n right
of the subject, and the law of the realm. The sentence pronounced upon
Samuel Johnson, chaplain to lord Russel, in consequence of which he
had been degraded, fined, scourged, and set in the pillory, was now
annulled, and the commons recommended him to his majesty for some
ecclesiastical preferment. He received one thousand pounds in money,
with a pension of three hundred pounds for his own life and that of his
son, who was moreover gratified with a place of one hundred pounds a
year; but the father never obtained any ecclesiastical benefice. Titus
Oates seized this opportunity of petitioning the house of lords for a
reversal of the judgments given against him on his being convicted of
perjury. The opinions of all the judges and counsel at the bar were
heard on this subject, and a bill of reversal passed the commons; but
the peers having inserted some amendments and a proviso, a conference
was demanded, and violent heats ensued. Oates, however, was released
from confinement, and the lords, with the consent of the commons,
recommended him to his majesty for a pardon, which he obtained, together
with a comfortable pension. The committee appointed to inquire into the
cases of the state-prisoners, found sir Robert Wright, late lord chief
justice, to have been concerned in the cruelties committed in the west
after the insurrection of Monmouth; as also one of the ecclesiastical
commissioners, and guilty of manifold enormities. Death had by this time
delivered Jefferies from the resentment of the nation. Graham and Burton
had acted as solicitors in the illegal prosecutions carried on against
those who opposed the court in the reign of Charles II.; these were now
reported guilty of having been instrumental in taking away the lives and
estates of those who had suffered the loss of either under colour of
law for eight years last past; of having, by malicious indictments,
informations, and prosecutions of _quo warranto_, endeavoured the
subversion of the protestant religion, and the government of the realm;
and of having wasted many thousand pounds of the public revenue in the
course of their infamous practices.

INQUIRY INTO THE CAUSE OF MISCARRIAGES IN IRELAND.

Nor did the misconduct of the present ministry escape the animadversion
of the parliament. The lords having addressed the king to put the
Isle of Wight, Jersey, Guernsey, Scilly, Dover-castle, and the other
fortresses of the kingdom, in a posture of defence