By this time the emperor Joseph had died of the small-pox without male issue; so that his brother's immediate aim was to succeed him on the Imperial throne.

This event was, on the twentieth day of April, communicated by a message from the queen to both houses.

She told them that the states-general had concurred with her in a resolution to support the house of Austria; and that they had already taken such measures as would secure the election of Charles as head of the empire.
The house of commons, in order to demonstrate their attachment to the church, in consequence of an address from the lower house of convocation, and a quickening message from the queen, passed a bill for building fifty new churches in the suburbs of London and Westminster, and appropriated for this purpose the duty upon coals, which had been granted for the building of St.Paul's, now finished.

This imposition was continued until it should raise the sum of three hundred and fifty thousand pounds.

At the close of the session, the commons presented a remonstrance or representation to the queen, in which they told her that they had not only raised the necessary supplies, but also discharged the heavy debts of which the nation had so long and justly complained.
They said that, in tracing the causes of this debt, they had discovered fraud, embezzlement, and misapplication of the public money; that they who of late years had the management of the treasury, were guilty of a notorious breach of trust and injustice to the nation, in allowing above thirty millions to remain unaccounted for; a purposed omission that looked like a design to conceal embezzlements.