A great number of priests and Roman catholics, who had been frighted away by the revolution, were now encouraged by the treaty of Ryswick to return, and appeared in all public places of London and Westminster with remarkable effrontery.

The enemies of the government whispered about that the treaty contained a secret article in favour of those who professed that religion; and some did not even scruple to insinuate that William was a papist in his heart.

The commons, alarmed at the number and insolence of those religionists, desired the king, in an address, to remove by proclamation all papists and nonjurors from the city of London and parts adjacent, and put the laws in execution against them, that the wicked designs they were always hatching might be effectually disappointed.

The king gratified them in their request of a proclamation, which was not much regarded; but a remarkable law was enacted against papists in the course of the ensuing session.

The old East India company, about this period, petitioned the lower house to make some provision that their corporation might subsist for the residue of the term of twenty-one years granted by his majesty's charter; that the payment of the five pounds per cent.