eir indignation and contempt against those persons whom they had
formerly idolized as their heroes and patriots. On the twelfth day of
June, the queen, having given the royal assent to several public and
private bills, made an affectionate speech to both houses. She thanked
the commons, in the warmest expressions, for having complied with all
her desires; for having baffled the expectations of her enemies in
finding supplies for the service of the ensuing year; in having granted
greater sums than were ever given to any prince in one session; and in
having settled funds for the payment of the public debts, so that the
credit of the nation was restored. She expressed her earnest concern
for the succession of the house of Hanover; and her fixed resolution to
support and encourage the church of England as by law established. Then
the parliament was prorogued.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE CONVOCATION.

Of the convocation which was assembled with the new parliament, the
lower house chose Dr. Atterbury their prolocutor. He was an enterprising
ecclesiastic, of extensive learning, acute talents, violently attached
to tory principles, and intimately connected with the prime minister
Oxford; so that he directed all the proceedings in the lower house of
convocation in concert with that minister. The queen, in a letter to
the archbishop, signified her hope that the consultations of the clergy
might be of use to repress the attempts of loose and profane persons.
She sent a license under the broad seal, empowering them to sit and
do business in as ample a manner as ever had been granted since the
reformation. They were ordered to lay before the queen an account of the
excessive growth of infidelity and heresy, as well as of other abuses,
that necessary measures might be taken for a reformation. The bishops
were purposely slighted and overlooked, because they had lived in
harmony with the late ministers. A committee being appointed to draw
up a representation of the present state of the church and religion,
Atterbury undertook the task, and composed a remonstrance that contained
the most keen and severe strictures upon the administration, as it had
been exercised since the time of the revolution. Another was penned by
the bishops in more moderate terms; and several regulations were made,
but in none of these did the two houses agree. They concurred, however,
in censuring some tenets favouring Arianism, broached and supported by
Mr. Whist