ter the prorogation, the king appointed a regency and set
out for Hanover, in order to complete the great scheme he had projected
for electing a king of the Romans. Great Britain, in the meantime,
produced no event of importance, or any transaction that deserves
historical mention, except the ratification of two treaties of peace and
commerce with the states of Tripoli and Tunis on the coast of Barbary,
concluded by the British consuls in those cities, under the influence
and auspices of an English squadron, commanded by commodore Keppel,
son to the earl of Albemarle. The tide of luxury still flowed with
an impetuous current, bearing down all the mounds of temperance and
decorum; while fraud and profligacy struck out new channels, through
which they eluded the restrictions of the law, and all the vigilance of
civil policy. New arts of deception were invented, in order to ensnare
and ruin the unwary; and some infamous practices in the way of commerce,
were countenanced by persons of rank and importance in the commonwealth.
A certain member of parliament was obliged to withdraw himself from his
country, in consequence of a discovery, by which it appeared that he had
contrived and executed schemes for destroying his own ships at sea, with
a view to defraud the insurers.

In the course of this year the affairs of the continent did not undergo
any material alteration. In France, the religious dispute concerning
the doctrine of Jansen-ius still subsisted between the clergy and the
parliament; and seemed to acquire additional fuel from the violence of
the archbishop of Paris, a haughty turbulent prelate, whose pride and
bigotry were sufficient to embroil one half of Christendom. The northern
powers enjoyed a perfect tranquillity; the states-general of the United
Provinces were engrossed by plans of national economy. Spain was intent
upon extending her commerce, bringing her manufactures to perfection,
and repressing the insolence of the Barbary corsairs. His Portuguese
majesty endeavoured, by certain peremptory precautions, to check
the exportation of gold coin from his dominions, and insisted upon
inspecting the books of the British merchants settled at Lisbon; but
they refused to comply with this demand, which was contrary to a treaty
subsisting between the two crowns; and he thought proper to acquiesce in
their refusal. He was much better employed in obtaining from the pope an
abolition of the annual procession called the _A