admitted on the condition proposed by lord Halifax, that they should not take place during the life of the pretender. With these important exceptions the laws of treason in the two kingdoms wore assimilated, and it was enacted that the use of torture which had continued in Scotland, though contrary to the letter of the law, down to the revolution, should be utterly abolished. In order to conciliate the feelings of the Scotch after this harsh piece of legislation, which was formally protested against by the whole of the Scottish peers who had seats in parliament, the queen granted an act of grace pardoning all acts of treason committed before the 19th of April, the date of the passing of this bill, except such as were done at sea, thus excepting those who had embarked with the pretender.
A bill was brought into parliament this session for the naturalisation of all foreign protestants who should come to England, upon their taking the oaths to government, and receiving the sacrament in any protestant church. It was proposed by some that this privilege should not be attained except they took the sacrament according to the rites of the church of England; but this was opposed, and Burnet, to the scandal of more rigid bishops, took a decided part in the lords in advocating the more liberal measure of granting naturalisation to all who took the sacrament in any protestant form. The bill was carried, but it was followed by great clamour; for some thousands of poor Germans, both catholics and protestants, had flocked over to this country, in the hope of getting to our colonies in America. The Rhine country, and particularly the palatinate, had been so repeatedly ravaged by the French during these wars, that the country had become a desert. Every summer they were liable to the march of fresh armies across their lands, to the destruction of their harvests, the plunder of their farmyards, and the burning of their houses. Driven by destitution and despair, and seeing no prospect of any cessation of their calamities, they began to flock over in shoals in 1706 and 1707, and the stream of emigration still continued. The queen, pitying their sufferings, had permitted their coming hither, and the ministers had consented to the admission of five thousand of them. The miserable people hastened to reach this country as a favoured spot which knew nothing of the horrors of war, and had boundless territories in America which could absorb them all. But it was soon found that it was not enough to allow them to come, means must be taken to support them here, and means to transport them across the Atlantic. No such arrangements had been made, and there was presently a large army of these destitute foreigners encamped in huts and tents on Blackheath, who were in a condition of the most frightful starvation. Though our colonists would have welcomed the poor palatines with open arms, having urgent need of all their labour, there was no employment for them here; and as bread was high in price, there was speedily a clamour raised, that the government were bringing over foreigners to supply the place of the English that they killed in the war, and that the poor here were to be swamped by an inundation of foreigners, who would work for much less than English labourers could maintain their families upon. The whigs had contended that it would have precisely this effect of repairing the waste of our own population; and that as these poor Germans were extremely industrious and masters of various trades as well as of agriculture, they would do much good amongst us. But the tories now seized on these arguments, and contended that they would add to the number of the poor, already too numerous, eat the bread of the native labourers, and reduce the scale of their wages. There was already a cry that all round the neighbourhood where they were encamped the day's wage of a labourer had fallen from a shilling to eight-pence. They asserted, too, that these foreigners, retaining a love for their native country, would correspond with their friends there, and thus act as spies; whilst, continuing to deluge the country with fresh arrivals, they would intermarry and destroy the true British character of the race.
These representations excited a rancorous prejudice against these unfortunate people. The tories refused to employ or relieve any except such as were protestants and willing to become members of the church; and the French refugees, who had settled here, having themselves fled from persecution, are said to have been amongst the most pitiless and jealous of their opponents. The clamour against them compelled active measures for their relief. The bishops and many other philanthropic persons of all ranks exerted themselves for their support, to procure employment for them, and above all, to get them conveyed over to America or to Ireland. This, however, could not be accomplished all at once, and as winter approached, empty houses were hired in the suburbs to shelter them, and benevolent people took others into their houses, till they could be shipped off, or otherwise disposed of. The sight of this misery might have suggested to the public the horrors which these desolating wars were spreading over the continent. The queen, who, if she were not endowed with a great intellect, possessed a thoroughly tender heart, at the news of fresh victories, instead of rejoicing, used to exclaim, when she saw the lists of the killed and wounded, "O Lord! when will all this dreadful bloodshed cease!"
But dreadful as was the condition to which the fiendish ambition of Louis XIV. had reduced Flanders, Spain, the north of Italy, and many parts of Germany, that of his own country and subjects was still more deplorable. Never was a kingdom reduced to such misery by the mad ambition of its monarch. Trade, agriculture, everything had been shrivelled up by the perpetual demands of these incessant wars. The wealthy classes were become as poor as the rest; the middle classes were ruined; the common people were drained off to the army if men, and sunk into beggary if women, children, or old people. All credit was at an end: the treasury of the king was empty, and his chief banker, Bernard, was bankrupt, as were hundreds of the same class of men. The most violent and spasmodic exertions had been made to raise the supplies for the armies in the different fields, and still of late nothing had come but tidings after tidings of disastrous and murderous defeats. The Fermiers Généraux, or farmers of the taxes, were out in all parts of France endeavouring to extort those levies which the ordinary tax-gatherers had demanded and distrained for in vain. The people of France were under a perpetual visitation of these officers, and though they were ill prepared to pay once, had frequently to pay more than
