When this motion was made, a member informed the house that in the county of Limerick the Irish papists had begun to form themselves into bodies, to plunder the protestants of their arms and money; and to maintain a correspondence with the disaffected in England.

The house immediately resolved, that the papists of the kingdom still retained hopes of the accession of the person known by the name of the Prince of Wales in the life-time of the late king James, and now by the name of James III.

In the midst of this zeal against popery and the pretender, they were suddenly adjourned by the command of the lord-lieutenant, and broke up in great animosity against that nobleman.
[119] _[See note Z, at the end of this Vol.]_ THE ELECTOR TAKES POSSESSION OF RATISBON.
The attention of the English ministry had been for some time chiefly engrossed by the affairs of the continent.

The emperor agreed with the allies that his son, the archduke Charles should assume the title of king of Spain, demand the infanta of Portugal in marriage, and undertake something of importance, with the assistance of the maritime powers.

Mr.
Methuen, the English minister at Lisbon, had already made some progress in a treaty with his Portuguese majesty; and the court of Vienna promised to send such an army into the field as would in a little time drive the elector of Bavaria from his dominions.