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, and to disarm the papists, empowered a committee to inquire into the miscarriages in Ireland, which were generally imputed to the neglect of the marquisses of Caermarthan and Halifax.