nistry; that it was a false and malicious
libel, laying upon his royal mistress the blame of all the pernicious
measures he had led her into, against her own honour, and the good of
his country; that it was likewise a libel on the proceedings of the
commons, since he endeavoured to clear those persons who had already
confessed their guilt by flight. After some debate, the house resolved,
that the answer of Robert earl of Oxford should be referred to the
committee appointed to draw up articles of impeachment, and prepare
evidence against the impeached lords; and that the committee should
prepare a replication to the answer. This was accordingly prepared and
sent up to the lords. Then the committee reported, that Mr. Prior had
grossly prevaricated on his examination, and behaved with great contempt
of their authority. The duke of Ormond and lord viscount Bolingbroke
having omitted to surrender themselves within the limited time, the
house of lords ordered the earl-marshal to raze out of the list of
peers their names and armorial bearings. Inventories were taken of their
personal estates; and the duke's achievements, as knight of the garter,
were taken down from St. George's chapel at Windsor. A man of candour
cannot, without an emotion of grief and indignation, reflect upon the
ruin of the noble family of Ormond, in the person of a brave, generous,
and humane nobleman, to whom no crime was imputed but that of having
obeyed the commands of his sovereign. About this period the royal assent
was given to an act for encouraging loyalty in Scotland. By this law the
tenant who continued peaceable while his lord took arms in favour of the
pretender, was invested with the property of the lands he rented; on the
other hand, it was decreed that the lands possessed by any person guilty
of high treason should revert to the superior of whom they were held,
and be consolidated with the superiority; and that all entails and
settlements of estates, since the first day of August, in favour of
children, with a fraudulent intent to avoid the punishment of the law
due to the offence of high treason, should be null and void. It likewise
contained a clause for summoning suspected persons to find bail for
their good behaviour, on pain of being denounced rebels. By virtue of
this clause all the heads of the jacobite clans, and other suspected
persons, were summoned to Edinburgh; and those who did not appear were
declared rebels.

INTRIGUES