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sides, but left the crown, if possible, still more cdependent than before. How much money mightbe raised by these sales is uncertain; but it couldnot be near one million eight hundred thousandpounds, the sum assigned by some writers *.

The act against conventicles passed, andreceived the royal assent. It bears the appearanceof mitigating the former persecuting laws; butif we may judge by the spirit, which had brokenout almost every session during this parliament,it was not intended as any favor to the noncon-formists. Experience probably had taught, that•laws over-rigid and severe could not be execut-ed. By this act the hearer in a conventicle (thatis, in a dissenting assembly, where more thanfive were present, besides the family) was finedfive shillings for the first offence, ten for thesecond; the preacher twenty pounds for the firstoffence , forty for the second. The person, inwhose house the conventicle met, was amerceda like sum with the preacher. One clause isremarkable ; that , if any dispute should arisewith regard to the interpretation of any part ofthe act, the judges should always explain thedoubt in the sense least favorable to conventicles,it being the intention of parliament entirely tosuppress them. Such was the zeal of the com-

3 Mr. Carte, in his vindication oF the Answer to theBystander, p. 99. says, that the sale of the fee farm rentswould not yield above one hundred thousand pounds; andhis reasons appear well founded.

II A VLXV.

16 70.