mous Dr. Sacheverel. This clergyman, a person of an overheated imagination, but narrow capacity, had taken. every opportunity to vent his animosity against the Dissenters; and the sermons above-mentioned having afforded him an opportunity to vilify that body, he had made such assertions, as were thought by the house to have the most pernicious allusions, and, therefore, they were voted to be "malicious, scandalous, and seditious libels, highly reflecting on her majesty and government, the late happy Revolution, and the Protestant succession, as by law established; tending to alienate the affection of her majesty's subjects, and create jealousies and divisions amongst them;" and the Doctor was ordered to attend at the bar of the house.

When he appeared before the commons, he acknowledged himself the author of both the sermons, and declared that he had received encouragement from the lord mayor to print that, intituled, "The Perils of false Brethren in Church and State." Being ordered to withdraw, the lord mayor, Sir Samuel Garrard, was asked, "if he had commanded Doctor Sacheverel to print the sermon in question?" In answer, he declared, "that he never desired, ordered, or encouraged the printing of the libel." The house then ordered Sacheverel to be impeached at the bar of the House of Lords, in the names of all the Commons of England; appointed a committee to draw up articles against him; and commanded the usher of the black rod to take him into custody.

Three days after, the Doctor petitioned the house that he might be admitted to bail; but this indulgence was refused, as it was determined to carry on the prosecution with the utmost severity. The lords, however, thought proper

last he asserted the doctrine of non-resistance to government in the utmost extent; reflected with great warmth on the Act of Toleration, and said, "the church was violently attacked by her enemies, and indifferently defended by her pretended friends:" he used his utmost efforts to animate the people "to stand up for the church ;"f or which he added," he sounded the trumpet and desired them to put on the whole armour of God." So highly was this sermon countenanced by the Tory party, that upwards of forty thousand were dispersed over the nation.

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to admit him to bail, and appointed the 27th of December for the trial.

This extraordinary cause engaged the attention of the whole kingdom; it lasted a considerable time, during which all other business was suspended, and the queen herself was every day privately present. Conceiving that this prosecution was contrived by the Presbyterians, with an intent to overthrow the system of the church; on the second day of the trial, the mob were exceedingly outrageous, and in the evening, broke all the windows of Mr. Daniel Burgess's meeting-house, in New Court, Carey Street, threatening destruction to all Dissenters. On the third day, after conducting Sacheverel to his lodgings in the Temple, they ran again to this meeting-house, and tearing down the pulpit, pews, benches, and all that was combustible, made a bonfire of them in Lincoln's-Inn Fields, shouting, "High-church and Sacheverel." To such a height had their fury risen, that could they have found Mr. Burgess, they meant certainly to have burnt him in his pulpit, in the midst of the pile.

Several other parties demolished the meeting-houses of Mr. Earl, in Hanover Street, Long Acre; Mr. Bradbury's, in Nevill's Court, Fetter Lane; Mr. Taylor's, Leather Lane; Mr. Wright's, in Great Carter Lane, and Mr. Hamilton's, in St. John's Square, (now St. John's Church,) Clerkenwell. They also threatened to pull down the houses of the lord chancellor, and of all the other managers of the prosecution. The directors of the Bank being apprehensive of danger from these riotous proceedings, procured a guard from Whitehall, while other soldiers were directed to disperse the mob. The guard at St. James's was doubled; the Westminster militia was kept in arms; and one regiment of the London trained-bands remained on duty during the whole of the trial.

After very obstinate disputes, and virulent altercation, Sacheverel was at last found guilty of the charges exhibited against him, by a majority of seventeen voices, and sentence was passed on him on the twenty-first of March, by which VOL. I. No. 14. S s

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he was suspended from preaching during three years; his two sermons were ordered to be burnt before the Royal Exchange, by the hands of the common hangman.

This mild sentence afforded universal satisfaction; bonfires, illuminations, and the most extravagant marks of joy were exhibited not only in London, but in every part of the kingdom. Sacheverel having been, by this time, considered as a persecuted confessor for the rights of the established church*.

As soon as these tumultuous proceedings had subsided, it became a subject of consideration with the government, in consequence of the vast increase of inhabitants, to regulate the sale of bread, by which that part of the statute made in the reign of Henry III. concerning the assize of bread, was now repealed; and " power was given to the court of lord

* We cannot repress a ludicrous anecdote relating to this part of our subject; and it must convey its own apology, when understood that Dean Swift was concerned. After Sacheverel's noisy concerns had subsided, the ministry treated him with indifference and neglect; and upon the rectory of St. Andrew's, Holborn, being vacant, his solicitation to succeed to the living was slighted. Under these circumstances, he wrote to Świft, with whom he had a slender acquaintance, requesting him to intercede with government on his behalf. The Dean immediately carried his letter to Lord Bolingbroke, then secretary of state, who railed at Sacheverel; calling him a busy, intermeddling fellow, and an incendiary, who had set the kingdom in a flame which could not be extinguished, and therefore deserved censure instead of a reward." To which Swift replied, "True my Lord;—but let me tell you a short story. In a seafight, in the reign of Charles II. there was a very bloody engagement between the English and Dutch fleets, in the heat of which, a Scotch seaman was bit very severely by a louse in his neck, which he caught, and stooping down to crack it between his nails, many of the sailors near him had their heads taken off by a chain-shot from the enemy, which shattered their brains and blood about him. On this he had compassion on the poor louse, returned him to his place, and bid him live there at discretion; for, as he had saved his life, he was bound in gratitude to preserve his." The recital of this put Lord Bolingbroke into a fit of laughter, who, when it was over, said, "the louse shall have the living for your story;" and soon after Sacheverel was presented to it. Supplement to. Dean Swift's Works.

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mayor and aldermen of London, or to the lord mayor alone, by order of the said court, and to the mayor, bailiffs, aldermen, or other chief magistrates of other cities or corporations, or to two or more justices of the peace, in such places where there shall be no mayor, &c. to ascertain and appoint, within their respective jurisdictions, the assize and weight of all sorts of bread, according to the price which the grain, meal, or flour, of which such bread is made, shall bear in their respective public markets; making reasonable allowance to the bakers for their trouble.

also enacted, that no bread shall be made for sale, but that distinguished by the names of white, wheaten and household, or such other sorts as shall be publicly licensed and allowed by the before-mentioned magistrates of London and other places. All bakers were likewise to mark their loaves in such manner as the said magistrates should direct."

This year seems to have been a period of activity and watchfulness. During the times when the city privileges were upheld by an uncertain tenure, several persons taking advantage of the tyranny of government, had found means, contrary to the laws and customs of the city, and to the great prejudice of the citizens, to exercise several manual operations and trades by retail; it was therefore enacted, by the common council, on the fourth of July, "That no person whatever, not being free of the city, shall, by any colour, way, or means whatever, directly or indirectly, by himself or any other, use, exercise, or occupy, any art, trade, mystery, manual occupation, or handicraft whatsoever, or keep any shop, room, or place whatsoever, inward or outward, for shew, sale, or putting to sale, of any wares or merchandize whatsoever, by way of retail, within the said city, or the liberties thereof, upon pain to forfeit five pounds. And that what freeman soever does set any person that is not free, on work, knowing and having notice given to him that such person, so by him to be set to work, is a foreigner, shall forfeit five pounds. And that the freeman that employs a foreigner to sell by retail, shall also forfeit five pounds for every offence."

It was, however, provided, "That nothing in this act should be construed to the prohibiting any citizen from keeping in his service any person under the age of twenty-one, upon trial to be bound apprentice, for any time not exceeding three months; nor to prohibit any citizen dealing in coarse heavy goods, from employing any yearly servant living with him, in the weighing, rummaging, lading or unlanding such merchandize; or in any labour not concerning the art, skill, and mystery of the same."

A very curious circumstance occurred towards the latter end of this year, which caused a general alarm, in addition to the fears which the public at this time entertained concerning a projected invasion by the reputed son of James II. denominated the Pretender.

A general thanksgiving having been appointed to be kept on the seventh of November, for the successes of the allied armies, her majesty, instead of going, as usual, to St. Paul's, attended divine service in the Chapel Royal. Two days after which, a remarkable advertisement was published in the London Gazette, signed by Henry St. John, then secretary of state, importing, "that some evil-minded persons having unscrewed and taken away several iron bolts out of the great timbers of the west roof of the cathedral church of St. Paul, her majesty, for the better discovery of the offenders, was pleased to promise her most gracious pardon, and a reward of fifty pounds to any person concerned therein, who should discover his accomplices." This singular advertisement occasioned a report that a plot had been concerted for destroying the queen and the court, by the fall of the roof of St. Paul's on the thanksgiving day, when it was supposed her majesty would have gone thither; and this pretended plot, (which was called the Screw Plot,) the Tories were very industrious in charging upon the Whigs. It must, however, be observed, that the west roof of St. Paul's was not then quite finished; and, upon enquiry, it appeared that the missing of these iron pins was owing to the negligence of the workmen, who had supposed the timbers sufficiently secure.