demand, the lower house
resolved to address the king, That copies of both treaties of partition,
together with all the powers and instructions for negotiating those
treaties, should be laid before them. The copies were accordingly
produced, and the lords sent down to the commons two papers containing
the powers granted to the earls of Portland and Jersey for signing both
treaties of partition. The house afterwards ordered, That Mr. secretary
Vernon should lay before them all the letters which had passed between
the earl of Portland and him, in relation to those treaties; and he
thought proper to obey their command. Nothing could be more scandalously
partial than the conduct of the commons on this occasion. They resolved
to screen the earl of Jersey, sir Joseph Williamson, and Mr. Vernon,
who had been as deeply concerned as any others in that transaction; and
pointed all their vengeance against the earls of Portland and Orford,
and the lords Somers and Halifax. Some of the members even tampered with
Kidd, who was now a prisoner in Newgate, to accuse lord Somers as having
encouraged him in his piracy. He was brought to the bar of the house and
examined; but he declared that he had never spoke to lord Somers; and
that he had no order from those concerned in the ship, but that of
pursuing his voyage against the pirates in Madagascar. Finding him unfit
for their purpose, they left him to the course of law; and he was hanged
with some of his accomplices.

{WILLIAM, 1688-1701.}

EARL OF ORFORD, &c, IMPEACHED.

Lord Somers, understanding that he was accused in the house of commons
of having consented to the partition treaty, desired that he might be
admitted and heard in his own defence. His request being granted, he
told the house that when he received the king's letter concerning the
partition treaty, with an order to send over the necessary powers in the
most secret manner, he thought it would have been taking too much upon
him to put a stop to a treaty of such consequence when the life of
the king of Spain was so precarious; for, had the king died before
the treaty was finished, and he been blamed for delaying the necessary
powers, he could not have justified his own conduct, since the king's
letter was really a warrant; that, nevertheless, he had written a letter
to his majesty objecting to several particulars in the treaty, and
proposing other articles which he thought were for the interest of his
country; that h