to treat with the
Scots for an union of the two kingdoms. It met with warm opposition from
sir Edward Seymour and other tory members, who discharged abundance of
satire and ridicule upon the Scottish nation; but the measure seemed so
necessary at that juncture, to secure the protestant succession against
the practices of France and the claims of the pretender, that the
majority espoused the bill, which passed through both houses, and on the
sixth day of May received the royal assent, together with some bills of
less importance. The enemies of the late king continued to revile his
memory. [107] _[See note P, at the end of this Vol.]_ They even charged
him with having formed a design of excluding the princess Anne from the
throne, and of introducing the elector of Hanover as his own immediate
successor. This report had been so industriously circulated, that it
began to gain credit all over the kingdom. Several peers interested
themselves in William's character, and a motion was made in the upper
house that the truth of this report should be inquired into. The house
immediately desired that those lords who had visited the late king's
papers, would intimate whether or not they had found any among them
relating to the queen's succession, or to the succession of the house
of Hanover. They forthwith declared that nothing of that sort appeared.
Then the house resolved, That the report was groundless, false,
villanous, and scandalous, to the dishonour of the late king's memory,
and highly tending to the disservice of her present majesty, whom
they besought to give orders that the authors or publishers of such
scandalous reports should be prosecuted by the attorney-general. The
same censure was passed upon some libels and pamphlets tending to
inflame the factions of the kingdom, and to propagate a spirit of
irreligion. [108] _[See note Q, at the end of this Vol.]_ On the
twenty-first day of May, the commons in an address advised her majesty
to engage the emperor, the states-general, and her other allies, to join
with her in prohibiting all intercourse with France and Spain; and to
concert such methods with the states-general as might most effectually
secure the trade of her subjects and allies. The lords presented another
address, desiring the queen would encourage her subjects to equip
privateers, as the preparations of the enemy seemed to be made for a
piratical war, to the interruption of commerce; they likewise exhorted
her ma