and the Question being pur, That George Carpenter, Efq; being appointed his Majefty's Envoy at the Court of Vienna fince his Election for the Borough of Whitchurch in the County of Southampton, his Election for the faid Borough was thereby become void? It paffed in the Negative.

Then Mr. Walpole, from the Committee of Secrecy, ac quainted the Houfe, That the Committee had, in O bedience to the Commands of the Houfe, prepared Articles of Impeachment for High Treafon and other High 'Crimes and Misdemeanours, against Robert Earl of Oxford ' and Earl Mortimer; and that the Committee had com, 'manded him, at the fame time, to acquaint the House, 'that they should, in a fhort Time, have further Articles to lay before the House against the said Earl; and that the Committee had directed him to report the Articles '(already prepared) to the Houfe:' And he read them in his Place, and afterwards deliver'd the fame in at the Table, where they were once read.

After this it was moved that the further Confideration of the faid Articles be adjourn'd to that Day Sevennight; but it was carry'd without dividing, and order'd, That the faid Report be read a fecond time the next Day.

Accordingly, on the 8th of July, the Firft Ten of the Articles of the Impeachment against Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, were read a 2d Time; and upon the Queftion feverally put thereupon (with Amendments to fome of them) there was a long Debate from Two till Eight in the Evening, when they were agreed to, by a Majority of 280 Voices, against 125. Then a Motion being made and the Question put, That the further Confideration of the faid Report be adjourn'd till the next Morning, the fame was carry'd in the Negative, by 247 Votes against 139. Hereupon the Eleventh Article was read a fecond time, and amended by the Houfe; and, after Candles had been brought in, there arofe a great Debate, upon the Queftion, Whether the faid Article was High Treafon? Sir Robert Raymond, formerly SollicitorGeneral, William Bromley, Efq; Sir William Wyndham, the Auditors Harley and Foley, Mr. Ward, and Mr. Hungerford (who had already fpoke in Favour of the Earl of Oxford) maintain'd the Negative: And were strongly supported by Sir Jofeph Jekyll, one of the Committee of Secrecy. The latter faid, among other Things, That it was ever his Principle to do Juftice to every Body, from the Highest to the Loweft; being perfuaded, That it was

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the Duty of an honeft Man never to act by a Spirit of Party. That he hoped he might pretend to have fome Knowledge of the Laws of the Kingdom; and as, in the Committee of Secrecy, he had taken the Liberty to differ from the Colleagues, he would not fcruple to declare now to the whole Houfe, that, in his Judgment, the Charge in Question did not amount to High Treafon. Most of the other Members of the Committee of Secrecy were offended at this Speech, which both revealed and cenfured their Proceedings: And thereupon Mr. Walpole anfwer'd, with fome Warmth, That there C were both in and out of the Committee of Secrecy, several Perfons, who did not, in the leaft, yield to the Member that fpoke laft, in Point of Honefty; and who, withour derogating from his Merit, were fuperior to him in the Knowledge of the Laws; but who, at the fame Time, were fatisfied that the Charge fpecified in the Eleventh Article amounted to Treafon. Mr. Walpole was back'd by General Stanhope, the Lord Coningsby, General Cadogan, Mr. Bofcawen and Mr. Allaby; and the Eleventh Article being amended, the fame was agreed to by the Houfe, by a Majority of 247 Votes against 127. Mr. Auditor Harley endeavour'd to justify his Brother; First, By urging that he ever acted by the late Queen's pofitive Commands; to prove which, he offer'd to produce two Letters from Her Majefty; and 2dly, The Neeffity of making a Peace. Having upon this Occasion, advanc'd, that the Dutch prolong'd the War, and that their Deputies in the Army had often prevented the giving the Enemy a Decifive Blow. General Cadogan anfwer'd that the Dutch were more concern'd than any Prince or State in the Grand Alliance to put an End to the War; and undertook to prove, that there had no been any Campaign in Flanders, except that in which the Duke of Ormond commanded, that was not mark'd, and famous to all Pofterity, for fome fignal and glorious Event, to the Advantage of the common Caufe. Then. the rest of the Sixteen Articles were feverally read a fecond Time, and with Amendments to fome of them, agreed unto by the Houfe, who ordered, Firft, That the faid Articles be engroffed; Secondly, That a Clause be prepared faving Liberty to the Commons to exhibit any further Articles against the faid Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer; and that he may be fequefter'd from Parliament, and committed to fafe Cuftody. This Claufe was, according to Order, offer'd the next Day, July the 9th, to the House;

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and being twice read, and agreed to, was order'd to be engroffed with the Articles of Impeachment. Whilft this was doing, the Commons order'd Mr. Boscawen to go to the Lords with a Meffage, to defire that their Lordfhips would continue fitting some time; with which Defire their Lordships readily comply'd.

The fame Day, July 9, a Petition of the Mayor, Bay. liffs and Burgeffes of the Borough of Leverpoole in the County Palatine of Lancaster, was prefented to the House, and read, praying, That Leave may be given to bring in a Bill' for Building and Endowing a Church upon the Scite of the late Caftle of Leverpoole, held by Leafe 'from the Dutchy of Lancaster: And Mr. Secretary Stanhope having acquainted the Houfe, That he had Directions from his Majefty to fignify his Majefty's Confent that fuch a Bill may be brought in, a Bill was order'd to be brought in, according to the Prayer of the faid Petition.

Then the Ingroffed Articles of Impeachment against Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, were read; after which it was order'd, First, That the Lord Coningsby do carry the faid Articles to the Lords, 2dly, That the Lord Coningfby be directed (before he exhibits the faid Articles to the Lords) to impeach Robert Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, to the Effect following, viz.

My LORDS,

HE Commons affembled in Parliament having received Information of divers traiterous Practices and Designs of a great Peer of this Houfe, Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer; have commanded me to impeach the said Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, of High Treafon, and other High Crimes and Misdemeanours: And I do here in their Names, and in the Names of all the Commons of Great Britain, impeach Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, of High Treafon, and other High Crimes and Misdemeanours. Í am further commanded by the House of Commons to pray and demand of Your Lordships, That the Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer may be fequefter'd from Parliament, and forth with committed to fafe Cuftody.

After this, Mr. Sollicitor General having been fent to the Lords with a Meffage, to defire, that their Lordships would direct the Painted Chamber, the Lobby, and the Paffage to the Houfe of Peers might be clear'd from any Crowd, (which was done accordingly, by Five a-Clock in the Afternoon) the Lord Coningsby, attended by most of

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the Whig Members, went up to the House of Peers, and at their Bar impeach'd Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, in the Form abovemention'd; and then left with their Lordships the following

ARTICLES of IMPEACHMENT against Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.

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HEREAS many folemn Treaties and Alliances have been formerly enter'd into, between the Crown of England and other Princes and Potentates of Europe, for their mutual Safety, and from the Confiderations of the common Danger which threaten'd all Chriftendom, from the immoderate Growth of the Power of France: And whereas the Preventing the Monarchy of Spain from coming into the Hands of the Houfe of Bourbon, has, for many Years, been a fundamental Principle and Maxim of Union among the Allies, in order to preferve a juft Ballance of Power in Europe: And to that End, as the Defigns of France on the Monarchy of Spain have, from Time to Time, appear'd, new Treaties and exprefs Stipulations have been enter'd into amongst the Allies, to ftrengthen themselves against that approaching Danger: And on this Foundation, a Treaty for an intended Partition, whereby a Small Part only of the Do minions of the Crown of Spain was allotted to the Houfe of Bourbon, was condemn'd by the Wisdom of Parliament, as being highly prejudicial and fatal in its Confequences to England, and the Peace of Europe. And whereas the Duke of Anjou, Grandfon to the King of France, on the Demife of Charles II. King of Spain, took Poffeffion of the entire Monarchy of Spain, whereby the Ballance of Power, the Proteftant Religion, and the Liberties of E rope, were threaten'd with immediate Danger: Where upon Leopold, then Emperor of Germany, his late Ma jefty King William the Third, of ever-glorious Memory and the States-General of the United Provinces, finding, ac that moft critical Juncture, that a strict Conjunction and Alliance between themselves was become neceffary, for repelling the Greatness of the Common Danger from fo great an Acceffion of the Power to the then Common Enemy, did, in the Year of our Lord 1701, make, form and conclude, a new Treaty and Alliance, whereby it was agreed, That there fhall be and continue between the faid Confederates, His Sacred Imperial Majefty, His Sacred Royal Majefty of Great Britain, and the Lords the States

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-General of the United Provinces, a conftant, perpetual, and inviolable Friendship and Correfpondence, and that each Party fhall be obliged to promote the Advantages of the other, and prevent all Inconveniences and Dangers that might happen to them, as far as lies in their Power: That the faid Allies defiring nothing more earneftly than the Peace and general Quiet of all Europe,· have adjudged, that nothing can be more effectual for the Eftablishment thereof, than the procuring an equitable and reafonable Satisfaction to his Imperial Majefty for his Pretenfion to the Spanish Succeffion, and that the King of Great Britain and the States General may obtain a particular and fufficient Security for their Kingdoms, Provinces, and Dominions, and for the Navigation and Commerce of their Subjects: That the faid Confederates therefore hall, in the firft Place, endeavour, by amicable Means, to obtain the faid Satisfaction; but if, contrary to their Expectations and Wishes, the fame is not had, the fame Confederates do engage and promife to one another, that they will affift each other with all their Forces, according to a Specification to be agreed upon in a peculiar Convention for that Purpose: That the Confederates, in order to the procuring the Satisfaction and Security aforefaid, fhall, among other Things, ufe their ut moft Endeavours to recover the Provinces of the Spanifh Low Countries, that they may be a Fence and Rampart, commonly call'd a Barrier, feparating and dividing France from the United Provinces, for the Security of the States-General, as they have ferv'd in all Times, till of late, that the Most Christian King has feized them by his Forces; as likewife the Dutchy of Milan, with its Dependencies, as a Fief of the Empire, and contributing to the Security of his Imperial Majefty's hereditary Dominions; befides the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, and the Lands and Iflands upon the Coaft of Tuscany in the Mediterranean, that belonged to the Spanish Dominions, and may ferve to the fame Purpofe, and will be alfo of Advantage to the Navigation and Commerce of the Subjects of the King of Great Britain, and of the United Provinces That in cafe the Confederates fhall be forced to enter into a War, for obtaining the Satisfaction aforefaid for his Imperial Majefty, and the Security of his Majefty of Great Britain and the States-General, they shall communicate their Defigns to one another, as well in Relation to the Actions of the War, as all other Things wherein the common Caufe is concern'd: That it fhall

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