withdrawn. The lords made a declaration to the same purpose,
with an exception to menial servants, and those necessarily employed
about the estates of peers.*

* The duke of Newcastle was now appointed secretary of
state; the duke of Grafton, lord-chamberlain; and lord
Carteret, lord-lieutenant of Ireland.--The king instituted a
professorship for the modern languages in each university.--
In the month of May died Robert Harley, earl of Oxford and
earl Mortimer, who had been a munificent patron of genius
and literature; and completed a very valuable collection of
manuscripts.--The practice of inoculation for the small-pox
was by this time introduced into England from Turkey. Prince
Frederic, the two princesses Amelia and Carolina, the duke
of Bedford and his sister, with many other persons of
distinction, underwent the operation with success.--Dr.
Henry Sacheverel died in June, after having bequeathed five
hundred pounds to the late bishop of Rochester.

{1724}

On the twenty-fourth day of April, his majesty closed the session in
the usual manner, made some alterations in the disposition of the
great officers of state, and sent Mr. Horatio Walpole as
ambassador-extraordinary to the court of France.

PHILIP, KING OF SPAIN, ABDICATES THE THRONE.

In the beginning of this year, Philip king of Spain, retiring with his
queen to the monastery of St. Ildefonso, sent the marquis of Grimaldi,
his principal secretary of state, to his son Louis prince of Asturias,
with a solemn renunciation of the crown, and a letter of advice in
which he exhorted him to cultivate the Blessed Virgin with the warmest
devotion, and put himself and his kingdoms under her protection. The
renunciation was published through the whole monarchy of Spain; and
the council of Castile resolved, That Louis might assume the reins of
government without assembling the Cortez. The English minister at Paris
was instructed to interpose in behalf of the French protestants, against
whom a severe edict had been lately published; but his remonstrances
produced no effect. England, in the meantime, was quite barren of such
events as deserve a place in history. The government was now firmly
established on the neck of opposition; and commerce flourished even
under the load of grievous impositions.

ABUSES IN CHANCERY.

The next parliament, which met on the twelfth day of November, see