, the resident
from Hanover. They communicated their observations to the elector; they
received his instructions; they maintained a correspondence with the
duke of Marlborough; and they concerted measures for opposing all
efforts that might be made against the protestant succession upon the
death of the queen, whose health was by this time so much impaired, that
every week was believed to be the last of her life. This conduct of the
whigs was resolute, active, and would have been laudable, had their
zeal been confined within the bounds of truth and moderation; but they,
moreover, employed all their arts to excite and encourage the fears and
jealousies of the people.

The house of peers resounded with debates upon the Catalans, the
pretender, and the danger that threatened the protestant succession.
With respect to the Catalans, they represented, that Great Britain had
prevailed upon them to declare for the house of Austria, with promise of
support; and that these engagements ought to have been made good. Lord
Bolingbroke declared that the queen had used all her endeavours in their
behalf; and that the engagements with them subsisted no longer than
king Charles resided in Spain. They agreed, however, to an address,
acknowledging her majesty's endeavours in favour of the Catalans, and
requesting she would continue her interposition in their behalf. With
respect to the pretender, the whig lords expressed such a spirit of
persecution and rancorous hate, as would have disgraced the members of
any, even the lowest assembly of christians. Not contented with
hunting him from one country to another, they seemed eagerly bent upon
extirpating him from the face of the earth, as if they had thought it
was a crime in him to be born. The earl of Sunderland declared, from
the information of the minister of Lorraine, that, notwithstanding
the application of both houses to her majesty during the last session,
concerning the pretender's being removed from Lorraine, no instances had
yet been made to the duke for that purpose. Lord Bolingbroke affirmed
that he himself had made those instances, in the queen's name, to that
very minister before his departure from England. The earl of Wharton
proposed a question: "Whether the protestant succession was in danger
under the present administration?" A warm debate ensued, in which the
archbishop of York and the earl of Anglesea joined in the opposition to
the ministry. The earl pretended to be conv