idiot, was sent to govern the North American colonies, that he might be out of the way, a system of colonial management by which these colonies were at length entirely estranged. Rochester survived this disgrace but a very few weeks.
About this time also expired the wily old earl of Sunderland, and was succeeded by his son lord Spenser, son-in-law to the Marlboroughs, who ere long showed that he was equal to his father and father-in-law in love of money, and carelessness as to the means by which it was obtained.
Convocation during this session of parliament had been sitting and pursuing those interminable wranglings by which, in the end, they wore out the patience of our monarchs, who forbade their entering on any discussion. At this time the dispute raged betwixt the upper and lower house as violently as the upper and lower house of parliament were opposed to each other. It is singular that clerical parties, composed of the men whose peculiar vocation it is to preach peace and good will to all men, when brought together uniformly display far more acrimony than laymen. The odium theologicum has become proverbial, and never flamed higher than at this period. The bishops had been chiefly appointed by king William, and laboured under a suspicion of being too liberally inclined. On the other hand, the ordinary clergy were struggling after an extension of their power. They claimed a right to sit at other times besides that at which the convocation was sitting as a synod. The bishops repulsed this assumption, but the archbishop of Canterbury promised so to arrange their meetings during convocation as to give them ample time for discussion. This did not satisfy them, and they appealed to the house of commons, but that body returned them only a general answer, that it would at any time support their just rights. They then had recourse to the queen, who promised to consider their petition, and there left it. Having, in consequence of these movements, got nothing but a character for being inclined to presbyterianism, they suddenly passed a resolution affirming the divine apostolical right of episcopacy, and desired the bishops to enter this into their books. This was considered a clever dilemma for the bishops. If they refused to enter the resolution, they would be accused themselves of presbyterianism; if they accepted it, it would be an acknowledgment that the lower house had led them right. The wary bishops steered a middle course; they expressed their approbation of the resolution, but informed the lower house that it was already in the preface to the book of ordinations. The unseemly quarrel continued as long as convocation remained sitting, and afterwards spread through the whole country amongst the clergy, who were rent into factions. One party, which stood up like Land in his time for the high prerogative and all the ceremonies of the church, who were, in fact, ecclesiastical tories, were termed high church; the other, who were disposed to take a more moderate view of things, and to allow of toleration to the dissenters, were styled low church, and branded as presbyterians in disguise. The queen, as a great advocate of the church, was flattered as the possessor of the prerogatives of the ancient monarchy; the memory of the late king was vituperated, and at this time "The History of the Commonwealth," written by her grandfather Clarendon, was published to revive the notions of passive obedience. The queen's hereditary rights were traced up to Edward the Confessor, and she was encouraged to restore the practice of touching for the king's evil as a miraculous privilege of monarchy, and the more so, because William had refused to practise it. Anne was the more stimulated to practising the royal touch because her brother, the prince of Wales, actively pursued the practice at St. Germains as a proof that the true descent lay in him; and, as an angel in gold was bound by the queen round the arm or hung round the neck of every person touched, she had plenty of applicants, notwithstanding an apothecary's certificate was required of the patients being really affected by the disease.
The parliament of Scotland was more violently agitated by the fight of factions than that of England. There was a change of ministry which, from the queen's toryism, was favourable to the episcopalians and at the same time to the anti-revolutionists, the Jacobites of Scotland. The duke of Queensberry, besides being high commissioner, was with lord Tarbat made secretary of state. The earls of Marchmont, Melvil, Selkirk, Leven, and Hyndford were dismissed. The marquis of Annandale was made president of the council, and the earl of Tullibardine lord privy seal. The earl of Seafield, though dismissed from the ministry, succeeded in getting a great number of anti-revolutioners returned to parliament. The duke of Hamilton, who had created so much opposition in the last session, had now obtained from the queen a letter to the privy council of Scotland, desiring that the presbyterian clergy should live in brotherly love and unity with such of the reformed religion as were in possession of benefices, and at the same time lived decently and observed the laws. This, in plain terms, meant that they were expected to allow the government to encourage episcopacy. The episcopal clergy immediately lifted up their heads, and petitioned her majesty to protect them, and not only to allow such episcopalians as were in government pulpits to hold them, but for such parishes as had a majority of episcopalians to elect ministers of that persuasion. The queen returned an answer as favourable as could be ventured upon, advising the episcopalian clergy to live peaceably with their presbyterian brethren established by law. Here was fuel for a renewed fire of fierce warfare betwixt the churches.
But still more fiery were the general elements. A proclamation of indemnity was made in March, which brought over from France and other countries a swarm of Jacobites, who, acting on the policy now adopted at St. Germains, pretended to have changed their sentiments, and were ready to take all oaths so as to get into parliament, and so influence the succession. They added their strength to the anti-revolutioners and the episcopalians, though these three parties had each its particular causes of dissent from the other. On the other hand, the presbyterians and revolutioners were strongly united under the leadership of the duke of Argyll. Then there were malcontents created by the government opposition to the Darien scheme, who were headed by the duke of Hamilton and the marquis of Tweeddale; the anti-revolutioners being led on by the earl of Hume. Here were elements of confusion enough to distract any ministry and paralyse any government, too ready to coalesce for that object, and equally ready, that effected, to strive against each other. The Darien mal-
