irk,
contrary to the faith of the most solemn treaties; that the British
merchants had received no redress for the depredations committed by the
Spaniards; that the commerce of England daily decreased; that no sort of
trade throve but the traffic of Change-alley, where the most abominable
frauds were practised; and that every session of parliament opened a new
scene of villany and imposition.

ADDRESS TO THE KING.

The pension-bill was once more revived, and lost again in the house of
peers. All the reasons formerly advanced against a standing army were
now repeated; and a reduction of the number insisted upon with such
warmth, that the ministerial party were obliged to have recourse to the
old phantom of the pretender. Sir Archer Croft said, a continuation
of the same number of forces was the more necessary, because, to his
knowledge, popery was increasing very fast in the country; for in one
parish which he knew, there were seven popish priests; and that the
danger from the pretender was the more to be feared, because they did
not know but he was then breeding his son a protestant. Sir Robert
Walpole observed, that a reduction of the army was the chief thing
wished for and desired by all the Jacobites in the kingdom; that no
reduction had ever been made but what gave fresh hopes to that party,
and encouraged them to raise tumults against the government; and he did
not doubt but that, if they should resolve to reduce any part of the
army, there would be post-horses employed that very night to carry the
good news beyond sea to the pretender. His brother Horatio added, that
the number of troops then proposed was absolutely necessary to support
his majesty's government, and would be necessary as long as the nation
enjoyed the happiness of having the present illustrious family on
the throne. The futility, the self-contradiction, and the ridiculous
absurdity of these suggestions, were properly exposed; nevertheless, the
army was voted without any reduction. Sir Wilfred Lawson having made a
motion for an address to the king, to know what satisfaction had been
made by Spain for the depredations committed on the British merchants,
it was, after a violent debate, approved and the address presented. The
king in answer to this remonstrance gave them to understand, that the
commissaries of the two crowns had been so long delayed by unforeseen
accidents, that the conferences were not opened till the latter end of
the preced