They could not oppose the bill without hazarding the interest they had so lately acquired, nor assent to it without solemnly renouncing their former arguments and distinctions.

They made no great objections to the first part, and even proposed to enact, That those should be deemed good laws for the time to come; but they refused to declare them valid for that which was past.

After a long debate, the bill was committed; yet the whigs lost their majority on the report; nevertheless, the bill was recovered, and passed with some alteration in the words; in consequence of a nervous spirited protest, signed Bolton, Macclesfield, Stamford, Newport, Bedford, Her bert, Suffolk, Monmouth, Delamere, and Oxford.

The whole interest of the court was thrown into the scale with this bill, before it would preponderate against the tories; the chiefs of whom, with the earl of Nottingham at their head, protested in their turn.

The same party in the house of commons were determined upon a vigorous opposition; and in the mean time some trifling objections were made, that it might be committed for amendment; but their design was prematurely discovered by one of their faction, who chanced to question the legality of the convention, as it was not summoned by the king's writ.