The house immediately desired that those lords who had visited the late king's papers, would intimate whether or not they had found any among them relating to the queen's succession, or to the succession of the house of Hanover.

They forthwith declared that nothing of that sort appeared.
Then the house resolved, That the report was groundless, false, villanous, and scandalous, to the dishonour of the late king's memory, and highly tending to the disservice of her present majesty, whom they besought to give orders that the authors or publishers of such scandalous reports should be prosecuted by the attorney-general.

The same censure was passed upon some libels and pamphlets tending to inflame the factions of the kingdom, and to propagate a spirit of irreligion.

[108] _[See note Q, at the end of this Vol.]_ On the twenty-first day of May, the commons in an address advised her majesty to engage the emperor, the states-general, and her other allies, to join with her in prohibiting all intercourse with France and Spain; and to concert such methods with the states-general as might most effectually secure the trade of her subjects and allies.

The lords presented another address, desiring the queen would encourage her subjects to equip privateers, as the preparations of the enemy seemed to be made for a piratical war, to the interruption of commerce; they likewise exhorted her majesty to grant commissions or charters to all persons who should make such acquisitions in the Indies, as she in her great wisdom should judge most expedient for the good of her kingdoms.