ess in which they were engaged.
The dispute continued even after this intimation; one conference was
held after another, at length both sides despaired of an accommodation.
The lords ordered their proceedings to be printed, and the commons
followed their example. On the twenty-seventh day of February, the
queen, having passed all the bills that were ready for the royal
assent, ordered the lord-keeper to prorogue the parliament, after having
pronounced a speech in the usual style. She thanked them for their zeal,
affection, and despatch; declared, she would encourage and maintain the
church as by law established; desired they would consider some further
laws for restraining the great license assumed for publishing scandalous
pamphlets and libels; and assured them, that all her share of the
prizes which might be taken in the war, should be applied to the public
service. By this time the earl of Eochester was entirely removed from
the queen's councils. Finding himself outweighed by the interest of
the duke of Marlborough and lord Godolphin, he had become sullen and
intractable; and, rather than repair to his government of Ireland, chose
to resign the office, which, as we have already observed, was conferred
upon the duke of Ormond, an accomplished nobleman, who had acquired
great popularity by the success of the expedition to Vigo. The parties
in the house of lords were so nearly matched, that the queen, in order
to ascertain an undoubted majority in the next session, created four new
peers, [115] _[See note-J, at the end of this Vol.]_ who had signalized
themselves by the violence of their speeches in the house of commons.

{ANNE, 1701--1714}

DISPUTES BETWEEN THE TWO HOUSES OF CONVOCATION.

The two houses of convocation, which were summoned with the parliament,
bore a strong affinity with this assembly, by the different interests
that prevailed in the upper and lower. The last, in imitation of the
commons, was desirous of branding the preceding reign; and it was with
great difficulty that they concurred with the prelates in an address of
congratulation to her majesty. Then their former contest was revived.
The lower house desired, in an application to the archbishop of
Canterbury and his suffragans, that the matters in dispute concerning
the manner of synodical proceedings, and the right of the lower house
to hold intermediate assemblies, might be taken into consideration and
speedily determined. The bishops pr