ns upon which they were made. Upon their report a bill was
formed and passed that house; but the lords rejected it at the first
reading. Their next step was to examine the public accounts, with a
view to fix an imputation on the earl of Godolphin. They voted that
above five-and-thirty millions of the money granted by parliament
remained unaccounted for. This sum, however, included some accounts in
the reigns of king Charles and king William. One half of the whole was
charged to Mr. Bridges, the pay-master, who had actually accounted for
all the money he had received, except about three millions, though
these accounts had not passed through the auditor's office. The commons
afterwards proceeded to inquire into the debts of the navy, that
exceeded five millions, which, with many other debts, were thrown into
one stock, amounting to nine millions four hundred and seventy-one
thousand three hundred and twenty-five pounds. A fund was formed for
paying an interest or annuity of six per cent, until the principal
should be discharged; and with this was granted a monopoly of a
projected trade in the South Sea, vested in the proprietors of
navy-bills, debentures, and other public securities, which were
incorporated for this purpose. Such was the origin of the South Sea
Company, founded upon a chimerical supposition that the English would
be permitted to trade upon the coast of Peru in the West Indies. Perhaps
the new ministry hoped to obtain this permission, as an equivalent
for their abandoning the interest of king Charles, with respect to his
pretensions upon Spain. By this time the emperor Joseph had died of the
small-pox without male issue; so that his brother's immediate aim was to
succeed him on the Imperial throne. This event was, on the twentieth day
of April, communicated by a message from the queen to both houses. She
told them that the states-general had concurred with her in a resolution
to support the house of Austria; and that they had already taken such
measures as would secure the election of Charles as head of the empire.

The house of commons, in order to demonstrate their attachment to
the church, in consequence of an address from the lower house of
convocation, and a quickening message from the queen, passed a bill for
building fifty new churches in the suburbs of London and Westminster,
and appropriated for this purpose the duty upon coals, which had been
granted for the building of St. Paul's, now finished. T