and government. They issued an order for taking Mr. Standish into
custody; and the messenger reporting that he was not to be found, they
presented an address to the king, desiring a proclamation might be
published offering a reward for apprehending his person. The peers
concurred with the commons in their sentiments of this affair; for
complaints having been laid before their house also by the persons
who thought themselves aggrieved, the question was put whether the
government had cause to prosecute them, and carried in the affirmative,
though a protest was entered against this vote by the earls of Rochester
and Nottingham. Notwithstanding these decisions, the accused gentlemen
prosecuted Lunt and two of his accomplices for perjury at the Lancaster
assizes, and all three were found guilty. They were immediately indicted
by the crown for a conspiracy against the lives and liberties of the
persons they had accused. The intention of the ministry in laying
this indictment was to seize the opportunity of punishing some of
the witnesses for the gentlemen who had prevaricated in giving their
testimony; but their design being discovered, the Lancashire men refused
to produce their evidence against the informers; the prosecution dropped
of consequence, and the prisoners were discharged.

{WILLIAM, 1688--1701.}

INQUIRY INTO THE ABUSES IN THE ARMY.

When the commons were employed in examining the state of the revenue,
and taking measures for raising the necessary supplies, the inhabitants
of Royston presented a petition, complaining that the officers and
soldiers of the regiment belonging to colonel Hastings, which was
quartered upon them, exacted subsistence-money, even on pain of military
execution. The house was immediately kindled into a flame by this
information. The officers and Pauncefort, agent for the regiment, were
examined: then it was unanimously resolved that such a practice was
arbitrary, illegal, and a violation of the rights and liberties of the
subject. Upon further inquiry, Pauncefort and some other agents were
committed to the custody of the sergeant, for having neglected to pay
the subsistence money they had received for the officers and soldiers.
He was afterwards sent to the Tower, together with Henry Guy, a member
of the house and secretary to the treasury, the one for giving and the
other for receiving a bribe to obtain the king's bounty. Pauncefort's
brother was likewise committed for being conc