The commons voted three millions, four hundred and eleven thousand, six hundred and seventy-five pounds, for the use of the ensuing year: but the establishment of funds for raising these supplies was retarded, partly by the ill-humour of the opposition, and partly by intervening affairs that diverted the attention of the commons. Several eminent merchants presented a petition to the house against the East-India company, charging them with manifold abuses; at the same time, a counter-petition was delivered by the company, and the affair referred to the examination of a committee appointed for that purpose. After a minute inquiry into the nature of the complaints, the commons voted certain regulations with respect to the stock and the traffic; and resolved to petition his majesty, that, according to the said regulations, the East-India company should be incorporated by charter. The committee was ordered to bring in a bill for this establishment; but divers petitions being presented against it, and the company’s answers proving unsatisfactory, the house addressed the king to dissolve it, and grant a charter to a new company. He said it was an affair of great importance to the trade of the kingdom; therefore, he would consider the subject, and in a little time return a positive answer. The parliament was likewise amused by a pretended conspiracy of the papists in Lancashire, to raise a rebellion and restore James to the throne. Several persons were seized, and some witnesses examined: but nothing appeared to justify the information. At length one Fuller, a prisoner in the king’s bench, offered his evidence, and was brought to the bar of the house of commons, where he produced some papers. He obtained a blank pass from the king for two persons, who he said would come from the continent to give evidence. He was afterwards examined at his own lodgings, where he affirmed that colonel Thomas DÉlavai and James Hayes were the witnesses for whom he had procured the pass and the protection. Search was made for them according to his direction, but no such persons were found. Then the house declared Fuller a notorious impostor, cheat, and false accuser. He was, at the request of the commons, prosecuted by the attorney-general, and sentenced to stand in the pillory; a disgrace which he accordingly underwent.

A bill for regulating trials in cases of high treason having been laid aside by the lords in the preceding session, was now again brought upon the carpet, and passed the lower house. The design of this bill was to secure the subject from the rigours to which he had been exposed in the late reigns: it provided, That the prisoner should be furnished with a copy of his indictment, as also of the panel, ten days before his trial; and, that his witnesses should be examined upon oath as well as those of the crown. The lords, in their own behalf, added a clause enacting, That upon the trials of any peer or peeress, for treason or misprison of treason, all the peers who have a right to sit and vote in parliament, should be duly summoned to assist at the trial; that this notice should be given twenty days before the trial; and that every peer so summoned, and appearing, should vote upon the occasion. The commons rejected this amendment; and a free conference ensued. The point was argued with great vivacity on both sides, which served only to inflame the dispute, and render each party the more tenacious of their own opinion. After three conferences that produced nothing but animosity, the bill was dropped; for the commons resolved to bear the hardships of which they complained, rather than be relieved at the expense of purchasing a new privilege to the lords; and without this advantage, the peers would not contribute to their relief.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.