is sufficient to
punish the offender. If poets and players are to be restrained, let them
be restrained as other subjects are, by the known laws of their country;
if they offend, let them be tried as every Englishman ought to be, by
God and their country. Do not let us subject them to the arbitrary will
and pleasure of any one man. A power lodged in the hands of a single man
to judge and determine without limitation, control, or appeal, is a sort
of power unknown to our laws, inconsistent with our constitution. It is
a higher, a more absolute power than we trust even to the king himself;
and, therefore, I must think we ought not to vest any such power in his
majesty's lord-chamberlain." His arguments had no effect, though the
house admired his elocution; and the play-house bill passed into a law.
On the twenty-first day of June the king made a short speech to both
houses, and the lord chancellor prorogued the parliament.

CHAPTER III.

_The Russians take Oczakow..... Death of Gaston de Medeis,
Duke of Tuscany..... Death of Caroline, Queen Consort of
England..... Dispute in Parliament about the Standing
Army..... Spanish Depredations..... Motives of the Minister
for avoiding a War..... Address to the King on the Subject
of the Depredations..... Bill for Securing the Trade, of
his Majesty's Subjects in America..... Debates in the House
of Lords..... Birth of Prince George..... Admiral Haddock
sails with a Squadron to the Mediterranean..... Progress of
the War against the Turks..... Dispute and Rupture between
Hanover and Denmark..... Sir Robert Walpole extols the
Convention in the House of Commons---Motion for an Address,
that the Representations, Letters, &c, relating to the
Spanish Depredations, should be laid before the House.....
Petitions against the Convention..... Substance of that
Agreement..... Debate in the House of Commons on the
Convention..... Secession of the chief Members in the
Opposition..... Debate in the House of Lords upon an Address
to his Majesty touching the Convention..... Message from the
Throne touching a Subsidy to Denmark, and a Power to augment
the Forces of the Kingdom..... Parliament prorogued..... The
King of Spain publishes a Manifesto..... The Emperor and
Czarina conclude a Peace with the Turks..... Preparations
for War in England..... Apology in the House of C