there, on August 24th,
the day but one after the scene of pompous vanity, he was arrested by the
Under-Secretary of State, accompanied by two officers of justice, and was
brought, along with all papers of his which the officers could seize,
before the Privy Council. He underwent an examination, as the result of
which he was committed to the Tower, on a charge of having been concerned
in a treasonable conspiracy to dethrone the King, and to bring back the
House of Stuart. In the Tower he was left to languish for many a long
day before it was found convenient to bring him to trial.

[Sidenote: 1722--The King's speech]

England was startled by the disclosures which followed Atterbury's
arrest. On Tuesday, October 9, 1722, the sixth Parliament of Great
Britain--the sixth, that is to say, since the union with Scotland--met at
Westminster. The House of Commons, on the motion of Mr. Pulteney,
elected Mr. Spencer Compton their Speaker, and on the next day but one,
October 11th, the Royal speech was read. The King was present in person,
but the speech was read by the Lord Chancellor, for the good reason which
we {213} have already mentioned that his Majesty the King of England
could not speak the English language. The speech opened with a startling
announcement. "My Lords and Gentlemen"--so ran the words of the
Sovereign--"I am concerned to find myself obliged, at the opening of this
Parliament, to acquaint you that a dangerous conspiracy has been for some
time formed, and is still carrying on, against my person and government,
in favor of a Popish pretender." "Some of the conspirators," the speech
went on to say, "have been taken up and secured, and endeavors are used
for the apprehending others." When the speech was read, and the King had
left the House, the Duke of Grafton, then Lord-lieutenant of Ireland,
brought in a bill for suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, and empowering
the Government to secure and detain "such persons as his Majesty shall
suspect are conspiring against his person and government, for the space
of one year." The motion to read the Bill a second time in the same
sitting was strenuously resisted by a considerable minority of the Peers.
A warm debate took place, and in the end the second reading was carried
by a majority of sixty-seven against twenty-four. The debate was renewed
upon the other stages of the Bill, which were taken in rapid succession.
The proposal of the Government was, of course