on the
bank, the directors of which were overwhelmed with consternation, which
was not a little increased by the reports of an armament equipped in
the ports of France. They sent one of their members to represent to the
treasurer the danger that threatened the public credit. The queen being
made acquainted with these occurrences, signed a letter to sir Samuel
Stancer, lord-mayor of London, declaring, that now she was recovered
of her late indisposition, she would return to the place of her usual
residence, and open the parliament on the sixteenth day of February.
This intimation she sent to her loving subjects of the city of London,
to the intent that all of them, in their several stations, might
discountenance those malicious rumours, spread by evil-minded persons,
to the prejudice of credit, and the eminent hazard of the public
peace and tranquillity. The queen's recovery, together with certain
intelligence that the armament was a phantom, and the pretender still
in Lorraine, helped to assuage the ferment of the nation, which had been
industriously raised by party-writings. Mr. Richard Steele published a
performance, intituled, "The Crisis," in defence of the revolution and
the protestant establishment, and enlarging upon the danger of a popish
successor. On the other hand, the hereditary right to the crown of
England was asserted in a large volume, supposed to be written with
a view to pave the way for the pretender's accession. One Bedford was
apprehended, tried, convicted, and severely punished, as the publisher
of this treatise.

TREATY OF RASTADT BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND FRANCE.

While England was harrassed by these intestine commotions, the emperor,
rejecting the terms of peace proposed by France, resolved to maintain
the war at his own expense, with the assistance of the empire.
His forces on the Rhine commanded by prince Eugene, were so much
out-numbered by the French under Villars, that they could not prevent
the enemy from reducing the two important fortresses of Landau and
Fribourg. His imperial majesty hoped that the death of Queen Anne, or
that of Louis XIV. would produce an alteration in Europe that might be
favourable to his interest; and he depended on the conduct and fortune
of prince Eugene for some lucky event in war. But finding himself
disappointed in all these expectations, and absolutely unable to support
the expense of another campaign, he hearkened to overtures of peace that
were made b