War and the compassing of the King's Death these were not Treasons before unless War had been actually levied and the designing the King's Death had been declared by an overt-Overt-Act Secondly That the imprisoning or restraining the Liberty of the King were not of themselves alone high Treason by the old Statute but were now made Treason by this last Law during His Majestie Life And as his Lordship added That formerly it had been said and truly enongh That words alone would not make Treason but by this late Act words if they import any malicious design against the King's Life and Government or any Traiterous intention in the party such words are Treason within this Act. Therefore the Evidence brought against the Earl of Shaftsbury being principally concerning words which he was said to have spoken the tenderness which the Administrators of publick Justice ought to maintain for the Lives of all men and the Integrity which they should preserve in the Execution of the Laws should have obliged them to have been particular and distinct in publishing upon which of the two Laws this Noble Peer was indicted For if he was indicted upon the first then bare words without an over-act were not to be allowed in proof of the Treasons whereof he was accused and if he vvas indicted upon the second then the Jury vvas to take no Cognizance of words spoken vvithout the Circle and Compass of the time appointed by the Lavv for proceeding against him Nor doth the examining the Witnesses in Court leave any great Reputation upon the Managment of this Affair For seeing our Ancestors made it no less than Treason or Felony for a Grand Jury to discover who was indicted before them or what evidence was given them it is a most irrefragrable Argument that Witnesses used not anciently to be examined in open Court And it seems something strange that another way of procedure should be chosen against a Protestant accused of Treason than hath at any times been used against Papists indicted of the like Crime And forasmuch as Bills are to be returned only by the Grand Jury as found or not found so it would seem very rational that they only are to be acquainted with the Depositions upon which the Opinion or Verdict are given The Jurors Oath namely That the Kings Council his fellows and his own he shall keep secret tells us what was the ancient usage in this particular And whereas it was said That a Grand Jury is bound to conceal Proceed p. 7. the Kings secrets so long as he will have them kept secret but that it doth not deprive the King of the benefit of having them publick This seems not to have been spoken by one that had well considered what he so openly delivered For the King cannot alter or change the usual or common Proceedings of our judicial Courts Law and Custom hath both setled the power of Juries and the methods wherein they are to proceed in their Enquiries in order to a Verdict and the King can neither enlarge or lessen the first nor yet appoint them to vary in the second But seeing my Lord Chief Justice North hath been pleased to tell us That the Judges having agreed that the Witnesses should be examined Ibid. p. 8. publickly we are therefore to acquiesce we shall readily obey him being perswaded that they did in this and all other things as men that had a regard to their Oath and not as men bound to their good behaviour by holding their places durante beneplacito However we may make this use of it namely that the Witnesses being taken by a Jury of wise and substantial men to have foresworn themselves in the face of the Kingdom we may not only henceforth look upon them as a company of infamous Rascals but we may very well expect that the Attorney General should prosecute them in his Majesties Name for combining to destroy innocent persons But that which doth most surprize all men in reference to the management of this Affair at the Old Baily was the Kings Council appearing in Court to lead the Witnesses and not only open but enforce the evidence For a Person barely indicted stands in the sense of the Law probably innocent till the Bill be found and therefore no man till then ought to countenance one side more than another And for the Kings Council to interest themselves so far upon a bare Accusation as to make the King a Party for or against the Person who stands charged would seem to intimate that there was something else at the bottom of this affair than meerly to have truth or falsehood appear How easie is it by a leading question both to prompt and direct a Varlet what to say And what encouragement do Mercinary Wretches take to accuse innocent persons with boldness and impudence when they find themselves countenanced in what they swear How pleasantly did it look that when John Macknamarra had so far shut up his Evidence against the Earl of Shaftsbury as to affirm he could remember nothing more to have Sir Francis Withins afterwards ask him Did you not hear any thing about deposing the King and Proceed at the Old Baily p. 28. Macknamarra thereupon to add Yes he said the King deserved to be deposed as much as ever Richard the Second did Such things are not for the Honour of the Government and may subject them that did them to the Justice of the Law which it is to be feared they would have perverted in the Case of my Lord of Shaftsbury I thought to have subjoined an account of the Additions Substractions and Alterations in the Printed Account of the Proceedings upon the Bill against the Earl of Shaftsbury as they have been compared with the Manuscripts which were taken by some of the best Short-hand Writers about the Town But this Discourse being arisen already to a greater length than was intended I shall wholly decline the encreasing it by things that are not essential to the vindication of our Innocency and which possibly would only reflect upon the Amanuenses whom the Prosecutors employed And therefore instead of that I shall chuse to give the world some further light concerning the affair of the Earl of Argyle his Case being a pattern of what our own may come to be if the Counsels of a certain Gentleman in the North do prevail No Person of Quality in the Kingdom of Scotland had served His Majesty with greater Loyalty and Zeal when the King's Affairs were lowest than this Gentleman did And accordingly his Majesty who when left to act suitably to his temper and inclinations never forgets the good Offices of his Friends was pleased to testifie what sense he had of my Lord Lorn's Services by a Letter directed from Collen December 30. 1654. in which having told this Lord How he had heard from Middleton what Affection and Zeal he had shewn to his Service and how constantly he adhered to him in all his Distresses His Majesty
Mr. Shewen Deposeth Eighteen shillings for his own share at an Ordinary but he hath laugh'd and derided Mr. Bourk calling him in the hearing of Mr. Samuel Chaffin a Fool that he did not put himself into a condition of having Money enough by closing with him and doing as others did And besides that Mr. Brownrigg Deposeth How he saw two of the Witnesses receive Money from Christopher Williams servant to Mr. Marriot both for themselves and other two of the Evidence Tribe that were not there Mr. Shewen informeth upon Oath that having met John Macknamarra at the Golden Posts by Charing Cross on the Tenth of August last and having asked him why he went so often to Sir L. J. house the said Macknamarra to intimate his business with that Gentleman put his hand in his pocket and shook his money And as we have all the assurance imaginable that this Rascal Macknamarra and the rest of the Witnesses against Protestants were suborned by Warcup so we have great reason to believe that they were not only countenanced but from time to time taught and instructed by persons of higher Quality than the Justice is For Mr. Shewen swears That being on the 11th of August in company with Smith and Macknamarra the said Macknamarra told Smith That the reason why he could not sooner wait upon him that Morning was because he had been with Sir L. J. who had given him a long Lesson which nevertheless he had learned tho' it was very long To that height of Impudence and Villany was this Varlet arrived through the encouragement and protection which he received from some great persons whom it would have better become to have employed their Authority and Power according to the Rules of Justice and Honour that as if it had not been wicked and immodest enough to owne his being suborned himself he made it his business to suborn others For so much doth Mowbray Depose against him who tho' he is become himself one of the Swearing Gang yet his Testimony is not thereby weakned but is rather the stronger being against one of his Complices To that Immodesty and Insolence was this mercinary audacious Wretch grown that if a person did but decline the gratifying his covetous and insatiable desires he was prepared immediately to Swear Treason against him For Mr. Chaffin Deposeth That he heard John Macnamarra say He would Swear Treason against a Merchant in the City if he would not give him such a Sum of Money as he demanded of him Whether upon the whole the original Authors and supreme Managers of this Sham expected to reap any honour to themselves or credit to the Conspiracy which they would have father'd upon Protestants from the reputation of this Witness I cannot tell but I think it is evident from what hath been said in relation to him that no unbiassed persons nor wise and honest Juries could have peace in themselves nor approve their actings to God and the world should they in the case before us give faith to this Fellow's Testimony Nor would I have the Conductors of this malicious and forged Design against the Lives of innocent persons think but that as we Protestants are very sensible how unjustly and industriously they have been pursuing our ruin so we are not ignorant of their treacherous and wicked carriage from first to last in this Affair For let me tell them That while they conceive they act behind a Curtain they do but dance in a net And while they imagine that they remain safe through their standing in the dark they are both as well known and their methods as fully understood as if they had appeared and acted in a meridian light And whensoever it is a convenient time there are those in the world that know how to represent them stript of the mask and disguise under which they have gone The next Witness that stept up to give Evidence against the Earl of Shaftsbury was Dennis Macknamarra John's true Brother in all Wickedness and Perjuries as well as in Blood For having acted in co-partnership so long in the Horse-stealing Trade they were not to be separated in this new course of Livelihood which was proposed unto them provided they would perjure themselves and swear Protestants guilty of a Plot. Nor is this a groundless surmise of mine but Mr. Samson hath deposed upon Oath That both he and others heard Dennis Macknamarra say That he would swear any thing that his Brother John would have him to swear And whosoever acts implicitely upon the advice and command of such a guide ought to be esteemed and judged of according to the Principles and Practices of his Conducter But besides the fellow was himself immediately tempted with promises both of a present Reward and a standing Salary if he would swear Treason against the Earl of Shaftsbury and such others as should be named unto him and the silly Rascal wanting Wit as well as Honesty and Conscience became easily conquered by so suitable as well as great temptations For the wretch knows no Law but that of his belly nor understands any more Sense or Reason that what is declared in the offers of food and money And we are assured by persons whose integrity was never suspected That Dennis Macknamarra told them he was profer'd great sums of money to go off from his Evidence against the Papists and to swear against Protestants This is directly and positively deposed against him by Dr. Oats and Mr. Thomas Payne with this addition That Justice Warcup was the man who endeavoured to corrupt and suborn him And withal he laid open to the Dr. the methods and steps in which the Justice did this base and villanous thing And tho' the success of Warcup's application to suborn him be now evident in the effects of it yet I shall give an account of it from Dennis Macknamarra's own acknowledgment to Mr. Peter Norris For Mr. Norris being in company with him and representing that he wanted money Dennis Macknamarra thereupon replied We are all Fools for David Fitz Gerald lives like a Prince wanting neither Money nor Gold while in the mean time said he we can hardly have bread and damn me said he if we had done as he did at first we had been better than we are but damn me we will do it yet and with that the said Dennis Macknamarra pulled a paper out of his pocket and said If Mr. Norris would set his Hand to that paper he the said Macknamarra would warrant him they should do better But I shall not deduce nor pursue what we have against him to any further length for seeing this little fellow is no otherwise to be considered than as an Appendix of his Brother we may reasonably therefore hope that the Credit of the one as to the supporting the belief of a Protestant Plot being blasted and overthrown the Credit of the other runs the same destiny The Reputation of the Accessary falls with that of the Principal Yet what we
pretensions to any such thing It is also remarkable and serves to discover their Falshood in what they swore against the Earl of Shaftsbury that they endeavoured to make themselves valuable and worthy to be trusted by great and wise men by pretending a knowledg of the Transactions of the world and affairs of Kingdoms which as they were never capable of attaining so they had but betrayed their Folly and Vanity in offering to discourse concerning such things to that knowing and sagacious Peer For to hear Hayn's depose That he gave my Lord Shaftsbury See Proceedings at the Old-Bayly p. 27. an account of all Transactions from King Charles the First 's Reign to this very day and that my Lord was mightily satisfied pleased and free with him finding that he was a Traveller Is as if he should have told all the world that what he Deposed against that great man was all Forgery and that he was only seeking to beget a credulity in the Court by a vain ostentation of his knowledg in Civil Affairs and his being qualified to be admitted into the secret and hazardous Counsels of the greatest Statesmen Alas an acquaintance with the Occurrences of Princes Reigns and a being able to declare the affairs of two Regencies in their dependence and order with the Causes and Reasons of a War which few can penetrate into the grounds of â—re not things agreeable to the way of Hayns's Education nor to be expected from one that is not wonderfully conversant in the Memoire and Registers of Civil matters and who hath enjoyed an intimate acquaintance with those that were interested in the management both of Civil and Military Concernments Their Malice and Perjury in this whole Affair are open and palpable by their indirect and evasive answers to plain and easie questions Such was Booth's reply to Mr. Papilion who having ask'd him whether he knew any of Proceed p. 36. the Fifty men which he had deposed were listed under Captain Wilkinson said He never directly knew or conversed with any of them And such also was Haynes's reply to the question which was put to him concerning his having given an Information to a Justice of Peace of a design against Ibid. p. 42 43. the Earl of Shaftsbury for as he wrigled to and fro a great while before he could be brought to acknowledg it the answer was neither full nor ingenuous Again Their not remembring times and seasons when such things which they swore should be spoken or when they gave in their Informations about them does proclaim the Witnesses to be Impostors and whatsoever they deposed to be nothing but Forgery For several of the things which they declared they could not remember were such as it is morally impossible they should forget them Thus Haynes could not tell the time when the Earl of Shaftsbury spake Ibid. 44. the Treasonable words about making the Duke of Buckingham King Nor could either Smith or Turberville tell when they gave in their Informations against my Lord nor whether it was before or p. 40. after his Commitment Nay Smith could not tell in what month he did it In a word the Demeanor of the Witnesses carrying things so as if they would hector people into a belief of what they swore and their answering the questions proposed unto them either with great difficulty or with great artifice and cunning proclaim to all impartial men that the Design upon which they appeared was very ill and that they were suborned perjured fellows There was not that modesty to be seen in their Behaviour nor that simplicity in their Evidence nor that plainness easiness and directness in their Answers which was agreeable to Truth but their whole carriage and the manner of their delivering themselves was starch't huffing artificial and full of trick But whereas there is a Paper stiled An Association pretended to be found among other Writings in the Earl of Shaftsbury's Closet that morning he was apprehended upon which great stress is laid towards the proving a Conspiracy of this Lord and other Protestants against His Majesty and the Government I shall therefore with all that modesty which becomes me in reference to persons in Authority and yet with all that freedom which the Innocency of Peers and Gentlemen unjustly accused doth require take this Paper a little into consideration and make some just and modest Reflections in reference unto it An Association for the preservation of the King and the Protestant Religion if it be duly drawn and contain nothing in it contrary to the Rights and Prerogatives of His Majesty the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberties and Property of the People will neither be found so new nor so surprising a thing as that the Grand Juries of the several Counties should be influenced and perswaded to abhor it For our Ancestors in Queen Elizabeths time being apprehensive that the Queens Life the Peace of the Kingdom and the Protestant Religion were in danger from the Papists upon the hope they had of a Popish Successor in case of the Queens Death they thereupon entred into an Association for the preservation of her Majesties Life and the revenging her Death if she should have perished by violent hands which instead of being ridicul'd and declared against was not only unanimously subscribed by the most considerable persons in the Kingdom but both approved and ratified by an Act of the Parliament that next followed But whether it was that our Forefathers loved the Queen and were more zealous for their Religion than we love his present Majesty and are zealous for ours or whether they thought there was more danger to be feared from Mary Queen of Scots who was then the apparent Popish Successor than we think there is from a Gentleman of the same Principles with her that hath the same and more palpable pretences to the Crown I shall not take upon me to determine However it is not unknown that Two several late Parliaments being convinced of the dangers which His Majesties Life is in from the Papists that they may accelerate the ascent of one of their own Communion to the Throne did after mature Debate and as a Testimony of the greatest Loyalty they could pay His Majesty come to this Resolve Resolved That in defence of the Kings Person and Government and Protestant Religion the House doth declare That they will stand by His Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if His Majesty should come to any violent Death which God forbid they will revenge it to the utmost on the Papists Yea the last Westminster Parliament being deeply sensible what Plots the Papists were embark'd in for the Destruction of the King the extirpation of the reformed Religion in these Kingdoms and the placing the Crown upon the head of a Popish Prince they ordered a Bill for an Association to be brought into the House And whereas Secretary Jenkins deposeth upon Oath That tho he heard of such a thing as
was rejected and judged weak and invalid upon that alone account And yet all the World knows that as the French Monarch is more absolute and less merciful than our King so their Laws are not more tender of the lives of the Subjects than ours are But that some men can allow themselves a great latitude in swearing vvhen it is subservient to a Design appears in that Mr. Blathvvait not only swears that that Paper was put into his hand by Mr. Gwyn Clerk of the Council but that Mr. Gwyn had seised it among others in my Lord p. 13. Shaftsbury's house whereas Mr. Blathwaite not having been there when the Papers were taken could have only Deposed had he been careful in what he said that Mr. Gwyn told him so How could he that was not there Swear so particularly that such a Paper was found in my Lord's Closet unless he swore implicitely and upon the instruction of another He might as well have taken his Oath that they who went to apprehend the Earl of Shaftsbury carried Papers along with them thither as that they found that Paper there and brought it thence And whereas Mr. Blathwaite further swears That the Trunk wherein the Papers were which Ibid. p. 13. was committed to his keeping by Mr. Gwyn was sealed and that it was opened in the presence of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Starkey This seems to be said only by way of Artifice to obtain belief that the Paper stiled an Association was truly found among my Lord Shaftsbury's writings seeing if the Trunk was sealed neither my Lord or any of his Servants knew of the sealing of it and they who had the Trunk had also the Seal wherewith it is said to have been sealed in their own custody and might accordingly open it and either put in or take out what they pleased Upon the whole Did this Paper contain in it the most Treasonable things imaginable yet it doth not appear that the Earl of Shaftsbury is accountable for it or that it is fair just or candid to bring it in Evidence against him upon a charge of High-Treason with a design and expectation to take away his Life by vertue of it There is one thing more relating to the proceedings against the Earl of Shaftsbury which requires some Reflections upon it and that is concerning the manage and conduct of that business in the Old-Baily I will not usurp that French Term which hath been lately naturalized in one of our High Courts of Justice and say that there was Chicanery in it but things do not appear to have been carried with that equality and impartialness betwixt the King and so great and deserving a Subject as the Law and common Usage do direct unto and prescribe No kind of procedure is further for the King's Honour and Interest than as it is according to Law vvhich is the standard of the King's Prerogative Glory and Safety as well as the Rule by which we are to be protected in our Reputations and Lives if innocent as well as cast and convicted if upon Trial we be found to have Capitally offended Whatsoever wrong is done against any of His Majesty's Subjects in the sense of the Law done against the King and the Honour of His Government seeing he is the Spring and Fountain of Justice to all his People And it is a great Aspersion upon the Justice as well as Goodness of his Majesty to have things so transacted as if the King were more concerned to have a person that is barely accused found guilty than he is to have him appear and be pronounced Innocent The vindication and defence of the Guiltless is more the Princes Glory and Interest than the Conviction and Condemnation of the Criminal And when any person comes to be accused all that is for the Honour of the King is to have the Truth discovered and Justice impartially take place And whosoever are produced by the Prosecutors to prove an Accusation or Charge they are no further for the King tho' they be called the King's Evidence than as they declare the truth and nothing but the truth And if such Fellows be found or justly suspected to swear falsely against the Lives of His Majesties Subjects they are in reality Witnesses against the King by endeavouring to destroy his Loyal People pervert his Justice and bring his Person and Throne under the Guilt of shedding the Blood of Innocents Now whereas there are several Statutes upon which a person is liable to be Indicted for Treason namely that of the 25. Edw. 3. and that of the 13. of this King it is no less necessary than just that the party accused should know upon which of those two Statutes he is Presented and Charged For seeing the one limiteth both the time of Prosecution and the time of Indictment while the other leaves the time unfixed and indefinite it is requisite that the Jury who are to enquire upon the Bill that stands preferred before them should distinctly understand upon which of those Law the party is Indicted for otherwise they cannot tell whether the Offences whereof he is accused fall within the time which the latter of those Laws does prescribe and determine For tho' as my Lord Chief Justice truly said That what is Treason by the Statute Proceedings at the Old Baily p. 33. of 25. Edw. 3. is likewise Treason within the Statute of the 13. of this King yet this last Statute provides That no person or persons shall by Vertue of that Act incur any of the penalties therein mentioned unless he or they be prosecuted within Six months next after the Offence committed and indicted thereupon within Three months after such prosecution Whereas the former Statute of the 25. Edw. 3 leaves both the Prosecution and Indictment at the pleasure of the Prosecutor whether he will do it sooner or later And the declaring upon which of these Statutes the Earl of Shaftsbury was Indicted was the more needful and material in this case because the time presixed by the latter Statute was elapsed divers weeks before any Bill of Indictment was preferred against him Nor could a Jury upon the best Evidence of the world find a Bill against him supposing it grounded upon that Statute seeing the Indictment was not preferred within Three months after my Lord's Commitment which in the Language and Sense of our Law is a Prosecution Yea the making it distinctly known upon which of these two Acts this Noble Peer was Indicted was yet of more concernment to him as to his safety and more needful to the Jury for the Guidance and Conduct of themselves in what they were about seeing words may be brought in as Evidence of Treason upon the one Statute but signifie nothing without some further overt-Overt-Act upon the other For as my Lord Chief Justice very well said The latter Law had greatly altered the former especially in two cases First as Proceed at the Old Baily p. 34. to the levying of
was pleased graciously to add that he should find him very just and kind in rewarding what he had done and suffered for him But what this Earl acted and underwent for the King when his Lordship's Father and almost all the Scotch Nation had either fallen in with or submitted to the Usurpers will better appear by a Paper under Middleton's hand which I shall here annex John Middleton Lieutenant-General next and immediate under His Majesty and Commandev in Chief of all the Forces raised and to be raised within the Kingdom of Scotland Seeing the Lord Lorn hath given so singular proofs of his clear and perfect Loyalty to the King's Majesty and of pure and constant Affection to the good of His Majesty's Affairs as never hitherto to have any ways complied with the Enemy and to have been principally Instrumental in the enlivening of this late War and one of the chief and first Movers in it and hath readily chearfully and gallantly engaged and resolutely and constantly continued active in it notwithstanding the many powerful Disswasions Discouragements and Oppositions he hath met with from divers hands and hath in the carrying on of the Service shewn such signal Fidelity Integrity Generosity Prudence Courage and Conduct and such high Vertue Industry and Ability as are suitable to the Dignity of his Noble Family and the Trust His Majesty reposed in him and hath not only stood out against all Inducements Temptations and Enticements but hath most nobly crossed and repressed Designs and Attempts of deserting the Service and persisted Loyally and firmly in it to the very last through excessive Trials and many great Difficulties and misregarding all personal Inconveniencies and chusing the loss of Friends fortune and private concernments and to endure the utmost Extremities rather than to swerve in the least from his Duty or taint his Reputation with the meanest shadow of Disloyalty or Dishonour I do therefore hereby testifie and declare that I am perfectly satisfied with his whole deportments in relation to the Enemy and their late War and do highly approve them as being not only above all I can express of their worth but almost beyond all parallel c. John Middleton What his after-Sufferings for His Majesty were and how he continued six years a Prisoner under the Usurpers for his Loyalty to the King I shall content my self to have only barely suggested them And as no man in all Scotland was more capable of serving his Prince both by reason of the greatness of his Parts the height of his Quality and the largeness of his Interest than this Noble Lord so no person of one degree or another hath at all times and in various Employments and Trusts more approved his Zeal and Loyalty to the King's Person and Government than he hath constantly done since His Majesties Restoration And if he have offended in any thing it is by an excess of compliance with his Majesties Will having as himself declared in his Speech at his Arraignment served him all along after his own way and manner Nor can any wise man believe that what he was accused of High-Treason for was either a Crime in it self or would have been charged upon this Earl as an Offence if His Majesties present Commissioner in Scotland had not upon some hidden and more important motive and inducement conceived an implacable hatred against him For the declining to swallow the Test abruptly and without such limitations as might give it both a determinate and a legal sense cannot be imagined to be more criminal than altogether to refuse it which not only many of the Conformable Clergy but divers Peers and Gentlemen without being accused of High Treason have done And surely it was more becoming a man of Honour and a Christian to declare plainly and openly in what sense he could and was ready to take it than to take it with a pious and devout ignorance as another Lord of His Majesties Privy-Council did And as the Council's publishing an Explanation of it is an unanswerable Argument that it required some Explication towards the reconciling it to its self and the Laws of the Land so wise men are apt to think that it is as lawful for a person to explain it for himself as for them to take upon them to explain it for others But it seems very strange that it should be Treason in the Earl of Argile to declare in what Sense he would take it when at the same time others have been allowed to put Senses and Constructions of their own upon it which were more remote from the meaning of the words than his were But that the World may be both able to judg of that Affair and of the hard and unpresidented usage which this Noble person hath met with I shall first subjoin the Explanation of the Test for which he was Accused and Condemned of High Treason Secondly I shall annex an Explication which he had prepared of that Explanation and which he threw into such a Texture with the words of the latter that being read interwoven together his purpose meaning and design will not only more clearly appear but justifie themselves to the minds of all rational men And I shall add in the last place the Opinion of several of the best Lawyers in Scotland concerning the Case of this Great and Loyal Peer The Earl of Argile's Explanation of the Test I Have consider'd the Test and I am very desirous to give obedience as far as I can I 'm confident the Parliament never intended to impose Contradictory Oaths Therefore I think no body can explain the Test but for himself I take it as far as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion And I do declare That I mean not to bind up my self in my Station and in a lawful way to wish and endeavour any alteration I think to the advantage of Church or State not repugnant to the Protestant Religion and to my Loyalty And this I understand as a part of my Oath The Earl of Argile's Explication of his Explanation of the Test I Have consider'd the Test and have seen several objections moved by others against it and I am very desirous notwithstanding of all that I have seen or heard to give obedience in this and every thing as far as I can I am confident whatever scruples any man doth raise The Parliament never intended to impose Contradictory Oaths And because their sense and genuine meaning is the true sense and seeing the Test that is enjoined is of no private Interpretation nor are the Kings Statutes to be interpreted otherwise than as they bear to the intent they are made Therefore I think no body that is to say no private person can explain the Test for-another But every man for himself as he understands it to agree with and suit the Parliaments sense which is the true sense I take it notwithstanding all these scruples made by any As far as it is consistent with it self and which is indeed wholly in the Parliaments sense and true meaning which was the securing the Protestant Religion founded on the word of God and contained in the Confession of Faith recorded Parl. 1. Ja. 6. And I declare that by that part of the Test viz. that there lyes no obligation on me c. That I mean not to bind up my self in my station and in a lawful way still disclaiming all unlawful endeavours To wish and endeavour any Alteration I think according to my Conscience and Allegiance To the advantage of Church or State not repugnant to the Protestant Religion nor my Loyalty which I understand no otherwise but the duty and allegiance of loyal and faithful subjects And this Explanation I understand as a part not of the Test nor Act of Parliament but of my Oath that I am to swear and with it I am willing to take the Test if your R. H. and Lo. allow me it or otherways in submison to the Act of Parliament and your R. H. and the Councils pleasure am content to be held a Refuser at present The Opinion of the Lawyers about the Earl of Argyle's Case WE have considered the Criminal Letters raised at the instance of His Majesties Advocate against the Earl of Argyle with the Acts of Parliament contained and warranted in the same Criminal Letters and have compared the same with a Paper or Explication which is Libelled to have been given in by the Earl of Argyle to the Lords of His Majesties Privy Council and owned by him as the sense and explication in which he did take the Oath imposed by the late Act of Parliament and which Paper is of this Tenor I have considered the Test and am very desirous c. And likewise having consider'd that the Earl after he had taken the Oath with the explication and sense then put upon it it was acquiesced to by the Lords of the Privy Council and the Earl allowed to take his place and sit and vote And that before the Earl's taking of the Oath there were several Papers spread abroad containing Objections and alledged Inconsistencies and Contradictions in the Oath And that some thereof by Synods and Presbyteries of the Orthodox Clergy to some of the Bishops of the Church It is our humble Opinion that seeing the Earl's design and meanin in offering the said Explication was allenarly for clearing of his own Conscience and is of no contravention of the Laws and Acts of Parliament and doth not at all import the Crimes Libelled against him viz. Treason Leising-making Depraving of His Majesties Laws or the Crime of Perjury But that the Glosses and Inferences put by the Libel on the said Paper are altogether strained and unwarrantable and inconsistent with the Earl's true Design and the Sincerity of his meaning and intention in making of the said Explication FINIS