event of her
reign. He affirmed that nothing could be more plain than the doctor's
reflecting upon her majesty's ministers; and that he had so well marked
out a noble peer there present, by an ugly and scurrilous epithet which
he would not repeat, that it was not possible to mistake his meaning.
Some of the younger peers could not help laughing at this undesigned
sarcasm upon the lord-treasurer, whom Sacheverel had reviled under
the name of Volpone; they exclaimed, "Name him, name him;" and in all
probability the zealous bishop, who was remarkable for absence of mind
and unguarded expressions, would have gratified their request, had not
the chancellor, interposing, declared that no peer Was obliged to say
more than he should think proper.

After obstinate disputes, and much virulent altercation, Sacheverel
was found guilty by a majority of seventeen voices; and four-and-thirty
peers entered a protest against this decision. He was prohibited from
preaching for the term of three years: his two sermons were ordered to
be burnt by the hands of the common hangman, in presence of the lord
mayor and the two sheriffs of London and Middlesex. The lords likewise
voted that the executioner should commit to the same fire the famous
decree passed in the convocation of the university of Oxford, asserting
the absolute authority and indefeasible right of princes. A like
sentence was denounced by the commons upon a book intituled,
"Collections of Passages referred to by Dr. Sacheverel, in his Answer to
the Articles of Impeachment." These he had selected from impious books
lately published, and they were read by his counsel, as proofs that the
church was in danger. The lenity of the sentence passed upon Sacheverel,
which was in a great measure owing to the dread of popular resentment,
his friends considered as a victory obtained over a whig faction, an