They granted the necessary supplies, and having finished several bills for the royal assent, were prorogued on the twenty-ninth day of October.
MEETING OP THE FIRST BRITISH PARLIAMENT.
It was on the twenty-third of the same month that the first parliament of Great Britain assembled at Westminster, when the queen in her speech to both houses palliated the miscarriages in Provence and in Spain: represented the necessity of making further efforts against the common enemy; and exhorted them to be upon their guard against those who endeavoured to sow jealousies in the commonwealth.

The commons in their address expressed the continuance of their former zeal and devotion to her majesty's government; but, in the house of lords, the earl of Wharton expatiated upon the scarcity of money, the decay of trade, and the mismanagement of the navy.

He was seconded by lord Somers and the leaders of the tory party, who proposed that, previous to every measure, they should consider the state of the nation.

The design of Wharton and Somers was to raise the earl of Orford once more to the head of the admiralty; and the tories, who did not perceive their drift, hoped, in the course of the inquiry, to fix the blame of all mismanagement upon the whig ministers.

A day being fixed for this examination, the house received a petition from the sheriffs and merchants of London, complaining of great losses by sea for want of cruisers and convoys, and the complaints were proved by witnesses.