to
be covered. After having sat a few minutes, he took off his hat and
addressed himself to the commons in very extraordinary terms. Having
thanked them for the favour of indulging him with a hearing, he said
that house would not have been then sitting but for him. He protested
his own innocence with respect to the crime laid to his charge. He
complained that this was the effect of a design which had been long
formed against him. He expressed a deep sense of his being under the
displeasure of the parliament and nation, and demanded speedy justice.
They forthwith drew up the articles of impeachment, which being
exhibited at the bar of the upper house, he pleaded not guilty, and the
commons promised to make good their charge; but by this time such arts
had been used as all at once checked the violence of the prosecution.
Such a number of considerable persons were involved in this mystery of
corruption, that a full discovery was dreaded by both parties. The duke
sent his domestic Robart out of the kingdom, and his absence furnished
a pretence for postponing the trial. In a word, the inquiry was dropped;
but the scandal stuck fast to the duke's character.

In the midst of these deliberations, the king went to the house on the
third day of May, when he thanked the parliament for the supplies they
had granted; signified his intention of going abroad; assured them he
would place the administration of affairs in persons of known care and
fidelity; and desired that the members of both houses would be more than
ordinarily vigilant in preserving the public peace. The parliament was
then prorogued to the eighteenth of June. [057] _[See note M, at the end
of this Vol.]_ The king immediately appointed a regency to govern the
kingdom in his absence; but neither the princess of Denmark nor
her husband were intrusted with any share in the administration--a
circumstance that evinced the king's jealousy, and gave offence to a
great part of the nation. [058] _[See note N, at the end of this Vol.]_

THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT.

A session of parliament was deemed necessary in Scotland, to provide new
subsidies for the maintenance of the troops of that kingdom, which had
been so serviceable in the prosecution of the war. But as a great outcry
had been raised against the government on account of the massacre of
Glencoe, and the Scots were tired of contributing towards the expense
of a war from which they could derive no advantage, the mi