one of the courts of Westminster, or at the quarter sessions of the county in which he had his residence'.

To prepare the public mind for the reception of the bill, many sermons on high church tory principles were preached, and many bitter pamphlets against the dissenters were circulated, which poured forth all the gall of party malice. To these were added the abusive and virulent speeches in the lower house. So successful were the efforts, that the bill passed the commons with a great majority in its favour; and in the beginning of December was sent up to the lords. There every nerve was strained to carry it, and so little regard was paid to decency and consistency, that prince George of Denmark, the husband of the queen, a lutheran by profession, who usually worshipped in a lutheran chapel, and consequently a dissenter from the established church, after taking the test, came into the house and voted for the bill. Men in high stations are not always wise.

The lords did not object to the principles of the bill, but being more dispassionate than the commons, they proposed several alterations. They denied, what the commons had asserted, that every person to be admitted to any office or employment was by law obliged to be entirely conformable to the established church; or that this was the intention of the law, when it provided that every person to be admitted to offices, should receive the sacrament, according to the rites and usages of the church of England. They lowered the penalty from a hundred pounds to twenty; one-third to go to the queen, a second to the poor, and the other to the informer. They left out the Calamy, p. 624-6.

five pounds a day, and all the latter part of the bill which respected future incapacity for office. They added several clauses of a mitigating nature.

Eager to obtain their object, the commons proposed a free conference with the lords. Managers were chosen by both houses, and they argued the subject with great ability and spirit. But the efforts of the commons were, for this time, in vain. They left the bill with the lords, expressing their hopes that they would not allow the nation to lose the benefit of so good a law. But the lords adhered to their amendments, and the commons refusing to adopt them, the bill was lost.

:

Bitter was the distress of the dissenters when they saw their moderate privileges envied by those in power; and the court and the commons combined against them. The joy of their deliverance was proportionably sweet. It is the It is the way of the great Sovereign of the church thus to exercise the faith and love, the dependence and submission of his disciples; and they receive much spiritual benefit from his dispensations. Their hearts are raised above reliance on man; and they look to God for help. He was, at this time, pleased to grant it: they saw his hand in their deliverance, and gave him the praise. But the wrath of their enemies, far from being assuaged, was more inflamed by the repulse; and they waited with eager impatience for another opportunity of attempting the accomplishment of their object. The dissenters therefore were not permitted long to

2 On three several clauses, to adhere, was carried by a single vote, and each time by a different peer. Burnet, vol. II. A majority of the bishops was against the bill.

enjoy the consoling thought that the storm was blown over, and that they might rest in security and peace; for no sooner did the parliament meet again, in the beginning of November, in the year one thousand seven hundred and three, than the bill was introduced a second time into the lower house. To disarm, if possible, the opposition of the lords, it was altered in several of its parts. Instead of five, ten, besides the family, were necessary to form a conventicle. The penalty of a hundred pounds was reduced to fifty; and the fine of five pounds a day, while the person continued in office, was left out. After considerable debates it was carried by a great majority, and sent up to the peers. During the recess of parliament, the court had changed its mind; and many of those who voted in favour of the bill now absented themselves from the house. On the motion for the second reading of the bill, it was rejected by a majority of twelve. The bishops were divided on the question; but two more were against the bill than for it. Bishop Burnet signalized himself by his zeal for its rejection'.

While the occasional-conformity bill was depending the second time before the commons, and the members of that body were giving loose to the most furious passions, a remarkable dispensation in the natural world proclaimed the dominion of the great Governour of the universe, manifested the dependence of his creatures on him for their safety and comfort, and filled the inhabitants of the land with terror. On Friday, the twenty-sixth of November, a storm, which had been gradually increasing for near a week, towards the evening of that day acquired an unusual degree of violence, raged during the night with increasing violence, and spread such desolation through the capital, and different parts of the country, as England had never witnessed before. Nor was its ravage confined to our island: most parts of Europe felt its fury.

Though twice repulsed, the tories were not discouraged; but in the beginning of the next session of parliament, which met in October, in the year one

Divine judgments are poured forth upon the earth, that the inhabitants of the world may learn righteousness. By such an event, unthinking mortals are taught how easily, by permitting his winds to blow with greater force, God could avenge himself of his enemies; that it is owing entirely to his mercy, which habitually controuls the elements, that they are the instruments of good, and not of evil; and that we live in safety and peace in our habitations, and find them a sanctuary and not a grave.

In the year one thousand six hundred and sixty-one, on the eighteenth of February, there was a dreadful storm, which ravaged the southern parts of England; an account of which is given in a book entitled, Annus Mirabilis: but it was not to be compared to this, either in violence or extent. For a fortnight it had blown hard, and was accounted dreadful weather; but the nearer it approached to the fatal twenty-sixth of November the tempest more and more increased. On Wednesday the twenty-fourth, the wind was violent, but not so as to occasion any apprehensions till about four in the afternoon, when its fury was dreadful. It continued with unusual violence all the next day and night. On Friday morning, though it still blew very hard, there appeared to be no manifest danger till towards evening: the storm then grew louder and louder. At ten, the mercury in the barometer fell lower than it was ever known. It did not blow so hard before twelve, but that most families went to bed: but between one and two, few people that were capable of a sense of danger, were hardy enough to remain there, as most people expected that their houses could not withstand the violence of the storm. Yet the danger was greater without than within; for tiles, bricks, and stones, from the tops of the houses, flew so thick in the streets, that no one durst venture out of doors, although his tottering habitation made him every moment dread its fall. From two o'clock the storm continued to increase till five in the morning: and from five to half after six it blew with the greatest violence. It was then so high, that unless it had abated, as it afterwards did, nothing could have withstood its rage. During this time, the greatest part of the damage was done. The darkness of the night, for it was about the change of the moon, added to the horror of the scene.

In the

thousand seven hundred and four. They introduced the bill a third time, in a form not materially different from the preceding year. In order to insure success, it was proposed to tack it to a money-bill; because a bill of that description the lords are not permitted to alter. This was negatived by a considerable majority; but it was carried as a distinct bill, and sent

beginning of Friday, the wind blew from the west-south-west : about two it veered to the south-south-west: then to west; and about six, to west-by-north and the more to the northward the wind was, the harder it blew. It shifted again to the southward about seven ; as it did so, it gradually abated. "About eight in the norning (says the narrator of the story) it ceased so much that our fears were also abated, and people began to peep out of doors: but it is impossible to express the concern which appeared in every place; the distraction and fury of the night were visible in the faces of the people; and every body's first work was to visit and inquire after friends and relations. The next day or two were almost entirely spent in the curiosity of the people, in viewing the havock the storm had made, which was so universal in London, and especially in the out-parts, that nothing can be said sufficient to describe it," p. 38. Though the extreme violence of the wind abated from the Saturday morning, the storm could not be said to have ceased till Wednesday, the second of December, about four in the afternoon, when, after weeks of blowing weather, there was a perfect calm; and the people, whose minds had been agitated in no less degree, enjoyed sweet tranquillity, and ceased from their fears. Its effects were dreadful beyond example, both by land and sea; houses without number, both in London and in the country, were unroofed; a great many were injured, and some were entirely laid in ruins. Above two thousand stacks of chimnies in the metropolis were blown down. A gentleman wishing to know the number of trees which were rooted up in the county of Kent, counted to seventeen thousand, but grew weary of his task before it was half completed. The damage done at sea, both in the navy, and among the merchant ships, was immense. See a particular account of the whole in a book, entitled, "The Storm, or a Collection of the most remarkable Casualties, Disasters, &c." printed in the year one thousand seven hundred and four.