pany. He said it was an affair of great
importance to the trade of the kingdom; therefore, he would consider the
subject, and in a little time return a positive answer. The parliament
was likewise amused by a pretended conspiracy of the papists in
Lancashire, to raise a rebellion and restore James to the throne.
Several persons were seized, and some witnesses examined: but nothing
appeared to justify the information. At length one Fuller, a prisoner
in the king's bench, offered his evidence, and was brought to the bar of
the house of commons, where he produced some papers. He obtained a blank
pass from the king for two persons, who he said would come from the
continent to give evidence. He was afterwards examined at his own
lodgings, where he affirmed that colonel Thomas Delavai and James Hayes
were the witnesses for whom he had procured the pass and the protection.
Search was made for them according to his direction, but no such persons
were found. Then the house declared Fuller a notorious impostor, cheat,
and false accuser. He was, at the request of the commons, prosecuted by
the attorney-general, and sentenced to stand in the pillory; a disgrace
which he accordingly underwent.

A bill for regulating trials in cases of high treason having been laid
aside by the lords in the preceding session, was now again brought upon
the carpet, and passed the lower house. The design of this bill was to
secure the subject from the rigours to which he had been exposed in the
late reigns: it provided, That the prisoner should be furnished with a
copy of his indictment, as also of the panel, ten days before his trial;
and, that his witnesses should be examined upon oath as well as those of
the crown. The lords, in their own behalf, added a clause enacting,
That upon the trials of any peer or peeress, for treason or misprison of
treason, all the peers who have a right to sit and vote in parliament,
should be duly summoned to assist at the trial; that this notice should
be given twenty days before the trial; and that every peer so summoned,
and appearing, should vote upon the occasion. The commons rejected this
amendment; and a free conference ensued. The point was argued with great
vivacity on both sides, which served only to inflame the dispute, and
render each party the more tenacious of their own opinion. After three
conferences that produced nothing but animosity, the bill was dropped;
for the commons resolved to bear the hardships