contending parties, through the remainder of the war. Soon afterwards, the town of Urmsberg was besieged by Conrad the third. There, the circumstance so agreeably related by the Spectator, really took place: the town being reduced to the last extremities, the emperor announced his design of putting the garrison to the sword, but permitted the women to depart from it, with such of their precious effects as they themselves could carry. The gates were thrown open; and a long procession of matrons, each bearing a husband on her shoulders, appeared, and was permitted to pass in safety through the camp. To Guelph the eighth, Henry the lion, the forfeiture of whose extensive principalities we have mentioned, was grandson. Even after this disaster he was powerful; fought battles and made conquests. In 1172, he undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land;-several eminent persons of the clergy and nobility attended him, and his camp was composed of 1,200 knights, or soldiers inured to arms. They passed from Brunswick through Ratisbon to Vienna; there, the duke committed himself, with a select portion of his attendants, to the Danube; but a detachment from his suite, marched on the banks of the river. At Belgrade, he quitted the Danube ;-advanced through the morasses of Servia and Bulgaria, to Nissa: not far from it, an ambassador from the Byzantine emperor met him, and accompanied him to Constantinople. From Constantinople, the duke and his followers sailed in ships, furnished them by the emperor, to St. John of Acre. Thence, he proceeded to Jerusalem; was respectfully received by the patriarch and the military orders, visited the holy sepulchre, and made large presents to the churches and the knights templars. Then, following the sea coast of Syria, in a northern direction, he reached Tarsus in Cilicia, and crossing Asia Minor, in a central line, again reached Constantinople, and again was hospitably entertained by the emperor. The duke loftily refused some presents of gold and silver, which the emperor offered him, but gracefully accepted from him some costly articles, more valuable for their workmanship than their materials. He brought many relics of the saints from the east; they were destroyed at the reformation, but the cases, in which they existed, are yet shown.-After an absence of about a twelvemonth, he returned in safety to Brunswick, his capital; and after a further reign of twenty-three years, died in 1195. CHAP. LXX. GEORGE THE FIRST. 1714. SEVERAL circumstances render this reign of particular importance in the history of the English catholics I. We shall briefly state the acts of settlement, under which the illustrious house of Hanover acceded to the throne of Great Britain: : II. Then insert an official document which may be thought to show the general population of England, and the relative proportions, at a time, not long antecedent, of the protestants of the established church, of the protestant non-conformists, and of the catholics of England: III. Then state the severe penal law against the catholics passed in this reign IV. And then mention an attempt made in it, to obtain a relaxation of the laws in force against them. LXX. 1. Acts of Settlement. THE revolution proceeded on the supposed abdication of James the second, and the consequential vacancy of the throne. In a full assembly of the lords and commons, who then met in a convention, both houses came to a resolution, that James, "having violated the fundamental laws, and with"drawn himself out of the kingdom, had abdicated "the government, and that the throne was thereby "vacant." On the 12th of February 1688-9, they filled up the throne by their declaration*, that, "William "and Mary, prince and princess of Orange, were "and should be declared king and queen, to hold "the crown and royal dignity during their lives, "and the life of the survivor of them; and that "the sole and full exercise of the regal power was only in, and should be executed by, the prince of "Orange, in the names of him and the princess * Commons Journals, 12 Feb. 1688-9. "during their lives; and that, after their deceases, "the crown and royal dignity should belong to the "heirs of the body of the princess; and for default "of such issue, to the princess Anne of Denmark " and the heirs of her body; and for default of such "issue, to the heirs of the body of the prince of Orange." Towards the end of the reign of king William, all hopes of issue of any of these princes, expired with the duke of Gloucester. The parliament, therefore, thought it advisable to make a new settlement of the crown. We have noticed the act* excluding catholics, and persons marrying catholics, from the throne:-The protestant posterity of Charles the first being extinct, the old law of regal descent directed the attention of parliament to the descendants of James, his father. The princess Sophia, the youngest daughter of Elizabeth queen of Bohemia, who was the daughter of James, being the nearest of the ancient blood royal, not incapacitated from the throne by professing the catholic religion, the parliament†, in conformity to their general principle, limited the crown, on failure of issue inheritable to it under the former act, to that princess and to the heirs of her body, being protestants :-it also enacted that, "whoever should "thereafter come to the possession of the crown, "should join in the communion of the church of England by law established." Thus the settlement of the crown of the united empire now stands. 1 W. & M. st. 2. c. 2. VOL. III. † 12 & 13 W. III, c. 8. * M LXX. 2. Probable general Population of England, and relative proportion of the Established Church, Protestants, Nonconformists, and Roman-catholics, about the beginning of the reign of George the first. IT It appears that king William* once conceived the arduous but salutary project of reconciling the religious differences in England, and, with that view, endeavoured to ascertain the proportions of the three principal denominations of christians in England. The following report of them was made to him:-we apprehend that the same relative proportions continued till the accession of George the first. "The number of Freeholders in England. According to which account, the proportion of conformists to non-conformists, is Conformists to papists, is Conformists and non-conformists together to papists, is 22 to one. - - 178 +9 * Dalrymple's Mem. 2d ed. vol. ii. app. to part ii. p. 10 |