had, by indirect means, obtained several exorbitant grants
from the crown.

It is certain that the treasurer, in giving instructions to an
ambassador, had exceeded the bounds of his office; and as the genius of
a monarchy, strictly limited, requires, that the proper minister should
be answerable for every abuse of power, the commons, though they here
advanced a new pretension, might justify themselves by the utility, and
even necessity of it. But in other respects their charge against Danby
was very ill grounded. That minister made it appear to the house of
lords, not only that Montague, the informer against him, had all along
promoted the money negotiations with France, but that he himself was
ever extremely averse to the interests of that crown, which he esteemed
pernicious to his master and to his country. The French nation, he
said, had always entertained, as he was certainly informed, the highest
contempt both of the king's person and government. His diligence, he
added, in tracing and discovering the Popish plot, was generally known;
and if he had common sense, not to say common honesty, he would surely
be anxious to preserve the life of a master by whom he was so much
favored. He had wasted no treasure, because there was no treasure to
waste. And though he had reason to be grateful for the king's bounty,
he had made more moderate acquisitions than were generally imagined,
and than others in his office had often done, even during a shorter
administration.

The house of peers plainly saw, that, allowing all the charges of the
commons to be true, Danby's crimes fell not under the statute of Edward
III; and though the words treason and traitorously had been carefully
inserted in several articles, this appellation could not change the
nature of things, or subject him to the penalties annexed to that crime.
They refused, therefore, to commit Danby upon this irregular charge:
the commons insisted on their demand; and a great contest was likely to
arise, when the king, who had already seen sufficient instances of
the ill humor of the parliament, thought proper to prorogue them. This
prorogation was soon after followed by a dissolution; a desperate remedy
in the present disposition of the nation. But the disease, it must be
owned, the king had reason to esteem desperate. The utmost rage had been
discovered by the commons, on account of the Popish plot; and their
fury began already to point against the royal family, if n