William, never much inclined to give credit to stories about conspiracies, assented.

The Captain, as he was called, was hanged in Smithfield, and made a most penitent end.

[343] Meanwhile, in the midst of discontent, distress and disorder, had begun a session of Parliament singularly eventful, a session from which dates a new era in the history of English finance, a session in which some grave constitutional questions, not yet entirely set at rest, were for the first time debated.
It is much to be lamented that any account of this session which can be framed out of the scanty and dispersed materials now accessible must leave many things obscure.

The relations of the parliamentary factions were, during this year, in a singularly complicated state.

Each of the two Houses was divided and subdivided by several lines.