the criminal law being then administered too much on Draco's principle, the executioner found few intervals of leisure between the suspensions of Tyburn and the fires of Palace Yard. Excessive rigour proved wholly ineffectual to abate the nuisance-an abortive quackery to check a raging epidemic. Political ballads swarmed then as abundantly as caricatures now, but public men had not yet acquired sufficient wisdom to look at them and pass on. Printed on the coarsest paper, hawked or sung about the streets, and sold for halfpence, they eluded the vengeance of the House and the vigilance of the serjeant-at-arms. Of their clever virulence, the following, preserved in the Somers and Harleian manuscripts, are a few specimens.

All gentlemen seamen weary of their lives, and desirous to serve King William on board the royal navy, shall have for encouragement fair promises, and no performances, as follow. For each able seaman 24s. per month, to be paid when he can catch it, and be hanged for mutinying if he demands it."

In a pretended catalogue of books of the newest fashion there is mentioned, with the motto ex nihilo nihil fit, a dissertation on the no power of a no parliament, making a no king, that will always be doing us no good, by leaving us no parliament without perjury and pensions, no church without knaves and intruders, no trade without hazard and losses, no credit at home or abroad, no honour nor conscience, no blood in our veins. The king was described in the Jacobite lampoons as a brutish usurper; he and his amiable consort depicted as Tarquin and Tullia, trampling over the body of a parent; and when other topics of abuse failed, the obnoxious daughter of James II. was reviled for the innocent occupation with which she employed

her vacant hours. The following is the most lively verse of a ballad on the royal knitter contrasting her with the exiled Queen Mary of Modena.

Blest we, who from such queens are freed
Who, by vain superstition led,

Are always telling beads;

But we've a queen now, thanks to God!
Who, when she rides in coach abroad,

Is always knitting threads !

These Jacobite squibs we sometimes find disguised beneath a category of petitions, in which drollery and politics are cleverly blended-A petition of the country parsons that in their favour the House will be pleased to take off the additional duty on tobacco -Petition of the booksellers, that when a dull book lies heavy on their hands it may be publicly burnt to promote the sale of it-Petition of the moderate divines, that January 30 and May 29 may be discarded out of the almanack, as being great eyesores to the godly party-Petition of the College of Physicians, that the importation of Dutch doctors may be prohibited; of the barbers, that they may be made free of the church, since the divines have usurped upon their trade by turning trimmers; of the parish clerks, that a day be set apart to celebrate the pious memory of Sternhold and Hopkins, and that the city poet may draw up the service of the day,

'And for your worships then we'll pray

For eke, for ever, and for aye!'

Against this wreath of vapour the artillery of the House could not fail to be pointed in vain. In the following jeu d'esprit-an arrow from the same quiver— the newly crowned William and Mary and the polemical

b Somers Tracts.

Bishop of Salisbury, who fawned upon them as conquerors, were adroitly glanced at. "Cases of conscience and queries. Whether the fifth commandment be part of the coronation oath since our governors observe it so strictly? Whether Protestant tyranny be not better than Popish tyranny by six millions per annum? Whether Julian the Apostate, or the hangman, have made the best second treble to Gilbert's pastoral?"c

In all their crusades against these offensive publications, the House was actively supported by the Crown, alike eager to punish the criminal and to suppress the crime. The one strained prerogative and the other their privileges, to deter, to condemn, and to punish. The Prince of Orange had not been a fortnight in power, before a notice was inserted in the "London Gazette," to make a diligent search in all printing-houses, and to apprehend all malicious authors, printers, and publishers. The act for prohibiting all publications without a license was renewed in the year 1692some few lords having signed a protest, honourable to the framers, against it—and only suffered to expire in the year 1694, when the press at length escaped from the thrall of a licenser. But its first breath of freedom was often rudely checked by the grasp of the House, who fancied their power in peril from political squibs, and scrutinized new works apparently with the constant forethought of a bonfire. Bishop Burnet having published a book with the silly title,

66

King William and Queen Mary conquerors," found his literary labours consigned to the fostering care of the common hangman in Palace Yard. Both Houses joined in a resolution that the assertion of King William and Queen Mary being king and queen by

Somers Tracts.

conquest was highly injurious to their majesties' rightful title to the crown of this realm. Bishop Burnet's pastoral letter, inculcating the same courtly but unconstitutional doctrine, is said to have owed its committal to the flames to the punning banter of some members, who called out, as the charge was read, "burn it, burn it,' not a bad pun.

An address was also voted to the Crown to dismiss Mr. Bohun from his office of licenser, for the oppressive duties of which he appeared too inactive. Parliament was scarcely more complaisant to the legislature of the sister-kingdom than they had been to the meddling prelate. Complaint of a printed pamphlet being made to the House, "The case of Ireland's being bound by Acts of Parliament in England stated," denying the authority of the people of England to bind Ireland, an address was voted to the king to inquire for the author, that he might be punished. On the report of a committee appointed to examine the book, the House drew up a further address to his majesty," that the votes and proceedings of the House of Commons in Ireland, and a bill sent here under the great seal of Ireland, intituled, 'An Act for the better securing his majesty's person and government, whereby they would have an act passed in the Parliament of England, expressly binding Ireland to be re-enacted there,' were an occasion and encouragement to the forming and publishing the dangerous doctrines contained in the condemned book." The address went on, "We, with all duty and humility, assure your majesty of our ready concurrence and assistance in a parliamentary way to preserve and maintain the subordination and dependence of Ireland d Oldmixon's History.

to the imperial crown of this realm." Their concluding prayer to the king entreated that he would be pleased to discourage all things which may in any degree tend to lessen the dependence of Ireland upon England. The king promised encouragement and redress. A bonfire was kindled with the manifesto of the Irish House of Commons.

These committals to the flames, owing to the polemical excitement and intolerant spirit of the times, were never prosecuted with such eagerness as against tracts of controversial divinity. The House seemed anxious to usurp the office of the lower House of Convocation, with so much avidity were schismatic writings seized upon, and dreamy metaphysics consumed by fire. The Church of England was engaged in a perpetual struggle, during the reign of William for protection, and in that of Anne for supremacy. Soon after the accession of that nursing mother of the Church, when a tory legislature strove to put down the scandal of occasional conformity, the celebrated De Foe wrote an ironical treatise, "The Shortest Way with Dissenters;" arguing, with pretended gravity, that a system of extermination was the best.

The House, we are assured, was at first completely bit by this clever banter, caricaturing their own violence; but seemed kindled to fury when awakened to a sense of the raillery that had been passed upon them. The libeller fled, to escape the terrible consequences of their anger. They prayed the queen to proclaim a reward for his apprehension; and, in accordance with their petition, the following description of his person was inserted in the London Gazette: