t, against which the
whigs exclaimed so violently, that many well-meaning people believed it
would be attended with the immediate ruin of the kingdom; yet under the
shadow of this very treaty, Great Britain enjoyed a long term of peace
and tranquillity. Bishop Burnet was heated with an enthusiastic terror
of the house of Bourbon. He declared to the queen in private, that any
treaty by which Spain and the West Indies were left in the hands of
king Philip, must in a little time deliver all Europe into the hands of
France: that, if any such peace was made, the queen was betrayed, and
the people ruined: that in less than three years she would be murdered,
and the fires would blaze again in Smithfield. This prelate lived to
see his prognostic disappointed; therefore he might have suppressed this
anecdote of his own conduct.

VIOLENCE OF PARTIES IN ENGLAND.

On the twenty-fifth day of June the queen signified, in a message to
the house of commons, that her civil list was burdened with some debts
incurred by several articles of extraordinary expense; and that she
hoped they would empower her to raise such a sum of money upon the funds
for that provision as would be sufficient to discharge the incumbrances,
which amounted to five hundred thousand pounds. A bill was immediately
prepared for raising this sum on the civil list revenue, and passed
through both houses with some difficulty. Both lords and commons
addressed the queen concerning the chevalier de St. George, who had
repaired to Lorraine. They desired she would press the duke of that
name, and all the princes and states in amity with her, to exclude from
their dominions the pretender to the imperial crown of Great Britain.
A public thanksgiving for the peace was appointed and celebrated with
great solemnity; and on the sixteenth day of July the queen closed the
session with a speech which was not at all agreeable to the violent
whigs, because it did not contain one word about the pretender and the
protestant succession. From these omissions, they concluded that the
dictates of natural affection had biassed her in favour of the chevalier
de St. George. Whatever sentiments of tenderness and compassion she
might feel for that unfortunate exile, the acknowledged son of her
own father, it does not appear that she ever entertained a thought of
altering the succession as by law established. The term of Sacheverel's
suspension being expired, extraordinary rejoicings were