THE PLEA CASE AND Humble Proposals Of the Truly-Loyal and Suffering OFFICERS LONDON Printed for the Truly-Loyal and Suffering OFFICERS March 30. 1663. To the Right Honourable the LORDS And to the Honourable the COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT May it Please Your Honours IT is not the King's Party but His Cause that lies now at your Feet and the Question is Briefly but This Whether or no from this time forward Loyalty in an Englishman shall be Reputed a Crime or a Virtue Our Comfort is that we have the Authority of the Nation for our Protection the Justice of it for our Judges the Wisdom Vote and Interest of it for our Advocates and This Address is but an Appeal from the Inquity of our Oppressors to the Piety of our Governours We shall not trouble your Honours with Compleynts against a General Corruption how True and Dangerous-soever but content our selves with a Particular Case wherein the Parties to this Paper are Peculiarly Concern'd and only Relievable by Your Honourable Aid and Authority Which Case in short is This There appear so many Pretenders to the Sixty Thousand Pounds c. lately Granted by His Majesty at Your Honours Request for the Relief of the Truly-Loyal and Indigent Officers that without a strict Examination of the Certificates the King the Kingdome and the Party will be Deceiv'd of Half the Mony This Inconvenience was Prudently foreseen by the Honourable the Commissioners Appointed for the Distribution of it who thereupon Directed the Regimenting and Printing of the Certificates in Order to a Review which Vote was no sooner Past but Presently Hands were Gather'd to call for a Present Dividend Although as yet there were not above Five Thousand Pounds in the Treasury Some Honest Gentlemen were Drawn into This Petition who now see Their Errour and that the Scope of it was by a Confusion of all Qualities and Interests to Hinder a Discovery Those Interruptions being at length Remov'd and the Book Perfected and Printed by the Express Approbation of His Sacred Majesty The License of a Principal Secretary of State and the Unanimous Allowance of the Commissioners aforesaid We do most Humbly Crave leave to Acquaint Your Honours that there is Great Industry still Employ'd to frustrate the Effects of it by Disgracing the Thing it self and by Hastning a Distribution before we can Reap the Fruit of the Intended Inspection When yet The Abuse is so Gross and Palpable that not Any Man that has ever born Office in the King's Army but can Point to the very Particulars and say This Officer has been dead This Seven-year That never had any Commission A Third never had any Men. This left the Party and Serv'd the Enemy c. So that finally only Those will be Gainers by a Sudden Distribution that would be Losers by an Inspection Nay so Unfortunate we are that it has been several times Refus'd us to Enter an Advertisement of This List into the News-Book which is the only Publique and Common way of Notice All These Crosse Circumstances put together have driven us upon a Necessity of Saying Something to do our selves Right and That 's the only Scope of our Plea Case and Proposals which with all Dutiful Reverence are the Subject of This Dedication The First Part Conteyning our Answers to several Objections touching the Reason of our Proceedings The Second Part is Chiefly a Report of Fact to Vindicate us in Point of Modesty The Third Consists of Certain Proposals which we rather commit to the Motions of Providence upon Your Hearts then Presume in any Degree to Presse upon Your Inclinations If we have Offended in Point of Forme we are Ready with all Dutyful Submissions to Acknowledge our Offence For Although the Indignation to see our Selves bought and sold like Slaves and Practis'd upon by every Knight of the Post may Possibly Divert us from the Regular Method of Good Manners Yet where the Question is either Duty to Your Authority or Gratitude to Your most Generous Obligations we shall much rather Lose the Remnant of our Miserable Lives then Fayle of any Proofe which may Demonstrate the Truly-Loyal and Suffering Officers to be of All Others In the most Inviolable Bonds and Resolves of Reverence and Obedience At Your Honours Devotion Robert Croft In the Name of the Rest The Truly-Loyall OFFICERS PLEA c. THere is a Book lately Printed under This Title A List of Officers Claiming to the Sixty Thousand Pounds c. Granted by His Sacred Majesty for the Relief of His Truly-Loyall and Indigent Party Which List is made Publique by the Consent and at the desire of the Honourable the Commissioners Appointed by Act of Parliament for Distribution of the said Moneys To which must be added that This List is Published by the Kings Express Allowance and Licensed by His Majestie 's Chief Secretary of State It will now seem Needless perhaps or worse To plead the Cause of an Act Executed by so Ample Solemn and Unquestionable Authority unless we first acquaint the World that notwithstanding This Authority great Endeavours are Used to Blast and Discredit the Proceeding Every Stationer's Shop being Buzz'd with Arguments against the Thing mostly as in Charity we believe out of Mistake or Misenformation but not a little also out of Project and Designe for there are very many Persons whose Interest it is to Suppress the List as the Evidence and Story of their Own Crimes Whereas on the Other side it is as much the Behoof of the Truly-Loyall to Promote the Ends of This Book as it is for the Benefit of their Opposers to Destroy the Fruits of it Since not only the Reputation and Well-being of the Party but the Cause it Self lies at Stake and to speak with Reverence and Modesty the Honour and Safety both of the King and Kingdom are Concern'd in the Consequence of This Miscarriage The Grounds of which Opinion we shall as frankly submit to the Censure of Others as we readily Engage against Their Objections to Acquit our Selves Which Objections we shall Undertake in the first place and They are according to the best of our Enformation in Summe and Weight as followes FIrst The Printed List of Officers Exposes the Royal-Party to have Their Throats Cut in Case of an Insurrection which was the Compounders Case in the dayes of the Committee of Safety when upon Printing a List of Their Names it was proposed that the whole Party might be Massacred FIrst It is a Charge upon the King to suggest that His Party are in the same Danger now under his Majestie 's Protection which they were formerly in under the Persecutors of His Royal-Father Secondly By the same Reason All his Majestie 's Loyal-Subjects must either wear Vizors or Hide their Heads when the King 's in Danger for Men are better known by their Faces than by their Names and what Mischief soever Threatens the Royal-Party is but in order to the Destruction of the King-Himself Thirdly The Members
A LIST of the Persons and to note in the Margin what Annual Pensions every man might merit according to his Quality Valour and Wounds Was a List of the Truly-Loyal and Indigent-Subjects of the Kings Progenitors thought so necessary and Beneficial to Them and is it not much more Expedient for the Subjects of His Sacred Majesty now in Being To suppose that ever any Prince had more Tenderness and Mercy in his Inclination were to Blaspheme the greatest Goodness in Nature and on the other side Malice it self will not pretend that ever any Subjects made it more appear that Their Duties and their Souls were Inseparable than That Party which are the present Matter in Question So that in Fine We want nothing in the world but a List of our Names in the Kings view to do our business Shall his Majesty but vouchsafe barely to look upon us in our Misfortunes we have His Natural Clemency to Plead for us But when it shall descend to Consider that even These Raggs had the Honour to Contribute somewhat toward His due Establishment and Glory His Royall Justice will not with Reverence Permit Him having reliev'd and fixt all other Interests to suffer ours alone to lye Disconsolate and Hopeless Does the King need Loyal Officers Such a List as we propose furnishes His Majesty with Those that want Employments and Whom will his Royal Wisdom rather trust than such as with their Lives and Fortunes first serv'd his Royal Father till they were Commanded to Render and Disband and after That with a Fidelity Inviolable Press'd through all Hazards and Temptations untill the settlement of His Sacred Majesty in His undoubted Birth-Right In short upon the whole Matter it is Impossible for us to be in His Majesties Eye and not in His Care But there is Another Objection that IT would Reflect upon the King to have it known that so many Loyal Officers are left without a Livelyhood IF it would Reflect upon the King to have it known that we are left without a Livelyhood It will do his Majesty Right to make it known that we are provided for and a Printed Roll of Their Names to whom the King has already Granted something and Promis'd more is a Publique Evidence both of His Majesties Present Grace and Favour and of his further Bountifull Intentions Again To that part of the Objection that so many are left unconsider'd A Printed List will Lessen the Number 3ly Without a Printed List Our Distress will be Imputed to the King though it be our own Fault for his Majesty is not Oblig'd to take notice of our Particular Necessities by Divination MOst of the Commissioners are Parliament-men and the Publishing of this List is in a manner to Arraign the House of Commons for having Certifi'd so many unwarrantable Persons THere 's a Great Difference betwixt Members of the House in a Committee of Parliament and Members of the House Joyned in Commission with Others by Act of Parliament where they sit not as Members but as Commissioners But to something that 's more Pertinent Let it be Noted that the Commissioners are directed to Certifie as the Matter appears to Them and according to the best of their Knowledge which Certification amounts to no more unless they speak upon a positive Averrment than the Recommending of an Officer upon a Credible Information wherein there is neither required a Certainty of the Thing nor an Infallibility in the Person So that the Crime lyes Evidently in the Fraud of That Report whereupon each Respective Certificate was obtein'd and without any colour of Reflection upon the Commissioner that Granted the Certificate for 't is no Dishonour to be Deceiv'd where 't is Impossible to be Certain Again since to be Deceivable is but to be a Man it can be no Fault or Shame to be Mistaken What will the Objector say now to his Own Argument when he perceives the Poynt of it turn'd upon Himself 'T is suggested that A Printed List Asperses the House of Commons and yet 't is manifest since Mistakes go for nothing that no Reproche can arise from This Matter to the Disadvantage of Any Man which is not Grounded upon Express Confederacy and Practice We have said already what we conceive needfull as to our Opponent's General Objections but there are some Particulars yet behind which we cannot conveniently let pass without a Reply and They concern First in the List it self the Person that Compos'd it and in the Next Place Those Officers for whose Benefit He has given Himself That Trouble Touching the Book 't is Whisper'd and Fomented that There are many Officers left out and Misrepresented that The Method of it is not clear and in short that The whole Thing is Ineffectual To which we Answer First that we do not hear of any man left out beside Those mention'd in the Errata save only by the Clerks Fault in the last Transcript Colonel WILLIAM HAWLY a Colonel of Foot under the Marquesse of Newcastle which Oversight the Gentleman that Dispos'd the Papers Acknowledges with great Respect to that worthy Person But so as taking upon Himself only the Order of the Copy without undertaking for the Corrector of the Presse 'T is True there are many Field-Officers wanting which some People are willing should be understood not only as a Defect in the Book but as an utter Exclusion to Those that are left out Whereas the Truth is This The Officers are to be Try'd by Their Certificates and this Printed List is Only to shew Them in their Counties Qualities and Regiments for the more easie and open Inspection It will be fit likewise to Clear the other Mistake concerning the Field-Officers that are Omitted to whom it may be Given to understand that the Last Allowance for the Press did precisely Prohibit the Printing of any Field-Officer but such as should desire it Whereupon a Matter of a Hundred Gentlemen being at that time about or near the Town and taking Notice of That Order Enter'd Their Names and are Printed accordingly To the second Exception Concerning Mistakes in the Press They are not much vers'd in Books that look for none Especially in a Copy of This Nature where there is neither Reason nor Coherence to Guide the Compositor and where withall there is scarce any one word that is not of a Nice and Particular Import to which must be added the Confusion and Errours of the Papers whence This List was Extracted together with the Intricacy of the Thing it self and the necessary Hast in the Dispatch of it Nor must it be forgotten that very many of the Original Certificates are Interlin'd and with a Differing Hand and Ink from that which wrote the Body of them which may fairly enough be presum'd to have been done since the signing and sealing These Circumstances duly Consider'd it is no wonder to find some Mistakes and yet saving those which are Corrected in the Errata we meet with few or none
Material that we can Charge upon the Transcript Touching the Obscurity of the Method It will suffice that any man that can but Read may Enform Himself in the Advertisement and that in the Alphabet of the Book He is to look for the Regiment he desires as the Table directs him to the Certify'd Officer The Last Exception is that The List is Ineffectual which is confuted by a Demonstration of the Contrary in the Discovery it has already produc'd In the Next Place to the Folly of this List comes to be suggested the Malice of it and That without any Regard at all to Those Powers that have both Approv'd and Authoriz'd it It is Point-blank Affirm'd that This List is only His Design that put it together to cast an Odium upon the King and to work Himself into a Faction Concerning which the Gentleman Himself has Conjur'd Us not to put on so much as a serious Look upon so Innocent a Scandal wherefore we let that Question fall touching His Particular But the Brand of Faction upon the Generality of the Truly-Loyal and suffering Party the Charge of Mutiny and Disobedience to the Authority of Parliament for This is the Language that we are of late accustom'd to if we but Modestly sollicit and endeavour that the Bounty which His Majesty Only Intended for His Friends may not be divided amongst His Enemies These are Imputations which we cannot but in Honour take Notice of so far as Consists with our Duty to the King and to the Law and rather than pass That Limit we shall not Refuse to Lay our Necks at the Feet even of our Meanest and Unkindest Adversaries with which Caution and Modesty before us we shall now Proceed to a Brief State of our Case The CASE SO soon as His Sacred Majesty had Past the Two Bills for the Relief of His Truly-Loyal and Indigent Party and Prorogued the Parliament The Commissioners Appointed Act of Parliament for the Menage and Distribution of That Bounty Apply'd Themselves with all Care and Diligence to the Advancement and dispatch of That Affair Particularly the Honourable the Commissoners siting in the Star-Chamber by Virtue of the Aforesaid Act and to the Ends aforesaid Observing and being Enform'd that Diverse Certificates were artificially Introduc'd and that many other Practices and Forgeries had been Attempted upon the Commissioners found it Convenient to make use of a Certain Number of select Officers of known Integrity and of General Acquaintance in His Late Majestie 's Armies to Assist them in the discovery of Unqualify'd Pretenders which Officers being both Nominated and Empower'd by the said Commissioners did accordingly Assemble and Proceed in Form and under the Name of a Committee for Inspections Which Committee being afterward dissolv'd and Their Proceedings Vacated It will not be Incongruous either to Order or Good Manners if for the clearing of our Cause we touch upon some Passages Then and There in Debate This Committee was by its Constitution to Consist of a Chosen Number of Commission Officers Additional to as many Commissioners of Parliament as should think fit to be There Their Power was only Preparatory and their first Order was to Consider of a Method to prevent the passing of undue Certificates and to Report their Proceedings therein upon the Tuesday following to the Star-Chamber Instead of Framing This Method which in Course was the first thing should have been done some Considerable time was spent upon Certificates effectually without any Method at all save only that the Colonels were to be first and the Rest to follow in their Turns and All to be put to a present Vote Whether they should Stand or Fall This manner of Proceeding begat many Heats Disorders and Delays for want of an Impartial Rule whereby to Judge of every Man according to his Respective Glayme and Qualification till in the End Experiment and Prudence mov'd the Gentlemen to Consider of a Certain Standard that should determine all Niceties in Question which was no sooner Agreed upon but it was Regularly submitted and Reported to the Star-Chamber Consisting in substance of These Particulars following He that has not Any way deserted his Loyalty and Duty to the Late King or his present Maiesty in Their Wars which are the words of the Act or as in another Place that has serv'd the Late King and his present Maiesty through the whole Course of the Late Wars That Person is within the Meaning of Truly-Loyal The Standard for Indigence was Four hundred Found in proportion to an Annuity of Fifty or Threescore A Reall Command for a Colonel of Horse was stated at Two-Hundred for a Captain at Thirty Horse For a Colonel of Foot at Three-Hundred men for a Captain at Forty They offer'd likewise what Officers they conceiv'd to have a Reall Command of Souldiers according to their Commisions and propos'd a Regimental Order as the aptest Method in their Opinion for Inspection While Matters were in Motion toward this hopefull Period there Interven'd another Question not to be omitted and it was occasion'd by somewhat that fell from the Lips of a worthy Gentleman having at that time the Chaire which was that There were Seaven-Thousand and Five-Hundred Officers Certify'd upon which Computation Reckoning Those that are probably Dead since 46 and Those that are known to have Deserted together with Those that do not Claim the late King must be suppos'd to have lost his Crown at the Head of above Twelve-Hundred Thousand men The Effects which This Overture wrought upon the Truly-Loyal and Suffering Party especially proceeding from a Person that spake with Authority and upon Knowledge were no other than as so many Lines drawn to a Point Every man pressing though with various Reasons to the same end PRINTING as the only means to Purge and Reduce that Prodigious-List and which way soever they lookt they met with Arguments both of Honour and of Necessity to Persue it and still the more narrowly they Consider'd the more forcible they found those Arguments The Case They Reason'd Thus THe Kingdom has presented His Majesty and His Majesty has at their Request Gratiously Bestow'd upon His Truly-Loyal and suffering Officers a Considerable Sum of Money with an Express Limitation of it to the Use and Behoof of such Persons Shall Cromwell's Guards now be Admitted to the Reward and Character of Loyalty or shall His Majestie 's Bounty that was directed singly to His Dutiful Servants be Apply'd in Common to the Murtherers of His Father Shall Treason and Loyalty be supported by the same Hand Or shall Those Gentlemen that ever Valu'd Their Honours before Their Lives be subjected now at Last to mingle Their Names with men of Desperate and Infamous Forfeitures And yet all This must be done without a strict Examination of This Blended List Upon the whole The King's Intentions are Frustrated His Charity Misemploy'd His Loyal Servants Defrauded His Enemies Supply'd Loyalty is Disheartn'd and Disobedience Encourag'd beside the Profusion of the Publique Treasure
the Hazzard of His Majesty taking His Enemies for His Friends and finally beside the sad Consequence of Condemning a Party that has been Loyal beyond all President to be Miserable beyond all Example which must needs follow upon the Admittance of so many Sharers to This Money To these Arguments in Order to the Press It was Reply'd that the King had Positively declar'd Himself against it Whereupon in Confidence that if so it were it proceeded only from a Misrepresentation of the Thing The Gentlemen drew up their Reasons and Tender'd Them to the Star-Chamber with their desires that his Majestle's Pleasure might be more Particularly besought concerning That Matter Upon which they past a Vote and a Person of Eminent Honour and Modesty Attended the King with the Humble Request of the Commissioners to whom upon the first Overture His Majesty was pleased to express Himself that there was much to be said both for and against it Demanding withall What Number the Certificates might amount to It was Answer'd that They were Reputed to be about Six or Seven Thousand Whereupon His Majesty Replyed that it must needs be a great Abuse then and that it would be so much Money thrown away if it came to be divided into so many shares in the Conclusion remitting the Business wholly to the Commissioners Upon the Report of which Gratious Return the Honourable the Commissioners past a Vote for the Print and soon after Another for the Method and Two more after That the One in Allowance of the Book and the Other of the Praeface wherewith His Majesty was again Acquainted and Approv'd it So that at length by the Mediation of all honourable Aids Agreements and Authorities we are possest of the List which we find as we Expected save that it falls nigh Two-Thousand short of the first Computation In This List we meet with Diverse Officers that have been long Dead several that never serv'd the King at all others that left and fought against Him Beyond These Gross Abuses we do not presume to Meddle and These are a sort of People with Whom we should be very loth to appear in the same Livery Concerning Commission-Officers within the Act whatshall be Reputed a sufficient Livelyhood what a Desertion or what Measure Those Pesons are to receive that claim to a Higher Command then in strictness they Executed Touching These Particulars we Interpose no further then in our wishes that there may be no Point strain'd to the Disadvantage of any Man that has faithfully and Honourably serv'd His Majesty for it is not our desire to augment our Particular Shares by Grating upon our Fellows but rather so far as Consists with the most Favourable sense of the Act that all such as joyn'd and Continued in the same Cause and Service may likewise be Joyn'd and Consider'd in the Reward Within This Compass we Reckon it our Duty to Contain our selves and thankfully to acknowledge the Prudence Justice Tenderness and unwearied Pains of Those Honourable Persons who are Commissioned for our Relief by the Benefit of whose Favours being now brought within View of what we have so long and so earnestly desir'd we find at last Another Scruple Injected Which is that All Certificates sign'd by Five Commissioners at a Publique Meeting are Concluding which Nicety is Principally Urg'd by such as have no other Title to the Benefit of the Act and the Delicacy of it Rests upon the Construction of the word TRUE according to the Number of such TRUE Certificates which TRUE if understood Only as Oppos'd to COUNTERFEIT there may be still a True Certificate though of a False Matter This Opinion will not sink into Us for many Rea which we shall only Offer with submission to Better First we conceive the Commissioners Nominated in This Act. and sitting in the Star-Chamber to be the Competent and Proper Judges of the Meaning of it and we have the Honour of Their Practice for Our Authority As for Instance It is put to the Vote what Officers should be Reputed Commission-Officers within the Act and which not How come the Commissioners in the Star-Chamber now to be Judges of That Qualification more then of the Rest That the Person Certify'd be a Commission-Officer and that being a Commission-Officer He be likewise Truly-Loyal and Indigent are Conditions Equally Requisite by the Letter of the Act and Five Commissioner's Hands can no more Conclude a Revolted Captain to be Truly-Loyal then they can Authorize an Armourer to be a Commission-Officer which being over-Rul'd in the one holds every jot as strong in the other Further In the Praeface to This newly Printed List the Honourable Commissioners have Expresly Promis'd and Invited an Inspection that is an Inspection of Persons rather than of Certificates for which Express Reason They are rather Enter'd in Regiments than in Counties Again The Conclusiveness of Five Hands at a Publique-Meeting Engages the Act in a Contradiction and we have heard that an Act Repugnant to it self is so far void The Distribution Made according to the Certificate Contradicts the Distribution Requir'd according to the Act. To This 't is Urg'd that the Certificate is an Act Executed and that though the Body of the Commissioners cannot totally Rescind such a Certificate they may yet suspend the Issuing of the Mony We Reply that if the Distribution were an Act Executed too such a Certificate were much a Better Plea for a Mistake Unforeseen and past Prevention than it would be in This Case where upon Proof the Person that demands the Mony is but the Counterfeit of the Person that ought to Receive it Again may they suspend the distribution after the Mony is due and not as well Refuse it utterly where it can never be due If it be due they are to Pay it at first if it be not due they are to Refuse it for delay will not make it more due and the Reason of stopping it for a moment holds for ever So that if they can neither Reject the Person because of the Certificate nor Allow of Him because of the Act the Mony must Eternally Rest where it is and never come to a Distribution It may be also Consider'd that the Case is Clear concerning the Persons and doubtful touching the Certificates But Wee 'll suppose more Force in the Objection then perchance there is and that in Extremity such TRUE Certificates may be so Render'd as to bear it See now how Many Reasons and how Weighty what Troops of Inconveniences appear Against the Colour of That single Argument There 's first The Ground of the Act a Consideration of services done to the Kingdom There 's Next The Scope of the Act The Honour and Relief of That Loyal Party that did Those Services Thirdly The Political Prudence of it for the Encouragement of Loyalty to Future Ages Fourthly The singular Care of Applying That Bounty aright The Threescore Thousand Pounds must be distributed among Persons precisely so and so Qualify'd To Conclude
All These Clear and Noble Ends must be disappointed The King's Favours scatter'd among His Enemies The Honourable Intentions of the Parliament Frustrated and the Bread Taken out of the Mouths of Honest Men and Given to Another sort of People in favour of one dubious word Notwithstanding above Twenty Positive and Explicit Declarations in the same Act to the Contrary We do not undertake to be Magisterial in This Opinion but we trust that for the General Good and Honour of the King's Party no Other Persons shall be Knowingly Admitted to this Dividend and we hope likewise that in some Other Cases no Person duly Qualify'd shall be shut out by the strictness of the Act to whom Manifestly the Fruit and Grace of it was Intended Touching the Reason and Modesty of our Proceedings enough is said as we presume to Acquit Us either of direct Folly or Faction we shall now lay down certain Humble Proposals suitable to the Rest of our Actings The Humble Proposals of the Truly-Loyal and Suffering-Party THe Two Points wherein the Truly-Loyal and Suffering-Party find Themselves most sensibly aggriev'd next to That Influence which Their Misfortunes may have upon the Nation are their Necessities and their Honours for they would not willingly appear either Ridiculous to the Age they Live in or Infamous to Posterity Touching their Wants They are as Great as the Rapine and Merciless Cruelty of a Twenty-Years-Oppression has been able to make Them and They are at Once without Charging their Private Scores upon the Publique both the Memorials of their Loyalty and the Punishment Briefly Such They are as His Sacred Majesty at the Request of His Two Houses of Parliament has been Gratiously Pleas'd to Take into His Particular and Princely Care by a Late Act for their Present Relief wherein their Modesty Rests so Amply and so Thankfully Satisfy'd that they do not so much as Wish for any further Consideration then what may Rationally arise from the Emprovement of That Grace and Bounty Concerning which It is their First and Humble Proposal That the List of Certify'd Officers may be Inspected and Purg'd Allowing a Convenient time for the Work before any Distribution of Moneys and that an Advertisement of the Printed List and of the Intent of it may be Publish'd in the News-Book which has been already twice Refus'd and Copies directed to the Respective Commissioners of each several County for the Ease and Dispatch of the Discovery The Fruit of This Inspection will be at least the Doubling of every Mans share beside the saving of Forty-Thousand Pounds to the Publique and the Reducing of Those Gentlemen who are hitherto Unprovided for into a Number and Condition more capable of Compensation The Second Proposal is This That a Provision may be made as well for the Benefit of all Persons clearly within the Meaning of the Act as for the Exclusion of Those that have no Title to it As for Instance There are some Persons that have been Call'd away either upon His Majesties Service or Particular Business and committing the Care of their Certificates to Private Friends they perceive at last that they are either Miscarry'd or Forgotten There are Others likewise That had Employment sufficient for a Livelyhood when they ought to have Enter'd their Certificates and therefore did not put in who are now left Destitute by the Disbanding for Example of those Troupes which They Then Commanded as in the Case of Duynkirk c. Under These Two Misfortunes are some very Worthy Officers Engag'd that have an undoubted Right to the Equity of the Act. There are a Third Sort of unhappy Persons whose Certificates are declar'd Invalid by the very Letter of the Act be the Officers Clayme never so Unquestionable upon all Honourable Accompts and These are such as are Excluded for want of Five Commissioners Hands at a Publique Meeting to make their Certificates Authentique which was not to be had in Those Places where either the Commissioners did not Meet at all or the Officer had no Notice of Their Meeting which Case with the Rest is most humbly Recommended to a Supplemental Act if any Supplement shall be thought Necessary A Third Proposal in order to the Effectual Clearing of This List is That in Case any Commissioners shall be Appointed to Enquire into the Matter they may be Empower'd to Examine Witnesses upon Oath for the Credit of the Proofe and for the Preventing of Frivolous Enformations It is humbly Propos'd in the Fourth Place That after a thorow-Examination of the Certificates there may be a Second List made of rhe Names of all such Truly-Loyall and Indigent Officers as are found Allowable according to the Act This Inspect'd List to be Humbly Offer'd to His Sacred Majesty and His Royall Favour Implor'd on the behalf of the Loyall Officers therein conteyned To the End That being in His Majesties Eye They may lie the more open to Those Vacancies and Employments for the future whereof His Princely Goodness shall vouchsafe to think them Worthy and Capable Consonant to the Reason of This Proposal is the Tenor of the Act wherein the Lords and Commons have been Pleas'd to Declare their Purpose to Transmit an Encouragement of Loyalty to future Ages Which Encouragement is in Part made Good already to such as Desire to enter into Hospitals or other Charitable Foundations by Requiring and Appointing that They Themselves their Widowes and Children may be Preferred before All Others except the Founders Kindred And a further Provision is likewise Enacted by a Kate upon Parishes for the Truly-Loyal and Suffering Soldiers in General So that only Those Persons of Quality are left in Distress to whom it cannot be Suppos'd with Justice to the Publique that these Allotments were ever Intended Wherefore as a Thing most suitable to the very Profession and Method of the Act It is with Reverence and Submission Propos'd That something may be done also by way of Recommendation for the Encouragement of the Loyal Nobility and Gentry that the Event of all their Hazzards and Services may not seem to Terminate in an Hospital To Passe now from matter of Necessity to point of Honour The Truly-Loyall and Indigent-Officers have but These Two Things to Desire First That the List may be exactly Purg'd for the Honour both of the Cause and of the Party Secondly That upon Sifting the Certificates what Persons soever shall be found Guilty of Forgery Subornation or Corruption They may be Subjected to such Punishment as belongs to the Quality of the Offence THE END Object 1. Answ 1. Object 2. Answ 2. ☞ Ro◠Parl. 11. H. 6. m. 6. Edict July 7. 1606. Jean de Serres Hist Franc. pag. 1218. Object 3. Answ 3. Object 4. Answ 4.
that Voted This Money and the Commissioners that are to Distribute it All Their Names are Printed and where 's the Greater Hazzard of Printing Their Names too that are to Receive it IT is a Dishonour for so many Persons of Quality to be Publisht for Indigent besides the Inconvenience of being Laid open to their Creditors and the losse of other Preferments by being known to be Necessitous FIrst The very Act require that They be Publiquely Certify'd and Publiquely Registred as Persons that have not a sufficient Livelyhood so that as to the Point of Publishing Their Indigency the Thing is done Already Secondly Touching the suppos'd Dishonour of being known to be Poor let it be consider'd That every Mans Loyalty and his Poverty are Recorded together and certainly no Person of Honour will Think it any shame to Proclaim to the world that He has spent his Fortunes in the Service of a Prince that laid down his Life for the Preservation of His People Another Branch of This Objection is concerning the Consequence of appearing Necessitous which in This Particular we are so far from fearing that we Reckon the Enlisting of our Names upon a Publique Roll to be the only Secure and Honourable way of Redemption whereof our Condition is Capable First as to our Creditors our fair and warrantable Debts do by such a Record become virtually the Debts of the Nation and they are Effectually so Acknowledged both by the King and Kingdom in the late Act of Parliament where it is Declar'd For the Perpetual Memory of the Eminent Deservings of the Loyal Party and for the Encouragement of Loyalty to future Ages that Their great Services and Sufferings exceed all possibility of present Compensation from a Kingdom Exhausted by the Rapine and Oppression of a long Rebellion From whence it appears that Our Necessities are but Dependent upon the Necessities of the Publique Shall the Kings Party now be Asham'd to Publish Their Wants when His Sacred Majesty is Content to Confess His Own or What better Security can our Creditours either Wish or Expect than to find us Recommended as in another place we are to future Employment and further Reward which will Enable us to satisfie them And This Recommendation will be most Solemn and Effectual upon a Publique and Inspected List Whereas otherwise for the shadow of a Reputative Disgrace we quit the substance of a lasting and monumental Honour Concealing our Disease out of a scruple at the Remedi till at last we Perish One by One unknown and the whole Party sinks by degrees into a Condition both Wretched and Ridiculous Again that the Printing of our Names should be any Hinderance to our Preferments without the greatest Indignity possible to his Majesty is the Thing we cannot upon any Terms either Admit or Comprehend If we Consider the Party take their Character in the Preamble to the late Act for their Relief It is That Loyal Party Which through all Hazzarde and Extremities in the Defence of the Kings Person Crown and Dignity the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament the Religion Lawes and Honour of the English Nation did bear Armes by the Command of His Late Maiesty of ever Blessed Memory according to their Duty and the known Lawes of this Land and did with an Unwearied Courage Faith and Constancy with their Lives and Fortunes Oppose that Barbarous Rebellion raised against His Most Excellent Maiesty in the year 1642. That Loyal Party Which after the Horrid Murther of Their late Glorious King with the same Uigorous and Active Loyalty asserted the Rights and Interests of his Royal Successor and with the same Restless Zeal Opposed all succeeding Usurpations untill His Sacred Maiesty Return'd in Peace and Triumph c. Will it binder any Mans Preferment now to have his Name affixt to This Character Where 's the Gratitude and Justice of the Nation If Those Persons that have Ruin'd Themselves in the service of the Publique shall fare the worse for being known to have done their Duties Where 's the Wisdome of the Nation if it be rendred more Beneficial to subvert the Government than to uphold it and if the Reward of Struggling with all Hazzards and Misfortunes to preserve the Lawes must be either Reproche or losse of Preferment to such as shall appear to have been undone in the Contest Lastly Where 's the Faith and Honour of the Nation if after a Parliamentary Declaration for the Encouragement of Loyalty People should speed the worse for being Published to have been the Eminent and Miserable Assertours of it So that the Community is cleerly of us With us and For us Wee 'll now Advance our Argument a little higher Shall we lose our Hopes and Preferments if we be once known to be Poor upon so Publique and Noble an Accompt This Objection vanishes for ever when we Reply that The King is the Fountain of all Considerable Honours and Preferments and that He is a Pious a Prudent a Just and a Gratious Prince What is our Unhappiness even at this Instant but the want of such a Roll as is now the Question We do not speak of a List of Enquiry which is only Previous to Another and serves but to Discriminate the Right and Wrong but of a Try'd and Examined List of such Officers as have stood the utmost Test of Misery and Persecution Nor is this any new Thing Forasmuch as there be many Old Servants and feeble that have Dispended their Youth in the service of my Lords my Grandfather Father and Brother whose souls God assoile and also with my Lord that now is whom God given good life and long some without any Livelyhood or Goterdon so that they be now in great Mischief and Necessity and some but easily Guerdoned and nought like to their Desert and Service Wherefore I desire that there may be a BOOK made of all the NAMES of such as have so Served and been Hnguer doned or nought Guerdoned like to their Desert to the Intent when Offices and Corodies fall that they might be given to such Persons they having Consideration to the Ability of them and to the time that they have served in the same wise as of Benefices to Clerks Henry the Fourth of France did for the Relief of such as had been Maimed Wounded or Begger'd in his Service Grant by an Irrevocable EDICT The Royal House of Christian Charity and the Money growing upon the Remainder of Accompts of Hospitals Almes-Houses Leprous-Houses and other such Companies and of the Vsurpations and Alienations of the Revenues thereof Revisions of the Accompts and Abuses and Disorders committed in the Government and Administration of the said Places together with the Money which should arise of the Places and Pensions of Religious Lay-men in every Abby and Priory of his Realm being in his Majesties Nomination The Consideration of the Horse was referred to the Duke of Montmorency and of the Foot to the Duke of Espernon who were to make